Versatile mage c1 2021, p.347
Versatile Mage c1-2021, page 347
The others nodded in agreement after hearing Zhao Manyan's explanation.
The groups of Magicians were responsible for eliminating the sea creatures and risking their lives to defend the fortress. In order to make more money, the parties would compete fiercely for job opportunities, while the government's role was to maintain the order by setting the rules, and hide behind the line of defense and count their profits.
"It's far from our concern. It seems like we have been allocated to the twentieth zone, which is very close to the nineteenth zone where we stumbled into the two Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts. Guess who the zone master is?" said Nanyu.
"Who is it?" asked Ai Jiangtu.
"Take a look yourself," Nanyu turned the monitor around.
On the screen was a photo. The zone master was a plump middle-aged man with curly hair, small eyes and a big nose, the typical kind of Magician who once possessed great talents at his youth, but became a tyrant in middle age.
Normally, this kind of person would possess an impressive cultivation, but they no longer had the passion to pursue further levels of cultivation. The reputation and connections they established in the past granted them resources to either manage other Magicians or become a supplier of magic equipment.
It was the same for many Magicians, who worked as Hunters when they were young and would go on adventures fearlessly. However, once they reached thirty-five, they started focusing on doing business. Their skills would turn rusty. Their weight gain was the most convincing proof.
"Do we know this person?" asked Jiang Yu with a confused look.
"We don't, but don't you think the orange-hair beside him looks familiar?" Nanyu pointed out.
Jiang Shaoxu took a closer look and immediately blurted out, "Isn't he the one who was particularly attentive to Mu Ningxue, and tried to save her? So he's the son of the twentieth zone's master?"
"Awesome, we'll ask Mu Ningxue to have a little chat with him, and ask his dad to give us four stars. Mission accomplished!..." proposed Jiang Yu excitedly.
He immediately saw a few cold gazes directed at him, belonging to Guan Yu, Jiang Shaoxu, and Zhao Manyan.
Jiang Yu's excitement withered instantly. He said with an awkward laugh, "I was just kidding… by the way, is Mu Ningxue alright? It feels like the arrow drained away all her energy. I wonder if she can recover in time for the tide rise the day after tomorrow."
"What difference does it make? Even if she fought to her death, she still won't get any resources. Perhaps she's not willing to wake up because she doesn't want to participate in the battle," sniffed Mu Tingying.
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Between the tall dam and the short dam were several gray-white buildings. When the orange light of the rising sun shone upon the East Maritime Fortress, it did not leave any color on the buildings. They were still the same dull gray...
The Japanese did not plan to beautify the town when they built it. Even though the town was half-built through sea reclamation, and was facing a beautiful ocean, it was constantly at war with the creatures of the sea. As such, the mood of the town was basically a mix of heavy gray and mourning white!
A slanted light ray squeezed its way past the black curtain through the glassless window and lit up the pitch-black room. The light landed on the side of a pale, yet attractive face. The disheveled silver hair over her face shimmered.
Mu Ningxue opened her eyes when she felt the warmth of the sunlight. The beam landed right on her eyes. She subconsciously raised her hand to cover her eyes.
After covering her eyes from the sunlight, she soon realized her hand was fully covered in frost. The chill spread to her face.
She immediately hid her hand under the blanket in a panic, not sure if she wanted to avoid seeing it, or if she was trying to warm it up under the blanket. As a result, the whole bed was cold.
"Is there going to be a day when I won't wake up anymore?" Mu Ningxue slowly curled up under the blanket. Her slender figure suddenly felt rather tiny.
She had already forgot when it all started, but every time she fell asleep was like being trapped in a dark ice cellar. No matter how many layers of blankets she had, no matter how many fires she had around her, she could not feel any heat. Her skin was cold, her bones were icy, her blood was frosty...
Many people thought it was the perfect gift one could ever wish for, a magical talent from the Heavens, but only she knew what it truly was.
She proceeded to wash her face and rinse her mouth. It was only dawn, and no one was awake. Mu Ningxue left her room and headed toward the sea.
----
At the shorter dam, the waves were splashing endlessly on the shore, around thirty meters away from the ten-meter-tall dam.
There were patrols on the dam. They consisted of Japanese Magicians in green-yellow coats, the thick kind that were too heavy for the wind to blow around.
Mu Ningxue found herself an empty spot. She was thinking of spending some quiet time on her own.
However, it was difficult for her to be alone, as someone would always muster up their courage and approach her.
This time it was a rather shy boy. Mu Ningxue could tell he was nervous by his stammering, yet he was trying his very best to talk in a jovial mood.
The young man had never hit on a girl before. It was most likely his first time mustering up his courage to approach a girl, but it was nothing worth respecting.
No one enjoyed being alone, but it did not necessarily mean a lonely person would prefer chatting with a person who could not even express himself clearly.
Chapter 814 - The Drowning Curse of the East Maritime Fortress
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Mu Ningxue never assumed she was born a heavenly beauty. She mostly assumed that these brainless men were only attracted by her extraordinary hair and skin.
