The icy seawater carried a bone-piercing chill.
And a massive shadow as enormous as a mountain suddenly appeared before Lei Lin.
[Mutated Tiger Shark — Strength Estimate: 7+ — Agility Estimate: 2–4 — Constitution Estimate: 13+ — Spiritual Power Estimate: 3 — Abilities: 1. Sharkified Skin — The creature's skin possesses minor resistance to physical strikes and spell attacks. 2. Low-level Regeneration — Possesses the ability to slightly recover a certain amount of Life Energy.]
Under the Chip's scan, the opponent's data surfaced before Lei Lin's eyes.
"Not bad! Not bad! As expected of a deep-sea monster — such constitution, and such abundant flesh and blood energy…"
A blood-red glow seemed to kindle within Lei Lin's pupils.
[Fish's Swiftness]!
A layer of magical luminance enveloped Lei Lin's body, immediately granting him a speed boost in the water, making him as nimble as on land.
"Graaahh…"
A tremendous sonic wave surged forth, carrying terrifying vibrations that made the mage armor Field on Lei Lin's body groan under the strain.
The creature seemed to pay little attention to the tiny speck that was Lei Lin, occasionally ramming its massive dorsal fin against the Black Tiger's lower hull, as if trying to capsize the vessel.
Under these circumstances, Lei Lin made straight for the creature's back, his palms climbing onto the rough surface of the shark's skin.
"Judging from the x-ray scan, it should be right here!"
Numerous phantom daggers suddenly materialized around Lei Lin's hand: "[Cloud of Daggers]! [Frost Blade]!"
Thud! Thud! The ice daggers plunged deep into the mutated sea shark's back, causing it to convulse violently as copious amounts of bright red blood gushed out.
Despite possessing sharkified skin, under Lei Lin's spell attacks, the mutated tiger shark's defenses were as fragile as paper.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At this point, the mutated tiger shark's enormous body had become nothing but a liability, forcing it to thrash wildly in hopes of shaking Lei Lin off.
It even repeatedly slammed the section where Lei Lin was perched against the ship's hull, seemingly trying to crush him to death.
But long before the great collision even occurred, a dagger glowing with blood-red light had already appeared in Lei Lin's hand — the Demonic Blood Dagger!
"Found it — the artery!"
Lei Lin's eyes blazed with sharp light as he drove the dagger straight down.
"Roooaargh…!" The mutated tiger shark's movements stuttered violently, followed by even more frantic convulsions and thrashing. Lei Lin felt as though he were riding a roller coaster.
Adhesion Spell! But having activated the spell, Lei Lin clung to the shark's body like a gecko, feeling the massive surge of heat flowing through his hand.
Through his senses, he could feel the dagger in his grip acting like the most ravenous demon, ceaselessly draining the creature's life force.
Given the shark's horrifying size, the boost it provided was considerable.
As the Demonic Blood Dagger siphoned away its vitality, the flesh along the mutated tiger shark's back began to wither and shrink, exposing desiccated, weathered muscle. The effect continued to spread.
Desperate struggles are always the fiercest. The creature abandoned the Black Tiger entirely and shot through the ocean at breakneck speed, diving ever deeper toward the abyss.
But Lei Lin was utterly unmoved. Listening to the Chip's continuous alerts and watching his own slowly climbing data, he could clearly feel it — the shark's once-surging life force was shrinking steadily, and through the Demonic Blood Dagger's transformation, it was being converted into another form of energy that flowed into his body.
At last, after one final burst of resistance, the mutated tiger shark beneath Lei Lin went completely still. Its fearsome eyes lost their gleam, and it sank toward the ocean floor like a sunken wreck. It was dead.
Not only that — its once-smooth skin had entirely withered, looking like the bark of an ancient tree. Even 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 waste.
*Ding! Host has slain the mutated tiger shark. Gained Demonic Blood Dagger 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 data had been refreshed.
*Lei Lin Faolan — Race: Human — Rank 7 Mage — Strength: 2.6 — Agility: 2 — Constitution: 4 — Spirit: 7 — Status: Healthy — Innate Talents: Robust, Versatile — Spell Slots: Third-level (1), Second-level (3), First-level (4), Zero-level (???)* "This tiger shark was clearly far stronger than the assassin from last time, yet the data it gave me is so meager. The highest increase was only 0.3 to Constitution, and my Spiritual Power didn't even change noticeably…"
Lei Lin's expression darkened.
As his stats continued to rise — and especially once any attribute broke past 10 — the assistance provided by the Demonic Blood Dagger would diminish further and further, eventually reaching the point of near-total immunity.
"Still, with the rich resources of the open seas, small gains will add up. That should be enough to push me to Rank 9 or even Rank 10…"
Lei Lin's expression turned cloudy — though this had been part of his plan all along.
