Chapter 941 - What you can’t wish for, you trade for

“Agh! We is break Sofia skill?!”

Bookie turned around, “No! It was something else! Not the mirror!”

“Bokie sure?”

“Hnnn! Look, I even got a description!”

Pestle was startled by the system window opening before her eyes.

“Bokie is get tystem no Sofia?!”

Bookie was equally shocked at the revelation, but his lower jaw was already on the floor so it could not fall any lower. He double checked to be sure, but still was out of range from Sofia, incapable of returning to her. That meant this system he was accessing was truly his own and not the usual piggybacking he did using Sofia’s scribe.

Trying to understand how that could have happened, he mindlessly stared at the system windows which had originally already been enough to shock him.

[You have absorbed an olden soul]

[Soul of the eternal bamboo: A precious power passed down through epochs and generations, the soul of the eternal bamboo has grown for millions of years, and imbues bamboo you wield with its great strength. There is a small chance any seed you plant will grow into a bamboo instead.]

When Bookie recovered from his stupor, he was startled by a huge pile of items stacked in front of him.

“Bokie is get new armor!”

Bookie was much too short to actually wear the birdmen’s armours, and the duo were not the best craftsmen, so Bookie had to summon his elf with a broom skeleton to help.

“I want a bamboo sword!”

Slouched inside of Henry’s rowboat, Alith was eagerly chatting with the pirate that reminded her of her own grandfather.

“And you tried to backstab her like that? Old man, it's a miracle you’re still alive.”

“Ya live and learn, heh. T’was an overly optimistic move on my part…”

While the two exchanged stories, Sofia and Pareth were flying together relatively low above the waves.

“Maybe you really need a flying skill of your own. Relying on my aura has its limits.”

Pareth did not react, but Sofia could tell he was also thinking about it.

“Actually, you know what… We really should have bothered Nex about this. Surely you should be able to get a proper scribe and the skill system, don’t you think? I know you’ve worked hard to optimize your current skills but you’re way past the diminishing returns now.”

Pareth nodded in agreement.

“Hmm… We’ll bother him when we’re out of here. It’s been long enough honestly, you participate in the trials as an individual you should get the same treatment. I mean I could still try to tweak my specialization as well but it’s pretty set in stone by now and the [Stress test] only returned minor redundancies.”

While Sofia was glancing at Pareth, he suddenly stopped.

Hmm?

Sofia looked ahead. In the distance, beyond a long stretch of red waves, she could see something.

“Henry,” she called out from above, “I think there is a small issue…”

“What’s that? We should almost be…” Henry asked as he leaped out of his rowboat into the air, “Oh, fuck. By the rotten flesh o’ the beast, what have we got here this time…”

Alith joined them in the air, she had issues using her ghostly flight in the sanctuary but uniquely her temporary standing as a skeleton meant she could use Sofia’s aura to summon herself a winged bone armor.

“Ooooooow. That the ‘port’ we were supposed to find?” Alith asked, “Yeah, looks like we’re at least a few decades late, ain't we?”

“Ya got it right, that is… was… the port…”

Beyond the waves was a long floating pile of burned ruins, with no signs of life anywhere. What had visibly once been a sprawling floating city built mostly out of wood and steel, was now little more than a charred mound of debris. One could still vaguely recognise the shape of the bigger, sturdier buildings, but even those were in a bad state.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The group hurriedly flew to the port, Henry carrying his rowboat through the air. They landed amidst the cold debris.

“That must have been a big fire,” Sofia commented, “a fire mage in your crew?”

Henry shook his skull, “There is one but he would never do that. One of the savage races must have attacked. We thought the new port was well hidden, hadn't been found for a long time. But as ya see, seems that ended badly.”

“You don’t sound particularly mad,” Alith noted.

“Not the first time, not the last. Them savage races can hold a grudge. I’m sure most o’ the crew made it out alive, point made, Admiral’s still amongst us, or this whole realm woulda collapsed already. It is, however, a big issue for ya all.”

“Right, the Admiral is the only one who knows where the thing we’re looking for is… Is there another way to find him now? A safe place he might have retreated to?”

“Heh. No. Were the ashes still hot, maybe, but now? Too late. Crew must’ve rebuilt port somewhere else by now. Nothin’ to find it but blindly roaming the great blood sea. Should only take me a century or two.”

