A bull's head on a fish's body, four massive fangs jutting from its jaws, and three pairs of fins sprouting from its long torso. At a glance it even looked a little comically ugly, but once you scaled it up to around fifty meters, there was nothing cute left, only terror.
The seawater blasted aside by the sea beast crashed down on the ship like a torrential downpour. Everyone aboard froze in place, paralyzed by fear and unable to move.
Ethan, on the other hand, was tense to the extreme, one hand on his sword hilt but making no move to draw. He even pulled his senses back in close to his body, no longer spreading them out. At a moment like this, drawing the blade might be exactly what provoked the monster.
With his current strength, he could not handle a sea beast of this size. At the very least, he would need to be at the level where he could cut steel before he could even hurt it.
Large sea beasts lived deep beneath the surface year round. Even with their unique biology, their bodies were basically as tough as reinforced iron to withstand the pressure. And it would be a bit much if he just died a week into going to sea, wouldn't it?
The bull headed sea beast swayed its enormous head and swept its gaze over the merchant ship, then its two eyes, each as tall as a man, locked onto Ethan.
It had been drawn here by a strange power, like a call echoing through the depths.
But now that power had vanished, and the sea beast was confused.
After floating there for a while, it still could not figure anything out with its limited brain.
Forget it. With a flick of its tail, it whipped up another massive wave and slipped back beneath the surface to hunt for food. These little creatures on the surface were not very tasty anyway.
"Whew…"
Everyone on the ship exhaled at once, then collapsed to the deck one after another. Some of the sailors even passed out cold from sheer terror.
Ethan relaxed his grip on the sword hilt. Even if drawing his blade would not have helped, the courage to resist was something he refused to give up.
When a gust of sea breeze blew over him, he felt a chill along his back. It was soaked with cold sweat.
Once he had fully collected himself:
Observation Haki: Beginner 1%
It counted as a brush with death, after all. His mind had been forced to focus completely and tighten into a single point.
In a way, this had been even more dangerous than facing pirates. In the Four Seas, there were very few pirates stronger than a Sea King, especially on the open ocean.
The name "Sea King" really was brutally accurate.
If the sea beast had truly decided to destroy the ship, Ethan would have had no choice but to risk unleashing his Conqueror's Haki.
But his Conqueror's Haki was only at the earliest stage. The mental strain it caused him was enormous, and he still could not control it. Once he released it, it would affect everyone present.
Unless he killed the entire crew, there would be no way to keep such an incident secret. Ethan neither underestimated the interrogation skills of the World Government's intelligence agencies nor overestimated human nature.
These people were strangers. Why would they keep quiet for his sake?
Before long, CP9's rabid dogs would track the rumor, follow the trail back to Shimotsuki Village and bring disaster down upon it.
After this encounter, Ethan gained a much deeper understanding of just how dangerous the sea really was.
Unpredictable Sea Kings, pirate ships that could appear at any time… in this Great Pirate Era, the lives of ordinary people were far too harsh.
With a heavy thump, old Neil dropped to his knees on the deck and began muttering prayers under his breath.
He gave thanks to every sea god he could name. Then, after producing offerings from who knew where and casting them into the sea, he finally stopped.
Rituals to appease the sea were extremely common out here, and older captains believed in them devoutly.
After the solemn ceremony, Neil decided he needed to lift the mood on board. Sailors who spent too long on the monotonous sea in bad spirits could do terrifying things.
"Listen up, lads! At the next island we're resting an extra day. Everyone gets an extra ten thousand Berries in bonus."
"Yeah! Captain, you're the best!"
The crew, still shaken moments ago, were quickly soothed by this simple, brutal form of motivation. The tense atmosphere scattered like mist.
Humans were a contradiction: fragile and resilient at the same time.
They shouted their work songs and carried on. The next island was only a day away, and when they made port, they would clutch their extra pay, head to the tavern for a few cups of rum and brag to the other sailors.
A Sea King, they'd say. Fifty meters long. What better story was there to tell?
I almost died out there this time. Getting a girl to help me unwind isn't too much to ask, right?
With thoughts like that, the mood on the ship quickly rose again.
The desires of people at the bottom were easy to satisfy. For the sailors, their thrills were simple and unadorned.
But ever since Ethan had shown that he could "sense" danger, Neil and the crew had begun to treat him with a certain awe.
They did not know whether he had simply guessed by luck or had truly foreseen the threat, but either way, it felt uncanny.
Anyone with a bit of sense at sea knew better than to disrespect the unknown and the mysterious.
If a man had arms thick enough to run a horse along and fists sturdy enough to stand on, people understood what that meant. They knew he was dangerous and kept their distance.
But the mysterious was different. You couldn't necessarily hide from it. Ghost stories had a huge audience on the sea.
Ghost ships, strange sorcerers, curses… tales like that were especially popular.
From this, Ethan realized that under the World Government's rule, the people at the bottom were still subjected to a policy of ignorance.
Otherwise, it was hard to explain why, in a world where technology was so advanced, people still feared the "mystical" so deeply.
In Ethan's view, the world of One Piece was more advanced than his previous life in terms of technology.
The blueprints of Pluton and the design of the Thousand Sunny were practically science wearing a fantasy mask.
Cola powered propulsion? What kind of technological level did you need to make that possible?
Science and technology are the primary productive forces. High tech and its related industries greatly boost labor productivity.
Every major leap in human technology throughout history has renewed tools of labor, improved or transformed the objects of labor, and raised the quality of the labor force.
It has also changed the position and combination of the elements of production in the process itself, driving labor productivity sharply upward and providing immense momentum for economic and social development.
(End of Chapter)
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