With the Demonic Blood Dagger's ability to devour flesh, apart from high-ranking professionals, the only place that could supply him with vast quantities of flesh-and-blood energy was the open seas.
In the depths, creatures of terrifying size, brimming with rich Life Energy, were as numerous as the stars.
Of course, these monsters possessed a degree of intelligence, even faith and worship. Slaughtering them indiscriminately would not only damage his reputation, but could also invite retribution from the gods of other races — or even intervention from Druids.
Those Druids were all lunatics, harboring an innate hostility toward anyone who desecrated nature.
But now? The monsters that had been lured by the Black Tiger and the blood aboard it to launch an attack on their own — those certainly weren't going to receive any special treatment.
It was easy to imagine that, in the time to come, the sea monsters drawn by Lei Lin would be far more than a single one. Every last one would be converted into an unending stream of Life Energy, fueling his advancement.
Splash!
Lei Lin's figure broke through the surface of the sea and landed on the deck.
"Cousin Lei Lin! Are you alright?"
"Everything's fine. Keep sailing!"
Lei Lin waved his hand dismissively. The moment they heard the order, the sailors and pirates froze in stunned disbelief.
Everything's fine? That terrifying monster had been roaring beneath the waves just moments ago! Ever since Lei Lin had plunged into the sea, the brutal battle that followed — they could guess at least a fraction of it just standing on the deck.
Now it seemed even a Mutant Tiger Shark had been defeated, perhaps even killed, by their captain?
Before long, even the most bloodthirsty pirates were regarding Lei Lin with something like respect in their eyes — they had always been the type to admire the strong, and Lei Lin had just demonstrated both his fearsome nature and his overwhelming power at the same time.
A show of both carrot and stick — more than enough to win the loyalty of these old pirates.
Watching the sailors begin moving about of their own accord, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Lei Lin's mouth. This scene would likely play out many more times in the future.
After the battle at Mermaid Island, he should have a fully obedient pirate crew at his command.
……
"Captain, half an hourglass's time, and we'll reach Mermaid Island!"
Under the clear sky, undisguised reverence filled
"I understand. Pass the order—all hands, prepare for battle!" Lei Lin gazed at the distant sea surface, seemingly a bit distracted.
But Robin Hood didn't notice this. He relayed the command straightaway.
In truth, at that very moment, Lei Lin was undergoing a major transformation. Ever since the mutated tiger shark, other sea monsters had come attacking one after another, but under Lei Lin's Devil Blood Dagger, they had all become nothing more than free experience, helping his data climb ever higher.
More importantly, with this surge of power supporting him, the Chip's processing speed for deciphering the Magic Web had grown considerably faster.
Countless symbols of 0s and 1s flickered before Lei Lin's eyes, as if assembling the secrets of the universe along mysterious, arcane trajectories.
It was only when a crisp chime rang out that Lei Lin was pulled back from his trance.
[Ding! Level 1 Magic Web analysis complete! Progress: 100%] [Magic Web analysis progress: Level 0 Magic Web 100%! Level 1 Magic Web 100%! Level 2 Magic Web 13.61%! Level 3 Magic Web 0.45%!]
The Chip displayed the latest progress report before Lei Lin.
Conquering the Magic Web grew harder the higher the tier. For the latest Level 3 Magic Web, it hadn't even reached one percent—but Lei Lin was already quite satisfied.
[Ding! Level 1 Magic Web fully analyzed. Host has acquired all First-level Spell templates. Spell slots for Level 1 are eliminated! Spell forgetting is negated!]
The Chip's notifications continued streaming in.
At that moment, Lei Lin felt as though a veil over the Magic Web had been pulled aside by his own hand. Countless Level 1 spell templates—from the most basic Magic Alarm and Endure Elements to the necromantic Fear and Ray of Enfeeblement—all unfurled before his eyes.
Having breached the Level 1 Magic Web didn't merely mean he was henceforth free of all Level 1 spell slot restrictions and could cast directly using Spiritual Power—it also granted him a massive amount of Magic Web privileges.
One could say the boost from this breakthrough was even greater than if he had simply advanced a full level in mage class! Especially now, on the verge of attacking Mermaid Island!
Lei Lin couldn't help but glance at his status panel: [Lei Lin · Farolan | Race: Human | Level 7 Mage | Strength: 3.5 | Agility: 3 | Constitution: 4.5 | Spirit: 7.9 | Condition: Healthy | Talents: Tough, Learned | Spell Slots: Third-level (1), Second-level (3), First-level (???), Zero-level (???)]
Days of sailing, along with the sea monsters that had been constantly drawn to them, had contributed enormously to his growth in strength.