Chapter 272: Fishmen |
Speaking of which, aside from humans, we also have to count those ghosts in the ghost shipyard.
Qin Ziwen had never seen any other non-human intelligent races before.
Standing by the fish pond, he took out the Recruitment Card and silently recited the command to use it in his heart.
The card transformed into a stream of light and vanished from the spot.
The next second, a hazy, deep-purple silhouette appeared before his eyes.
As the light dissipated, a male figure remained in place. He stood about 1.6 meters tall, slightly hunched over, with a layer of mermaid-green hard shell covering his shoulders and spine.
His mouth and nose protruded, his cheeks bore gills, and his eyes were deeply sunken.
His lower body wasn't a mermaid-like fishtail, but rather legs similar to a human's, with webbed feet. After being summoned, this male fish-man looked around, instinctively glancing at the fish pond behind him.
Then, with a thump, he knelt on the ground, prostrating himself fully, his head knocking heavily against the earth.
Although his voice was somewhat stiff, it was clearly recognizable as Chinese.
"You actually speak Chinese?" Qin Ziwen said in surprise.
The fish-man looked somewhat bewildered, then replied respectfully, "Respected Master, after being recruited by you, this language appeared in my mind."
One could tell his language proficiency was rapidly improving.
Compared to the previous sentence, this one was noticeably much more fluent.
"Get up." After helping Pula to his feet, Qin Ziwen's gaze fell on his feet.
He thought of the skeleton miners he had seen in the Mourning Fortress.
The skeletal contours of those miners looked somewhat similar to Pula's physique, especially the webbed feet.
Could it be that those miners were transformed from fish-men?
He examined Pula further. Judging by his physique, Pula had long arms, exceeding those of ordinary humans.
His skin was blue, with a very dark color on his back and a lighter shade on his abdomen.
"You said you're from the Artisan Clan, so you're a craftsman?" Qin Ziwen remembered the Summoning Card said he was a sailor. Could this Pula be a multi-talented individual?
"Master, I am a sailor, responsible for repairing ships," Pula said respectfully.
After hearing Pula's explanation, Qin Ziwen gained some understanding of the fish-man race he spoke of.
He came from a place called Rust Algae City.
There, if a child was born into the Artisan Clan, they could only become artisans. If they couldn't learn the artisan arts, they could only take on even lower-status jobs.
Besides the Artisan Clan, there were three other clans.
Namely, the Hunter Clan, the Priest Clan, and the Turbid Clan.
The Priest Clan held the highest status and was the smallest in number.
Its members were basically all priests within the clan, possessing superhuman powers. They were also the only spellcasters within the race, held in high esteem, belonging to the ruling class.
Next was the Hunter Clan. They were the second smallest in number. Every member of the Hunter Clan was a born warrior, responsible for external hunting and defending the tribe, belonging to the upper class within the fish-man society.
Then came the Artisan Clan, the craftsmen of the fish-man race. The Artisan Clan was a broad category; all types of craftsmen were uniformly called the Artisan Clan. The Artisan Clan had the smallest and slimmest physique among the fish-men, but they were also the most agile and had strong learning abilities.
The lowest status belonged to the Turbid Clan.
The Turbid Clan comprised the laborers of the fish-man race. They were naturally dull-witted with sturdy builds, serving as the manual laborers within fish-man cities. They had huge appetites and would eat anything, whether it was garbage, corpses, or excrement.
"The descendants of the Priest Clan become priests?"
"Yes, Master."
"I never thought superhuman abilities could be transmitted from mother to child," Qin Ziwen mused. Heavenly Dragon people give birth to little Heavenly Dragon people.
He asked again, "Do your fish-men ships sail on the sea surface or underwater?"
"Master, ships travel underwater," Pula said, somewhat puzzled. Why would a ship sail on the water's surface?
He suddenly realized his master was human, and human ships sailed on the sea.
Thinking of human ships, some vague memory fragments flashed in Pula's mind, but he couldn't recall them clearly.
"So, you can build ships that can sail underwater?" Qin Ziwen became interested.
He didn't mind whether the ship sailed on the surface or underwater.
With Deep Sea Oxygen available, even an underwater ship could be usable.
Pula scratched his head awkwardly. "Master, ships that sail underwater require a priest from the Priest Clan to pray over the vessel before it can travel."
Qin Ziwen frowned. Where would he find a priest?
Staring at Pula, Qin Ziwen suddenly thought of something.
"Wait, come with me underwater. Swim normally and let me see."
He took off his clothes and jumped into the fish pond.
Pula was stunned for a moment, then followed him into the water.
Actually, from the first moment he saw the fish pond, he had wanted to go in.
Although fish-men could walk on land, they were still more comfortable in the water.
In the fish pond, Pula was as agile as a fish.
Watching his swimming posture, Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes. Right, that's it, exactly that movement.
That creature he saw at the underwater altar that day was definitely a fish-man!
There were indeed wild fish-men in the seabed of this sea area!
He recalled the imagery from the map's opening prompt. These fish-men weren't just one or two; most likely, it was an entire fish-man tribe.
He used Insight on Pula.
【Common · Fish-man (Pula): ☆☆】
Two-star physique, about the same as Jia Liangcai.
Recently, Jia Liangcai had been training frequently at the Training Ground, and his physical fitness had improved to two stars.
Judging by physique, Pula's physical fitness was that of a completely ordinary, unremarkable common fish-man.
Qin Ziwen waved to Pula, signaling for him to spar with him underwater.
He wanted to personally experience the combat prowess of a fish-man in the sea.
But Pula absolutely refused, no matter what.
His face turned bluish-purple, and he directly performed a "toad flop" in the water.
Floating in the water, he kowtowed repeatedly.
Qin Ziwen swam over and smacked the back of his head.
Slap~
Pula kowtowed even faster, his head almost leaving afterimages.
Qin Ziwen reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him towards the water's surface.
Pula instinctively twisted for a moment but quickly relaxed.
A flicker of amusement passed through Qin Ziwen's eyes. From that brief resistance just now, he could feel this old guy had considerable strength.
Definitely exceeding that of an ordinary two-star human.
It seemed fish-men were stronger than humans.
If you added their proficiency in water, their combat power underwater was not low. Combined with their group-living nature, the spellcasting of the Priest Clan, and their mastery of tool-making, in this sea area, even a Mosasaur probably wouldn't want to provoke them lightly.
Coming ashore, drying off, and putting his clothes back on, Qin Ziwen took Pula to the ghost shipyard first, introducing him to Tao Fu and letting the two of them have a good exchange.
As for how much they could communicate, that was up to them.
Seeing Pula, Tao Fu nodded in a friendly manner.
Having seen ghosts before, even encountering a fish-man was nothing extraordinary.
"Don't worry, Master, leave it to me."
Two hours later, the ship repairs were completed.
The Lost Homeland was inspected and repaired, pushed back into the sea. The rested crew boarded the ship. On the sea surface, the large ship set sail, heading towards the largest island in this sea area.
......