novellk Chapter 134 Skeleton Duck? Who are you?
Chapter 134 Skeleton Duck? Who are you?
Chapter 134 Skeleton Duck? Who are you?
Before approaching the massive shipwreck, Yu Wangxian stopped and carefully inspected its current condition.
Water depth: 300 meters.
The pressure he was under was almost at his physical limit; without the "evening primrose" to alleviate it, he might have suffered a serious injury on the spot.
Then, Yu Wang's gaze fell upon the oxygen reserves:
There are four full portable high-pressure oxygen cylinders remaining, and the one currently in use is about one-third full. In total, this should last for approximately two hours and twenty minutes.
Portable high-pressure oxygen cylinder
[Type: Item]
[Quality: White]
[Description: This describes how to manufacture a refillable high-pressure oxygen tank and its matching breathing mask. Theoretically, it allows for a safe diving depth of 500 meters, and a full tank provides 30 minutes of use.]
Yu Wang thought to himself: Oxygen tanks can support me at a depth of 500 meters, but my human body can't. I still need a heavy-duty diving suit. Ordinary diving suits can only provide insulation and have almost no effect on resisting pressure.
He adjusted his headlamp and carefully examined the giant ship, which was half-buried in coral and sediment.
Compared to the main ships seen on the sea, the style of this giant ship is clearly not a product of modern times.
The ship was unusually large, with at least hundreds of cannons around its hull, not counting those that were buried and invisible. There were traces of the Witch Alliance's magical technology on the deck, and there were also traces of a magic cannon that had been installed on the bow, although the cannon barrels had disappeared.
Yu Wang used a dagger to remove the covering material from the hull, revealing the dark hull underneath.
Faint, yet not completely worn, traces of magic circuits and defensive runes are faintly visible on it.
He suddenly realized that, apart from being covered in a lot of sediment and looking a bit dirty, the warship itself was completely intact!
They even deluded themselves into believing that as long as the warship's coverings were cleaned and it floated on the surface, it would still be a brand new, capable, and fast ship!
"strangeness----"
After searching the vicinity without finding any crew remains, Yu Wang's doubts grew stronger. "This ship looks like it sank here quite some time ago. How come it doesn't seem like it was sunk here, but rather deliberately hidden here?"
The thought made his heart beat slightly faster.
If the ship was placed here for strategic reasons, would the cargo and equipment from that time still be stored inside?
Thinking of this, Yu Wang couldn't help but focus his gaze on the cabin door, which was covered by coral bones.
Just as he touched the coral bones outside the gate, something unexpected happened!
A bone-chilling coldness enveloped him instantly without warning!
It's not a physical low temperature, but a chilling cold that goes straight to the depths of your soul!
Even though Yu Wang had already withdrawn his hand immediately, the chill still lingered like a maggot in his bone, spreading up his left hand and forearm!
At the same time, a burning pain shot through the back of his left hand that was touching the hull!
[Warning! You have triggered the Pale Mark!]
You have been marked by the Pale Guardian!
[Effect: Bones will grow wildly, unleashing your imagination.]
[Description: Get out of here!!! (I'm warning you, lower your attitude, you'll regret it!)]
On the back of his left hand, a simple eye pattern made of pale white lines appeared, with a distorted vortex at the pupil.
The next instant, Yu Wang felt his bones stirring restlessly. Of course, the bones themselves were quite insensitive; he sensed the abnormality within his body through the subtle control and perception of his own flesh and bones granted by the extraordinary path of [Flesh and Blood Craftsman]!
The shape, density, and even growth direction of the bones are being forcibly distorted and altered by an external force!
"Damn it! Bone spurs have grown!!" Yu Wang instantly understood the terrifying effect of the mark.
This isn't just a problem of one or two bone spurs growing; it's a problem of the entire skeleton being driven to become abnormal!
When the bone spur pierces through layers of flesh and merges with another rapidly growing bone, they will begin to fuse together, completely locking the originally flexible joint!
Yu Wang realized the consequences of letting his bones continue to degenerate!
He will become a sculpture fixed in the deep sea, constantly growing bone spurs!
If it were an ordinary person, they would be forced back by the constantly depleting sanity points before they could even get close to the giant warship, and would never dare to approach it.
Therefore, there was absolutely no chance of obtaining the Pale Mark.
Who would have thought that in the second raid instance of the game, someone could withstand both the water pressure and the sanity-reducing debuff!?
"Flesh and blood remodeling, activate!"
Realizing that his fingers could no longer bend or straighten, Yu Wang roared inwardly and unhesitatingly activated the core ability of [Flesh and Blood Craftsman] with all his might.
An evil force surged from the depths of his body, resisting the cold, corrosive force.
Two forces engaged in a fierce tug-of-war within Wang's bones and muscles.
Excruciating pain, numbness, itching, coldness, and burning—all sorts of extreme sensations assaulted his nerves like a tidal wave.
