Chapter 162
[You have entered the Tower's 48th Floor (EXTREME).]
I entered the 48th Floor.
By now, I was getting used to the deep-sea scenery too.
Luckily, there was no eye-searing glare like last time.
The hypnotic lanterns were toned down to something that only lit up the surroundings normally.
I remembered how Teech had used this light to catch a ton of fish last time.
"Caught anything this time?"
"Haven't seen a fish in sight for days. I even threw out the net, but didn't catch a thing."
This time, Teech had taken off all his eye patches and was grumbling.
I quietly observed Teech for a moment. Something about him felt a little off.
"You didn't eat the fish gems you got last time?"
"I did, didn't I?"
"You didn't stash them away, did you?"
"Why?"
"For someone who ate them all, your strength hasn't gone up much. I've got a good eye."
"Maybe it's because I shared some with the crew?"
"No, why would you share those?"
I pointed at the sailors with my finger.
The slackers were sprawled out everywhere.
"Aaah~ I wanna plunder something~."
"I want to see sunlight...."
Is this what a soldier looks like after his leave gets cut?
They looked half-mad after spending more than a month in the deep sea, where they couldn't see the sun or another human being.
"You gave something that precious to guys like this?"
"That's just how pirates are. Though I did eat the most of them, of course."
Teech grinned and patted his stomach.
The guy sure showed loyalty in weird places.
"Haa, forget it. Since you ate them, let's see if you're earning your keep. Hey, somebody, anyone, step forward."
At my words, the bosun stepped forward nervously.
He had a burly inverted-triangle build.
He looked to be close to 200 centimeters tall.
"We'll begin the captain's combat tournament~!"
The bosun went pale at my declaration.
He was timid, despite his size.
He said in a tiny voice,
"A-are we seriously supposed to fight you, Captain?"
"No? That'd be too much."
He wouldn't stand a chance against me.
Even if I didn't use magic, it'd be the same.
With all the stat bonuses I'd stacked up, my strength was already higher than most Hunters.
There was a more suitable sparring partner.
"Bosun! Your opponent is~ Chohogi!"
I set Chohogi down on the ground.
At the same time, Chohogi began sucking up the surrounding sand and growing bigger and bigger.
In an instant, it was eye level with me.
"Fight all you want."
[...!]
Chohogi flashed a confident grin, then clenched its fists. A boxing stance.
Swish, swish. Whoosh, whoosh.
It had apparently seen someone do it before; the way it threw jabs and bobbed side to side was pretty cute.
"Haha, maybe if it were its giant size, but at this size...."
The bosun laughed heartily and charged in.
Thwack!
"Ghk!"
But the laughter didn't last even a second.
One jab from Chohogi sent the bosun crashing to the ground with a nosebleed. He rolled back his eyes and passed out.
....
I was surprised too.
When had Chohogi gotten this strong?
Come to think of it, it had been growing this whole time too.
It had eaten spirit essence, and the phoenix fruit was still growing. It had even eaten a precious gem recently.
So its specs must have increased in their own way.
"Dial it back and go easy. Just enough for them to test it...."
[?]
"Yeah, match Mr. Jeong Manho."
[...!]
Chohogi nodded as if it understood and swung a cotton-soft fist.
"This time, Teech, you go."
"H-heh, heh...."
Teech let out an awkward laugh, looking at the subordinate stretched out on the floor.
"Can I use a gun?"
"It won't work."
"I don't think my fists are stronger than a gun, though?"
"You're too chatty. Just do it."
Teech reluctantly loosened up and stepped in.
"Start!"
At my signal, Teech rushed in.
He was more agile than I'd expected. Apparently, all that experience from living as a pirate captain doesn't just disappear.
Swish, swish!
Teech narrowly dodged Chohogi's fists, looking for an opening.
Chohogi had definitely eased up, because its speed had slowed.
"Hup!"
Teech had a better build than most martial artists too.
He went all out with a tackle.
Thud!
Chohogi lost its balance and fell over.
Not missing the chance, he immediately mounted it and went for a chokehold.
"It's over!"
[?]
But Chohogi didn't breathe.
Even with its throat being squeezed, it just stared at Teech blankly.
But Teech didn't give up and kept clinging stubbornly.
The situation held like that for a while.
I stopped the match at that point.
"That's enough, enough. Teech wins!"
"Hah.... I won...."
Teech, drenched in sweat, collapsed onto the floor.
Seeing that, I fell into thought.
"If he's this good with pure physical ability and no item help.... He could go toe-to-toe with an A-rank Hunter."
Then Teech would be lower-tier A-rank.
The crew would be around B-rank, I guess?
That was on par with the combat power of a decent guild.
"Can't a person fit in a pocket?"
Just in case, I tried to stuff Teech's foot into my pocket while he was lying down, but it wouldn't go in any farther past a certain point.
Should I just awaken them as mages?
A bit of sand should do the trick. If one doesn't take, I'll just give up on him.
If I could liquefy their whole bodies like the black mage did, I'd be able to carry them out.
If I hauled all of them out and unleashed them on Earth, I might even become Pirate King.
The ship even had unlimited submerging capabilities, so restoring Earth's seas to normal wasn't out of the question.
I was grinning to myself over those silly fantasies when—
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Suddenly, I felt a strange vibration.
Considering we were in the middle of the sea, it was downright odd.
"What the hell?!"
A gigantic column of water shot up from directly beneath the ship.
The ship flipped in an instant, spinning a full turn underwater.
"Captain!"
Fortunately, most of the crew had lifelines tied around their waists, so they weren't swept out to sea.
