Chapter 2361 Time Changes the World <TOC> Chapter 2363 The Purple Beast
Translator: SumTLMan
Upon entering the mist-shrouded zone, Angel immediately sensed an atmosphere starkly different from the outside world.
The omnipresent fog enveloped the sea area tightly, appearing ordinary at first glance but acting like a natural illusory realm. It not only obscured visibility but also continuously misled intruders about their direction. Moreover, this sea area seemed to be influenced by an invisible magnetic field, affecting the accuracy of compasses.
Therefore, for ordinary people who ventured into the Mist Zone, unless they were extremely lucky, just the fog alone could potentially cause them to be forever lost at sea.
However, the Mist Zone was not just about the fog.
After entering the Mist Zone, due to the reduced visibility, Angel lowered his flying altitude, almost skimming the sea surface. Thus, he could clearly see shadows flitting beneath the sea from time to time.
Most of these shadows were enormous, belonging to giant sea beasts rarely seen in the outside world.
For instance, right now, Angel could see a massive shadow beneath the Gondola. How large was it? It was so vast that its ends were not visible to the naked eye, likely dwarfing the giant cargo ships of Blue Tongue Shipping that Angel had encountered not long ago.
This shallow sea giant beast suddenly surfaced.
“Strangle Ray.” Upon seeing the back of the sea beast on the surface, Angel identified its true identity.
The Strangle Ray, with its massive butterfly-like wings similar to those of the ray species, had a tail resembling that of a cephalopod from the multi-legged class, adorned with hundreds of slippery tentacles.
This creature, which was given three pages of description in —Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them—, with the compiler lamenting, “This is a species becoming increasingly rare, likely to go extinct before long,” now boldly appeared in the Mist Zone.
This sighting offered a glimpse into the corner of the sea beast ecosystem within the Mist Zone.
While Angel observed the Strangle Ray, it seemed to have noticed the Gondola above. The creature submerged its upper body back into the sea, leaving its tentacles exposed. Dozens of meters long, these tentacles, like fanged whips, broke through the air barrier and surged towards the Gondola.
In just a few seconds, three tentacles had wrapped around the Gondola.
The Strangle Ray was named for its ability to “strangle.” At this moment, this characteristic was fully demonstrated, binding the Gondola like ropes.
With just a little effort, the Strangle Ray could cause any ensnared ship to shatter into pieces.
Once the humans on board fell into the water, the Strangle Ray could open its massive mouth and swallow these “snacks” after a meal.
Unfortunately for the Strangle Ray, its unbeatable strangulation technique met Angel.
Angel didn’t even need to act personally; Speedling transformed into several wind blades, rushing towards those slimy, utterly repulsive gray tentacles.
The Wind Blade is the first offensive spell elemental apprentices come into contact with. Its damage is not considered high, even when enhanced to a Crescent Wind Blade, the damage remains modest. However, when Speedling employs this exceedingly mundane Wind Blade, it becomes terrifyingly effective. The hissing sound it produces, along with the constantly distorting air around the blade, seems as if it could directly slice through spatial barriers.
Angel believes that faced with such a Wind Blade, any non-bloodline, unguarded formal wizard would likely be cleaved in two.
Even formal wizards would find it difficult to directly withstand it, let alone the not particularly sturdy tentacles of the Strangle Ray.
As expected, the Wind Blade directly cuts the tentacles into several segments, scattering them into the air, falling like a rain of blood.
“We can’t waste this.” Watching the sky filled with cross-sectioned tentacles, Angel summons three Magic Hands in succession, quickly gathering them up.
The tentacles of the Strangle Ray also belong to extraordinary magical materials, with transplantation being the most efficient use. However, the tentacles of the Strangle Ray have too many drawbacks, and there are many alternative organs, making transplantation unnecessary; wizards collecting Strangle Ray tentacles generally use them for magical cooking or extracting essence for potion making.
After all, the Strangle Ray belongs to a nearly extinct precious sea beast, and collecting its tentacles might be useful in the future.
After cutting off the tentacles, Speedling sends a questioning intent to Angel, asking whether to continue the attack and kill the Strangle Ray below.
Angel looks at the still menacing Strangle Ray below and decides after a moment of thought, “Never mind, it’s not necessary.”
The decision not to kill is not because the Strangle Ray is on the verge of extinction, nor because its magical materials are unimportant, but simply because… there’s nowhere to put it if killed.
