Endless Ocean: Survival Begins with a Dugout Canoe-Chapter 77 - 74: Spoils of War
Demon Sword wasn’t carrying any significant treasures. The only item of apparent value, the Famous Blade Xianyue, had already been shattered to pieces during his confrontation with Shi Ming, rendering it useless.
Among his personal effects was a communicator, on which Shi Ming found quite a few communication logs.
The most recent message on the communicator had been sent by Demon Sword to "Yan Dao Lin" not long ago. The message was only a few words long:
"Target has been found."
Scrolling up, he found a message from "Yan Dao Lin": "You must expedite this mission. The primary objective is to recover the Map of the Endless Sea. Once you find the target, slaughter everyone on board, regardless of whether they cooperate. Leave no one alive. All bodies must be returned—leave none behind."
Shi Ming frowned.
’Slaughter them all, whether they cooperate or not?’
’This Yan Dao Lin is far too ruthless!’
The rest of the communication logs were just simple mission updates—progress reports and exhortations to speed things up. There was little else of importance.
The communicator belonging to the "Navigator," however, was a different story.
On it, Shi Ming discovered quite a few secrets.
Just as he had seen in the "Let There Be Light" channel, the navigator, a man named Edward, had originally only accepted the mission from the Black Society to repay a favor. But halfway through, he received an invitation from Lighthouse.
Lighthouse promised him a portion of what they believed to be Holy Hall-level Sea Beast Relics.
They also promised to promote him to the status of a "core member," with all the benefits afforded to an S-rank Awakened.
’The potential was indeed limitless.’
A pity that Shi Ming had cut it all short.
Not only that, but Lighthouse’s research project would now have to be shelved as well.
The navigator Edward’s last communication was from half a day ago.
He hadn’t even managed to report finding the mission target to his superiors.
This allowed Shi Ming to breathe a sigh of relief.
After confirming that neither communicator had a tracking function, Shi Ming stored them away.
The Celestial Net Chip’s death notification wouldn’t be immediate. Perhaps he could still extract some more intelligence in the meantime.
Just then, the salvage operation for the wreckage of the *Water Arrow* began to yield results.
...
"Captain, we’ve hauled up most of the wreckage and piled it on the deck."
Shi Ming’s Silver-class ship was much larger than the *Water Arrow*, which specialized in diving. In fact, it was large enough to fit eight or nine of them on its deck.
Every trade has its specializations. The class of a wandering ship was determined by its drive core, the "Nautical X." Ships differed in materials, purpose, consumption, and function, but size was not a distinguishing factor for their class.
Shi Ming walked over and began rummaging through the pile of wreckage.
He was looking for a Sailing Crystal.
Every Silver-class wandering ship used a Sailing Crystal as its drive core. It was a vital, non-renewable resource, and an item Shi Ming needed to upgrade his current Silver-class ship to a Golden Ship.
’He had been wondering where he could possibly find a Sailing Crystal.’
’And now, someone had delivered one right to his doorstep.’
CRUNCH.
After slicing open the *Water Arrow’s* control console with King Slayer, Shi Ming found just what he was looking for: a round, irregular Crystal Stone. It was similar to the one he’d found on the *Yellowstone*, but its energy fluctuations were nowhere near as powerful.
The Eye of Creation scanned it.
[Sailing Crystal]
[Level: 2]
[A necessary component for manufacturing wandering ships. Its internal energy is immense, providing astonishing motive force. It is an extremely precious, non-renewable resource.]
[Upgrade requirement: 300 S-rank Sea Beast Blood Crystals from three different elemental types.]
Whether it was the Sailing Crystal or the Sailing Heart, although both were described as precious, non-renewable resources, his Eye of Creation showed they could be upgraded. It was just that the required materials were a bit too demanding.
’Three hundred S-rank Sea Beast Blood Crystals from three different elemental types!’
’So difficult!’
’In terms of difficulty, it was no easier than destroying a Golden Ship and prying a Sailing Heart from its hull!’
’The cost-effectiveness is terrible!’
