Opening the silver cover of his compass, a green, jewelled needle turned slowly with a continuous click in the middle of the intricate mechanical dial, then slowly stopped at three o’clock.
“Level one combat readiness, three o’clock, cannons at the ready!” Gull’s orders resounded throughout the ship.
Although Alvin could not understand what was happening, he did not dare to open his mouth at this moment. There was no distinction between uncles and nephews on a ship in wartime, only subordinates and superiors. If he made a mistake because he opened his mouth, even if Gull did not punish him, Alvin would not forgive himself.
Just because Alvin was not clear, it did not mean that the other officers were not clear either.
“It really is a sea monster! Why would a sea monster want to come offshore?” the Sailing Master wondered.
“The sea monster compass is so inaccurate that you can only confirm the sea monsters’ presence based on their unique sound waves, and you can’t even tell what class they are.” The Coxswain grasped the ship’s rudder to carefully adjust the Silver Wing’s course and complained.
“In a place like this, it’s already considered a lucky break to encounter small sea monsters around thirty meters in size. How could there be a large species? Not to mention the giant species that aren’t even common in the deep seas.
“And we’re lucky to have been part of a Class 4 battleship; otherwise, we would not even be able to get a sea monster compass of this accuracy, so let’s be content!” The first mate, on the other hand, was the most open-minded. Being in charge of the ship’s logistics, he naturally knew how rare a sea monster compass was.
The First Mate, the Sailing Master, and the Coxswain all stood beside Captain Gull. They all saw the notification of the strange device in Gull’s hand and started discussing.
The officers had obviously been through a lot and therefore were not nervous, but they were a little curious as to why a sea monster that normally lived in the deep sea would appear in the offshore shipping lanes.
Alvin stood at one side and listened with great interest. The rumors about sea monsters were still stories to him and he heard of them even during his recruit training phase.
What he did not actually understand was that the mystical knowledge involving the hidden world was taboo knowledge that the various secular countries and churches restricted from spreading on a large scale.
Because mysterious knowledge often involved power, just like the Knight Training Method, and the consequences of indiscriminately exploring the unknown without the appropriate basic knowledge and guidance from a leader were often disastrous.
The Knight Training Method was not too dangerous. The most serious consequence was that a knight would completely lose his mind, get controlled by his berserk body, and become a beast when they ascended.
While they harmed themselves, they could not harm too many others.
But among other strange mysterious knowledge, it would not be surprising if they contained horrifying things lying in wait. One could imagine that if one were to lose control of that kind of power and cause an irresistible terror to descend, it was not impossible for them to bring an entire city down with them.
With his family legacy broken, Alvin was left without much of the mystical knowledge hidden in the depths of the world other than the most core knightley legacy, and based on their situation back then, Butler Leo would not have taught him this knowledge, which was useless at the time.
It was not something new recruits should be exposed to in naval training camp either. By the time they did need to face this level of mystery, most of them would already be crew members or even officers of at least a Class 4 battleship, and would have had plenty of time to gain this knowledge from their seniors.
Therefore, ever since he had transmigrated to this world, aside from the true power of the Extraordinary Knight, Alvin had not seen many maritime techniques or technologies beyond those from the same era in his previous life.
It was only now that he had a bit of the feeling of being in a foreign fantasy world.
Then his first thought was:
“Whoa! My first battle as a new recruit at sea is to fight sea monsters. I’m so awesome!”
“It’s here!”
Gull, who ignored the discussion behind him, spotted the sea monster first. After all, the big guy did not have the self-awareness to hide itself at all.
With a loud splash, a huge conch taller than a house crashed through the sea fog and appeared in the view of the group of people.
The cold, hard, metallic, black conch shell with long, dark blue tentacles kept churning the seawater. Coupled with its huge size that surpassed common knowledge, it was simply astounding!
As soon as it appeared.
This large, conch-like sea monster spewed out an endless amount of seawater behind it. It instantly accelerated like an indestructible siege hammer, rushing over at high speed with the momentum that would crush the Silver Wing.
Dumbfounded, Alvin could now imagine what had happened to the merchant ship and how desperate they were before they were hit by a “siege hammer” bigger than a house on the ocean!
“Confirmed that the sea monster is the small species of an impact conch. Artillery Captain, get the starboard cannons to focus fire! Fire!” As an experienced battleship captain, Gull quickly confirmed the type of sea monster and calmly directed the gunfire attack. His strong lung capacity as a knight made his orders thunderous and resonant throughout the ship.
“Roger! Distance 0.5 nautical miles, target: impact conch straight ahead, fire!” The Artillery Captain’s shout rang out immediately, and the cannon crew did not need to think. They just needed to follow the officer’s orders.
