Without a word, Kaito quickly shouted into the room and then yelled to the captain that there was a monster below.
The captain was stunned for a moment, then his legs began to tremble.
'Could it be that we had encountered the legendary sea monster?'
'No way, how unlucky could we be!?'
"Tarnished, what should we do?"
Seeing the pitch-black sea surface, it was clear how massive the monster was. There was no time to escape!
"Sigh... Don't worry. I'll handle it."
Kaito walked to the railing, grabbed hold, and created a rock spear in his hand.
He didn't move.
He certainly wouldn't just attack the sea monster like this.
Doing so would definitely enrage it!
Instead of attacking now, it was better to pray it would ignore the ship and leave.
After all, this sea monster was just too huge.
Bigger than any blue whale; judging by the shadow, it was even larger than the monsters in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!
Fortunately, even at only 5% power, the SSS-rank [God · Morax] allowed Kaito to handle it easily.
The bad news was that Kaito's attributes were a blank slate.
In principle, he was still very strong, and his mana wasn't negligible, but he didn't have so much that he could casually unleash his ultimate moves!
"Is this because I chose Difficulty 3?"
No, Difficulty 3 only weakened him; it didn't make enemies stronger.
"Kaito-san!"
"Wait, is this monster in the sea really this big!?"
Yor came out into the storm to Kaito's side. She couldn't just stay quietly inside; she had to see what was happening.
But when she saw the enormous shadow in the sea, she was dumbfounded.
She thought it would be a monster roughly the size of the ship, not this big!
Wasn't this hundreds of times larger than the wooden ship!?
Now she panicked.
This was her first time participating in a parent-child activity, and they were going to a magical world. Even though she was strong in combat, she was still an ordinary person.
So she had chosen Difficulty 1, the easiest mode.
In this mode, Yor's strength was quite formidable, especially with the physique enhancement cards Kaito had given her.
Defeating a monster might not be easy, but it wouldn't be too difficult.
But what was this!?
She didn't even know if she could punch through its defense!?
"Take this. If it surfaces and attacks the ship... throw it with all your might."
"Yes, Kaito-san!"
Yor didn't hesitate. She took the heavy rock spear from Kaito.
This spear was clearly not a simple weapon. If she threw it with all her strength...
Maybe it could pierce the sea monster?
"T-Tarnished... we..."
"Don't disturb it! If we try to sail away, it might just attract its attention!"
Since they couldn't outrun it, how far could they go in this situation?
So it was better to stay put; maybe the sea monster wouldn't notice them.
Forming another rock spear in his hand, Kaito and the others waited silently in the storm.
They didn't dare talk much, didn't dare move around. Each held onto something to steady themselves.
Perhaps, for this world, this was an original monster.
Elden Ring the game only featured a portion of the main content; much more hadn't appeared yet, and the map was even larger than the game's.
So Kaito wasn't surprised by the appearance of such a colossal creature.
Maybe this monster was also a BOSS!?
Whether it was a field BOSS or a true BOSS, Kaito suspected it was probably a field BOSS.
Since it would respawn weekly, its difficulty shouldn't be too high. It was just a little bit bigger.
If it were a true BOSS, that would be a bit more troublesome.
"...Not good. It's coming up."
"No... Wait! It's not just coming up; it's moving away!?"
Yor almost threw the rock spear, but Kaito, after closely monitoring its movements, suddenly noticed something else.
Stabilizing Yor, Kaito clearly observed the shadow swimming forward...
After a while, the enormous shadow swam from under the ship to its front, then far ahead.
Then—
Boom—!!!
A massive wave surged.
A giant turtle shell appeared, followed by a huge octopus tentacle wrapping around it!?
Wait!!
So there was another sea monster!?
So the situation was a turtle as big as a mountain fighting an octopus just as large!?
"Back off!!"
Kaito quickly ordered the captain to have the sailors retreat immediately.
If they didn't retreat, they'd be caught in the waves from the fight between these two sea giants!
"Th-This is!!"
Yor's worldview was shattered.
A mountain-sized turtle fighting an octopus on the sea; it was like a scene from mythology.
The large ship used the waves to retreat as far as possible.
Kaito, meanwhile, focused intently on their fight.
He didn't know why they were fighting, but the octopus was clearly the aggressor, constantly wrapping around the turtle. The turtle used its massive head and mouth to bite the octopus's tentacles.
It couldn't do much about the other parts, just rolling in the sea to try and break free.
"Kaito-san, what should we do now?"
"Keep retreating. We'll see how it goes later."
Even if Kaito didn't say it, the captain thought the same.
Actually, he wanted to retreat directly to a great distance and take a huge detour, never using this route again.
With the help of the waves, they retreated until they could no longer see the shadows, then prepared to turn around and reroute.
