Chapter 187 - I, Have Arrived

Richard looked at the drifting bottle, then at the sealing wax, a thought flashed through his mind: Since the sealing wax contained hallucinogenic substances, it obviously couldn’t be baked; in that case, he might as well be straightforward.He focused his gaze, picked up a small knife, then pierced the tough-as-stone sealing wax with the tip of the knife.

“Click, click…”

Richard began to laboriously scrape off the sealing wax, using no small amount of effort to completely remove it.

Carefully collecting the scraped-off sealing wax, Richard removed the cork, turned the bottle upside down, and poured out the contents – it turned out to be a piece of parchment.

Hmm, a piece of parchment.

Parchment.

Parchment.

The parchment wasn’t very large; it clearly couldn’t contain many words, which made Richard unconsciously feel a bad premonition.

Could it be, this drifting bottle was just a simple drifting bottle?

Although strange to say, if the bottle, obtained from the body of a giant squid and sealed with special wax, really was just a drifting bottle, the behavior of the person who made this drifting bottle was definitely peculiar.

Indeed, Richard didn’t expect the parchment to contain modern expressions from Earth such as “Bro, need to hang up?” “Feeling lonely, hope someone will accompany,” “If you find this bottle, send ten more like it or suffer a tragic death, orphaning your parents,” “Miss, please contact XXX.”

But it was also hard to say, the parchment might read “Need a piece of Blue Sea Stone, interested parties find Wizard Moli at Coastal Academy,” “Fanny, once I become the most powerful wizard, I’ll come to see you,” “This is my pet squid, if found please contact Wizard Green at Moon Bay.”

It couldn’t really be like that, right? That would be quite the joke.

Richard took a deep breath, unrolled the tightly rolled parchment on the table, and looked over it.

At first glance, Richard breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, it wasn’t the worst prediction.

But then his brow furrowed again because… he didn’t recognize the writing on the parchment.

Right, he didn’t recognize it.

Indeed, he had learned many languages over the years, but due to the geographical location of the Blue Lion Kingdom, he couldn’t claim to have learned all the languages of the current world, and the writing on the parchment was done in an unknown language.

Not understanding the language, naturally, he couldn’t understand the content of the text, rendering it of no value.

Unless he could decipher the unknown writing. And this writing might be a made-up code used only among a few people, so the likelihood of deciphering it was almost none.

In that case…

“So, is it really just equivalent to a drifting bottle, and moreover, an empty and meaningless drifting bottle?” Richard muttered. Although drifting bottles were always unexpected finds, at this moment, he was somewhat disappointed.

However, Richard quickly adjusted his mood, his eyes sparkled, and he said aloud, “Anyway, there were still some gains.”

Right, there were gains.

The first gain was the giant squid’s organism, which had great research significance for the future.

The second gain, several dozen centimeters of sturdy white thread, made from an unknown material, could be a good murder weapon.

The third gain, a durable glass bottle, could be used to store things.

The fourth gain, the sealing wax of the glass bottle, could induce hallucinations.

The fifth gain, the text on the parchment, awaited research.

Counting carefully, the gains were not few, just… not very useful at the moment.

Thinking this, Richard prepared to pack away the items. When he picked up the glass bottle, his eyes inadvertently glanced inside and he suddenly froze, spotting a complex pattern etched on the inner wall of the glass bottle.

“Magic Rune?” Richard guessed, slowly rotating the glass bottle to see more of it, then he nodded in confirmation, “Yes, it’s a Magic Rune.”

Etched on the inner wall of the glass bottle were Magic Runes.

It seemed to be an extremely complex Magic Rune, similar in complexity to the Magic Runes within the Crystal Skull. Although unclear of its function, one could guess it was not simple. It was very likely that the giant squid valued this Magic Rune. Perhaps, it was this Magic Rune that stimulated the giant squid to live longer, grow larger, and become stronger.