His bracelet space is already full, and even if it wasn’t, it couldn’t fit such a large sea beast.
The Exile Space could fit it, but maintaining the Exile Space requires continuous input of magical power, and it’s not worth it for a single Strangle Ray.
Most importantly, the magical materials on the Strangle Ray’s body are not particularly needed by Angel. Collecting the tentacles, at worst, he could ask Gloria to make a nice meal out of them, to try something new. Other parts have substitutes and are dispensable; killing it would be a waste, and not killing it doesn’t matter.
Of course, if Angel had a Wizard Garden or a larger stable space, then there would be different choices.
Unfortunately, Angel currently does not have these.
Since he has already decided to spare the Strangle Ray, Angel doesn’t bother with it anymore and lets Speedling increase speed. In a few seconds, they leave the Strangle Ray behind.
During their journey, they encounter many sea beasts. Angel pays them no mind, as they can’t catch up anyway.
However, it’s worth mentioning that over half of all the sea beasts he encounters harbor immense malice towards the Gondola on the sea surface.
By this point, Angel has basically understood why the Mist Belt is known as the Forbidden Sea.
Because the sea beasts here are not only huge and numerous, but also highly aggressive. Coupled with the disorienting fog, even extraordinary beings might fail here, let alone ordinary people.
Just like the Strangle Ray encountered earlier, if its tentacles were to bind a merchant ship of a shipping company, it could definitely annihilate everyone on board. No wonder people who ply the seas change color at the mention of the Mist Belt.
“If Nausica encounters these sea beasts…” Angel stops the thought, not daring to think further. He still doesn’t know where Nausica is; he’ll find Reynolds and the others first, and everything else can wait.
After flying for a while, the density of the surrounding mist became even thicker.
“The visibility is less than ten meters,” Angel mused to himself. “Since I set sail from the northern end of the Sidro Mist Island and turned direction, this should be the first coordinate point.”
With this coordinate as a reference, finding Cindy’s location became much simpler.
Angel quickly determined the direction to go. Instead of continuing to ride the Gondola, he patted Toby: “The rest of the journey is up to you.”
Toby nodded in understanding, and with a leap, transformed into his serpent-bird form.
The giant serpent with blood-red patterned wings plunged directly into the sea. Angel signaled Dangros to enter the purification field, then stowed away the Gondola and landed on the back of the serpent-bird with Speedling.
“Let’s go.”
The serpent-bird, without any hesitation, dived into the sea, moving swiftly through the water with a graceful and elegant posture.
Bolstered by gravity lines, occasionally riding the ocean currents, and with the push from Speedling, the serpent-bird’s speed was beyond imagination.
The path it took seemed ordinary, but if any marine creature approached, it would immediately explode into a mush of flesh and blood, which was quite telling.
During the journey under the sea, Angel truly witnessed another side of this sea area.
The sea beasts he had seen on the surface had already surprised him, but below the surface, it was practically a Paradise for Sea Beasts.
Or rather, this place was essentially a feast of sea beasts.
Everywhere was crowded with sea beasts of various sizes, looking extremely terrifying.
If it were an ordinary person or some wizard apprentices, they might be scared out of their wits by the scene before them.
The surrounding sea beasts seemed to regard the serpent-bird as one of their own, ignoring its intrusion into their territory. Of course, there were also those who actively provoked it, but before they could launch an attack, the serpent-bird had already fled dozens of kilometers away.
These were considered to be the luckier ones. Some less fortunate sea beasts, because they blocked the serpent-bird’s path, were pierced through by the serpent-bird before they could react.
There were more than one or two of such unfortunate sea beasts. By Angel’s own estimate, in less than three minutes of travel, the serpent-bird had already burst the guts of more than ten sea beasts.
The shimmering snake scales appeared even more crimson.
After traveling under the sea for about five minutes, Angel asked Toby to slow down.
Firstly, because they were very close to the coordinate point, and secondly, because Toby was nearing his limit. Negative emotions such as jealousy, vanity, and resentment began to swirl around him…
These emotions would not only affect Angel but also Toby. A slight inattention could lead to loss of control.
This was actually one of the external manifestations that Toby had not fully mastered in his serpent-bird form.
After decelerating, Toby began to swim towards the target point at a normal speed underwater. According to Angel’s estimation, it would take only a few minutes to reach the reef area where Cindy and the others were located.
As they progressed towards their destination, Angel felt a slight movement on his arm and turned his head to find that Dangros, who had been clinging to his cloak, had silently extended a hand.
