Chapter 486: Luring the Trap

The dumpling has extremely high sentience; if it could handle this on its own, it wouldn’t have come to find me first.

Gao De understood this.

He didn’t hesitate, walked to a secluded corner, immediately stripped off his clothes and laid them aside, leaving only his undergarments, then leapt forward.

With a splash, Gao De slid into the water like a fish, barely stirring any waves—truly an elegant dive.

Seeing Gao De enter the water, the dumpling immediately dove back under, swaying its body left and right while flapping its short fins.

Gao De gently patted the dumpling’s head—not only to encourage and praise it, but also to activate [Beast Link+], forging a deeper connection to facilitate clearer communication and understanding of the situation.

As the link formed, the dumpling’s overwhelming excitement and joy surged clearly into his mind.

The situation wasn’t complicated.

The dumpling was naturally lively and energetic; though the Azure Courtyard wasn’t small, it had spent its entire life swimming in that same stretch of water and had long lost any sense of novelty. Now, in a new water system, it naturally swam wildly, darting here and probing there.

In the process of darting and probing, it stumbled upon an unexpected discovery.

But the dumpling couldn’t clearly express what exactly it had found.

Gao De wasn’t in a rush—he let the dumpling lead the way, then cast [Ocean Touch+] on himself and followed.

Pirated magic simply couldn’t match the real thing.

Even with the spell-grown webbing, his movement speed underwater was far slower than the dumpling’s.

The dumpling was clearly thrilled, swimming ahead, whipping its tail to stir the current and trailing a long string of bubbles.

After swimming two hundred meters forward, just as they neared their destination, Gao De surfaced, took a deep breath of oxygen, then plunged down again with the dumpling.

Descending over ten meters, a massive, bizarrely shaped rock appeared before him.

Looking around, he couldn’t see its bottom—it seemed like a small building rising from the seabed.

The dumpling’s discovery lay at the midsection of this enormous rock.

Here, the rock suddenly split open, revealing a crack over two meters wide, from which faint light leaked out.

In the water, inside a sealed rock formation, the light couldn’t possibly come from sunlight.

Undoubtedly, something luminous lay inside.

In games, glowing objects are usually treasures—like luminous pearls—this is a classic trope.

Reality may differ from games, but not by much; this was certainly no ordinary object.

The dumpling swayed its body ahead, “inviting” Gao De inside.

Its boundless curiosity had already led it to peek inside, confirming no danger lurked within.

Gao De didn’t hesitate—he kicked his legs in a whip-like motion and swam toward the crack.

The crack was a sloping downward passage; the narrow gap made the surrounding currents turbulent, constantly battering Gao De’s body.

But after swimming just a short distance, it angled upward at a blunt angle.

And the raging river current abruptly ceased at that bend.

Like a cave hidden within the rock’s core, above was no water at all—only trapped air.

Gao De lifted his head above the surface, looked around, and no longer needed to hold his breath.

No wonder the dumpling couldn’t handle this.

This thing swims like a dragon underwater, but out of water, it’s completely blind.

You can’t expect it to climb up using those two hand-like front fins, can you?

“Wait here,” Gao De said, looking up where faint glimmers shimmered above, and gave the dumpling instructions.

Then he quickly dispelled [Ocean Touch+], and cast [Cat Claws].

The webbing between his fingers vanished; his nails lengthened visibly, sharpening into razor-edged blades.

Gao De’s fingers drove into the rock wall like chisels, then pulled out—he alternated hands, inching upward slowly.

The interior space of the rock wasn’t particularly large; after climbing about six or seven meters upward, he neared the ceiling, where a small inverted semicircular platform existed.

Gao De grabbed a protruding section of rock, pushed off, and leapt onto the platform.

The platform was tiny; a single glance revealed the source of the light.

It was a fist-sized egg, its shell emitting a faint, eerie glow in the darkness—unusual indeed.

An egg of some subterranean creature.

Gao De instantly made his judgment.

The next moment, he stepped forward, picked up the egg, cradled it in his arms—the shell felt warm to the touch, pulsing faintly with life.

But Gao De had no time to ponder—he quickly slid back down from the platform into the water.

“Hurry!” Gao De whispered to the dumpling.

