Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 257 Naval Battle (Part 1)

"My name is Tino Fritz, the ship's wizard of the Fire Ring. You may contact me at any time if you have any problems while at sea."

"."

Tino positioned himself quite modestly, so the atmosphere throughout the exchange was quite harmonious.

The other two wizards on the ship found it strange that Lord Tino was so humble towards this stranger, Lord Richard, who was only at the "first level".

But both of them were shrewd and cautious, and they kept smiling throughout, echoing Tino and Richard's conversation.

After all, the veiled beauty beside Lord Richard was a first-level wizard, clearly indicating that this lord had some unknown trump cards up his sleeve.

After exchanging pleasantries, Richard and Stephanie boarded the largest ship in the middle, the "Lighthouse," where Tino was the ship's wizard.

The other two wizards were responsible for guarding the other two ships.

An hour later, all the passengers had boarded the ship, and the cargo had already been loaded.

As the five-masted sails were raised, the massive ship slowly left the harbor under the force of the wind. The three ships gradually formed a line and headed towards the boundless sea.

Count Andreas, the governor of White Harbor, along with his sheriff and entourage, waved to Richard and Stephena on the fleet from the harbor.

The journey by boat from White Harbor City on Crab Claw Peninsula to Loras Peninsula on the continent of Vitlor is a process of going from shallow sea to deep sea and then back from deep sea to shallow sea.

Clearly, the dangers of the deep sea are far greater than those of the shallow sea.

Various enormous sea monsters roam freely in the deep sea, and legends of ships being sunk or swallowed by them appear almost every year.

This is why, along the long coastline of the Kingdom of Heron, White Harbor City is one of the few ports with shipping routes to the continent of Vitlor.

A slightly damp and warm sea breeze gently caressed his face. Richard stood quietly at the bow of the ship, gazing at the boundless sea and the white seabirds soaring freely around the sails. He felt both joyful and a little apprehensive.

The reason for his unease was that, although he had made great progress in his own strength and was still the strongest in the entire fleet, he always felt a sense of insignificance when facing the endless majesty of the vast ocean.

"I hope the journey goes smoothly!" Richard murmured to himself.

"Master, this is a nautical chart that Tino just brought over. Would you like to take a look?" A familiar fragrance wafted over as Stephania handed over a huge leather scroll.

Richard glanced to the side and saw a huge nautical chart drawn on the enormous leather scroll that Stephena had opened.

This immediately piqued Richard's interest, so he began to examine it closely.

The nautical chart is covered with a dense array of latitude and longitude lines. The furthest points in the east and west directions are the Crab Claw Peninsula and the Loras Peninsula. The shallow waters in these two directions are dotted with numerous scattered islands. The center of the chart is filled with wavy lines.

Clearly, the wavy area represents the deep sea, where there are no small islands available for anchorage.

If you look closely at those islands, you can see that most of them have small annotations, such as the island's name, the sea tribe or human faction to which it belongs, and so on.

In addition, the map even marks some areas where dangerous sea creatures often appear with dotted lines.

This is clearly a nautical chart depicting the waters near the shipping route from the Crab Claw Peninsula to the Loras Peninsula.

In this era, such a precious nautical chart is truly hard to come by.

It was likely perfected gradually after many lives were lost, even the blood of superhumans.

"Lord Richard, I see you're quite interested in nautical charts. Would you like me to give you a brief explanation?"

At that moment, Tino, with his short, choppy blond hair, walked over from the side with a big smile.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Tino," Richard said with a slight smile.

It's obvious that reading a nautical chart on your own isn't as thorough as having someone else explain it to you.

Especially after Richard learned during their previous pleasantries that Tino often participated in such ship escort missions, he understood that although Tino was not as strong as him, he was experienced at sea and should not be underestimated.

"You're too kind, sir!" Seeing that Richard agreed, Tino quickly stepped forward and came to Richard's side to begin the introduction.

"Lord Richard, although we are in shallow waters, we are about to leave the human-controlled waters and enter the first sea area controlled by the sea creatures. This area is the territory of the Sliding Blade Naga Clan."

Tino drew an ellipse on the nautical chart with his right index finger in an area adjacent to the Crab Claw Peninsula.

