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[Genshin Impact] Chapter 340: A Deadly Strike (2-in-1 Chapter)
🕑 Added 2024-11-24 09:30:01 +0000 UTC"Snap!"
Nolan's tightly gripped right hand was completely pushed down.
"Oh!!!"
"Captian! Captian! Captian!"
The surrounding crew erupted in cheers! After over an hour of struggle, he had ultimately lost to Beidou in terms of strength.
"Impossible..." Nolan felt disbelief wash over him.
His strength was notably superior to others of the same level. Even though Beidou was two levels higher, she shouldn’t have been able to beat him!
"Haha, not bad! Your physique isn’t particularly imposing, yet your strength rivals mine. You’re the first to last so long against me!" Beidou laughed heartily.
[Beidou Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 260 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.3 (180/300)]
"Ah, as expected of Captain Beidou. I lost." Nolan, overcoming his disbelief, thought for a moment and started to understand.
Similar levels didn’t mean similar combat power—they only represented the tier of life itself.
Generally, higher life tiers meant greater combat power, but there were always those exceptionally gifted individuals who defied the rule.
Someone like the "Doctor," for example, couldn’t be underestimated even at Level 1 as a normal human. The same logic applied to Captain Beidou.
If she had a character panel, it might show talents or specialties enhancing her strength or body.
Since he himself had no such bonuses, losing in terms of sheer strength was reasonable.
He realized he shouldn’t underestimate others just because of external advantages. Today’s lesson made him more aware, so he wasn’t particularly bothered by his loss.
"Too bad, now you’ll be on night watch."
Paimon sighed regretfully.
With the show over, everyone dispersed to their respective duties, leaving only Lumine, Paimon, Beidou, and a few others behind.
"If you feel sorry for me, you and Lumine can keep me company on the night watch."
Nolan smiled as he spoke.
"No way!" Paimon stuck out her tongue, rejecting his suggestion outright.
"Heh, don’t worry. You won’t be alone."
"Tonight, you’ll be on watch with Sea Drake, Kazuha, and other patrolling crew members. We only asked for your help out of concern that the giant beast might attack again," Beidou said with a light laugh, hands resting on her hips.
"Oh, by the way, that guy on the lookout—he’s from Inazuma, right? We’re planning to go there soon. Captain Beidou, could you introduce us? We’d like to know more about the situation in Inazuma."
Kazuha’s name and attire made it easy to deduce his Inazuman heritage.
"You want to talk to Kazuha, huh? Haha, there’s no need for me to make any introductions. Kazuha is very approachable.
"Plus, your little lady friend and Paimon have already gotten to know everyone on the ship over the past few days. They’re quite friendly with Kazuha too, so just have Lumine speak up."
Beidou chuckled boldly.
"Exactly!" Paimon stood with her hands on her hips, proud of her and the Traveler’s ability to befriend others.
Lumine crossed her arms and nodded in agreement.
"I see."
Nolan nodded. After all, the Traveler was known in the game for her widespread connections, always meeting influential figures.
Even if she didn’t seek people out, they often sought her first.
Could this be some kind of hidden talent?
"Alright then, let’s go find Kazuha and learn more about the current state of Inazuma," he said with a smile.
Lumine and Paimon had no objections and led Nolan up to the lookout where Kazuha was stationed.
Kazuha had keen hearing and an extraordinary affinity for the wind element, surpassing that of most Vision bearers, to the extent of sensing the emotions in the wind and hearing its voice.
An impressive talent indeed!
Because of this, Kazuha already knew why Nolan and the others had come to see him.
With Inazuma enforcing its "Closed Nation" policy and the "Vision Hunt Decree," fear and unrest were widespread. His friend had even perished in a duel against the Shogun's forces.
Kazuha longed to aid his country that had taken a dark turn, but as a wanted man, returning was not an option.
If he went back, the Tenryou Commission would pursue him, rendering any efforts futile.
However, he noticed that the girl named Lumine and the newly arrived Nolan appeared to possess formidable power despite not having Visions.
With formal entry into Inazuma, they might avoid the scrutiny of those enforcing the "Vision Hunt Decree."
Although he wasn’t sure of their purpose in going to Inazuma, the wind whispered that these two could be the key to changing the nation, and he should assist them as much as possible.
