"Can you swim?" Sulonna suddenly asked.
"Uh, I really can't." Looking at the cargo ship stranded against the reef more than ten meters away, Li Shaolin answered with a miserable expression. Before he had transmigrated, he had been a complete shut-in. Other than going to work, he played online games. Where would he have found the time to learn something like swimming?
"Ah, then getting over there will be difficult. What should we do? How about looking around the shore for something else that can float?" Sulonna suggested.
As far as the eye could see, there was plenty of driftwood along Long Beach, as well as wreckage made up of planks, crates, barrels, and the like. However, none of it seemed capable of supporting a person's weight.
Beneath that wreckage, schools of brightly scaled little fish blew bubbles as they gathered together, occasionally darting about and feeding on the plankton mixed into the seawater.
"These fish seem pretty special," Li Shaolin said curiously.
"Yes, you have a good eye. They're the famous Blackmouth Fish. I've heard they're essential materials for alchemy," Sulonna explained.
Blackmouth Fish? Alchemy? Wasn't that old Karnak a Scourge alchemist? There seemed to be a Water Walking Potion among alchemical potions. He wondered whether there was one among the old man's belongings.
He hurriedly sent his consciousness into his Storage Space and searched carefully. He did not find a Water Walking Potion, but he did discover Water Breathing Potions. Overjoyed, he quickly took them out.
Water Breathing Potion: Allows the drinker to breathe underwater for 30 minutes.
Seeing him take out the potion, Sulonna was greatly surprised. "You're an alchemist too?"
"No, no. Karnak gave these to me. Heh heh."
With the potions, things naturally became much easier. Each of them drank a bottle, then he put away the Skeleton Warrior and Clay Golem before they slowly made their way toward the Sunken Ship.
The seawater gradually rose past Li Shaolin's chest. He felt the external pressure squeezing against his chest, making it difficult to breathe, and it was extremely uncomfortable. When he turned to look, Sulonna beside him had her long hair gently drifting in the water as she watched him with a smile.
"I can't let a woman look down on me." Li Shaolin gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and plunged beneath the water. At once, all the chaotic sounds around him disappeared. The Water Breathing Potion was truly miraculous. He felt faint currents of air being drawn into every part of his body, replacing his mouth and nose. He cautiously opened his eyes a little and saw nothing but white at first. Only after gradually adapting could he barely make out his surroundings.
A little fish flicked its tail and darted past his eyes. He subconsciously reached out to grab it, startling it and sending it slipping away.
After struggling for quite a while, they finally reached the reef. The two climbed up, soaked through and looking thoroughly bedraggled.
"Heh heh, looks like your swimming isn't that great either," Li Shaolin teased when he saw Sulonna in such a state.
"I haven't swum in years. I'm rusty," Sulonna said with a smile.
After resting for a while, they walked along the fallen wooden mast like it was a balance beam and boarded the ship. Li Shaolin took out the Book of the Dead again and released the three skeletons. After spending half a day recuperating inside the Book of the Dead, the Bone Skeleton's broken chest had fully healed, and it was ready for battle again.
The wooden deck had grown patches of seaweed from lack of maintenance. It felt unsteady beneath their feet, slippery and slick.
After carefully inspecting the area, they found that the wooden stairs leading down to the lower cabin had long since been destroyed. Looking down, they could see only clear seawater. It seemed impossible to stay below. Fortunately, half of the cabin still had a roof over it, so they could make do there for the night.
Sulonna carefully scraped the seaweed off the deck with her shortsword, clearing out a clean patch. She found an iron sheet to place beneath it, then stacked some rotten but dry planks on top and lit a small fire.
Warmed by the fire, steam began to rise from their soaked clothes. Only then did they start to feel a little more comfortable.
"You really know what you're doing," Li Shaolin praised sincerely.
"When I was an adventurer, I got used to wandering alone." Sulonna seemed to recall the past and sighed. "Get some sleep early. Today really wore us out."
"Um, didn't you bring a tent?"
"A tent? There was no way to prepare one. Do you have one?" Sulonna asked in return.
Li Shaolin took out the tent and bedding he had bought in Goldshire from his Storage Space and spread them out.
"You kept them in your Storage Space? Gods, how large is your space?" Sulonna asked in shock.
Li Shaolin had not paid much attention to that. His Storage Space had sixty-four slots, and these things only took up one slot, so it did not matter much. Wait, did other adventurers' Storage Spaces not work like this?
"Well, you know I'm connected to the Scourge Legion. My space seems to have mutated somehow, heh heh. By the way, what is yours like?" Li Shaolin answered vaguely. Since the existence of his summoned Skeleton Warriors was already a fact, he might as well dump all these strange things on the Scourge Legion.