He didn’t know the egg’s origin, but he knew that if it was here, its mother likely wasn’t far away—perhaps even on her way back now.

From the egg’s unusual nature, its origin was clearly not ordinary; its mother was probably very powerful.

If they met underwater, he’d be in serious trouble.

Of course, the safest course would be to pretend he’d seen nothing and leave empty-handed.

But the problem was—he’d already come all this way. How could he leave without taking anything?

Luck still held—he clutched the glowing egg, sped up, and safely exited the waters.

The passenger ship hadn’t stopped to wait for him.

Gao De didn’t have that kind of influence.

But it didn’t matter—he’d already anticipated this when he dove in.

Gao De first surfaced for a breath, then activated Mandora’s Eye to locate the ship.

The water’s surface had no obstructions, and he’d moved swiftly—the ship hadn’t gone far.

Through Mandora’s Eye’s long-range vision, Gao De instantly confirmed the ship’s position.

Plop!

At that moment, the dumpling also surfaced beside him.

Gao De patted the dumpling’s head and murmured, “You’ll have to work hard for me.”

The dumpling said nothing, merely drawing its two front fins inward—imitating a human clasping hands in greeting, though its tiny “short hands” couldn’t quite bring the fins together.

“Go!”

The dumpling dove beneath the water, positioned itself under Gao De, then pushed upward slightly.

Gao De cleanly spread his legs, straddling the dumpling, tightened them, then bent forward, hugging the egg tightly against its back, his body nearly folding in half.

Once Gao De was securely seated, the dumpling released a stream of bubbles, twisted its body, and instantly surged forward, cutting through the waves at high speed to chase the departing ship.

White water split to either side.

At such speed, the wind whipped past, giving Gao De a faint sense of riding a speedboat from his past life—utterly delightful.

In moments, Gao De caught up to the ship.

Using the dumpling’s back as a launch point, combined with a [Jump Spell], he landed safely on the ship’s deck.

Then he cast the spell [Dancing Wind], summoning a small whirlwind to wrap around his body, acting as a hairdryer to remove water from his skin and hair, before pulling on his discarded clothes—as if nothing had happened.

The only proof of what had occurred was the egg now tucked inside his outer coat pocket.

After that, no further incidents occurred.

After five hours and fifteen minutes of sailing, the passenger ship docked at Mont Town’s pier.

Gao De was the first to disembark.

It wasn’t that he was impatient—he simply disliked the common drama trope of “disguising as a commoner while secretly noble.” Since he was on official duty, he’d firmly chosen to wear his Sea Sentinel uniform.

This avoided many potential troubles and granted him certain conveniences.

It’s like a police officer on duty—wearing a uniform versus not makes a world of difference in efficiency.

Unless the mission required plainclothes, Gao De always wore his Sea Sentinel uniform on duty.

For instance, now—other passengers, seeing his uniform, willingly let him go first.

It wasn’t a big deal, but it was certainly convenient.

From the pier, Gao De headed straight for the town’s constabulary office in the center of Mont Town.

He didn’t even need to show his identification badge; merely by wearing his uniform, he smoothly obtained the collected data on Shell Thief crab activity in Mont Town.

The town’s constable and guards weren’t useless—they’d already used this data to preliminarily map several activity zones for the Shell Thief crabs.

But these zones were too vast; under the crabs’ cautious behavior, they couldn’t launch a cleanup based on this alone.

“Magician, we rely on you,” the constable said, handing over the files to Gao De in a solemn tone.

Gao De smiled faintly and reassured him: “I’ll resolve this quickly. Don’t worry too much.”

Theoretically, offshore areas fall under the jurisdiction of high-tier Sea Sentinel magicians.

But theory is just theory.

As organizations grow, responsibilities naturally blur toward practicality—it’s perfectly normal.

Tasks like the crab infestation—low-level, nearshore, requiring no sea voyage—are usually assigned to low-tier magicians like Gao De.

Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

You wouldn’t send a “senior official” to dismantle a pig farm in the countryside, would you?

That’s the job of grassroots personnel.

Nearshore shallow waters.

It was evening; the sea shimmered with light.

The waves gently lapped against the shore’s rocks, producing a rhythmic splash.

Along the shore, many oddly shaped rocks stood tall.

