Debuff Master-Chapter 826

Siegfried embarked on an expedition throughout the Green Isles, cruising from island to island aboard an Aqua Runner together with Hamchi.

However, navigating through thousands of islands, big and small, was no simple task.

To make matters worse, there were no warp gates installed on any of the islands, so the painstaking task of traveling manually quickly proved to be a massive headache.

‘I should tell the guys to have warp gates installed here. Actually, now that I think about it... We don’t even have a warp gate connecting this place to the kingdom, right?’

The High-Speed Sea Route Passage was fast, but it could not compare to the convenience of warp gates.

Thus, Siegfried decided to install warp gates across the entire archipelago, as the cumbersome sea voyage just to travel from island to island was an inconvenience to just him—it was a problem for the residents of the Green Isles as well.

In addition to the warp gates, Siegfried planned to recruit a batch of administrative officers to take over governance. The people of the Green Isles had spent their entire lives as pirates, so their only skills revolved around plundering the seas.

Concepts like study or governance were utterly alien to them, so expecting the current residents to handle administrative responsibilities was just wishful thinking. If the Green Isles were to grow into a flourishing territory, then it would need external help in the form of trained professionals and elite administrators.

‘Oh, come to think of it. I also need to push for trade routes. Ugh... I’m drowning in work already!’

Siegfried scribbled down his plans in a notebook while leaving Hamchi in control of the Aqua Runner. As a king constantly juggling multiple responsibilities, he learned the importance of writing down ideas before they slipped his mind.

It was then.

Splash! Splash! Splash

Massive tentacles burst out of the water, shooting straight at the Aqua Runner.

The Green Isles had long been plagued by numerous sea monsters that terrorized its residents.

And one of those menaces had just appeared...

It was a colossal octopus, which was none other than the infamous tyrant of the seas.

The Kraken.

“Argh! As if I don’t have enough on my plate already!” Siegfried groaned, watching the monstrous tentacles descend upon his ship.

Ding!

Then, a familiar message popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: You have received a new Quest – Taming the Sea Monster!]

Another taming quest had activated just like when he faced Brutus in the past.

“Hmm...”

The prospect of taming none other than the tyrant of the seas, the Kraken, quickly quelled his temper.

Sea monsters like the Kraken possessed combat prowess comparable to that of multiple warships. If he somehow tamed it, then it would prove to be extremely useful in many different situations.

A powerful sea monster like the Kraken was not only powerful, but they were far cheaper to maintain than running a whole fleet. After all, sea monsters hunted for their own food.

“Fine, I’ll just catch it,” Siegfried grumbled, treating the sea monster like nothing more than a rare Pokemon.

Splash!

Siegfried jumped into the water to tame the Pokemon.

“Kyuuuu! Are you crazy, owner punk?! Where are you going?!” Hamchi shrieked in horror, panicking after Siegfried dove into the water against a sea monster.

“Haven’t you heard the saying that to catch a tiger, you must enter its den?” Siegfried shot back before diving into the waters.

“Kyuuu! But that’s not a tiger! That’s an octopus! An OCTOPUS!”

“Whatever! See ya later!”

With that, Siegfried disappeared beneath the waves, leaving Hamchi fuming and flustered behind him.

***

While Siegfried was busy exploring the Green Isles with the Great King’s Blessed Lands passive ability in hopes of locating a Praystone mine, there was trouble brewing elsewhere in another part of the Proatine Kingdom.

“Hmm... What in the world is this...?”

Schmidt, the Minister of Finance, furrowed his brow as he examined the recent report.

After Siegfried brought back the remains of a red dragon, which was the one that had been brainwashed by the Church of Osric, the Proatine Kingdom planned to dismember it and sell its parts across the continent to the highest bidders.

The corpse, processed through Quandt’s advanced techniques, had been refined to the pinnacle of quality, making it the best available product on the market. The products derived from the dragon were supposed to sell like hotcakes.

Unfortunately, the reality was completely different.

Not only were the sales underwhelming, but even prearranged contracts were falling through one after another. Even worse, the price of dragon parts had plummeted roughly by thirty percent.

This left the Proatine Kingdom in a precarious position, as its treasury relied on the quick sales of the processed dragon parts to refill. The inability to sell the dragon parts at the price of their valuation had become a growing concern for the kingdom—specifically, Schmidt, the Minister of Finance.

“Why aren’t they selling...?”

Dragon parts, such as horns, scales, bones, meat, blood, eyes, hide, and everything else, were usually commodities so rare and valuable that they sold out immediately, no matter how expensive.

“What in the world is happening...?”

Determined to get to the bottom of this, Schmidt pulled up all recent market data the kingdom collected regarding the sale of dragon parts.

And what he discovered left him utterly stunned...

“...!”

Over the past three months, the number of dragon parts sold skyrocketed to unprecedented levels.

Traditionally, dragon parts were so rare that the number of those available on the market could be counted on one hand. After all, dragons were not common monsters like goblins found nesting on every hill or forest.

Thus, the emergence of a single dragon every decade or so was considered normal, and one being hunted and its parts put up for sale was even rarer than that.

Yet in the past three months alone, dragon parts equivalent to eleven dragons were sold on the market.

This meant that slightly less than four dragons were being hunted, and their remains were released to the market each month.

“Request Director Ninetails to come immediately,” Schmidt commanded.

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

In the end, he decided to call for Ninetails, the head of the Proatine Kingdom’s intelligence department.

“What’s the matter?” Ninetails asked.

Luckily, she was in the royal palace, so she reached his office in less than thirty minutes.

“It’s this,” Schmidt replied, passing the report to her.

Ninetails reviewed the report and said in sheer disbelief, “This is impossible... Unless someone is specifically hunting dragons.”