With this, Kazuha shared everything he knew with Nolan and the others, leaving no detail unsaid.
Time flew by, and before they knew it, the blue sky was shrouded in nightfall.
Nolan and his companions had learned much from the wandering swordsman, Kazuha, about why he was exiled and the current state of Inazuma. It was far more detailed than the background information he had gleaned from the game.
Back then, he had only watched the story once without delving into the specifics.
He vaguely remembered the "Vision Hunt Decree" and the task of delivering hundreds of letters, but hadn’t bothered to memorize less significant details.
Thanks to Kazuha’s explanations, they weren’t completely in the dark about Inazuma anymore.
During their conversation, Nolan even invited Kazuha to spar and exchange swordsmanship insights, hoping to learn from him. As a warrior, Kazuha was more than happy to oblige.
After all, how can martial skills improve without exchange?
Both gained valuable insights from their session, with Nolan learning Kazuha’s "My Style Swordsmanship(Garyuu Bladework)" and its accompanying secret technique, "Chihayaburu."
The former was a standard sword technique, while the latter was an advanced secret art requiring wind element mastery.
When combined, these techniques allowed the user to pull enemies into their position while using air currents to leap into the sky, setting up for a powerful plunging attack called "Midare Ranzan," which could easily defeat foes.
These techniques required wind element manipulation to perform.
Fusing such skills with "Sword God" seemed wasteful. Since "Chihayaburu" had a pulling effect similar to the Wind Pressure Sword, Nolan decided to keep it for personal use.
He planned to gather more skills in the future and fuse only the strongest and most fitting ones into "Lumine's Sword God."
After all, his own strength was already formidable, and he didn’t need minor traits. It was better to invest everything into "Sword God," creating an entity rivaling a divine incarnation.
When that happened, he could finally take it easy, controlling "her" remotely to handle tasks from the comfort of home.
What a wonderful life that would be!
Night fell.
The ship’s cook turned the threads that Beidou had sliced off into a grand feast, and everyone gathered for a lively, banquet-like meal.
After dinner, people returned to their tasks, whether it was fishing, drinking, or playing dice, before heading off to rest.
However, sailors were still assigned to take turns on night watch and patrol the ship, mainly to prevent monsters or pirates from sneaking aboard and causing trouble.
Kazuha and Nolan, as key combatants, took turns watching during the first and second halves of the night.
Sailor Sea Drake, responsible for steering, used a navigation compass, and with clear weather, star-filled skies, or a bright moon lighting the way, they didn’t need to anchor.
Continuing the voyage would save time on their journey to Inazuma.
Late at night, the night watch team changed shifts.
Nolan, Lumine, and Paimon came to the lookout. They couldn’t bear to leave him alone to face the cold night wind, so they chose to keep him company.
"Kazuha, you can go rest now," Nolan said, seeing Kazuha standing on the edge of the lookout.
"No rush. The night wind is becoming restless."
Kazuha closed his eyes as if sensing something, then shook his head.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Paimon clutched her head, a little confused.
"He means we might be in trouble soon," Lumine said thoughtfully, touching her chin.
"Could it be that the giant sea monster from earlier is really coming back to cause trouble?"
Nolan raised an eyebrow, releasing an invisible mental force to probe the sea, but found nothing unusual within a couple of kilometers.
Although his psychic threads could extend up to fifty kilometers, visibility in the dark waters was nonexistent, rendering them useless.
"Yes, go alert the Captain. The breeze over the sea is growing more agitated."
Kazuha opened his eyes and nodded slightly.
"Ah! You mean that big thing is getting close? Lumine, hurry, we need to wake Beidou!" Paimon said fearfully.
"Got it."
Lumine didn’t hesitate, spreading her Wind Glider and flying off the lookout, with Paimon running alongside to Beidou’s quarters.
"Kazuha, your ability to gather information from the ‘wind’ seems quite impressive. As a fellow wind element user, why can’t I do that?" Nolan asked curiously.
He had spread his mental senses but hadn’t detected anything unusual within two kilometers, yet Kazuha could glean answers from the wind—something Nolan found enviable.
"Heh, it’s not just about the wind element. It also involves one’s state of mind. Once your heart reaches a certain level, it becomes easy to ‘read’ things from the wind," Kazuha explained with a smile.
