The wizard starts with the get inspiration panel

Chapter 257 Naval Battle (Part [-])

"My dear, Tino Fritz, is the ship's wizard of the Ring of Fire. During the voyage on the sea, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time."

"."

Tino kept his position relatively low, so the atmosphere during the entire communication process was quite harmonious.

Although the other two wizards on board the ship found it strange that Lord Tino was so humble towards this strange Lord Richard, who was only a "first-level junior".

But both of them were thoughtful people, smiling very cautiously and echoing the conversation between Tino and Richard.

After all, the beauty wearing a veil next to Master Richard is a first-level wizard. Obviously, this master has an unknown trump card.

After some pleasantries, Richard and Stepina boarded the largest ship in the middle, the "Lighthouse," and Tino was also the wizard on board.

The other two wizards are responsible for guarding the other two ships.

An hour later, the passengers had all boarded the ship one after another, and the cargo had already been loaded.

As the five-masted sail was raised, the huge sea-going ship slowly left the port under the influence of the wind. The three sea-going ships slowly formed a line and headed towards the boundless sea.

Count Andreas, the consul of White Harbor City, the Sheriff and his entourage waved to Richard and Stephana on the fleet from afar at the port.

Taking a boat from White Harbor City on Crab Claw Peninsula to Loras Peninsula on Vitroll Continent is a process from shallow sea to deep sea, and then from deep sea to shallow sea.

Obviously, the danger level in the deep sea is much higher than that in the shallow sea.

Various huge sea monsters appear freely in the deep sea, and there are legends about ships being sunk or swallowed by sea monsters almost every year.

Therefore, this is why, on the long coastline of the Heron Kingdom, White Harbor City is one of the few ports with routes to the continent of Vitroll.

The slightly moist and warm sea breeze blew gently on his face. Richard stood quietly on the bow of the ship, looking at the endless sea and the white seabirds flying freely around the sails. He felt both happy and a little uneasy.

The reason for the anxiety is that although his own strength has made great progress and he is still the strongest in the entire fleet, he always feels insignificant when facing the endless majesty of the vast sea.

"I hope the journey will be smooth sailing!" Richard murmured secretly in his heart.

"Master, this is the nautical chart that Tino just brought over. Do you want to take a look?" A familiar fragrant breeze blew over, and Stephana handed over a huge cowhide roll.

Richard glanced sideways and saw a huge nautical chart drawn on the huge cowhide roll that Stephanna opened.

This immediately interested Richard, so he looked at it carefully.

There are dense lines of longitude and latitude on the chart. The farthest east and west are the Crab Claw Peninsula and the Loras Peninsula respectively. The shallow sea areas in these two directions are dotted with many dotted islands, and the center of the chart is full of wavy lines.

Obviously, the wavy line area represents the deep sea without any small islands for anchorage.

As for those islands, if you look carefully, you can see that most of them are annotated with small characters, such as the name of the island, the sea tribe it belongs to, or the human force, etc.

In addition, some areas where dangerous sea beasts are often found are marked with dotted lines on the map.

Obviously, this is a chart depicting the sea conditions near the route from Crab Claw Peninsula to Loras Peninsula.

In this era, having such a precious nautical chart is really hard-won.

It was probably gradually perfected after spending many lives and even the blood of extraordinary beings.

"Master Richard, I see that you are very interested in nautical charts. Do you want me to briefly explain them to you?"

At this time, Tino, who had short blond hair, walked from the side with a smile on his face.

"Then I'll trouble you, Lord Tino." Richard said with a slight smile.

Looking at the charts myself, it is obvious that the explanations given by others are not as thorough as those given by others.

Especially in the previous exchanges, after Richard learned that Tino often participated in such ship escort missions, he understood that although Tino was not as powerful as him, he had rich experience at sea and should not be underestimated.

"You're welcome, sir!" Seeing that Richard agreed, Tino took two quick steps forward, came to Richard's side and began to introduce.

"Master Richard, although we are located in a shallow sea, we are about to leave the human sea and enter the first sea area controlled by the sea clan. This area is the territory of the Sliding Blade Naga clan."

Tino's right index finger drew an oval on an area on the chart adjacent to the Crab Claw Peninsula.

