Chapter 18 - Calm Waters

"I'll entrust the rest to you then, Jerrei."

"You can count on me." Jerrei thumped his chest with a fist, resembling a salute.

Arnest waved as the ship started to depart from the dock. Jerrei and the children of Cirqa Efatos waved back. They were all smiles. Even though it had been a short while, their new benefactor had truly treated them well. Whenever Arnest would see the children out on the streets, he would spend some time with them. He would buy them toys, food or just simply play a children's game because that’s what young kids do.

By now Arnest knew all their names. Shorty, the leader of the bunch. Errard, a slave yet bright enough to organize the children. Yanon, the boy who could never eat enough. Kela and Sela, the two twins. Gilly, the tall and energetic girl. He could continue listing more of the forty four names but these six were the most well-known and befriended in the circus.

"When you come back, make sure to buy me some kebabs!" Yanon yelled out.

"For me too!" Kela yelled.

"And don't forget about me!" Then Sela too.

The children all started shouting demands for Arnest to complete when he returned. But soon enough the ship was already out into the harbor, approaching the huge shelled gateway, too far away to hear them anymore. The only thing that could be heard was the wind rushing into the sails, grunting of men rowing and the sloshing sound oars on water makes.

"Make sure to turn south east once we exit the city walls." a well dressed man said to one of Arnest's soldiers steering.

"Aye, Mr. Navigator."

"I've already told you. Call me Sir Ruk." the well dressed man snapped at  the soldier.

Sir Ruk was a self-made title. No one really knew his origins so whether his title as a knight or name was truly his were all unknown. The only thing they did know is that the man is renowned for being a navigator, his fame being known throughout the three great cities and some of the bigger Lanexi islands.

Arnest was looking for navigators prior to leaving but was unable to find someone reliable. He was about to just set sail without one but Talas had met Sir Ruk by chance that very day. He told Arnest, they set up a meeting and the famous navigator easily agreed to come along. Arnest didn't even offer any money and just said he was planning on heading to Ralom and he readily agreed. Although this was strange, Arnest just went along with it because the prospect of having a good navigator in unfamiliar waters was too good to pass on.

Along with the new navigator, the former khopesh pirates, the men from Fox Village and the hundred elven soldiers were the only forces he took along with him. He had Clyde, the leader of the former pirates, and Halphas stay at Zanabo. The two of them were to watch over and protect Cirqa Efatos while they continued to collect information. As for the people from Heaven's Isle, like Rogar and Tanya, they stayed in the city to finish selling all the herbs.

He went to check up on all his men before retiring at the captain's quarters. Arnest sat on his bed and started practicing his mana control as he would do whenever he had time. It would begin with activating one of his spells, usually [Shadow Step]. Then he would adjust the mana flow, constricting and expanding, with an extreme precision. If you asked him to fill a container halfway with mana, he would've been able to do it before learning under Whitebeard. But if you now asked him to fill it up only an ounce and then shape it into a bird, he would now be able to do so perfectly.

"According to Whitebeard, practicing mana control will cause my mana channels to grow. I feel that it's at least doubled in size and at most tripled since I started training."

"It's much easier to activate spells now compared to when I first learned magic from that book grandfather gave me..." Arnest then thought of the book again.

"I wonder if there's something written on the next page now." he reached into his pocket for the leather bound book.

He had kept it on his person the entire time because it was a gift from his grandfather. If he lost it, he believed he would be severely punished. The last time he lost something his grandfather gave him was a wooden training sword. Arnest had just finished a sparring session with Vargus and went to the beach to relax. It was the afternoon and there was a cool breeze coming off the ocean. He laid down on the cool beach and left his sword next to him. Easily, he fell asleep and when he awoke, half of his body was being submerged by the incoming tide. The sword was gone. It had disappeared due to the rising tide and Arnest swam out, looking for it. However he was unable to find it and by the time he got home and told his grandfather what had happened, Black Fox made him walk across a bed of scalding hot stones.

That was the punishment for just losing a regular wooden sword. What would happen if he lost a magical book that taught magic spells? Arnest shuddered thinking of the unimaginable pain he'd have to undergo if he lost it but had a sigh of relief when he felt the magic book in his hands.

Pulling out the book Arnest opened the book. The first page still read "Magus Talent: Navulian High Grade. Attribute: Darkness." The next page was the text and diagrams explaining [Shadow Step]. Arnest turned to the next page and saw a new text and diagram. The page was titled [Shadow Bow].

