Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: The Raid Begins
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An hour had passed since our departure.
Given the ship's size, it couldn't cover a great distance in a short time, no matter how fast it moved.
Still, after a while, we had reached a point where land was no longer visible in any direction.
"We will soon enter the waters where the Sea Serpent appears! Vanguards who have finished loading the cannons, take this time to rest and conserve your strength! Mages, maintain your watch so the vanguard can rest without worry!"
Hazel may have given the order to rest, but I doubted any adventurer here would be tired from just carrying a few cannonballs.
Indeed, neither I nor any of the other vanguards showed the slightest sign of fatigue.
Well, to be honest, aside from when I was juggling items, I just put everything in my inventory to move it, so I hadn't used any strength at all. If anything, I had energy to spare.
So much so that I was starting to get bored.
"Hey, guys. Doesn't this feel just like we're on a trip?"
"A trip this aggressive might be a world first..."
"Who knows? Maybe passenger ships have a cannon or two for self-defense."
"I believe we've agreed to call those 'pirate ships'."
If that's the social contract, I guess I can't argue.
"How about you, Yui? Isn't this your first time on a boat?"
"If we were just on a trip like you said, Luke, it might be different... but thinking about the huge monster that's about to show up makes me too nervous to tell..."
"If you're nervous, try writing the character for 'person' on your palm and swallowing it three times. It's a folk remedy people used in my past life to calm their nerves."
"Whoa... The place you lived in had a lot of interesting things, Luke."
Yui actually wrote the character on her palm and pretended to eat it.
"Luke. Is that method actually effective?"
"Nope. Of course it's bullshit."
If something like that could actually calm your nerves, things like calming pills would have never seen the light of day.
"Do you enjoy teasing Yui...?"
"Yep."
Yui is so pure that messing with her is incredibly rewarding. Plus, maybe because she's so small, she's cute, and watching her reactions is therapeutic.
"Sigh... Still, I'm bored. I wish something exciting would—"
"Monster invasion!"
"Well, there it is."
What, how did you know?
Hearing the crewman's shout, we immediately rushed to the railing.
We could see numerous shadows in the water, swimming rapidly toward the ship.
And then.
*Splash!*
"Krrrrrrk!!!"
They leaped from the water, landing on the deck.
The monsters, roughly equal in number to the people on board, looked like fish that had been anthropomorphized into human form.
And every one of them was armed with a weapon.
Some held tridents, others cutlasses.
"Mermen! Vanguards, engage them quickly! Mages, provide support with low-mana spells! They're nothing special, so let's deal with them fast and get back to resting!"
I didn't know their rank, but hearing her call them 'nothing special' suggested they were probably C-rank monsters.
The adventurers took their positions as Hazel commanded.
Following orders, I quickly stood before a merman.
I took a greatsword from my inventory, gripping it with both hands.
Then I twisted my waist as far as it could go.
"Luke, what are you trying to do...?"
"URF Garen."
He's trash now, but anyone who knows, knows he was a broken champion.
I spun my torso back in the opposite direction.
A spinning attack using centrifugal force.
"The formation! The formation! The formation!"
"Wha-what the!?"
*Gurgle!!*
With my strength and this much rotational force, soft-fleshed monsters like mermen were instantly split in half the moment they touched my blade.
A human spinning top.
That's what tore across the deck.
"E-everyone, get out of the way! He's crazy!"
Of course, there was no friend-or-foe identification.
Honestly, how could a spinning person possibly control their direction?
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
The experience wasn't that great.
After I ground up about half of them and the other adventurers took care of the rest, the deck was littered with merman corpses.
"Everyone, rest! The crew will gather the merman corpses for later distribution!"
After that brief hunt, we immediately went back to resting in preparation for the upcoming raid.
And Hazel, who had given the order, walked over to me.
"Hey. Are you out of your mind? You have to distinguish between friend and foe!"
"Blaaaaargh—"
"Aaargh!?"
The price for spinning dozens of times was motion sickness.
***
*Pat, pat.*
I was resting, draped over the railing, while Luna gently patted my back.
"You should have just hunted in a more normal way..."
"If this isn't a normal *uurp!* way, then what is?"
In my past life, when people needed to grind up a large quantity of something, did you ever see them use a knife one by one instead of a blender?