"So that's how it is. A normal adventurer's Storage Space has eight slots. It appears automatically after changing classes, and it can only hold stacked food, drinks, or individual pieces of equipment. Something like a field tent can't be stored in it. Of course, that doesn't include other equipment with extra storage space," Sulonna explained when she saw him ask.
"If that's the case, you can use this tent." Although Li Shaolin was no gentleman, much less a man of great righteousness, he immediately stepped forward in this situation. After all, he still had a man's blood running through his veins.
Sulonna seemed surprised, though it was also within her expectations. After all, their time together over the past few days had made her realize that, in some ways, the man before her was less like a mage and more like a Paladin.
"Then how about this? We sleep together? But don't you get any ideas about me!" Sulonna's eyes spun as she giggled.
That night, the moon hung high in the sky. Tomorrow should be fine weather.
The buzzing of mosquitoes rose, then gradually faded away. A frog the size of a bowl was happily hopping about as it ate them. It was the Forest Frog he had bought from a child at the Darkmoon Faire the first time. It had finally proven somewhat useful.
Li Shaolin and Sulonna fell asleep in each other's arms for the second time. As for what happened between them and what stories unfolded, naturally, no one knew.
"Something feels off." When Li Shaolin woke in the morning and looked at the rising sun, he felt something strange.
"What is it?" Sulonna was already busy building up the fire, preparing to roast the Barbed Catfish she had just caught.
"That's not right! The skeletons are gone!" Li Shaolin suddenly realized. Hadn't he arranged for three skeletons to patrol the deck last night? Now, only the Bone Skeleton stood alone beside him. The Black Skeleton and Bronze Skeleton had vanished.
Where had they gone? Skeletons would not wander off without his orders unless they had encountered an enemy attack. With that thought, he lowered his head and looked through the gaps in the deck into the lower cabin, immediately freezing in shock.
Faintly, he could see that the seawater stored in the cabin had turned red.
He hurried to look down through the opening that led into the cabin. Sure enough, the two skeletons were standing silently in the water, surrounded by Murloc corpses. It seemed this was a Murloc nest below. He had no idea whether those two fellows had fallen in by accident or whether the Murlocs had intended to ambush them.
No matter what, all the Murlocs had already been killed, so there was no need to investigate further. He took out the Book of the Dead, intending to put the two skeletons away so he could get them out of the cabin.
The moment he opened it, he was startled! Unknowingly, last night's battle had raised him to level 12!
After recalling and resummoning the skeletons, he sat on the deck and studied his skills. Level 12 was another watershed. He could learn Skeleton Mage, Attack Retaliation, Terror, and Bone Wall. Of those, Skeleton Mages were unpopular among summoners because of their low health and weak defense. As for Attack Retaliation, people jokingly called it the Iron Maiden, and it was one of a necromancer's killing moves. Of course, these skills had already mutated, so he did not know whether they still followed Diablo 2's evaluations.
But skeletons were powerful, and he happened to lack magical attacks at the moment. His Fangs always felt too weak, and Fangs was more geared toward physical damage. Forget it, he would put the point into Skeleton Mage.
After allocating the skill point, he learned the summoning incantation as usual. There were Murloc corpses right below, so there was no need to search for any deliberately.
As the chant rose, flesh and bones churned amid a burst of commotion, yet nothing emerged.
What was wrong?
Looking carefully at the description, he realized that it required resurrecting the corpses of dead mages and making them fight for him. It looked like he needed the corpse of a mage-type monster.
He swept the area below with Detection and spotted the corpse of a Murloc Sage. With "sage" in its name, it should be able to use magic, right?
With that thought, he cast Summon Skeleton Mage again. Sure enough, amid the corpse's shattering, a skeleton appeared. White lightning crackled and swirled between its two bony hands. It was actually an Electric Mage!
"Heh heh." Li Shaolin was delighted. With a recall and another summon, the mage appeared before him.
Two massive spheres of lightning condensed in its hands, with snakelike bolts dancing and writhing within them. It certainly looked impressive.
He mentally ordered it to attack the wreckage in the sea. The creature brought its left and right skeletal hands together, merging the two balls of lightning. Amid crackling sounds, a thin white bolt shot out at high speed and struck the pile of planks accurately!
Then, amid a burst of churning water, little fish floated to the surface one after another, belly-up.
The power seemed average, but the accuracy was pretty good!
"The fish is roasted, Lin. Come eat. Huh, you have another skeleton? And it's a magic type?" Sulonna had nearly finished her work. She turned, about to call him over for food, only to spot the Skeleton Mage and ask in surprise.
Before you continue