He could feel his bones deforming, hardening, and growing, only to be forcibly suppressed, repaired, and even manipulated in reverse by the power of "flesh and blood reshaping".
This is a painful and dangerous process. If he makes the slightest mistake, he may be completely defeated, his bones may fuse together and he may be trapped at the bottom of the sea forever, or he may die instantly because his vital organs are pierced by the mutated bones.
Time loses its meaning in the struggle between absolute pain and focused concentration.
After an unknown amount of time, Yu Wang's consciousness, at the peak of excruciating pain, suddenly sank into a void of darkness.
When Yu Wang regained consciousness, he found himself away from the vicinity of the shipwreck, but he was still surrounded by cold, dark seawater. His headlamp was still on, illuminating a small area around him. Duck B was dragging him around in the pale coral maze.
Although it looks like they're lost, thankfully they're still moving towards the water.
Yu Wang moved his fingers and felt that he had regained control of his body. He immediately used his ability to examine himself internally.
The [Flesh Remodeling] ability seems to have undergone a qualitative change in extreme confrontations!
He can not only control the healing and shape of flesh and blood more precisely, but now he can even—begin to control the bones in his body!
While it's far from being able to shape skeletal weapons at will, it's already possible to experiment with slightly deforming finger bones or temporarily thickening certain bones to enhance defense.
If it continues to slowly mutate—no, I mean slowly evolve—it could completely control bones to burst out of the body and form a shield, or make finger bones burst through flesh and firmly grip the cliff face.
Used as a climbing claw.
Moreover, thanks to the catalysis of the "Pale Mark" and the subsequent resistance and repair of "Flesh Remodeling," the density and hardness of his bones were astonishingly enhanced! It was as if he had undergone a different kind of tempering!
He can now not only withstand the water pressure at greater depths, but he is also confident that he can easily shatter the hard coral bone rock wall with his fists and feet, even without weapons!
Yes, it can also crack open walnuts and coconuts.
"A blessing in disguise?" Yu Wang found it hard to believe.
Looking at the attribute points, after this tempering, they have all increased to varying degrees, as if they had been forging desperately for months.
With the added effect of "Conspicuous Pack II (97.9%)", the attributes are already very close to the edge of the extraordinary.
Yu Wang took a long time to check all the attributes:
Captain: Yu Wang
[Title: Eye-Catching Bag I (Wearing, Effect: 3D Attributes +2); Veteran Foodie, Pioneer (Limited Time)]
[Extraordinary Paths: Monster Merchant, Flesh Craftsman]
[Capabilities: Wealth perception, physical transformation, fearlessness]
Strength: 6.8 + 2/11
Constitution: 7.2+2/11
Speed: 7.5+2/11
Qi and Blood: 51% (Repairing rapidly)
Reason: 45 (Your perception of fear is reduced, and you want to do something crazy. Aren't you curious about what's inside the shipwreck?)
Go back and take a look?
Mental health: 71 (G-seat available for rent)
[Equipment: Crab Claw Harpoon +4, Little Yellow Duck Water Gun, Coral Amulet, Compensation from the Humus Mother, Area Survivor Map, Bone-Piercing Nail, Flippers Falling from the Sky]
[Summoned Items: Duck A (Black Merchant Duck), Duck B (Knight Duck), Duck C (Lemon Duck), Chef Duck, 20 Regular Ducks]
"I'm just one step away from advancing, I wonder if I can still get first place on the mileage leaderboard this month."
"I was doing well in the first half of the month, almost always traveling at full speed. But in the second half of the month, I became a bit lax because of the high base speed after the upgrade."
Yu Wang shook his head, no longer dwelling on it. Anyway, it was only the last 2% short. He could always raise the money by selling off another batch of down jackets at a low price.
However, he quickly noticed another change: in the summoning interface, a brand new summoning option had appeared at some point.
[Summoned Item: Skeleton Duck]
[Level: 4]
[Summoning Requirements: 100 units of the "Extraordinary Creature" Skeleton.]
[Description: Immune to mental attacks and physical damage, can devour bones to repair itself or slowly grow. Loyal and craves embraces.]
Although it's a skeleton and looks ugly, it's a level 4 summon.
As for the summoning conditions—
"The skeletons of 100 extraordinary creatures? Goodbye!" Yu Wang's lips twitched.
He doesn't even have the 100 units of extraordinary creature flesh needed to upgrade the "Duck Crown," so where is he going to find the skeletons of 100 extraordinary creatures?
These conditions are ridiculously harsh at this stage.
Putting the "skeleton duck" aside for the time being, Yu Wang was more concerned with practical issues.
He glanced at the current depth and the remaining oxygen. The water depth was 197 meters. As for the oxygen, Duck B had replaced his oxygen tank so that he wouldn't suffocate while unconscious.