Perhaps this sea monster had no experience in fighting human battleships. It had chosen to attack from an angle directly in front of the ship’s side, and in the direction that would maximize the power of the ship’s cannons.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amidst the continuous roars of cannon fire, orange flames cut through the sea. In the first round, twenty cannons fired in unison. Most of the solid, whistling shells hit the seawater around the conch, with only a mere three landing on its shell. They created loud booms like metal clashing.
Alvin saw tiny fragments of shell falling from the sea monster’s body, and its speed was reduced.
The barrage was working! Sea monsters were not invulnerable!
Having experienced many similar scenarios, Gull remained calm and collected. Although sea monsters were the true rulers of the deep sea and were referred to as “giant species” and even “Sea God descendants”, such a small species could still be handled using the cannons on the battleship.
So long as the order was not withdrawn, the cannon fire would continue.
After another round of firing, as if with God’s help, five shells hit the sea monster at the same time. Even a piece of its thick shell was broken, and its body was injured. The sea monster’s mouth, which was hidden somewhere, let out a baby-like, shrill cry.
“Eek—!”
Even though it was already less than 500 meters away from the Silver Wing, and seemed like it could smash the Silver Wing to pieces in the next moment, the sea monster no longer dared to go on a rampage and sank into the sea after letting out another hate-filled cry.
“Did it escape?” Alvin looked left and right. He was the only one who did not understand the behaviour of sea monsters and could not predict its next action.
In nature, animals had all kinds of characteristics. Some would choose to retreat and look for other prey after a minor setback, while others would pick their prey and stick to it no matter what. Alvin did not know which type this sea monster this was.
“Artillery Captain, prepare our alchemical bombs. Stay on guard against underwater attacks at all times!”
“Yes, Sir! Alchemical bombs ready, first round of 10, bombardiers get ready!”
Only after issuing a new command did Gull turn back to Alvin and explain.
“The impact conch is a rather common small species of sea monster. Its most common attacking method is to stir up the currents on the water’s surface to crash onto ships more quickly. But it’s also very cunning, so we can’t judge its absolute strength based on its size.
“Most of the sea monsters in the Black Ocean are children of Eketo, the mother of sea monsters. They do not attack human ships for prey, but rather because they have a hatred of land creatures in their blood and consider them to be traitors of the sea!”
At this point, Gull’s tone was very solemn.
“Encountering them in the ocean will end with one side going down forever in most cases. Remember! As long as its corpse is not seen, we should never let our guards down.”
The existence of sea monsters was still relatively elementary occult knowledge, and could be spread among front-line combatants with limited access.
But strictly speaking, what Gull had said just now already touched on the core knowledge of the mysterious source. Some mystics could even use the name of divine beings to obtain grants of power through rituals.
But that was because he was facing Alvin. If it were anyone else, even if it were a young officer he regarded highly, Gull would not have freely disseminated this level of Extraordinary knowledge.
Even though an Extraordinary on the path of knighthood could not directly use this knowledge to gain power, it still had value. To wild Extraordinaries without systemic paths of progression, it was a priceless treasure!
The several officers beside Gull looked at each other. With their knowledge of Gull, they instantly seemed to have realized something, and they started to look at Alvin more kindly.
Click, click, click. The sound made by the sea monster compass became more and more rapid, and the green, jeweled pointer spun endlessly in circles, as if it was out of control.
“Order! Artillery Captain, throw a bomb. Target: directly below the battleship!”
“Bombardiers, first round, target: directly below the battleship. Fire!”
As the Artillery Captain shouted his order, the thonk sounds of heavy objects falling into the water sounded from both sides of the ship.
Bamp! Bamp! Bamp!
Dull explosions were heard one after another underwater, and it was not clear whether they had hit their target or landed on the seabed. In this era, with the lack of underwater detection equipment, especially in the face of non-standard opponents like sea monsters, they could only rely on the experience of the commander.
Although Gull was confident of defeating small species, the sea was the opponent’s home turf after all, and any error in judgment could put him in great danger.
With a glance at the sea monster compass, which was still spinning wildly, Gull gave an order decisively.
“Boatswain, raise the sail! We’re leaving this area.
“Since this sea monster wants to play hide and seek, let’s find a way to move it so that it will come out on its own.”
“Yes, Sir! Raise the sail, accelerate with full sail!”
“Huff—Huff—”
At the order of the boatswain, accompanying the work song of the sailors, the sails on the three main masts were raised in an orderly manner and then filled by the sea wind.
But after that, Alvin sensed that something was wrong!
Although the fog was not light and the wind was not strong, it also meant that the waves were not high. This meant that they could raise all the sails, which was often referred to as travelling at full sail. However, the speed of the battleship did not increase significantly, as though…
It was being trapped by something!