Chapter 280 - 260: The Arrival of Absolute Misfortune
In Heroic Creation Era, gods are undoubtedly the highest-level beings, existences that players cannot meet. The Light God governs the Divine Realm, the Demon God governs the Demon World, the Sea God governs the Sea Realm, and the Nether God governs the Netherworld. Then there’s a whole mess of Minor Gods and Demigods with all sorts of roles. For players, encountering a Demigod is almost the limit.
But even for gods, there are some middle grounds that are difficult to control, such as the Nether Sea, which is the ocean within the Netherworld. The Nether God wants to control it but unfortunately has no knowledge of water. The Sea God wants to control it but unfortunately the death energy is too heavy and doesn’t suit him.
In short, some powerful and mysterious indigenous Sea Demons rule over this vast expanse of ocean. No one knows exactly what the Sea Demons of the Netherworld are like, but one can imagine how powerful they must be just from the existence of creatures like the Nether River Bone Demon.
Now, under the blowing winds of the Netherworld and the illumination of the silver moonlight, Da Fei’s fleet is advancing at full speed towards their destination in the misty and vast Nether Sea. Not just a sentimental journey, but mainly because Renior once easily tore open a Space Gate there, indicating it must be the easiest place to find a way out of the Nether Sea.
Just at this moment, Da Fei’s Reconnaissance Skill sounded an alarm; a large amount of red dots appeared on the sea surface!
Da Fei’s heart skipped a beat—a Sea Monster from the Netherworld? But as long as they’re just small dots, brother isn’t afraid! Da Fei immediately ordered the fleet to prepare for battle.
There they are! Hundreds of skeletal fish resembling dolphins converged!
No need to say anything, whoever blocks me dies. Whoever comes gets blasted, fire away!
In an instant, the fleet’s firepower was fully unleashed. Under the cover of rainbow light, every Crossbow Arrow hit its target accurately, blowing the underwater Sea Monsters into fragments! Then a long list of combat information scrolled across the screen.
——System Prompt: Your troops killed a Nether Sea Wanderer; you gain Experience +65.
——System Prompt: You have obtained incomplete information about the Nether Sea Wanderer
.......
Although these skeletal fish seemed unable to do anything to the large ships in front, they were relentless against Da Fei’s Medium Ship, ramming the bottom of the ship with thuds like "-1!" "-2!" pounding incessantly!
Dammit! I knew it, a Medium Ship sucks! Then let’s fight, fire at me!
For a moment, the cannons on Radiant Wings roared, and water splashed high around Octopus! Amidst Octopus’s rocking, Da Fei’s heart also jumped with shock! Dammit, don’t hit me please!
Just then, the rainbow light enveloping the fleet suddenly flickered, and a dark crimson arc surged up, replacing the rainbow and enveloping the entire fleet!
——System Prompt: Your "God of Luck" status has ended. As the price for squandering luck, from now on, you will enter a one-month state of "Absolute Misfortune"!
Da Fei’s eyelid twitched, the Absolute Misfortune the Gambling God mentioned! Da Fei hurriedly checked his Luck attribute, Luck Value -∞! Negative infinity! What? This means no lucky charms could save me now?
The effects of misfortune were immediate. As another volley of Crossbow Arrows whistled down, all sorts of missed shots and halved damages, skewed damages scrolled across the screen, the Damage Values were pitiful to see! (Note: Skewed damage refers to "shooting askew," causing less than normal damage. Attacking underwater enemies or enemies with a Magic Shield usually results in skewed damage.)
Damn it! Da Fei is devastated!
Anyway, under the desperate cover of Radiant Wings, under the full-on spear attacks from the crew of Octopus, and through the crew’s rapid repairs, the fleet finally, though painfully, dealt with the first wave of enemies they encountered in the Nether Sea.
Da Fei had a profound understanding of the power of Absolute Misfortune! It guarantees a hundred percent chance of negative status effects, and also halves and skews the damage!
How can you even fight with that? Lucky it was just these weaklings, if it were strong ones it would’ve been even worse, right?
