Chapter 486 Pocket Watch Research and Return

Seven days later.

Aboard the Blade of Vengeance Ship, inside a simply furnished single cabin.

[Ember Fall] and [Azure Pine] leaned crossed against the wall.

The Plate-Chain Composite Armor purchased back in Barracuda Bay had first suffered a heavy blow from the Shark Beast and was then scoured by Ember. Completely ruined beyond any possibility of salvage, it now lay silently at the bottom of the sea near the distant Twin Canyon.

Wearing a thin dark shirt, Xia Nan sat alone at the small wooden desk in his room. Before him sat a large plate piled high with food—cured meat, flatbread, and cheese.

He rested his right arm flat on the desk, palm up, as if he were having his blood pressure taken. A delicate platinum pocket watch with a warm luster lay in his grasp.

He slowly reached out with his left hand, pinching a small slice of cured meat from the plate with his thumb and index finger.

With a thought, his right thumb gently pressed an inconspicuous little button protruding from the side of the watch.

A crisp mechanical "click" rang out.

As if stimulated by the action, the hands of the platinum pocket watch in his palm began to spin at an unnaturally fast speed.

About a breath later, the thicker hand on the watch completed a rapid, full rotation.

Hum—

Space instantly distorted.

The cured meat Xia Nan had been holding between his left thumb and index finger abruptly vanished, leaving only a residual grease stain on his fingertips.

Meanwhile, on the flawless white dial of the pocket watch, right below the "1:00/13:00" mark, a miniature icon appeared.

The icon was pitch-black, just like the markings, making it especially eye-catching against the pristine white dial. Its clear outline vaguely resembled a vertical slice of cured meat.

Having clearly repeated this many times, Xia Nan's movements were exceptionally practiced.

He scrutinized the miniature cured meat icon on the dial, gathered his focus slightly, and pressed the mechanical button on the side of the watch again.

"Click."

The watch hands, which had previously returned to normal, began to spin on their own once more like a countdown.

Compared to before, however, Xia Nan seemed to share a deeper connection with the pocket watch in his hand, able to sense the stored item within using his mental power.

It took another breath of time.

When the watch hand completed a full rotation and returned to its original position, the vanished slice of cured meat reappeared between his left fingers, and the meat icon on the dial vanished without a trace.

It didn't end there.

Xia Nan slightly loosened his left thumb and index finger, letting the cured meat fall back onto the plate.

With a flip of his wrist, he hoisted the entire plate in his palm.

"Click."

The hands spun wildly.

The entire plate, along with the cheese, flatbread, and the slice of cured meat he had just tossed back, vanished completely. In its place, a tiny icon of a plate piled high with food appeared on the watch dial.

Seeing this, a thoughtful expression crossed Xia Nan's face. He pressed the button to withdraw the plate from the pocket watch's inner space. Staring at the plate on the desk, and the slice of cured meat resting quietly among the food, he pondered.

A week had already passed since the great battle in Twin Canyon.

The Blade of Vengeance Ship was also about to conclude its mission and return to Barracuda Bay.

Compared to the outbound journey, which had been plagued by storms and that Spiral-Toothed Shark School, the return voyage was as smooth as could be. The weather was clear, and they hadn't encountered a single hiccup.

Of course, this also meant life at sea was as dull and tedious as ever.

Especially with his poor luck at fishing, Xia Nan felt a bit discouraged about this newly cultivated hobby.

At the same time, this massive stretch of free time gave him the opportunity to research his new equipment outside of training.

For seven whole days, he had deeply explored his newly acquired spatial storage item, the [White Flask] pocket watch.

The method of use was very simple; he had just experienced the full process.

To store an item in the pocket watch, one only needed to maintain physical contact with it, press the button on the side, and wait three seconds. Once the hand completed a rapid rotation, the touched item would be absorbed into the watch's internal storage space.

Beneath the marking of the corresponding storage slot, the stored item would be displayed as a black miniature icon.

Taking something out required the exact same steps: press the button, wait three seconds, and mentally will it to appear.

