That day, as usual, Yang Yi finished a training session and checked his attribute progress.
Most of his basic attributes were about to break through 10 points. His physique, in particular, was only about two thousand experience away from the next threshold.
He was not wearing any attribute-boosting equipment at the moment. His panel appeared as follows:
【Yang Yi (Transcendent)】
Strength: (9) 11 (5149/32000) [Banquet Eater bonus; currently, all attributes except spirit perception +1]
Note: The numbers in parentheses represent base attributes.
Sanity: 100/100
Talents: Steel Will, Refusing Death
However, as all his attributes approached 10 points, a problem emerged.
The bonuses from equipment and talents, such as Steel Will and the Captain’s Uniform—were gradually losing effectiveness because they could not push attributes beyond the 10-point mortal limit.
The uniform was still manageable. Although it was only exquisite-quality equipment, there was still potential to upgrade it to epic-tier.
But talent-based bonuses were essentially being wasted.
Unless talents themselves could be upgraded so they could break through the mortal limit.
I guess it can only be like this for now. Yang Yi thought. It’s a pity, but I can’t stop leveling up. That would be like shooting myself in the foot.
He decided to continue raising all basic attributes beyond 10 points while also searching for a way to upgrade his talents.
Such a method likely existed. After all, talents clearly had tiers. For example, Refusing Death was a high-level talent capable of breaking the mortal limit.
So Steel Will might also have an advancement path and evolve into something stronger. Otherwise, purely attribute-based talents would become useless in the later stages.
He wiped the sweat from his body, took the captain’s uniform handed over by the vines, and put it on.
Suddenly, the Nightmare Star, sailing at full speed, began to brake.
The hull tilted slightly, and loose objects slid forward before being quickly caught by extending vines and ancient bone arms.
Yang Yi immediately turned toward the bow.
At that moment, the old captain was in control of the ship, and this was the first emergency stop he had ever executed.
Yang Yi looked ahead with his naked eyes, but saw only darkness. Nothing unusual appeared.
However, the captain would not have stopped the ship without reason. The experienced sailor must have noticed something.
Yang Yi activated his Third Eye.
Through it, he saw a silhouette ahead on the ship’s course.
It was a giant.
Only its upper body, the head, neck, and shoulders, were visible above the sea. The rest of its body was submerged.
No, something was wrong.
It was not submerged in seawater, but hidden within black fog.
The fog over the sea ahead had thickened significantly. Around the giant’s body, it had condensed from just a thin layer into nearly one meter of dense darkness.
However, due to the distance—over a thousand meters from the Nightmare Star—it was extremely difficult to detect.
Yang Yi switched back to normal vision. Even with werewolf-enhanced night vision, he still could not see the giant.
“This thing is completely black… it’s blending into the environment,” he realized.
He immediately informed Suna.
Suna had already sensed something; the sudden stop of the ship had caused quite a disturbance.
She and Xiao Ji quickly emerged onto the deck and arrived at the bow.
“There’s a giant in the sea?” Suna asked.
Yang Yi nodded, his Third Eye scanning the surroundings continuously. His expression grew increasingly serious.
Suna took out the Greedy Eye telescope and paid 1,000 Shell Coins to activate it—but she saw nothing except darkness.
Meanwhile, Xiao Ji rotated the camera mounted on its mechanical body. Only the top rotated while the rest remained still, like a human turning its neck.
Then a hatch opened on its head, revealing a small radar device that extended outward and began rotating while emitting electromagnetic waves.
“Ten… twelve giant anomalous entities. The number is still increasing… fourteen… seventeen…” Xiao Ji reported.
Yang Yi also detected them.
The number of giants was increasing rapidly, emerging from the black fog like crops sprouting from the ground, without even causing splashes.
They were not rising from the sea.
They were coming from the fog.
He had encountered similar beings before and killed many of them. They were called “black shadows.”
But the scale of what appeared now was far beyond anything he had seen before.
“Be careful. We’re surrounded. They’re closing in,” Yang Yi said coldly. “Suna, activate the Light Container. These things are afraid of light.”
He also activated his own Light Container, setting it to medium brightness, then moved toward the helm to take control of the Nightmare Star.
The giant black shadows were appearing in all directions. They had likely been following them, forming a complete encirclement the moment they revealed themselves.
Yang Yi steered the ship toward the gap between two giants ahead.
If they could break through before the encirclement closed, they still had a chance to escape.
However, as they approached, Yang Yi noticed something alarming. The Nightmare Star propulsion was weakening. Its speed was dropping.
He immediately released the helm and rushed to the bow edge, looking down.
Beneath the thick black fog, countless mist-like black hands extended upward, gripping the hull tightly and creating immense resistance.
Logically, these things should not have physical form, so how were they restraining the ship?
Yang Yi activated the Light Container again.
The black arms instantly dissolved, as if they had never existed, revealing the sea beneath.
But outside the illuminated areas, more and more hands continued to emerge, restraining the ship’s movement.
Faint, chaotic voices rose from below.
“Light… it’s light…”
“Holy light…”
“Take me with you…”
The voices overlapped, fragmented and distorted, as if countless people were speaking at once.
Suna also noticed the anomaly.
“The activity in this black fog has increased,” she said, shining her Light Container downward.
At that moment, all the giants began to move.
As if something beneath the fog had awakened, they started converging toward the Nightmare Star from all directions.
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