Chapter 72: Another Treasure Hunt And A Rumor
The next day, I left to the sea while the girls enjoying sightseeing in Ca.s.sau. And maybe they will take a quests from the guild.
I dive into the sea to where I found the previous sunken ship. I haven"t taken all the treasures inside that ship yet. Maybe there are more of them.
Somehow, today"s treasure hunt is different than the last time. This time, there are a lot more monsters. Looks like it"s the time when some type of fishes migrate. And because they are foods for monsters, the monsters followed them here. Now I have experienced why diving underwater is not popular. People might die getting killed by monsters.
But not me. Last time I came here, I practiced my underwater battle technique before I hunt for treasure. Now I will know how well I fought underwater.
There are a lot of fish monsters here. Is there any mermaid? I don"t see any.
Most of the monsters are smaller than me so they choose to ignore me and feast on smaller fishes. If there"s a piranha here, they won"t care about the size of their meal.
Then I encounter a bigger target. It"s a Sting Ray. The size is wide and long with a long and poisonous tip on its tail. Its tail is so long that it can target the enemy in front of it. Just like a scorpion. It"s a perfect practice target.
I first shoot at it with Blobby harpoon. I missed. That Sting Ray is much faster than I imagined, so I transformed Blobby into a broadsword.
Now is where the real battle began.
The Sting Ray already think of me as its enemy. It will either run away or kill me. The fact that it stays, means that thing is trying to kill me.
The Sting Ray can swim fast, but its tail attacked much faster. It"s like water pressure doesn"t mean much to it. But at least I"m quick enough to block the attack. I block the tip of its tail with the side of my broadsword.
It attacked rapidly but I managed to block them all. Now it"s my turn.
I swung my broadsword at it. It dodged easily but my swing doesn"t stop. I keep swinging following an 8 shape pattern. Although it"s not always an 8, I keep swinging.
I managed to scratch it a few times. Blood pouring out from where I scratched it. I have to finish soon before another bigger monsters appear because of the smell of blood.
The Sting Ray take some distance and I used that chance to attack it with my spear to kill it.
I swum as fast as I can in a straight line to the Sting Ray, and pierced its body with the spear. It was a good idea to hold the rear end of the spear because the length of the spear saved me from the poisonous tail attack. Its tail stopped right in front of my face. If the spear any shorter, I would have died. What a blunder.
I need to improve so I can kill monsters more efficiently. Without taking a huge risk like this. Maybe I should make my broadsword longer? But the attack power might be lessened if I do that. In the end, it"s all about my physical strength, huh? I have to be able to strike down the enemy in one strike.
I guess this is enough battle for today. I need to leave soon before the smell of the blood attract stronger monsters. I still haven"t got any treasures yet.
I swam to where the sunken ship is. On the way, there are only monsters weaker than the Sting Ray so I have no problem in defeating them. And I grabbed some Tuna because they were delicious. I"ll have them for lunch later. I can ask Lina to cook it. Then after lunch I can return here to get some more treasures.
I also grabbed some water magic stones on the way. There are some Ice magic stones that somehow ended up here. Must be carried away from an iceberg or something. I"ll give them to Angela later.
I entered the ships and look for more boxes. The ones that"s not damaged at all. After all, they"re the kind of boxes that was necessary for merchant especially if they want to protect their merchandise. It"s difficult to break but I can do it easily.
I ignore the boxes that was filled with foods and spices. Even if the boxes are completely airtight, the foods should be spoiled and rotten already.
I grabbed most boxes that was filled with jewelries. As for boxes filled with magic equipment or magic tools, I"ll take them later. I can ask Sam to have someone appraise them and then I"ll present the good ones to the girls and let Sam sell the rest.
I left the sea and return to Ca.s.sau before lunch.
I returned to the inn and give the Tuna to Lina to cook. She then asked the employee of the inn to use the kitchen as we all waited at the restaurant in the inn. Since we got the ingredients ourselves, we don"t have to pay.
