Chapter 11: Whale Fall

"A whale?" Lily Rhodes asked in surprise.

The behemoth looming before them was indeed an incredibly massive whale. Lily had little concept of whales and had never seen one in person. She only knew they were the largest mammals in existence. However, the creature ahead of them absolutely dwarfed the biggest whales back on Azurea, stretching endlessly toward the horizon. Its immense size made it feel like one could build an entire city on its back. Even the newly upgraded Shelly looked overwhelmingly insignificant in comparison.

"Shelly, did you bring me here just for this?" Lily asked.

Shelly poked her head out and nodded vigorously. "That old whale is dying. It has tasty things on it, and I want them." She looked at Lily with bright, sparkling eyes. In the little turtle’s mind, her master was incredibly powerful for helping her level up twice in under two days. A dying old whale would surely be a piece of cake. "Don’t worry, Master! We arrived first. As soon as the old whale dies, we make our move," Shelly declared with absolute certainty.

"You really have a lot of faith in me," Lily said with an amused smile.

Looking at the whale’s gargantuan body, Lily felt thankful she didn’t suffer from megalophobia, or she would have died of fright right then and there. Still, she had zero confidence in extracting whatever Shelly wanted from such a massive corpse. She figured she could hack at it for ages without even breaking the creature’s defenses.

"Of course I do! Master, didn’t you learn the Decomposition Technique and Collection Skill? You can use those to gather all the old whale’s Energy."

Lily froze for a moment before realization dawned on her. "Right! I almost forgot about those."

Shelly continued, "Once this old whale takes its last breath, you decompose it, then collect it. After that, we leave this place as fast as we can."

Listening to Shelly excitedly lay out the plan, Lily looked at the whale’s fading breaths and felt a twinge of guilt. The poor creature wasn’t even dead yet, and they were already plotting how to carve up its corpse. Luckily, the old whale couldn’t hear their conversation. Otherwise, a single slap of its tail would doom them both, and no novice protection period could save them.

However, she completely agreed with Shelly’s plan to grab the loot and flee. A whale’s fall was a grand feast for the entire ocean ecosystem. If they picked the carcass completely clean and stuck around, the ocean’s predators would undoubtedly swarm them.

Several hours passed, and the sky gradually darkened. While they waited, Lily completed a few more trades, exchanging fresh water, grilled fish, and fish spears for various supplies. Before she could inspect her new goods, Shelly suddenly shouted in excitement.

"Quick, it died!"

Without another word, the turtle charged straight toward the whale’s location.

Pulling up alongside the carcass, Lily felt infinitely small next to the colossal body. She knew this was no time for awe. According to Shelly, scavengers would arrive within the hour, leaving them less than sixty minutes to process the gargantuan corpse.

Lily first took out a Diamond Treasure Chest to store the harvested materials. Pressed for time, she rapidly alternated between her Decomposition Technique and Collection Skill without bothering to check what she was actually gathering. She lost count of how many times she cast the skills, only noticing the mountainous body shrinking bit by bit. Whenever a Diamond Treasure Chest filled up, she swapped to a Golden Treasure Box.

By the time she extracted the last remnants of the corpse, she had completely filled one Diamond Treasure Chest and two Golden Treasure Boxes. She stuffed the leftovers into a Bronze Treasure Chest. On top of the harvested materials, the decomposing process also yielded two dropped chests: another Diamond Treasure Chest and a rainbow-glowing box that looked far more Advanced.

Seeing her finish, Shelly wasted no time. The turtle went full throttle, fleeing the area at top speed.

The sky was pitch black by now. Nine moons hung high above as a turtle sprinted wildly across the sea at an unbelievable pace.

Lily stored the chests, pitched her Owl Tent, and lay down inside. She fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes. The exhausting day left her with no desire to deal with anything until she woke up.

She slept straight through until noon the next day. Opening her eyes, Lily felt completely refreshed.

Today marked the third day of the novice period, meaning her development time was half over. Refusing to waste a second, she scrambled out of bed, grabbed a quick bite, and pulled out her entire haul from the previous day.

She placed the two dropped Treasure Chests on either side of her like bodyguards. She planned to open them last; first, she needed to inventory the supplies extracted from the whale.

The vast majority was whale meat. Such a colossal beast yielded a terrifying amount of meat. It was no exaggeration to say that if she ate it all herself, it would last her until her next life. Next was the blubber, which could be refined into whale oil for biofuel, followed by spermaceti from the whale’s head. She also cataloged whale bones, baleen, skin, organs, and bone marrow.

In addition to the physical materials, she finally obtained a Crystal Core with her own two hands. This one was vastly different from the ones she had previously traded for. It was the size of a human head, crystal clear, and stunningly beautiful. Shelly practically drooled at the sight of it, but Lily couldn’t bear to part with it just yet. She decided to keep it in her collection for future use.

The final items were clusters of pure white, glowing Energy.

According to the System’s appraisal, this Energy normally remained hidden within the whale’s flesh. Marine creatures could only absorb it by consuming the meat. However, Lily’s Decomposition Technique had extracted the Energy directly, and her Collection Skill had stabilized it into its current form before it could dissipate.

It was a stroke of pure luck. If she hadn’t recently learned both the Decomposition Technique and the Collection Skill, she and Shelly would have been forced to watch helplessly or scavenge a meager share from the jaws of the incoming oceanic predators.