Chapter 187 - What Are Sea Demons
To be honest, seeing some strange variations in the course of reading his life biographies wasn’t outside of Gawain’s expectations. Seven hundred years of time transition was enough for those imaginative scholars of unofficial history to bizarrely make up things about any ancient figure. And Gawain Cecil was a well-established name that the entire continent knew of. Anything related to this pioneer hero’s 35 years of legendary life could be said to be an everlasting topic in the talk of people of all classes. As the saying went —— a highly meritorious and famed person dies an early death. Where would one go to find such a great theme?
At this point, Gawain was even a little glad about the backwardness of this world, glad that the cultural industry of this world had yet to be able to welcome an explosion-like development as it was still controlled by the upper class. If this place was as advanced as Earth, there would be the possibility of him seeing the pioneer forefathers from 700 years ago taking turns to get their character portraits changed and hung in the in-game stores. Charlie I would be gifted once you log in.. Duke Wilder would require seven days of logging in, and Gawain Cecil would be inside the first recharge package..
And there would be new skins launched for this bunch of people every month. Those two granddaughters of his were extremely likely to throw all their money at the game just to admire their ancestor’s new character portrait —— and he, the party involved who rose from his coffin, would remain awkward and embarrassed++ (with more than 200 ‘+’ signs), wishing he could destroy his whole family..
Gawain slapped his own forehead hard, forcefully gathering his thoughts that were starting to run reckless. He sighed and looked at the “popular reading material” full of absurd fabrications. ——Everyone knew the stories in here were fake, but it was the favorite escape literature of the madams and young ladies in the central and southern regions of the kingdom. This sufficiently proved the thriving vitality of popular literature, as well as how boring the daily lives of people in this era were.
However, as the party involved, Gawain caught some implicit truths in those carelessly concocted love stories. ——The stories in here weren’t completely false.
Apart from those female soulmates who were forcibly added in, this book mentioned many adventure tales related to Gawain Cecil. These tales did not appear in any official biographies. Outsiders might, after reading them, group them with those female soulmates as the wonderful imagination of a certain second-rate novelist, but Gawain knew —— at least half of those unknown adventures were real.
Searching for the ruins of an ancient tomb in the Gondor Wasteland; finding clues about the Spirit of Elements; leading a small number of soldiers to look for a safe passageway when cutting across the “magic scorch mark” and stumbling upon the Gondor Master Mage group that had become crystals; going deep into the mountains during the establishment of the Cecil territory and then communicating with the elements and receiving blessings.
These were another aspect of Gawain Cecil as a pioneer. It could be seen from these experiences that he’d indeed lived like a hacker with a halo.. Of course, it wasn’t important whether he was a hacker or not. What was important was that these unknown stories had actually appeared in an absurd Knight novel. This provided much food for thought.
This novel had been circulating for a long time. The original author could no longer be identified. Probably because he had worried about getting beaten up when he was writing the book, the only clue this author left behind was his pen name, “Wandering Minstrel Mr. C”. Gawain had no idea how Mr. C knew about these stories, but that was definitely a fellow who was patient and had enough contacts. He interviewed countless people who had interacted to some extent with Gawain Cecil or their descendants before he could put in order this information. And in all of these adventure tales, one mentioned the story of Gawain Cecil challenging the deep sea.
It was written like this: After Gawain Cecil assisted the great founding king, Charlie I, to establish the kingdom, he was deeply worried about the monsters that ceaselessly wandered out from the Gondor Wasteland, as well as corrosion from the Dark Wave that was still spreading. Therefore, he asked for help from the earth, water, fire, and wind Spirit of Elements. The four princesses of the four elemental planes (those things had princesses too?) were convinced by the young heroic Knight; thus, they offered suggestions to him. Gawain Cecil ultimately accepted the water element’s enlightenment and set off towards the ocean to search for answers.
Although he did not have a Storm Cleric as a guide on the sea, Gawain Cecil received the help of sea elves (of course, under the pen of Mr. C, another princess appeared within the sea elves in this process). The sea elves helped the fleet of ships pass through the storms surrounding the continent and pointed the fleet towards the east.
After countless days and nights of sailing, the sea elves suddenly got into a panic and urged Gawain to stop going forward because the sea area further east was the territory of the “sea demons”, and it was impossible for any terrestrial species to contend against the powerful sea demons in the ocean. However, Gawain Cecil did not fear. He insisted on continuing to move forward, thus the sea elves had no choice but to leave the party. Most of the ships in the fleet also left with the sea elves; only Gawain and a few loyal guards continued to drive the ship forward. And soon after, they met the sea demons.
The clever reader Gawain immediately expected —— there was definitely also a princess amongst the sea demons..
But this story was a little anticlimactic here. Mr. C only sloppily recorded that Gawain Cecil gained the trust of the sea demons and was guided to a “sacred and beautiful” place. The party drank good wine to their fill for three days and three nights and then was directly tossed back to the Loren Continent by a storm.
This was clearly bluffing the readers.
Intuition told Gawain that this story was the record of the deep-sea navigation that was missing from Gawain Cecil’s memories.
But a peculiar race appeared in here: sea demons.
Gawain was very unfamiliar with the name of this race. The memories that he inherited also only contained that little bit of impression, but all it pointed to were strange and unusual myths and weird tales, completely insufficient to obtain facts from.
Just then, a knock sounded on the door of the study. After the door opened, the Druid Pittman walked in. “Lord, I heard from Amber that you were looking for me?”
