Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 164
Chapter 164: Conflict Between Monsters
“Arrghh… I can’t believe they turned the tables on me like that…!”
The fishing battle had concluded, and Sora was quietly frustrated by an unexpected defeat she never saw coming.
Who could have imagined that each time Kuro and Inori catch a fish, three to five fish would be biting onto their tails? Just how much luck had to pile up for such an event to occur so consistently?
On the other hand, Laura and I had mostly caught large fish, and if quality were the measure, we would have had the upper hand.
However, since I had said, “Whoever catches the most wins,” I had to accept the victory of the two, who outnumbered us.
Kuro and Inori shared a high-five.
As the winners, they decided that tonight’s logout order would have Sora sandwiched between the two of them.
‘Sigh… if you’re so starved for human warmth, don’t drag me into it. Just stick to each other.’
With a sigh, Sora and the others finished their fishing battle, returned the gear to Lucas, and set off for the other remaining quest: the ?Cleaning Quest?.
The quest itself was straightforward: clean as much of the ship’s interior as possible within a set time limit, and the amount of experience gained would vary accordingly.
The cleaning area was limited to the shared parts of the ship: the deck and the inner corridors. Though splitting up might be more efficient, the four decided to line up in a row and tackle the task as a race for future team-building practice.
With mops that magically cleaned any dirt with a single swipe, the kind anyone would want in real life, Sora and the others darted back and forth across the deck.
Of course, just racing normally would be boring, so they equipped speed-boosting skills, making control challenging and turning it into a fun, fast-paced cleaning challenge.
“Ha! I’m going ahead!”
After a few minutes, Sora finished mopping her section of the deck and leaped into the ship’s interior corridor.
Following closely behind were Kuro, Inori, and Laura, in that order.
As Sora skillfully cleaned while advancing in the lead, Kuro, trying her hardest to keep up, called out from behind.
“Geez, Sora, you’re so fast!”
“His balance is on a whole different level.”
“Your balance is truly extraordinary! As expected of the ?Black Flash?, the very skyship that was said to spell doom for anyone in ?Sky Fantasy?’s skyship battles. With its shaky platforms, no one can move, but the ?Black Flash? could end it all!”
“…It’s like his feet are glued to the floor. Is he using the ?Immobility? skill to anchor his footing constantly?”
“Haha! Nope, no skills needed for this! It’s all about technique, you know — technique!”
Sora skillfully controlled her center of gravity, dashing across the unsteady ground as if it were flat. In no time, she left the others behind, dodging occasional crew members with nimble moves and quickly wiping the surfaces as she went.
At this pace, only two others could probably keep up: Shin, Rou, and hermaster, Shino.
Just then, someone fiercely surged from behind Sora, who had been in the lead alone. Without needing to look back, thanks to her ?Perception? skill, Sora knew it was Kuro.
As she caught up, she matched Sora’s movements with impressive ease and laughed with excitement.
“I’m getting the hang of it!”
“Seriously!?”
Sora was astonished at Kuro’s quick learning ability, as she adapted in no time. Yet, even Kuro couldn’t easily close the gap that had formed between them from the start to mid-race.
Sora crossed the finish line first, followed by Kuro, with Inori in third and Laura in fourth. After returning their mops to the captain, they each received a hefty amount of experience, and everyone leveled up.
With this, Sora reached level 70, increasing her weight capacity to 250. An item she obtained earlier added an extra 20, bringing her total to 270. But with her primary weapon, the ?Silver Magic Sword?, and one of her gear, the ?Envy of Darkness Coat?, she was always short on space.
This limited capacity was the price of a smaller avatar, but he couldn’t help feeling envious of the M-type avatars, which boasted a spacious 450-capacity.
Well, wishing for something she couldn’t have wouldn’t magically increase her capacity, so Sora calmly touched the open window on her screen to close it.
At that moment, the ship, which had been sailing straight, suddenly turned sharply to the right.
Wondering what was going on, Sora glanced at Captain Lucas, who was now peering through a telescope toward the sea, giving directions to the crew.
When Sora asked if something was wrong, Lucas wore a grim expression.
“It looks like there’s a big fight up ahead. If we keep going straight, we’ll get caught in the crossfire, so we have to make a detour.”
“A big fight…?”
Borrowing the telescope, Sora looked ahead in the direction Lucas was observing. There, over the waves, she could see an intense battle unfolding between a dragon-like monster and a massive squid.
According to her ?Insight? skill, the dragon was a level 100 ?King Sea Dragon?, about 20 meters in length. The largest monster they’d encountered so far.
The one engaged in an evenly matched battle with such a monster is a level 100 giant squid known as the ?Kraken?, which is attempting to defeat the dragon using a specialized skill called ?Kraken Tornado Pierce?, formed by bundling its tentacles into a spear-like shape.
However, the ?Sea Dragon? countered by activating a skill called ?Dragon Uppercut?, swinging its fist up from below. Before the ?Kraken?’s pointy spear could really get into it, the dragon punched both the squid and the spear way up into the air.
The Kraken, thrown high, fell and crashed back down onto the ocean’s surface.
—Wow, a battle between monsters.
Come to think of it, this was probably the first time Sora had seen monsters fighting each other in ?Astral Online?.
As she watched with fascination through the telescope, Kuro asked if she could take a look. Sora handed it over, and as she observed the epic clash of these two massive monsters, she exclaimed, “Amazing!”
Watching her reaction with a smile, Sora noticed Inori, who was standing next to her, suddenly seemed curious. She turned to Lucas and asked a question.
“By the way, I completely forgot to ask earlier. Is there any chance this ship might be attacked by large sea monsters underwater?”
“Oh, there’s no need to worry about that. Every ship is equipped with a shard from the World Tree, provided by the High Priest from the temple. As long as we don’t recklessly collide with them ourselves, monsters won’t attack us.”
“Hm, and why exactly does using a shard from the World Tree prevent monster attacks?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself, but according to the High Priest, the World Tree is considered the origin of all life. By carrying its shard, monsters don’t perceive us as enemies.”
“I see, that makes sense,” Inori said, nodding thoughtfully.
“However, just because we have a shard of the World Tree doesn’t mean we’re ignored by all monsters.”
“Captain, what do you mean by that…?”
“Ghost ships. They’re immune to the effects of the World Tree. If we encounter one, it’s guaranteed to end in a fight.”
“G-G-G-Ghost… ships?!”
Kuro, who had a strong fear of ghosts, reacted immediately, stopping her telescope viewing and hiding behind Sora. While patting her head as she cautiously peeked out, Sora asked Lucas to continue.
“They’re the most troublesome. In fact, to even qualify as a sailor, the first condition is that you need to be strong enough to fight ghosts or skeletons since they appear quite often. On average, we encounter them three times a month.”
“I see. In that case, may I ask you one question?”
“Of course, if it’s something I can answer, go ahead,” Lucas replied.
Taking the opportunity, Sora didn’t hesitate to ask.
“Do ghost ships have treasure chests on board?”
“What?”
“No, I mean… are there treasure chests on ghost ships?”
“Well, they are ghost ships, after all. You’ll usually find two or three treasure chests, but why do you…?”
“Alright, let’s go find a ghost ship right now—ouch!”
Just as Sora’s eyes sparkled at the thought of treasure, Kuro, who absolutely hated ghosts, punched her in the side.