Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 125 I've Grown Gills
The seasoned Kaigen knew exactly what his cheap captain's eyes meant, and he was immediately displeased:
"Boss, you're underestimating me. If I didn't even have this much insight, what kind of lone wolf would I be? You know, almost every slightly larger adventure team has someone specifically tasked with researching the value of these works of art. Otherwise, if they go out to explore and end up with a bunch of junk instead of anything truly valuable, they might not even make back the money they would have spent on potions and weapon maintenance. They'd be completely wiped out."

Zhang Yuan agreed with this statement. Although he couldn't understand it at all in his previous life, it was one thing for paintings by Qi Baishi and Van Gogh to fetch over a thousand gold pieces, but why could some things that looked like wallpaper torn off the wall also sell for millions?

Anyway, there will be some sucker to pay the bill, let whoever wants to buy it buy it, and when it's all sold, it'll be another fortune, and the person is secretly delighted.

After searching this floor, Zhang Yuan prepared to go up to the third floor, and then he could go to the deck to take a look.

Zhang Yuan and Kaigen were shocked by the sight before them as soon as they stepped out of the stairwell. The entire third-floor cabin was in ruins, with large holes in the deck above. Sunlight streamed through, illuminating the dark and damp interior of the cabin and making it much brighter.

As the group walked, they examined the remaining traces around them. There were broken debris and wood chips everywhere, especially the holes distributed on the midsection of the deck. The edges of these holes and the floor below them showed obvious damage and a charred, high-temperature-scorched color.

Zhang Yuan was very familiar with this situation. In the spell training grounds of Highhold, the surface of the target puppets that were hit by evocation spells containing fire or lightning was also this color.

Recalling the broken ceiling I happened to see on the fourth floor below, I initially thought it was just decay, but it seems there was another reason.

After carefully examining the marks, Zhang Yuan said with certainty, "This should have been done by lightning magic, like a thundercloud storm or a lightning summoning spell, otherwise..."

He gestured a circle: "Otherwise, these burn marks wouldn't be so concentrated; the whole ship might have been burned down."

"So those charred corpses we saw back then were also struck by lightning?" Syl recalled what he had seen before.

"Probably. If fire magic had burned all the crew members to death, we wouldn't be able to see this ship now."

After traversing the entire third level, the middle section of the ship was almost entirely a pile of wreckage. The bow and stern sections, due to the additional superstructures, were relatively well-preserved, but apart from some stored food that had long since rotted, there was almost nothing else to be found.

The dwarf, who had unexpectedly discovered a wine cellar on this floor almost entirely because of the wine bottle Kegan was holding, was overjoyed. This dwarf was far more skilled at wine appraisal than he claimed to be at art appraisal.

I carefully selected a large selection of Simon Ruby wines, Deepwater City craft beer, Seren Jade wines, and Arruons wines. As for the beer, it had gone bad due to being stored for too long, so I had to reluctantly give it up.

Looking at the large pile of fine wines in front of him, Zhang Yuan was helpless. He didn't want these things to take up space in his storage bag, but the short guy next to him kept tugging at his sleeve, as if he wouldn't give up until he helped him.

They had no choice but to compromise and put them all away.

"Consider it a gift for future companions," someone could only console themselves with this thought.

After taking inventory of the third floor and finding nothing of value, Zhang Yuan prepared to continue his exploration. He couldn't go to the deck; it had been riddled with holes, and there wasn't even a place for his group to stand.

Heading straight to the upper two floors of the ship's bow, we made some unexpected discoveries.

In what appeared to be the captain's lounge, Zhang Yuan, rummaging through the room, found a rapier tucked away between a desk and the wall. The sword exuded an air of nobility and was of exceptional quality. The scabbard, made of some unknown type of leather, was a pure matte black, incredibly soft and comfortable to the touch. When you stroked it, you could feel tiny, slightly prickly hairs on your fingertips, but it wasn't prickly at all; instead, it gave you a strange, pleasant sensation.

The scabbard opening features a gold-plated pattern that spirals and extends to the bottom of the scabbard, complementing the black leather and giving it a noble yet understated feel.

He drew his sword, handed the scabbard to the dwarf, and then carefully examined the rapier in his hand. The sword's shape was very similar to the foil or rapier of Europe in his previous life, which was the actual combat version of the sword used in fencing competitions at sports meets.

The sword is about three feet three inches long and no more than a finger wide. It tapers off three inches from the tip, forming a smooth point. It is relatively light in the hand and does not appear to be made of pure iron.

The sword was a bright silver color, without a trace of rust or dullness. When flicked with a finger, the sword rang out with a clear, lingering sound. When taken out of the cabin and placed under the light, it was immediately withdrawn. The sword remained as it was, its silvery-white surface now interspersed with a hazy blue light.

What is this? Zhang Yuan had some doubts, but he wasn't sure.

At the same time, this sword is also an enchanted weapon. Several extremely fine strands of green liquid snake around the blade. Upon closer inspection, one can see that it is flowing at a slow speed. If you get close to your face, you can even smell the pungent odor it emits.

Zhang Yuan was quite certain that the weapon was enchanted with strong acid.

He also gave the rapier to Kegan for appraisal. After examining it carefully, Kegan said with certainty:
"I don't know the specific properties of this sword, but the blade is definitely mixed with mithril. In fact, many enchanted weapons, especially those enchanted with strong acid like this, are often mixed with metals such as adamantite or mithril, otherwise they simply cannot withstand the damage to the weapon itself caused by the enchantment."

As he spoke, the dwarf brother raised the scabbard again, stroking it with his hand: "This is the skin of a deep-sea demon whale. This creature only inhabits the deep ocean and occasionally appears in the open sea. Its leather is said to be a valuable material for enchanting."

Zhang Yuan believed this; in his newly cast arcane vision, the magical aura emanating from the scabbard was in no way inferior to that of the sword.

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Zhang Yuan gritted his teeth and simply took out two scrolls of identification techniques to examine them.

High Road's Rapier: +2 Magic Weapon, Sharp Edge, with added acid damage.

"Thieves who rob honest travelers need a weapon that is both lightweight and easy to use—like this one. No matter where it comes from, it's not used for good. Just holding it in your hand makes your eyes gleam with a sinister light, and the thought of a fat traveler with a full wallet makes you even more itchy and unbearable. This weapon is a thief's treasure and a scourge to good people."

Whale gill sheath: Holding or placing the sheath against the skin is considered to have the ability to breathe underwater.

"Legend has it that in ancient times, humpback whales, which lived in the deep sea, breathed with their own lungs like land creatures. This characteristic deeply troubled these fathead fish who loved to play on the seabed. So, at some point, perhaps with the help of the gods, or perhaps through evolution under the influence of magical tides, they began to breathe underwater using their skin. From then on, they no longer needed to periodically surface to breathe. They did not have gills, or rather, their whole body was covered in gills."

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(End of this chapter)