Luca quickly reached the point of impact and looked down. The pitch-black sea surface was littered with broken planks, many of which had already rotted.
Among them, he even spotted a half-broken rudder and some tangled ropes, most likely from a sunken ship.
At that moment, Isaac approached and reported, “Sorry, Lord Luca. A ship suddenly appeared on the sea surface ahead, and the helmsman didn’t manage to steer in time before colliding with it.
“It seems that a sunken ship was caught by an underwater current and brought to the surface. Fortunately, the hull wasn’t damaged.”
Luca didn’t respond immediately. He turned to look at Ellie, who was frowning nearby, and asked, “Is this the danger you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes,” Ellie nodded, her expression concerned. “There are many underwater currents and reefs in this area. A ship that collides with them could be destroyed, and the further into the Strait we go, the more frequent such incidents become.”
The Western Sea is vast and boundless. Every year, many treasure hunters head towards the Sea of Mist, but nine out of ten never even get a chance to enter it, being stopped by various natural disasters and monsters. The “Shipwreck Strait” is one such danger. The name says it all—countless ships lie buried beneath the sea.
“I understand. Thank you for your concern.” Luca only smiled, then, to Ellie’s surprise, he turned to Isaac and ordered, “Set both ships to full speed. We need to get to the Sea of Mist as soon as possible. Don’t waste any time here.”
After saying that, he turned and walked away with complete nonchalance, leaving Ellie stunned.
Hadn’t she explained the danger clearly enough? Or did Luca not understand the peril of this area? Why, knowing there were so many underwater currents and reefs, was he still ordering them to sail at full speed?
Ellie was confused, but soon she realized why Luca had made this decision.
Following his command, First Mate Kaike Ford immediately activated the Windrunner Ship’s magic engine. A silver-white energy shield appeared, enveloping the entire ship. The Windrunner Ship’s speed began to rapidly increase, transforming into a silver-white arrow that shot across the sea, heading straight towards the Shipwreck Strait.
The Black Thorn, next to them, was even more outrageous—it didn’t even activate its shield before charging ahead. The ship’s hull was made of special metal, strong enough to withstand even the blows of a Superclass-level fighter. To it, the so-called dangers here were nothing more than a minor annoyance.
The two massive ships, like beasts awakened from slumber, charged forward, cutting through the waves with the wind at their backs. They plowed through every obstacle in their path, whether it was reefs, wrecked ships, or monsters. The moment they made contact with the ships, the sheer force of their energy shattered everything into dust. The two vessels, moving in an unstoppable and invincible manner, plunged into the Sea of Mist ahead. The gray fog parted, leaving behind two long gaps where they passed.
Ellie stood on the deck, disoriented by the wind, and finally understood why Luca was so confident. For her, this strait was a deadly graveyard, a devil’s sea that had claimed the lives of countless people. But to him, it was no different from any other part of the sea.
Just as Ellie had suspected, Luca didn’t take the so-called dangers she mentioned seriously. Aside from his own strength, which was enough to handle most situations, if his super battleships, which cost him hundreds of millions of gold coins, couldn’t even pass through a mere strait… then Luca would rather give up on the Sea of Mist altogether. The most important thing, in his mind, was finding Marcel, that scoundrel, and demanding an explanation for how much this bastard had swindled him.
Once he confirmed there were no issues, Luca didn’t return to Sophia’s room. Instead, he headed straight to his captain’s quarters. Though Sophia’s body was perfect and tempting, now was not the time to indulge in pleasures. For him, the most important task was to find the Celestial Pearl, handle the Celephais Transcendent incident, and increase his strength.
The Sea of Mist was home to many monsters, and Luca planned to use this time to level up to level 70. By then, even if monsters emerged, his power would be enough to handle most situations.
Soon, Luca arrived in his captain’s quarters. The brightly lit room offered a clear view of the sea chart spread out on the navigation table. Two small red dots were slowly advancing toward the gray area—Windrunner Ship and the Black Thorn.
They were now getting closer to the fog-covered Sea of Mist. Within that area, several marked points stood out clearly. A black dashed line connected them, winding its way toward the deepest part—the Black Sea, also known as the “Sea of Death.” This was their intended route, with their next destination being “Ghost Island.”
The journey to Ghost Island wasn’t for resupply. Luca was heading there to find something: the “Spiritflower,” a Transcendent material required to create Soulwater. The Spiritflower only grew on Ghost Island.
