Atmosphere on the ship was terrible ... for the humans that is. For Kaden it was merely acting out his plan and was not very concerned of anything else.
He made it clear to the crew that he knew how the formations on the ship were built. If any of them went anywhere close to their fragile points, Kaden would kill them. In fact, Kaden expected to be able to even replace any damaged portions before they would be noticed by any sea beasts, but he didn't want to risk that.
Despite the terror he caused, he did not need to do anything and, as such, the ship's crew could do their work.
In fact, while it was rather boring to Kaden. He did not want to experiment on a ship with his more destructive spells. He could still think and do stuff like think of about his mana system more, but he did also have some more pressing stuff to do such as the previously mentioned keeping eye on the crew.
Including that, he also kept his senses around the ship in general. While the ship was hidden, it wasn't perfect camouflage. He would have to fend off potential distruptions. His entrance had also damaged some parts of the ships defence. Kaden actually planned fixing that part at first, but then considered it would be unneccessary. It was still functioning and the parts that had broken due to overload was on the top side where he had come through. Even those parts still did function, but the parts of the formations keeping it up were somewhat weakened.
As for the sea beasts, Kaden did feel some weaker ones pass by nearby, but they paid very little attention to the ship, most likely due to not seeing it or were weak enough to not consider it something they would attack. Kaden was pretty sure it was the latter. The formations that were hiding the ship were mostly to hide the ship from any long range senses. For direct sight, they would do far less. Due to the stronger beasts dwelling deeper in the sea, they would be far away.
That is unless one of them came up from the depths to do something. Perhaps merely to eat?
There had been a few cases where such beast in the depths of the sea, Cari or beyond, had decided to see what was above the water. It was surprisingly rare, but when it did occur, they would eventually be hunted down by True Magi or land Cari. Even if they could survive on land, it wasn't beneficial for them. For those strong enough, these wandering sea beasts were merely resources to be collected. They wouldn't even try to hide, considering how violent they were.
The usual culprits for ships disapearances were beasts just like Kaden. Those at Lower Cari stage. They were weak enough to stay much closer to surface of water and yet strong enough that very few to no ships would be able to fight against. This was one of the reasons why Kaden wasn't too concerned. He would be able to fight against such beasts. As long as he didn't run into those rare extremely powerful Cari he would likely be push away anyone looking for a quick meal.
He would merely have to do so before such a sea beast would damage or destroy the ship.
Other than the things he was already doing, there was very little to do on a ship. Even more so when he was the intruder. Not that the crew was having it much better either. None of them were in the mood to play games or pass time or any other ways to relax when there was time.
Kaden wasn't certain how long the trip was going to take, but knew the ships were faster than one could expect. He could even see the formations dealing with moving the ship.
The sea wasn't his territory. He wanted to get done with the trip as quickly as possible. This feeling was enchanced over time.
"Hmmm?" Kaden stirred from his thoughts. Something was approaching the ship. Something big, but not too big. "This could be a problem."
With his senses Kaden could determine it to be some kind of a sea serpent. It was less powerful than its size might say. It was still a Lower Cari.
"These humans are mine", Kaden sent forth intent towards it as it was about to attack. It stopped.
"Food", was the reply. Then some more. "Kill, tear, feed."
Kaden frowned. Indeed, the sea beasts might be less intelligent. Even a Lower Cari had trouble speaking properly or perhaps the language carried by the intent was different? It didn't matter. It contained enough information.
"Go find prey elsewhere", Kaden repeated to it. Then he informed the captain about it. "Activate the defenses. There is a hungry beast under us. I'm telling it to fuck off, but if it does not, I'd prefer the ship not to sink yet."
The captain didn't wait to act. Despite their problems with Kaden having hijacked their ship, they knew he was not their current opponent.
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If things went wrong, Kaden intended to loot or absorb as much as possible of the materials the ship had. Then use those to keep himself energized for rest of the trip. Mana didn't directly equal endurance, but it would help. For a True Magus with mana body it would, but not for Kaden.
As for the serpent, it was moving around the ship, but not attacking.
"Leave", Kaden told it. He also added quite a bit of mana behind the message to show his strength. That was likely what the sea beasts would listen to.
A moment after Kaden received a reply in a very similar manner. "Strength!" Mana slammed against him.
"So this is how it will be", Kaden though to himself and started to push against the serpent's intent with his own.
If he was too weak in comparison, the serpent would attack.