Gawain nodded. After telling the Druid to come in, he got straight to the point. “Have you heard about sea demons before?”
“Sea demons?” Pittman touched his chin. “I’ve heard a little about the legends related to them.”
Gawain’s eyes instantly lit up. The Druids were indeed the occupation that knew the most about the races in the world. Even if what Pittman knew were merely legends and tales regarding the sea demons, the level of detail would certainly be much higher than that of the average person’s knowledge!
“Tell me about it!”
Pittman twiddled his beard and began unhurriedly. “The legends of the sea demons are mostly concentrated in the east and south of the continent. There is rarely anyone who mentions it here on Anzu’s side. Even if they do, it will only appear in horror stories or similar thrilling, weird tales. It is said that sea demons are one of the oldest intelligent beings in this world. Their history is highly likely to go as far back as the gigantic dragons’. Long before the rise of humankind, they’d ruled the oceans for tens of thousands of years.
“Sea demons are a race with only females. They live in the depths of the ocean in the far east, almost never interacting with the intelligent races on the continent. They have beautiful looks, but only their upper bodies have the appearance of a human. Their lower bodies are all kinds of sea monsters..
“Other than these, there are also legends mentioning that it is actually not that sea demons do not interact with humankind, but because they possess the ability to transform into human appearances. After they go ashore, they immediately blend into the crowd.. Yes, transformation ability. Many legends pointed out that the sea demons have a myriad of forms. They are born without a fixed form like water. Thus, they are able to turn into various forms. A good half of the tales about sea monsters in the open sea is their work.
“In addition, legends have been written about how sea demons make plans to visit land. As they have long lifespans, they treat the observation of the development of short-lived civilizations like humankind as a pleasure. Every time human civilization undergoes twists and turns, rises and falls, they would curiously come to watch. There are also people who believe that sea demons visit land to search for certain things. There are records of interaction with sea demons that someone had left behind in all sincerity and seriousness in certain ancient books of the silver elves. And it claimed that sea demons would interact peacefully with the intelligent beings on land. They would sometimes seek help from ‘land people’, and as long as the ‘land person’ was able to fulfill their wishes, they would receive extremely generous rewards —— sometimes it was rare pearls and jewels from the deep sea, sometimes it was strange, inconceivable magical equipment. It is said that the royal clan of the sea elves have a trident that can release thunder and lightning. It was a gift to them from the sea demons a thousand years ago.
“However, there have also been legends indicating that the sea demons seemed to have no idea about the value of the gifts they give out. They merely gift some things to land people according to their fancy. Sometimes, when you show them the way, they would give you a whole chest of pearls. At other times, when you’ve been a great help to them, they would only gift you a piece of fish ——and there’d be bite marks on the fish. The records in this aspect were also left behind by the silver elves.”
Gawain interrupted Pittman’s narration. “If a person encounters the sea demons while sailing in the ocean, how would they treat people who ‘invade the ocean’?”
Pittman lifted a brow. “You’ve touched my blind spot of my knowledge —— but according to the accounts in most legends, it is extremely, extremely dangerous to encounter sea demons in the deep-sea areas.”
“Extremely dangerous?” Gawain frowned. “Weren’t there many legends that mentioned sea demons interacting peacefully with people on land? They even gave gifts and whatnot..”
“But that was on land.” Pittman’s expression was very serious. “In the ocean, it seems they would be very aggressive. Especially when lost navigators enter some sea areas that they shouldn’t, sea demons would immediately turn into terrifying sea monsters to expel them, even pursuing and attacking. They are the family clan of the ocean, possessing unthinkable powers in the sea. Even the thunder and lightning summoned by the strongest Master Mage are no match for their storms. ——There are so many horror stories about deep-sea navigation. Not all of them are groundless tales.”
Gawain frowned. “Is that so..?”
....historical
At the same time, in the eastern deep sea far from the Loren Continent, some elegant and graceful figures were swiftly going past the dark seabed. Their snake tails or fishtails flapped in the seawater, allowing these beautiful and elegant creatures to move quickly like phantoms in the deep sea, subtle and elusive.
They were completely unaware that they’d become a topic of discussion for two humans on the faraway continent. For these deep-sea saltwater fishes, there was still very important work for them to complete.
A sea demon crossed a “ridge” on the seabed and looked at the sight ahead that snaked and sprawled out following the shape of the seabed. The special “deep-sea vision” allowed her to look out to an extremely far spot even in this dark bottom of the sea.
A startlingly huge cirrus laid across the seabed in front. Layers of corals and deep-sea vegetation covered the cirrus. Large amounts of tattered bits of flesh were scattered around the cirrus. They’d completely lost their vitality, but not the slightest sign of decomposition could be seen.
And in a place even farther, at the end of the cirrus that extended out like a small-scale mountain range, an even more massive shadow could indistinctly be perceived. That was the even larger main body of flesh, where the “first excavation-site” was.
The long snake tail of the excavation team leader slapped on the seabed; then the tail was raised up high, rapidly swinging in the seawater like a flag. She gave orders to her team members in a loud voice. “We’ll dig here today! Come on, everyone!”
The sea demons responded in unison. “Come on, everybody!”
“Don’t play too much with the ‘squid’. Don’t waste time!”
“Don’t waste time!”
“No eating engine fuel in secret!”
“No eating engine fuel in secret!”
“Start digging!”
“Start digging!”