Ah, so it’s about mindset? Nolan mused.
Training such a state of mind wasn’t easy. It required years of dedicated study and personal growth, along with the gift of insight.
Kazuha was clearly one of those rare geniuses.
Nolan knew he couldn’t replicate that talent.
"It’s here!"
Kazuha’s smile faded, and as his voice trailed off, Nolan also sensed something massive breaking into the range of his mental detection from beneath the waves.
And at incredible speed, it charged toward the Alcor.
Covering two kilometers only took seconds. If that giant octopus-like sea monster were to collide with the Alcor at such speed, it would undoubtedly split the ship in two!
Nolan did not hesitate; in less than a second, he summoned dozens of barrel-thick, translucent threads underwater.
Within the range of his mental force, there was no concern about obstructed underwater vision.
The threads appeared directly in the path of the sea monster’s advance, ensuring there was no worry about it outrunning them.
In the remaining second, half of the mental threads wove into a massive net beneath the ship’s hull.
The other half extended toward the sea monster, which had eight huge suction-cupped threads. Nolan assigned three translucent threads to each of the monster’s limbs to hold it back.
This strategy proved somewhat effective; Nolan managed to slow down its charge toward the Alcor.
The sea monster fell into the woven net of translucent threads, but unfortunately, the 25-ton force of the threads was insufficient against such a giant creature.
The net of translucent threads was easily torn apart.
As the threads dissipated, Nolan felt no significant mental backlash, thanks to his various defensive abilities that mitigated the damage, followed by "Negative Balance" distributing the remaining impact.
It didn’t even feel like a mosquito bite.
At this point, Lumine and Paimon had successfully called Beidou out. She quickly sensed the overwhelming energy of the sea monster beneath the ship and raised her greatsword to the sky.
Immediately, countless electro elements gathered along the blade.
The next moment, as if summoned by the heavens, a massive bolt of lightning crashed down, striking the sea beneath them!
“Boom!!!”
The sea erupted as the lightning forced the water aside, drilling into the sea monster less than a hundred meters away from the Alcor.
A sound of unearthly wailing echoed.
Nolan’s mental perception noted that the sea monster, paralyzed, had halted its movement temporarily.
Nolan wasn’t going to miss this chance. He landed on the deck, summoning the "Sword God" in an instant, commanding "her" to dive into the sea. With a golden longsword, "she" unleashed wave after wave of unstoppable sword energy.
The sword energy disappeared the moment it appeared, ignoring the distance between them and striking the sea monster's body.
The “Sharp Intent” trait made the sword energy incredibly lethal. A single strike could penetrate over ten meters into the creature's body before dissipating.
Striking its limbs even sliced them apart as easily as cutting through tofu.
In less than a minute, the sea monster was reduced to chunks of flesh without ever surfacing.
It was humiliatingly defeated underwater, blue blood seeping from the remains and staining the entire area of the sea.
【Defeated A Powerful Enemy, Obtained 68,552 Adventure EXP.】
The character panel notification popped up at the right moment, signifying that a sea king roaming the endless ocean had been effortlessly taken down by Nolan!
His Adventure EXP surpassed 110,000 again.
“Wow, such terrifying sword energy! It's a good thing we were just arm wrestling earlier. If we had fought for real, I might have ended up like that,” Beidou said, stunned as she gazed at the rising chunks of flesh on the sea.
She thought the night would involve a fierce battle but was shocked at how quickly Nolan resolved it!
Beside her, Kazuha, who had just descended from the lookout, couldn't help but marvel at such sharp sword energy!
“It was nothing; it’s probably because that creature lacked defensive prowess,” Nolan replied, withdrawing the "Sword God" and smiling humbly.
“Besides, most of the credit goes to you, Beidou. That lightning strike almost did it in.”
“That was a massive sea monster; normally, they live in the deep sea where the water pressure is immense. How could its defenses be weak?” Beidou rolled her eyes at him.
Her lightning attack could, at best, paralyze the creature temporarily. How could it have nearly killed it? Did he think deep-sea monsters were as common as cabbages?
【Beidou Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 320 Affection Points. Current Affection Level Lv.4 (200/400).】
(End of Chapter)