As a matter of fact, she was only different because she was sick, yet many men still fell for her. She thought that most men were retarded.
"Are you a Magician too?" the shy young man around the age of twenty asked softly.
The man had black hair and was wearing simple clothes. He was fair-looking, and his eyes were bright, granting him a clean appearance. He was not the kind that people would find annoying at first sight.
"Mmm," replied Mu Ningxue non-committedly.
"Why are you here so early? Is something bothering you?... I'm Senba, I'm here as an intern. Oh, right, I'm from Waseda University," Senba sat beside Mu Ningxue, yet remained the distance of a body away. He did not dare to get too close, as he was afraid she would feel uncomfortable.
Mu Ningxue did not reply. She would not easily tell other people her name, let alone tell the man that she was a representative on the national team.
Although Senba was shy, he was smart enough to realize that the girl was not willing to reveal her information. He quickly changed the topic.
He was clearly acting unnaturally. He stared at the waves splashing on the shore as if he was going to comment on the fine weather, but instead said, "The tide has fallen off further this time. The next tide rise is going to be dangerous. I wonder if the zone masters are able to hold the creatures off… there better not be sea monsters with the ability to create illusions..."
"How is the wave related to the sea monsters?" asked Mu Ningxue.
Senba's eyes flickered. It seemed like he had chosen the right topic. He forced himself to calm down and clear his thoughts before explaining with a firm voice, "Most sea monsters are used to fighting at waterlogged places, especially the armies of sea monsters that have been posing a threat to the East Maritime Fortress. As such, a battle usually takes place when the tide rises. Once the tide rises above the shorter dam, the sea monsters will ride along the waves and invade the fortress. Similarly, when the tide falls, the army of sea monsters will withdraw from the fortress, too! Therefore, the higher the tide, the greater the number of sea monsters that are going to invade the fortress!"
Mu Ningxue had gone back to her room when Lai Hengbao was explaining the situation of the fortress to the team. Therefore, she had no clue about the situation of the East Maritime Fortress.
"If the tide falls further away, does that mean the next tide rise is going to be higher?" Mu Ningxue looked at the tide that was gradually moving away from the dam.
"Yes. Many people think the ocean is mysterious and unpredictable, but the truth is, there's a certain predictability to it. If we can carefully observe its behavior, it allows us to take some safety precautions beforehand… on top of that, no matter how strong the sea monsters are, or how overwhelming their numbers are, they still have to follow the rise and fall of the tide. If we understand the ocean, we'll be able to understand the sea monsters too!" Senba was speaking more fluently. He clearly had put in some effort into researching the tide, and so was feeling more confident!
Mu Ningxue nodded.
Senba was about to explain further after finding the right topic when some noises came from nearby all of a sudden.
The soldiers were yelling, and there were people running, too.
Mu Ningxue followed the noise and saw a petite woman running away from the dam and headed for the sea while ignoring the warnings from the people around her.
"Water, water, water!"
The woman dived into the ocean, as if she was dying of thirst after spending a long time in a desert!
"Quick, save her!" Senba immediately panicked and screamed at the soldiers while pointing at the woman.
Mu Ningxue was fairly confused. Even though it was dangerous to go beyond the dam, there was no sign of any sea monsters along the shore. The woman should be safe still, right?
Senba jumped off the dam and ran straight toward the woman...
Mu Ningxue was even more confused when she saw lots of soldiers making their way toward the woman.
She jumped down from the dam and cast a Wind Track to overtake Senba.
Senba was startled when he saw Mu Ningxue elegantly floated past him as her silver hair was drifting in the wind. He quickly yelled at Mu Ningxue, "Don't let her touch the water, or she's going to die!"
Mu Ningxue immediately quickened her pace to catch up to the woman after seeing the serious look on his face.
However, when she approached the shore, she immediately witnessed a shocking sight. Her feet were soaked in the water as a wave splashed on the shore...
A completely lifeless corpse!
The woman that was well alive a moment ago had turned into a corpse. She was lying flat on the water. Her skin had no sign of blood. It had turned from pale-white to purple.
The body stiffened fairly quickly. Normally, it would take rigor mortis around two hours to set in, yet the woman's corpse had already stiffened.
The soldiers finally arrived at the scene. One of them flipped the corpse over. The woman's eyes were wide open. Her lower jaw was extended as if it was fractured. Blue veins were scattered densely under her pale-white skin, which was almost transparent. She looked like a victim who had died from drowning, and had been dead for quite some time.
"Another one… " the soldier who flipped the corpse let out a sigh.
"It's my fault, I didn't manage to stop her in time. I thought she was only taking a stroll," spoke up the other Japanese soldier with regret.
As they were talking, Senba finally arrived. After taking a glance, apart from a hint of sorrow, he seemed to be extremely angry!
He crouched in front of the corpse and swiftly put on some gloves that he had brought with him before unbuttoning the woman's clothes.
"You… what are you doing!? Asshole, how can you humiliate her like that, even though she's already dead!..." yelled a soldier furiously.
Senba lifted his gaze. He looked like a completely different person from the shy boy from before. His eyes were glittering with determination as he spoke, "It's the only chance I have to inspect a corpse that has just died recently. I must solve the mystery of the strange disease!"
