"I'll try my best. You've supported me for so long. I won't be discouraged."
"No, I only have a map. This place is too far from the continent. I'm afraid it's almost two thousand kilometers." Rex took out some food. Except for Shika, no one else had much appetite.
"Daniel, do you have a sea map?"
"No, I've never seen a sea map like this when I was doing business." Daniel shook his head. He wasn't a professional sailor. He could tell directions by the sun during the day, but he couldn't read a star map at night.
"How far have we gone?"
"I don't know. Without a magic compass, it's not accurate to rely on feelings," Daniel answered carefully.
"If a group of sea demons comes, we'll be dead," Salin said worriedly as he looked at the puppets paddling the oars. In fact, even a finless whale would be bad for them, not to mention sea demons.
The sun set. The wind grew stronger, and the waves rose higher and higher. Salin had to close the cabin door. Looking out through the window, he saw two puppets on the deck, drenched by the waves.
In the sea ahead, dozens of giant beasts leaped up. Their bodies were illuminated by the moonlight. Seeing that Salin and Rex were nervous, Daniel quickly stopped them. "Don't worry. That's Moonlight Singer."
"Moonlight Singer?" Salin looked at the giant beasts that fell into the sea through the window in surprise. They weren't very beautiful, but he'd heard of them for a long time. The fishermen on the beach all believed that Moonlight Singer was left by the goddess to protect them. The magical beasts in the sea were very friendly to humans. They could communicate with each other with sharp voices. They liked to follow fishing boats. Fishermen would often give these magical beasts some small fish to pray for their safety.
When Salin was young, he'd heard fishermen describe these magical beasts. In their words, these magical beasts seemed perfect. They had beautiful skin, elegant bodies, and pure eyes.
In reality, what Salin saw were the dense and sharp teeth in the magical beasts' mouths. This thing eats meat. He couldn't understand. Moonlight Singer's original name was Scaleless Shark. This thing looked like a shark, but it was bigger and had no scales. They liked to travel in groups, even if they encountered magical beasts that were stronger than them. The Scaleless Sharks were very united, and they were born to manipulate water elements. Sorcerers suspected that they had intelligence, or else they wouldn't have tried to save people.
Many books recorded the actions of the Scaleless Shark when it came to rescuing people. There were even cases where people who fell into the sea were sent thousands of miles away by the Scaleless Shark and only left when they reached land.
"Looks like we're very lucky." Rex looked at the Scaleless Shark and heaved a sigh of relief. There wouldn't be any powerful magical beasts near the Scaleless Sharks. Magical beasts of the third and fourth rank were all prey to the Scaleless Sharks. If they encountered a powerful enemy, the Scaleless Sharks would attack in groups.
"You call this luck?" Salin grabbed the bread, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed hard.
"At least we're still alive."
Rex's words made Salin speechless. Back then, his reaction had been fast enough. It was pure luck that he had escaped. Two sixth-level mages and a seventh-level Magic Shooter were nowhere to be seen. If they stayed on the ship, the enemy would not give them any chance. The other magicians on the ship had too much trust in Alchemy City. They had never thought that anyone would dare to make a move against Alchemy City. Thinking of Sandro who had fallen into the water and asked for help, Salin felt a little apologetic.
The best that could happen to that guy was to be rescued by the enemy and become a captive. Rex was right. Salin was very lucky. He had been able to escape every time he encountered a powerful enemy. Thinking back to the huge ship that had appeared after the magic image, Salin couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. Was that thing made by humans?
He knew that if the ship had been built that big, it would have been able to install magic cannons. Magic cannons were different from magic stone cannons. Magic stone cannons were only used against hunting ships, while magic cannons could directly penetrate the metal armor of ironclads. Alchemy City had been able to dominate the sea because they had a ship with magic cannons, and the Cloud Flow Empire's fleet did not dare to go north.
Now that other people had such abilities, Alchemy City was no longer safe.
"Salin, do we continue east?" Daniel asked uneasily. The west was land. They were just a small boat that was a dozen meters long. They could be torn apart by a storm at any time.
"North, then west in three days." Salin didn't explain why. His intuition told him that the huge ship that had attacked the hunting ship had a large area of control. The flying puppets were still searching for any fish that had escaped from the net. If they were discovered by the flying puppets, even if they could destroy the puppets, the enemy would still be able to find their location. The other party was a big ship with a magic compass. It was much faster than their small boat. The alchemy machines had lost their power, and the two oars could not compete with the speed of the warship.
The scaleless sharks played around Salin's boat for a while, then swam south. The sky was full of stars. Salin wasn't in the mood to appreciate it. He said to Daniel, "Teach me how to steer."
"I can do it." Daniel's honest face showed gratitude.
