Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 617: A Bold Guess
Steven had no idea why this group of Seaborn was being so cooperative with Irene, but there was no way he could just turn around, pull her into his arms, and let all those spears stab into his back.
Sure, with his physical toughness, he could probably shrug it off and say something like, "A little injury like this is nothing." But once he started carrying around a death-flag line like that, he had a feeling his luck would take a very strange turn.
So naturally, Steven had no intention of letting events follow that script.
With a casual flick of his hand, he produced a shield in front of himself. The incoming spears clattered harmlessly against it before falling away.
Only then did he look helplessly toward the strange Seaborn before him.
Compared to the Seaborn he had encountered before, these ones looked even more grotesque. Their bodies resembled enormous sea urchins, making it painfully obvious where all those spears had come from.
Still, getting ambushed immediately after leaving the Inquisitors' encampment made it difficult not to suspect premeditation.
At that moment, Irene finally snapped out of her daze.
Swiftly drawing her sword, she moved behind Steven and guarded his blind spot.
It was all Steven's fault for throwing her emotions into chaos earlier. Otherwise, no matter how careless she was, she never would have failed to react to an attack like that.
Even though she knew these Seaborn were no threat to someone of Steven's strength, she remained tense, vigilantly scanning the surroundings for any hidden attackers.
"Relax," Steven said. "They're definitely here for you, but I doubt there's much more than this bunch. And they obviously didn't expect me to show up. They probably thought these rotten fish scraps would be enough to deal with you."
As he spoke, he pulled Yamato from his inventory.
If he weren't in a hurry, he might have spent some time chatting with these unusually evolved Seaborn. Unfortunately, he had a date to get to, so wasting time here wasn't on his schedule.
Before the sea-urchin-like creatures could launch a second wave of attacks, Steven strode forward with the still-sheathed Yamato in hand.
A dazzling storm of blade flashes erupted.
By the time he walked back, the Seaborn were already lying on the ground.
Each one had been neatly sliced into perfect sashimi-like portions.
It should have been a classic hero-saves-the-beauty moment, yet Irene looked anything but pleased.
Grinding her teeth, she marched over and punched Steven lightly on the shoulder.
A cluster of question marks practically appeared above his head.
"Why are you hitting me? Did I do something wrong? Since when did you start caring about Seaborn lives?"
"Hmph! That's not what I'm upset about."
Irene punched him again before puffing out her cheeks.
"It's what you said! If they're 'rotten fish scraps,' then what does that make me? If I can't beat them, doesn't that mean I'm worse than rotten fish scraps?"
It was a fact she hated admitting.
Just the number of Seaborn present had already been beyond what she could handle alone.
So hearing Steven dismiss them so casually felt suspiciously like he was looking down on her.
"No, no. You're at least a premium fish and shrimp."
Steven smiled and stepped closer.
After taking a subtle breath and catching the faint scent of lilies drifting from her, he nodded solemnly.
"You smell nice, after all. That already makes you far more reliable than those Seaborn."
"That's still not a compliment!"
Irene immediately shrank back and widened the distance between them, shooting him an annoyed glare.
Yet despite herself, her face reddened even further.
This idiot always found ways to tease her, and somehow she never had a good counterattack.
"I think it counts," Steven replied shamelessly. "So, what now? Still heading to that village? Considering they welcomed you with such a generous gift right at the entrance, I'd bet there are plenty more surprises waiting inside. Do you want to head back and gather reinforcements first?"
Squinting toward the distant village where thin trails of cooking smoke drifted into the sky, Steven didn't believe for a second that defeating a single wave of Seaborn meant they could rest easy.
Irene, standing behind him, might not have noticed anything unusual. But Steven had been the one who actually cut those creatures down.
And because of that, he had discovered the real reason these Seaborn seemed different from the ones he had encountered before.
Most of them had likely been humans once.
The evidence was obvious enough. Fragments of human limbs still remained on their bodies, not yet fully transformed into monstrous forms. From that alone, Steven could make a fairly reliable judgment.
After all, if they had truly come from the depths of the ocean, there was no reason they wouldn't recognize him.
He had literally greeted their boss not long ago.
No matter how he looked at it, it made little sense for genuine Seaborn to suddenly come looking for trouble with him at a time like this.
There was another detail Steven hadn't mentioned to Irene.
Recently, he had begun to sense a secret hidden within the nature of the Seaborn themselves.
For example, the Seaborn created from members of the Church of the Deep felt fundamentally different from the ones he had encountered in the deepest parts of the sea.
Less... pure.
It was difficult to explain.
But the Seaborn in the ocean depths had felt more like a vast collective of animals—beings without conventional notions of good or evil, devoid of complex emotions or malicious intent.
Whether they had attacked Zorah Magdaros or fought against him personally, they had never displayed the same level of cunning and deceit as the creatures before him now.
Sometimes Steven couldn't help but wonder if it was simply humanity's bad habits at work.
Perhaps Seaborn and humans had originally been independent species with no inherent need for conflict.
And if that were true...
Then was it possible that the current large-scale Seaborn invasion of the land had been caused by human interference?
Of course, it was only a hypothesis.
And beside, it's not something he particularly needed to worry about right now.
At the moment, dealing with Irene's situation was far more important.
"No need."
Irene shook her head.
"If we go back now, any clues left here will definitely be gone."
She hesitated for a moment before reluctantly reaching out and grabbing Steven's arm, dragging him toward the village.
"...Besides."
Her voice softened slightly.
"Don't I have you with me?"
"There isn't really anything for me to be afraid of if you're here, is there?"
Those weren't empty words meant to trick Steven into accompanying her.
To Irene, it was simply an undeniable fact.
She had never met anyone more absurdly overpowered than the boy standing beside her.
Trying to get past him and harm her was about as realistic as a dream.
To be honest, the sense of security she felt standing next to Steven was greater than anything she'd ever felt inside the Inquisitors' headquarters.
"Fair point."
Steven nodded seriously.
"In that case, let's get this wrapped up quickly and head to Lungmen sooner."
He cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms.
"How about I solve everything here within thirty minutes? You should probably contact your fellow Inquisitors now and tell them to prepare for arrests."
His tone was overflowing with confidence.
"You really think you can finish that quickly?"
Irene wasn't questioning whether Steven was capable of doing it.
What surprised her was the time limit.
Thirty minutes?
That was the unbelievable part.
"If you trust me the whole way and stop asking questions, I can probably do it even faster."
Steven shrugged.
"For any Seaborn infiltrators hiding among humans, getting past these eyes of mine is honestly pretty difficult."
For ordinary Inquisitors, identifying hidden traitors was a complicated and exhausting task.
For him, however?
As a blatantly overpowered Minecrafter who could casually see everyone's names and status tags floating above their heads, rooting out spies wasn't exactly a challenge.
As long as he wasn't blind, the rest was easy.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 689: Impossible to Refute[1]
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