Lord: Starting with Biological Modification

Chapter 260: Chapter 255: Name a Price, Captain

He took a big swig of wine, the liquor dripping down his coarse stubble.

Wiping his mouth, his entire demeanor changed.

The captain of the Golden Sail Commerce Association, who had been so careful and measured before the lord, vanished.

In his place was the old sailor who had braved the monstrous waves of the endless sea for years.

"Tricky? My lord, in the deep sea, the word ’tricky’ doesn’t even begin to cover it."

Sea Wolf’s voice took on a singsong, bard-like cadence.

He looked around at everyone present.

"Some things... they aren’t just part of the rules. They *are* the rules."

Barrett lowered the cup he had just raised. Ola stopped his subconscious stroking of his beard. Even Tristan, who had been buried in his work, looked up from his pile of parchments.

"The Storm Giant Squid."

"And I’m not talking about the kind you hear about from coastal fishermen—the ones that can capsize a fishing boat."

"I’m talking about a monster that can treat a three-masted warship like a toy in the palm of its hand." He made a gesture, but quickly dropped his hands in frustration, as if no motion could possibly describe its unimaginable size.

"Their hides are so tough that an ordinary sword slash won’t even leave a white mark."

"Once, in the open sea off the Mist Islands, I saw from a distance an elite squad of the Multi-Armed Race surrounding a Storm Giant Squid. You know the Multi-Armed Race—in the water, they’re natural-born overlords. Agile, fierce, with perfect coordination."

Sea Wolf paused. He raised his cup but only stared at the swirling liquid within, his gaze drifting off into a distant memory.

"But that massive thing didn’t care at all. It just floated there, letting those bone spears and claw blades scrape against its body. It couldn’t even be bothered to strike back with its tentacles. It just... slowly... began to rise."

"At the time, everyone on my ship thought it was trying to escape. Even the Multi-Armed Race thought so, and they pursued it even more tightly. But guess what happened?"

"It knew how to use its environment?" Tristan grasped the key point.

"More than just ’knew,’" Sea Wolf said, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"A flock of Griffins were circling above the sea, the Magical Beast overlords of a nearby island. The moment the Storm Giant Squid’s head broke the surface, the Griffins dove like sharks that had smelled blood! But their target wasn’t the Storm Giant Squid at all—it was the pursuing Multi-Armed Race Warriors!"

He made a diving, grabbing motion with his hand.

"The scene... it was a hunt. The Griffins would snatch a Multi-Armed who couldn’t react in time in the shallow water, fly high into the air, and then release their claws, watching them fall screaming. It was like a cat playing with a mouse."

"The battle underwater descended into chaos and collapsed in no time. And the Storm Giant... Squid? It just watched quietly from below. Only after the commotion in the sky and on the sea had ended did it slip back into the deep, bearing a few superficial wounds."

Silence fell over the council chamber.

Barrett’s one good eye narrowed to a slit. This kind of enemy was completely foreign to him.

In his experience, monsters of such power on land were either extremely elusive or lived in harsh environments completely inhospitable to humans.

Otherwise, they would have long since been hunted down by countless allied dragon slayers.

"Then there are the Abyssal Worms."

"Solitary creatures, their entire bodies are covered in a chitinous shell that even a Dwarven Rune Axe can’t crack. They can tunnel through the rock and silt of the seabed as easily as a fish swims through water. The Scouts of the Multi-Armed Race fear nothing more than encountering one of these on the ocean floor."

Hearing this, Ola’s thick eyebrows furrowed.

"Not even a Rune Axe can crack it?"

"It’s not a matter of thickness, but material, my Lord Baron," Sea Wolf explained patiently.

"The structure of that shell is bizarre. It absorbs and disperses impact. You can swing with all your might, but it feels like hitting a giant glob of waterlogged mud. All the force just gets dissipated."

"I saw it with my own eyes. A five-man patrol of the Multi-Armed Race encountered an Abyssal Worm. They were moving cautiously along the seabed when suddenly, the last two Warriors in line were snatched by an invisible giant hand, vanishing into the sand in an instant. Not even a struggle. The remaining three were scared out of their wits. They abandoned their weapons and frantically swam for the surface to escape."

Velin, who had been listening quietly all this time, occasionally jotted down a few words on the paper in front of him.

His expression was calm, but the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"The most troublesome, though, are a swarm of little things called ’Echoing Sea Sirens.’"

"Not the mermaids from the legends who lure sailors with their songs. These are a swarm of palm-sized, piranha-like monsters. They travel in schools of tens of thousands, communicating with sound waves our human ears can’t even hear."

He held up his hand, indicating the size of a small fish.

"Don’t underestimate them. The high-frequency sound waves these little things emit can severely interfere with the resonance-sensing abilities the Multi-Armed Race relies on to survive. When a large school of Echoing Sea Sirens passes by, it’s like a powerful sonic storm. It can instantly render a well-equipped Multi-Armed squad deaf and blind, lost in the darkness of the deep sea."

Barrett and Ola listened, trading glances.

These unheard-of monsters deepened their reverence for the ocean.

The Magical Beasts on land, though fierce, were at least within their realm of understanding. They left tracks and had weaknesses that could be found.

But these deep-sea creatures each possessed abilities that defied common sense.

"They all sound dangerous," Tristan said, his mind returning to practical matters. He summarized calmly, "But can we really use them against the Multi-Armed Race? They’re just beasts. Their behavior is unpredictable."

Sea Wolf nodded, then shook his head.

"Absolutely. The question is *how* you use them." He paused for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts.

"But they all have one thing in common—they are pure beasts, a part of nature itself. You can hide from them, go around them, and if you’re lucky, even lure them into attacking your enemies. But you can’t *use* them, let alone control them."

Sea Wolf spread his hands in a helpless gesture.

"Trying to tame them? That’s harder than getting the King to give up his mistresses."

The crude but apt metaphor drew a roar of laughter from Ola. Even the ever-serious Barrett couldn’t help but crack a smile.

The brief laughter lightened the heavy atmosphere in the council chamber.

But Velin didn’t laugh. He posed a question.

"Of these creatures, which has the most complex physiology, the greatest adaptability, and the highest potential for intelligence?"

Sea Wolf was taken aback by the question.

For a man who made his living on the sea, the only thought when encountering these monsters was how to escape, how to avoid them.

’Who would ever stop to ponder their ’physiology’ and ’potential for intelligence’?’

Sea Wolf furrowed his brow, sinking into deep thought.

"The Storm Giant Squid. Without a doubt."

"It knows how to use the environment, how to use other creatures, and even how to assess threat levels. As for adaptability, the fact that it can withstand a siege from the Multi-Armed Race and move freely between the ten-thousand-meter depths and the sea’s surface says it all."

Velin nodded, and on his paper, drew a heavy line under the name "Storm Giant Squid."

Everyone else thought Velin would continue to ask for details about these deep-sea monsters, or perhaps begin discussing a plan with Tristan and Barrett to lure or avoid them, using them as natural barriers against the Multi-Armed Race.

But Velin’s next words left everyone in the room, including Sea Wolf himself, utterly dumbfounded.

"I need a live specimen of a Storm Giant Squid."

Velin looked up, his calm, wine-red eyes locking onto Sea Wolf’s, as if he were ordering a shipment of lumber or iron ore.

Velin ignored everyone’s reaction, his gaze fixed solely on Sea Wolf.

"Name your price, Captain."

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