Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Murloc Wharf
Han Shi walked along the road, only to feel as if he stepped into a void. When he steadied himself and looked up again, he found his surroundings had changed.
In front of him was no longer a secluded path, but a dilapidated dock.
He looked back, only to see endless darkness with no trace of the path he came from.
He looked at the dock, bewildered.
Damn it, where did this step take me?
Is this still within Briff’s Peaceful Town?
The dock was eerily silent, with only the sound of lapping waves responding to him.
He swallowed a gulp of saliva, realizing he might have underestimated this newly appeared C-Level dungeon.
He was in for quite a challenge.
He tossed the fish in his hand into his personal space, took out his two-meter-long light blue metal Magic Wand, and began to observe the dock.
The wood constructing the dock seemed aged, softened under the assault of sea breeze and water, feeling soft underfoot, as if it was soaked through.
He sniffed the air, catching the salty smell of seawater mingled with a heavy fishy stench, the mold of rotting wood, and a metallic tang of blood.
The source of the blood smell came from the rotten wood beneath his feet.
He infused Energy into his Magic Wand, causing the gem at its tip to glow, illuminating the surroundings.
With the light, he saw that what soaked the boards wasn’t water, but blood!
With each step he took, red blood oozed out from between the wooden boards.
He inserted the spiked end of his wand into the crevice between the boards and pried upward.
The rotten board was easily lifted, revealing a round, bulging eye beneath.
Feeling the light, the eyeball rotated, focusing its pupil on Han Shi.
Despite Han Shi’s wealth of experience, this sudden scene still startled him.
After the initial scare, he quickly calmed down and looked again at the eye under the boards.
He realized it wasn’t a human eye, but a fish eye.
Plop!
The next moment, the fish that had been staring at him leaped out from the hole, landing heavily on the wooden dock.
With the first fish jumping out, more eyes began to emerge from the pit.
Below the dock floor, it seemed connected to a fish pit, as fish continued jumping out from the hole one after another, seemingly endless.
Each fish that jumped out of the pit would bounce its way towards the sea.
The fish that first emerged was already a step away from the dock’s edge.
Just as it made its final leap, a large, scaly hand reached out from beneath the sea, grabbing the jumping fish.
In an instant, it was dunked straight down.
A giant merfolk, standing over three meters tall, leapt from the water, swallowing the sea fish it had caught in one gulp.
Han Shi bared his teeth watching the merfolk before him.
Why did this merfolk look different from what he remembered from childhood?
Weren’t merfolk supposed to have human bodies and fish tails?
Why was this merfolk a fish head with human legs?
Had he been seeing it wrong all along?
No matter, since the monster had appeared, he might as well take it down.
Han Shi chanted a spell, the Energy within him surged forth as light, condensing at the wand’s tip to form a three-meter-long Light Blade.
He stepped forward, advancing quickly, the Light Blade in his hand swinging, immediately severing one of the fishman’s claws.
Then, with a reverse swing downwards, he lopped off the other claw.
"Hey, fishman, can you understand me?"
The fishman roared, the sound deafening.
Han Shi covered one ear, swinging his Magic Wand with the other, slicing off the fishman’s head with the Light Blade.
It seemed communication wasn’t possible.
He squatted down to inspect the fishman’s corpse.
The merfolk’s flesh was firm, its build robust, probably having an attribute level of around twelve or thirteen.
As an elite monster, at best, it was low-tier in a C-Level dungeon, posing no real threat to him.
If they appeared in numbers, they might cause some trouble for him.
He had been hasty before; the Peaceful Town dungeon did have some things, but not many.
Before Han Shi could dissect the fishman’s body to study the creature further, countless shadows appeared beneath the sea around the dock.
Then a series of fishmen leapt out of the water like firecrackers, landing on the deck, fixing their eyes on Han Shi.
Han Shi swallowed his saliva, giving himself a slap.
Such jinxing words, and they come true.
He scanned around, seeing no less than twenty fishmen.
Just twenty fish-headed monsters, and they thought to take down Han Shi?
Han Shi snorted coldly, once again summoning a Light Blade in his hand.
Half an hour later, Han Shi, covered in injuries, raised his wand, now devoid of the Light Blade, and smashed the head of the last fishman.
Exhausted, he plopped down on the ground, thinking that it was finally over.
"Woo!"
A low horn sounded from afar, followed by the sound of countless oars hitting the waves.
Han Shi looked into the distance, spotting a fleet of seven to eight medium-sized wooden ships speeding toward the dock.
Each wooden ship had at least twenty fully armed fishmen on board.
Meanwhile, a bronze statue appeared out of thin air, its gaze fixed on Han Shi, sending a chill down his spine.
It’s bad news, a skill judgment!
He tried to muster his Will to resist, but it was too late, and his Attribute Panel showed a new "Sinner" status, reducing all his attributes by one-fifth.
Looking at the approaching fishmen fleet, a wave of despair surged within Han Shi.
Meanwhile, outside the dungeon.
At Briff Port, Wu Chang True Self opened his eyes, looking at the life-sized "Earl Jermaine Bronze Statue" built to commemorate the port’s opening.
Just earlier, a bright light had flashed on the bronze statue.
The next moment, a faint red grudge flickered across the statue.
Though the grudge disappeared quickly, Wu Chang, who had been squatting there, caught it.
Using Han Shi’s grudge, he witnessed everything that happened at the fishmen’s dock.
A few minutes later, Wu Chang True Self took one last look at the statue before fading into the darkness.
Overall, tonight’s experiment was a success.
He had verified the information left by the previous postman, confirming the existence of the Inner World in Briff’s Peaceful Town.
Verifying this information wasn’t redundant.
To Wu Chang, only information generated from the grudges of players after their deaths was completely credible.
The information left by the previous postman was all recorded in letters.
Setting aside the possibility of coded messages or jargon, even if there were none of these hidden traps, no one could guarantee the authenticity of the information recorded in there.
Using Han Shi as a guinea pig, he not only proved the existence of the Inner World but also verified another of his suspicions.
Briff’s Outer World and Inner World were not completely independent; there was a special connection between them.
This connection was likely bonded by statues within the Inner World.
Back when Matty insisted on executing the former postman beneath the statue, it had already caught his attention.
After Han Shi was drawn into the Inner World, the peculiar reaction from the Earl’s bronze statue at the Outer World dock confirmed this suspicion.
The flash of grudge on the statue was an unexpected bonus.
So much information from just one person, Brother Han Shi, your death has worth, you died well!
Wu Chang could guarantee that using Han Shi as a guinea pig was solely because Han Shi was strong enough to test plenty from the dungeon.
It wasn’t because he was petty, seeking revenge on those three dogs at the beach who tried to use them as cannon fodder and called him small fry.
He’s never one to hold grudges.
Just as Wu Chang finished collecting information and was about to leave, a steamboat with a postal emblem sounded its whistle as it entered the port.
The town’s mail had arrived.