The storm had lessened considerably here, and everyone felt a bit relieved.
Who wouldn't be happy that the disaster was over?
But before the sailors could celebrate, the shadow appeared again, moving extremely fast!
"Prepare for battle!!"
Seeing this, Kaito sighed inwardly, knowing the monster wouldn't leave them alone.
Based on the shape, he guessed the turtle had lost, and the octopus was the victor.
He hadn't expected the octopus to defeat the mountain-sized turtle so quickly.
But since it was chasing them so aggressively, why run?
Bam—!!
Kaito grabbed Yor and hurled her high into the air.
Don't worry, this was a strategy he and Yor had devised while the large ship was retreating.
If the monster came after them, they would just kill it.
Kaito just didn't want the ship destroyed, forcing him to swim to Limgrave. Wouldn't that be a death sentence!
Besides, he didn't even know the way!
"Yor, don't let it destroy the ship!!"
After telling the captain to keep sailing, Kaito jumped onto the railing and leaped into the air.
He couldn't do this with his normal strength, but using [God · Morax]'s power, he could!
Once Kaito was also in the air, he created rock-element cubes to float in the sky. The two of them stood on them and didn't fall.
At the same time, Kaito began creating more rock-element cubes. These cubes served not only as stepping stones for Kaito and Yor to jump between, but also as projectiles Kaito could instantly transform into massive rock spears for attack.
Boom...
Kaito raised the rock spear in his hand, aiming directly at the location of the massive shadow.
As its form gradually rose towards the sea surface, Kaito seized the moment and hurled the spear with a sonic boom towards the shadow.
Boom—!!!
The churning sea surface was blasted open, creating a huge water crater, and the spear pierced the giant octopus's head.
There was no scream, but the octopus was clearly in pain. It stopped its rapid advance, surfaced completely, and slammed a massive tentacle down towards Kaito's position.
It was like a building dozens of stories high crashing down.
But due to its enormous size, it wasn't very fast for Kaito and the others.
He simply controlled his rock-element cube to fly a distance away, dodging. The tentacle struck the sea surface, creating a wave dozens of meters high.
"Hah—!!"
Yor also stomped forward, leaping into the air, veins bulging on her right arm.
Using all her strength, she hurled the rock spear. It punched a massive hole in the giant octopus's head!
For Kaito and Yor, this octopus monster was just a target!!
No matter how big or terrifying it was, it didn't matter!
If it were the turtle, it might have been more troublesome, but this was an octopus!
What other attacks could an octopus do?
Kaito smiled slightly, controlling the surrounding rock cubes to catch Yor and generating a new rock spear beneath her.
"Hehe, good. Mana and divine power are separate."
"Even though I usually use mana to power it, divine power is my ultimate trump card."
This was like activating hidden backup energy!
Yes, the divine power inherent in the SSS-rank [God · Morax] had nothing to do with Kaito's personal mana!
Even at only 5%, the effectiveness of this divine power far exceeded that of mana.
The only difference was that mana could be easily recovered, while divine power's recovery depended on the situation.
At least, Kaito needed to be standing on the earth to recover quickly. Now, flying in the air, how could he recover!
But... did this count as Kaito exploiting a system loophole?
"Die!!"
As the giant octopus flailed its tentacles angrily, trying to crush Kaito, he directly controlled the previously created rock cubes, transforming them into massive rock spears that rained down on its body!
Heated by air friction, they struck the giant octopus with devastating force!
Boom, boom, boom, boom—!!!
Water and blood scattered violently in all directions.
After Kaito's powerful blow crippled the giant octopus, he boldly leaped into the air again, forming a new rock spear to hurl with all his might.
"Yor!"
"I know!!"
Yor leaped from the rock cube, gathered strength beside Kaito, and threw her spear.
This time, it was aimed directly at the eye, with Kaito's spear following close behind.
This combined strike pierced straight through the giant octopus's entire head!!
"..."
Kaito controlled the rock cubes to catch them both, taking a deep breath as he observed the giant octopus's movements.
Now, the question was: if it was a true BOSS in the game, it would have powerful regenerative abilities.
But if it was a field BOSS, just an ordinary creature that ate a lot, grew old, and became large, then it should die now.
After all, there was a big difference between a large magical creature and a large ordinary creature.
Fortunately, judging by the outcome, this giant octopus was clearly the latter—a type of large sea creature, not something like a dragon.
In the end, Kaito won this battle.
As for how points were awarded, that was up to the system.
At least, this giant octopus was dead, slowly sinking into the sea.
In the distance, the captain saw this and had the sailors slowly sail the large ship back to pick them up.
After Kaito and Yor boarded, the crew looked at them with the same reverence as they would a god!
Thinking about it, they had just defeated a mountain-sized giant octopus!
Even the largest ship would have been shattered by one of its tentacles!