Sea Survival: My Luck is Off the Charts

Since there was still meat, she let them finish it.

But after eating, both Lucy White and Blackwood fell into a deep sleep again.

Faye Yardley checked on the raft’s course. It was still heading toward the location of the Silver Treasure Chest she had marked, but this time, the distance between them looked much closer than before.

’When would they arrive? It was hard to say. They were just closer, not at the destination yet.’

Stepping outside, she could clearly feel the cold. However, with the raft’s protection and her enhanced Constitution, the chill was not enough to harm her.

She reached out and caught a snowflake. It was white with a hint of pale blue. ’Are even the snowflakes starting to turn into Ice Crystals?’

The sea surface was no longer calm, its waves churning unpredictably.

The accumulating snowflakes coated the surface, dyeing the dark blue sea with a layer of white.

’For the entire sea to freeze over, the temperature still isn’t low enough.’

Faye thought for a moment, then said to Willow beside her, "I’m going to take a look in the sea. You watch over Blackwood and Lucy White."

"You be careful."

Faye nodded, then took a running start and jumped into the sea with a SPLASH.

The surging tide didn’t stop Faye from descending rapidly into the depths.

Near the surface, the water was a mix of white and dark blue. But the deeper she went, the darker it became, until at last, it was pitch black.

Faye surveyed her surroundings. Even with the Luminous Pearl, the light only illuminated a one-meter radius.

Suddenly, her ears twitched. She sidestepped and retreated just as a long, black shadow flitted past her original position with a SWOOSH.

Since the Luminous Pearl’s light couldn’t penetrate the black seawater, Faye simply stored it in her backpack. This was not only to let her eyes adjust to the darkness but also to prevent her vision from distracting her hearing.

’This way, I can react to enemies better and faster.’

Light Wound appeared in her right hand, and a High Level Dagger in her left.

Suddenly, she flipped sideways in the water, rolling twice. She felt Light Wound slice cleanly through flesh. The foul, metallic stench of blood filled her nostrils, and a piercing SIZZLE echoed in her ears.

’Striking an enemy when it’s down isn’t just a human specialty; these creatures that hunt in the darkness are even better at it.’ Faye felt she had wounded another one as she continuously retreated, ascended, and rolled, constantly changing her position.

But the stench of blood grew thicker, and she could hear numerous sounds of tearing, chewing, and swallowing.

’Damn, they really are mindless. They’re even relishing eating their own kind.’

Although Faye couldn’t see clearly, she could still make out the mass of shadows thrashing about over there.

With a powerful kick, she shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, narrowly avoiding a pitch-black, tentacled maw.

If Faye had been able to see, she would have discovered that this strange fish strongly resembled the one that had guarded the Silver Treasure Chest. It just wasn’t as large, and its eyes were slightly different.

Faye swam relentlessly toward her raft, constantly ascending toward the surface.

She dodged attack after attack. She had no idea how many of the long, black shadows she had wounded, but she had caused them to fall upon each other in a cannibalistic frenzy. Then, Faye saw a huge barrier emitting a faint white light.

That was her raft.

’That’s strange. My raft’s Energy Protection Shield used to be transparent. Why is it emitting visible light now?’

If the water she’d descended through had initially been clear, now, as she ascended, the black water followed her like an inescapable plague, relentlessly contaminating the upper sea.

But at a certain depth, the black and clear waters churned against each other before reaching a strange equilibrium. It was as if the black water had lost its momentum, lacking the force to rise any higher.

Hovering just above this boundary, Faye simply watched.

Suddenly, pairs of bloodshot, bell-sized eyes emerged from the black water, all staring at Faye with cold indifference.

The weapon in Faye’s hand transformed into a Longbow. She drew the string, nocked an arrow, and fired down into the water.

A field of Ice Crystals materialized in the water. The arrow flew through, bursting several eyes in its path. Gouts of red bloomed from the black water into the clear sea, only to sink back into the darkness.

Long, black bodies writhed in the dark water below.

After firing the arrow, Faye put away her bow. Light Wound appeared in her hand as she plunged directly into the momentarily frozen black water and began reaping the lives of the strange fish.

Killing these strange fish yielded no rewards. It was as if they were formed from the black water itself, dissolving back into it upon death.

Visibility was poor, so Faye didn’t prolong the fight. After a few kills, she started to swim up and out of the black water. But unexpectedly, the water—which had seemed unremarkable aside from its color—now felt like it was boiling, and wisps of energy began to seep into her body.

Just as Faye tried to break free, a system notification sounded in her mind.

[Constitution +1]

’This...’

’This black water feels different from the last time I encountered it. Even so, I still want to get back to the raft and have Shawn Lawler bring Bramble over to test things out.’

Even with the increase to her Constitution, Faye didn’t intend to change her plan. After all, with Bramble, her safety in this pitch-black world would be more secure.

Although the benefits seemed to be within arm’s reach, Faye still felt that caution was necessary.

So, after hesitating for only a second, she shot out of the black water into the clear zone and sped toward her raft.

It turned out the bottom of the raft’s Energy Protection Shield was already under attack by those strange fish, which had forced its defenses to activate.

Faye believed that as the temperature continued to drop and the sea began to freeze, the black water below would keep contaminating the water above. If this went on, an attack on the raft was inevitable.

How to deal with the countless swarms of strange fish beneath the raft thus became the biggest problem.

Back on the raft, Faye called Shawn Lawler in Lumina while simultaneously opening the various chat channels.

As she’d suspected, this black water was completely different from what she had encountered before. While it was also black, this time it seemed to cover the entire sea region where all the survival rafts were located.

She wasn’t the only one who had decided to enter the sea today. Judging by the messages in the world channel, quite a few people had.

Some had fought the strange fish in the black water, while others had turned and fled the moment they saw it.

In any case, this was not good news.

However, even among those who fought, their experiences were likely different from Faye’s. At least, no one mentioned that killing a large number of the fish caused the black water to generate energy that could increase a person’s Attributes.

Faye didn’t know if it only increased Constitution, as she had only been in the water for a short time.

RING RING RING~

"Boss, I’m back at the island dock."

"Good. Put it on speaker." Faye then shouted, "Bramble, come back with him!"