The outraged soldier still thought it was too impolite to do so, but the older soldier beside him stopped him.
The aged soldier studied the serious face of Senba and said, "Let him continue. There have been lots of cases like this recently, but we still don't know what's causing them."
Mu Ningxue turned away when Senba began to perform an autopsy on the corpse. Either way, it was too gruesome to watch the man do his work.
"What's happening?" Mu Ningxue asked the aged soldier.
"It's the drowning curse, a terrifying thing that has been happening in the East Maritime Fortress for a long time. Once in a while, there will be people who suddenly rush toward the ocean out of nowhere and died of drowning in just a few seconds," said the young soldier before the older soldier could say a word.
The aged soldier glared at the young soldier before giving a clearer explanation, "We've considered it a disease, but no one knows what it is exactly… it's a relief that it doesn't happen too often, and everyone thinks the number of people that die of the disease is negligible compared to the people that die in battles against the sea monsters, so nobody is treating it seriously."
Chapter 815 - Without a Sign
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
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"Drowning curse?" Nan Rongni looked at Mu Ningxue with a terrified expression.
According to Mu Ningxue's description, the drowning curse had been around in the East Maritime Fortress for quite some time. There were quite a number of cases of the drowning curse too, but since the town was on a maritime battlefield, the demon creatures were blamed for their deaths. The victims did not show any signs prior to their death, and did not leave any clues behind, either. As a result, no one could really explain the cause of the drowning curse.
"It sounds spooky enough," admitted Jiang Shaoxu.
"The intern also told me that his group has conducted autopsies on a corpse before, but they didn't find any clues from it. However, not long afterwards, a member of the group was killed by the drowning curse… the scariest thing about it is that there isn't any sign at all, like the occurrence is happening to people in the East Maritime Fortress randomly," Mu Ningxue told them.
"Even if it's a strange disease, there must be a reason for it. How is it possible to not have any clue about the drowning curse?" asked Nan Rongni.
Mu Ningxue shook her head. She had gone to ask around and collect information about the drowning curse, but all she learned was that there was not any sign or clue about it.
"Strange, aren't the Japanese scared? If something like this happened in our country, the people would go nuts," said Jiang Shaoxu.
"We're in the East Maritime Fortress. Lots of people die at the hands of the demon creatures every tide rise. The drowning curse doesn't happen often in comparison..."
"There are still people dying. How could they ignore it just because there are fewer casualties? It would be troublesome if it turns out to be some kind of epidemic! Does anyone know about the plague in Hangzhou, the people didn't think it was anything serious, but more people started dying, and in the end, they figured out that it was the doing of the Silver Skyruler from the mountains in the west!" rebuked Jiang Yu in a serious voice.
"But the defense of the fortress in Hangzhou is pretty solid. Even a pack of demon creatures won't be able to do any damage to it. Didn't they find a solution to the plague pretty quickly? I heard a young man managed to find the cure, I think his name was Wang Xiaojun or something..." said Zhou Xu.
"Do you seriously think it was that simple?" refuted Jiang Yu, who proceeded to explain, "The Silver Skyruler is an old ancestor for the Heavenly Eagles. Back then, the army of Heavenly Eagles started revolting. Luckily, the general in charge decisively commanded the soldiers to kill them in time… they spent millions on the Heavenly Eagles, yet they all died at the hands of their riders. You have no idea how cruel it was!"
"Are you for real?" Everyone's eyes widened. The news did not mention anything that Jiang Yu had told them.
"There are lots of incidents that are not reported by the news. Do you know that the plague was actually started by a Councilman who was producing fake blood serums?" added Jiang Yu.
"Damn, are you serious?"
"Fake blood serums? Did he really dare to produce something like that? Was that even possible?"
Jiang Yu harrumphed coldly when he saw everyone's reaction, "A plague is a lot scarier than a curse. Normally, a curse only affects a single entity, but a plague will bring doom upon a whole community. In my opinion, the Japanese government should pay more attention to it. It will be too late to do anything if it turns into a plague!"
Mu Ningxue nodded. She had witnessed how the woman ended up despite her lively appearance just a minute before. Most terrifyingly, she could not forget how the woman was running toward the ocean insanely prior to her death.
"It's none of our business anyway, what's the point of discussing it here? Why are we being worried when the Japanese government doesn't even care?" Guan Yu thought otherwise.
"There are always diseases that we can never explain. Perhaps those people are feeling depressed from the pressure of fighting the sea monsters every day, so they took some drug and jumped into the sea to kill themselves!" Li Kaifeng also agreed that the incident was too ridiculous.
"Let's focus on tomorrow. I've already asked around the fortress. The tide has fallen further away this time, which means the tide rise tomorrow is going to be extreme. We should replenish the energies of the equipment we have and make sure they are ready for the battle tomorrow. Remember to get your hands on some emergency healing serums, too. Make sure you have enough supply of antidotes. Sea monsters are infamous for their poison. Don't lower your guard!" Nanyu warned them.
