Ch. 24 - The shadow trembling in the storm

Suna picked up the light orb, her eyes lighting up with excitement, and promptly placed it in her treasure bag."What did you get?" Yang Yi curiously leaned in to ask.

"Want to know? Beg me, and I'll tell you!" Suna teased with a sly smile, her eyes narrowing into crescent moons.

"Forget it!" Yang Yi wasn't interested in indulging her or feeling envious. He had three treasures of his own! They might not be golden, but he had the advantage in quantity!1

Meanwhile, his mind started racing with various skewed thoughts... Could it be that since the shark was the first to die, it dropped something rare? He couldn’t rule out the possibility!

However, to be sure of the exact conditions, he'd have to test it out in the future.

One thing was certain: repeatedly looting the same type of monster’s corpse would drastically reduce the drop rate.

Yang Yi let Suna continue steering the ship while he cleaned up the battlefield. He had to admit, the octopus vending machine was quite convenient; it automatically recycled the shark’s corpse and blood. However, the damaged deck and mast, as well as the large hole in the captain’s cabin, would need materials to repair.

Additionally, they had collided with some floating debris during the battle, causing further damage to the ship. Just the repairs alone had consumed 40 units of wood.

Fortunately, the vending machine provided plenty resources. At that point, they had:

Food:

Black Bread: 12Sausages: 5Fresh Water: 8LVitality Coconuts: 67Watermelons: 3 (plus over 40 more coconuts stored in Suna’s cabin)

Resources:

Wood: 55Cloth: 45Stone: 32Steel: 10Crystals: 8Sulphur: 6

Shell Coins: 2050

Items like steel, crystals, and sulphur seemed to be advanced resources, with a vending conversion rate of 5:1.

They weren’t lacking food. Unless absolutely necessary, Yang Yi had no intention of fishing in the stormy seas again.

He opened the world chat channel and began leaving a message.

"Don’t fish in the stormy seas, you’ll catch monsters!"

"Wow, you’re brave and still alive!"

"Incredible, and you can still talk about it!"

"Do you have any pics? I don’t believe you."

Yang Yi didn’t bother to argue. The reason he didn’t share any pictures was to protect their sanity!

Time quickly passed.

It was the fourth day since the storm had hit.

The chat channel was lively, with many players leaving messages, indicating they had successfully gotten through the stormy seas. It seemed most players were close to the exit and would soon leave the treacherous area.

Only Yang Yi and Suna were far behind – two days behind schedule.

When the storm first started, the wind wasn’t too strong, and everyone’s ships moved quickly. But as the storm intensified and floating debris and monsters appeared, they slowed down.

Yang Yi checked the weather forecast.

**Today’s Weather: **?

Location: Sea of Origins (Storm Zone)

Remaining Sunlight: Unknown

Temperature: 8-12°C

Wind Force: Level 10

The wind had picked up a bit, and the temperature had dropped. Although it made Yang Yi feel a bit cold, it was still bearable.

In contrast, Suna continued wearing her initial outfit, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

Yang Yi stepped out of the captain’s cabin and headed to the front deck.

"Suna, let’s switch shifts!" Yang Yi called out.

Suna nodded, handed over the crystal ball, then headed back to the captain’s cabin of the Nightmare.

"By the way, don’t you feel cold wearing such light clothing?" Yang Yi curiously asked.

"Not at all; this outfit keeps me warm," Suna replied with a private message.

【**Name: **Witch's Casual Wear】

【**Type: **Treasure】

【**Quality: **Premium】

【Description: Keeps you warm and waterproof, and accelerates sanity recovery. As a witch, the first thing you need is a casual outfit that doesn’t reveal you’re a witch!】

It was a premium item that could boost sanity recovery!

"Starting the game with a full witch set?" Yang Yi questioned the game’s fairness once again but could only sigh in resignation.

He, however, had a powerful flintlock pistol in his possession. Not long ago, he had used a low-grade fire essence to imbue the Sea Serpent’s Fang with special properties. Originally, he wanted to enhance the flintlock pistol, but since it often misfired, it wasn’t reliable.

Enhancement only added attributes and increased power; it didn’t fix the weapon’s flaws.

Moreover, the flintlock pistol’s grade was high, so the low-grade fire essence likely wouldn’t bring any significant changes. Thus, he decided to enhance the Sea Serpent’s Fang instead.

