Chapter 465: Combat Review and Further Infiltration

Although the two human settlements encountered along the way—the fishing village on Rabbit Island and the cliff settlement in the Twin Canyons—had no survivors left,

the good news was that the crew of the *Blade of Vengeance* had not suffered any losses.

Whether it was the storm at sea earlier or the Sahuagin attack just now, there had been no actual deaths.

The two most seriously injured crew members were one who had accidentally slipped while running on deck and had his arm pierced by a sharp fin on a Sahuagin corpse, and the other, a lookout who had accidentally fallen from the mast a few days ago and broken his thigh.

To some extent, compared to the damage to the crew, the *Blade of Vengeance* itself had suffered more severe damage.

Fortunately, Xia Nan and Haian returned in time to provide support, preventing the Sahuagin from causing further damage to the ship's hull, keeping the *Blade of Vengeance* intact enough to continue sailing.

Otherwise, the whole ship's company would have truly had to start surviving on a desert island.

Right now, the battle had just ended.

Without time to rest, Leien and Gordon were already busily arranging for personnel to inspect the specific damage locations on the ship and formulate temporary repair plans.

Xia Nan and Haian were cleaning up the battlefield with a few sailors.

In truth, there was nothing valuable; the Sahuagin themselves only had a challenge rating of 0.5, and there were no high-value materials on them. Furthermore, among the Sahuagin that had besieged the ship, let alone spellcasting priests, there weren't even four-armed elite individuals; they were all the most common cannon fodder, so naturally, they couldn't be carrying any precious special equipment.

It was all junk, and there wasn't much worth picking out that could fetch a good price.

With a keen eye, Xia Nan casually pulled a nine-new Sahuagin breastplate from a corpse washed ashore by the waves and handed it to the young sailor following behind, his attention drifting slightly as he reviewed the battle in his mind.

The harvest was not small; the fact that the proficiency of 【Heavy Tide】 had increased by two points after the battle was an unexpected joy. Most importantly, Xia Nan had gained a clear understanding of his state during underwater combat.

It was true that his actual combat ability was weakened, but the underwater environment extended the battlefield from a two-dimensional plane to a three-dimensional space, and 【Tooth Hunt】, with its greatly enhanced mobility and flexibility, compensated for this to a certain extent.

Honestly, when Xia Nan was rampaging beneath the sea surface riding the wolf head just now, he actually felt a sense of unrestrained freedom, as if he had vaguely caught a glimpse of the complete form of the 【Meteor Blade Hunter】 profession.

It was just a pity that he was still too far from fighting in outer space, so he could only use the underwater environment to simulate it slightly.

And if one day Xia Nan could truly expand the hunting ground of 【Tooth Hunt】 beyond the atmosphere, he would likely truly comprehend the essence of the 【Meteor Blade Hunter】 profession.

If that were the case...

Xia Nan suddenly thought, it was no wonder that 【Gravity Control】 was required as a prerequisite for advancement; 【Meteor Blade Hunter】 seemed to truly be an advanced profession born to adapt to combat in a zero-gravity environment.

Under normal circumstances, it was definitely not something a novice adventurer who had just met the three-technique standard could take on.

That he could obtain this profession by a stroke of luck now seemed truly absurd.

Of course, he had also swallowed the bitter fruit for it.

An overly high starting point and an exaggeratedly solid foundation, while endowing him with combat ability far exceeding professionals of the same level, had also greatly slowed down Xia Nan's promotion speed.

If he had taken the most common 【Warrior】 profession at the time, with the outstanding talent from the combination of his soul and body, and the help of the attribute panel, he might have already crossed lv5 and be heading toward "Transcendence."

Instead of being like now, grinding 【Gravity Control】 point by proficiency point, and finally obtaining 【Heavy Tide】, which had a slightly faster improvement, as if it were a treasure, wishing he could practice it for twenty hours a day.

Of course, if he were truly allowed to go back a year and make the choice again... he would still choose 【Meteor Blade Hunter】 a hundred times over.

After all, compared to the upper limit that an advanced profession could reach in the future, the upgrade speed of a common profession in the short term was clearly less attractive to Xia Nan.

Additionally, although the battle with these Sahuagin had not lasted long, Xia Nan had clearly felt the difference between underwater combat and combat on shore, and he had added several points of caution to his mind.

First and most importantly, of course, was oxygen.

Although his breath-holding ability was very good for his professional level, it was difficult to maintain for a long time in a combat state, and he needed to surface to breathe.

Just now, he had briefly surfaced to take a few breaths using the dash effect of 【Tooth Hunt】, and he could not fight underwater continuously for a long time.

Then, there was stamina.

Xia Nan's constitution attribute was not low; the experience in the Snake Cave Secret Realm had even made it his most prominent physical attribute at one point, but because he had not encountered suitable opportunities later, it had slowly fallen behind.

It had now been surpassed by "Strength," "Agility," and "Perception," and was only higher than "Charisma" and "Intelligence."

He hadn't felt it much before, but now in the underwater environment where stamina consumption was greatly increased, it was faintly unable to keep up with the frequency of using combat techniques. He thought that in the future, if he encountered the same situation, Xia Nan would have to avoid long-duration, high-intensity underwater combat as much as possible, or at least pay extra attention to the combat rhythm.

Regardless, this battle confirmed to Xia Nan that he still maintained good combat ability even underwater, and his original combat style could be continued.

Of course, he could not be arrogant.

The current environment was shallow water near the port, and the number of enemies was determined; if it were the deep ocean... he was still quite wary of those unfathomable deep abysses.

After all, he was in a proper fantasy world where transcendent power existed, and those sea monsters with sizes comparable to islands definitely existed; he had to remain vigilant.

In his past life, he had heard a proverb: "Those who drown are those who can swim." Although it might not necessarily be true, the principle it expressed was correct; one could not ignore the dangers of a situation just because of a little confidence.

While reviewing the battle, he cleaned up the scraps on the battlefield.

In the corridor leading to the cliff cavity nearby, a burst of hurried footsteps came.

Luo Lin and the others arrived late, only returning to the pier after the battle had ended.

Seeing that Xia Nan and the others had already started cleaning up the battlefield and the deck was also in a busy state, they breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward to ask:

"How is the situation?"

Xia Nan casually handed another still-intact harpoon to the sailor beside him and replied.

"Not bad, no casualties."

"Just some ordinary Sahuagin, no elite individuals."

His tone was normal, just reporting the combat situation, without exaggerating or being overly modest.

To this, Luo Lin nodded slightly on the surface, but her pair of brownish-red eyes subconsciously looked at the scattered, messy heads and flesh on the sea surface, rising and falling with the waves.

The special terrain of the Twin Canyons allowed them to keep an eye on the battlefield below while moving between the cliff cavities, so they naturally saw the shadow swimming beneath the water surface and understood what role Xia Nan had played in the entire battle.

"Too ruthless, Haian..."

The Barbarian Aken spoke his mind, carrying his anchor-shaped giant axe, clicking his tongue in wonder at the Sahuagin corpses washed ashore.

Even the usually slow-to-warm-up Cat-folk Sawa had a change in her eyes when looking at Xia Nan, her fluffy long tail swaying gently behind her.

As a newly joined temporary member, Xia Nan's performance in this mission had completely won the trust of these veterans. ===== CHAPTER 466 =====