Chapter 7 The Requiem
January 15, 2015
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
The Naga Priestess led Soren towards the temple below.
Soren calmly followed behind. Although he didn’t gain much Killing Experience from last night’s battle, he did acquire a special background specialty, the background specialty of the advanced assassin: [Heart of Killing]. Most of the Rosad Merchant Association’s main forces went to the Soros Archipelago for arms trade, leaving behind mostly ordinary sailors and guards. Last night, he encountered two professionists above Third Tier; the rest were all First or Second Tier, or even just ordinary people.
For Soren now, any enemy with a profession level of 10 (Third Tier) or lower was simply easy to defeat.
Only enemies with a profession level of 15 (Fourth Tier) or higher could present him with some trouble.
“Heart of Killing [Background Specialty]: You have become accustomed to death and blood through repeated killing, and ending lives is neither difficult nor frightening for you. You have taken the lives of hundreds; you begin to disregard death. In battle, you will awaken the ability of the heart of killing, making you feel no pity for your enemies; not even spells such as Friendship or others can affect your judgment. [Permanent Will +1]”
This is the prerequisite for the quasi-legendary specialty [Instinct of Killing].
Once he grasps the special specialty [Instinct of Killing], Soren would be able to retain his combat capabilities subconsciously. For example, after being hit by spells like ‘Confusion’, ‘Mislead’, or ‘Frenzy’, even if Soren could not succeed in his spell save, his body and will would be controlled by [Instinct of Killing], automatically entering a state of killing awareness. This specialty is very difficult to train and acquire. Those who can master it are almost all strong individuals who have walked out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Currently, he still doesn’t know how to train to acquire it.
Basically, very few people grasp this special specialty, and after mastering it, hardly anyone reveals it.
[Heart of Killing] has two advancement opportunities: the background specialty [Butcher] and the highest assassination background specialty of the Evil Faction—[Deathwalker]!
100 heads, 500 heads, 1000 heads.
These three background specialties are independent specialties. In other words, acquiring the [Butcher] specialty will not replace the [Heart of Killing] specialty; the will attributes improved by the two background specialties can stack. The ultimate killing background specialty is [Deathwalker], which is actually a legendary-level background specialty. Although it can significantly enhance abilities, it is also susceptible to attacks from the Good Faction. Corresponding background specialties also abound, such as the Good Faction’s [Radiant Messenger] and the Druid faction’s [Nature Balancer].
There are many background specialties; many people born in the Northern Region inherently possess the [Northern People] background specialty, gaining a +1 bonus to cold resistance and will.
…………
A fishy smell of seawater wafted through the air.
Soren seemed to catch a whiff of something strange, causing him to frown slightly.
The Naga Priestess seemed unconcerned and led Soren into the basement. The Ocean Temple has many underwater passages; the structure seems completely erected in the seawater, with traces of artificial modification extending hundreds of meters underground. The sound of dripping water echoed, and the Naga Priestess brought Soren to a platform, then stopped in place, murmuring a low and eerie chant. Immediately, the seawater before them began to boil as if it were a cauldron.
Three eerie creatures gradually appeared before Soren, swimming out of the deep blue sea.
“What is this!?” Soren’s expression was slightly shocked as he murmured, “Is this the aura of the undead!? … What are they…?”
Before Soren stood three twisted monsters. The first looked somewhat like a sharkman, but its skin showed signs of decay and clams and seaweeds had grown from its flesh. The second creature resembled a Naga Sea Monster but only had a pair of arms, its appearance similar to the first, seemingly dead but transformed into an oceanic undead for some reason. The last one was a ghostly and sinister-looking female monster; her original form must have been a ghost, transformed into an Ocean Goddess for some reason.
“Don’t be surprised!”
A hint of pride flickered at the corner of the Naga Priestess’s mouth. She slowly said, “The sea is filled with dangers and death! … The Ocean Goddess also rules over the Death Domain within the sea! … They are all servants of the Ocean Goddess! … Now they will serve as your assistants! … That group of traitors seems to have colluded with the indigenous people of the Faith Storm! … It’s difficult to defeat them with just your strength alone! … So I will send stronger helpers to assist you in eliminating them. …”
“Follow me!”
