As if to prove Max's words, one enormous head after another emerged from the sea. The fierce monster fish from earlier were now nothing but helpless prey, hunted at will. Jill Young's raft seemed to have wandered into a world of giants, surrounded on all sides by Thunderneck Leviathans. Their massive bodies stirred up towering waves with every movement, turning Max into a rolling gourd, clinging desperately to the boat and not daring to lift his head.
"Quick, hold the rudder steady! We need to get out of here!" Right now, only Jill Young could barely keep her footing on the boat. She rushed to the stern, took a deep breath, and gripped the rudder with all her strength. The intense battle had left her feeling physically drained.
Max looked at the gigantic creatures all around and suddenly burst out laughing: "I remember now—Thunderneck Leviathans mainly eat fish! They'll chase away those monster fish, but they won't eat us! As long as the boat holds together, staying among these big guys is safer than being in the fish swarm!"
"Safe? I don't see anything safe about this. I just think these things could smash our boat to pieces in one hit." Jill Young tossed a bundle of rope to Max. "Quick, reinforce the hull! We need to get away from these Thunderneck Leviathans."
"Relax, relax, these Thunderneck Leviathans seem pretty gentle," Max said nonchalantly. "They probably don't have any natural enemies, so they won't suddenly go berserk and turn us into mincemeat—as long as you don't shoot them with Jill's Greatbow."
Jill Young observed the Thunderneck Leviathans and found they really seemed to be focused only on hunting the monster fish, not doing anything else. She wiped the rain off her face and said, "Let's hope so."
Just then, a deep, thunderous roar echoed from the distance. At the sound, the nearby Thunderneck Leviathan herd seemed to panic.
Jill Young squinted into the distance and saw a Thunderneck Leviathan struggling and roaring on the far-off sea, apparently fighting something. Suddenly, a head even bigger than the Thunderneck Leviathan's burst out of the water. Its jaws tore a chunk of flesh from the Leviathan's neck. The monster's body seemed to flicker with electricity, its long, glowing form visible even beneath the waves.
"Awooo—!" The Thunderneck Leviathans near Jill Young grew agitated, their massive bodies churning up huge waves that made it hard for Jill to keep her balance. The little raft creaked and groaned, like a dying beast.
"No, no, no, please don't!" With Max's scream, a Thunderneck Leviathan's head slammed hard against one side of the raft. With a loud crack, the raft finally gave out, splintering into loose logs. In the nick of time, Jill Young slashed through the ropes binding the raft together and dove into one of the small boats on either side.
When these two small boats were built, they were always intended to be lifeboats—just never thought they'd be needed so soon.
Wind and rain howled, the sky was pitch dark, and Jill Young clung desperately to the edge of her canoe. The little boat broke free from the raft, tossed around like a helpless pea in a frying pan, hurled up and down by massive waves. Jill had no time to worry about Max; all she could hear was the deep, angry roars of the Thunderneck Leviathans rising and falling around her.
Battered by the waves, Jill Young's tiny boat somehow managed not to capsize. Exhausted, she took out a piece of specially prepared dried meat and ate it, but her vision grew heavier and heavier, and finally she passed out from fatigue.
…………………
When Jill Young woke up, she found herself soaking in water. Not directly in the sea, but inside her little boat, which had half-filled with seawater. She was just lying there in it.
Where am I now?
Jill Young shook her head and quickly scrambled up, only to find her small boat had drifted onto a beach. Above was bright light, and those glowing, strange energy clusters had started working again.
Looks like luck's on my side. I have no clue where I am, but judging by the direction of the waves, I must've ended up on the east side of the ocean. Max originally estimated it would take five days to cross, but thanks to the storm and wild waves, I made it ahead of schedule.
All good things, really.
Wait, where did Max go? Maybe he got swallowed up by the furious sea. "Max?" Jill Young called out, stepping off the boat and looking around. No sign of anyone.
"Max, where are you?" Jill Young turned to look behind her—only to suddenly spot a gigantic monster not far away, its massive eyes locked right onto her!
"What the—!" Jill Young's hair stood on end as she backed away with her knife. How did she not notice this giant beast at all? Not having that Rain Whisper Technique is seriously inconvenient!
But after a moment on guard, Jill Young saw the monster more clearly and relaxed.
It was a monstrous fish—long, flat, big-faced and sharp-toothed, with pale eyes still showing a hint of ferocity. Its body was a meter and a half thick, sprawled menacingly on the beach. But it couldn't bully anyone now, because it was already dead.
The section on the beach was over five meters long, and beyond that, it just vanished. Jill Young thought the thing looked familiar, then slapped her palm: Wasn't this the same kind of monster that attacked the Thunderneck Leviathans? She'd only caught a glimpse at the time, but the impression was deep. Judging by its looks, it was kind of like an electric eel from Earth—maybe some mutated ancestor? The wound looked like it was torn apart by an angry herd of Thunderneck Leviathans.
"Wait, if a giant monster like this is lying right in front of me, that means—" Jill Young dashed to the creature's severed body, pressed her right hand against its corpse, and with a buzz, an invisible ripple spread across it.
A quick test—yep, no problem!
This is... the muscle and bone of a super beast!
I'm about to strike it rich!
What a lucky break—seriously, what a lucky break. If this space wasn't collapsing and destroying itself, the animals would never have gone so wild. If they hadn't, Jill Young wouldn't have spotted them on the open sea, and even if she did, there's no way she could've hunted them down.
Now, with half a prehistoric monster's corpse lying here, it's way more useful than a hundred unicorn sheep! Life force doesn't scale directly with size, but a ferocious predator like this can definitely provide a ton of energy!
Jill Young spent a full five hours working around the giant corpse. Her Titan Spirit Method was still pretty basic, so extracting the essence from this beast was way harder than with wolves or sheep. But the tougher the challenge, the more Jill liked it—because that meant the results would be even better.
Finally, Jill Young refined the essence into a chunk of meat about the size of a basketball. Since there was nothing around to make a fire, she stashed the meat in her Pocket Vault for now.
She took one last look at the vast ocean—yep, the sea really is the mother of life. Never mind the other unknown species, just those Thunderneck Leviathans alone—if she could hunt them all, her Titan Spirit Method would skyrocket.
But whatever, dreams are fine, delusions are best left behind. Right now, Jill Young's nowhere near strong enough to hunt them. When she is, finding prey won't be a problem!
Turning around, she saw a lush forest to the east. Jill Young quickly stripped off her wet clothes, showing off her fit, flawless body. She pulled a tank top and hot pants out of her Pocket Vault, tied her growing hair into a neat ponytail, slung Jill's Greatbow and grabbed her knife, and strode into the woods.
"Adventure time, adventure time—jungle adventure, here I come!"