Building a house was quite difficult, so in the time that followed,
Raiden Ei spent her days building the house and her nights cultivating.
After nearly two days, she finally finished the house. It was about 100 square meters, but it was very crude as it lacked any interior decoration.
In order to store the house in the system backpack, it was built directly on a pre-laid platform.
It was just like the mobile homes she had seen in short videos before.
The difference was that those required assembling individual components, whereas this house was built as one whole unit.
There weren't many furnishings inside yet, so Raiden Ei and Little Elysia prepared to go out to buy some necessities and then decorate the house.
The morning after they decided, Raiden Ei and Little Elysia set off.
Her current location was approximately in the Calm Belt, at the junction where the South Blue met the Grand Line. Heading south would take her through the Calm Belt to the South Blue, while heading east would lead into the Grand Line.
After discussing with the Little Fellow, they decided to return to the Grand Line as it would be more convenient.
In the Calm Belt, the wind was still, and even the sea surface showed no ripples.
Only the slight air currents stirred up by Raiden Ei as she swept across the sky with Little Elysia caused any disturbance.
"Sister Ei, are there really sea beasts in the ocean?" Little Elysia asked curiously, observing the calm sea below while swinging her feet.
Through the whistling wind, Raiden Ei heard the Little Fellow's young voice. She looked down at her and thought: She really can't stay idle.
But how did Little Elysia know about sea beasts? She hadn't told her anything about them.
She didn't hide anything and replied directly, "Yes, there are... But the ones here in the Calm Belt are called Sea Kings."
"Sea Kings are much larger than sea beasts; the largest ones might even be several kilometers long."
She then asked out of curiosity, "Also, Little Fellow, how did you know there were sea beasts in the ocean? I don't recall telling you about them."
"Hee hee," Little Elysia looked up and laughed happily, "Sister Ei doesn't know? I discovered it myself."
Raiden Ei thought for a moment, confirming she hadn't mentioned sea beasts to the Little Fellow, but she didn't dwell on it. Her eyes twinkled as she said,
"Hmm~ I don't remember telling you. But do you want to see what a Sea King looks like?"
"Eh, can we?" Little Elysia looked excited.
Seeing this, Raiden Ei stopped flying and began descending toward the calm sea surface, replying affirmatively, "Of course, we can."
She wasn't very familiar with Sea Kings herself, having only seen them in anime. She wanted to take this opportunity to see just how big a Sea King really was.
The rapidly descending air current made the edges of their clothes flutter loudly, causing Little Elysia to grip Raiden Ei's clothes tighter.
When they were still about ten meters above the sea, Raiden Ei pulled out a raft from the system backpack and dropped it from the sky.
"Bang!"
The heavy raft smashed onto the sea surface, causing quite a commotion. The surrounding seawater couldn't withstand the sudden impact, churning back and forth and splashing up countless waves.
"Thud."
Raiden Ei landed directly onto the raft, which hadn't broken but was bobbing on the water. She reached out, patted the Little Fellow's back, and said, "Alright, we should see a Sea King soon."
Little Elysia loosened her grip on Raiden Ei's clothes slightly and turned to look curiously at the dark ocean, glancing around as she said,
"Sister Ei, will the Sea Kings you mentioned really jump out of the water?"
Raiden Ei watched the surroundings, recalling information about Sea Kings from One Piece, and explained to Little Elysia,
"They will. This is the Calm Belt, where a large number of Sea Kings gather. This is practically their lair. Any ship passing by will disturb them."
"So the danger of the Calm Belt doesn't just come from the lack of wind, but also from the countless Sea Kings beneath the deep sea."
Little Elysia listened intently. Instead of being scared, she became even more curious and pressed further, "Is there really no way to deal with them?"
"Not entirely. There are still many strong individuals on the great seas. If one's strength is sufficient, they don't need to fear the Sea Kings here."
"Also, the Sea Stone I mentioned to you before can emit a wave that Sea Kings find repulsive. Installing it on the bottom of a ship can also drive them away."
As Raiden Ei was speaking, her Observation Haki sensed several massive presences rapidly surging up from the deep sea.
But she didn't rush to do anything, continuing her explanation, "The Marines do exactly that. Ordinary people rarely get access to Sea Stone. That's why the Calm Belt has essentially become an No-man's-land (no-man's land)."
"So that's how it is. Then Sister Ei is one of those very, very strong people?" Little Elysia was already imagining Raiden Ei slaying a horde of Sea Kings.
The crisis Raiden Ei sensed through Observation Haki grew stronger. She proactively pulled Little Elysia into an embrace, "Mmm~ I suppose so. Alright, hold on tight, the Sea Kings are about to charge up."