"Sliding Blade Naga, sir, you should be very familiar with it. If it weren't for you, it is estimated that the route will continue to be suspended for a while before it can be opened."

Tino duly praised Richard for his achievements in the last battle.

"If we continue to move forward, we will slowly enter the deep sea area. This area belongs to the territory of the Evil Whip Naga. Among all Nagas, the Evil Whip Naga can be regarded as a very bad-tempered one. "

"But fortunately, we humans and the Evil Whip Naga have reached an agreement, so the danger is also not great."

"But the problem is that in this area, giant foreign sea monsters often appear. Even the Evil Whip Naga can't do much to deal with the cruel and low-intelligence sea monsters."

"It is impossible for the Evil Whip Naga to take the initiative to help humans drive away sea monsters. Therefore, the deep sea area is the most dangerous area on our route!"

"This is the territory of the Sirens"

"This is the territory of the Giant Claw Lobster Man"

"Large whirlpools often appear in this area, so avoid them."

"There are many reefs here, so avoid them."

"."

As Tino explained in simple and in-depth terms, Richard and Stepina on the side kept nodding.

Richard felt a little bit sad. In just about half a month, there were so many things to pay attention to during the voyage.

One can imagine how dangerous the oceans in more distant areas are for humans.

But there was a strong motivation in Richard's heart. What he wanted to do was to continuously improve his strength to explore unknown sea areas so that he could see the scenery that no one had ever seen before.

Just when Richard turned his head and planned to return to the cabin to rest, he saw many people standing on the deck looking at the scenery of the ocean. At the same time, many people were looking at them from time to time.

These people are all passengers on the ship, including nobles, wealthy businessmen in gorgeous clothes, and a few wizard apprentices.

Obviously, this is because they are the highest-ranking people on the ship.

When the passengers just boarded the ship, Richard discovered that there were almost no civilians on this ocean-going ship.

Also, civilians simply cannot afford expensive cross-continental ferry tickets.

Five days later.

Richard and Stepina spent rare leisure time on the ship.

Since ocean-going ships are much larger and stronger than offshore ships, ordinary waves will not affect the stability and comfort of ocean-going ships.

Today, the morning light was bright, and after breakfast, Richard and Stepina boarded the deck again.

As soon as they got on the deck, the two heard a little boy of about ten years old shouting excitedly next to the side of the ship:

"Flying fish! Mom, look, it's a flying fish! A flying fish!"

"It turns out there really are flying fish in the world!"

The mother who was dressed as a noble lady next to her had a beautiful appearance. However, it was obviously the first time she had seen such a situation on the sea. She didn't know how to answer the child for a while, and she looked a little at a loss. Richard looked in the direction pointed by the little boy's finger.

Not far in front of the side of the ship, I saw a large group of fish with thin wings on their backs. They were jumping out of the water one after another. With the transparent wings on their backs as thin as cicada wings, they were gliding in mid-air for more than ten meters or even several meters. Ten meters.

The body length of flying fish is about half a meter to one meter, and its wings are even shorter, less than thirty centimeters, so it can only glide, not fly.

The speed of flying fish is very fast, so in a short while, the entire school of flying fish will pass by the Lighthouse.

"Snapped!"

"what!!!"

Suddenly, a flying fish with silver scales all over its body that shone in the sun unexpectedly jumped onto the side of the ship and fell to the deck. It kept twisting its body on the deck and kept its lips closed. .

This immediately caused many passengers to scream!
  But when Richard took a closer look, he realized that this kind of flying fish, which has no sharp teeth and no size advantage, would probably be a prey most of the time in the ocean.

"Shh!"

A sharp steel harpoon nailed the flying fish to the deck in one fell swoop, causing light red blood to splash out.

The one who took action was a strong sailor. He laughed loudly and said:
  "Not bad, it's rare that I can eat delicious flying fish today!"

"Uncle, is this flying fish really delicious?" the little boy asked timidly.

"Of course, do you want to try it?" the strong man grinned and said with a smile to the little boy.

"Langelo, remember to wipe the deck clean for me." A stout man holding a pipe suddenly walked by and said in a deep voice.

"Haha, right away! Right away! Captain Casper!" The strong man nodded and sneered.

"Crack! Crack!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two flying fish jumped onto the deck.

"Clap clap clap!!"

