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Suna had no choice but to agree to Yang Yi's conditions, but she didn't mind at all.
She only had 8 units of wood, 5 units of cloth, and 4 litres of fresh water on her ship. Giving half to Yang Yi was insignificant to her.
Her ship, the Astrologer, was unique and didn't require wood or cloth for upgrades. Instead, it needed 100 crystals and 50 units of steel. Since wood and cloth were of little use to her, she had already traded them for food and water.
Of course, she wouldn’t tell Yang Yi she was actually quite poor. In fact, she was curious to see what kind of expression he would have when he found out.
Unaware of this, Yang Yi thought he had extorted a good deal from her and even felt a twinge of guilt. He used a broken bone to cut the seaweed binding Suna, setting her free.
However, Suna had been tied up for too long and hadn’t eaten for days, making her extremely weak. She couldn’t stand up right away, but what she did next left Yang Yi speechless.
“What are you doing?” Yang Yi asked, bewildered.
Suna was using her hands to gather the sticky slime on the ground into a small mound, then opened her mouth and swallowed it.
The slime smelt foul, but Suna explained indifferently, "I’m thirsty. This slime secreted by the sirens can provide me with water and salt, along with some nutrients..." Her face wrinkled in disgust, clearly not enjoying the taste, but she forced herself to keep it down.
“Aren’t you afraid it might be poisonous?” Yang Yi asked.
“Nope! You've been eating it for three days and haven’t been poisoned!”
“Uh...” Yang Yi had nothing to say, only thinking the woman before him might not be entirely normal.
After replenishing her fluids, Suna looked much better. She took out a small knife from inside her clothing, crouched down next to the giant sailfish’s corpse, and cut off a few slices of fresh fish meat, chewing and swallowing them.
The knife she used was a piece of equipment:
【Name: Witch’s Dagger】 【Type: Artefact】 【Quality: Good】 【Description: A dagger favoured by witches, with many functions, including gutting your enemies. It can deal slight damage to demonic creatures.】
As Suna gradually recovered, Yang Yi began to survey the cave. It wasn’t large, with only one passage leading outside. The sounds of rain and wind could be heard from that direction. Inside the cave was a water pool that seemed bottomless, likely connected to the sea.
Yang Yi checked the male corpse lying nearby. It seemed to have been dead for some time, and a quick search revealed nothing valuable on it.
“Do the sirens usually come back through the pool or the cave entrance?” Yang Yi asked Suna.
“Either is possible,” she replied.
“Do they act together?”
“No,” Suna said, having observed these sirens for three days. “They usually move in two groups. The larger one acts alone, while the two smaller ones, about 1.4 metres long, usually stay together.”
“Is that so? And does the bigger one or the smaller ones usually return first?”
“It varies, but the time between their returns isn’t long, around 15 minutes or so.”
Yang Yi nodded, getting a good sense of the situation.
If all three sirens acted together, the best plan would be to run, as fighting all three head-on was too risky. But if there were only two, there might be a chance.
“Can you handle one?” Yang Yi asked.
“If it’s one of the smaller ones, I should be able to. I’ve fought them before,” Suna’s voice came from behind him.
Having replenished her salt and water and eaten some fish, she was gradually regaining her strength. It was clear her physical condition was quite good, perhaps even better than Yang Yi’s.
“The main weapon of the sirens is their singing, but their songs don’t affect women. Also, their upper body strength isn’t very strong, about the same as the average woman’s, probably around a strength level of 4, similar to mine. In a land battle, you only need to avoid their claws and teeth.” Suna explained further.
She had a few shallow cuts on her body, likely from the sirens. “I didn’t know there were three of them, otherwise, I wouldn’t have been captured! You have a gun, so it should be easy for you to deal with them. Just block your ears and shoot quickly!”
Suna didn’t know Yang Yi’s gun could misfire, so she thought it would be simple.
Yang Yi didn’t plan to explain this weakness, as exposing it would go against his nature. He began to check his attribute panel.
Name : Yang Yi Status: Healthy (A human figure in a large shape, all green) Strength: 3 (49/50) Spirit: 7+1 (892/8000) [Talent Bonus] Agility: 4+1 (69/100) [Pirate Outfit Bonus] Constitution : 4 (4/100) Perception: 5 (32/200) Sanity: 50/100 Energy: 92/100 Vitality: 99/100 (Lost 1 point after being bitten by Suna)
He had figured out how to increase each attribute.
Physical exercise could improve strength, constitution, and agility. Healing from injuries could give an additional boost to constitution. Large fluctuations in sanity, especially if recovered, could significantly increase spirit experience. Activities like fishing, shooting, and grappling could raise the perception of experience.
The growth methods were very realistic.
Considering what Suna had said about sirens not being very strong on land and not always moving together, Yang Yi figured that if he could quickly raise his strength to 4, combined with his Frenzy talent (+2), he could overpower them.
The main thing to watch out for were their tails, which probably packed a powerful punch. He’d have to be careful not to get hit in a vital spot.
After figuring this out, Yang Yi immediately got to work. He thought it would be easy to gain that last point of experience. Glancing around, he searched the cave for something heavy to use for training.
But at first glance, he didn’t see anything suitable. The cave was mostly empty, with just stone walls and light bones scattered around.
However, Yang Yi was resourceful and quickly came up with other options.
For instance, he could use Suna for strength training by lifting her.
Or the giant sailfish carcass, which looked like it had the right weight.
Or even the male corpse on the ground.
Considering all options, Yang Yi decided the male corpse was the best choice. The sailfish didn’t offer good leverage, and lifting Suna might lead to a bite in retaliation. But the corpse wouldn’t resist or take a chomp!
Even though the corpse’s arms were mostly gone, its weight was just right, and its head and neck were still intact, making it easy to grip.
So, Yang Yi grabbed the male corpse by the neck and started doing overhead presses with it.
“Are you insane?” Suna asked, shocked by his bizarre behaviour. “Tell me, how much sanity do you have left?”
“Don’t worry, my sanity is a solid 50!”
“50?” Suna stared at Yang Yi in disbelief.
Sanity drops usually affected mental state, even if it wasn’t below 50. But Yang Yi seemed utterly unconcerned about his sanity, or perhaps...he was always in a slightly deranged state. Suna’s gaze on Yang Yi became increasingly intense, as if she were observing a rare specimen.
Unaware of this, Yang Yi continued his corpse lifts.
Unfortunately, just as he was completing his ninth rep, he heard the sound of something slithering from the passage outside the cave. It seemed like only one creature was approaching.
“It’s back! Quickly, stuff these in your ears!” Suna handed Yang Yi two chunks of fish meat she had just cut from the tuna.
But Yang Yi shook his head. “No need; I have my own method.” He turned to face the incoming sea monster.