The pair of humans stood at the Ashport docks looking out over the ocean. It was a beautiful sight to begin their journey north with, but the two were busy discussing their plans for the long trek ahead of them.
“Would it be easier to try to repair one of these boats and follow the coast?” Lanek asked, gesturing at the small boats that had been left on the docks. Time had taken its toll on them and Lanek was genuinely curious since he had no experience with boats aside from a few times being out on a lake fishing.
“The boat would definitely make things easier, but I don’t think we could repair one of these easily. Not only is there a lot of damage, but I don’t think the intact portions of any of these would be all that durable anymore. Besides, we would have to be incredibly careful to make sure we don’t drift away from the shore.” Liv replied while inspecting the nearest boat with a critical eye.
“I would imagine being in the open ocean would destroy any of these.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the only reason. Ever since the world turned to shit, the oceans have gotten much more dangerous. My people used to travel the ocean and explore new lands, but even we don’t venture very far out anymore. There are just too many monsters and a disturbingly large number of them are big enough to make short work out of a longship with very little effort.” Liv replied.
“That’s odd, why would it change like that?” Lanek asked, more than a bit puzzled.
“Don’t know. There are a lot of theories though. A popular one is that there were multiple dungeons beneath the ocean and on the coasts that were not being culled after the fall of civilization. These dungeons then broke and the creatures had free reign to feed and grow. Some even believe that there were vast undersea cities that managed those dungeons. Another theory is that the influx of monsters in the ocean are not of this world.”
“So, the Void or the gaunts let them in?”
“Yeah, possibly. It would make sense since it essentially cut the continents off from one another and possible reinforcement. Although, I would hope that the gaunts or the Void would have ways to deal with the monsters afterward considering just how large and numerous they are.” Liv sighed and turned back to Lanek. “No, I think it is best if we continue on foot unless we miraculously stumble on something extremely quick and durable on the way.”
Lanek nodded before turning north and heading out of the town. He was more than happy to defer to Liv’s knowledge, especially if it meant staying away from literal sea monsters. Like a lot of people, he was content to stay FAR away from the deep ocean. Still, a part of him wished that the boats had been usable considering just how far they would have to travel on foot. Lanek wasn’t really looking forward to months of slogging through the wilderness.
The first part of their journey took the party into the mountain range that stretched from the lands to the west of Caelis to the ocean. After hiking into the mountains for a few days, they found themselves looking down upon the ocean from atop a cliff and able to see far out to sea. Lanek shuddered at the sight of massive, choppy waves in the distance as dark clouds gathered and what appeared to be tentacles emerged from the depths. Well, he supposed the tentacles could be his imagination reacting to the information Liv had so kindly shared earlier. That, or it could be the inspiration for so many tales of sea monsters back on Earth: whale penises.
Right, time to move right the fuck along. That is terrifying. Liv chuckled as she watched Lanek turn from the view and pick up his pace. She couldn’t really blame him, she had grown up on the coast and the ocean still scared her. You couldn’t pay her to go out into the ocean without a fleet of escorts and even then she would have to think about it. Too many of her ancestors had fallen prey to the creatures of the deep, although that number had dwindled dramatically once her people had given up on the ocean. However, she would still occasionally see family members and other people from her village from the elderly to the children staring wistfully out to sea. She felt that longing herself from time to time. Liv supposed her people would probably never lose their yearning for the sea, which made it all the more tragic as she could see no future in which the oceans would be reclaimed from the titans and leviathans that dwelt there.
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By the time Liv caught up to her friend, he was busy collecting reward stones from Sanguineus and Kazuma before the pair went out hunting once more. The humans were currently on foot as they hadn’t been able to bring a lot of food for their mounts and so Maximilian and Yuri were out hunting. The pair really didn’t mind walking, however, as their mounts tended to bring back extra meat for them.
“So, how are you doing on reward stones now?” Liv asked curiously. Lanek had been spending stones every night to boost his spirit attribute and attempting to speak with the thing in the crown, but still hadn’t had much luck.
“It’s going well. I’m worried that I’m going to need to reach 1,000 before I can speak to the spirit.” Lanek said, a bit disappointed as he had only reached 516 so far.
“Why is that?”
“Well, I feel like it is waiting for me to hit some kind of threshold and 1,000 seems like the next logical step. I was at 500 last night when I reached out, but that wasn’t enough.”
“Hmm, I can’t really help you with that. I’ve never heard anyone talk about thresholds outside of evolutions and subclasses. Sorry.”
“Eh, no worries. All I can do is keep feeding the stat. Although, I may have to mix it up a bit, some of my stats are falling pretty far behind.” Lanek said, foraging for seeds as he spoke.
“Have you tried looking for skills in the shop to help out? I mean, you have a skill now that boosts a bunch of your stats when your spirit goes up, maybe there are more like that?”
“I’ve looked a bit, but there are so many different categories in that shop that I haven’t had any luck finding anything like that. Maybe those skills are just super rare considering I only got it from a unique class.”
“Well, I would keep looking. You aren’t the first I’ve met with a skill like that. There was a warrior in my village with a similar skill. I would recommend asking him about it, but he died when I was still a teenager.” Liv explained.
“Gaunts?” Lanek asked.
“No. A creature crawled out of the ocean onto our village’s dock and began destroying everything it could find. The warrior I mentioned, Kharl, charged the creature and managed to kill it, but not before being mortally wounded. Everyone thinks that the creature simply followed one of our fishing boats home after it had wandered out too far. If Kharl had not attacked the creature when he did and had waited for reinforcements instead, there would have been a massive list of casualties. As it was, Kharl was the only one we lost.”
Lanek thought about it for a moment and decided that he would spend the night looking doing a more thorough deep dive into the store looking for an appropriate skill before sleeping. One thing he was certain about, however, was that it would be incredibly expensive to purchase such a skill. Not for the first time, Lanek considered just claiming the crown and hoping that his position as a Chosen and a Herald would protect him, but quickly discarded the idea. According to his companions, there were plenty of instances in history where a Chosen or a Herald failed and perished, so he couldn’t count on those titles protecting him.
Ah well, guess I’ll just have to keep working on my stats. Oh, and looking for another animal companion. Lanek had asked the furballs to keep an eye out for an appropriate flying companion to help out with the scouting. He didn’t really need them to find a dead or dying creature as he was pretty sure he could get the taming skill from the shop, but his soul-bound companions did get special bonuses that a normal tamed creature did not.
Regardless, Lanek though as he eyed the mountain peaks around him, This is likely the best place to find a strong flying companion. I can just imagine how much better our hunting efficiency will be with an eagle or something finding targets for us.
“Hey, Liv.” Lanek continued once she looked over at him. “Let’s go inland a bit tomorrow, I want to explore these peaks a bit more thoroughly.”
“You know that’s super dangerous, right?” Lanek nodded and explained his plans for a new companion. “Well, I can’t argue with your thinking about that, a flying scout would be insanely useful on this trip. Just try not to get us killed by going after something ridiculous, okay?”
Lanek simply grinned in response, eliciting a long sigh from Liv.