Following this, more flying fish jumped onto the deck. After a while, there were more than ten shining silver flying fish, struggling and twisting on the deck.

At this time, the sailors who had been watching on the sidelines couldn't help it. They were familiar with the delicacy of flying fish. They picked up harpoons and started to kill the flying fish on the deck.

Captain Caspe, who was holding a pipe in his mouth, looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but shook his head and muttered to himself: "A bunch of brats!"

Richard was on the side, watching the scene that happened during the voyage with a smile on his face.

But then, he frowned and looked up into the distance.

Just now, he seemed to feel a subtle energy fluctuation in that direction.

But maybe it's not clear because it's too far away.

Moreover, that direction was at an angle of approximately thirty degrees to the direction of the ship's travel.

Normally, ships don't go in that direction, so even if something happens, it won't be a big problem.

but
  As time passed, the energy fluctuations that Richard sensed became more and more obvious.

"Master, do you feel it too?" Stephana turned her head and looked in that direction.

"Stephana, go notify Tino, we may be in trouble." Richard was still staring into the distance.

"Okay, master."

Stephana immediately went to find Tino.

Soon, Tino hurried over with a serious look on his face.

"Master Richard, which direction are you in?"

"There are strong energy fluctuations in that direction, and they are gradually approaching us." Richard pointed to the road ahead on the right.

Tino felt it for a moment and knew that Richard was right, but the distance was too far and he couldn't see clearly what was going on.

Two more minutes passed.

In the distance, Richard and the others could see white water splashes erupting from time to time on the sea in the distance, some large and some small, and there were also some creatures that flipped up and down again.

"It seems like there is some kind of sea beast fighting?" Richard, who has keen eyesight, was the first to notice that there seemed to be some kind of sea beast fighting in that direction.

"This is a naga fighting a sea monster. No wonder the flying fish flew out of the water in fright."

After Tino saw the situation in the distance clearly, he said slightly nervously.

"Captain Caspe, let all the passengers enter the cabin immediately! At the same time, use the flag signal to notify the sailing ship in front and ask them to slow down and get behind us!" Tino quickly greeted the captain.

"No, they are not fighting, they seem to be driving away." Richard said attentively.

"Hey! It's really driving them away." Stephana also echoed in surprise.

At this time, at the highest point on the mast, a sailor holding a telescope waved a flag with one hand and said loudly:
  "Captain! The sea monster is coming in our direction!"

"No, the opponent is the Evil Whip Naga. These guys have seen us and are driving away the sea monsters in our direction! Damn it!!" After Tino observed the opponent intently for a while, his expression changed drastically.

He saw several Nagas holding long whips and riding on huge sea serpents. They were stopping on the sea and pointing towards the fleet, while the huge sea monsters underwater were being driven in his direction. Attack.

Obviously, the Evil Whip Naga does not intend to help the human fleet eliminate the threat of sea monsters. Instead, it diverts trouble to the east and watches the good show.

This made several wizards on the ship, including Richard, extremely unhappy!

"Captain Casper, turn the helm immediately to avoid it!" Tino turned his head and said anxiously to Captain Casper, the pipe-smoking man.

Captain Caspe shook his head solemnly and said, "Lord Tino, the sea monster is much faster than us, and I'm afraid it will be too late! However, I will try my best."

"First mate! Turn the rudder thirty degrees to the left! Quick!!" Captain Caspe yelled.

"You bastards, get moving!! It's okay, just go paddling in the bilge!!"

With Captain Caspe roaring!

There was a sudden commotion on the ship. The young and strong sailors who had nothing to do and were catching flying fish quickly rushed to their posts, and a small number of them quickly ran to the bilge.

After a while, a round hole the size of a human head suddenly opened on the outer wall of the ship, and long wooden oars poked out of the ship's bulkhead through the hole.

"Crash! Crash!"

Like a dragon boat race, the long wooden oars began to paddle vigorously, and suddenly the speed of the giant ship gradually increased.

But Richard shook his head slightly.

Although the sailors were rowing at full strength and the five-masted sails were all set, the sea monster was still moving much faster through the water than the giant ship.

The white spray and traces caused by the sea monster on the sea surface formed a long white line, getting closer and closer to the Lighthouse.

Standing on the deck, Richard could gradually see the general appearance of the underwater sea monster.

(End of this chapter)