It sounded a bit complicated, but it was actually very easy in practice once familiarized. Even an ordinary person who had never touched similar gear before could master it in no time.

Because of this operational method, if he wanted to deposit or withdraw multiple items, he had to do it one by one, waiting for the watch hand to spin each time. He couldn't access multiple slots simultaneously in bulk.

Regarding storage volume, despite lacking any professional equipment, Xia Nan had tested it using his own simple methods.

The [White Flask] had a total of twelve markings, corresponding to its twelve storage spaces.

He had experimented with seawater; converted, each individual space could hold one cubic meter of liquid.

However, this didn't mean the spatial structure was a rigid "1m x 1m x 1m" cube.

Xia Nan had tested it with his fishing rod, which was nearly 5 meters long, yet the [White Flask] swallowed it without a hitch.

Evidently, the storage space didn't have a fixed shape. It was dynamic, capped at a volume of 1 cubic meter, and capable of freely morphing to fit the stored item like playdough.

And compared to its strictly regulated storage volume, the [White Flask]'s twelve-item quantity limit was much more lenient than Xia Nan had imagined.

Just like his test just now.

A small slice of cured meat could count as one item; an entire plate of food could also count as one item.

His idea of stuffing a tent, food supplies, and survival tools into a single backpack and treating it as a "travel kit" was also a perfect success upon testing.

As long as the volume didn't exceed one cubic meter and everything fit inside the backpack, it only occupied a single slot.

Xia Nan even took it a step further with gold coins, discovering that "one coin," "a stack," or even "a bag" could all be defined as "one item" by the [White Flask].

The ruling was extremely generous.

Working from this premise, he also tested the scale limits for depositing and withdrawing.

To give a simple example.

Say Xia Nan filled a slot with drinking water and wanted to take some out. In most scenarios, he'd only want a portion, rather than dumping out a full cubic meter of fresh water all at once.

Through his tests, he found this could be done simply by concentrating and willing it while the watch hand was spinning.

But if the target was a composite object made up of multiple items—like his "travel kit" backpack—trying to withdraw only the tent from inside it wouldn't work.

He had to pull the entire backpack out of the pocket watch, then manually retrieve whatever he needed from it.

It was a minor limitation in its use.

As for storage weight, the maritime environment meant Xia Nan couldn't find a high-density object constrained to one cubic meter to test it. However, he figured it wouldn't be too bad; as long as it fit, weight shouldn't be an issue.

The access range was relatively limited, requiring the item to maintain physical contact with his body.

Regarding how long items could be stored inside, Xia Nan had only had the watch for seven days, so naturally, he couldn't run any longevity tests. But like weight, it probably didn't have many limits.

If he really wanted to test it in detail, he could just toss a rock in and see how long it lasted.

Next was the usage limit—none.

The [White Flask] had no limits on how many times it could be used. To verify this, Xia Nan had repeatedly and heavily used the watch to store and withdraw items over a short period.

In the end, his head just grew slightly dizzy from over-expending his mental power, while the [White Flask] itself remained unchanged.

Of course, Xia Nan only spammed its storage function like that for testing purposes.

In reality, accessing items with the [White Flask] consumed very little mental power; normal use wouldn't burden his body at all.

Then there were the types of items it could store.

There were virtually no restrictions here; as long as it wasn't a living creature, anything could be stuffed into the watch's slots.

Inside the storage space, time seemed to be paused, or moving so slowly that even Xia Nan's Perception couldn't detect it.

He had tried storing a freshly made bowl of stew in the watch and pulling it out two days later; it was still piping hot.

Xia Nan felt satisfied, already starting to fantasize about the wonderful scenario of carrying a massive pot of creamy mushroom soup with him on adventures.

Furthermore, the slots were completely independent of one another and wouldn't interfere.

There was no risk of a torch stored at "6 o'clock" setting fire to the monster materials in the "7 o'clock" slot.

All of the above comprised Xia Nan's exploratory research into the [White Flask] over the past week.

He wouldn't say he thoroughly understood this spatial storage item, but he at least had a clear grasp of its limitations and parameters.

