Chapter 54 The Massive Gharial

Two weeks later, the temple was constructed successfully. The newly emerged Horned Humans used their armours to create a variety of sharp tools that they used to carve the rock, inlaying a bunch of information regarding their power, culture, and values that could be passed on to future generations.

Once everything had been completed, Xuna unleashed her petrifying beam on it, coasting it with a layer of greyish-blue. It immediately gave the temple an ancient feeling as after a moment of thought, Yihan took out a pair of scythe blades, slashing them onto the greyish-blue wall, noticing that he barely managed to form a scratch.

After pausing in consideration, he slashed a tree, staring at his blades lodged at least half deep into the trunk of the tree, muttering in shock, "The rocky coating is tremendously hard."

A few hours later, Xuna finished applying the first round of coating on the temple, waiting until the poisonous effect of her petrifying beam faded before she added in a second, third, and fourth layer, only stopping after adding ten layers.

"Now, even someone stronger than me would have to spend a lot of time to damage this structure," Xuna commented in satisfaction, having thrown her gun on the ground, watching it absorb the sunlight and convert it into Nacre steadily.

Each head of her Klock represented a type of gun, and after attaining Stage 5, Xuna was able to condense them separately; it resulted in there being ten guns on the floor now. Even though it was called a gun, in this form, it was no different from a nail with a large head.

And, Xuna had stabbed them into the ground, for their large heads were what absorbed sunlight.

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Once she could condense the power of her ten heads separately, Xuna could perform things in a variety. The first of them was to stab the large needles somewhere with good reception of sunlight.

This way, they acted as a transmission channel that replenished her Nacre constantly. Following that, she could simply use two guns to spam bullets nonstop while the eight nails generated Nacre for her.

And, if she managed to stab a nail on polar opposite sides of her world, it would mean that she would always receive a steady influx of Nacre, for when it was the day on one side, it would be night on the other and vice versa.

"I'll get going now," Xuna said once she was done, boding farewell to the villagers, of course without first being showered with a variety of locally produced goods from clothes to fruits.

"Take care of her, alright?" Chief Yubak stared at his son Yihan, "A part of her is still a bit naïve, despite being a spy for over a decade."

"I know, dad. Some of the characters she portrayed seem to have had an obvious influence on her." Yihan nodded, having observed Xuna for the past two weeks, having a good enough grasp of her character.

"This is…too much!" Xuna groaned, carrying a large bundle of goods given to her by the villagers.

With around thirty Horned Humans in the village now, the mood of everyone was pretty bright, especially since they had become healthy and no longer had to fear wounds, diseases, or injuries. And, they also possessed terrifying combat abilities to take care of any crisis that might emerge.

After all, upon seeing that the Hoil Bees continued to die in their region, they stopped coming after a week, causing the village to become peaceful.

"Come with me." Yihan grinned in excitement as he dragged Xuna to their shed, revealing a carriage that he had created out of wood.

But, instead of the rectangular carriages typically used in their world, this was more streamlined, resembling a boat. There were four wheels on the flatter back to support its movements while the fifth wheel at the front was situated on an individual axle, rotatable. This served as the steering, similar to a cycle.

What was surprising here was the suspension system that had been attached to the vehicle, an ingenious method to trap high pressured air into a sealed chamber.

This acted to keep the carriage steadier while allowing for more comfortable travels. Yihan then pointed at four grooves, two at the back and one along each side of the carriage, "This is for your rockets, Xuna."

"So, I'm still the driver," Xuna said, sighing a little. Even though she acted like it was a pain, she was already seated in the carriage, glaring at Yihan for being slow.

"I knew you would love it." Yihan grinned, taking a seat as he stored all the goods in a compartment at the top, watching Xuna slide four cylinders into their respective grooves.

She then asked, "What about the brakes?"

"Simple," Yihan smiled, pressing a lever as the two rockets along the side rotated by 180 degrees, the nozzle facing the front now, "With this, breaking is simple."

"Let's go!" Now that she was assured that Yihan had already thought through things, she caused the four rockets to unleash a mild thrust, watching the carriage slowly move forward.

Xuna had stabbed five Nacre Generation Needles along the mountain, so wasn't worried about replenishing her Nacre reserves.

"In which direction do you want me to go?" Yihan asked as he drove the carriage slowly through the village, waving his hand at the villagers that stared at the scene with interest.

"To the sea," Xuna said after a moment of thought, intending to travel by the route she originally intended, feeling that this might be the fastest way she could achieve her objective. She then asked, "Can this travel through water?"

"Of course," Yihan said in pride, "This is a boat with wheels attached externally. It can travel both on land and water."

Xuna increased the thrust a little as the vehicle made its way through a beaten path and entered the river, moving downstream.

Thanks to the undercurrents, she didn't have to expend much Nacre as Xuna reduced the thrust, keeping it at an extent equal to her Nacre replenishment.

"Is it strange that I feel like exploring the world all of a sudden?" Yihan spoke as they travelled through the river water.

"No, I'm of the same mind as you." Xuna said, staring at the two segments forming Yihan's horn, "We didn't have such convenient means of travel before, not to mention travel was risky. But now…"

She laughed, raising the thrust of her rockets to make the boat move faster, "Even without this vehicle, the both of us can fly through the air. And our tempered bodies are less susceptible to harm, illness, etc."

"If only the Blight Humans didn't exist, things would have been more peaceful…" Yihan said before sighing, shaking his head, "No, nothing would change."

"Indeed, warlords would wage wars no matter, whether the enemy is external or among us." Xuna nodded, "I've seen that both the Fornol Empire and Lerni Empire wish to conquer the world."

"It's just a matter of picking sides now." She spoke.

"Then, what about the Saint?" Yihan asked, "Did he choose the Lerni Empire for a reason?"

"It doesn't seem to be that way, especially since master hasn't even given a tenth of the attention to Lerni Empire as he had given me." Xuna stated, "I feel like he only picked the Lerni Empire because they had the capability to oppose the Fornol Empire."

The two continued to travel downstream before eventually arriving at the river delta, moving into the sea as Yihan stared at Xuna, asking, "Where to, now?"

Xuna closed her eyes, sensing the streams of luck around her as her senses coincidentally picked a large mass of luck swimming forward, spiking the thrust of the boat as she chased after it.

As she neared the large mass of luck, Xuna observed that the creature seemed to be a Gharial, muttering in shock, "Why is it so huge?"

Yihan observed the creature as he rushed into their storage to pick up a book from within, quickly flipping to the section where creatures of the sea had been recorded, stating, "This is a Gharial, a freshwater creature that has toppled small boats in the past."

"But, aren't we already in the saltwater stretch?" Xuna muttered in surprise, "Besides, are they generally this big?"

After all, the creature she spotted was at least five metres in length, a behemoth. Moreover, it was calmly swimming underneath the water surface.

"Wait…" Yihan thought of something as he dipped a bucket into the sea, scooping out the water from the section the Gharial had swum through, taking a sip of the water as he frowned.

He then dipped from the surface and sipped it, following the same but from deeper, muttering as his eyes lit up, "It can survive in freshwater only, and that hasn't changed. There's actually a freshwater stream in this sea."

"How…is that possible?" Xuna was confused as she tasted the water in the region. Except for a small column of water through which the Gharial was swimming, the surrounding water was salty.

It was pretty surprising to see such a phenomenon exist in reality, something they wouldn't have come to know about unless Xuna noticed the Gharial.

After a moment of thought, she smiled, patting Yihan, "Let's tail it."