Ethan walked around the coral fortress. The expression on his face shifted from anticipation to confusion, from confusion to disbelief, and finally settled into a dark scowl.
The treasury was empty.
Boulder's storage room was empty.
Even the combat hall in the side palace, which should have been lined with weapon racks, was completely bare.
More than half an hour passed. He had ransacked the entire coral fortress from the main hall to the side palaces, searched from the upper halls to the lower warehouses, and hadn't even spared the tiny stone chambers in the corners.
He had taken everything that could be taken.
A pile of ordinary-looking shell ornaments, a few bottles of semi-finished potion ingredients, three average-looking coral decorations, and two incomplete sea charts with no beginning or end.
There was also a coral dagger left behind by someone unknown, its blade chipped in several places.
All together, they were probably worth only a few magic stones.
As for the mountains of precious ores, high-tier sea beast materials, and complete sets of Wizardry Tools and equipment that should have been there, he hadn't seen a single trace of them.
“Son of a bitch,” Ethan muttered.
Ethan looked up, swept his gaze across the palace, turned, and swam toward the north.
Ethan swam across the deep-sea plains for three days.
During these three days, he wiped out every living creature within a three-hundred-kilometer radius.
Yet, he still found no trace of the Red-Scaled Sea Snake tribe.
However, Ethan was in no hurry.
After all, the seabed was different from the land; the environment was far too complex.
Not only was the territory vast, but there were also various deep-sea magical beasts roaming around.
In addition, the lack of oxygen, the crushing pressure of the seawater, and the absolute darkness caused by the absence of sunlight made it extremely dangerous.
Of course, none of this was a problem for Ethan.
As a Wizard, his mental power ensured he had no fear of the pitch-black seabed.
And the pressure and lack of oxygen were trivial issues thanks to the assistance of his Elemental Affinity.
Another seven days passed. Ethan crouched in the shadow of an undersea ridge, staring at the tribe in the distance that spanned several hundred square kilometers.
Buildings constructed from coral bones stretched from the foot of the ridge all the way to the horizon.
Each building stood over ten meters tall, their surfaces inlaid with glowing deep-sea shellfish. The sickly green fluorescence bathed the entire tribe, making it look as if it were submerged in rotting seawater.
The spaces between the buildings were packed with the Red-Scaled Sea Snake tribe.
Humanoids, half-human half-snakes, and those completely in sea snake form were crammed tightly together, though it was impossible to tell what they were doing.
Watching this, Ethan's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile.
The seagrass beneath his feet began to grow wildly.
They burst through the sandy seabed, bored into rocky crevices, and squeezed into the pores of the coral bones.
An emerald-green light flowed across the surface of the seagrass, spreading a ghostly green carpet of light over the dark, deep-sea ridge.
A single strand of seagrass branched off from the main vine, splitting into ten secondary branches.
Each secondary branch split into ten smaller twigs, which in turn split into even finer threads.
The seagrass was multiplying, weaving, and intertwining with itself.
They burrowed deep into the sandy seabed, into the cracks of the bedrock, and beneath the foundations of the coral bone buildings.
Ethan slipped deeper into the cluster of buildings, controlling even more seagrass.
The seagrass crept along the seabed, silently covering the entire sandy ground beneath the tribe.
They wormed into building foundations, passages, egg sac storage areas, and every single inch of ground the Sea Snakes trod upon.
Two and a half hours later, the seabed within a radius of hundreds of square kilometers was completely carpeted with seagrass.
The Sea Snakes remained utterly oblivious.
A Red-Scaled Sea Snake carrying a coral pillar stepped over a patch of seagrass, his foot sinking into the soft fibers.
He looked down, muttered a curse under his breath, and continued walking.
Nearby, another Sea Snake carrying a luminous pearl stepped over the seagrass without even looking down.
Ethan returned to the top of the ridge and raised both hands.
“Then, let's dance! Undersea Version, Deep Forest Emergence, activate!”
