The world begins with refining skills

Chapter 553 Druid? (Seeking monthly votes)

News of the pirate ship's appearance quickly spread like wildfire across the Cedric.

At this moment, it doesn't matter whether you're a commoner who bought a third-class ticket, a middle-class person who bought a second-class ticket, or an upper-class person who bought a first-class ticket.

Everyone visibly panicked!
"Billy! Get back to your room right now! If you dare to wander off again, the pirates might catch you and eat you!"

"We'll be at the Roseside Islands in three more days. How could we be targeted by pirates at this time? This is just too unlucky!"

"May the Goddess of Night protect us! May the Lord of Storms protect us! May the God of Steam and Machinery..."

"..."

Faced with this sudden turn of events, most passengers could do nothing but lament their bad luck or pray to the gods for safety.

In the lower deck cabin, Jules panicked the moment he heard that pirates were attacking.

He had finally scraped together enough money to buy a ticket to East Bayron, and with the journey already halfway over, it would be such a waste if he were to die at the hands of pirates.

"No!"

"I also want to go to East Bailang to make a fortune, enjoy the company of gentle native girls, and marry a fallen noblewoman..."

Jules sighed in despair, instinctively packing his bags and running away, then remembering that he was on the vast ocean.

He collapsed weakly onto the bed!

"If the ship is sinking, it should start from the bottom, right? Let's go up a few floors; it'll be easier to jump into the sea then!"

Someone suggested.

The others looked at each other and thought it made sense, so they all agreed.

Jules was also somewhat tempted, but just as he got up, he suddenly remembered what Mu Sheng had told him at the restaurant at noon.

Tell him to stay obediently in the cabin and not go out.

'Mr. Victory...how did you know pirates were coming?'

Jules' eyes flickered.

If—and he meant if—Mr. Victory was in league with the pirates, then staying in the cabin as he advised would be the safest option!

After hesitating for a moment, Jules ultimately decided to stay in the cabin.

'Those pirates are just after money; they shouldn't start by bombarding us with cannons, right?'

...

...

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several dark metal shells, propelled by the explosion of gunpowder, blasted towards the Cedric.

"Boom--boom--"

"Wow~"

Because of the great distance, the shells did not hit the Cedric, but instead landed on the sea several kilometers away.

The powerful impact immediately created huge waves that could be clearly observed even from a distance.

"Solid shot! These damned pirates are warning us!"

Inside the top-floor bridge, Captain Williams slammed his fist on the table in front of him, his face ashen, and said...

The Cedric was a steel ship, and ordinary solid shot had little effect on its hull, but other types of shells were a different story.

The Cedric was, after all, just a merchant ship, and it was impossible for it to be equipped with very thick armor.

"Turn the fire up to maximum, give it full power, and go all out to leave them behind!"

Captain Williams gave the order.

According to the lookout's observation, the other side was nothing more than an outdated three-masted sailing ship, and he didn't believe that the dilapidated ship could catch up with their steamship.

The order was quickly relayed, and the Cedric's speed gradually increased.

"Add more coal! Add more coal!"

"Use all your strength on those women, and give the steam engine its full power!"

In the dimly lit, stuffy boiler room, the third engineer shouted loudly to nearly a hundred boiler workers.

As the coal burned, the high temperature was converted into steam power, which was transmitted to the turbine fan at the bottom of the ship through a series of transmission devices.

The rapidly spinning blades propelled the Cedric forward quickly across the sea.

As the eight steam engines operated at full capacity, the distance between the pirate ship and the Cedric gradually increased.

"Foolish pirates! What era are we living in? Still clinging to those outdated three-masted sailing ships..."

As the pirate ships were gradually left behind, the crew of the Cedric finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Jim, go and calm the passengers on the ship, maintain order on the Cedric, and prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation to cause trouble..."

Seeing that the crisis had temporarily passed, Captain Williams gave instructions to the first mate beside him.

"Yes! Captain!"

First mate Jim responded and then left the cockpit with his weapons.

……

On the Flying Flyer, more than ten kilometers away, the pirates also noticed the situation on the Cedric.