The Naga Priestess grabbed Soren’s arm and then opened a portal. In the next moment, their figures appeared on an extraordinarily vast expanse of ocean. Nearby, many reefs could be seen, and the seabed faintly revealed something. In the direction close to the island, numerous sunken ships could be seen, suggesting an ancient shipping route. Many ships had run aground and sunk here before fully understanding the trade routes of the Soros Archipelago, and a swirling force could be felt from the seabed.
“Sa! … Ah! … Morro! …”
The Naga Priestess chanted in a strange tone that seemed to be some kind of ocean language. Even a genius like Soren couldn’t understand it, and he couldn’t make out a single word. However, he sensed that the language contained a certain power; an invisible wave of energy rippled across the sea’s surface, and suddenly he could feel a field of energy opening, expanding hundreds of meters around.
Great white sharks appeared nearby!
These massive ocean predators circled them from a distance. They are the most common dangerous creatures in the ocean; small boats could be destroyed in an instant by them. The ocean sharkmen trained many great white sharks, some even reaching the size of whales, which are mutated ocean monsters that pose a near legendary-level challenge. Something seemed to move beneath the seabed, followed by tumultuous waves, and some creatures that resemble Naga Sea Monsters but are not emerged. They hardly exuded any signs of life, appearing as corpses mixed with ocean algae and so on.
They resembled modified ghouls but were stronger than them.
Rumbling!
A massive sound echoed from the seabed, followed by a mast bursting through the waves. Next, a haunting yet intact ghost ship, covered in seaweed and rotten wood, appeared. A stream of souls manifested on the deck, only to be sucked into the decaying wood of the ship by a massive force. Then the ghost ship began to repair itself as if revived, with some beings that looked neither human nor ghost standing up and making their way to the ghost ship’s deck one by one.
A thick mist rose over the surrounding sea, as if the aura of death enveloped the area.
“This is the Ghost Fleet!”
A cruel smile appeared at the Naga Priestess’s lips as she handed Soren something resembling a conch horn, saying solemnly, “The Ocean Goddess has dispersed the ghost fleet to the various temples. Although I can only command one of them, it should be enough to help you eliminate those traitors.”
It was as if an invisible force propelled them. The ghost ship, with its black sails, silently approached the two.
The Naga Priestess took Soren’s hand and brought him aboard the ghost ship, then gazed at the undead sailors before her. A strange light flickered in her pupils, and the undead sailors slowly knelt, leaving the whole ghost ship in eerie silence, with only the biting cold wind blowing, causing Soren to shiver involuntarily.
This ship is alive! It is living!!!
It is a living being, once activated into undead life by legendary-level spells, somewhat like the ‘Animate Castle’ and ‘Animate Tower Spirit’ created by high-level wizards.
Soren felt extremely uncomfortable.
It was as if he were standing on the corpse of a decaying dark creature; he could even feel the ghost ship breathing the breath of death.
The Naga Priestess handed the horn to Soren, saying in a deep voice, “From today on, you will command it. Human. Don’t let me down!”
Soren reached out to catch the horn, and suddenly a dense stream of data appeared before him.
After a while,
the data stream gradually faded away, followed by a series of data appearing:
“Creature Name: Ghost Ship [The Requiem]
Creature Type: [Animated Ghost Ship]
Creature Description: This is a battleship that ran aground and sank hundreds of years ago, awakening in the long passage of time beneath the sea. The dead souls and vengeful spirits gradually assimilated with it, turning it into a ghost ship that wanders the sea. There are many legends about it, and it eventually attracted the attention of the Ocean Goddess’s followers, who captured these ghost ships with the aid of a Legendary Priest and, under the Ocean Goddess’s divine power, secretly animated these ghost ships into low-level undead life forms. It possesses simple consciousness and can self-repair like the undead; this ghost ship can sail in any body of water, and its power is fearsome across the seas!
Captain: Soren [Temporary].
Crew: Undrowned Undead (49), Ocean Vengeful Spirits (12), Ocean Ghosts (72), Naga Sirens (9), Sharkman Undead (6), Requiem Bound Spirits (872) [Locked].
Equipment: Sinking Wail (Ram), Requiem Cannons (24), Ghost Sails, Rotating Heavy Cannons (2).
Skills: Summon Fog, Ghost Ship Traits, Underwater Navigation, Binding Spirit Traits, Animate Life, Animate Ropes, Curse Ship Hull, Requiem Traits.”
…………
Soren was somewhat taken aback as he took the horn, his heart churning with waves of shock.
Indeed.
The Ghost Fleet truly exists! (To be continued ~^~)