The moment the words left his mouth, the entire seabed exploded.
Seagrass erupted from the sand, gushed out of rocky crevices, and burst from beneath the foundations of the coral bone buildings.
They grew frantically, intertwining and spreading in all directions.
Every single strand of seagrass sprouted dozens of secondary branches in the same instant, and each secondary branch grew dozens of smaller twigs.
Hundreds of square kilometers of the seabed were covered by seagrass in an instant.
A coral bone building was pierced from its foundation by the rising seagrass.
The entire structure tilted to one side, and fragments of coral bones peeled off from the frame, crashing into the crowd of Sea Snakes.
Before the Sea Snakes moving things inside could escape, the seagrass burrowing up from beneath the floorboards wrapped around their ankles.
The seagrass wrapped around their legs, their waists, and their necks.
It tightened, and the sound of shattering bones echoed through the water.
Another building was completely overturned by the seagrass surging from beneath its foundation.
The shell decorations on the roof exploded, their shards shooting out in all directions.
Over a dozen Sea Snakes packing their belongings inside were simultaneously ensnared by the seagrass. Dark green blood squeezed out from the gaps between the vines, dispersing into a turbid cloud in the seawater.
The seagrass crawled across the entire tribe.
They wrapped around the ankles, waists, and tails of the Sea Snakes, dragging them down, tightening, and crushing their bones.
They forced their way through doors and windows, rampaging inside the rooms.
Screams, roars, the snapping of bones, and the cracking of coral structures blended together, carried by the water for dozens of kilometers.
Life Energy fluctuated rapidly on his panel.
Every tick meant hundreds, if not thousands, of Sea Snakes were being strangled to death.
The rate at which the numbers climbed was more than ten times faster than it had been in Amons World.
Yet, these Red-Scaled Sea Snakes couldn't even find their attacker.
A First-Tier Red-Scaled Sea Snake rushed out from a collapsing building.
He stood nearly five meters tall, his entire body covered in deep red scales with edges that gleamed with a dark gold luster.
In each hand, he held a coral bone warblade, dark green patterns of energy flowing along the blades.
He swung his blades to sever over a dozen incoming strands of seagrass, fury burning in his vertical pupils.
“Who is it?!”
The moment he roared, the sandy ground beneath his feet exploded.
Hundreds of strands of seagrass burst from the sand at once, each as thick as a waist.
Emerald-green light flowed across their surfaces as they lashed at him from all directions.
He swung his blades to block, severing the foremost strands, but even more seagrass surged in from his sides, back, and overhead.
The seagrass bound his wrists, wrapped around his warblades, and coiled tightly around his neck and waist.
He exerted all his strength in his arms, trying to break free, but the seagrass only tightened its grip.
The warblades slipped from his hands, sinking toward the seabed.
The seagrass cut into the gaps between the scales of his neck, causing the scales to burst open and dark green blood to seep out.
His vertical pupils bulged, his mouth stretched wide, and a final muffled groan escaped his throat.
Then, he stopped moving.
【Life Energy +125,847.】
Another First-Tier Sea Snake rushed out from a warehouse on the edge of the tribe.
Behind him followed dozens of armed clansmen, all in half-human, half-snake forms.
Seeing the tribe overrun with seagrass, a flicker of dread crossed his vertical pupils, which quickly turned into sheer rage.
He opened his mouth and spat out a dark green torrent of energy. Wherever the torrent passed, the seagrass corroded, snapped, and disintegrated into powder.
The energy torrent cleared an open space dozens of meters in diameter.
Before he could even rejoice, the sandy ground of the cleared space exploded again.
Ten times more seagrass than before surged from beneath the sand, refilling the empty space.
The seagrass wrapped around the clansmen behind him, coiled around his tail, and bound his torso.
He opened his mouth, wanting to spit another torrent of energy, but a strand of seagrass shoved directly into his mouth, boring down his throat and tearing out from his abdomen.
【Life Energy +112,345.】
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