Chapter 398

Splash!

Ripples suddenly appeared on the calm water surface.

A water beast appeared quite abruptly, its body turning into a black shadow under the cover of the lake water, darting toward the few jewel sweet berries floating on the surface; its speed was so fast that it left a long trail of spray behind.

Almost at the same instant, Tuanzi, who had been lurking underwater, reacted even more swiftly.

Its eyes flashed with sharp light in the darkness, and its body, like a black bolt of lightning, lunged straight at the water beast.

The lake water streaked past its sides, forming two white lines of water.

But the water beast was still immersed in its desire for the jewel sweet berries, even thinking that Tuanzi was coming to snatch its food.

Its first reaction was not to flee, but rather to increase its speed, its four claws paddling frantically in the water as it rushed straight to the jewel sweet berries.

Then it opened its mouth wide, the interior filled with sharp fangs that glinted coldly in the moonlight, and in one bite, it swallowed all the divine berries that were emitting an alluring luster.

But before it could even savor the sweet taste of the divine berries, Tuanzi had already slammed into the water beast with its body like a cannonball fired from a chamber.

Boom!

The water beast was sent spinning, its body out of control, flying out like a cannonball and churning up a pile of fine bubbles that gurgled upward.

Tuanzi's offensive was fierce, and it pressed its advantage; the moment before the water beast could stabilize its body, it had already lunged in front of the latter again, opening its mouth and biting down hard on the water beast's body with its sharp teeth.

Under the intense pain, the water beast instinctively thrashed its body wildly.

Every struggle it made stirred up huge currents, which rippled outward in layers, forming small waves on the lake surface that slapped against the surrounding water.

At this moment, Gao De, who had been hiding on the side, had already cast 【Water Shaping】 to freeze the water, and under the blessing of 【Wolf Speed】, he jumped across the frozen ice like a master of light-body techniques walking on water, quickly arriving at the battlefield and acting decisively.

He extended his palm toward the water beast and clenched it slightly.

【Tidal Capture Net+】.

In an instant, it was as if countless invisible giant pythons had awakened within the lake water.

The originally calm currents suddenly rolled up, rapidly condensing into whips as thick as arms, or like tough ropes, and with powerful force, they suddenly contracted inward.

They coiled around the water beast's body, binding it tightly from top to bottom.

Under the restriction of the Tidal Capture Net, its struggling movements suddenly became extremely difficult, until it was unable to move anymore, and it could only float in the water, twitching occasionally.

【Tidal Capture Net+】 can only be used as a short-term control skill against those powerful water beasts.

But for water beasts whose strength is inferior to Gao De's, it is extremely useful and can bind them for a very long time.

When the Sea Sentinels carry out water beast clearing missions, in many cases, it is not that the water beast is so strong that it cannot be successfully killed, but rather that these water beasts are too slippery and run away as soon as they see the situation is not right.

Even with the assistance of water capybaras in the pursuit and the speed boost from 【Ocean Touch】, it is highly likely for a water beast to escape alive if it is familiar with the terrain.

The existence of 【Tidal Capture Net+】 allows Gao De to almost completely avoid this situation—unless the water beast is stronger than him, it is very difficult for it to escape from his hands.

Seeing that the water beast had been restrained, Gao De showed no mercy.

The magic power in his body flowed rapidly, and another spell model was triggered.

The next moment, three blinding flashes erupted from his right hand.

【Magic Missile】.

The three magic missiles were like three light bullets, exceptionally conspicuous in the pitch-black night.

They accurately hit the immobile water beast.

The water beast immediately let out a shrill cry and had completely lost the ability to struggle, but its vitality was extremely tenacious, and it was still breathing.

Gao De strolled over and arrived beside the water beast.

By the faint moonlight, he saw the appearance of the water beast clearly.

Its body was round, about one meter long, and at first glance, it looked somewhat like a bloated ball.

Its head was broad and flat, occupying nearly a third of its body, and its mouth was even wider, with two rows of sharp, serrated teeth arranged in an interlocking pattern, flashing with a cold light in the moonlight, showing its ferocity and ability to easily crush the shells of crustaceans.

Only now, that "blood-basin mouth" was opening and closing with difficulty.

On the back of this water beast, there was also a towering dorsal fin, the fin rays of which were hard and sharp, like a blade, extending from the center of the back to the tail, with a layer of translucent membrane connected between the fin rays.

"It's a Serrated Puffer." Gao De glanced at it and confirmed the identity of the water beast.

He frowned slightly.

Obviously, it was not the Esmer Lake serpent monster that the local fishermen had seen.

There must be more than one serpent monster wandering in the vast Esmer Lake; it's just that some water beasts hide deeper, are more alert, and have not been discovered because they haven't attacked the residents.

With Gao De's "divine berry baiting," he didn't catch the serpent monster, but instead caught a first-rank Serrated Puffer first.