I hunted in the most efficient way possible.
"Hah. So when the hell is this Sea Serpent thing gonna show up?"
"I'm not sure. According to what I just heard from Hazel, we're already in the waters where it appears."
"The damn coward's scared."
Was it being cautious, or was it just chicken?
As someone from a culture of 'quickly, quickly', I wanted to finish the hunt and go rest, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"This won't do. I need to blow off some steam."
"...Huh?"
I took out a bomb I had stashed in my inventory and lit the fuse.
Then I tossed it indiscriminately into the sea.
*Boom! Boom!*
The explosions created pillars of water, and the waves churned violently.
It was enough to make even our ship rock a little.
"What's going on!"
"Haze-yo. As in, 'Yo, Hazel.'"
The first person to rush over at the commotion was the commander, Hazel.
Behind her were other adventurers who had also heard the noise.
"I was just blowing off some steam by tossing a few bombs."
"What...?"
"I figured it would show up if I made a racket."
"Don't waste precious resources on something like that!"
"It's just gonna go to waste if I save it anyway."
This Hazel girl just doesn't get it.
What's more expensive, a bomb or our time?
Isn't time gold?
Our precious time is being wasted right now, so if tossing a few bombs can lure it out, haven't we earned gold equivalent to the time we saved?
If it doesn't show up and we have to go back empty-handed, now *that* would be a truly infuriating situation.
Raid or no raid, I'd be so mad I'd just blow up the ship.
"Commander! Something's coming!"
"What?!"
"See?"
I shrugged.
Hazel shot me a look that said 'I have a lot to say, but I won't,' then turned to the railing and began to watch for the thing the crewman mentioned.
I joined her to watch, and the shadow was already so large that a telescope wasn't necessary; it was clearly visible to the naked eye.
And that monster was approaching the ship at an incredible speed.
"It's the Sea Serpent! Everyone, prepare for battle!"
No point in hiding it; that thing was obviously the Sea Serpent.
She said it was 40 meters long, so a shadow that big couldn't be anything else.
"Don't give it a chance to attack! We strike first! All vanguards, aim the cannons! Mages, gather your mana!"
The adventurers moved with perfect coordination, as if following a pre-written script, at Hazel's command.
Thinking I might as well fire a cannon too, I belatedly looked around.
'No spots left.'
All the cannons had been snatched up.
In a moment, a massive pillar of water, tens of meters high, erupted from the sea.
As the water subsided, the Sea Serpent revealed its majestic form.
"KIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Its roar was a bloodcurdling shriek that made me instinctively grimace.
The feeling of it piercing my brain was like listening to nails on a chalkboard through a megaphone.
"Ooh..."
My grimace faded as I looked forward again, and a sound of pure admiration escaped me.
An ethereal blue glow, a single fin running down its back.
Its size was just as described, a colossal 40-meter body.
Its teeth were, of course, sharp, and its pupils were thin, vertical slits.
To put it in simpler terms...
'A Mega Gyarados?'
It had a similar feel.
"Fire!"
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
However, there was no time to stand around in awe.
In the world of survival of the fittest, the outcome of a battle is decided in an instant.
At Hazel's command, the sound of cannons firing rang out several times.
And that wasn't all.
The mages waiting in the rear also unleashed their spells in unison.
A scene similar to the one I'd witnessed when we fought the Iron Golem unfolded.
Fire, water, ice, lightning, wind, earth.
All sorts of elemental magic shot toward the Sea Serpent.
"KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Struck by a barrage of attacks the moment it appeared, the Sea Serpent let out a pained scream.
But if it had ended this easily, it wouldn't be called a raid.
"An attack is coming! Vanguards, use your aura blades to shoot it down! Mages, prepare your next attack!"
Ice began to gather around the Sea Serpent's face, soon forming into the shape of spears.
Eight spears of ice.
Each spear looked to be at least 10 meters long.
A single one hitting the ship would be enough to punch holes through it and sink us.
Therefore, the vanguards gathered and fired aura blades infused with mana from their weapons, two people taking down one spear each.
For the record, Hazel shot a fire-elemental aura blade and destroyed two spears by herself.
Seeing that, I felt she was an A-rank adventurer for a reason and clapped.