It seems that the only way is to let Anlicia take the lead by transforming into Skira Leviathan without fighting. Though this means the team needs to be rearranged, I’ll take command of Radiant Wings, and join Anlicia on the same ship, while Catherine reluctantly takes over the Medium Ship.
After the crew’s adjustment, the fleet set sail once again.
By the way, this is the first time Da Fei is sailing on Radiant Wings, right? Although this ship has joined the Chamber of Commerce, Da Fei doesn’t own it and can’t see its attributes apart from knowing that Radiant Wings has 100,000 Durability. Likewise, he can’t see other attributes of Whale Hunter besides its 130,000 Durability, especially not the speed attribute, which is truly frustrating!
Of course, this is a normal setting for a Chamber of Commerce. Even if a player joins a Guild, the Guild Leader can only see the player’s level and not their specific attributes. A ship is the player’s personal equipment and property, and whether it’s a player or an NPC that joins a Chamber of Commerce with a ship, it falls under personal privacy. The speed of a sailing ship has always been the highest secret of the Chamber of Commerce or navy.
But knowing Durability and Defense is already pretty good; at least there’s some foundation for arranging tactics. 100,000 Durability is equivalent to a big BOSS’s level. This kind of health is neither too much nor too little. Of course, a ship’s Durability is an architectural attribute, which has defensive bonuses against Light Weapons, which is something a BOSS creature can’t compete with.
Suddenly, Whale Hunter made a loud clang! Da Fei’s screen burst into red light!
——System Prompt: Warning! The bottom of the fleet’s Whale Hunter has fractured, which is likely to cause the entire ship to break apart and sink! Immediate reduction of load and repair are necessary!
Da Fei’s heart shook! 130,000 Durability, just talking about sinking? What the hell, how could this be happening? Damn it! Of course, it’s that convenient with Absolute Misfortune!
Da Fei rushed out of the Cockpit, and ran into the Order Flag Bearer. The Bearer hastily said, "Urgent message from Captain Spielberg, the ship has suffered severe damage, we must stop the ship and reduce the load!"
Da Fei exclaimed, "What is reducing the load?"
The Bearer said, "It means throwing the cargo we’re carrying into the sea and abandon it!"
——Argh! Da Fei spewed blood! What did he struggle so hard for? How could he possibly abandon it! His ship has a capacity of 2000 units, accounting for two-thirds of the entire fleet. If his ship ditched the cargo, then this trip was for nothing!
Da Fei frantically cried out, "Stop the ship! Stop the ship! Let’s talk after we stop!"
The fleet halted its advance, and Da Fei hurriedly boarded a small boat to approach the listing Whale Hunter. The sailors of the Whale Hunter were fervently passing buckets, scooping out the seawater that gushed continuously from the cracks in the ship’s bottom!
Upon boarding, Da Fei encountered the anxiously distraught Spielberg: "Mr. Spielberg, what happened?"
Spielberg hurriedly said: "Whale catchers are not dedicated cargo ships after all; my cargo hold is big, but it’s meant for storing entire whales, so it doesn’t have the intermediate layers like ordinary cargo ships that can distribute the load across multiple levels to reduce pressure. The consequence is that my ship’s bottom has to bear the full pressure of the cargo! Although indeed risky, I did not expect it to fail so quickly!"
Da Fei immediately realized that misfortune was not unfounded—it was indeed a vulnerability he had overlooked!
Da Fei anxiously said: "Does this mean, sir, we must jettison the cargo?"
Spielberg shook his head and heaved a deep sigh: "I know it’s a painfully tough decision; I wouldn’t want to do it either if I were the captain, but given the current situation, if we don’t jettison... Oh..."
At that moment, Catherine boarded as well, and she said solemnly: "There is still one method left—the most common tactic used by pirates!"
Da Fei’s eyes lit up: "Towing?"
Catherine nodded sternly, "Exactly, towing! Pirates sometimes have to go through intense battles with cannon fire to subdue their prey, but by that time, the prey is heavily damaged and sinking. That’s when the pirates would tow the ship back to base!"
Da Fei was overjoyed: "Right! Towing is the only navigation skill that can save an allied vessel from sinking!"
