Bear's team of four had planned to return to the base this morning. In order to avoid unnecessary fights with higher-class water beasts, they always rowed their boat along routes where buildings and structures were dense. That way, they would only encounter smaller F-Class and E-Class water beasts.
But they did not expect to run into a D-Class water beast that was close to promoting to C-Class halfway through their journey. It was a six-meter-long swordfish. It blocked their path and chased them relentlessly, forcing them to detour.
As for how they knew its class, every water beast had a protruding, exposed crystal core on its forehead. F-Class cores were pale blue. E-Class cores were indigo, while D-Class cores were violet.
C-Class cores were green.
They had never encountered one themselves. They had only heard about it from a merchant boat they once crossed paths with.
As for the ranks above that, they knew nothing yet.
The core on the swordfish's forehead was violet mixed with green. A core with two distinct colors only appeared on water beasts in the process of promotion. Since there were still underwater structures that had not completely eroded, the swordfish had difficulty swimming freely without taking time to demolish the obstacles. As a result, it had sustained some injuries.
But despite those injuries, it chased them relentlessly all the way to the borders of Moonstone Province. It was clear that it wanted to devour them to complete its promotion.
The four men's faces turned pale.
Everyone rowed as fast as they could despite their exhaustion, but the swordfish was faster. It rammed into their boat, leaving a hole in the hull. Water began seeping inside immediately, soaking them.
Wells quickly shoved his backpack against the hole to block it, but it could not completely stop the water from pouring in.
Seeing that the situation was dire, Bear made a decision.
As soon as they reached Moonstone Province, Bear stood up and raised his goggles, preparing to dive.
"Pal, I'm going to lure it away! Find a safe place to hide and wait until the water beast is gone! With all that debris around, you three should be safe for a while!"
Pal immediately grabbed Bear's arm. "Are you crazy? If you die, what about your family back at the base?"
As Bear prepared to jump, Wells and Ron grabbed his arms and legs.
"Brother Bear, what are you doing? Calm down!"
"Where are you going? Have you lost your mind?"
"Just do what I said!" Bear was stronger than the three combined. He easily shook them off.
He was about to leap into the water when Ron suddenly shouted, "Wait! Look at the water beast! It stopped!"
At his words, the others turned to look at the swordfish.
To their astonishment, it had indeed stopped. It swam in circles aimlessly, as if searching for something. It acted as though it could not see them, even though there were less than ten meters between their boat and the beast.
The swordfish continued circling for five full minutes. Unable to find them, it slammed its tail against the water, sending up a massive splash, before finally swimming away.
The four men were dumbfounded.
"What just happened?"
But the boat was already slowly sinking. They had no choice but to abandon it. They climbed onto floating debris, carrying their backpacks after tying the boat to a buoy.
The boat had been their lifeline for months. Watching it sink made their hearts ache.
Ron, the youngest, began to cry.
"Brother Bear… what are we going to do now?"
The hole was too large to repair.
Without the boat, how could they return?
Everyone was emotional. Even Pal, who normally had a grumpy personality, looked gloomy.
Like Bear, he also had family waiting at the base. If he could not return, who would take care of his younger brother?
As the leader and emotional pillar of the group, Bear forced himself to calm down.
"Don't give up yet. For all we know, we might find a boat among these mountains of junk. Let's move before the sun sets."
The others nodded and followed him, searching for anything usable while cautiously watching for water beasts that might suddenly appear.
Just then, a feminine voice full of excitement called out from behind them.
"Hey there, folks! Welcome to Moonstone Province!"
They turned around.
Standing on a small wooden boat was a woman.
She had long dark hair and striking amber eyes. She wore a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Over it was a fitted black corset-style vest, and a dark cape-like coat draped over her shoulders. She wore a black skirt and thigh-high black boots. On her hands were gloves, and she held a small saw.
Amid the mountains of debris and clattering junk, she looked completely out of place with her clean and healthy appearance. Unlike their sun-darkened, dry skin from months of travel, her skin was fair and unblemished.
Ron blurted out absentmindedly, "Am I dead?"
The other three had similar thoughts. They even pinched themselves, but Isla Lane remained standing there. She did not disappear, which meant this was not a hallucination.
Their minds raced with countless questions.
At first, they were wary. They had been sailing for a long time and had encountered robbers before.
Isla Lane immediately said, "If I wanted to do something to you, I wouldn't have greeted you first."
Her style was to strike first, beat the bad guy until he could not tell east from west, and only then will she have a short chat.
Indeed. She could have stayed quiet and ambushed them instead.
The four men relaxed slightly.
Bear stepped forward. "Miss, are you from another base? Where is it located? Is it nearby? Could you show us? We can pay for the boat ride and do the rowing ourselves."
As he spoke, he showed her a bag full of water beast cores.
Holy moly!
This group is loaded!
Isla Lane restrained herself from grinning too widely so she would not look like a trafficker or a robber.
"Well, it's not exactly a base… but I do have a store. For those cores, I can sell you food and water."