"Ooh~"
"...Why are you just playing around?"
"I can't shoot out aura blades since I don't have any mana, ya see."
"What? You're C-rank and you have no mana?"
"Doesn't that just make me even more amazing?"
A feat no one else has achieved!
The world's first mana-less C-rank adventurer!
Soon to be the world's first mana-less B-rank adventurer.
"Stop spouting nonsense and fire a cannon or something!"
"Yessir."
I took a cannonball from my inventory that I'd stored earlier while moving them.
And I threw it with my bare hands.
Using a cannon when you can just throw it by hand is inefficient.
Adjusting the cannon's position, loading the cannonball, lighting the fuse, waiting, and then firing.
The whole process is a waste.
*BOOM!*
"You... Are you really sure you don't have any mana?"
"Yep."
As the back-and-forth continued, the Sea Serpent opened its mouth wide.
Blue particles began to gather inside its maw.
"It's a breath attack! Mages, help me defend!"
'What kind of sea snake shoots a breath attack...?'
The mages' magic combined with Hazel's fire magic to offset the breath.
The MVP in blocking the breath was, without a doubt, Hazel.
The flame-wreathed aura blade she unleashed by swinging her sword was nearly on par with the breath attack itself.
"KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"You've got to be kidding me...! A second breath in a row! It's too late to counter! Cast protection spells on the vanguards and defend!"
It seemed they couldn't block it like last time.
"Nope~ Canceled~"
I pulled a barrel from my inventory and threw it at the face of the Sea Serpent, which was still gathering its breath.
"Luke? What is that...?"
"Chili powder."
*Crack.* The barrel shattered, and chili powder scattered over the Sea Serpent's face like confetti.
"Kee-ACHOO!!!"
It sneezed, and the breath attack was canceled.
"No way..."
"It's more unbelievable that you guys just stand there watching it gather its breath."
This was something I'd always wondered about in fantasy stories whenever a dragon used a breath attack.
Why didn't anyone ever cancel it?
There were all sorts of weird skills like magic cancel and reflect, but they always just took the full force of the breath.
"I don't know what that was, but... now's our chance! Mages, get ready! We're gonna hit it with a big one!"
There was nothing left for me to do.
Maybe I'll go help Yui a bit.
I walked over to Yui, who was in the mages' formation at the rear.
"Yui. Let's suck some blood."
"Wha...? I don't want to..."
"You wanna die here? Or suck blood?"
"I-I'll do it...!"
Naturally, a vampire gets stronger by drinking blood.
That was the difference between the current Yui, who couldn't destroy a county, and the Vampire Queen Yui, who could.
*Chomp.*
Sinking her fangs into the side of my neck, Yui began to drink.
"Suck, suck."
"Ahh~♡"
This was the first time I was properly having my blood drawn. I thought it would hurt since she was sinking her teeth into me, but it actually felt pretty good.
"Huhu... Your blood is quite sweet, Luke. At this rate, I shall deign to keep you as my livestock."
That was the first thing Yui said after detaching from my neck.
Perhaps because of the blood, a bit of the Queen's personality had emerged.
*Flick!*
"Ouch!"
So I put it back in.
"Don't get ahead of yourself."
"Hmph... Yes..."
As Yui rubbed the top of her head with both hands, her eyes were no longer their usual brilliant sapphire but a crimson blood-red, just like mine.
"Go! Yuimon!"
"Yeesss...!"
Yui spread her arms, and blood painted the air above her, forming a large, spiked sphere.
It looked just like a Spirit Bomb, but...
"That name's bad luck. Let's call it the Crimson Crucible."
"...I-I don't care what it's called...!"
"Go, Yui! Crimson Crucible!"
Along with the mages' spells, the Crimson Crucible flew toward the Sea Serpent.
"━━━━━━━━!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"It'll be over soon."
That was the feeling I got.
This attack had landed quite well.
So I was just leaning against the railing, munching on some popcorn, when...
"KIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The Sea Serpent, in a last-ditch effort, opened its maw wide.
"Huh?"
It bit down hard on the railing where I was standing.
"Luke!?"
"Eek...! Luke!"
And just like that, I was swallowed into the Sea Serpent's stomach.