"I have something else for you to do. Sicar, you come and learn too. Go to sleep when you're done. "
"Then what should I do?" Rex didn't care about Salin's orders. Instead, he asked about his own mission.
"Rest as much as you can. If we encounter a powerful beast, we'll be counting on you."
"Then … I'll go to sleep." Rex looked at Salin's cold eyes and felt a little strange. Salin wasn't usually very smart, but he was extremely calm in a life and death situation. He was the first to discover the danger, and he decisively snatched a boat and ran. He didn't think about supporting Juno at all.
Reality proved that if Rex went to support Juno, he would have a tragic ending. She was the princess of the empire, and used to do almost everything herself. There was nothing in Kushui Prefecture that she didn't need to ask about. Now that there was someone like Salin, she suddenly felt more relaxed.
Salin wasn't the kind of reckless person who would come back to ask Rex for help if there was a problem he couldn't solve. Rex was most satisfied with this. Salin knew how far he could go. Most of the mages under her were focused on practicing magic. She didn't trust those who were good at handling affairs. Those people had too high a desire for power.
Salin didn't have this desire. He was even more obsessed with magic than Rex.
If his father was still alive, he would probably like Salin more now, right? Thinking of what his father had said to him, Rex felt bitter and complicated. His father wasn't wrong. Salin was someone who could be trained, but he wouldn't be able to see that day.
Steering the boat wasn't complicated. Daniel patiently taught Salin and Sicar. Salin personally controlled the rudder and experimented for a while. When Daniel said it was fine, he said, "Daniel, necromancers know how to forge bone weapons, right?"
"Yes. If I have enough magic cores, I can barely complete it even though I'm still a level-three."
"Alright, then go and rest. Tomorrow, think of a way to refine another boat that can carry two people."
"We have a boat." Daniel didn't understand what Salin meant.
"If this boat is destroyed, I'm not afraid of water, but are you? We don't have the power of alchemy machines, and we don't know how long it'll take to return to land. Right now, we can only tell the general direction. Maybe we'll drift very far away. There are too many magic beasts in the sea. I can't guarantee that this boat will always be fine. Make a small boat that can protect you and Shika. "
"Then … what about Nelis?" Daniel was honest this time, and didn't ask about Rex.
"She's like me. She can't drown." Of course, Salin wouldn't explain Nelis's ability to Daniel. Nelis indeed wasn't afraid of water. She had another advantage over Salin: she wasn't afraid of low temperatures. Salin also needed to use magic to maintain his body temperature in the water. Nelis dared to ignore the temperature of the sea.
Daniel couldn't. If he fell into the water, he'd freeze to death even if he didn't drown.
Daniel didn't say much. He took the blanket that Salin gave him and lay down by the window, trying to sleep. He was a level-three mage, and his recovery ability wasn't as good as Salin's. If he continued to stay like this, he'd soon lose the ability to fight. He knew the dangers of the sea. This place had long exceeded the scope of a safe route. A lifeboat couldn't even hold out for a few days.
"Sicar, watch first. I'm going to sleep for a while. Wake me in four hours." Salin handed the helm to Sicar. He also knew that if they studied in a hurry, neither he nor Sicar would grasp the accurate direction. But even Daniel didn't know how to look at the star map. He only hoped that the boat wouldn't stray too far from the land.
Salin walked to Nelis. In such an environment, he could only feel secure sleeping next to Nelis. Nelis lay beside Rex. Salin walked up to her, and Rex said in a low voice, "Salin, come here. Let's talk for a while."
"Okay." Salin pushed Nelis away with his foot and lay down between the two of them. The scent on Rex's body was fresh and indistinct. Salin already knew that this was a high-level magic potion. As long as Rex controlled it slightly, it could turn into a scent that could conceal one's aura and blend in with the surroundings.
"Salin, you don't seem to be afraid at all." Rex simply used a small-scale soundproofing ward to isolate himself from the others. Sicar held the helm. Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable when she couldn't hear Salin and Rex's voices.
"What's the use of being afraid? You'll still die if you have to. I'm different from you. I've never had a good day. If I die, it's not necessarily a bad thing. "Salin saw that there was a soundproof ward, so he didn't hide his feelings.
"Don't you care about your teacher and Sicar?" Rex's tone was calm. Salin thought he heard wrong.
"If I don't survive, I don't deserve to be teacher's student. As for Sicar, I should've let her go back to Caucasian long ago. She'll often encounter danger if she follows me. I seem to be very unlucky. I'll drag her down sooner or later. "
"You're willing to let her go?"
"What's there to be unwilling about? If I die suddenly, she'll be very sad. If I survive … I'll definitely become an Archmage and have a lifespan of a thousand years. By then, I'll be the one to miss her. "
"You … Don't you feel that Sicar likes you very much?" Rex said softly. He didn't know why he asked this.
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