Spielberg exclaimed in shock: "If that’s the case, then our entire fleet will have no speed to speak of; how will we survive in this peril-ridden Nether Sea?"
Exactly! This was the big problem! But at this point, of course, we must deal with problems as they arise! If it comes to it, we will have to abandon it!
Da Fei took a deep breath, patted Spielberg on the shoulder, and said: "Sir, do you have confidence in me? Even if you have no hope for the prospects of this journey, at least you should have confidence in my financial resources, right? I assure you, if anything goes wrong, I’ll compensate you with a new ship!"
Spielberg’s complexion twitched - he agonizingly shook his head: "But this ship of mine... it’s an advanced ship... How could I bear to lose it..."
Catherine chuckled: "Anyway, with your current abilities, you can’t manage this ship, so you might as well use this crisis at sea as an opportunity to improve. Once you get through this crisis, your abilities will naturally improve. With the captain’s ship-building divine artifact in hand, obtaining a ship is never a problem!"
Damn! That’s why she’s my wife, always watching out for her husband! She even knows how to use my ship-building divine artifact for crisis management!
Da Fei quickly nodded and said firmly: "That’s right, there’s currently a Leviathan soul and a Narwhal King soul inside the divine artifact; the new ship will be absolutely top-notch! Once the new ship is completed, you’ll be named captain!"
Spielberg’s eyelid twitched as he grimly said: "Fine! I believe in the captain! Let’s tow it then, but I’ll still stay on board to supervise the repairs and direct water drainage!"
Catherine said earnestly: "However, to tow such a huge and fully-loaded ship without letting it disintegrate is beyond the captain’s abilities; it has to be me, a professional pirate, who will steer the Radiant Wings."
Da Fei raised an eyebrow: "Then who’s going to pilot the Octopus?"
Damn! The fleet can’t fight anymore; we can only intimidate with transformation magic combination skills. Anlicia and I can’t leave, so maybe—
All eyes were suddenly focused on Selvia!
Selvia burst with excitement: "Really? Can I pilot a ship by myself?"
Ha! The reaction is just like when I let Anlicia sail alone for the first time! If you want to pilot a ship, just say it!
Da Fei quickly seizes the opportunity to pat her head: "That’s right, it’s up to you!"
Selvia excitedly said: "I want to learn navigation skills! And master them!"
No way! Your Magic Hero Skill Points are precious! How can you learn navigation skills!
Da Fei could not help but smile wryly: "Well, there’s no need; the ship’s speed will be dreadfully slow once we start towing, you won’t get lost even if you don’t learn navigation skills!"
Selvia’s expression darkened!
Da Fei’s heart skipped a beat—damn, Little Baby is showing attitude! Wait a minute! Is this her first time actively asking to learn a skill? Could this be a critical moment for growth? Anyway, I lost a lot of her loyalty the last time with the divine artifact wand. If I fail to satisfy her again, who knows what irreversible consequences might happen?
Well then, let’s learn it. After all, she’s the daughter of a Sailing Captain. Oh, right, her father’s remains are still on Miracle Island, aren’t they? If I manage to escape from Miracle Island, I’ll bring her there to collect the remains and boost her loyalty.
Now that Selvia is level 33, she was level 20 when I first recruited her - a Nun Master, a Light Magic Master, and then all five sub-skills under each were maxed out, using up 20 skill points. Then, out of curiosity, I added one point to her Basic Leadership Skill, and when she reached level 30, she specialized in Meditation Skill and all five of its sub-skills, leaving 3 skill points remaining. Let’s just go straight to Advanced then!
Da Fei had no choice but to take out the navigation skill book, and a continuous flash of gold light followed.
—System Prompt: You have spent 3 Free Skill Points to teach Vice Hero Selvia Advanced Navigation Skill!
Only then did Selvia’s face brighten, and she joyfully exclaimed: "I’m off now! I’m the world’s first nun captain; watch me!" With that said, she eagerly boarded a small boat headed straight for the Octopus.
Da Fei sighed inwardly. It’s all in your hands now. I hope the 3 precious skill points I invested into her won’t be in vain. If the future is promising, I’ll continue to invest up to Master Level! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)