Suna had no choice but to agree to Yang Yi's terms, though she felt no regret.
Her ship's supplies consisted of only 8 units of lumber, 5 units of cloth, and 4 liters of fresh water. Giving half to Yang Yi was insignificant.
Her ship, the Astrology, was unique—upgrades required 100 crystals and 50 steel instead of lumber or cloth. Thus, the lumber and cloth were useless to her, already traded for food and water.
Naturally, she wouldn't volunteer that she was broke.
She even looked forward to seeing Yang Yi's reaction when he discovered the truth.
Unaware of this, Yang Yi believed he'd successfully extorted her, as the information gap prevented him from knowing how poor Suna was.
He used the sharp bone to cut through the seaweed binding Suna, freeing her.
But after days of captivity and starvation, Suna was too weak to stand.
Her next action, however, left Yang Yi astonished.
"What the hell are you doing?" Yang Yi asked, perplexed.
Suna was gathering the foul-smelling mucus on the ground into a mound, then licking it up.
The mucus reeked of decay...
"I'm thirsty. This mucus provides water, salt, and some nutrients," Suna said flatly, frowning.
Clearly, it tasted revolting, but she swallowed it down, suppressing her nausea.
"Aren't you afraid it's poisonous?" Yang Yi asked.
"No. You've been consuming it for three days and haven't died."
"Uh..."
Yang Yi was speechless, feeling this woman was definitely abnormal.
After rehydrating, Suna looked better. She pulled a small dagger from her clothes, crouched beside the sailfish corpse, and sliced off fresh meat to chew.
The dagger was a piece of equipment:
Name: Witch's Dagger
Type: Treasure
Quality: Good
Description: A dagger favored by witches, versatile enough to slice open bellies. Deals minor damage to otherworldly fiends.
As Suna regained her strength, Yang Yi surveyed the cave.
It was a small space with only one tunnel leading outside, where the patter of rain and howl of wind could be heard.
There was also a deep pool in the cave, likely connected to the sea.
He examined the male corpse, estimating it had been dead for some time.
Searching the body, he found no valuable items.
"Do the sea sirens usually return through the pool or the tunnel?" Yang Yi asked Suna.
"Either is possible," she replied.
"Do they act together?"
"No." Having observed the sirens for three days, Suna had noted their patterns. "They usually split into two groups. The larger one hunts alone, while the two smaller ones—about 1.4 meters long—hunt together."
"I see. Does the larger one or the smaller ones return first?"
"It varies without pattern, but the interval between their returns is only about 15 minutes."
Yang Yi nodded, grasping the situation.
If all three sirens attacked together, the best strategy would be to flee. After all, fighting three posed too much risk!
But if there were only two, they stood a chance.
"Can you hold one off?" Yang Yi asked.
"I should be able to handle the smaller ones; I've fought them before," Suna replied.
After replenishing salt, water, and food, she was gradually recovering.
It was evident that her physical fitness was at least as good as, if not better than, Yang Yi's.
"The sirens' main weapon is their song, but it has no effect on women.
Their upper-body strength is average, similar to an ordinary woman's—probably around 4 in strength, the same as mine.
When fighting on land, avoiding their claws and teeth is sufficient."
Suna explained, showing several shallow scratches on her body, likely from siren attacks.
"I didn't know there were three sirens; otherwise, I wouldn't have been caught!
With your gun, dealing with them should be easy. Just plug your ears and shoot quickly!"
Suna didn't know that Yang Yi's gun might misfire, so she underestimated the difficulty.
Yang Yi had no intention of explaining—revealing his weaknesses was not in his nature.
He began checking his attribute panel:
Yang Yi
Status: Healthy 「A large green human figure icon」
Strength: 3 (49/50)
Spirit: 7 + 1 (892/8000) [Talent Bonus]
Agility: 4 + 1 (69/100) [Pirate Garb Bonus]
Constitution: 4 (4/100)
Perception: 5 (32/200)
Sanity: 50/100
Stamina: 92/100
HP: 99/100 (Lost 1 HP from Suna's bite)
He had figured out the growth conditions for each attribute:
- Exercising could increase experience in Strength, Constitution, and Agility.
- Recovering from injuries could additionally increase Constitution experience.
- Changes in sanity, especially drastic ones followed by recovery, could significantly increase Spirit experience.
- Actions like fishing, shooting, and using grappling hooks could improve Perception experience.
The way to improve was surprisingly realistic.
Combined with Suna's intelligence—sirens had moderate combat power on land, with a strength of around 4, and did not always act in a group—he only needed to quickly raise his Strength to 4. With theMadness Strength Bonus +2, he could overpower the sirens.
After all, as sea creatures, their agility on land was definitely not high.
The only thing to watch out for was their tails, which were likely very powerful and could strike vital points.
Having figured this out, Yang Yi immediately acted. He thought it should be easy to accumulate experience, but looking around, the cave had no suitable equipment for training.
At first glance, the cave was empty, with only stone walls and lightweight bones.
But he was flexible-minded and quickly turned his attention to other objects:
- Suna: He could lift her to train strength.
- The dead sailfish on the ground: It seemed to be an appropriate weight.
- Or... the male corpse on the ground.
After considering, Yang Yi decided the male corpse was most suitable.
The sailfish lacked a good grip, and Suna would definitely resist—maybe even bite.
The corpse, however, would not resist or bite!
Although it only had half an arm, its weight was just right, and its head and neck were intact, making it easy to grip.
Thus, Yang Yi grabbed the corpse by the neck with both hands, lifted it, and began doing lifting exercises.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Suna looked at Yang Yi, deeply shocked by his strange behavior. "Tell me, what's your sanity level?"
"Don't worry, my sanity is as high as 50!"
"50?!"
Suna looked at Yang Yi in disbelief.
A lower sanity level affects mental state, and even levels above 50 can have some impact.
But Yang Yi seemed unconcerned about his sanity, or... he was constantly in a state of subtle madness.
Suna's gaze toward Yang Yi gradually became intense, as if she were looking at a rare animal.
Yang Yi was unaware of this and continued his lifting.
Unfortunately, he had just completed his ninth lift when the sound of something squirming came from outside the tunnel entrance.
Judging by the sound, it was one siren.
"She's back! Quickly plug your ears with this!"
Suna handed Yang Yi two chunks of fish meat, freshly cut from the sailfish.
"No need, I have my own way!" He turned to face the siren.