Additionally, another material, the “Soulforge Stone,” could also be found in the Sea of Mist. However, Luca didn’t hold much hope for either of these.
According to information he had gathered from Evelyn, the last time the Spiritflower appeared was five hundred years ago. It was uncertain whether the island even existed anymore.
As for the Soulforge Stone, it was said to be located on the legendary “Ship of the Dead.” It was a highly elusive material, and whether they would encounter it depended entirely on luck.
“Luck, huh…” Luca mused. He reached into his Storage Ring and pulled out an ancient die engraved with twelve special runes. Without a second thought, he tossed it into the air.
The die was thrown into the air, but instead of landing, it hovered in midair, one of its rune-marked sides facing Luca, glowing with a strange, faint white light.
[Ding! You have used the “Fate Dice” and gained the Fate “Brain Overload”!]
[Brain Overload (Fate): Special state, increases thinking speed by three times, lasts for 24 hours. After the effect ends, there is a 50% chance to fall into a state of confusion, lasting for 2 hours!]
As the prompt sounded, the rune on the Fate Dice transformed into a streak of light, shooting into Luca’s forehead.
In that moment, Luca felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his brain. His whole body shuddered in shock, and he could clearly sense that his thinking speed had more than doubled. It even gave him an urge to complete ten sets of math problems in one go.
Suppressing this crazy thought, Luca sighed and muttered, “This dice is useful, but its randomness is too much.”
The “Fate Dice” could randomly draw one Fate each day, granting him a 24-hour buff. If he managed to get a Fate that increased his luck attribute, Luca felt that he might actually have a chance at finding the “Spiritflower” and “Soulforge Stone”.
The only problem was that his luck attribute seemed to be useless in front of the Fate Dice. The Fates drawn were completely random—whether he got a Fate that increased his luck was entirely a matter of chance. It was unreliable, to say the least.
After putting the cursed dice away, Luca glanced outside. Once they entered the Sea of Mist, everything around them was enveloped in a thick, gray fog, making it impossible to tell the time of day. In the end, he opened the game panel to check.
It was around five in the afternoon. After a brief moment of contemplation, he decided to log out of the game. The Celephais Transcendent incident had been mostly resolved over the past few days. Once it was completely finished, the next step would be to join Quagmire and the others to clean up the remaining cities in the northern district.
At present, they were positioned at the edge of the Sea of Mist, and with both the Windrunner Ship and Black Thorn present, Sophia and the others were unlikely to encounter any danger. It seemed like a good time to deal with the Celephais issue once and for all.
However, just as he was about to log out, a noise suddenly came from outside—Ellie’s scream, clear and distinct, even through the walls of the room. Luca couldn’t tell what had happened, but it didn’t sound good.
“What has that woman gotten herself into now?” Luca felt a headache coming on. He wished he had just sent her back earlier. But now it was too late to regret. Since he had brought her along, he couldn’t just ignore her.
He quickly stood up and opened the door, stepping out into the corridor. Almost immediately, a shadow rushed toward him. Luca instinctively raised his foot to kick, but upon recognizing the person, he halted just in time.
“Spiders! So many spiders are crawling up from the sea!” Ellie threw herself into his arms, trembling all over, her face pale with fear.
Spiders from the sea? Luca was puzzled, wondering if the woman had lost her mind. He was just about to ask when a palm-sized black creature suddenly crawled up the side of the ship and immediately lunged at his face.
“Ahhh!!” Ellie, who had just managed to calm down, turned around and almost passed out from the shock at the sight.
Luca didn’t have time to criticize her for being so easily frightened. A burst of blue light flashed from his hand, and an ice spear materialized in his grip.
With a thud, the creature was impaled through its body, as if it had willingly jumped onto the ice spear. Its foul-smelling black blood splattered everywhere, and Luca swung his hand, using a wind shield to block the toxic blood from hitting him. The blood sizzled as it landed on the shield, clearly corrosive and poisonous.
[Ding! You have killed a “lv46 Spider Crab (Normal)” and gained 4,000 experience!]
The kill notification appeared in front of Luca. He glanced at the creature impaled on the ice spear and saw that it had a black, crab-like shell covered in fine, fuzzy hairs. Its red eyes were hidden beneath the shell, and its lower body had eight long spider-like legs with barbed feet. It was a grotesque, terrifying sight—no wonder Ellie had mistaken it for a spider.
Luca couldn’t help but furrow his brow. Doesn’t the Windrunner Ship have a defensive magic array? How did this thing manage to climb aboard?