It could be considered an unexpected harvest.

Although it was not the mission target, clearing out water beasts has always been the primary duty of Sea Hai Shao Bing mages.

Killing such a water beast that hides in the inland water system and may attack the common people at any time belongs to eliminating hidden dangers, and it can also be exchanged for military merit.

Gao De drew the North Wind he carried with him, and amidst the biting cold, he slashed down with one sword, ending its life completely.

The blood was about to spurt out along the wound, but it was soaked by the extreme cold of the North Wind, instantly condensing into blood-colored ice crystals that hung on the wound in a scattered and orderly fashion, unexpectedly looking somewhat aesthetic.

Gao De had no time to appreciate it; he turned his blade and neatly cut off the Serrated Puffer's blade-like dorsal fin, which was the most valuable part of the Serrated Puffer, just right to take back and sell at the Walmart Magic Materials Store.

Immediately after, he cut off the Serrated Puffer's head, which had to be taken back as proof of killing the monster; without it, he couldn't exchange it for military merit.

Finally, Gao De cut off a piece of the Serrated Puffer's belly meat and threw it to Tuanzi.

This was the most tender and best-tasting part of the Serrated Puffer's entire body.

Tuanzi had been staring eagerly at the side while Gao De was cutting the meat.

Seeing this, its eyes lit up instantly; it swung its body hard, drew an arc in the water, and leaped high, its sharp teeth accurately biting the flying fish meat.

Afterward, Tuanzi fell back into the water, happily wagging its tail, its sharp teeth quickly tearing the fish meat apart, eating it with great relish and making happy "woo-woo" sounds, feeling very satisfied.

Gao De, carrying the fish head and dorsal fin, returned to the small boat moored a hundred meters away, put the things away, and continued to row the oars.

The small boat cut a ripple on the lake surface and moved forward slowly.

The sky was gradually changing, slowly turning from the initial ink-black to blue, as if a huge piece of black silk had been dyed a deep blue.

Afterward, the blue slowly transitioned into a gradient orange, with the sunset clouds at the edge of the sky staining the horizon.

Unknowingly, the red sun had already risen.

The sunlight spilled onto the lake surface, and the originally calm lake became sparkling.

The lake surface turned pink-purple, and then turned golden.

"Let's stop here for today." Gao De shouted toward the calm, waveless water surface.

The next moment, the calm water surface suddenly exploded, and a nimble body broke out of the water.

Tuanzi poked out its round head, its black, beady eyes looking at Gao De, revealing a touch of spirituality.

After "patrolling" for a whole night, apart from that Serrated Puffer, there were no other results.

That serpent monster was still nowhere to be seen.

And during the day, the serpent monster would enter a resting state, making it unsuitable to continue searching.

"I'll go back first, you play here by yourself, don't run too far, we'll continue at night." Gao De instructed.

Plop!

Hearing Gao De's words, Tuanzi immediately responded.

It leaped up, performed a high-difficulty flip in the air, its body drawing a graceful arc in the air, the water droplets on its body splashing, and under the illumination of the sunlight, it flashed with golden light.

Seeing its excited look, Gao De shook his head helplessly, said no more, didn't act like a "parent" who spoils the fun, rowed the oars, and sailed toward the shore.

Before long, Gao De returned to the shore.

However, he couldn't leave immediately; he still needed to return the boat to the nearby fishermen.

Generally speaking, Gao De could use the name of performing a mission to find the local authorities and borrow a boat for free.

It's just that yesterday he was delayed for some time by the Thunder Yili egg, and when he arrived at Brost City, it was already very late, and the local official staff had long since "gotten off work."

Gao De didn't disturb the local official staff for such a small matter as borrowing a boat and make them work overtime, but instead came directly to Esmer Lake.

With such a large lake placed here, there must be many fishermen living nearby, and it shouldn't be difficult to find them and borrow a boat.

And the fact was just as he had expected; around Esmer Lake, there were many simple houses where fishermen lived.

Gao De knocked on a door at random, and by relying on the Sea Hai Shao Bing uniform on his body and money to pave the way, he successfully borrowed a small fishing boat.

At this time, Gao De, standing on the shore, identified the direction slightly and quickly determined the location of the fisherman's family from whom he had borrowed the boat last night.

Gao De walked toward that family.

At the entrance, the fisherman's two children were playing; they were wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, their small faces were flushed by the sun, and they picked up stones from the ground and launched "attacks" at a small kingfisher perched on the eaves.

It's just that their strength was limited, and their accuracy was extremely insufficient, so the stones they threw were either soft and couldn't reach the eaves at all, or were easily dodged by the kingfisher.

Chirp chirp!

The kingfisher made a provocative sound at the two children.

The two children looked at each other, and then the slightly older boy ran into the house and took out something like a slingshot.

With the help of a "sharp weapon," their momentum was suddenly different.

