Players’ NPC daddy.

"Wow!" Blaze's eyes lit up.

Mermaid, a legendary ancient creature that lives in the ocean.

Some people confuse them with Sirens, or sea monsters, and regard them as monsters that attack passing ships and drag people into the deep sea to eat.

Some people also think that it is quite impolite to classify them together just because they are half human and half fish.

It's just like how half-orcs, orcs, and sub-orcs don't like humans to classify them into the same category just because of their appearance. To humans, they look similar, but to them, the difference is huge.

To put it simply, humans don't like being called hairless apes, but in the eyes of orcs, the two are similar.

To this day, many scholars are still arguing whether mermaids are monsters or sub-humans.

For Blaze, the similarities between mermaids and sirens are quite high, half human and half fish, with magical singing and so on.

Of course, there are also stories about sailors. Some people yearn for the sea just to encounter mermaids. When Captain Barber was on the Dead Bear, he said in a very bold way that it would be worth dying if he could spend a night with a half-human, half-fish creature, and the sailors below were also cheering.

He didn't listen to what followed, as Marika, an adult who was a little over a year older than him, covered his ears.

However, the moment the half-human, half-fish, extremely beautiful Siren appeared, the sailors immediately covered their ears and shouted, "Fire!" as if their butts were on fire.

Chapter 1493: Fishman? Mermaid?

When Blaze thought of Captain Babo and the other sailors who were scared to death by the Sirens, he remembered the words that the stranger brought.

A weird guy.

Although they talk very powerfully, when the chance really comes, they back down faster than the other.

Blazer could understand that, after all, the Siren was a rare monster of around LV100, and was very powerful. Moreover, the Siren would only capture sailors to reproduce during the estrus period, and at other times the Siren just wanted to eat.

If the Sirens sing, it means they are preparing to eat. The singing is used to capture prey. If the Sirens pounce on you without saying a word, then that is the mating season.

However, when Sirens are in mating season, they will treat humans as backup food, so encountering a Siren usually means death.

It is said that an old captain in the Giant Kingdom was once attacked by a Siren in estrus and luckily survived, becoming a legend. Many young sailors paid to inquire about the Sirens.

The old captain would scare the young sailors by saying that when the Sirens captured humans during their mating season, they would change their body structure to facilitate mating.

The old captain would first induce the young sailors to guess that the Siren's fish tail would turn into human legs, and then when these young men were overwhelmed with lust, he would take out a fish head and tell them that the Siren's upper body would become like this.

Sirens are half-human, half-fish species. If their lower body becomes human, then their upper body must be fish.

This sounded like a bad joke from the old captain, but it was accidentally reported that when the old captain saw a stranger wearing a fish head mask and tight fish scale clothes, he rolled his eyes and foamed at the mouth and fainted.

This reaction, which seemed like a re-enactment of a horrific experience in their youth, made the sailors who were present and had just heard the story shudder.

The most terrifying thing was undoubtedly that the stranger possessed a very strong male body. Why would a stranger with that appearance scare the old captain to faint? Everyone present at the time tacitly did not think about it.

After hearing this rumor, Blaze thought about it seriously and felt that it was not strange. Most fish are oviparous, some are ovoviviparous, and only a very small number of fish are viviparous.

Most fish ignore their eggs after laying them, but only a small number of fish will keep the hatched young fish with them to raise them.

Even if they are carried around, they do not have breasts in the common sense for breastfeeding, but instead use their skin to secrete a nutrient solution similar to milk.

If you think about it this way, isn't it normal to have no breasts after changing from half-human, half-fish to half-fish, half-human?

At worst, look at the merman monsters. You can't tell the difference between male and female just from their appearance. The difference can only be seen during the breeding season.

In the end, Blaze was sure that it was because those people had been thinking about dirty and inappropriate things from the very beginning, so they were so horrified when they learned the truth.

The fantasy of the Sirens in my head was revealed for what it really is, and nightmares at night were the least of my worries.

But Hader was clearly not the type to think of such things.

"What are your expectations for mermaids?"

"That's right." Had nodded. "It is said that the mermaid song can soothe people's hearts. Can it be used for a short congratulatory song?"

"Legend has it that mermaids live in the deep sea, and it is both hot and cold near the magma zone on the seabed. Is it a natural deep-sea furnace?"

"If I ever get a chance to meet a mermaid, I'll definitely ask about these things."

Blaze frowned slowly, it looked like Hader was just pursuing the art of forging as always, but he felt a certain anxiety.

Why not continue to delve into the existing forging skills, but choose to explore new areas? This is not like Hard's style.

But Blazer did not raise any questions. Instead, he helped Had carry his luggage and followed Had to one of the four ships. Obviously, Had had negotiated with Herbie in advance, so there was a room specially provided for Had.

This room is close to the power furnace, and forging can be done directly with the help of the high temperature of the power furnace.