"Lord Hal, they haven't stopped. They're showing you no respect!"

A pirate with yellow teeth, hunched over, leaned close to Hal Constantine and spoke.

"Snapped!"

"I saw!"

Hal Constantine drew his sword and swung it, sending the yellow-toothed pirate tumbling across the deck.

Then a cruel smile appeared on his face: "They can't escape!"

Hal Constantine stood silently on the deck, watching the Cedric gradually disappear into the distance, as if watching prey struggling in its death throes.

The sea monster that had been lingering around the Flying Ship hadn't surfaced for a long time.

call out!call out!
Dozens of meters below the surface, a monster resembling a manatee is moving at high speed through the seawater.

The Cedric, at full speed, looked like a child compared to it.

In just over ten minutes, the Kraken appeared near the Cedric's turbine fan.

The rapidly spinning fan blades, like a sharp knife, shredded everything that came near them.

Even the Kraken, a sea monster, dared not approach this terrifying mechanical creation.

"Moo~ Moo~"

Kraken let out a series of low growls and pressed its body against the hull, ramming against it repeatedly.

"Bang! Boom!"

"Bang! Boom!"

The sound of one long and two short impacts quickly spread throughout the entire Cedric via the steel.

"What it is?"

Inside the cabin on the lower deck, Jules curiously peered through the glass window at the shadowy figure of the enormous creature less than a meter below the water's surface.

"God of Machines!"

Jules was shocked, his mouth involuntarily agape.

Outside the cabin, several figures arrived at the entrance to the passage leading to the lower level amidst the chaos.

"Crack!"

The locked iron gate was opened, and the group exchanged glances, pulled out daggers hidden in their pockets, and stepped inside.

Through the narrow, stuffy passage, the infiltrators quickly reached the location of the boiler room.

"Halt! This is not a place for passengers. Get out now!"

One of the crew members spotted the group and quickly stepped forward to stop them.

"Pfft!"

A flash of white light appeared, and the crew member felt a chill in his throat, his body instantly losing all strength.

"You, you..."

The crew member clutched his neck, managed to utter a few words, and then collapsed to the ground with a thud. "Let's do it!"

"Shut down the steam engine as quickly as possible, and kill all those who try to stop us!"

"As long as we help Lord Kraken destroy the turbine fan, we will have accomplished a great feat!"

"The leader, a somewhat thin, brown-haired man, said in a cold voice."

He was the first to push open the door and enter the boiler room, followed by the others, who all looked excited.

"Quickly, don't let the fire simmer! The captain said to keep the engine running at full power!"

The third engineer, drenched in sweat, was urging the boiler worker, who was also covered in sweat, to hurry up.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him.

The third engineer instinctively turned his head to look back.

call out!
A dark shadow flashed by, and the third-barreled cyborg felt a sharp pain between his eyebrows, his body immediately falling backward uncontrollably.

Behind him was a railing, below which were several boilers and piles of coal.

"Oh!"

The body of the third engineer crashed onto a pile of coal, blood flowing down the black coal.

The boiler room fell silent instantly!
The workers looked at the body of the third engineer, then at the people above the stairs.

"Listen, we are under the command of 'Vice Admiral' Hal Constantine."

The brown-haired man stepped forward, looking down at the boiler workers below, and threatened:
"If you don't want to die, shut down the boiler, otherwise..."

The brown-haired man picked up the dagger, licked it with his tongue, and stared fiercely at the group of boiler workers, seemingly choosing his next target.

"Pirates! They're pirates!"

"How did pirates end up here? Has the Cedric been captured?"

The boiler workers immediately panicked.

Seeing this, the brown-haired man felt certain that these people did not have the courage to resist.

"You, you two, go down and turn off the valve!"

The brown-haired man casually pointed to two of his men and told them to go downstairs and shut off the valve on the steam pipe.

The burning boiler is difficult to extinguish in a short time, but fortunately, what they need to do is stop the turbine fan, not shut down the boiler.

The two pirates who were called immediately strode down the stairs.

Ignoring the boiler workers nearby, they began to shut off the valves one by one.

Seeing the arrogant and disrespectful attitude of these pirates, the leading boiler workers exchanged glances and tightened their grip on their shovels.

