The frigid seawater carried a bone-piercing chill.
And a colossal shadow, enormous as a mountain, suddenly materialized before Lei Lin.
[Mutated Tiger Shark — Strength Estimate: 7+, Agility Estimate: 2–4, Constitution Estimate: 13+, Spiritual Power Estimate: 3. Abilities: 1. Shark Skin — The target's skin possesses slight resistance to physical strikes and spell attacks. 2. Low-Level Regeneration — Possesses a mild ability to recover vitality.]
Under the Chip's scan, the creature's data materialized before Lei Lin's eyes.
"Not bad! Not bad! Truly worthy of being a deep-sea monster — that constitution, and such abundant flesh energy…"
A crimson gleam seemed to glow in Lei Lin's eyes.
[Swiftswimmer]!
A layer of magical radiance enveloped Lei Lin, instantly granting him a speed bonus in the water, making him as nimble as he would be on land.
"Rraaargh…"
A massive sonic wave surged outward, carrying terrifying vibrations that made Lei Lin's Mage Armor Field groan under the strain.
The creature seemed to pay little attention to the tiny figure of Lei Lin, occasionally ramming its enormous dorsal fin against the Black Tiger's hold, as if trying to flip the ship over.
In this situation, Lei Lin moved directly onto the creature's back, his hand gripping the rough shark skin.
"According to the X-ray overlay — that should be the spot!"
Phantom daggers suddenly materialized in Lei Lin's hand: [Cloud of Daggers]! [Icicle Dagger]!
Pfft! Pfft! The ice daggers plunged deep into the mutated shark's back, causing it to thrash violently as torrents of crimson blood gushed out.
Despite its shark-skin defense, under Lei Lin's spell attacks the mutated tiger shark's protection proved as fragile as paper.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At this point, the mutated tiger shark's massive body became its own burden — it could only thrash desperately, hoping to shake Lei Lin off.
The tiger shark even slammed the area where Lei Lin stood against the ship's hull, again and again, seemingly trying to crush him flat.
But well before the collision could occur, a dagger wreathed in blood-red light appeared in Lei Lin's hand — [Devil's Blood Dagger]!
"Found it — the artery!"
A sharp gleam blazed in Lei Lin's eyes as he drove the dagger straight in.
"Rraaargh!!!" The mutated tiger shark's movements seized abruptly, followed by even more violent convulsions and thrashing, making Lei Lin feel as though he were riding a roller coaster.
[Meld]! But having activated the spell, Lei Lin clung to the tiger shark like a gecko, feeling the massive surge of heat flowing through his palm.
Through Lei Lin's senses, the dagger in his hand was like the greediest of devils, ceaselessly draining the creature's life force.
Given the creature's terrifying size, the boost it provided to Lei Lin was extremely substantial.
As the Devil Blood Dagger siphoned away the life force, the area along the mutated tiger shark's back began to shrivel first, exposing withered, desiccated muscle. The effect then continued to spread outward.
A creature's death throes were always violent. The shark abandoned the Black Tiger entirely and began darting through the ocean at blistering speed, heading for the deep sea.
But Lei Lin was entirely unmoved. Listening to the Chip's constant notifications and the slow but steady climb of his data, he could clearly feel the creature's once-surging life force steadily withering away, and through the Devil Blood Dagger's transformation, it was being converted into other forms of energy that flowed into his body.
Finally, after one last violent convulsion, the mutated tiger shark beneath Lei Lin ceased all movement. Its ferocious eyes lost their luster, and it began sinking slowly toward the seafloor like a sunken ship. It was dead!
Not only that — its once-smooth skin had completely withered, resembling the bark of an old tree, and its body had shrunk by more than half.
If one were to dissect it, they would find that every organ inside had simultaneously lost all vitality, reduced to little more than a pile of waste.
[Ding! Host has killed the mutated tiger shark, obtaining the Devil Blood Dagger's enhancement! Strength +0.1, Constitution +0.3, Spirit +0.009!]
At that moment, the Chip delivered its final summary, and Lei Lin also noticed that his stats had been refreshed by the Chip.
[Lei Lin Faolan | Race: Human | Seventh-level Mage | Strength: 2.6 | Agility: 2 | Constitution: 4 | Spirit: 7 | Status: Healthy | Innate Talents: Tough, Erudite | Spell Slots: Third-level Slots (1), Second-level Slots (3), First-level Slots (4), Zero-level Slots (???)]
"That tiger shark was clearly much stronger than the assassin from last time, yet it only gave me this much data. The biggest increase was only 0.3 to Constitution, and my Spiritual Power didn't even change noticeably..."
Lei Lin's expression darkened somewhat.
As his physical stats continued to grow — especially once all his attributes broke past 10 — the help provided by the Devil Blood Dagger would surely diminish further, possibly even to the point of complete immunity.
"Still, with the abundant resources of the outer seas, small gains accumulated over time should be enough to push me to ninth or even tenth-level mage..."