Blaze put down his luggage, exchanged a few pleasantries, and after Hader began his daily forging practice, he left the temporary forge and found Herbie on the deck.

The two of them looked at the calm lake side by side. Just looking at the calm water surface in front of them, it was hard to imagine that a huge whirlpool would form here in a few dozen minutes.

Herbie spoke first.

"Did you know that when we were designing this ship, the stranger was quite excited, but also mysteriously asked us if we knew how to make the ship turn?"

"This square island boat can spin on the spot, moving forward and backward at the same time." Blazer showed a look of confirmation. "This happens occasionally."

Most of the time, foreigners would bring a lot of new knowledge and technology that amazed them. Sometimes even Theresa, who came from the Age of Gods, would be surprised, saying that this science was heading in a different direction from the technology of the Age of Gods.

But sometimes strangers would "act stupidly" and make many jokes about it.

For example, a stranger who had just arrived was quite proudly promoting the delicate, snow-white sugar and the sulfur-colored disinfectant lumps, calling them white sugar and soap, and preparing to sell them at a high price.

But... these two things exist in this world, and have been around for many years, with mature craftsmanship. Compared with the white sugar and soap sold on the market, the white sugar made by foreigners... has more impurities, and the soap looks ugly.

At the same time, toilets were still selling well.

However, this situation is still quite rare, and I didn't expect it to happen again recently.

Blaze and Herbie chatted for a while while the wind created ripples on the lake and a whirlpool gradually formed.

"What happened to Master Hader recently?"

"A master who devotes his whole life to one thing will encounter a bottleneck."

Herbie put his hands on the railing and swung his feet. In the room illuminated by the fire, the hammer hit the red-hot metal again and again.

"It's a bad thing when you hammer metal hundreds or thousands of times and the result is always the same good thing, which means the craftsmanship has not improved for a long time."

"If there is no progress, regression will soon come."

"Bottleneck? How could that be? Aren't there a lot of new materials now?" Blazer was a little bit unbelievable. His simple idea elicited a helpless smile from Herbie.

"This is what a child thinks. Putting two different colored woods together to form the same shape is considered new. What Hard pursues is a realm where even putting the same materials together can create a new existence."

"It's all about trying." Blaze complained, imitating Herbie's way of supporting himself on the railing with his hands and keeping his feet off the ground.

"But it's definitely useless to find a new forging method like this!"

"Oh, what do you think?"

"He might have to put his hammer down for a while."

Chapter 1494: Traces of Undersea Civilization

When the sun appeared directly above the lake, the calm lake surface began to surge with waves reflecting the sun, and a huge whirlpool slowly appeared.

"Here it comes." Blazer lifted Herbie up and away from the railing to prevent this guy, who was as light as a flag, from being swept away by the wind and waves.

"So, how did this whirlpool appear? The waves appeared first, and then the wind. It's the opposite of normal." Blaze put Herbie down and asked.

"It's fine as long as it works, but according to Morgan, it should be some special terrain that has not yet been solved."

Herbie waved to Blaze and led the way to the command tower of the Drifting Island, showing off the homework he had prepared in advance on the way.

"This place has had the ability to stably generate whirlpools since ancient times. The only conditions are that the wind is calm and the sun or moon is directly overhead. There cannot be any waves or ripples caused by the wind."

"And the twelve knights who are said to be searching for the Holy Grail can pass through this lake to reach World F. That's where the fun begins." Herbie shook his finger mysteriously, then turned around after entering the cabin and spoke slowly.

"The reason why the three knights went to World F through this lake to search for the Holy Grail was not because they passed through the whirlpool of the lake to reach World F, but because this lake itself was one of the answers they found to the mystery of the Fountain of Youth."

Blaze pondered, and Herbie seemed to have said something nonsense, because according to the legend, the three knights who found the Holy Grail went to Crete to look for clues to the Holy Grail.

That is the lair of pirates and their descendants. The people there would use a coordinate that can fix the vortex to fool and deceive the Three Knights.

Anyway, the three knights and the Knights Templar entered the whirlpool and headed for unknown waters. Whether they can come back is another matter. Even if they come back, we can hold them accountable and use the excuse of "Don't blame us if you can't find the treasure" to shut up these honest knights.

But if we consider the geographical location of the lake, there are some problems, as it is very close to the city of Crete.

It is not the kind of closeness that is visible to the naked eye, nor the kind of closeness that is confined to a region, but a larger kind of closeness that was once in a sea area.

The city of Crete used to be a huge island, but due to various unknown events including the upheaval of the world, the sea water disappeared immediately, and the surrounding area, and even the entire Third Kingdom area, may be an island or a coastal area.

This can be judged from the terrain of the Third Kingdom. It cannot be seen when you are in it, but if you look down at the entire area from a high altitude, you can find that the entire Third Kingdom is much shorter than the surrounding average, like a giant basin.

The large lake that is forming the vortex in front of us is the relatively lower part of the giant basin. If it were described as an ocean, it would probably be the seabed.

