The Legend of the Fishermen of Sicily

Chapter 143 How can you be so lucky?

Deep-sea harvesting is extremely physically demanding. All three of them are excellent swimmers, but they still cannot work in the deep sea for long periods of time. After three or four dives, they have to go back to the boat to rest.

Enzo's boat had a depth-measuring rope, and according to his estimation, the mussel bed that Leo found was forty-two or forty-three meters below the surface.

His drunkenness had worn off, and he began grabbing Leo, asking questions: "How did you end up in such a deep place, and in such a huge pit?"

Enzo had never seen a fisherman touch such a dangerous area while catching sea urchins.

Children like them, who grow up by the sea, are taught from a young age to stay away from these underwater pits of unknown depth.

At a depth of over 40 meters, the water temperature is only 10-16 degrees Celsius, making each dive a double test of both physical and mental strength.

Even back on the ship, the Sicilian sun still felt cold. Bianchi rubbed his face and blurted out, "Leo must be looking for a sponge."

Leo isn't like Salvatore, who keeps things to himself... He shared news of the treasure with Bianchi three days ago.

Leo nodded: "Yes, I'm looking for black sponges, gold sponges, and silk sponges."

There are over 700 types of sponges in the Mediterranean... Leo has studied them all over the past two days and discussed them several times with Bianchi, and finally placed his bet on these three types of sponges.

Enzo didn't seem surprised, clearly having heard similar rumors. He stood up, twisted his waist, and prepared to go into the sea: "You're something else, you didn't find a sponge, but you found a mussel bed that's more valuable than it."

Leo also started putting on his gear: "It probably isn't worth more... Rumor has it that these sponges sell for the same price as gold. Sponges tend to grow in patches, so if you come across one, it'll definitely be more valuable than this mussel bed."

Enzo zipped up his diving suit: "The valuable sponges of the Mediterranean were almost completely depleted hundreds of years ago. Sponges need a growth cycle, and a very long one at that. Even if you could find a high-value sponge now, it would only be a cluster or a few sponges. How much could that sell for?"

Bianchi nodded, looking at Leo with an expression that said, "See, I told you so," and said, "That rumor outside is probably false. Don't go to dangerous places anymore. After you finish harvesting from this mussel bed, go find sea urchins normally."

Leo sighed.

He didn't want to go to such a dangerous place; "safety first" has always been his guiding principle.

But how do you complete the "Recover Family Hoard" quest without going to the deep waters?

He glanced at Bianchi across from him and thought to himself—

With these 50 points of [Reputation] experience, plus you, I can unlock the new title.

We have no choice but to give it our all...

"No, we can rest for two days and take a break after harvesting this mussel bed." Enzo put on his diving mask. "The mussel bed that Leo found is in deep water. The density isn't high, but it's large and the mussels are plump, making them more valuable than regular mussels."

Leo's gloom vanished, and he chased after Enzo, asking, "How much can I sell it for?"

Enzo jumped into the sea: "When I get back at noon, I'll call Aesop and tell him there's something good tomorrow morning. I'll also ask about the prices. Okay, come down quickly. It'll take the three of us two or three days to empty the bottom."

Bianchi followed suit and jumped into the sea: "I told my mom when I got home at noon that I wouldn't be coming home for lunch for the next two or three days."

Leo was the third to jump down, but he was the most eager to dive: "You guys go and collect mussels first, I'll go down and look for something else."

Enzo and Bianchi were shocked and gave chase without stopping.

In just a moment, Leo went down to a depth of four or five meters.

The two of them whipped their legs with all their might, their arms flailing wildly, but they couldn't catch up with Leo in front of them; the distance between them only widened...

Then, he watched helplessly as the beam of light representing Leo crossed the cave where the mussel bed was located and plunged headlong into the bottomless abyss.

Enzo chased after him, blowing bubbles as he did so, muttering, "Is this guy crazy?"

Bianchi gritted his teeth, trying to catch up with Leo and stop him: "How can there be someone even more determined than me?"

Leo spent a week in the shallow waters, and the Microscopic Eyes only detected faint traces of life.

Today he went to deeper waters and saw an unprecedented change—revealing a mussel bed hidden in a huge cave.

Although the system description uses the phrase "there is a low probability of discovering hidden things," the probability of it only appearing once a week is far too low.

It is known that the "peeping eye" cannot detect anything in a bright and clean environment, but it is more effective in dirty, messy, and dark corners.

Leo couldn't help but wonder if the reason they hadn't found any other hidden objects before was because the environment wasn't dark enough.

The implication of placing it in the ocean is that the water is not deep enough.

So he went to deeper water.

Without instruments to measure water depth, Leo dared not dive too fast.

As the depth changes, the water temperature drops rapidly. Wearing only a regular wetsuit is not enough to cope with this extreme environment. If you experience symptoms such as sluggishness, you need to return immediately.

The above is the theoretical situation.

However, the deeper Leo went, the hotter his body became, and he even started to sweat.