"The Sliding Blade Naga, sir, you should be very familiar with it. If it weren't for you, the shipping route would probably have remained suspended for some time before it could resume."

Tino appropriately praised Richard's achievements in the last battle.

"If we continue forward, we will gradually enter the deep sea area, which belongs to the territory of the Evil Whip Naga. Among all the Naga, the Evil Whip Naga is considered to be one of the most volatile in temperament."

"Fortunately, however, we humans have reached an agreement with the evil whip Naga, so the danger is not great either."

"But the problem is that giant sea monsters from outside the region often appear in this area. Even the evil whip Naga doesn't have much of a way to deal with these brutal and low-intelligence sea monsters."

"The Evil Whip Naga wouldn't willingly help humans drive away sea monsters, so the deep sea is the most dangerous area on our route!"

"This is the territory of the Siren sea monsters."

"This is the territory of the Giant Claw Lobster People."

"This area often experiences large whirlpools, so you have to go around it."

"This area is full of hidden reefs, so we need to avoid it."

"."

As Tino explained things in a simple and easy-to-understand way, Richard and Stephanie nodded repeatedly.

Richard felt a bit emotional; in such a short voyage of about half a month, there were so many things to be aware of.

It is easy to imagine how dangerous the oceans in more distant regions are for humankind.

But Richard felt a surge of motivation. He wanted to continuously improve his strength to explore the unknown seas and see the scenery that no one had ever seen before.

Just as Richard turned around, intending to return to his cabin to rest, he saw many people standing on the deck looking at the ocean scenery, and many of them were glancing at them from time to time.

These people were all passengers on the ship, including nobles and wealthy merchants dressed in gorgeous clothes, as well as a few wizard apprentices.

Clearly, this was because they were the highest-ranking people on the ship.

Richard noticed as the passengers boarded the ship that there were almost no civilians on this ocean liner.

Indeed, ordinary people simply cannot afford the expensive transcontinental ship tickets.

Five days later.

Richard and Stephena spent a rare moment of leisure on the ship.

Because ocean-going vessels are much larger and sturdier than coastal vessels, ordinary waves do not affect their stability and comfort.

Today, under the bright morning light, Richard and Stephanie went up onto the deck again after breakfast.

As soon as they stepped onto the deck, the two heard a boy of about ten years old excitedly shouting from the side of the ship:

"Flying fish! Mom, look! It's a flying fish! A fish that can fly!"

"So there really are flying fish in the world!"

The mother, dressed like a wealthy lady, was beautiful, but it was clear that this was also the first time she had seen such a situation on the sea. For a moment, she didn't know how to answer her child and looked a little helpless.

Richard looked in the direction the little boy was pointing.

Not far in front of the ship's side, a large group of fish with thin wings on their backs were leaping out of the water and gliding for more than ten meters, or even dozens of meters, through the air with their transparent wings as thin as cicada wings.

Flying fish are about half a meter to one meter long, but their wings are even shorter, less than thirty centimeters, so they can only glide, not fly.

Flying fish are very fast, so in no time, the entire school of flying fish will pass by the lighthouse.

"Snapped!"

"ah!!!"

Suddenly, a flying fish with silver scales that shimmered in the sunlight unexpectedly leaped onto the ship's side, landed on the deck, and began to writhe and open its mouth repeatedly.

This immediately caused many passengers to scream!

But upon closer inspection, Richard realized that this flying fish, lacking sharp teeth and a large size advantage, was probably prey most of the time in the ocean.

"Whoosh!"

A sharp steel harpoon pinned the flying fish to the deck, and pale red blood splattered everywhere.

The one who made the move was a strong sailor, who laughed loudly:

"Great! It's rare to get to eat such delicious flying fish today!"

"Uncle, is this flying fish really delicious?" the little boy asked timidly.

"Of course, would you like to try some?" The burly man grinned and smiled at the little boy.

"Langiro, remember to wipe the deck clean for me," a burly man with a pipe suddenly walked by and said in a deep voice.

"Haha, right away! Right away! Captain Casper!" the burly man said with a bowing and scraping smile.

"Slap! Slap!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than two more flying fish leaped onto the deck.

"Slap slap slap slap!!"