However, even though the oxygen consumption decreased while unconscious, the two and a half oxygen cylinders, which were originally only meant to last two hours and twenty minutes, lasted a little longer, reaching nearly three hours.
However, the current gas reserve is only enough for twenty minutes of use.
Although there is no need to decompress and ascend, 20 minutes is definitely not enough to navigate the winding, maze-like waterways!
His gaze swept over the jagged, interwoven coral bone walls that resembled a forest of white bones.
A risky idea popped into his head: "With my current attributes, what if I just used force to break through these coral skeletons and forcibly create a near-vertical shortcut to the surface?"
This plan is extremely risky. First, damaging the coral structure could trigger a chain reaction of collapse; second, the violent clearing of the path would be too noisy and could attract dangerous creatures.
Thirdly, it consumes a great deal of physical strength and may accelerate oxygen consumption.
But right now, it seems to be the only way to survive in the limited time available.
However, just to be on the safe side, Yu Wang still sent Zhang Xinlan his location, briefly explained his situation, and asked her to come and meet him with an oxygen tank.
In addition, Yu Wang unfolded a regional survivor map.
Survivors are distributed in multiple layers in the water, but the map can only show one plane, which is a drawback.
If the survivor locations could be displayed in hierarchical layers, its practicality would be further enhanced.
"Hopefully we can avoid other teams—" Yu Wang thought warily.
In a deep-sea predicament, if you encounter friendly survivors upon surfacing, you can exchange resources for diving equipment. However, if you encounter malicious individuals, they might take advantage of your situation once they learn of your predicament!
Therefore, Yu Wang felt that he should avoid it if he could.
The tedious process of dismantling the coral bone walls and ascending to the surface began.
In a confined space, it's inconvenient to swing a harpoon, and Yu Wang doesn't need to create a lot of space; just enough for his body to squeeze through is sufficient.
Yu Wang swung the dagger in his hand, channeling his power, and slashed fiercely at the coral skeleton blocking his way.
Although these coral skeletons, which had been dead for many years, were hard, they were still cleaved and smashed piece by piece by a force of 9 points and a sharp blade!
Duck B also helped with its long spear, using a stretch and a pry to clear away large sections of smaller branches.
"The workload is much lower than I imagined." Yu Wang was very optimistic. As long as he chose the weak points where the bones intersected, he could often widen the space enough for an adult to crawl through by just two or three cuts.
Soon, bone fragments and sediment spread through the water, reducing visibility.
However, by observing the direction in which the exhaled bubbles rise, one can still determine the location of the water surface and avoid getting lost.
Meanwhile, on the deck of the "Ghost Pirate" at sea.
Nearly three hours had passed since Yu Wang's dive. Zhang Xinlan was already anxiously pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan, opening her private chat interface an average of four times per minute, hoping to see a message from Yu Wang, but each time she was met with disappointment. The lunch that Chef Duck had carefully prepared was long gone, and she hadn't touched it.
Although Old Wang was also worried, he remained relatively calm, organizing his morning's harvest while keeping an eye on the sea. However, his furrowed brow and frequent glances towards the deep sea betrayed his inner anxiety.
"No! I have to go down and take a look!" Zhang Xinlan turned back from the ship's side once again, and finally couldn't resist, so she started putting on her equipment.
"Girl, don't be impulsive!" Old Wang advised. "We've already gone down twice, each time deeper than the last. Our sanity is already on the verge of danger. If we go down again this time, you might get lost too! At least wait until your sanity recovers before going down again."
"Then what should we do? Just wait here? What if he—" Zhang Xinlan's eyes were a little red, and she couldn't finish her sentence.
She dived twice, hoping to find the place where she had separated from Yu Wang. She then expanded her search to the surrounding area, but as Yu Wang said, in the dark zone without a map, the probability of repeatedly returning to a specific location was extremely low.
She attempted several dives, but all ended in failure.
Just when Zhang Xinlan was about to despair, "Ding!"
A personalized notification sound: "Is this a private message? Or a message from someone I'm particularly interested in?"
Zhang Xinlan was startled and immediately opened the interface. When she saw the short message, "You're about to hit the jackpot!", she almost jumped up!
"Uncle Wang! He sent a message! He needs us to meet him at this location!" Zhang Xinlan spoke rapidly, hope rekindling in her eyes. "I'm going right now!"
Old Wang remained calm. After reading the subsequent location updates from Yu Wang, he pointed out, "Young Yu said he's also in the process of rising. You can see the location is basically changing vertically, so we need to predict the position in advance, otherwise we'll just miss it again."
Zhang Xinlan then noticed the pattern in the location tracking and secretly regretted that she had lost her composure.
Duck C quickly steered the boat above the positioning point. The two estimated the speed of the positioning change and predicted the approximate area. "Splash!" "Splash!" They jumped into the sea almost simultaneously.
The two moved quickly and didn't notice that Duck C in the cockpit of the "Ghost Pirate" seemed to be under some kind of influence.
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