Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 488 - 52 Exploration Inside the Sunken Ship 1

Chapter 488: Chapter 52 Exploration Inside the Sunken Ship 1

Compared to the clarity of seawater outside the cabin, the water inside was relatively murky. Silt had accumulated on the floor beneath their feet, and debris floated on the cabin’s ceiling. If accidentally gulping down a mouthful of seawater, one could taste a decaying flavor permeated in it. Everything in the corridor was nearly still, much like it was when the silence had just descended. Walking along this passageway, one could almost see the imagined visuals of panicking sailors stumbling out of their rooms, only to be knocked down by the incoming high-pressure waves, rolling helplessly down the hallway as their desperate screams echoed throughout the ship.

As the water surged, Pannis suddenly shot up diagonally, the dagger in his hand slicing through the water and stabbing into the debris above. Catherine, closely following him, raised her shield to guard Pannis the moment his dagger was withdrawn, forming perfect cover coordination without any gap. However, Pannis managed a bitter smile, shaking his head and saying, "I was wrong; it’s this thing."

Impaled on Pannis’s dagger was a giant mantis shrimp over one meter long, its two claws were larger than a human face, with uneven protrusions on them, making it look even more ferocious. The shrimp’s brain had been pierced by Pannis’s dagger, its body devoid of life, though its five pairs of legs were still twitching in the water. Especially the two legs that had turned into claws were striking in the water forcefully, the girls had no doubt that if it got hold of an ordinary person or a lower-rank professional, its pincers would snap their bones right in two. The mantis shrimp had been provoked by the light, and made a slight movement in the debris. But even such a subtle motion was starkly evident in the perfectly still cabin, thus bringing great trouble upon itself.

"Well..." Pannis looked somewhat embarrassed at his spoils stuck on his dagger and casually offered it to Lina, letting the pincers wave in front of her, "Tonight we can have mantis shrimp for dinner. It’s said that eaten raw, it tastes exceptionally fresh and is not fishy at all."

"If you want to eat it, fine, but we are not from the Sea Race. Uh, it’s really ugly." Lina reached out and prodded Pannis’s waist. As Pannis dodged around, she snatched the weakening mantis shrimp, curiously gazing at it for a while, then said, "We are not accustomed to eating underwater. No desire to spit out seawater with every bite, we better stick with our special liquid food for underwater."

"Hey, give that back. That’s my prey." Pannis glared at Lina fiercely.

"Now it’s mine." With no outsiders around and the surroundings relatively quiet, Lina instantly revealed her true colors. Acting like a reckless child, she mimicked Pannis’s gestures, putting the mantis shrimp close up to Pannis and making its claws threaten him into a retreat, "Snap you, snap you."

"Enough of this." Catherine snatched the dying mantis shrimp and threw it aside, glaring at Pannis discontentedly, "You are messing around too, have a look at where we are. And you, Lina, save the play until we reach a safer place. We can’t be sure if this place is safe yet."

"Hmm." Lina pouted, her head lowered in response, earning Joyful smirks from Vivian and Freya.

"We are almost done with the first level." Catherine coughed intentionally,"There are twenty-four crew rooms, two weapon rooms, and one dining room. But we found nothing of value - in any sense - not even a single gold coin. Including the corpses in the cabins along the corridor, the total count is..."

"Ninety-two." Pannis interjected, "If we assume six sailors per room and every room was fully occupied, there should have been a total of one hundred forty-four sailors on the first level. Up till now, we have found nearly two-thirds of them, quite a large percentage."

"But according to what you said, this does not mean much. It’s clear that they might have been suddenly pulled to the seabed." Catherine grumbled with dissatisfaction, "Let’s go to the second level. Maybe we will find something there."

"Actually, there’s an issue with the first level itself." Pannis, stroking his chin, said with interest, "Have you ever been on a sea ship? Not passenger ships, but cargo ships or sailor carriers."

"We have taken passenger ships but not cargo ones," Catherine and Freya spoke up simultaneously while Lina and Vivian shook their heads, having never taken any kind of sea ship.

"All cargo ships arrange their cabins in a common manner," Pannis explained, "The first level is the most spacious and closest to the deck, even having windows, making it the best accommodations on the ship. Therefore, the captain’s quarters and rooms of deputy captains and mid-level ship crew are located here. The remaining rooms are given to the robust frontline force because they’ll be first in line during battles, and thus deserve the best treatment. As for ordinary sailors, their quarters will only be on the second or third levels. But this ship is arranged the opposite way, with ordinary sailor cabins on the topmost level."