Upon hearing this, Little Elysia widened her large, watery eyes and stared intently at the sea surface, which showed no signs of movement. She didn't ignore Raiden Ei's words and held on tighter with both hands.
The speed of the Sea Kings in the water was exceptionally fast. From sensing their presence with Observation Haki to anticipating the attack took less than half a minute.
"Geppo, Shave!" Raiden Ei stepped on the air and instantly vanished from the raft, appearing dozens of meters high in the sky.
And in the very next moment after Raiden Ei disappeared from the raft,
"Whoosh!"
A huge mouth full of sharp teeth rapidly emerged from the sea, swallowing the raft and nearly a hundred meters of surrounding seawater in one gulp.
"Boom! Gurgle gurgle!"
For a moment, the calm sea surface boiled instantly. The water churned and surged backward, squeezed by the giant beast emerging from the sea.
Only when the entire Sea King surfaced could Raiden Ei and the Little Fellow see its full form, but its massive size exceeded their expectations.
It was unexpectedly large.
Judging by the part of its body that emerged from the water, it was a catfish-like Sea King.
It had a flat mouth, sharp bone spurs growing from both sides, whiskers of varying lengths, and rows of sharp bone spurs on its back.
It was just several hundred times larger than a normal catfish, and it also had scales that glittered in the sunlight.
"Wow, that's a really big fish!" Little Elysia looked at the giant Sea King below with eyes full of novelty.
Although its thousand-meter-long body only had about half of it above the water, it occupied most of their field of vision. The two of them looked like tiny ants.
"It is quite big, but there's more than one coming," Raiden Ei said, just as she finished speaking.
"Splash!"
A large head emerged from the sea, followed by dozens of thick tentacles constantly slapping the churning surface.
Two more Sea Kings gradually surfaced from the sea, though their sizes were not as large as the catfish one, their auras were comparable.
The four Sea Kings filled this stretch of ocean. The sea surface became extremely violent due to their arrival, and the splashing waves swept out into the distance.
"Wow, it's a giant octopus, so big, so big!"
"Is that a seahorse? It's so big too! I've never seen one before!"
"Sister Ei, look quickly, look quickly! Is that... is that a shark? It has a pointed mouth and a tail like a knife!"
Seeing how excited Little Elysia was, Raiden Ei almost couldn't bear to interrupt her enthusiasm. The four Sea Kings had already noticed them.
And they were right in the middle of them. These Sea Kings could attack them at any moment.
If she were alone, it wouldn't be much trouble, but having to protect Little Elysia while fighting meant she couldn't use her full strength.
"Little Elysia, we need to leave, or we'll be surrounded by these Sea Kings."
Although this was the first time she had witnessed such a scene, and she found it shocking, it was better to retreat first. Otherwise, attracting an endless stream of Sea Kings would be troublesome.
Hearing Raiden Ei, Little Elysia looked around. They were indeed surrounded. She quickly exclaimed, "Ah, Sister Ei, let's go quickly then!"
Little Elysia was quite reluctant to leave after only watching for a short while. She had never seen such a large octopus before, and there was a seahorse too.
Seeing the Little Fellow looking a bit disappointed, Raiden Ei chuckled softly, patted her head, and gave her a new anticipation: "We'll be able to see these again in the future."
"But I also heard some news. There's a very, very large elephant that can walk in the ocean—that big. If we have a chance, I'll take you to see it."
Little Elysia was also somewhat astonished. She couldn't imagine how big that would be. Her eyes instantly filled with expectation: "That must be bigger than an island!"
"It's something to look forward to," Raiden Ei said before flying toward the high altitude.
However, the four Sea Kings would not let them leave so easily.
The catfish-like Sea King opened its giant mouth and spewed out a large amount of bubbles toward the sky.
"Puff, puff!" A few water spheres were faster than the bubbles, intercepting them first.
Although the seahorse wasn't a kilometer long, its size still reached a terrifying several hundred meters. It spat out water spheres the size of millstones from its mouth, aiming at Raiden Ei and the Little Fellow who were about to leave.
Observation Haki warned her of the incoming attack. Raiden Ei stopped at less than a hundred meters high, turned, and faced the incoming water spheres.
"Really, I didn't want to fight."
She drew the Demon Blade from the system backpack, instantly wrapping the blade in Armament Haki, and swung her sword. With a "Swish," a spiraling slash shot downward toward the incoming water spheres.
The crimson slash spun and sliced the incoming water spheres in half, one by one, continuing its momentum downward toward the several beasts below.
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