Chapter 528

The southeastern corner of Black Horse Island is a barren sandy beach, scattered with a few wooden huts.

While it's impossible to grow crops here, the beach is rich in seafood resources. The sampan fishing crews from Port Town often come here to catch seafood, supplying food for the territory.

At this moment, Liszt, wearing only form-fitting leather armor and shorts, is personally sitting on a sampan, rowing out to sea.

All his attendants are left on the beach since he is here to explore the Giant Kelp forest alone. Since he needs to communicate with the mermaid Acheronides at all times, bringing attendants would be too cumbersome.

With Acheronides guiding him underwater,

they easily arrive above the Giant Kelp forest, lowering a rope to anchor the sampan.

Before preparing to dive to the seabed, Liszt asks, "Acheronides, although I can swim, it's hard to exert my strength in the sea, especially since my mana is fire-attribute. I need your guidance."

"Don't worry, brother. I'll protect you, just like you protect me!"

"I can currently hold my breath for up to fifteen minutes. To speed up our exploration, I need you to swim with me."

"Okay."

Acheronides is a very fast swimmer. If Liszt were to swim by himself, most of the fifteen minutes would be taken up by swimming, leaving little time to explore the Giant Kelp forest.

He took a deep breath.

With a splash,

Liszt jumps directly into the sea, following the current manipulated by Acheronides, quickly diving down to the seabed. His strong physical constitution allows him to use mana to slow down the consumption of oxygen, assuming the physical laws here are similar to Earth's, where combustion and respiration utilize oxygen.

In this world, an average person can hold their breath for about a minute before needing to breathe, while experienced fishermen can hold their breath for three to five minutes.

For longer periods, one must rely on mana. There is a squire on Black Horse Island who often dives; he can hold his breath while swimming for twenty minutes and up to thirty minutes when stationary.

Liszt hasn't trained much; his record for holding his breath while swimming using mana is fifteen minutes, and he can hold his breath for eighteen minutes when stationary.

The water is exceptionally clear, and although the visibility is narrower than on land, one can still see quite far.

Acheronides manipulates the water flow from her shell, swiftly bringing him to the edge of the Giant Kelp forest. Looking around, the entire Giant Kelp forest truly resembles a forest growing on the seabed. The Giant Kelp stretches straight up towards the sea surface, filtering the sunlight into fragmented rays of magic aura.

Their colors are mostly yellow or green.

They look somewhat like seaweed.

However, the Giant Kelp has a main stem with many slender leaves, swaying left and right with the ocean currents. Their roots cling to the seabed rocks, and many small fish swim among the Giant Kelp. Sometimes, the small fish stir the Giant Kelp, entangling them together.

The seabed is also home to a large number of corals, sea anemones, and other creatures.

Liszt has no mood to appreciate the underwater scenery. He quickly casts Magic Eye, scanning the Giant Kelp, but finds no magic feedback in the magic aura.

He taps Acheronides' shell.

Understanding his intention, Acheronides immediately controls the water flow, taking Liszt to swim among the Giant Kelp, mostly around the periphery of the forest near the shore. Magic Eye continuously scans, searching for possible insect grass. Fifteen minutes pass in a flash, and he sees no insect grass.

Resurfacing, Liszt takes a deep breath and recovers.

He then has Acheronides take him to the next part of the Giant Kelp forest. Indeed, the underwater Giant Kelp forest is vast, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Inside the Giant Kelp forest, the light is poor, and visibility is short, increasing the difficulty of observation with Magic Eye.

But Liszt's nature is such that if he doesn't do something, he won't start; once he starts, he must finish without giving up halfway. Time after time, he searches more areas of the Giant Kelp forest. Finally, after three hours of searching and on his ninth dive, he sees the magic aura he hopes to find.

The chaotic hues of light were distributed along a giant kelp over thirty meters long.

Almost reaching the surface of the sea.

Swimming swiftly towards the kelp, Liszt soon found the spirit worm coiled at the base of the seaweed—a yellowish-brown spirit worm. Initially, Liszt had thought of letting Ake form a pact with this giant kelp worm, but since he had worked so hard for so long, he decided to do it himself.

Thus, he took out the jade powder and sprinkled it at the base of the kelp.

The jade powder shimmered in the seawater, making it difficult to adhere, but it still successfully attracted the giant kelp worm, which slowly swam over to lick the powder.

Then, Liszt took advantage of the moment when it opened its mouth and forcefully inserted his finger.

A slurping sound.

The feeling of a mental connection came through; he had successfully formed a pact with the giant kelp worm, sensing the little creature's peaceful, tranquil, and relaxed emotions, as if transforming into a giant kelp quietly extending in the sea.

With the giant kelp worm, he quickly surfaced.

"Phew!"

He exhaled a long breath of stale air from his lungs, breathing in the salty, briny air above the sea. When Ake also emerged from the water and opened her shell, he directly threw the giant kelp worm into Ake's shell: "Ake, take good care of this giant kelp worm."

"Mm-hmm."

Now, Ake's shell had almost become a small home for the spirit worms, following Ake wherever she went.

"Once I rest a bit, we'll head back." Liszt, supported by the water currents controlled by Ake, floated on the surface, recovering his strength.

At the same time, he was calling for the Fog Task.

"Mission complete, reward: one Giant Kelp Worm."

Three hours of hard work to obtain a spirit bug is still very worthwhile. The only downside is that these sea spirit bugs cultivate seaweed crops in the ocean. The seaweed bugs and seaweed bugs have already cultivated seaweed and laver, which have become food for fishermen to harvest.

However, the seaweed grown by red stone flower bugs, horsetail bugs, and ink horn bugs has not yet been put to use.

As for this Giant Kelp Worm, the giant kelp it represents, it's unclear if it's edible. If it is, it might be possible to have fishermen come to harvest it.

In a daze.

The serpent tongue formed by smoke has twisted and reorganized its content: "Mission: The Giant Kelp Worm seems to be just a corner of the secrets of the Giant Kelp Forest. This vast underwater forest is worth exploring in depth to uncover its secrets further and deeper. Reward: New variety of Giant Kelp."

"Huh?"

Liszt was surprised, not expecting the mission of the Giant Kelp Forest to be unfinished; it seems to be a chain mission: "What kind of new variety of Giant Kelp could it be? Could it be Magic Giant Kelp?"

Whether it's Magic Giant Kelp or not, the exploration of the Giant Kelp Forest must continue. It's already late in the morning, and he has agreed with Acheronides to continue in the afternoon. He then swam to the sampan, rowed to the shore by himself. Surrounded by his servants, he donned his frock coat Abby and returned to the port town for lunch.

After lunch, a short nap.

The search continues.

This time, Liszt and Acheronides divided the work. Liszt mainly scanned the Giant Kelp Forest roughly, searching for any signs of magic power feedback auras, trying to find Magic Giant Kelp; Acheronides carefully distinguished the differences between each Giant Kelp, looking for non-magic mutated Giant Kelp.