Chapter 117 : Vast Ocean Unbounded
Vast Ocean Unbounded
Seven ice blocks, spanning a distance of over 250 meters across the sea to reach that black reef—this seemed a task utterly impossible for ordinary people.
Dawn's Light apparently believed Cecilia couldn't do it either, and slowly shook his head. "No, it's too risky. Can't we think of a way to lure it over here? Without a boat, there's no way to fight in the sea."
"It's very cautious. It clearly knows the sea is its home turf."
Watching as the reef hidden in the white mist gradually became clearer, Cecilia waved her hand and frowned. "If we could easily lure it onto land, you few probably wouldn't even be needed here."
"Sister Ce, could your bat fly over and fight it, and then pull it back here?"
Yuewu looked up at the Darkwing Demon Bat circling above Cecilia's head and voiced her idea.
"Don't even think about it. It's only level fifteen, and that BOSS over there is level thirty."
Cecilia rejected her without any expression.
She had considered this method as well. The Darkwing Demon Bat was large and flew fast; in theory, it should be safe to just draw the Boss to shore.
However, Cecilia did not know the boss's stats or what its innate skills were. The cost to revive a pet was high, and if something happened to the Darkwing Demon Bat after it flew over, it would be quite hard for her to find such a convenient utility bat again any time soon.
Yuewu said nothing further, since Cecilia was right: the Darkwing Demon Bat's specialty lay in scouting and acting as a makeshift glider, not in battling. Sending the level 15 pet to confront a level 30 Boss of unknown strength on its own territory was tantamount to suicide.
The group couldn't think of a better plan and stood in silence at the shore. After a minute, the white mist in the middle of the sea dissipated entirely, and a jet-black reef surfaced on the water, coming into view.
Due to the distance, the other four could only see the reef but not the Boss atop it. Only Cecilia once again saw the grinning, eerie face at the summit of the reef.
"Didn't we just come down from there? Can't your bat fly you both over?"
At last, little Persimmon Puppy was the first to break the silence. He stepped forward and asked Cecilia.
"The mount feature only unlocks after completing prerequisite quests. I haven't finished them yet, so it probably won't work."
Cecilia shook her head slowly.
Unlocking the mount feature needing a prerequisite quest wasn't a special exception, so there was no harm in telling the others.
The atmosphere quieted again. A fresh D-rank world boss awaited right in front of them, but with no way to approach it, all fell deep in thought and even grew anxious from the struggle for ideas.
After more than ten seconds, Cecilia finally made her decision. She turned her gaze to Yuewu. "Get ready. We'll do it as discussed—I'll go alone, and you all wait on the shore."
Since no one else could think of a usable plan in a short time, and remembering how Cecilia had gone solo behind enemy lines and soloed the previous Boss, Yuewu couldn't help but feel a surge of confidence and nodded.
"Alright."
With both involved parties in agreement, the rest held no objections, and quickly, everyone moved down to the shoreline, ready to watch the show between Cecilia and Yuewu.
They watched as Yuewu, face serious, first took out a blue potion, twisted it open, and drank it all in one go. Then, she slowly raised her short staff set with a gemstone at the tip and muttered arcane words.
Cecilia noted that the potion Yuewu drank was one of the seven newly added consumables this version: the "Gift of Mana" potion. Upon use, it slightly boosted her magic stat, accelerated mana regeneration, and also shortened all skill cooldowns slightly for five minutes.
After two seconds, a burst of blue light exploded from the staff's tip. Immediately after, a long ice arrow materialized from thin air before Yuewu, shooting straight out towards the distant sea.
By Cecilia's estimate, the distance from the shoreline to the reef was about 250 meters. With Yuewu's current mana and skill cooldown, she could at most create seven ice blocks. That meant, for Cecilia to cross using the ice blocks, Yuewu could only conjure one every 35 meters or so.
And that was not even accounting for the skill's actual casting range; one could imagine the practical difficulty.
Even so, despite foreseeing the difficulty, Cecilia charged forward without hesitation.
She backed up a dozen steps on the sand, then started sprinting. With her agility fully unleashed, her figure nearly blurred into a white streak—the hem of her dress fluttering, and each landing of her black shoes leaving a deep crater.
The sharp contrast with her classically elegant maid outfit made Cecilia, while running, look both like a lone wolf and a hunting leopard: graceful yet bursting with explosive energy. In a few bounding leaps, she arrived at the edge of the shoreline!
The next moment, her left foot landed on damp, waterlogged sand. She pushed off hard and soared high into the air!
In real life, the farthest a human long jumper could manage was about ten meters. Claiming to jump over thirty would get you mocked as a lunatic.
But, this wasn't reality—it was a game world. Fueled by massive strength and a howling wind, Cecilia's leap forcibly crossed dozens of meters of seawater and, not deviating at all, landed right on one of the floating ice blocks.
The ice block was small, only three or four square meters, and irregularly shaped, rocking on the waves.
Even though she had aimed herself well before jumping, Cecilia, raised in an inland city and unused to the sea, had underestimated the ocean's challenge.
She succeeded in landing but the ice was unstable, and the surface was slippery, missing the friction of dry land.
With momentum and gravity working together, Cecilia slipped as soon as she landed, falling heavily onto the hard, cold surface. Though it barely cost her any HP, a wave of stinging pain blanked out her thoughts.
At the same time, the already unstable ice tilted sharply. Beneath her was deep blue sea, around her surged roaring waves. Her friends onshore stared in shock as a dazed Cecilia, as if on a slide, shot straight into the surging sea.
Glug...
Glug glug glug glug glug......