Since Second Miss agreed to let him on board, he should be given a chance; otherwise, with his temper, he would definitely have kicked this guy off the ship.

Rowland just sat on the deck and gnawed down the whole big piece of oat bread. After finishing, he still felt only half full; his stomach was like a bottomless pit now. However, eating these things did have an effect—at least now, standing almost naked in the chilly early spring wind, he didn’t feel cold at all. On the contrary, his body felt warm. He knew this was the intelligent brain regulating his body temperature.

He originally wanted to ask for more food, but seeing the First Mate's impatient face, he smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely do a better job than them.”

“Go on, and I hope the next time you surface from the water, you’re not a corpse.”

Rowland chuckled, tied the dagger to his leg, thought for a moment, and also took the weapon scroll that Amos had given him. It was a spell scroll, not afraid of getting wet. Then he picked up the rope, turned, and jumped into the sea.

‘Hiss~ so cold.’ The seawater was icy and piercing; Rowland felt as if all the blood in his body was about to freeze. If it were the old Rowland, he would have frozen to death in less than a minute, but now, Rowland felt a constant warmth inside his body, with his blood continuously sending this warmth to every part of him, maintaining his body temperature.

In short, he was very safe now.

Because the rope loop on his back was heavy, it dragged Rowland steadily downward toward the bottom.

He hurriedly stuffed the breathing gel pouch he was holding into his mouth, then took a deep breath through it. Instantly, air seeped in from the pouch. Although it was a bit difficult to inhale and his chest felt a little tight, it was still manageable—he didn’t feel suffocated.

He also wasn’t afraid of the pressure of deep water, because he trusted the intelligent brain to automatically adjust his body.

With everything ready, he began to dive down with peace of mind.

Chapter 6: The First Bucket of Silver (Part 2)

Underwater, after sinking for about twenty seconds, Rowland's feet touched bottom, landing on soft sea sand.

This was indeed a shallow area, only about twenty meters deep. The light around was a bit dim, but the seawater was very clear, so he could barely make things out.

In the grayish sea, there were seaweeds, corals, and rocks everywhere, with schools of fish swirling around, gathering and scattering.

Amidst this chaotic environment, there were scattered shipwrecks and several cargo boxes sealed with tape—these were the items to be salvaged.

Rowland could also see the figures of others. Because their breath-holding time was limited, they were all working busily and efficiently on the seabed, hurrying to loop the rope around the cargo boxes, then hooking the ropes. After all this, they would tug the rope with the agreed signal, and the sailors on the ship would feel it and start pulling up, causing the cargo boxes to rise.

Once a box was hauled up, the rope would sink down again, and the fishmen would hook it to a new cargo box, repeating the process.

Although the underwater environment was very complex, Gates and the others were still highly efficient. Rowland saw them quickly wrapping the rope loops around the cargo boxes, one after another, at almost twice his speed.

But Rowland had his own advantage: he didn’t need to come up for air. Every seven or eight minutes, the fishmen had to surface for breath, but he didn’t. He kept working underwater, so even though he was slower, the total number of cargo boxes he hauled up was not less than the others—sometimes even one or two more.

He could feel the others constantly glancing at him, amazed at how long he could hold his breath—heh heh.

Rowland stayed underwater for nearly half an hour. To avoid being too shocking, he would surface for air.

But while others needed at least five or six minutes to fully recover, he just took a breath and dove back down, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

Standing at the ship’s rail, Lester couldn’t help but exclaim, “Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover. I bet this is the best swimmer I’ve ever seen among fishmen—he’s practically a fish himself! He could become a rich man just by salvaging sunken cargo for a living!”

“Who says otherwise? Maybe his mother didn’t get pregnant because of his father, but because she took a bath in the sea and was blessed by the sea god, heh heh heh.” First Mate laughed as well. This operation was going unexpectedly smoothly, and he was in a great mood.

Underwater, this was already Rowland’s third dive. He was about to look for his sixth box—six cargo boxes, six silver coins, just fourteen more to pay off the loan shark. He was in a very good mood.

Because everyone was working so hard, the easily found cargo boxes in the shallow area were almost all gone, so they had to look for the more difficult ones—those stuck in coral trees, tangled in seaweed, or even fallen into rock crevices. As long as there was any chance of salvaging them, the fishmen wouldn’t let them go, because each box meant a silver coin—a pretty good income for dockworkers doing hard labor.

Rowland saw a cargo box under a coral tree, very well hidden, and the box was stuck. If he swam in, he could easily get trapped by the coral and the seaweed tangled around it... Underwater, if that happened, it was almost a death sentence.