“A century?!” Sofia repeated, “We don’t have that kind of time!”

“Well ya just gotta find the inheritance right? Pretty sure the first to come in here after that thing found it by herself. She never spoke to the admiral, from what I heard. If she could do it ya could too.”

“... Was she a dragon, by any chance?”

“A dragon? I don’t think so, but maybe, sneaky creatures, those. I never saw her but the others just described her as a weird lass hidin’ under a pile o’ rags.”

Definitely Cecless… So may have found the mirror by herself but I don’t have nearly as much knowledge as she probably did… I don’t even know how much time we have.

Aah… I’m not feeling anything helpful either, Aphenoreth’s essence isn’t reacting at all.

“Wait, Henry!” Sofia suddenly called out, grabbing the skeleton’s arm.

“Ya losin’ yar mind or what? I ain’t even moving.”

“‘Seek the condemned’. This is a hint I got before coming here! Seek the condemned. Who is the condemned?Is there a prison island somewhere? A ship named like the condemned? Anything?”

“Seek the condemned ya say? Er… Well… No ship with such a name that I’d know of. As for a prison… I told ya already, people we don’t want around anymore, we toss ‘em to the sea. The only real way to permanently get rid of anyone ‘round these parts.”

“So it’s underwater…”

“Hey hey, ya’re not thinkin’ about jumpin’ down, are ya? There be only eternal suffering waitin’ for a fool once the blood sea swallows ‘em.”

“I’m sure we’ll find a safe way down,” Alith chimed in, “Honestly navigating dangerous terrain is Sof’s specialty.”

“I don’t think ya can find a way so easily. But ya’re a wild bunch, admiral would’a loved to meet ya for sure.”

Sofia grinned, “You’ve barely seen anything yet. Alright then… Do you have any idea how deep the sea can go? Is there any island with caves or tunnels that go deep underground? Could be one way to get to the bottom.”

“No, no,” Henry shot Sofia’s questions down, “Barely any way down, and nobody knows how deep these waters go. But… Hmm… I have an idea.”

“Oh? There is a way, then?”

“Not that. I really cannot help ya lot go down, but– Seekin’ the condemned. How much do ya trust that ‘hint’?”

“Should be completely trustworthy,” Sofia answered right away.

“Then if ya need to plunge. I might at least know where ya should go. Follow me.”

Alith was first to walk after Henry, “Where are we going?”

“Ya see… There was one leader of the savage races that our crew particularly hated. His massacres were unspeakably foul. Soon after we were all stuck here. He was the first person we hunted. Took us almost three hundred years, the slippery bastard. When we got him, we magic-chained the fucker between two tall rock, and we partied as we watched the rain and the waves consume him for three months straight. He died and revived in agony thousands o’ times, until nothin’ remained of his sanity.”

“And I thought burning to death once was bad,” Alith commented, ever so slightly stepping back.

Sofia, on the other hand, seemed quite happy, and not disturbed at all. “He could really be ‘the condemned’. What happened to him after that?” She asked.

“We released the magic chains and he sank like a mindless rock. I’d be shocked if the inheritance was there, but it fits yar hint. I can lead ya there, if ya want.”

“That would be–”

“It’ll be one wishin’ orb,” Henry added. Sofia could almost see a snarky smile on his immobile jawbone.

“... Well, I can agree to that, but we still need to find the missing persons of our group first. We cannot leave without them.”

“Ya got any way to locate ‘em?”

“If we ever get close enough, I should be able to feel their location like Pareth was able to find mine. But I’ve not felt anything from them so far.”

“How big o’ a ‘close enough’ are we talkin’ about? Real world distances.”

“Hard to make a comparison, there isn’t really a clear cutoff in the real world, but if I had to say where the link starts getting really weak… About ten thousand kilometers away?”

“That much?! Ya shoulda said that earlier! Toss in another orb and I'll find ‘em for ya on the way. Just have to link the farthest islands a few times.”

“Then we’ll leave it to you, mister guide,” Sofia accepted, tossing Henry two of her wishing orbs.

“Pleasure doin’ business,” Henry answered, instantly using one of the orbs to summon an expensive-looking bottle of wine.