Chapter 249: Chapter 233: Advancement Successful, Salvage Failed!

The giant ship finally sailed into the center of the pocket formation, with everything ready.

Compared to Da Fei and Alicia, Bato was the most nervous and excited. For him now, the sunken treasure was no longer important since it couldn’t run away, but the opportunity for skill advancement was truly rare.

Looking at the increasingly tilted sky, Alicia said in a deep voice, “We’ll start at night. The night is advantageous for the execution of my skills, and we’ve prepared three plans. One, if the transformation succeeds, it will either scare the sunken octopus away or lure it out to attack; either way, we’ve achieved our goal. Two, if the transformation fails, our Flame Lord will light up all its lights. Spielberg mentioned that giant octopuses are attracted to light; medium and small ships sailing with lights on at night often become targets for their attacks, so that might also achieve our goal then. Three, if the transformation succeeds but the sunken octopus still doesn’t come out, we’ll turn on the ship’s lights. I don’t know if lighting up will affect the illusion, but we must try, regardless!”

Da Fei and Bato nodded repeatedly. Yep, this kid talks quite methodically and theoretically. Having theory is good; practice without theoretical guidance is blind.

The red sun dipped into the sea, and the entire Northern Ocean began to dim. Spielberg’s whaling ship started sending countdown instructions, and the Flame Lord was also ready to light up at any moment.

Alicia raised her magic wand and said in a deep voice, “Start! Captain first, General second, me last!”

Da Fei, already prepared and waiting, immediately activated his skill!

—-System prompt: You have activated the God-level Reconnaissance Skill “Phantom March”!

—-System prompt: Captain Bato has activated the Master-level Reconnaissance Skill “Ambush”!

At this moment, the Divine Artifact Wand in Alicia’s hand erupted with a brilliant blue light! In an instant, Da Fei’s vision blurred again, and the image of the giant ship before him suddenly twisted and expanded!

Da Fei’s heart leaped into his throat as he stared intently at the information bar!

—-System prompt: Your Vice Hero Alicia has cast an unknown Arcane Magic on the ship you are on!

—-System prompt: You have combined to form a new unnamed skill!

—-System prompt: Your Vice Hero Alicia has comprehended a new combined magic “Giant Octopus Transformation”!

It succeeded! They’ve already named it!

Ding dong! A crisp sound rang out as white light flashed over Da Fei and Bato, and Alicia was enveloped in a flash of golden light!

—-System prompt: Congratulations! You have successfully combined to form the new skill “Giant Octopus Transformation,” and you have comprehended Master-level Navigation Skill!

—-System prompt: Congratulations! Your Vice Hero Alicia has comprehended God-level Arcane Magic!

—-System prompt: Captain Bato has comprehended Grandmaster-level Reconnaissance Skill!

“What? I succeeded!” In that instant, Bato excitedly howled long into the sky!

Da Fei, overwhelmed, cried tears of joy and embraced Alicia, who had no time to show any expression, tightly in his arms, rubbing and squeezing her with great enthusiasm. Only at this moment could Da Fei take advantage of his wife without any scruples.

He advanced! Finally, he advanced smoothly! Within a day, I advanced three skills! Why am I so awesome? Because regular players can only wait for opportunities, but I can create opportunities! Why can I create opportunities? Because I keep progressing from one victory to another, always ahead of the times, step by step ahead! Haha! Mwahahaha…

“Let go!” Alicia pushed Da Fei’s greasy paws away in anger, shouting, “You’re blocking the magic wand from casting, stopping charging!”

Da Fei reluctantly let go, “Right, right! It just started.”

At this moment, the Flame Lord had transformed into a giant octopus the size of a small island! Its monstrous size was akin to the legendary sea monster, Kleegen! Legend has it that Kleegen would disguise itself as a pearl-laden island reef in the ocean. When ships approached, its giant claws from under the water would suddenly explode out and drag the ships to the depths.

Now, faced with the “Kleegen,” sprawling and covering the entire area above the sunken ship waters, how would the sunken octopus respond? Everyone stared at the dark sea with bated breath!

Seconds ticked by, but there was no movement on the water’s surface. Is it sleeping in the sunken ship, unaware?

Alicia said gravely, “Running out of mana, Plan Three, turn on the lights!”

Bato shouted, “Turn on the lights!”

The sailors, who had long been in standby, promptly lit the oil lamps in the reflective covers. In an instant, the entire “Giant Octopus” became dazzlingly bright, like a sculptural lighthouse drifting on the Ice Ocean. Under the strange light and shadow effects, the whole seabed became a magnificent spectacle!

“Wow! Is this the God of Octopi?” Such a magnificent scene left the fleet’s sailors in an uproar!

And at that moment, a familiar red glow exploded on Da Fei’s screen!

—-System prompt: Reconnaissance Skill warning! A lurking formidable enemy near you is about to emerge!

“It’s appeared!” A massive red dot sped toward Da Fei’s mini-map!

What the hell! Facing such a big octopus, it’s not fleeing but actively engaging? Is it smart enough to see through my trick, or just too stupid to recognize its limits?

Bato cheered, “Prepare for battle!”

Here it comes! Under the illumination of the lights, the sunken octopus soared up like a launched missile! It faced this much larger “God of Octopi” with no fear!

—-Jingle! The bells on the fishing net alarmed, it hit the net! It’s going to collide! Going to hit the bottom of the ship!