The result was impressive, as the Sea Serpent’s Fang advanced into a premium item.

【Name: Sea Serpent’s Fang (Enhanced)】

【Type: Treasure】 Seaʀch* The nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

【**Quality: **Premium】

【**Description: **A short sword made from the fang of a great sea serpent. After enhancement, it gained fire power, causing burns and fire poison.】

The blade of the Sea Serpent’s Fang had turned red, and holding it for too long would make it hot to the touch. It was much sharper than before.

Yang Yi continued steering the ship, alternating shifts with Suna.

Another day passed.

Yang Yi woke up in the captain’s cabin, glanced at the log, and realised he had only slept for about three hours.

He had another nightmare, and this time, it was a recurring one.

In the first dream, he saw Suna pointing a gun at his head, her eyes cold and sinister.

But how could that be possible?

If she wanted to kill him, she could have done it during the sea serpent battle when he fell into the water. Why wait until now?

Yang Yi dismissed the dream as insignificant and shook his head, feeling a bit of a headache due to the lack of sleep.

In the second dream, he saw himself being swallowed by a massive, centipede-like creature!

Where would such giant insects come from out at sea?

Yang Yi began to doubt the accuracy of the nightmares. Could the so-called premonitions just be his imagination? Was the nightmare just a debuff with no real significance?

He drank a bottle of vitality coconut juice, got out of bed, and noticed his wounds were almost healed. The holy water’s effect was impressive, and with at most two more days of rest, he would be fully recovered.

"Why is it so dark?" Yang Yi pushed open the door and was startled by the scene before him.

It was pitch black outside.

A few days ago, it wasn’t this dark!

Yang Yi immediately checked the weather forecast.

Location: Sea of Origins

Remaining Sunlight: None

Temperature: 12-18°C

Wind Force: Level 10

Compared to the day before, the temperature had risen, but the sunlight duration had changed from "unknown" to "none".

Suddenly, he felt a surge of unease, gripped the ship’s railing, and walked towards the bow.

"Suna, are you there?" Yang Yi shouted loudly, but there was no response.

He took out the navigation log, which emitted a faint light, allowing him to see in the darkness.

It was then that he realised the Nightmare had stopped moving. It wasn’t sailing, and he hadn’t noticed due to the turbulent waves.

Yang Yi’s heart tightened, and he immediately ran to the bow, only to find no one at the helm.

"Where’s Suna?"

His pupils contracted sharply, his heart raced, and he quickly scanned the surroundings, searching for any sign of her.

There was a faint light ahead, seemingly obscured by shadows.

Yang Yi hurried over and found Suna standing there, holding the crystal ball, completely still, her expression blank as she stared intently at the turbulent sea ahead, as if mesmerised by something.

Seeing this, Yang Yi angrily asked, "I’ve been calling you, why didn’t you respond?"

Suna barely reacted, only raising a finger to point forwards, and said in a low voice, "It seems like we’re surrounded..."

Yang Yi immediately followed Suna’s gaze.

It was pitch black, just as expected.

But perhaps because of Suna’s words...Yang Yi began to feel like something was moving on the sea’s surface.

"What is that?" Yang Yi squinted, trying to see more clearly.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed, and Yang Yi finally saw the true appearance of the thing.

They were enormous, worm-like creatures, resembling centipedes with segmented bodies. Their heads had four blade-like mandibles that could open wide like scissors to slice through their prey.

The creatures looked similar to bobbit worms2, but were much larger. It was hard to judge their diametre from a distance.

Their length was also difficult to estimate, as most of their bodies were submerged in the sea.

There were many of them, visible even at the farthest edges of his vision, and the closest ones were about a kilometre away from the Nightmare.

They swayed in the storm, shaking their heads as if performing some kind of ritual, or perhaps revelling in a celebration.

【You have observed an unknown giant creature. Your sanity has decreased by 20.】

Yang Yi was shaken to his core and quickly glanced at the crystal ball.

The sea chart showed they were surrounded by these giant worms, numbering no less than a hundred.

On the sea chart, they were represented by tiny black dots scattered around the Nightmare.

Colossal creatures lay all around them...

Notes

Mmm… isn’t it usually “quality, not quantity”? -Simply↩Do not look it up, trust me, they are a nightmare fuel ;-; ~ Ashka

Tbh, I was expecting worse. They look like bulls -Simply↩