But I wasn't wearing one.
"Gwah!"
I was flung from the ship in an instant.
Cold seawater surged into my nose and mouth.
My lungs filled with water.
I reacted quickly. I rapidly turned all my organs except my heart into sand, then took a piece of coral from my pocket and bit down on it.
"Phew...."
My breathing finally returned to normal.
It suddenly occurred to me that, if this kept happening, maybe it'd be safer to live in sand form all the time.
Then my organs wouldn't need to function; I'd only need to protect my heart.
But I still had a faint sense of resistance.
[Sand Worm advises that you do not yet need to abandon your identity as a human.]
"I guess so?"
In terms of efficiency alone, not making a head at all would actually be right.
A black-mage-like form might be better for survival.
Maybe it'd even be more convenient.
But the psychological resistance was enormous.
I wanted to keep my human form.
I could make six arms or even three heads if I really tried.
I just wasn't doing it because I didn't really want to.
Though maybe, being half-done with being human already, it was just a pointless attachment or stubbornness.
[Sand Worm advises that this is not yet the stage for serious concern.]
"Right, for now I need to focus on what's in front of me."
I nodded.
Sand Worm was, unusually, giving actual advice.
First, let's deal with the current crisis.
Looking around, I could still see the ship spinning like a top.
"What the hell is going on?"
I looked around. What was causing this?
When I looked down, I saw the culprit behind all of this.
A giant shell.
Several holes jutted out on top of it, like volcanic vents.
A turtle carrying a volcano on its back seemed to be this floor's enemy.
"Starting from the 45th Floor, is it all just giant monster specials?"
White whale, giant anglerfish, giant sea anemone, giant turtle....
What's next? A giant sea cucumber?
Seems this floor's gimmick is just overwhelming with sheer size.
"First, I'll get back to the ship...."
Just as I was about to swim over—
Another powerful water cannon blasted out from the shell's vents.
"Ungh!"
It felt like getting hit by an eight-ton truck at full throttle.
My automatic sand barrier shattered in one shot.
The impact sent my body spinning again.
When I came to, I found myself far above where I had been.
I had been flung all the way up to the part where sunlight reached the sea.
"It'll take forever to get back down there...."
There was no other way.
I burned through precious faith and teleported to the flag.
Poof!
In an instant, I was back on the ship, where I saw Teech gripping the wheel, his teeth clenched.
"You're back, Captain?"
"Yeah. But getting close isn't easy."
"How about that thing from last time? The staff that sprays water everywhere!"
"Oh, that?"
At that, I remembered the method I had used when I caught the giant sea anemone last time.
The White Whale Bone Staff.
It had the ability to absorb moisture.
When the absorbed moisture exceeded the limit, it had a function that expelled it backward.
A kind of underwater jet pack.
"Good, let's try it right now."
I pointed the staff toward the sea.
Bone-dry mode. Full power.
Kua-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The staff began sucking in the seawater itself.
In an instant, it filled to capacity.
"Fire!"
Pshoooo!
Holes on the back of the staff opened, and a compressed jet of water blasted out.
The thrust was beyond imagination.
My body shot forward like a rocket.
Perhaps sensing my approach, water cannons fired in succession from below.
With uncanny control, I weaved between the jets.
Before I knew it, I had reached the creature's back.
Thud!
It was the moment I landed on its shell.
"Huh?"
The ground glowed red.
Boom! Kaboom!
Mines exploded one after another.
"Agh! Aaaagh! My ankle!"
My ankle flew off far away.
But it was sand anyway.
The scattered sand around it quickly reattached.
Truthfully, it didn't even hurt.
I just felt like I had to scream at least once because my ankle had been blown off.
"Nice try."
I moved up in front of its head.
A section of bare flesh, unprotected by the shell.
I stretched out my arm.
My main attack, the sand blade I'd started using as often as bullets, formed.
Slash!
Blood spurted up.
But I couldn't cut it cleanly. Its skin was thicker than I expected.
The creature hurriedly pulled its injured head back into its shell.
A seemingly perfect defensive posture.
"Oh, really...?"
I brought the sand blade down on the shell.
Clang!
But it only carved deeper scratches; there was no sign of it being cut through.
It seemed extremely tough.
"It's basically stone.... Hm?"
Come to think of it, stone is my specialty too.
Time to show some originality for the first time in a while.
I extended my fingertip and touched the hard shell.
My first legendary skill. Weathering.
I drew up my mana.
The natural law by which rock turns to sand.
A spell that shortened that time.
Fwoooosh!
The once-hard rocky shell instantly turned to powder and began scattering away.
"Kieek?"
The turtle looked around in confusion, as if startled that its house had suddenly vanished.
I could see its wound already beginning to regenerate.
There was no time to hesitate.
"Goodbye."
This time, I scraped up the seafloor sand and attached it to my arm.
A giant blade, as big as a pirate ship, was formed.
"Decapitation."
Crunch!
This time for sure, the giant blade cleanly severed its head.
The turtle's head rolled across the floor.
"Phew...."
I caught my breath.
Sometimes using my body like this wasn't so bad.
It was a decent workout, in its own way.
"Anything useful this time?"
Just in case, I rummaged through the turtle's corpse.
Maybe something usable would pop out, like with the sea anemone or the deep-sea anglerfish last time.
"Ah, the shell...."
Only then did I realize what the most iconic and useful material was.
But by then, it had all already turned to sand.
I was looking over the remaining parts with regret when—
I spotted something wrapped around its foot.
"What's this?"