The slightly older boy picked up a stone and pulled the slingshot hard.

It was unknown what material that slingshot was made of; the rubber band part was extremely resilient, and it was actually pulled to nearly three times its length without breaking.

Bang!

The stone flew out like a bullet with astonishing acceleration.

The kingfisher had long since alertly discovered that something was wrong, and before the boy could let go, it had already flapped its wings and flown up first.

The stone finally shot into a corner of the eaves, making a dull "thud" sound.

Immediately afterward, a middle-aged woman's voice came from inside the house, scolding the two children loudly with some severity.

The two mischievous children hung their heads in annoyance.

Chirp chirp chirp!

The kingfisher flying in the air called even more happily, as if mocking them.

Gao De watched this scene, which was full of the atmosphere of life, and found it interesting.

He quickened his pace and walked over, shouting loudly outside the house: "Uncle, I'm here to return the boat."

Soon, a dark-skinned man ran out with hurried steps.

Gao De handed five silver dragon coins to the other party, and then pointed to the not-far-away with his finger, "This is the boat fee agreed upon last night, I have parked your boat on the shore over there for you."

"Thank you, Master Mage, thank you, Master Mage." The dark-skinned man took the five silver dragon coins somewhat cautiously and kept thanking him.

Gao De waved his hand, signaling that the other party didn't need to be polite.

When he turned to leave, he caught a glimpse of the slingshot in the mischievous child's hand and realized that the material of the slingshot's rubber band seemed to be somewhat special, and then he thought of the child pulling the rubber band so wide just now.

The power of a slingshot depends precisely on the pulling force of the rubber band and the rebound speed of the rubber band.

The greater the pulling force of the rubber band, the heavier the projectile it can match; the faster the rebound speed of the rubber band, the greater the initial velocity it can provide to the projectile; the heavier the projectile and the higher the initial velocity, the greater the power.

"The materials for this slingshot are quite good. You are quite doting on them to use such good materials to make toys for children, but the power of this slingshot is too fierce, and it's a bit dangerous for children to play with it without knowing their own strength." Gao De reminded him casually.

Judging by the power of the slingshot he witnessed just now, if that stone were to hit someone, it would probably be a big deal.

Being pointed out by Gao De, the dark-skinned man looked at his two children, his face darkened, and then he explained to Gao De with a slightly ingratiating tone: "This slingshot wasn't made by me for them; they made it themselves."

"Before, when I was repairing the roof, I took some buzzing resin and applied it to the roof for waterproofing. There was some left over, so they picked it up and made rubber bands..."

"Buzzing resin..." Gao De paused when he heard the man's explanation, his gaze falling on the rubber band of the slingshot in the mischievous child's hand.

"You mean, this rubber band is made of resin?!"

He had thought it was some kind of animal tendon.

"Yes, Master Mage, this is made of buzzing resin." The dark-skinned man nodded quickly.

"Buzzing resin... can you introduce it to me?" A sharp light flashed in Gao De's eyes.

Although he didn't know why Gao De would be interested in this resin, he had no time to think about it carefully; he just quickly went through the information about the buzzing tree in his mind, and then spoke nervously:

"The buzzing tree is a unique tree species in our area because every time the wind blows, the trunk will make a sound similar to buzzing, so we all call it the buzzing tree."

"There are many holes inside the buzzing tree, which are rich in resin. We tear open the bark and hang up a container, and we can collect the resin flowing out from the holes."

"After this resin solidifies, it becomes extremely smooth; water droplets will slide off rapidly when they fall on it, and it won't have cracks even in winter, so we fishermen often use it to coat roofs for waterproofing."

"Another thing is, we also found that this resin is extremely resistant to stretching; even if it is stretched two or three times, it won't break, and it can also reduce vibration and sound.

So we also often soften it to make fork pouches, which are used to hold fish forks, which can effectively avoid the sound of fish forks colliding and reduce vibration..."

"Oh, right!" The dark-skinned man paused for a few seconds, remembered another point, and added quickly: "This resin can also be used to bond furniture, and ordinary insects and ants won't come near the bonded area."

With the introduction of the dark-skinned man, Gao De's eyes became brighter and brighter.

"Where are these buzzing trees?" He asked.

"Just walk that way, there is a buzzing forest there."

"The buzzing tree makes a loud sound; once the wind is strong, it is very noisy, and the tree material has too many holes, making it unsuitable as building material or other things, so it has no value and is not liked by people at all."

"We used to have many buzzing trees here, but later they were cut down one after another, and only this small patch is left, and that's only because we fishermen wanted to use it as a roofing material for waterproofing, so it was preserved..."

The dark-skinned man explained "weakly," obviously a bit puzzled as to why a noble mage like Gao De would be interested in their "poor man's tree."

After all, in his cognition, only the simple houses where poor people like them lived needed an extra waterproof layer and could make use of buzzing resin.

(End of chapter)