While waiting, I asked Sam about the estimation of the treasures I just brought. And since I will return to the sea later, there might be more. I also ask her to find appraiser she can trust to appraise some magic tools and equipment I found. I know some of them, but not all. I just know those I have seen in the past.
"With this, I think you can buy that building already. But you need to wait at least 2 days for all of these to be sold."
"That"s fine. I can grab some more treasures during that time or check on the hunting grounds nearby. We also need to check the monsters that commonly appear here in case we want to take some quests."
"That"s good. But where will you store the treasures you find? I don"t think you can safely put them in your room here."
"I"ll just leave them in an empty island I found, or just leave gather them all underwater in the same place. So I whenever I"m out of money I can just go there. But I don"t think I can find any safe place underwater with how strong the current is and that there are more monsters here than before."
"I think I know why. There"s a rumor about a sea demon appearance. It"s not that the sea demon appear, but her maid was witnessed by a fisherman."
"Really? What"s the connection with the monsters? Did that demon order them to attack?"
It was Angela who interrupt our chat. I know the reason why. It was a simple answer. But of course for a magic nerd like Angela, she won"t know the answer unless it"s related to magic.
"It was because of that, most of fishermen afraid to go out to the sea. That mean there will be more fishes around the area. More fishes mean more predators. It"s that simple."
Sam answered Angela"s question. My guess was right then. But that sea demon… I hope that thing won"t attack me out of nowhere.
"Actually, I might know something about that."
"Victoria? You know about the sea demon?"
"No. Sam, can you tell us how the rumor started?"
Victoria seems to know something about it and she asked Sam to tell her how the rumor started.
"It started not long ago. Just few days before we came here. If Roy doesn"t know about rumor, I think the rumor started just after Roy leave this city and return to Melk."
Interesting. So the sea demon appeared around the time I"m here.
Sam continued the story.
"There"s a fisherman on a boat. He was in the middle of the sea, quite far from where other fishing boat usually went fishing. Suddenly, he saw a humanoid form jumped from the sea and that thing can walk on water. He screamed, "A sea demon! A sea demon appears!" then he got a reply, "I"m her maid!" That"s how the rumors spread.
Interesting… wait! That story seems familiar!
"Somehow, the maid"s voice sounded like that of a man."
"Sam… what do you know about that fisherman?"
"He"s old. His hearing is not well anymore but he"s not a liar. He"s quite well-known among the fishermen group as an honest man. That"s why everyone took it seriously."
"Ahahahaha!"
Seems like Victoria already know the truth.
G.o.d! That is embarra.s.sing!
That rumored maid of the sea demon was me!
That old fisherman misheard me saying "I"m a mermaid" and changed it into "I"m her maid".
Victoria laughed so hard she can"t stop laughing.
Seeing Victoria laughed, Angela and Kayla looked at me. They seemed to have realized the rumor is related to me. Sophie and Sam also looked at me because of it.
"Umm… That probably me."
"As I thought."
"You"re such an idiot."
Angela and Kayla laughed after hearing my confession. But Sophie and Sam looked confused. I have no choice but to tell them the truth.
"I was practicing swimming and jumped high and landed on water. I can walk on water so that should be me. But what I shouted at that time was "I"m a mermaid!" not "I"m her maid!" That man misheard me."
"Hahaha-"
"Seriously?"
"I"m serious. The rumor started to spread around the time I"m here, right? Then it was me. I"m sorry to have caused this much problem that makes fishermen afraid to go to the sea. But please don"t tell anyone. It"s embarra.s.sing."
Sophie laughed together with the other three. But Sam who doesn"t know I"m an aura user and what I can do, still looked confused.
She asked me how can a human being walk on water? But Lina already come with the dishes.
I"ll tell her about it someday… but not today.
I"m too embarra.s.sed to tell her now.
If I did it with the intention of spreading the rumor, I would proudly tell her how I did it, but since this is totally unintentional, this is too embarra.s.sing.
I think the girls will tease me about it from now on. But it"s also my fault so I can"t do anything about it.
Sigh…