Actually, to be honest, this voyage is not much different from the previous ones.
There is another main reason why West is under so much pressure, and that is the modified Narwhal.
The previous trial voyage made him understand what his captain wanted to do. He wanted to explore those forbidden places that had never been touched by humans, the bottom of this mysterious sea.
He had been dreaming these days. He dreamed that the captain and he were caught by a sea monster underwater, and the entire ship was dragged into the dark abyss.
"Captain...are we...are we really going down?" West spoke carefully, holding a cigarette between his fingers.
"Of course. Do you think I modified the ship just for fun?"
"So... what are we going to find at the bottom of the sea?"
"Looking for something, something that fell into a deep pit on the seafloor. The depth is estimated to be around 500 meters. It shouldn't be too dangerous if it's just looking for something."
The cigarette in West's hand began to tremble involuntarily. How could this be dangerous
Charles looked at West's extremely ugly face and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't be afraid of this and that all day long. Think about your family on the island."
West forced himself to stay calm and nodded. He knew that money was not so easy to come by, but he had to fight for his mother and his younger brothers and sisters!
He put the cigarette into his mouth tremblingly, took a breath, and then started coughing violently.
Charles looked at the young man in front of him, as if he saw himself from more than ten years ago.
The image of the kind old lady flashed through his mind. After thinking for a while, he said to West beside him, "Why don't you end your voyage this time and go back to the island?"
West's eyes showed a hint of excitement, but he quickly became firm, "No, I won't go back. I need to make my family happy through my efforts."
Seeing his resolute look, Charles raised his lips slightly and said nothing more. "Is your mother okay?"
When the Governor mentioned his family, the fear and hesitation in West's eyes disappeared for the most part.
"Well! I used the last bit of money I had left to buy my mother a hand-cranked sewing machine. She can now do some small jobs. As for my brother and sister, they have already joined the school. Even if I die at sea, they can live well. By the way, Captain, is it true that we will have a generous pension after we die?"
Although he was afraid, West was obviously prepared to die.
Just at this moment, the hatch next to it opened and the blind vampire walked out.
"Captain, are you here too?" he said as he walked to West's side, bared his sharp fangs and bit into his neck.
"What are you doing?" Charles asked puzzledly.
West, who was being sucked of blood, endured the pain and replied: "Hiss~ I lost the card game last night and lost five liters of blood to him. Be gentle."
"Did you fight so hard? How much blood do you have? Didn't you bring a blood bag with you, Odrick? Why did you drink his blood?"
"Snap~" The sharp fangs were pulled out, and Odric licked the blood on the fangs with his scarlet tongue with satisfaction.
"Captain, the blood in the bag is not as delicious as fresh blood. You have drunk a lot of blood, and you can feel the difference."
Charles glanced at the two bloody holes on West's neck. "If you suck blood from this guy, will he become a vampire too?"
"How is that possible? Only a vampire at the earl level can give a human a First Embrace. Moreover, the mistress has specially stipulated that every First Embrace must be reported." After saying this, Audric continued to spit at West's wound.
Just as Orderic said this, Charles suddenly noticed that the melting burn scars on his face seemed to have healed a little.
Audric said with a hint of excitement on his face: "I saved up all my salary and asked someone in the black market to buy two drops of the Duke's blood from Dark Crystal Island. I will be promoted again soon."
"There's a black market on Hope Island? How come I didn't know about it?"
"Although the legal constraints on Hope Island are strong, where there is light there is always darkness, and this cannot be stopped in any way."
"Please keep an eye on it for me. I don't want the island to get into chaos." Charles said in a low voice.
"Captain, don't worry. Both Dipper and James knew about the existence of the black market. It's better to expose these things in plain sight than to hide them all."
Hearing his old crew member say this, Charles immediately felt relieved. He believed that James could do his job well.
"When you advance, will your eyes heal?"
"Maybe, but the damage caused by this kind of sunlight is very troublesome. It is the natural enemy of us vampires." The two chatted casually while leaning against the edge of the boat.
They didn't talk for long that day because Charles saw the Narwhal stopped and they arrived at the location of the main island.
"Open the floodgates and release the water." As the Narwhal began to change shape, the cold sea water slowly filled the water tank, and the buoyancy of the entire ship changed, sinking into the dark sea water.
When the sea water embraced the entire ship, everyone on board had an expression of fear mixed with a hint of excitement. Exploring the deep and strange seabed was something that no one had ever done in the history of Earthsea.
Through the glass in front of the deck, they soon saw the buildings that were soaked in sea water. At this moment, those buildings looked like tombs.
No one spoke at this time, and even their breathing was as light as possible, as if they were afraid of waking up something in the sea.
"The big hole is not here. It's a little off, a little further forward."
Charles quickly identified the direction through the glass. At this moment, he had no fear of the seabed in his heart. He only had anticipation for clues. He had gone through so much trouble to modify the Narwhal just for such a day.
"Beep~" The sonar suddenly responded, and then the sailors who were looking at the periscope said tremblingly: "Ship... Captain... There seems to be something moving at the 6 o'clock position of the ship... It's very big, five times bigger than our ship."
This sentence made everyone in the cockpit feel nervous. God knows what is in the sea.
"Don't worry, it may not be interested in us. Turn off all the lights."
In an instant, all the light sources inside and outside the Narwhal disappeared, and it turned into a giant block of iron floating in the sea.
The huge approaching light spot on the sonar showed no sign of stopping. Instead, it accelerated and continued to approach the Narwhal.
Lily was so scared that she hid her whole body in Charles' clothes, and everyone's face turned unusually pale.
Just as Charles' hand was about to press the button to release the mine, the light spot on the sonar suddenly turned and quickly moved to the left.
Thanks to the 100,000 reward from the book friend number 9515, who is also the first leader of this book. Thank you!! I owe another 10 chapters, and I owe more and more. I will start to pay off my debt, starting from today!
(End of this chapter)