In fact, Kaden felt the serpent was a bit stronger than he was. This wasn't surprise, Kaden had just recently advanced to his current level and was technically at bottom level of his stage. Only reason the serpent even did things this way was because he was still close enough in level, otherwise it would likely just killed everyone, but it was risk to attack and risk of death for a simple meal. At least it was that intelligent.
Yet, despite the power difference, Kaden was able to fight back and eventually even push the serpent's mana back. His control was far greater. While Kaden had less mana, his precision was far greater, most likely greater than even far more powerful beasts. The mana control allowed by his human side was something other beasts didn't have. He could achieve something with less mana.
The ship started to shake and vibrate as Kaden's mana clashed with the sea serpent's. If the crew didn't believe him before, now they did for sure.
Despite his control, Kaden had to work hard to push away the sea serpent. Yet, eventually it gave up.
"Strength", the sea serpent quietly replied as it left.
Kaden was surprisingly exhausted, but it was good that he didn't have to directly fight with the sea serpent. Why it didn't attack anyway? Perhaps it was happy to determine the strength rather than use the environment advantage.
"Is it gone?" the captain asked.
"For now", Kaden said and returned to his usual state of casually laying still. "Return to your work. I don't want to repel any more opponents."
The captain frowned at Kaden giving orders, but it had worked so far and he was going to do it anyway.
There were no any further disturbances. A few weaker beasts did come closer, but like before, Kaden was able to make them go away without actual fights. The sea serpent was the strongest opponent he ran into. Without him the ship would have had to fight them.
Kaden wondered for a moment, if he was attracting things with his presence. He was pretty sure he too would be hidden by the formations, but perhaps something was leaking. He was quite a bit more mana dense being than usually would be on the ship, even if the ship was usually carrying crystals, materials and such mana dense objects. There were a bit too many encounters. His presence was keeping the smaller, weaker, beasts away, though.
One morning, Kaden looked out and he saw some normal birds and even a small Dire Beast flying around. They all made sure to keep wide berth to the ship since Kaden was there.
"We are close to the shore, yes?" Kaden questioned the captain.
"That would be right", the captain said. "I was going to tell you to fuck off, but you managed to figure it out with that bird brain of yours."
Kaden clicked his beak a few times, but turned around and flew up. He then decided it would be time to test one of his last spell changes he had not yet tried. It could have attracted too much attention back in Murika or damaged the ship while on it.
Despite what Kaden told the ship crew, he wasn't going to let them live. What he was doing, what was going to happen, he didn't want to be tracked down all the way. He wouldn't want to be connected to it in anyway, if possible.
"I'll try the Fire Bomb now", Kaden muttered and shot a normal Fire Beam at the ship. Penetrating through whatever defenses it had, but it wasn't all. Kaden condensed that control he had over the beam into inserting a burst of mana into the beam. This sent forth a dense fiery pulse along the beam towards the ship.
"YOU ACCURSED TRAITOROUS BIR...", the captain had time to curse.
*KABOOM*
The the pulse exploded on the ship, which instantly burst in flames in its entirety, inside and outside. Then subsequently shattered into small fragments as the explosion tore it apart.
Kaden didn't really care about its cargo. It had only lower quality materials and not even completely full.
Kaden flew around the area a bit, sensing for life. There was none. The lives of the crew had near instantly ended when the pulse hit the ship. In fact, since Kaden could be considered both Condensation stage or Lower Cari, his mana against these people who where mostly Channel Opening, they suffered extra heavy damage with flash burns and died near instantly.
With his work done, he flew towards the shore. He didn't go in straight as he wanted to choose spot where no humans would see him. There were things he still wanted to do in human lands, but if not possible, he would escape to Frika. Very few humans could or even would follow him there. At least that was one of the possibilities he was planning.
Luckily the shoreline wasn't too densely populated. What was the problem was watch towers made to be look out for beasts. The good part was that they were placed less densely far from population centers. He looked for such more open area and eventually found one.
He quickly entered the land and hid himself within some woods.
"I must avoid being noticed", Kaden thought as he checked around whether his entranced had been seen. He pulled out cloth from his bag and covered himself with it. He did not have clothes, but he would need to cover his bright feathers and wings. "This will only work from long distance. Anywhere close, no one will be fooled at all."
Luckily Kaden had not grown too much in actual size. It was hard enough to try hiding wings and his inhuman shape. There was very little to do, but he didn't want random people see him from the distance.
"Yes, I think this is Sacronan", Kaden muttered and started to move forward, away from the shore. "I think I can fly when its night. I don't want to waste too much time wandering around. I'll scatter the godless mana system information crystals at the very least and if possible find people who I can give them to. But mostly, I want to find some specific people."
Kaden left the area.