Chapter 605: Major vs Reserve-duty Brigadier General
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Sheyan couldn’t refrain from cursing the realm after viewing the list of notifications.
When he had returned to the present world previously, he utilized his idle time to conduct some internet research. Analyzing the naval coordinates written on Bernard Fokke’s voyage log, he went one step further to figure out Bernard Fokke’s concrete sailing route towards Africa.
During his research, he realized there was probably a gulf stream in the Caribbean Sea world that wasn’t a reality in the real world. This gulf stream was named by Bernard Fokke as Pandora’s Gulfstream. As long as one sailed in accordance to this gulf stream, even a purely wind reliant ship could voyage with unparalleled velocity.
Though that was so, Sheyan could infer that with the Dingyuan, he would require at least 6 days to reach Africa.
Of course, that was in the case of zero outside interference. Instead, the realm had mercilessly handed them only 152 hours!! This indicated that Sheyan only had an 8 hour buffer period! This point alone offered Sheyan an immense display of severity to the horrors of this world!
Regardless, Sheyan could only sigh and accept his fate. He then immediately contacted the Dingyuan, of which he realized his crew of pirates had just pillaged a Spanish merchant ship, before sailing to the pirate’s port, Tortuga, to offload their dirty goods. After resupplying, those pirates had just sailed out of the port.
At present, they were estimatedly not even a hundred nautical miles away from Tortuga.
Sheyan immediately designated his destination to be Tortuga. Then, he instructed his pirate crew to hastily pick them up. Afterwards, the trio proceeded to enter the Caribbean Sea word.
Sheyan was now a veteran of Tortuga and before he entered the realm, he had overheard the conversation between Stalo and Zeus. Knowing that they would most likely be in pursuit today, he led the trio towards the port harbor at once. With a half-trading-half-commandeering method, he acquired a tiny single-masted boat and hastily sailed out.
In this manner, it prevented a direct confrontation against Stalo’s group on dry land. Secondly, it would save him additional time!
A measly 8 hours buffer time….a chance encounter with a legendary creature or a tempestuous storm could utterly ruin those 8 hours. Hence, Sheyan didn’t dare to play the card of simply awaiting his subordinates, opting to save any tiny bit of additional time!
Meanwhile, Stalo had recruited an underling named Douglas as he followed Sheyan’s footsteps into this world. Their designation point was also Tortuga port, where Prince Stalo had to fork out a whole 5 achievement points and 10,000 utility points to accomplish that.
Even though he was a Reserve-duty Brigadier General who was conferred with an array of privileges, the number of free privileges offered to him was vastly inferior to Sheyan!
When they finally arrived at the harbour, they could only behold a tiny single-masted boat seemingly about to disappear into the misty ocean. Brother Black was presently waving his arms enthusiastically from afar while blowing whistles at them.
Prince Stalo snorted coldly and immediately hopped onto a lateral fishing boat, which had just anchored by the port.
Unbeknownst what Douglas whispered to the pirates of that fishing boat, one could only observe flourishing black gas enshrouding the heads of those pirates, before manipulating them to jump overboard as though they were hypnotized.
Spash! Spash! Only sparing an adequate amount of manpower to pilot the ship, Douglas commenced his tight pursue of Sheyan!
Right now, the gap between both ships were approximately 2-3 kilometres.
With such a vast distance between them, excluding a specialized sniper like Mcdh, it would be impossible to harm one’s opponent. After pursuing a long while, Douglas still failed to pull in or shorten the gap.
Initially brimming with confidence, Douglas started to frown suspiciously as he spoke to Prince Stalo.
"My title of ‘Pirate Captain’ can enhance a ship’s passive velocity by 15%. Moreover, our ship has probably more members as compared to Seaman’s puny boat. Yet our speed is actually even. Could it be that Seaman brat possesses an equipment that can substantially boost one’s sailing velocity? An equipment that can absolve the disparity between the two?"
Prince Stalo’s white hair fluttered along the wind, as he shut his eyes with both arms folded across his chest and issued.
"Since he dares to spout such conceited nonsense, he definitely has tricks up his sleeves. That guy’s supportive abilities are extremely impressive, don’t worry about such abnormalities. With such a vast distance....oh hoh, it seems like only a military rank ability can cause disturbances over this distance. I shall assist you a little."
While speaking, Prince Stalo’s nightmare imprint emanated a dull brilliance. This was the military rank ability, ‘Clout of Dignity’, Prince Stalo had acquired when he advanced to the Reserve-duty Brigadier General rank.
Within a large area, all foes would suffer a 10% of absolute speed decline, an effect that couldn’t be weakened, but totally ineffective against individuals with a higher military rank. Stalo would use this military ability to compliment his personal ‘Beckoning of the Extreme North’ Ice halo ability. The total movement speed suppression on his foes would be tremendously terrifying.
