“One, two, three, four….fifteen!”
“Okay, now everyone move to your positions and stay faithful to your role. Go!”
“Yes Lord-nim!”
The bats scattered all over the dungeon at Racard’s command. Ark had thought they were useless just by looking at their levels but the bats had their own specialties. It was the remote communication. Even if they were far away, the bats were able to communicate with each other through something like ultrasound waves. If Ark placed the bats with the leaders of each unit then he didn’t need to use Feather of Whispering to communicate. The bat with Ark could communicate with the bats near the unit leaders. They were like living mobile phones!
This had been weighing on Ark’s mind with the armed fleet departed. Currently communicating between ships required using flag signals or voice amplification magic. However, the flag signals couldn’t give detailed information. In addition, voice amplification magic wasn’t really audible over cannon fire and if the ships were really far away. The movements of the fleet would have to slow down. This wasn’t a big problem if the opponents were ordinary pirates. However, wouldn’t fighting sea monsters be difficult with a slow response?
“Using the Feather of Whispering would solve that problem but I can’t give one to every person. It also can’t be used with NPCs.”
Ark was the only user that was a captain so he couldn’t communicate with the other ships via Feather of Whispering. That’s when he remembered Racard’s Stud contract. So Ark had placed on bat with the captains of each ship. Of course, Ark had to ask Admiral Wagner first. In fact, Ark hadn’t thought that Wagner would easily accept his proposal. But surprisingly Wagner had easily accepted.
‘I should’ve noticed then……’
At the time, Ark had thought that Wagner was just a person who listened to people’s opinions. It was a huge mistake. Wagner had accepted Ark’s suggestion for another reason.
“In the end I broke the necks of all the pirates and returned grandly. Can you believe it? I cleaned up 500 pirates with just 100 people. It would be impossible for people other than me. The King even honoured me with the title ‘Conqueror of the Sea’ and put me in charge of building the next generation of battleships with the merchants. Ah, I’ve done the work of fifteen people. I was also a knight candidate……”
The reason Wagner accepted Ark’s suggestion was to brag to someone. Wagner’s self-praise was really endless. Wagner didn’t stop talking in the 24 hours since they left Reuben harbour, which was like three days in the game. He heard about Wagner facing several hundred people by himself, challenging a dragon, the many times he became a hero in Schudenberg and Bristania, etc.
‘Did he solve all the problems in the world by himself?’
Hyun-woo thought as a huge lump rose in his throat. But Wagner was the Admiral of the fleet and he would be in charge of all decisions in a battle. He couldn’t afford to anger Wagner. There were other reasons why Ark had no choice but to accept Wagner’s nonsense.
“I still haven’t seen any signs. Maybe I should……”
Wagner finally muttered after chattering for ages. Ark suddenly asked him through the bat.
“Ah, I heard about your exploits defeating some pirates. After hearing your earlier talk, can I ask a question?”
“Uh? Alas, that saga. Hahahaha, good. Educating yourself is only an aristocrat’s important mission. An aristocrat who has a lot of achievements like me will be a good role model. You may ask me anything you like.”
Wagner yelled after praising himself. The reason he was doing this was because Ark still hadn’t found the sea monsters. Sid had been eaten by the sea monster which was how Ark knew there were some in this area. However, Wagner still thought the transportation fleet had disappeared due to pirates. Therefore he just moved to other areas to search when he couldn’t find any traces of pirates. If that happened then Ark’s reason to come here might disappear. Therefore Ark desperately made an effort to listen to Wagner’s bragging and desperately tried to turn his attention to other matters. Meanwhile Racard had been using satellite surveillance mode to look for signs of a sea monster.
‘Damn! How long do I need to listen to this guy talk? Racard!’
“I haven’t seen it yet.”
But he couldn’t find any signs of the sea monster.
‘I’m really going crazy. It will be difficult to keep Wagner talking. I have 10~15 minutes at most before moving to another place……’
He really couldn’t think. Ark had thought the sea monster will show up when he neared it. But contrary to what he thought, the sea monster didn’t appear.
‘Do I have to enter the ocean to look for it?’
That was Ark’s thought after enduring for so long. Using the Mermaid Scale and looking under the water was 100 times better than listening to Wagner’s bragging any longer. But if he did that then things would become more complicated. Under like areas, the waters here were so dark it seemed black. It didn’t matter how large the sea monster was if he couldn’t distinguish it in the water. He had no choice but to hope the sea monster appeared first.
‘I have to find it before Wagner moves the fleet…..’
Ark thought impatiently as he bit his lip.
“Eh? What’s that?”
Racard suddenly wondered while flying through the sky. A brilliant object was shining in the dark water. Racard thought it might be an object from the missing transportation fleet so he flew closer.
“What? Is that a fish?”
Racard confirmed the object with a disappointed look. The shiny object in the ocean was the scales of a fish.
“It is so shiny even after it died….it looks strangely delicious.”
Racard laughed as he looked at the fish. The sight of the fish floating in the ocean had stimulated his appetite. Racard was hungry after hours of searching with satellite surveillance mode.
“Shall I eat it in one bite? I’ll eat well!”
Snap!
Racard drove his teeth into the fish. Suddenly the ocean started to shake. It was just a light ripple at first before it gradually grew to huge waves.
“What, what the? What happened?”
Racard avoided the wave with a puzzle expression and flew into the sky. All of a sudden the fish started to rise into the sky. Then a giant pillar of water soared up. The water then fell back into the ocean like a snake shedding its skin. It wasn’t just a pillar of water.
“M-Master!”
Racard cried out after looking at an object in the ocean. But Ark and the sailors in the fleet were already looking at the object.
“W-what is going on?”
“Huge…….snake?”
That’s right. The pillar of water which rose up was an enormous snake. It was a sea snake 20 metres thick. When the huge snake craned its neck and looked at the dark water, Ark had an eerie feeling. It was just the beginning.
Chwa, chwa, chwa, chwa!
At that moment another 4 pillars appeared around the snake. After the water poured down, four more identical snakes had appeared. Five huge sea snakes had risen from the ocean! A red warning message appeared in front of Ark.
-The boss monster, Devil of the Sea ‘Leviathan’ has appeared!
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