Chapter 245: Electric Eels

The next morning, Adrian, Renelle and a couple of hundred soldiers were headed towards the port.

Unlike the North, which had the frozen forest, the West did not have such a danger zone; well, it did, but not on land.

Instead, the danger lay deep within the ocean, which was why the group was moving towards the port.

“That child would’ve been quite fascinated by these ships,” Alvíss muttered as he looked at the ships before him.

His new assistant, Elias, was more fascinated with magic tools than with advancing human capabilities.

Although the old man found that annoying, he couldn’t deny the kid’s brilliance.

Adrian looked at the ships with narrowed eyes.

When he volunteered to help with the beast hunting, he hadn’t realized that the hunting grounds were going to be in water.

The manhwa didn’t state this either.

Which meant that he was the most disadvantaged among the group; after all, he still couldn’t swim.

But…there was also no need for him to, and even if he did, he had already come up with a solution for that.

Renelle chuckled as she looked at her butler’s serious expression before saying, [Don’t worry, my dear butler; your lady will protect you.]

Adrian chuckled as he responded mentally, [Then I’ll be relying on you, my Lady.]

Their conversation was cut off by the Grand Duke, who had also come along with them.

“This is the Sea Guardian,” Zephir said with a hint of pride as they walked towards one of the ships, “one of only three vessels capable of venturing into the Western Sea.”

“It aided in the slaying of dozens of sea beasts.”

Unlike ordinary merchant ships, this one was made completely of reinforced metal, with visible mana pathways on it.

Its design was almost similar to the submarine Elias had created, especially the mana-powered blades that allowed it to move through the sea at speeds its size shouldn’t allow.

Cannons were also mounted along the ship’s sides, allowing spirit mages to channel their elemental powers into them. The cannons would then amplify the attack before launching it.

By all means, the Sea Guardian was the perfect weapon against the sea beasts.

The other two ships were built the same, but they were a lot less impressive than the first.

Renelle, Adrian, the Grand Duke and Alvíss climbed aboard the Sea Guardian whilst Seth and the other spirit mages got on the other two.

The moment everyone was on the ship, the sailors immediately started shouting out orders.

“Raise the anchors!”

“Check the engines!”

The crew activated the mana core, allowing mana to flow into the engine.

Hummm!

The entire ship trembled slightly as it came to life.

Unlike ordinary vessels that relied solely on sails, the Sea Guardian was powered by an enormous mana core that served as its engine.

The massive blades started rotating beneath the sea, and the next second, the impossible seemed to happen,

Despite weighing thousands of tons, the Sea Guardian smoothly pulled away from the harbor with astonishing speed.

“How fascinating,” Alvíss muttered as the ship continued forward.

The Grand Duke was about to say something when the old man added, “though I’m certain that the kid could make something better.”

“…”

Zephir held back his words and just focused on the open waters ahead of them.

Adrian noted that Alvíss seemed to have come to like Elias, despite being hesitant to take the kid in.

But he refrained from pointing that out; instead, he just looked ahead of them.

The sea truly looked beautiful, but if there was one thing he had learnt, it was that water was never friendly, especially when one considered the things it hid beneath.

Hell, the damn thing always seemed eager to drown him and turn him into food for the creatures within it.

A salty breeze swept across the deck, carrying with it the scent of the endless sea.

The coastline gradually disappeared behind them until the West became nothing more than a thin line on the horizon.

The endless sea remained calm, but the spirit mages were even more alert right now, and for good reason.

Unlike land beasts, sea beasts possessed a natural advantage in their own environment, and despite the ship’s capabilities, it couldn’t completely close that gap.

Adrian seemed to be the most alert, as his [Mana Sense] covered all three ships and below them.

Soon enough, he picked up something.

It was approaching at an unbelievable speed, and it was aiming directly for one of the smaller ships.

“Something’s coming,” he immediately informed the Grand Duke and without hesitation, Zephir ordered, “Brace for impact!”

His voice was carried through all the ships with a magic tool, and the spirit mages on all three ships immediately braced themselves.

And a second later,

BOOM!

The third ship suddenly trembled as something large slammed into it.

Fortunately, the metal on the hip was strong enough to hold against the attack, and the ship only slightly trembled.

A massive shadow appeared beneath the ship, slowly circling it before it disappeared.

But just before the spirit mages could let out a sigh of relief,

BOOM!

Something massive suddenly launched itself out of the water, allowing them a proper view of it.

Its body was similar to an eel’s, and its black scales seemed to have some type of blue glow on them.

It had a pair of translucent blue eyes, and its widely opened mouth was full of dagger-sized teeth.

“An electric eel!” One of the spirit mages let out a gasp as the beast started descending.

Its body was suddenly covered in arcs of electricity as it got closer to the spirit mages on the ship.

Unfortunately, the beast had put itself at a disadvantage by exiting its natural environment, and Seth immediately took advantage of that.

Massive vines with thorns on them suddenly sprouted from the ship and aimed directly at the descending beast.

The thorny vines quickly wrapped themselves around the sea beast’s body before it could crash onto the deck.

The beast struggled to escape and released multiple arcs of lightning through the vines, only to have them harmlessly dissipate.

One of the other spirit mages made a large Earth spike and cleanly took off the creature’s head, ending its struggle.

Seth lowered it onto the deck, but instead of relaxing, the spirit mages remained on high alert, and for good reason.

After all, electric eels never traveled alone… and the one they had just taken down was likely nothing more than a scout, sent to probe their marked prey.

That thought was soon proven true when more shadows were spotted below the ships, and from the silhouettes, the spirit mages could tell that it was more electric eels.

BANG!

This time, they targeted all three ships, and from the vibrations, the ones aboard could tell that the ships were currently being attacked with lightning.

Whilst the Sea Guardian could handle an endless barrage, the same couldn’t be said for the other two ships.

The spirit mages couldn’t jump into the water either; after all, jumping into electrically charged water was not the greatest of ideas.

Fortunately, Alvíss was feeling quite generous.

The old man stood up, looked below their ship, directly at the silhouettes under the water.

He then turned towards one of the spirit mages and asked, “Do you have a net big enough to capture these things?”

“A net?” The addressed spirit mage asked in confusion.

“Or would you prefer to jump in?” The old man asked, and the spirit shook his head before moving back, probably to search for a net.

He came back a couple of minutes later before stuttering out, “w-we don’t, but the Grand Duke said he can make one big enough.”

“Good,” the old man nodded before digging into his inventory and taking out a metallic orb. “These annoying things are getting in the way of my experiment.”

He then pushed a button on the orb-like magic tool before dropping it into the water and turning to the Grand Duke, “Start forming it.”

Zephir nodded and walked towards the edge of the boat and placed a hand on the side of the ship.

The next second, vines started growing along the side of the ship, slowly lowering into the water.

The spirit mages curiously looked into the water, wondering what the old man intended to do.

And they soon found out.

The moment the magic tool came in contact with the water, it exploded, releasing a bright light that immediately stunned the creatures.

“Now,” Alvíss calmly said, and with a nod, the vines spread underwater, completely encasing the stunned eels.

He then reeled them in, revealing a bunch of beasts struggling within the net.

Zephir looked at them before muttering, “That’s quite the catch.”

There were at least twenty electric eels within the net, which meant over twenty cores in one go.

Still, they was still a couple thousand more to go, especially when one considered that these eels were only B-ranked beasts.

As the spirit mages dealt with the eels, the Grand Duke turned to the ship’s captain and calmly ordered,

“Continue forward.”