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"Oh, so it shows spells that I've learned? Even if it's not a spell that the book taught me."

Arnest then flipped to the next page.

"[Dark Mind]"

The page was titled a new spell but it didn't have any diagrams. All it had was a single sentence.

"All I see is darkness." Arnest said the chant out loud.

Suddenly his vision went black and his body fell lifelessly onto the bed like a ragdoll. This reaction was similar to when the book had absorbed all of his mana however this time was different. His mana had entirely left his body but he still had his consciousness. He was able to sense everything outside of him in an ethereal mana body.

Arnest floated towards the door while his physical body laid on the bed. He phased through the door like a ghost and could see the soldiers running around the deck and rowing the ship. He reached out to one of the men and his hand phased into him. The soldier stopped running and stood still.

Images flashed inside Arnest's head. He was on farmland that had wheat growing in all directions. A small cottage on a hill in front of him, he started flying fast towards it. Inside the cottage was not a peaceful scene but a family, massacred. A woman was strewn across the wall, swords pierced into her limbs which held her up. Two children lay on the ground, bloody and dead. And the man who Arnest had touched walked into frame, crying.

Then suddenly Arnest was brought back to reality. The soldier now was on his knees crying on the deck. Other soldiers stopped and stared and one of them tried to help the crying man up.

"What did I just see? Was it real or just a dream?" Arnest thought to himself.

Arnest could feel his ethereal body growing smaller and starting to dim. His mana was running out. He quickly ran back towards his body, phasing through the wall and touched himself. The mana body and physical body merged together and became one.

For a while Arnest remained still, unable to move. He was conscious but it still felt like an out of body experience, seeing himself from a third person view. Eventually his mind wavered and all he saw was black again. Then he opened his eyes.

His eyes were wet, tears slowly dripping down. He felt a sort of mystical empathy, almost as if he felt what the soldier felt. This feeling wasn't there when he first saw the images, where he felt more removed. Usually such a scene would distress him but his senses were not all transferred from his physical to mana body. While in that ethereal state, he could only feel the mana in other things which slightly repulsed him.

He wiped his eyes with his shirt and looked towards the book that had dropped to floor when Arnest activated the spell. He turned to the page and it still said the same thing, just [Dark Mind] and the chant that activates the spell.

"I'll try asking Whitebeard later about this spell. Maybe he knows what it does."

Arnest walked outside of his room and saw the soldier still crying and now surrounded by worried others. He walked up to the man and touched him. The soldier stopped crying and stared at Arnest for a long time, without blinking and fully focused on him. He started to scream as loud as he could with random nonsense. It seemed like the man had gone crazed with grief.

"Take him to his bunk to rest. He seems very tired." Arnest ordered and two other soldiers carried him down below deck.

"I should be more careful when using spells I don't yet understand.” He understood now that spells were more mystical than just a weapon or tool. This new spell had something to do with the mind and negatively affected one of his men. He felt horrible that he essentially crippled him but perhaps if he continued to practice the spell, he could learn how to revert his crazed mind back to normal.

The voyage continued on fairly uneventful after this. Seagulls who were migrating flew by overhead. Men chatted with each other and played card games to pass the time. The waters were calm and the only big waves that were made was caused by the ship propelling forward. Sir Ruk was sleeping at the top of the deck near the [steering oar/rutter] since the trip was fairly simple from this point forward.

But of course things are never truly that simple. Lurking under the waters a huge dark mass was slowly floating towards the surface. One of the men who drank too much was leaning over the side of the boat preparing to relieve his bowels of its contents. Drunk but still conscious he noticed the dark mass.

"What is that?"

The dark mass suddenly exited the calm waters and flew into the air. It's size was huge and was shaped like a whale but its opened mouth showed rows of jagged teeth. The soldier realized that they were in peril and yelled "MONSTER!"

Sir Ruk was awoken by the scream and the soldiers who were playing their card games looked towards the direction where the scream came from and saw the hump of the monster. They ran towards the deck side and saw its mouth with gleaming teeth and the monster roared. This startled the men and they were knocked onto their backs as they crawled backwards. Marcus, the officer of the elven soldiers, and some others had heard the scream and ran up to see what was going on. They saw the cowering men and the monster.

Marcus yelled "Alert the others! Prepare for battle!"