Bato shouted, “Hold steady!”

—-Boom! Eight jets of water shot up into the sky, and the Flame Lord’s massive body shuddered violently, with the illusion vanishing! Eight towering arms, higher than the main mast, clutched the Flame Lord tightly!

Despite being prepared, the dwarven warriors on standby aboard could not help gasping in shock! Although the sunken octopus wasn’t as large as “Kleegen,” it was unimaginably large for an ordinary person!

Da Fei was also in shock, with his eyes wide open! Was he kidding! This was much bigger than the one I captured before!

Spielberg let out a wild cry, “Reel in the nets!”

Bato shouted sharply, “Fire at me!”

In an instant, the Flame Lord’s gun cabin, with its 40 gun ports on both sides, the four medium warships around, each with 8 gun ports on one side, and Spielberg’s whaling cannon fired simultaneously!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Under the pincer attack from all directions, the octopus’s gigantic arms spurted blue blood like fountains, and the Flame Lord seemed to be splashed with blue paint in a flash!

—-Creak! Boom! With a loud noise, the octopus, hurt by the onslaught, unleashed astonishing power, instantly breaking one of the Flame Lord’s masts!

Da Fei’s eyes shrank in shock! Is this for real! This is a giant ship!

Bato’s face turned ashen, and he howled furiously, “My ship! Hack it!!!!!” All at once, the cloaked War Axe dwarves emerged from the ship’s sides, wielding massive axes to chop at the eight griping arms holding the battleship!

—-Boom! With another loud noise, blue blood spattered while waves shot skyward, and the Flame Lord and four net-wielding medium warships shuddered violently, causing a barrage of crashing sounds on the sea surface!

“The net cords snapped!”

Everyone was taken aback! And at that moment, the Giant Octopus retracted its massive claws, diving back to the depths in a tsunami of waves, escaping back to its sunken ship!

Damn, it fled! The entire fleet was in an uproar.

Da Fei was so stunned it took him a moment to recover! This Giant Octopus was not in the same league as the previous one! It was fortunate the bait was a giant ship; otherwise, a regular ship would’ve been crushed on the spot! This salvage task was incredibly trickery, wasn’t it? Now what? Given the cunning nature of octopuses, it suffered once and seemed injured. It certainly wouldn’t fall for the trick again, would it? If it stubbornly guards its lair, nobody can do anything.

Da Fei had no choice but to turn his head and clear his throat, “Um, General, now–huh?”

He saw Bato’s face dark, murmuring, “It’s been a year since I last saw it, and it grew so much stronger…”

Da Fei asked, surprised, “General?”

Bato suddenly snapped back to reality, laughing heartily, “Ah, no good, we failed again. But it’s okay. It’s injured, and just now, I think I saw it lose an arm while escaping tied to a whaling harpoon. Yes, it’s the old trick of octopuses sacrificing limbs. Anyway, it’s seriously hurt, so we’ll get it for sure next year, hahaha!”

Da Fei also laughed, “Right, right, this time next year, I’ll bring another shipment and assist General in the salvage again!”

The General nodded solemnly, “Lieutenant, next year, you must bring much more goods! Several times more than now!”

Da Fei hesitated; several times more goods? Just what I wanted! He nodded and replied with a grin, “Sure, sure! Absolutely, absolutely!”

The General waved his hand around, “Pack up, get ready for whaling! Deputy Officer, check the personnel, see if anyone’s injured or, God forbid, shelled…”

All at once, the ships’ sailors and warriors began their busy activities with sighs of disappointment. Da Fei also sighed silently. What a pity, what a pity, I have been invincible all along, defeating gods and monsters alike, only to fail at the sunken ship! Alas, what a pity about the treasure in the sunken ship–oh?

Da Fei was suddenly struck with a realization! The sunken treasure? What could the treasure be?

According to the game’s wild monster guarding rules, different levels of wild monsters guard different levels of resources. The outdoor large map of the game refreshes wild monsters and resources randomly every week, which is every 17 hours, giving players the chance to level up and hunt for treasures. Ordinary food is guarded by Second-level Soldiers, common wood, stone, iron resources by Third-level Soldier Guards, crystals, mercury, gemstones, and small treasure chests by Level 4 and 5 Soldier Guards, C-level treasures guarded by Level 5 or 6 Soldiers plus dungeon bosses, whereas treasures above B-level drop only from instance bosses or mission bosses.

And the sunken ship task Da Fei had been given, what tier would the Boss guarding the ship be? Isn’t it obvious! Even if it wasn’t DemiGod-level, it wouldn’t be much less than that Skira clone! So the sunken ship treasure, needless to ask, must be a Divine Artifact! If it is a boss guarding a Divine Artifact, it wouldn’t get scared away by an illusion after death!

Da Fei realized! So, this was the clue given by the task! What have these dwarves been doing, salvage after salvage ending in failure every year? Lacking money to salvage treasure chests? What a joke! Soldiers use the country’s funds; they lack nothing! A Divine Artifact! They must be salvaging a Divine Artifact! Damn, this salvage mission I got is truly low-profile luxury with substance, eh?

In other words, when he asked me to bring several times more goods next time, he was actually hinting for me to bring more ships!

Holy crap! Darned dwarfs, secretly salvaging a Divine Artifact behind my back, you take the lion’s share and give me the crumbs! You aren’t being straightforward! (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to Qidian (wuxiaworld.site) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.wuxiaworld.site.)