Following this, more flying fish leaped onto the deck, and soon there were more than ten silver flying fish struggling and writhing on the deck.

At this point, the sailors who had been watching from the sidelines couldn't resist any longer. Knowing how delicious flying fish were, they all picked up their harpoons and began to catch the flying fish on the deck.

Captain Casper, pipe in hand, watched the scene unfold and shook his head helplessly, muttering to himself, "A bunch of brats!"

Richard watched this scene unfold during the voyage from the side, a smile on his face.

But then he frowned and looked up into the distance.

Just now, he seemed to have sensed a subtle energy fluctuation in that direction.

However, it may not be clear because of the distance.

Moreover, that direction forms an angle of approximately thirty degrees with the direction the ship is traveling.

Normally, ships don't go in that direction, so even if something happens, it's not a big problem.

but

As time went by, the energy fluctuations that Richard sensed became increasingly apparent.

"Master, did you feel it too?" Stephania turned her head to look in that direction.

"Stephena, go and inform Tino. We might be in trouble." Richard continued to gaze into the distance.

"Yes, Master."

Stephania immediately went to find Tino.

Soon, Tino, with a serious expression, rushed over.

"Lord Richard, which direction are you in?"

"There's a strong energy fluctuation in that direction, and it's gradually getting closer to us," Richard said, pointing to the right front.

Tino sensed it immediately and knew that Richard was right, but the distance was too great to see the specifics of the situation clearly.

Two more minutes passed.

From afar, Richard and his companions could see bursts of white water, some large and some small, erupting from the distant sea, and some creatures surfacing and then surfacing again.

"It seems like some kind of sea monsters are fighting?" Richard, with his sharp eyesight, was the first to notice that some kind of sea monsters were battling in that direction.

"This is the Naga fighting a sea monster. No wonder the flying fish were so frightened that they flew out of the water."

After Tino got a clear view of the situation in the distance, he said with a slightly nervous expression.

"Captain Casper, get all the passengers into the cabins immediately! At the same time, signal the sailing ship ahead to slow down and move behind us!" Tino quickly called out to the captain.

"No, there's no fighting, it seems like they're driving them away," Richard said intently.

"Huh! They really are driving them away," Stephania exclaimed in surprise.

At that moment, at the highest point of the mast, a sailor holding a monocular telescope waved a signal flag with one hand and shouted:

"Captain! A sea monster is heading this way!"

"Damn it, it's the Evil Whip Naga! These guys have seen us and are driving the sea monster this way! Damn it!!" Tino stared intently at the other side for a while before his expression changed drastically.

He saw several Nagas, wielding long whips and riding on giant sea serpents, standing on the surface of the sea, pointing at the fleet, while the giant sea monsters underwater were being driven toward him.

Clearly, the evil whip Naga had no intention of helping the human fleet eliminate the threat of the sea monster; instead, he was diverting the trouble and watching the show unfold.

This greatly displeased several wizards on the ship, including Richard!

"Captain Casper, turn around immediately and give way!" Tino turned to Captain Casper, the pipe-smoking man, and said with a slightly anxious expression.

Captain Casper shook his head gravely and said, "Lord Tino, the sea monster is much faster than us. I'm afraid we won't have enough time! However, I will do my best."

"First mate! Turn the helm to port thirty degrees! Quickly!!" Captain Casper roared.

"You little rascals, get moving!! It's alright, all of you get to the bottom of the hold and row!!"

With Captain Casper's roar!

The ship was thrown into chaos. The young and strong sailors who had been idly catching flying fish rushed to their posts, and a small number of them ran quickly to the hold.

A short while later, a round hole the size of a human head suddenly appeared on the outer wall of the ship, and long wooden oars emerged from the hole from the hull.

"Splash! Splash!"

Like a dragon boat race, the long wooden oars began to paddle vigorously, and the speed of the giant ship gradually increased.

But Richard shook his head slightly.

Although the sailors were rowing with all their might and all five masts were hoisted, the sea monster was still moving much faster in the water than the giant ship.

The white splashes and trails left by the sea monster on the surface of the sea formed a long white line, getting closer and closer to the lighthouse.

Standing on the deck, Richard was gradually able to make out the general appearance of the underwater sea monster.

(End of this chapter)