“But is that even possible?”

“It’s not. No matter how much the Adventurers have grown in strength, it’s impossible to hunt this many dragons in such a short period of time. Even His Majesty wouldn’t be able to do this.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, I am. Maybe it would be possible if they were young dragons, but the corpses currently on the market belong to dragons over three thousand years old. Among them, two were even Ancient Dragons.”

“What in the world is happening then...?”

“I’ll look into it. This is undoubtedly suspicious, but I doubt it’s directly concerning our kingdom,” Ninetails said, sensing that something unusual was happening.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“It’s a shame that this had to happen just as we were trying to sell our dragon parts. Truly unfortunate timing...”

“I share the same sentiment.”

“For now, please keep this matter a secret. I’ll conduct a thorough investigation and report back once I have answers.”

“Understood.”

“Take care.”

With that, Ninetails left Schmidt’s office and headed straight back to her department.

‘Is it really possible for so many dragons to be hunted in such a short period of time? And if it is... who could possibly be behind this?’ she wondered.

Questions swirled through her mind as she made her way to her office.

***

As Siegfried explored the Green Isles, he encountered fourteen sea monsters, and he somehow managed to tame every single one of them.

The monsters came in all shapes and sizes.

There was a massive Kraken, an enormous shark, a giant turtle, and a colossal sea anemone!

An army of sea monsters now had to answer to Siegfried.

The result?

Swoosh!

The Aqua Runner sped through the water, slicing through it like a blade.

Gargh!

Kiyaaah!

Blop! Blop!

Behind the Aqua Runner trailed a single file of fourteen sea monsters dutifully following their new master.

“...Am I the Pied Piper or something?”

Siegfried could not help but feel weird as he stared at the strange procession. The image of these terrifying sea monsters obediently trailing behind him like neighborhood dogs following after someone who had fed them left him completely dumbfounded.

“Kyuuu! You’ve got yourself a sea monster fleet now, owner punk!”

“Huh?”

“You can smash up any navy with these guys! Kyuuu!”

”Oh? Hey, that’s not a bad idea at all.”

Siegfried began entertaining the notion of enlisting his new entourage of sea monsters into the Proatine Kingdom’s navy. When he thought about it, the sea monsters were no different from a gold mine.

Not only did they require minimal upkeep, but they also packed overwhelming firepower that a single one of them could wreak havoc across the battlefield.

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But the biggest advantage they brought was that they would strike fear straight into the hearts of any enemies.

“Kyuuu! Hamchi can command them, too!”

“Huh? You can?”

“Kyuuu! Hamchi can communicate with them!”

Hamchi, true to his identity as a Great Spirit, apparently had no issues with the language barrier, even with sea monsters.

“For real?”

“Kyuuu! Hamchi even asked them where all the best fishing spots are! Owner punk can catch tons of fish now!”

“Ohhh!”

“Hamchi is never gonna let you down, owner punk!”

“Alright, let’s do it!”

With Hamchi’s help, Siegfried decided to scout out the most fertile fishing grounds and start a massive fishing industry in the Green Isles.

He did not stop there and even drafted plans in his head to utilize the High-Speed Sea Route Passage for trade, allowing quick transportation of sea commodities. From there, he even thought of an inland transportation network to supply the Proatine Kingdom with a steady stream of fresh seafood.

Cha-ching!

The sound of jingling gold coins seemed to echo in his mind, and his grin widened at the thought of the profits rolling in.

Thus, Siegfried continued exploring the Green Isles on his Aqua Runner with his loyal fleet of sea monsters trailing right behind him.

***

Two days later, he failed to find anything significant despite his efforts. The Green Isles was simply too vast and spread out that exploring so many islands proved to be a slow and tedious task.

Fortunately, one thing that worked in his favor was the abundance of powerful sea monsters that made large swathes of the archipelago uninhabitable for humans.

In other words, countless islands were likely unexplored, sparking hope that something valuable was still yet to be discovered.

‘Feels like I’m just taming sea monsters at this point...’ Siegfried thought while glancing back and seeing nearly thirty sea monsters trailing the Aqua Runner. He ran into numerous other sea monsters over the past two days, and he managed to double his fleet in just that short period of time.

‘Is that dragon the most lucrative thing around here?’ he wondered.

His mind drifted to the silver dragon slumbering beneath Captain Baroque’s mine. It was said that centuries ago, Pirate King Freydlief had made some kind of deal with the dragon to create the Green Isles.

‘Should I take it out while it’s asleep?’ he wondered, tempted by the riches he could gain from slaying and selling the dragon’s parts.

However, Siegfried quickly dismissed the thought, as the last thing he wanted was to provoke a dragon capable of razing the entire Green Isles.

Even his greed, which people called insatiable, had its limits. A dragon was best left undisturbed. If it were awakened, it would surely go on a rampage.

‘Tsk... I’m way overdue for some decent loot,’ Siegfried thought, clicking his tongue.

It was then.

“Kyuuu! You idiot!”

“What did you say?!”

“The Aqua Runner is moving on its own! Kyuuu!”

“Huh?”

“Kyuuu! It’s out of control!”

Just as Hamchi said, the Aqua Runner was veering off course, heading in a completely different direction.

‘This! This is it!’

Siegfried instantly recognized what was happening, as this had happened before. His character had once moved on its own when something valuable was nearby, and he was certain it was the same phenomenon triggered by the Great King’s Blessed Lands.

“Let it be.”

“Kyu?”

“Just let it be. This thing knows where it should go.”

“Kyuuu! If you say so!”

Following Siegfried’s advice, Hamchi let go of the steering wheel entirely.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The wheel spun on its own as if it were being moved by an invisible force.

The Aqua Runner sped toward a massive island in the distance.