Of course, it was useless against individuals of higher military rank.....instantaneously, a slightly mild ripple stirred in the air over the roaring sea, before an invisible rippling ring swept out with unbelievable speed.
The ripple swept through Sheyan’s boat, but Prince Stalo was instantly flabbergasted!! He actually received a notification detailing that the opponent was immune to his ability!!
"How could that be! Right, it should be Reef. Afterall, he was the nucleus of his previous party, he should also be the nucleus of this Party Ace. If the natural resources of that party are being poured into him, then his military rank could really be higher than mine. Hmm….if I manage to rope in Reef, could I possibly contest Zeus?"
Thinking of that, many other notions jolted through Prince Stalo’s mind. Although his military ability had failed, he didn’t voice out about his deflated attempt. Instead, he questioned Douglas.
"You have activated your ‘Ghost Ship’ ability, are they rushing here?"
Douglas nodded haughtily.
"Yes, my Ghost Ship drains away all capabilities in exchange for an unrivaled speed that can shuttle through even Hades itself. Of course, the consequences of that is having the ship and its members receiving the corruption of Hades. When carrying any human or goods, they would all receive the corruption of Hades. Therefore, this is a pathetic ability in terms of profiting for money, but an excellent drive for speed sailing. It would be here within half an hour, we just need to tightly keep up with them."
Stalo then callously announced.
"I will handle the rest as you can reduce the gap to less than a hundred metres."
After another 10 minutes of the voyage, the appalled Stalo suddenly realized they were being shrugged off.
This was a simple logic, his peddling pirates on board would eventually run out of energy. Coincidentally, a tiny island was sighted ahead.
This island didn’t have a broad area but was surrounded by 23 metres high precipitous cliffs. There was no sandy shore to ascend. In the past, it was used as a prison but was now already deserted. Because the island top was covered with white cliff rocks, Seaman and his pirates had previously hailed it as the Alps island.
Following the brewing sea breeze, Sheyan’s tiny boat rounded past a cliff of Alps Island before fading behind the cover the rocky cliff with swift precision.
After his enemy had disappeared from his line of sight, Prince Stalo frowned. Instead, Douglas abruptly cheered.
"Woah oh! Your Excellency, Prince, my baby has punctually arrived!"
Upon concluding his speech, a hazy greyish mist started encompassing the sea surface.
Gradually, a silhouette of a tattered 3-masted ship appeared with a shape that appeared like a streamline yacht of later generations. The ship’s masts weren’t towering and its sails were exceedingly ragged.
The members on board appeared with lifeless demeanor, gloomily residing amidst the mist where their thought processors had probably frozen long ago.
Those were crew members that Douglas had formed by utilizing the corpses of decaying undead.
Sheyan wasn’t the only one who had fortuitous encounters. This Douglas had managed to acquire the favor of Blackbeard and learned a couple of sinister dark magic spells.
Moreover, his cannons were all infused with dark sorcery, where the artillery might and range of his Ghost Ship was relatively outstanding; vastly exceeding Sheyan’s Dingyuan.
Although his crew members didn’t possess the battle capabilities of those decaying undead, they possessed the manifold HP of one and were more intelligent than them! Hence, they wouldn’t perish while shuttling through Hades. Those members were absolutely obedient to Douglas and knew no fatigue or weariness, neither were they fearful of death.
Of course, these undead members had one prominent flaw. Firstly, they had an expiry date where they could possibly exist for 3 months. Secondly, they possessed sluggish reactions, displaying with great delays and dull response time upon receiving their orders.
As such, Douglas had to constantly devise ways of replenishing his crew members, and the battle capabilities of his Ghost Ship was also confined greatly. Those slugging response time caused the accuracy of cannon bombardment, as well as the threat of naval boarding battles to plunge substantially. Otherwise, just the special characteristics of Douglas’s Ghost Ship alone could allow him to challenge the legendary warships.
"Hehe." Douglas’s face revealed a malicious intent.
"I shall toy with those scums ahead before I eliminate them. Even if my Ghost Ship doesn’t morph into its apparition form, its speed still ranks near the foremost of the Caribbean Sea! Apart from the Black Pearl, none can chase up to my beauty!"
Following Douglas’s commands, the Ghost Ship unhurriedly adjusted its sails; leaving a delusion that it was storing up energy, akin to a human making preparatory exercises before a sprint.
Proceeding from there, it surged forth as its bow cleaved through the billowing waves! Like a swordfish, it charged straight for its distant target with thriving deftness!
Such a speed was seemingly comparable to the speedboats of the real world!