The amalgamated moons’ light cascaded down to the world, the excited waves broke against the Warship, and the glittering stars nearly aligned with the map Ewan had created from his memory. After a voyage of ups and downs, they finally reached their first target. This was the area where Ewan had found the egg, or at least he hoped it was.
“How are we going to look for it?” Kidd asked, peeking over the edge of the top deck.
“We’ll have to dive in and search the ocean bed,” Ewan said, clicking the remote-bracelet on his wrist.
“Sir, I’ll take that area,” Lance said and pointed towards the front of the Warship.
“I’ll take the back, Boss,” Kidd said.
“I’ll take the center then. Wear the bracelet and always keep the channel open. Lance, you can ping us if you need to. And remember not to go out of the range, it should warn you when you reach the edge.” Ewan said. “You wear it too, Stefan, you can manage the situation from here if something happens.”
The four matched the channel and connected to Nyte as they took positions on the verges, and the bracelets lit up, the screens showing their positions relative to Stormfalcon’s.
“Be careful down there and come up slowly when you do. Don’t rush,” Ewan said, and plunged into the water, breaking a short splash into the waves. His Varos and his Ryvia bubbled him in as two simultaneous splashes broke around the Warship, and Ewan jetted down after testing the channel on the bracelet.
The moons lit up the waters around him for a distance, but pitch-black soon took over and embraced him when he left the shallow surface behind. Schools of fish came to him as he sank, and various lifeforms that made Morinfair their homes found him curious. Most were normal fauna without a shred of Anima lingering on them, but some were Astylinds, albeit of the lowest rung. The predators also took interest in him, their eyes glowed at him in the dark, but a wave of his aura had them scuttling away. His level was still too high for this depth, and hopefully, it would remain so till the bed.
Unfortunately, the reality crushed his hope when he dove deep enough for his Ryvia to almost touch the bed. An abnormal stillness marked the depth, and the lack of animation in the area complemented the fact—an Astylinds of at least Step-1 ruled this part of the bed.
Ewan covered half his face with his neck gaiter, Yurn, and suppressed his fluctuation as best as he could, reining in any interference his spirit made to his surroundings. The bottom of the ocean gave the aquatic Astylinds a home advantage, he didn’t want to test his mettle under the harsh conditions, especially when his purpose wasn’t to hunt. And so, his search for the egg began.
…
…
…
Luckily, his dimmed presence didn’t alert the ruler of the area, and he scoured in peace. Yet, even after hours of roaming around on the bed, digging the sand, checking the corals, and diving into the dark trenches, he only found wreckage and carcasses. After a second fruitless run, he had to mark this area with a cross. Either this wasn’t the place where the egg was, or he’d lost this chance.
“Boss, how’s it on your side?” Kidd contacted through the bracelet.
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“Nothing, how about you guys?” Ewan asked.
“I…I didn’t find anything either, sir,” Lance said, panting as his breaths broke in half.
“Boss, this retard took several trips without resting and came up too quickly, he can't even move now,” Kidd said.
Ewan clicked his tongue. “Stay on the ship, I’ll come up,” he said and launched, leaving a trail of bubbling stream. But when he left the bed behind and his Ryvia could barely brush the sand, the inky feather in his claw-ring heated up and trembled. Ewan took note of it with a frown and shot away towards the surface.
…..
His Ryvia compressed around Lance, creating a pressurized and viscous chamber that mimicked the depths of the ocean, and soon his rashes settled down, his joints stopped groaning, and his breath recovered.
“Where do we search next, Boss?” Kidd asked, munching on biscuits, dropping the crumbs all over his t-shirt.
“We don’t,” Ewan said, slowly easing the pressure around Lance when all his symptoms went away. From the bed at the depth, he came up a few meters. “It’s not important enough to delay us. And I may have the map wrong, so who knows how long we’ll have to look for.”
“Are we leaving then?” Stefan asked, closing his notebook scribbled with his calculations on the map.
“I was looking forward to the treasure hunt…” Kidd mumbled, stuffing his face with the last of the biscuits.
“Yeah, soon,” Ewan said and took out the warm inky feather, letting it hover over his palm. When its rotation halted, its fluffy head aimed for the skies in the west while the pointy tail stared at the ocean, and its velvety barbs heated up. The long distance they traveled since Ewan got the feather slanted it further, so whatever it pointed to was nearby—its rising temperature also supported the fact.
“Are we following that, Boss?” Kidd beamed up and sat straight, brushing the crumbs off his face.
“If it’s a simple pickup, we will,” Ewan said, and waited for Lance to recover before diving in for another venture. The angle of the feather’s slant against the depth of the ocean gave a rough estimate of its destination, and it was a distance away from what Ewan traveled with the last dive.
“Can I come too?” Kidd asked.
“Hmm.” Ewan hummed a nod. “You can be my meat shield.”
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.5
Anima: [Fire – 25.5 | Ice – 25.5 | Blood – 25.5 | Mystic: 25.5]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 1]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 19,154
Crelith: 801