“Were you shaking like a sieve just now, and now you dare to come out?” Angel joked.
Dangros’s expression still showed signs of lingering fear: “When… when Lord Toby transformed into a serpent, the aura around him was terrifying. Moreover, there were so many huge monsters just now…”
This was why Dangros didn’t dare to even show his “head” earlier; it was simply too frightening.
“It’s good that there are not so many monsters here.” Dangros touched his mouth with his ring finger, looking relieved.
Angel initially found Dangros’s action amusing, but he quickly became stunned: “Right, it seems much quieter around here, doesn’t it?”
Angel sensed the surroundings, and apart from the not-so-large fish, he couldn’t see a single sea beast in the vicinity.
This was odd.
If this area wasn’t a Mist Zone, Angel might not have cared, but after experiencing the previous “feast of sea beasts,” he dared not view this sea area with the usual perspective.
In the depths of the Mist Zone, a region without sea beasts was definitely not normal.
Generally, there are three common reasons for the absence of sea beasts in an area: The first is that they can’t come. This is obviously not the case here, as there are no barriers nearby; if snakes and birds can arrive smoothly, other sea beasts can too.
The second reason is that they don’t want to come. This usually happens in the barren seas, where there’s no food, and sea beasts wouldn’t want to come over. But this clearly doesn’t match the current situation either, as this area seems quite rich, with a considerable number of fish, shellfish, shrimp…
Eliminating the above two possibilities, that leaves only the last one: they dare not come.
Generally, sea beasts have their own territories, and invading another sea beast’s territory will inevitably cause disputes. Therefore, many weaker sea beasts adhere to this rule as much as possible, avoiding entering other sea beasts’ areas to avoid becoming someone else’s meal.
Based on this situation, the absence of sea beasts nearby suggests a high possibility that this area is the territory of an extremely powerful sea beast.
Thinking of this, Angel remembered what Cindy had mentioned before: in the reef area, there was occasionally a giant sea beast, over a hundred meters long, roaming nearby, and Firo had even fought with this sea beast once.
Could the sea beast Cindy mentioned be the powerful sea beast of this sea area?
While Angel was pondering, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound.
This sound seemed extremely distant, carrying an ancient sense of vicissitude. Moreover, as the sound approached, Angel clearly saw that all the surrounding fish and shrimp were scared into hiding. What was once a bustling underwater world instantly became a desolate sea area.
Even though the sound was far away, the buzzing noise, as it passed through the purification field of the water, still caused a roaring in the ears.
“It seems my guess was correct; this is indeed the territory of that gigantic sea beast,” Angel said.
At that moment, the serpent-bird below suddenly made a “hiss hiss hiss——” sound.
Although the sound was low, it pierced through the buzzing noise like a sharp cone.
Angel looked at Toby, only to see a flash of madness in the serpent-bird’s crimson vertical pupils. Clearly, Toby had begun to be influenced by the sea beast, allowing the negative emotions that constituted its essence to gradually dominate its will.
Otherwise, given Toby’s cautious nature, it would definitely not contend with an unknown powerful sea beast at this time.
“Toby,” Angel called out Toby’s name while reaching out to touch Toby’s serpent crest, infusing gentle energy that quenched the chaos in Toby’s thoughts like cold water.
Soon, the madness in the vertical pupils was suppressed, and Toby’s gaze became clear again.
“We’re already close to our target. Change back, and we’ll fly directly there,” Angel communicated to Toby.
Toby seemed to remember the previous situation and nodded somewhat sheepishly.
The massive body of the serpent-bird began to shrink, quickly transforming into an ordinary-looking small seabird.
After catching Toby, Angel looked back at the distance.
The buzzing sound started to get louder, clearly, the serpent-bird’s “hiss” had attracted the other’s attention.
Moreover, the buzzing sound now carried a hint of anger that could be sensed.
From the other’s perspective, it was understandable. A demon had entered its territory and even made provocative noises; this was certainly intolerable.
“Let’s go,” Angel had no intention of starting a battle. His visit to the Mist Zone was not to waste time with these sea beasts.
With that, Angel’s figure swiftly flew out of the sea surface, standing tall in the high sky.
Because of the loud buzzing noise, the surrounding mist had dispersed quite a bit. Standing in the high sky, one could faintly see a huge shadow in the distance, swimming towards their location.
Chapter 2361 Time Changes the World <TOC> Chapter 2363 The Purple Beast