"So what?" Catherine enquired when she noticed Pannis stopped speaking, "What does this imply?"

"Who knows?" Pannis shrugged, speaking as though this had nothing to do with him, "I just noticed this unreasonable arrangement, but as to the exact reason, how could I know? I didn’t build this ship, nor am I the captain."

Catherine rolled her eyes and turned to walk away, "Let’s go, be cautious along the way. There are no windows from the second level onwards; it’s complete darkness, beware of creatures lurking in the dark."

The connection between the first and second levels was a short staircase. They didn’t blindly jump into the darkness below the entrance but instead cautiously stepped down each stair. The second level was obviously narrower than the first, but cleaner. The first level corridor’s ceiling had many debris fragments floating on it, whereas the second had none, it was clean except for the corpses. Yes, there were dozens of bodies on the second level, too, but no one was foolish enough to think these were sailors’ corpses. And they weren’t floating on top of the corridor; rather, they lay still and quiet on the corridor floor.

These corpses were covered in thick scale armor. Although the metal plates had long since rusted and decayed, years of undisturbed rest had allowed them to stay in their original places, their hefty weight pinning the bodies down and preventing them from floating. The rusted scale armor was now so unrecognizable that it was impossible to infer their identities from their appearance. Each body was equipped with a standard long sword, but these alloy-forged weapons were also heavily rusted.

"This sword design, it feels familiar, as if I’ve seen it in a drawing before," Lina pondered with her head in her hands, she gnashed her teeth and said, "Please wait for a while, let me go and check, I think one of them should have seen it."

The others watched as Lina stood still for a moment, her eyes suddenly brightening. Just as she was about to speak, she was abruptly submerged in seawater. After forcefully spitting out the water in her mouth, she once again donned her superior expression and spoke using the underwater voice, "Loathsome, lowly beings, I am back. You will now offer up your souls for my consumption. Being devoured by me is your greatest honor."

"She actually managed to summon it," Catherine said massaging her brow, "Is there no one else?"

"What do you mean by ’no one else’?" Lina growled furiously, "Is there something unsatisfactory about my presence?"

"No, no," Pannis quickly shook his head, "How dare we show any discontentment to Queen Isabella."

"That’s more like it." The young Queen Isabella returned to her smug demeanor, "So, what do you want me to see?"

"This." Vivian stooped down to pick up a long sword and held it up to Isabella’s face, "Take a sniff and help us find others like it."

"You jerk, I’m not a dog!" Isabella immediately hopped up from her spot in annoyance, flailing her arms to express her anger, "I’ll punish you and devour your soul."

"Alright, alright, Vivian, stop bothering her." Catherine gave a sigh of resignation. She reached out to touch Lina’s silver hair that came from Isabella, gently saying, "Please help us, Lina said you know the source of this kind of sword, thank you."

Isabella squinted comfortably, enjoying Catherine’s touch for a while. She brushed his head in Catherine’s palm and finally said, "Fine, I’ll grudgingly tell you. I’ve seen this kind of weapon before. It’s a standard military weapon of a small country not far from our Holy Soya Kingdom. We even seized a batch of them during the war. What was that country called? Dunk? Dakken? I think it was Dakken, I can’t remember clearly."

"A small country from the Third Epoch?" Catherine asked quietly, "Standard military weapon?"

"There’s no doubt about it." Isabella nodded, "The scale armor they’re wearing is also the standard equipment of the professional troops in their military. Although they’re just lower rank professionals, their combat power is pretty decent."

"So these are not sailors after all." Pannis and Catherine exchanged glances and said, "This is a small military force composed solely of professionals."

"It’s becoming more complicated." Catherine said with a puzzled expression, "There’s no reason for the army to be here, and to have conflicts with the Sea Race. It’s so strange."

"Is that it?" Isabella said with a disgusted look on her face, "If there isn’t anything else, I’m leaving. I don’t want to hang out with these fanatics. Even being around their bodies makes my skin crawl."

"Hold on, did you just say they are fanatics?" Catherine paused and asked keenly, "Dakken or Dunk, was it a theocracy? Was their army composed of believers?"

"Yeah, didn’t I mention it?" Isabella said, "They..."

"Who?" Pannis suddenly shouted. Turning swiftly, he positioned himself to protect the three relatively fragile girls. At the same time, Catherine, who heard Pannis’ shout, didn’t hesitate and lifted her shield to meet the three figures rushing out from the darkness. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users can go to m.qidian.com to read.)