Volume One: Lord of the Infernal World Chapter 49: Synthesizing a Submarine

“Sir, is this boat really seaworthy?”
Allen looked at the patched-together vessel before him, his face full of doubt.

But Chen Gu remained unfazed. Hadn’t his vine-drawn carriage previously been nothing but a broken, battered vehicle, and yet he’d managed to assemble it in the end? What was so wrong with this boat? The lack of repair skills on their side made such a result perfectly reasonable.

After all, this was the wreck they had to work with—there wasn’t even a mast left. Moreover, Chen Gu intended to modify the boat into a submarine, which required some special handling. To have achieved its current state was already quite impressive.

The main body of the vessel was still the violet-hued ship Chen Gu had dragged back. To ensure it could serve as a submarine, he had nailed planks over the entire deck. The semi-transparent, blue water-element figurehead wasn’t mounted at the prow, but rather at the original mast position on the foredeck. This unusual placement wasn’t due to the lack of a spot for the figurehead at the bow, but because Chen Gu had also sealed up the helm area with planks.

He had wanted to install glass for an external viewing window, but after searching in vain for anything suitable, he settled on the blue, translucent water-element material. It now blocked the helm, becoming an observation port.

Along both sides of the interior, many wooden barrels were nailed down. These barrels were actually a buoyancy system Chen Gu had devised—by filling them with water, the boat could be dragged underwater. When it was time to surface, they could simply be jettisoned.

After all, Chen Gu only planned a single submersion: to find what he wanted and leave, with no intention of fighting underwater for any length of time. With Allen gathering odds and ends from other sources, the strange boat was finally completed.

To Chen Gu, the vessel’s design made perfect sense. Using it for synthesis was only natural. But in Allen’s eyes, this was nothing but a floating coffin, hardly fit for human occupancy. Still, since Chen Gu insisted, Allen couldn’t stop him.

Once the repairs were done, Allen began the synthesis process. This time, the material chosen was a fish from beneath the lake, its scaly skin so pale it was nearly transparent.

“Elven Warship (Patched Hybrid)” + “White-Scaled Fish” = “??? (Success Rate: 61.3%)”

“So this thing’s called a White-Scaled Fish?”

Chen Gu commented casually, reading the synthesis formula.

Allen, hearing this, couldn’t help but exclaim, “Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

“Oh? You know the White-Scaled Fish?” Chen Gu paused the synthesis, curiosity piqued.

“I’ve eaten them before. White-Scaled Fish only ever grow to the size of a palm, their flesh extremely delicate. They could never reach this size!”

Chen Gu glanced at Allen. “But this one did.”

Allen’s interruption made Chen Gu pause his actions. After a moment’s thought, he decided to try adding more White-Scaled Fish to see what effect it would have.

He soon discovered that increasing the number of White-Scaled Fish also increased the synthesis success rate. Due to compatible attributes, the formula didn’t hit a cap like it had with the Fire Spirit Crow and the Elven Warship. The success rate climbed steadily—once it hit 100%, he could still add more White-Scaled Fish.

This surprised Chen Gu, and he turned to Allen. “Are White-Scaled Fish a schooling species?”

“Sir, I’m no biologist—I really don’t know some things.”

“All right then, let’s just proceed with the synthesis.”

Chen Gu lost track of how many White-Scaled Fish he’d added; he only knew the success rate was now at 100%. With the odds maxed, he gave the command to synthesize.

To his surprise, all the White-Scaled Fish he’d thrown in flew up at once. Their flesh and blood disassembled themselves, fusing to the boat’s surface. Propelled by this process, the patched warship rolled into the water.

Staring at the vortex forming on the lake’s surface, Chen Gu was unsure—was this a success or a failure? Could a 100% success rate still fail?

The next instant, water surged upward, and a new vessel appeared before Chen Gu’s eyes.

This boat was unlike the Fire Crow or the Mars, his other ships. It was clearly shaped like a submarine, its entire form resembling an oversized white-scaled fish with a flat top, though the body was violet.

Where the fish’s eyes would be—no, where the ship’s bow was—stood a blue, transparent window, offering a view of the outside world. The entrance to the cabin was located at the very top of the hull; by opening a sealed hatch, one could descend inside.

The vessel was ten meters long and five meters at its widest point, with three internal levels plus an outer deck. The outer deck, atop the hull, was generally left empty—since the boat was meant to submerge, anything placed here would be washed away by the water.

The upper level was the original deck, now featuring an observation port and the helm. The middle level was the original cabin—since the ship had belonged to elven nobility, it was luxuriously appointed with all the comforts of life. The lower level, once a storage hold, had been transformed into a watertight compartment, the place for flooding and draining the submarine. Whether the boat could dive depended on this lower section.

As the vessel appeared, information flashed before Chen Gu’s eyes:

“Pet Synthesis Complete: Acquired Blue-Grade Holy Scale Submarine.”

[Pet Attributes]
Name: Holy Scale Submarine
Quality: Blue
Type: Living Vessel
Trait: Underwater Movement
Level: 1
Stats: Attack 4, Defense 4, HP 200
Speed: 100 km/h (surface), 80 km/h (submerged)
Initial Skills: Diving Level 1 (enables underwater movement); Schooling Fish Level 1 (releases a school of level 1 White-Scaled Fish to protect the submarine); Water Elemental Level 1 (summons two level 2 Water Elementals for combat); Water Cannon Level 1 (equipped with four underwater cannons capable of firing ice bolts)
Description: A submarine cobbled together from various materials. Apart from submerging, it has little other use.

Chen Gu had to admit, the final evaluation was accurate. He’d spent all this effort for the sole purpose of diving into the Sacred Lake to search for the World Tree’s fruit. Some might see little value in this boat, but to Chen Gu, its usefulness was beyond measure.