Chapter 960 - Speedrun
As Krune had said, they really didn't do anything beyond being adrift on the ocean. From time to time, they used fishing nets to capture a large batch of fish. Krune cut them up accordingly, separated the meat from the rest before dumping the remains back into the ocean.
He only collected some useful parts that he thought would come useful later. Well, he needed a lot of meat, for he and the Seamstress were consuming through it quickly. The Seamstress was moving through the water in search of any large fishes they could hunt to obtain Godly Points.
Moreover, she was also moving around to train her body accordingly. After all, the passive ability, Moving Water was incredibly useful. When activated, all it did was generate currents around the body, propelling it forward.
Of course, this burned up all the energy in the body, causing the Seamstress to grow thinner every time. With that, Krune took this chance to supply her with healing energy, familiarizing himself with the ability more and more.
After all, he had determined a simple result from his one year of stay on the Primary Landmass. As long as he used a certain ability a lot, his body would gradually grow accustomed to it and would develop accordingly.
So, even though a mortal's stamina was limited and they couldn't rely on the passive abilities for a long duration, as long as they trained with them to the extent their efficiency was on par with the body's reflexes, the passive abilities would become no different to breathing or blinking to them.
This way, they would stop being passive abilities and would just become a part of them. With that, attaining such a state was a must for them. In any case, they had to get stronger, greatly so if they wished to demolish the pirate organization that was gaining more and more momentum.
As the days passed, Krune and the Seamstress had clashed with the pirates numerous times. Every time, they managed to kill one or two of them. Of course, it was mostly Krune that did the killing. As for the Seamstress, all she did was destroy their boats, leaving them stranded in the ocean, adrift.
Lured by the blood, the fishes did the rest of the work. When need be, she could be vicious in her own way.
Krune fed the bone tree fruits to the six Motor Fishes every day. And as he had expected, the results started to become noticeable after a couple of weeks. The Motor Fishes had grown in size and were steadily growing.
At the start, the Motor Fishes were only able to consume one fruit per day once they recovered to their peak. Of course, it would take too much time for them to mature in such a fashion. It might take a decade before they reached a level that Krune wanted.
So, he worked them to the limit, actively targeting the smaller pirate boats. He pillaged from the pirates. As long as the pirates didn't try to kill him, he didn't kill them either. Most of the time, when they surrendered, he just pushed them into the ocean and looted all their items.
Most of the time, though, they didn't have anything. Well, in cases when they returned from a trip, they might even have a Water Essence that they had stolen from some poor soul. In such cases, Krune gladly pocketed them.
After all, he did have some uses for them. Nevertheless, the prime reason he attacked the pirates was to steal their Motor Fish.
Eight out of ten times, they were unable to catch up to the pirates. During the first few tries, Krune did manage to steal their Motor Fishes. But soon after, it seemed that Gajor noticed his motives, sending out larger groups.
All such groups were only pulled by one Motor Fish. At the moment it seemed like they were about to lose, the pirates would grab all their belongings and jump into the ocean.
All they did was leave behind an empty boat. They would circle around the Motor Fish and use their passive ability, Moving Water, to propel themselves forward. Their abilities, plus the Motor Fish's power, would create a powerful propelling force that Krune and the Seamstress were unable to match.
It seemed that the ability Moving Water was stronger when used as a group. Once Gajor used this strategy, Krune and the Seamstress were unable to do anything to his group. They were no longer able to cause the pirates any losses.
Krune had already swapped his Underwater Breathing with Moving Water. He killed three Motor Fishes simultaneously and absorbed their blood, gaining the passive ability. He almost cried at losing Underwater Breathing, not because it was a useful ability, but because it had cost him 20 Godly Points.
After that, he had also trained with the Seamstress daily, using Moving Water to the limit, getting accustomed to it. Even though breathing underwater while using it was harder than while using Underwater Breathing, as he continued to train, Krune's body began to adjust to it accordingly.
Over time, it gradually became more bearable for him. Then again, he couldn't remain underwater for too long and would have to resurface before his body turned numb from the lack of air. Moving Water wasn't able to provide enough air for his needs.
All it did was prolong the duration one could remain underwater. Krune and the Seamstress eventually timed how long they could last, making a note that they were able to remain underwater for around 10 minutes. The Seamstress could stay for a slightly longer duration than him because she was more attuned to the ability.
Krune was currently maintaining 10 Motor Fishes. Among them, four were for moving the boat. There were two Motor Fishes on each ocean, facing opposite directions. This gave the boat enough propulsion and stability in movement.
As for the remaining six, they were to be harvested for their ability. Upon thinking that he was already making two of them, Krune decided that he might as well make three of them and give the third one to the baby.
Krune wasn't sure how long he would be in the Sub-Realm and for how long he would have to live as a mortal. But if it took him a long time, he might as well nurture a strong future companion. Besides, the baby was blessed with two powerful abilities.
He wasn't sure what Ocean Affinity did. In any case, Krune didn't care. The baby had three slots to fill. Having Moving Water as one of them didn't hurt. In the future, if it looked like Ocean Affinity was able to mimic whatever Moving Water was capable of, they could simply replace it with another ability.
After all, it didn't hurt to have more. Thinking as such, he planned the third one. Maintaining three bone trees wasn't a hard process. With two of them, they managed to capture enough fish from the ocean.
Sometimes, they would even capture pretty huge fishes. As both of them had underwater mobility, they would just head into the water and sprint up the nets over the fish.
It was when he showed the Seamstress the rope bush did she almost lose her mind. When he asked her about the reason, she told him to think about her name. From the looks of it, she was an expert when it came to threads.
Unsurprisingly, the nets she created were incredible, allowing them to catch groups of fish like it was no big deal. As always, all the blood was given to the bone trees to develop and bear fruits. The fruits were the only source of nourishment to the Motor Fishes.
Over time, all ten of them began to grow in size, also gaining an upgrade in their movement speed. Unfortunately for Krune and the Seamstress, it seemed that the pirate group had veered farther away from them.
After all, the area was already looted dry by them. With that, they went to a different place to pillage more. But, Krune didn't give chase. Rather, he was pleased with the development. The Seamstress had already marked the pirate cove once with her passive ability, Bubble Touch.
So, no matter how far they went, she would always be able to track them. Without them being in the vicinity, Krune could safely proceed with the important part of his project. He could rest assured that no one would try to steal the fruits of their labor.
Moreover, through his Sonic Radar, he would know the moment anything approached close. It was also how he was able to track groups of fishes and veer the boat in that direction before he and the Seamstress jumped into the water to capture them all.
As the development of the Motor Fishes continued, three months passed in such a fashion. At this point, they needed to eat five fruits daily to sustain themselves. This was because all this time, Krune made them swim from morning to evening. In the evening, he even provided them with the fruits.
This caused their bodies to easily digest all the excess energy derived from the fruits. Moreover, they also began to grow as a result. Normally, when a Motor Fish swam all day, it would have to eat for at least a week or two before it could swim for another day nonstop.
After all, it needed the energy to move its body. And that was the energy stored in its muscles. So, that was why the bandit activity wasn't conducted daily but only at certain intervals.
As for Krune, he simply brute-forced his way through.