Shi Ming put away the Sailing Crystal, planning to wait until tomorrow to officially upgrade his current Silver-class ship to Golden-class!
He had already thought of a name for it, too.
His canoe was called the *Sunshot*, named after the myth of Hou Yi shooting down the suns. This was because the canoe was as fast as an arrow shot at the sun, and also because Shi Ming was using it to fight the Black Society’s "Black Sun."
The Silver-class ship was called the *Grand Fortune*. This was because its hull was so sturdy and stable it could be used as a weapon—ramming something felt like having a stroke of great luck.
’He would soon be the captain of two Golden Wandering Ships!’
Moreover, upgrading the *Sunshot* to Jiang-class now only required about 500 more High-Level Sea Crystal Stones. It was just a matter of time.
...
After sorting everything out, Shi Ming took stock of his gains from the encounter.
1. One Sailing Crystal.
2. The Beast Blood of two A-rank Awakened. Edward’s was also compatible with B-rank, which would help Shi Ming activate the A-rank and B-rank Sea Beast locations on the Map of the Endless Sea, making future hunts more convenient. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
3. The reserve of 30 High-Level Sea Crystal Stones from the *Water Arrow*.
4. Seawater-soaked mission documents detailing the objective, operational tactics, and other information.
5. The energy production unit from the *Water Arrow*.
What pleased Shi Ming the most was the *Water Arrow’s* energy production unit. Diving consumed a massive amount of energy, so the *Water Arrow* had been equipped with a relatively advanced production unit, with an operating speed that far surpassed that of his *Grand Fortune*.
It started at level three and could be upgraded further.
[A192 Energy Production Unit]
[Level: 3]
[An energy production unit capable of producing only High-Level Sea Crystal Stones. A piece of Lighthouse Technology, it is small and durable. Its daily production efficiency can reach 20 stones, and this efficiency increases in sea regions with higher concentrations of Sea Crystal Stones.]
[Upgrade requirements: 30 High-Level Sea Crystal Stones, 1 Qiong Crystal, 1 Sky Net Intelligence Chip, 20 Iron Ore.]
He had already used all three of his chances for today, so if he wanted to upgrade it, he would have to wait until tomorrow.
However, it could be used even without an upgrade. The blow that had split the *Water Arrow* hadn’t damaged the machine. He just needed to install it on the *Grand Fortune*, and it could run alongside his existing production unit, effectively doubling his output.
’Excellent.’
At this rate, he’d be able to gather the remaining 423 High-Level Sea Crystal Stones needed to upgrade his canoe to a Jiang-class wandering ship very quickly.
Still, to be safe, he had to leave the Lost Sea as soon as possible.
’One more day at most.’
Although neither Demon Sword nor Edward had reported their exact coordinates in real-time, both were elites who were highly valued by their respective factions. This was especially true for Edward, who was Lighthouse’s new golden boy. Lighthouse would undoubtedly spare no expense to discover his whereabouts.
Shi Ming didn’t want to gamble his life just for a few more High-Level Sea Crystal Stones.
There was no need to take that risk.
He decided to rest for one day, set sail the next, and leave this area.
Before he left, he wanted to explore the *Yellowstone* one last time.
...
...
...
「Black Society.」
BEEP—
Yan Dao Lin’s communicator beeped. He had finally received the message he had been so eagerly awaiting.
————————————
PS:
Originally, this author’s new book passed four rounds of recommendations and was about to be officially published.
Suddenly, my editor said that the follow-up readership is pretty good, and there’s a small chance to make a run for the Sanjiang recommendation list.
Sanjiang, in this author’s impression, has always been something only the number one book in each category is qualified for. There are so many master authors out at the same time, while I’m just a newbie. I really didn’t even dare to dream of it.
But, it’s not bad to give it a shot, right?
If I lose, it doesn’t matter. For my first book to pass four rounds, get over 8,000 collections, reach the top 30 on the overall new book list, and the top 3 in its category... this author is already very satisfied.
So, I’m asking everyone to please keep reading.
Finally, there will be three Chapters today.