"Are you trying to say that this lake might be a teleportation tower used by an intelligent civilization living under the sea in a very distant era to travel long distances?"

"This is a very bold guess." Hebi nodded, "I used Babo's channels to collect a lot of whirlpools that appear steadily on the continent. Most of them are concentrated in the Third Kingdom."

"That must have been a hefty price to pay." Blaze interrupted slightly. Those whirlpools that appear stably are also called the pirates' pirate ship anchorage points. Basically, they are coordinates that are more important than the pirates' lives.

If every pirate ship's anchorage point is similar, then they generally have two characteristics, not to mention concealment.

There are two very special places: it seems that there is no way for the boat to enter, and there are waves and whirlpools that are formed unnaturally without wind.

Blaze initially speculated that the pirates built a camouflage after discovering the fixed vortex coordinates, but later denied it, saying that it was not something that could be done by human power.

Ordinary people cannot accomplish it. Even if there are blessed people among pirates, it is impossible for every pirate group to have a blessed person.

From this perspective, it is reasonable to speculate that some creatures living in the ocean may use the whirlpool as a transmission channel and build special buildings to protect the whirlpool.

"I remember that in the world-class mission completed by [Fairy Country], the deep-sea giant and the special space called the other shore were unlocked. Could it be related to them?"

Herbie shook his head.

"I have confirmed that it is not. The whirlpool is more like a derivative product. What the Fairy Country discovered was to go directly through the water surface to the other side, and then go from the other side to the corresponding water surface, while the whirlpool moves in the gap between the other side and the water surface."

"I tend to believe that these fixed whirlpools were built by mermaids. After all, the only underwater civilization we know of is the legendary mermaids."

"Mermaid..." Blaze fell silent. He turned his head and looked at the waves outside through the side of the boat.

The huge whirlpool has slowly drawn Drifting Island No. 1 in. Soon Drifting Island No. 1 will be swallowed up, and then shuttle between the other side and the water surface.

Taking into account that some of the accompanying personnel on Drifting Island No. 1 were experiencing vortex transmission for the first time, and in addition to the large amount of supplies prepared for sea voyages, Drifting Island No. 1 began to be closed to prevent seawater from entering.

"What's wrong?" Herbie asked curiously.

"No... I was thinking, if mermaids really exist, wouldn't it be a bit bad for us to directly trigger an underwater volcanic eruption to create reefs and volcanic islands?"

"Well, I've thought about your question." Herbie leaned against the wall. She thought about it much more than Blaze.

For example, would the large-scale collection of Ica Stones with fishing nets accidentally catch mermaids? Or would the Ica Stones be a necessary substance for the mermaids?

She specifically consulted Jasmine about this matter, but even in the Age of Gods, only a simple exploration of the ocean world of World F was conducted, and only sirens were recorded, but no mermaids were found.

That ocean world is completely unknown to humans, and it is also unknown to humans. In the past, only stray ships and pirate ships have been active in the ocean world.

But now, this ocean world that has been quiet for who knows how many years may have been turned upside down. Major events such as the appearance of the Sea of ​​Golden Apple Trees and the severe damage to Ouroboros have caused huge waves.

In this turmoil, it is not surprising that mermaids, who have always been in legends and seem to exist and not exist, appear.

This is really not good news. In the past, when humans came into contact with orcs, sub-orcs and other intelligent and civilized groups, it caused a lot of big troubles, many of which still exist as hidden dangers.

Chapter 1495: Conflicts between Different Races

[If the world only had human beings as the flower of civilization, how lonely it would be. ]

This is the heartfelt sigh of some idle bards after traveling around the world and witnessing many wonderful alien cultures.

The lords of the kingdom and even some businessmen just want to strangle these bastards who are wandering around.

A bard wandering around as an individual can certainly feel the novel and interesting parts of alien civilizations, but organizations of at least a certain size will only feel the troubles brought about by conflicts of interest one after another.

To simplify it, it is a question of rules between different civilizations.

Every intelligent ethnic group of a certain size has its own ruling system, and they may not even be harmonious and friendly among themselves, let alone different races.

Take the relationship between orcs and humans for example. Apart from the bloody history of long-term hunting and expulsion of non-human races during the High Holy Kingdom period, it is still quite bad in this peaceful era.

Humans need to hunt wild animals to obtain fur and meat, while orcs also need to hunt wild animals to obtain food. Conflicts arise between the two, and in the eyes of the orcs, humans are the first to offend and are despicable poachers.

There are clear divisions of hunting areas between orc tribes. Even if they want to rob, they will openly challenge and defeat the owner of the hunting area.

But orcs also poach livestock domesticated by humans. Humans chase and condemn them, but orcs think that it is an unmarked hunting area and their hunting is reasonable. The most important thing is that they do not hunt humans and strictly abide by the ancient law of the jungle.

Regarding the issue of single hunting areas, there has never been a solution acceptable to both humans and orcs.