After all, the other things—white thread, glass bottle, Sealing Wax, and illegible Parchment—didn’t seem useful to the giant squid at all, leaving the Magic Rune as the only explanation.

This could be considered the sixth find, and its specific use warranted serious study.

The night continued.

Accompanied by a familiar sense of vibration, the out-of-body experience was successful, and Richard floated upward, controlling his Consciousness through the layers of wood, reaching the deck above.

Here, Richard saw of the four wizards, three had already projected out, their Consciousness hanging high in the air, dozens of meters above the cabin, gently swaying with their eyes closed, absorbing Free Energy Elements from the surroundings to replenish the energy spent battling the giant squid.

As for the other wizard, Richard surmised he wasn’t exhausted or meditating; he was probably guarding the three wizards in meditation against any sudden attacks. Though such concerns were often unnecessary, they could sometimes be lifesaving.

Richard wasn’t interested in the four wizards; he didn’t wish to approach them. After all, both in terms of Consciousness and physical form, they were not weak, and approaching them greatly increased the chance of being detected. Thus, Richard swiftly floated towards the sea outside of the huge ship, quickly distancing himself.

Before long, Richard reached a position far from the ship, where in the darkness, the ship had become an indistinct shadow, hard to discern. However, with a clear band at the back of the neck keeping him connected, the Consciousness could return to the body on the ship at any time, comforting him that there was no need to worry.

Richard had come to this position for two reasons; one was to distance himself from the wizards and absorb Free Energy Elements, and the other was to examine the scene of the earlier battle. Although the wizards had emerged victorious, whether the giant squid had escaped or died remained a question. Out of curiosity, Richard wanted to find out.

However, after scanning the area, Richard only found some chunks of flesh and faint traces of blood from the giant squid, but no massive corpse.

“Did it sink into the water?” Richard speculated.

Although according to buoyancy, a dead squid’s body should float, there was also a chance that the gigantic squid was uniquely built so that it sank directly to the seabed when it died.

Thinking this, Richard controlled his Consciousness to dive toward the seafloor.

The moment he dived in, Richard felt a slight chill, followed by a faint sticky sensation—resistance from the seawater.

Richard ignored it, continuing to dive deeper and deeper.

Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters…

One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters…

After a while, Richard surfaced, feeling slightly disappointed—he hadn’t found the giant squid’s corpse.

“So, did it escape?” Richard thought to himself, shaking his head and deciding not to waste more time. He controlled his Consciousness to ascend and begin absorbing Free Energy Elements to replenish his expended energy.

Not long after Richard ascended, far from the ship, with a splash, a giant squid, riddled with wounds, immensely weak, and greatly reduced in strength, slowly surfaced.

But before the giant squid could do anything, its body stiffened suddenly as it realized that a Black Shadow had silently landed on its head, exuding a terrifying presence that rendered it completely immobile. In its perception, this figure seemed even more formidable than the group that had severely injured it before.

The Black Shadow stood upright, dressed in a thick Black Robe, with hooded eyes burning like flames in a dark green beneath the cowl. Straining into the darkness, it muttered, “Although it took some time, fortunately, I’ve caught up. People of White Stone Tower, are you ready?”

After speaking, the Black Shadow looked down at the giant squid it stood upon, peering with its eerie eyes, and asked, “Lovely pet, do you think they’re ready?”

The giant squid remained motionless: “…”

“So you’re a fool as well.” The Black Shadow shook its head, seeming to lose interest, and the next moment, its body twisted and vanished like mist from atop the giant squid.

The utterly weak giant squid let out a sigh of relief and was about to flee when it felt an indescribable force exploding within it. It didn’t even have time to scream before its body was torn apart by the erupting force, exploding with a “bang” into a large splash of gore.

After a moment, in a corner of the great ship, a faint sound of footsteps echoed as if something was boarding.

A voice muttered to itself, “Well, now I can have some fun. White Stone Tower, what you made me endure in the past, I will return it all to you bit by bit…”