One large and one small—two Sea Kings.
This put Sean in a bit of a predicament.
After all, using the system allowed him to select one item from the day's gains and apply a multiplier to it. This meant Sean couldn't simultaneously multiply the quality of both Sea Kings. Even if he waited until tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to apply a multiplier to the previous day's gains.
In other words, Sean had to choose only one of the two Sea Kings.
Though it was a bit of a waste, Sean didn't dwell on it too much. The smaller one was clearly of much higher quality—significantly so. As for the larger one, he would simply carve off some meat to improve their diet. After all, Sea King meat was delicious in its own right.
"System, begin today's settlement. Target: the otter-like Sea King I just killed. Selection: Quality. Begin!"
[Settlement item confirmed. Determining Random Multiplier...]
[Ding! Random Multiplier is 82. Multiplier Applied.]
Sean hissed through his teeth. This was definitely an auspicious start.
He had been worried that because this Sea King was so unique, he might get a low multiplier—perhaps even less than one—which would have been devastating. But 82 times? That was even higher than the previous time. Given that this special Sea King already possessed extremely high quality, the results were likely to be off the charts!
The only problem was that this Sea King was too small—only half the size of the last one. Furthermore, such a potent effect wasn't suitable for the entire branch to use.
Consequently, Sean decided not to return to the East Blue branch immediately. He would stay and hunt another one tomorrow to provide for the ordinary marines. With three warships, he had plenty of transport capacity.
'''
Sean had only intended to stay one extra day, but fate had other plans.
For the next four days, his multipliers were consistently below 10, with one even dropping to 0.7. It wasn't until the fifth day, after hunting a 500-meter class Sea King, that he finally hit a 55x multiplier.
While the multiplier wasn't as high as the first time, the base quality of a 500-meter creature was higher than that of the 300-meter one. Therefore, after the quality multiplier was applied, the results should be roughly comparable.
"Mission complete. Return to base!"
"Yes, Commodore!"
A day later, once the 500-meter Sea King had been fully butchered, the three warships were packed to the brim, including the meat from the previous 170-meter Sea King. They were returning with a full haul.
Of course, during the voyage back, the eighty marines were exhausted—more so than the recruits in the training camp. They had to work tirelessly to turn all the meat into jerky to prevent it from spoiling, as the trip back would take nearly ten days.
Although the large warships had cold storage rooms, they couldn't hold nearly enough. Sean only had a portion of the small Sea King's meat placed inside; the vast majority, like the meat from the 500-meter beast, had to be preserved as jerky.
Sean spent much of the trip speculating about the origin of the small Sea King. He wondered if it was because he had discarded a large amount of Sea King meat in the Calm Belt due to lack of transport, and some other Sea King had eaten it, resulting in a mutation.
As it turned out, Sean's guess was very close to the truth.
When Sean's medium warship had departed, it wasn't just one Sea King that had scavenged the remains, but several. The one he hunted was merely one of them. Among those scavengers, there was one that had not only seen a massive increase in strength but had also developed intelligence on par with humans, much like the royalty of the Sea Kings.
Of course, Sean was currently unaware of all this.
'''
Ten days later, the three warships returned to the 16th Branch.
The marines stationed there rushed to the harbor in excitement to watch. The recruits, however, were confused. Why were the veterans so hyped? They had no idea what Sean had brought back.
"Commodore, could all of this be...?"
Lucci, who had already returned to the branch, was visibly surprised when he saw the cargo on Sean's ships.
"I'm not entirely sure yet, but a portion of it needs detailed testing. One of them was a very special Sea King; it was less than 200 meters long, yet its strength was many times that of a 400 or 500-meter one."
"Understood. I will provide a detailed report in three days."
"Good. Also, the meat from that small Sea King must be stored separately and strictly guarded!"
"Yes, Commodore!"
Three days passed quickly. Lucci's two reports were now sitting on Sean's desk. One was for the 500-meter Sea King, and the other was for the 170-meter one.
The effects of the 500-meter Sea King were slightly higher than the previous 300-meter one, but the difference was marginal. They could be considered the same grade.
However, the meat from the 170-meter Sea King was stunning.
According to Lucci's report, the first time it was consumed, it could increase a person's Doriki by 20 to 50 points, depending on their individual constitution. Even with subsequent consumption, it could still provide a daily increase of 2 to 5 points of Doriki.
This effect... was simply heaven-defying. It was roughly five times more effective than the 500-meter variety.
"Lucci, from now on, this high-quality Sea King meat will only be allocated to officers of Captain rank and above, as well as the elites selected weekly for the Pirate Guerilla Force."
"But considering the limited quantity, even the elites in the Pirate Guerilla Force will only receive it two days a week. For the other five days, they will receive standard rations."
After a moment of deliberation, Sean made his decision. The quantity was limited, and there was no guarantee they would encounter another special Sea King like that. Even if he hunted a thousand-meter Sea King and applied a hundred-fold multiplier, it might not reach this level of quality.
This grade of meat was likely a one-of-a-kind find. Because the creature was so small, providing it to the entire branch would see it devoured in a month or two.
After weighing his options, Sean decided to provide daily rations to Captain-level officers and limited rations to the elite marines. Good resources had to be used where they would be most effective. As for the ordinary marines, the standard rations were already sufficient.
"Understood!"
"Right, where are Kalifa and the other three? I haven't seen them."
"Upon their return, I arranged for them to operate separately to develop our outer intelligence network here in the East Blue."
"I see."
Sean nodded. As the head of the intelligence department, Lucci naturally had the authority to assign such tasks.
After all, no matter how skilled they were, it was impossible for just four people to build a comprehensive intelligence network across the entire East Blue. At this stage, it had become essential to recruit more external assets and informants.
"Here's the plan," Sean added after a moment of thought. "In addition to recruiting external assets, we'll expand the intelligence department's own staff. For now, I'll authorize a quota of thirty people. You can scout for talented individuals among the recruits and handle their training yourselves."
The fact that the recruits were still in basic training wasn't an issue. After all, the training for intelligence operatives is fundamentally different from standard Marine training. That was precisely why Sean insisted that once the candidates were selected, the intelligence department should take over their training.
Otherwise, waiting for the recruits to finish their six months of basic training before transferring them would make things far more difficult. By then, many habits would have become ingrained and would be nearly impossible to break. Even something as simple as their gait could give away their identity as a Marine.
"Understood. I'll head over and select the candidates immediately!"
"Right. If you can't find enough qualified candidates, have Kalifa and her team look for talent while they're recruiting external assets. They can bring any promising finds back to the branch."
"Yes, Commodore!"