The coastline of Montezhen is mostly like this—rugged and strewn with jagged rocks, offering no suitable spot for a port.

Unable to benefit from the ocean, this is one reason they remain relatively poor despite living near the sea.

The bases of these rocks are riddled with deep crevices and pits, providing perfect shelter for many marine creatures.

At this moment, a dark brown crab-beast, its hard shell speckled with moss-like patterns, lay quietly curled in the darkest corner beneath one of the large rocks.

Its slender crab legs clung tightly to its sides, motionless, as if part of the rock itself.

Suddenly, the crab-beast’s red eyes emerged from beneath its shell.

Its eyes moved with extraordinary flexibility, swiftly scanning the surroundings, missing not a single subtle movement.

Then it began to shift its legs.

Though it walked sideways like an ordinary crab, its speed was astonishingly fast, rapidly extending and retracting, stirring up a string of fine bubbles in the water.

In the blink of an eye, it shot away from the rock’s edge like an arrow released from a bow, speeding toward a specific direction in the sea.

There, several vivid, plump, emerald-green spherical objects floated.

But as it neared, a swift shadow suddenly lunged from the side, straight toward the crab-beast.

Amid the churning currents, the crab-beast was instantly stunned and disoriented.

The shadow did not miss its chance; seizing the crab-beast’s confusion, it opened a massive mouth like a “blood-dripping maw,” biting down with clean, decisive motion—crushing the crab-beast whole, shell and all.

Then, it surfaced with the crab-beast in its mouth, turning back to gaze at the nearby beach.

Look!

“Good job, Tuanzi,” Gao De, who had witnessed this firsthand on the beach, did not withhold his praise.

The shadow was none other than Tuanzi.

The dead crab in its mouth was precisely Gao De’s target: the Shell-Stealing Crab.

Tuanzi swam to shore with the Shell-Stealing Crab it had killed, shook its head forcefully, and flung the corpse onto the sand.

Gao De stared at the dead Shell-Stealing Crab before him.

It was not large—even fully grown, it was no bigger than a fist.

Yet its danger was significant; its claws and legs were covered in dense, sharp spines.

These spines contained potent poison; even a light touch could pierce a prey’s skin and inject the toxin directly.

This was their primary method of attack.

Hearing this, it sounds weak—at least in a world endowed with extraordinary power, this method seems pitiful.

In truth, they are indeed pitiful; among first-rank earth-pulse creatures, they are the weakest of the weak.

Even Tuanzi, also a first-rank creature, had not even needed three moves to easily take down this Shell-Stealing Crab.

Yet precisely because they are weak, they have developed an extremely cautious nature—this is how they survive.

At the same time, they possess astonishing reproductive capacity, which is why they have never gone extinct.

Their eyes glowed like two small rubies—even now, as dead crabs, they still shone.

And these eyes were the proof required to claim the bounty.

Gao De removed both eyes and placed them into the cloth bag in his hand.

Inside, there were already forty or fifty eyes, glowing like rubies.

This meant Gao De had already slain twenty to thirty Shell-Stealing Crabs—creatures famed for their caution and elusiveness.

And he had only arrived in Montezhen a few hours ago.

Such efficiency—even second- or third-ring mages might not match it.

At this rate, he wouldn’t need half a month—just two or three days at most—to clear all the Shell-Stealing Crabs from the beaches near Montezhen.

The greatest credit for all this naturally belonged to the emerald-green spherical objects that lured the Shell-Stealing Crabs out of their hiding places—or rather, the Gem Berries.

【Divine Berry Art+】:

Additional: The berries created by this technique possess a powerful attraction to animals.

Shell-Stealing Crabs are animals, so they too are irresistibly drawn to the Gem Berries created by 【Divine Berry Art+】.

This was the confidence that allowed Gao De to accept this “difficult task” without hesitation.

Ordinary Sea Sentinel mages performing this task could only patiently wait, sitting idle like a farmer hoping for a rabbit to run into a stump.

But Gao De could actively bait the crabs with Gem Berries, luring them out of their hidden shelters.

This solved the most difficult part of the 【Crab Infestation Threat】 task, increasing hunting efficiency tenfold or even a hundredfold, allowing him to complete the task easily and swiftly.

(End of Chapter)