It was just a pity that using the [White Flask] required waiting for the hand to spin. Both storing and withdrawing took three seconds, and physical contact had to be maintained.

At Xia Nan's current combat intensity and action frequency, a three-second cooldown was probably enough time for him to chop off a double-digit number of heads.

With such a restriction, the [White Flask] basically lost any potential as a "combat tool," drastically reducing its impact on his battle strategies.

Factoring in the need for a backup weapon in battle, just to be safe, Xia Nan didn't even plan to store [Azure Pine] inside the watch, choosing instead to keep it strapped to his back.

Otherwise, if [Ember Fall] actually slipped from his grasp and he needed a second weapon, he couldn't exactly ask the enemy to stand perfectly still for three seconds while he fetched it.

What's more, [Azure Pine]'s sun-flame bonus damage against snakes and scorpions made the wooden sword act like a radar for specific creatures, keeping Xia Nan alert to potential enemies mid-adventure.

But as for spare armor... considering his exaggerated armor-breaking rate that far exceeded adventurers of the same Class Level, he really ought to bring a few extra sets.

He could also store more survival supplies in the [White Flask] on a regular basis. That way, he wouldn't have to haul around bags of gear when adventuring, and even if he ran into unforeseen circumstances, he wouldn't face the predicament of "Wilderness Survival."

All in all, even ignoring its twenty-five percent bonus to healing speed, the [White Flask] was an exceptionally rare spatial storage item based purely on its storage properties.

It was definitely high-end on the market, too.

Xia Nan was thoroughly satisfied.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Just as he was wondering whether he should find a skilled cook in Barracuda Bay to prepare a few feasts for him to stuff into his watch, a soft knock came from the door behind him.

"Mr. Xia Nan, we're about to reach the port at Barracuda Bay. I'm just here to let you know."

"I know," Xia Nan replied.

Tucking the [White Flask] close to his body and strapping the two longswords back onto his shoulders, he pushed the door open and stepped out onto the deck.

Perhaps because they were finally returning to Barracuda Bay, the core members of the Blade of Vengeance Squad were already gathered on the ship's deck.

Ryan, who had sustained the heaviest injuries, was still wrapped in bandages; he clearly hadn't fully recovered.

The Barbarian Aken and the tabaxi Sasha weren't faring much better.

The former had barely managed to recover, his Barbarian physique granting him outstanding regenerative abilities. The latter had his arm and leg bones shattered by the Shark Beast's attacks; even though the broken bones had been forcibly snapped back into place and set, he still walked with a severe limp. He would clearly need a fair bit of time to heal.

In the entire team, the ones who had recovered best—aside from Alton, who hadn't sustained any serious injuries in battle, and Xia Nan, who had healed himself through [Ember Echoes]—were Hein and Lorraine.

The druid had only been struck by the Shark Beast's water jet and broken her leg falling from the sky—a minor injury that had mostly healed in a few days. As for Captain Lorraine, thanks to her Level 7 Class Level, her physical constitution was leagues beyond anyone else on the team aside from Xia Nan. Even though she had overloaded her combat techniques, a week was plenty of time for her to recover from the exhaustion.

But regardless, the Blade of Vengeance fleet probably wouldn't be taking on any new missions for a while.

Listening to Lorraine's plans with them a few days ago, he figured they would be resting in Barracuda Bay for at least a month, giving the crew a long vacation while they recuperated.

Xia Nan didn't have any particular thoughts on this.

Right now, he gazed at the approaching Wave-Breaking Wharf in the distance, feeling the increasingly bustling atmosphere in the air.

What he was considering was the commission Ellison had handed him before departure, the Flying Fish Oil Barrel Ship currently undergoing renovations at the Blue Clam Shipyard, and when he would find a couple of Goblin Lairs to vent his pent-up frustration.

He was also thinking about that exquisite enchanted armor made from Shark Beast materials—which he figured was already finished—now sitting quietly in the Pearl Spun Yarn Tailor Shop, waiting for him to pay the final balance.