"There are so many good things in the deep water!" Leo exclaimed, blowing out a string of bubbles.

As far as the eye can see, there are many known traces of valuable items.

The number of unknown traces has also increased.

At the same time, the shape of a second hidden object also appeared.

He was now certain that the deeper the water, the greater the scope for the use of the "Microscopic Eyes"!

Enzo and Bianchi surfaced this time but didn't rush back down, wanting to wait for Leo.

But after waiting for more than a minute, Leo still hadn't come up.

Enzo started to get anxious: "Why isn't he coming up yet? This kid is usually quite composed, what's wrong with him today?"

Bianchi was the worst swimmer of the three, and the 40-meter-deep cave was his limit. He asked the crew to throw down a rope so he could tie it to himself and go down to find Leo.

Enzo snatched the rope and tied it around himself: "Hey, you stay up there and behave yourself!"

I'm so sorry to Solberto for what happened to Leo.

Something happened to you. I'm so sorry, Mrs. Rosa.

Don't come here and cause trouble!

Suddenly, a shadow rose rapidly from the sea, and it gradually grew larger.

Enzo vented his anger, yelling at Leo who was emerging from the water, "If you do anything dangerous again, I'll twist your head off, you hear me?!"

Leo really didn't hear him; he was too busy raising both hands to show off his new discovery: "Look, I found two Mediterranean crayfish!"

Enzo's expression was worse than if he'd eaten shit, and he stammered for a long time, "How can you be so lucky?"

First, there was a well-preserved wild mussel bed in deep water, and now two Mediterranean crayfish have arrived...

Aesop must be going crazy!

Aesop did not live in Marzamemi or Syracuse; he lived in a coastal fishing village called Trenfano.

Every day before dawn, I have to leave home to pick up goods in Marzamemi, then deliver them to the seafood stalls in Syracuse, and return home at noon to catch up on sleep.

He had only been asleep for a short while when his wife woke him up, saying she had called him.

Aesop's social circle knows his routine, and no one will disturb him during these few hours of napping.

He mumbled something indistinctly, then turned and went back to sleep.

His wife urged, "It's Enzo."

Enzo had provided Aesop with tremendous help; his status in the Aesop family was equivalent to Leo's in the Aurelius family.

Aesop went to the living room to answer the phone, and after only one sentence was spoken, he was fully awake.

"Found a wild mussel bed? Great, I'll get another truck going tomorrow. It'll take three days to harvest them all? You're lucky. Oh... it was Leo who found it..."

""

"Mussels larger than 7 centimeters? Yes, they'll fetch a higher price than regular mussels..."

1

"Two more crayfish? Did Leo find them too?? I heard him, I heard Leo asking about the price. Wait a minute, I'll call the senior distributor in Syracuse and ask if he wants any mussels or crayfish. They've recently raised their purchase price."

Marzamemi.

Enzo hung up the phone and shoved Leo away: "Did you hear that? We don't even know how much we can sell it for now..."

The mussel beds were located only 2 kilometers from the coastline, and the hottest hours at noon were not suitable for outdoor work, so Enzo simply sailed the boat back.

Leo rubbed his hands together excitedly, his face full of anticipation: "I hope I can get a good price."

Those two Mediterranean lobsters should sell for over ten thousand lira, but I wonder how much these mussels cost.

Bianchi asked the two of them, "Now that we've finished the phone call, shouldn't we go eat? I told my mom I wasn't going home for dinner today."

Enzo happily hooked his arm around the two young men's heads: "I'll treat you to something good!"

Leo slipped away like a fish, escaping the tiger's claws: "You guys eat, I have something to do, see you at the dock at 2 pm."

"Where are you going? I'll help you." Bianchi tried to chase after Leo.

Enzo grabbed him and said, "Don't go. You can't help with this."

Bianchi asked, puzzled, "Do you know what Leo went to do?"

Enzo laughed as he took Bianchi to eat: "Didn't you see him glancing at that truck the whole time he was passing through the village center?"

Leo was a little worried about the batch of mussels that had been delivered that morning. He had been in such a hurry that he hadn't even thought about the problem of not having ice.

Enzo said they were larger and meatier than regular mussels, so they needed to be stored even more carefully.

After parting ways with Enzo and Bianchi, he went to Rosalia's house first to inquire about the whereabouts of the mussels and how they were stored.

Rosalia was having lunch, a simple meal of bread and strawberry jam.

But a rare smile appeared on her perpetually unchanging face: "That girl named Rukia went out and bought ice, and it's all packed up and moved back to the shipyard. I also helped you hang the sea urchins on the reef."

"Rukia bought the ice from outside?" Leo asked in surprise.

"She seems to be helping you find solutions to other problems," Rosalia said, unusually talkative today. "She's probably delivering goods to the restaurant in the village center right now; you could go check on her."

After saying a few words of thanks, Leo left. Rosalia took a bite of bread dipped in jam, smiled, and muttered to herself, "Simon, I think Leo and that girl will have a story."