Ritter and Bufeng had just resigned themselves to becoming "construction supervisors," responsible for resettling the new villagers and planning their living area, when the old clan chief suddenly slapped his head again and called out to Ritter.
"Right! Hey, kid! I almost forgot something important!"
The clan chief frowned, a hint of worry on his face.
"Recently, for some reason, huge Sea Kings have been appearing around the nearby waters. They're much bigger than anything we've seen before! Sometimes they even get close to the mist zone around our island. It's been making everyone nervous about going out fishing."
He looked at Ritter.
"Since you're back now, can you think of some way to deal with them? They're practically showing up at our doorstep."
Ritter raised a brow slightly.
Large Sea Kings appearing frequently in shallow waters? That was unusual.
Creatures of that size normally preferred the deep sea or Calm Belt regions where food was abundant and the environment stable. Coming to coastal waters usually meant something had disturbed them, or something was attracting them.
And Ritter was very confident in his own ability. Ordinary Sea Kings would not even approach his Blood Mist. So what was appearing here might not even be ordinary Sea Kings, but super-class Sea Kings.
"Alright, old man. Leave it to me," Ritter said casually. For him, it was nothing serious.
He turned to Joy Boy and the silent girl beside him, who was quietly observing the island.
"Hey, rubber brain. Kid. Come with me. Let's stretch our muscles a bit."
Joy Boy was the combat type anyway. And as for his vice-captain, Ritter just had a feeling that if she didn't come along, something troublesome would happen. Besides, she was cold and calm, and honestly quite comfortable to carry around.
Joy Boy's eyes lit up the moment he heard there was a fight.
To him, Sea Kings were basically just bigger targets.
Ritter watched as Joy Boy casually uprooted a large tree, shaped it into a crude bat, and even painted it for some reason. The problem was, the tree trunk was clearly smaller than Joy Boy himself.
Could Nika just ignore physics whenever he wanted?
Joy Boy jumped up excitedly.
"Alright, alright! Sea Kings! I've never fought the super big ones before! I'll bounce them away like rubber bands!"
The girl simply nodded lightly.
Ritter condensed a hand of Blood Mist and casually slapped Joy Boy on the head.
"BOOM!"
Bufeng, Axing, and Ayang's eyes nearly popped out.
"He flew away!"
Joy Boy's facial expression literally got knocked loose for a second.
Ritter gritted his teeth.
"Joy Boy, don't force me to hit you when I'm in a good mood."
The three of them arrived at the shore.
Blood Mist surged around Ritter, lifting him and the girl into the air. Joy Boy, meanwhile, stretched his arm out, grabbed a distant tree, and launched himself like a slingshot.
"WHOOSH—THUD!"
He landed perfectly on Ritter's floating Blood Mist platform.
"I told you my ship works just fine," Ritter said helplessly.
"This is faster!" Joy Boy laughed without a care in the world.
They quickly flew toward the direction indicated by the clan chief.
Soon, Ritter's Observation Haki picked up an enormous life force ahead.
The sea in that area was violently unstable. Massive whirlpools appeared and disappeared. Beneath the surface, a gigantic shadow slowly moved, its size far beyond ordinary Sea Kings.
When it occasionally surfaced, jagged dorsal fins and a terrifying head emerged, enough to make even Ritter narrow his eyes slightly.
"Wow! It's huge!" Joy Boy stretched his rubber neck, eyes sparkling instead of fearful.
The girl's ice-blue eyes also focused on the creature. Cold air quietly began to spread around her body.
But Ritter did not act immediately.
Suspended in mid-air, his crimson eyes narrowed.
"Something's off…"
Normally, creatures of this level should dominate the deep ocean. They had no reason to come into shallow coastal waters.
And this one looked… restless.
Agitated.
That was not normal.
"Interesting," Ritter murmured.
He guided the Blood Mist platform forward, slowly approaching the restless sea area.
Unexpectedly, when those massive super Sea Kings noticed their approach, they did not attack.
They did not flee either.
Instead, they turned their enormous heads toward the trio.
Their eyes, usually filled with ferocity and wild instinct, now carried something completely different.
Urgency.
And… pleading.
"Eh?" Joy Boy stretched his neck even longer. "They're not trying to scare us? Are they… talking? No, wait, are they asking for help?"
Even Ritter's eyes flickered with surprise.
He had seen countless Sea Kings before: ferocious ones, dumb ones, docile ones.
But creatures with this level of emotional clarity, and even the ability to actively seek help from land-based beings?
This was the first time.
Almost like they had intelligence close to certain special races.
"Interesting," Ritter said again, a faint smile appearing.
He could easily kill them if he wanted to. Tear them apart, harvest materials, even make high-grade equipment from them.
But now he was more interested in something else.
What could make these deep-sea apex predators abandon pride and seek help from humans, a rubber man, and a half divine being?
Joy Boy blinked.
"Hey, hey, did he just call you a half divine being?"
Ritter glanced at him.
"Is there a problem?"
"…"
"Looks like they're not here to cause trouble," Ritter said. "Let's get closer. I want to see what's going on."
Joy Boy immediately nodded.
"Maybe they're in some really fun trouble!"
The girl also nodded slightly, calm and unafraid.
The three of them descended closer, standing almost level with the Sea Kings' enormous eyes on the Blood Mist platform.
At such close range, the desperation in their eyes was even clearer.
Ritter released a gentle mental signal.
"What happened? Do you need help?"
Then he muttered casually,
"They should be able to understand human speech, right?"
The leader of the Sea Kings, the largest one with coral-like horns, seemed to understand.
It nodded heavily.
Then it let out a deep, urgent cry and turned its massive body, pointing toward a deeper part of the ocean.
It was clearly urging them to follow.
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