Chapter Thirty-Three: The Rising Tide of the Furious Sea

After the battle, on the boat returning to the town, Wei Long Wang pushed back the treasure chest of spoils that Cheng Chu handed to him, looking somewhat embarrassed as he said, “You took down that boss alone. We didn’t help at all, so the loot is naturally yours to keep.”

Cheng Chu shook his head. “Since we’re already in a party, the rewards belong to the team. That’s the rule.”

“But...” Wang tried to protest.

“No buts. That’s settled.”

Seeing Cheng Chu’s insistence, Wang hesitated, then finally smiled. “Well, if you insist, I won’t argue.”

He opened the treasure chest and took out three items, grinning. “Not bad—there’s an intermediate skill and a top-tier weapon.”

“Let’s auction them, then,” Cheng Chu said.

They first put up for auction the green gear dropped by the minor bosses and mobs. Soon, they reached the main loot from the Pirate Warlord.

“Raging Tide Slash (Intermediate): Unleash a fan-shaped blade of energy, up to 10 meters long and 3 meters wide, dealing 150% of your max physical attack and inflicting a Basic Rend. Cooldown: 150 seconds.”

Basic Rend: A powerful strike tears open wounds that refuse to heal, reducing recovery and healing by 20%, and causing the target to take 10% extra physical damage for 15 seconds.

“The starting bid is 5 silver, with each increment at 1 silver. I’ll open with 5 silver,” said Chunlei Zhang with a grin.

“6 silver.”

“7 silver.”

“8 silver.”

“9 silver,” Cheng Chu offered offhandedly.

“Pass.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Me too.”

The group looked at Cheng Chu, who was a bit bewildered before realizing what had happened. He hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “All right, but the next item can’t go like this.”

“Of course.”

The next item was a blue, fine-quality two-handed saber, with much higher attack than others of its grade, and even came with the Thunderous Slash skill.

Wei Long Wang and Mingyue Cheng, both able to wield it, bid furiously against each other. The price soared to 320 silver before Mingyue Cheng finally won.

The last item was the Pirate Warlord’s head, which could be handed in at any town for a large amount of reputation. Cheng Chu bought it for 10 silver.

After the auction, they split the proceeds. Cheng Chu received 113 silver and 33 copper. Across both rounds, the team split a total of 270 silver.

An hour later, the boat arrived at Linhai Town’s dock, and the five of them parted ways.

Now came some free time. None of them planned to hunt another boss until the upcoming event at Brad Town. Moreover, Cheng Chu intended to go solo for the Brad Town event in ten days.

He was no longer the same as before. His strength had increased dramatically since last time, and he could now clear the event on his own, with no need to share the gains.

Back in the town’s training grounds, he learned the newly acquired Raging Tide Slash skill.

As always, a glowing orb appeared in his mind, and filaments of light merged into his skill panel. After a moment’s blur, Raging Tide Slash vanished, replaced by a higher-level skill: Surging Sea’s Rising Tide.

Surging Sea’s Rising Tide LV1 (Advanced): Unleash a fan-shaped blade of oceanic energy, up to 15 meters long and 5 meters wide, dealing 200% of your max physical attack, knocking back targets weaker than yourself, and inflicting Intermediate Rend. Cooldown: 150 seconds.

Intermediate Rend: A powerful attack tears open wounds that refuse to heal, reducing recovery and healing by 40% and causing the target to take 20% extra physical damage for 15 seconds.

“Not bad!”

This was a rare ranged AOE skill, extremely effective for clearing distant mobs.

Although his talent was perfect for farming mobs, it required him to be attacked to trigger. If he ran into enemies who didn’t attack proactively, he’d have to fight them head-on.

After learning the skill, Cheng Chu sent a message to his homeroom teacher to report his plans. He intended to stay in Brad Town until the event unfolded, preparing to take part in the Battle of Brad Town.

Yu Qin Duan didn’t refuse him. For ordinary students, participating in such events would be suicidal, but for elite students, it was the opposite—they needed to join events often to gather resources. Of course, only if they were confident. If not, she wouldn’t have agreed.

Yu Qin Duan had kept an eye on Cheng Chu’s recent performance and, knowing his talent posed little risk, simply reminded him to be careful.

Two hours later, Cheng Chu arrived at Brad Town.

There were already quite a few students in the town, but most were just passing through rather than preparing to join the Brad Town storyline.

Cheng Chu first rented a room at the inn, then took out a slip of paper. On it was a reputation guide for Brad Town: starting from Friendly, he could reach Revered by completing various quests from the town’s prominent figures, and ultimately reach Exalted.

It was worth noting that reputation in the instance would reset after each run, but if one reached Exalted by the end of the last run, it would be retained and not reset with the next cycle.

Cheng Chu aimed to grind his reputation in Brad Town up to Exalted, in preparation for the event in ten days.

With high reputation, one would enjoy various local privileges. At Exalted, one earned the right to command small groups of militia and garrison troops.

He needed a squad to shield him—to prevent the boss from using a decapitation tactic on him when he attempted to cheese the Pirate Warlord during the event.

“Let’s start here,” he muttered.

Cheng Chu headed to the only inn in town, following the first step of the guide, beginning with the innkeeper.

Five minutes later, he walked out of the inn and headed straight to the docks, spending 1 silver and 20 copper to buy a batch of silverfish directly from returning fishermen.

The quest required him to fish for them himself, but he had no time to waste—so he simply paid his way through.

Half an hour later, he left the inn again, returned to the docks, and purchased a batch of swimming crabs from the fishermen.

An hour later, he was back at the docks once more…

After five such trips back and forth, he finally completed the quests at the inn, earning 300 reputation.

He then sought out another prominent NPC in town to continue taking quests.

For efficiency’s sake, he paid his way through most tasks—it wasn’t expensive anyway. For example, the five rounds of quests had cost only 12 silver in total.

By evening, after completing five waves of quests, his reputation had reached Honored, at a total cost of 17 silver.

Nighttime wasn’t convenient for questing, but Cheng Chu didn’t idle. He grabbed his fishing rod and went to the docks to practice fishing.

He fished until midnight before returning to rest. At dawn, he resumed his quests with renewed energy.

By the third day, after spending a total of 52 silver, his reputation reached Revered. The next rank was Exalted.

For this stage, he needed to find the town constable, join the town guard, and accept various military assignments.

Most of these involved patrols, eliminating pirates, and clearing wild beasts. The nearby sea was patrolled by several pirate warships, there was a small murloc tribe, and a few level-twenty-something sea monsters.

These couldn’t be cleared with money; he had to do them himself.

Fortunately, the difficulty was manageable, and he resolved the threats in just two days.

Upon returning to hand in the tasks, as expected, the constable gave him the final mission:

“Kill the Pirate Warlord, Du Long, on Black Sand Island, and bring back his head.”

After issuing the quest, Constable Hans spoke gravely, “Warrior Cheng Chu, you have already proven your valor in your previous assignments. This mission is extremely dangerous. Even if you fail, it will not affect your evaluation.”

Cheng Chu replied with equal seriousness, “Constable, please await my good news!”

“I will be waiting!”