Chapter 428: Inside the Beast?
The Captain gripped the wheel of his ship as he stood at the stern. Soon enough, the ship began to turn towards the direction where the Leviathan’s corpse was resting.
And while this was happening, Lillian leaned against the wooden rails of the ship as she looked down at the centre of her hand.
What she was holding was a singular earring shaped like two serpentine heads curling towards each other with their fangs almost touching. It seemed to be made out of an azure solid material that had a glossy sheen to it.
==
[Item Name: Drowned Leviathan’s Earring]
[Item Type: Accessory]
[Item Grade: B]
[Item Rank: 4]
[Item Description: Inside one of the Sea Temples of one of the Four Mighty Sea Kings, a two-headed serpent was born. After being groomed to become a mighty mount for a Trench Dwellers for him to take into battle during the Drowning War, it was later repurposed to act as a protector for its weakened master, who was now reduced to a mere empty shell of his former self.]
[Enchantments: Parallel Thinking, Twin-Headed Fury, Drowned King’s Blessing, Leviathan’s Wrath]
[Parallel Thinking: The wearer will be able to do two different tasks at the same time with the only cost of mental strength.]
[Twin-headed Fury: Grants the wearer the ability to conjure plasmatic heads of the Twin-headed Seawater Leviathan and control them. Only after they were to be called back or destroyed, they will still continue to be active as long as the wearer has mana—cooldown after disappearance: 10 Minutes]
[Drowned King’s Blessing: The wearer’s affinity with controlling water further increases; any water-based attack made by the wearer would be twice as effective; the wearer will be able to breathe underwater.]
[Leviathan’s Wrath: Once per day, the wearer will be able to channel and fire a destructive and condensed beam of plasma-infused water at the cost of 30% of the user’s mana.]
==
’This...’
Lillian looked down at the earrings as she read the jewellery’s Item Description. Her eyes trembled slightly as her breathing became slightly unstable.
She...
She really did beat the Leviathan...
Lillian gulped heavily as her eyes read over each and every single word.
Besides a few exceptions, wasn’t this one of her most useful Items yet? Although it didn’t beat her boots, which she had been sadly told to be destroyed—in terms of versatility—it was still a powerful accessory nonetheless.
Lillian turned it around a few times, then held it to her ear. In her past life, she wasn’t one for jewellery; she didn’t know how to put on earrings. However, with the help of "past Lillian’s" memories, she was able to get it down.
And once Lillian finally managed to pierce it through her ear, a dark shadow suddenly fell over her. She was confused the moment it happened, but when she slowly raised her gaze...
"What the..."
She found the corpse of what she assumed to be the Twin-headed Seawater Leviathan magically floating on the surface of the water, despite how it was.
Not only was its body charred for some reason, but it was also missing both of its heads.
And for the head she was able to find, she was able to deduce that a major part of its neck was missing, as if it had engaged in a fierce brawl with a savage beast and lost.
Lillian’s eyes continued to tremble and widen.
Did both she and the Captain really inflict such dreadful wounds on the beast? Could it be she was "hard carried" by the bearded man?
’I bet that’s what happened...’
In the game, the Captain would be able to put down the Leviathan—which was injured from its battle on the frontlines—after a certain period of time.
"Ya really are amazing, Lillian..."
Lillian turned back around at the sound of her name and found no one standing behind her. She raised an eyebrow before turning back around and jumping at the sight of Viesta standing beside her.
She stared at the Cowgirl with a startled look before sighing, "You scared me..." After calming down, she answered, "I’m not really... I’m just moderately strong, not much, but enough for someone on my level."
The corners of Viesta’s mouth twitched irritably. There was no way she was going to believe that...
And her thoughts were confirmed when the Captain slowly strolled down the stairs to his stern with a casual look and heard him say:
"Arr... Yar was the one to cause this beheading, matey. Yar memories truly was thrown overboard."
Lillian looked at him and watched as he sharpened the edges of his cutlass while walking down the stairs. She nodded, still wondering why her memories were so fuzzy...
After scratching the side of her head, her lips slowly curled up into a broad and mischievous grin as she looked towards the Captain and asked:
"So... The Leviathan is dead, right?"
The Captain nodded strongly.
"As dead as today’s waves, not a single good wave in sight—"
As soon as the Captain answered the girl’s question, she suddenly watched as the girl leapt into the sea with a clumsy dive.
"..."
The Captain, having just processed what had just happened, raised an eyebrow as he took a step towards the rails of the ship. He then looked down and watched as—
Splash...
—Lillian fell into the water.
Both Viesta and the Captain gave each other a confused look before calling out towards the girl to come back. Had Lillian suddenly gone mad? Was her lack of memories due to an injury to her head?
Lillian ignored their calls as she continued to swim over, experiencing what it was like to breathe underwater.
There was a reason she wanted to kill the Leviathan instead of going around it, and it was not because of the chance of gaining a Shard, which was a major bonus.
Swimming towards the severed head of the Leviathan, Lillian encountered a few monsters huddled around the exposed flesh of the large seabeast.
They were enticed by the smell and opportunity of a free meal, especially one of this quality.
Upon spotting Lillian, they immediately shifted their attention and swam to intercept her.
...
Fortunately, they weren’t that big of a problem—both in terms of size and strength.
Splash. Splash. Splash.
[You have slain...] x 10
"One, two. One, two..." Lillian whispered in between strokes as she continued to swim on by, passing under the corpses of the monsters, which were individually on a water spike.
Lillian ignored the blood raining over her and hastily climbed on top of the severed head of the Leviathan.
And once reaching the top, she managed to retrieve her shortsword, which still remained in good condition.
"Damn... I went for its eye...?" After wiping off the blood, she muttered, "I wish I remembered this fight..."
She leapt off the severed head and swam towards the main body of the Leviathan—there was something inside its stomach that she wanted.
After killing off the monsters that intercepted her, she climbed on top of it before adjusting her stance.
Lillian then raised her shortsword over her head before swinging down.
CLANG!
Her arms shook as her sword rebounded. She widened her eyes slightly as she looked down and found her attack had only left a deep slash mark, despite enhancing her swing with mana.
"Alright..."
Realising her shortsword wasn’t capable of doing what she wanted, Lillian summoned the Black Maw and began to seamlessly carve out a hole in its body, eventually allowing her to fall into its large stomach.
And as she did this, she couldn’t help but notice a dramatic drop in the Odachi’s weight. It seemed... Weightless—almost weightless. This only solidified the truth that she defeated the Leviathan.
After creating a rope made of water and connecting with the sea, she wrapped it around her waist and dropped into the hole she had carved out.
She then began to slowly lower herself into the dark inside of the stomach before summoning her lantern.
Lillian retched at the smell that crashed into her. It was a rotten fishy smell that caused her nose to burn.
"Gosh..." After somewhat getting used to the smell, she began to look around.
She continued to look around and lower herself, trying to find her target before immediately stopping as she almost made contact with the stomach acid.
Lillian’s face wrinkled at the smell and how it bubbled, but then, she found that off in the distance...