The pirates numbered only five, while the pirates had nearly a hundred men.

However, just as the leading workers were about to take action, the brown-haired man who had been observing the commotion below suddenly pulled out a blowgun.

"Puff puff!"

Several arrows coated with poison pierced through space in an instant, striking the boiler workers.

The poison destroyed their nervous systems; several workers convulsed a few times before collapsing to the ground and dying.

"Who else wants to die?"

The brown-haired man looked indifferently at the boiler workers below.

The workers were somewhat agitated, but ultimately no one dared to stand up.

After temporarily gaining control of the situation, the pirates quickly shut off the valves, cutting off the power supply to the steam engine.

"Now, it's up to Lord Kraken!"

The brown-haired man was excited. With this achievement, he could exchange for the next sequence of 'Hunter' from the captain.

After losing power, the Cedric's speed did not decrease due to inertia, but the turbofan at the bottom quickly slowed down.

Kraken, the sea monster that had been lingering nearby, immediately let out a moo and rammed its head into the turbine fan.

"Bang!!!"

"Squeak! Crack!"

The twisted and broken metal fragments, along with the blood from the Kraken's head, slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

The Cedric shuddered, and just as the crew wondered what had happened, the ship shook.

Then came another muffled thud, and the ship shook again.

"Moo~ Moo~"

The Kraken, having destroyed the Cedric's power source, immediately leaped out of the water and sent a signal to the Flying, which was in pursuit.

"Oh!"

The monster, several meters long, leaped out of the water and then crashed down, creating a huge splash.

The crew and passengers on the Cedric also spotted the enormous sea monster immediately.

"My goddess! What kind of monster is this?"

"A sea monster! It's a legendary sea monster! We're going to be eaten by it!"

Inside the bridge, Captain Williams and the others also spotted the Kraken.

"Hiss~ It's a sea monster!"

"Could that pirate ship belong to 'Vice Admiral Deep Sea,' one of the seven pirate generals?"

"Oh no! The 'Deep Sea Admiral' can control the sea monster to destroy the turbine fan. Without power, we'll be nothing more than iron coffins floating on the sea!"

Someone made contact with something and immediately gasped!
Captain Williams, recalling information about the 'Deep Sea Admiral,' immediately shouted the order:

"Quick! Fire the cannons and drive this sea monster away!"

The Cedric was also equipped with eight cannons, but that was far from enough compared to the Flying's forty-eight cannons.

This is why Captain Williams chose to accelerate and shake off the pirate ship as soon as he spotted it.

However, at that moment, the crew member who had been monitoring the voyage suddenly cried out, "The Cedric is slowing down, and very quickly!"

"what?"

Everyone was shocked.

"Oh no, something must have happened in the boiler room!"

Captain Williams immediately realized that there must be a pirate spy who had infiltrated the ship.

"Captain, what should we do now? Should we surrender?"

"no!"

Captain Williams rejected the option without hesitation: "Hal Constantine is a vicious and perverted man. He not only robs people but also enjoys killing!"

"Even if we surrender, he won't let us go!"

"Go, distribute all the weapons to the crew, and send someone to find those noble lords and tell them about the current situation."

If you don't want your valuables to be plundered and your wives and daughters to be defiled by the 'Deep Sea Admiral,' then have their bodyguards cooperate with us in resisting the pirates."

Ordinary people might not know, but Captain Williams did: among the bodyguards of those nobles were extraordinary individuals.

He himself is a 7th 'navigator'.

"Yes! Captain!"

With Williams's command, everyone felt reassured and immediately sprang into action.

"Vice Admiral of the Deep Sea! Hal Constantine!"

Williams murmured the name, a resolute glint in his eyes.

So what if he's Sequence 5? As a man who braves the raging waves, he has never lacked the courage to fight to the death.

The name of the sequence preceding 'Navigator' is 'Wrathful People'!

……

Above the Cedric, Mu Sheng sat cross-legged in the void, watching with great interest the battle about to begin below.

"Another lieutenant general who can control sea monsters. Could he be a 'Druid'?"

(End of this chapter)