The Next Morning.

When the last fires had finally died down, he stood up again.

He walked towards one of the burned-down houses, which stood a bit apart from the rest of the village.

Tools were stored there. He searched through the remains and, to his surprise, found a shovel that had survived the blaze.

With it, he set to work digging a large hole near the charred pile of bodies.

"I must at least give them a grave! It's the least I owe them!" he thought continuously while working.

He didn't finish until the evening.

He spent the entire night carrying the burnt bodies into the hole and covering it back up.

As the sun peeked over the horizon the next morning, he placed the final "gravestones," made from the half-burnt remains of the houses.

Then he waited.

After 54 minutes of silence, one for each deceased, he set off to search the destroyed ship on the coast.

"Don't worry, everyone! I will avenge you! Maybe I'll find some clues in the wreck about who these people were," he thought.

Among the wreckage lay several dead soldiers. Their boss was among them.

His gloves were still smoking, and he had a hole in his stomach from which his organs spilled out.

Everywhere in the debris, he found a specific emblem, depicting a two-headed phoenix. Did they belong to a larger organization?

Later, he also found a map showing part of a large island and a compass.

After his search, he took some intact wooden boards and started building a small boat.

By nightfall, he was almost finished. It should be ready by tomorrow morning.

He entered the burnt remains of his house and lay down with some wooden boards as a bed and a few leaves as a blanket.

Before he fell asleep, he thought about various things.

"I will find the one responsible for this! But what was that strange power I unleashed? That fat guy called it 'Nyd.' I've never heard of it. And those gloves he wore were pretty mysterious too. They were broken after the fight, otherwise, I would have taken a closer look. ... Tomorrow, I will travel to the place beyond the sea from where these barbarians came. I will find the one responsible for this! And I will bring justice for you!"

The next morning, he finished building the boat and set sail, searching for the one who destroyed everything he loved.

Three days after his departure, Kawao was on the brink of starvation.

He regretted not packing more supplies before setting off. He realized this bitterly now.

Aside from the compass and the map, he had also taken a net and a spear.

In the past few days, he had tried to catch fish with the spear, but to no avail. He also didn’t have any water with him.

He wouldn't last much longer.

Suddenly, something shook the boat. He quickly looked into the water but saw nothing.

"Am I hallucinating already?" he wondered.

But then something hit the boat from below, launching it into the air and shattering it upon impact. Now he was adrift in the open sea!

He didn’t care that his belongings were sinking into the sea. Instinctively, he managed to grab his spear in mid-air.

He dived and looked around, searching for the source of the disturbances.

Suddenly, a glowing column of water approached him, and he narrowly avoided it.

He resurfaced.

"Something down there is targeting me! If I don’t deal with it, it won’t let me continue. Not that I can continue sailing anyway," he decided.

After calming himself, he took a deep breath and began another dive. This time, he aimed for the source.

Now he had a rough idea of its location. Quickly but cautiously, he swam toward the sea floor.

During his hunter training, his breathing was trained to allow him to dive for up to five minutes without issues.

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Slowly, he could make out the bottom. As well as his opponent.

Among some corals, a large bright red crab was hiding, with holes in its pincers. It likely shot those water columns from them.

His suspicion was confirmed when the crab shot another column at him. Once again, he narrowly avoided it.

Seeing him dodge, the crab foamed in rage and immediately fired more projectiles at him.

"Can I do this?" he wondered.

Just before he was hit, he remembered the power he had used during the attack on his village.

"I have to try!"

He quickly focused on his legs, and the next moment, he felt a surge of energy flow into them. With this newfound strength, he could easily dodge.

He used a brief moment of the crab's confusion to gather strength in his arm and threw his spear with all his might.

Faster than the crab's projectiles, the spear shot through the water and precisely severed its left claw.

"Damn! I missed!"

But upon seeing its severed claw, the crab retreated, leaving him behind.

"I must have scared it off!"

Suddenly, he realized he was running out of air. He quickly made his way back to the surface.

The higher he ascended, the more he felt the energy drain from his legs and arm.

When he finally breathed in fresh air again, he could barely keep himself afloat. His legs and arm were numb.

And the remnants of his boat were nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, he saw something approaching him.

A ship!

"If I can manage to swim close to it, they might see me!"

With the last of his strength, he slowly swam towards the ship. But just before he could reach it, he started losing consciousness.

The last thing he heard were some shouting voices.

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He woke up.

He bolted upright and looked around. He was on the ship.

There was no one else in the room but himself. He was lying in a hammock.

When he tried to stand up, he felt that his legs and arm were still somewhat paralyzed.

"Does this ability consume so much of my physical strength?" he wondered.

For the moment, he lay back down.

"What kind of ship is this? Who are these people who fished me out of the sea? Are they enemies? Probably not. Otherwise, they would have tied me up or thrown me into a cell... or killed me. They certainly wouldn't have left me in a hammock. So, they are at least friendly... for now."

He waited for a while longer and then tried to get up again. This time, he managed it!

At least partially. He was still quite unsteady on his feet.

Slowly, he hobbled towards a door that led to the deck outside.

He opened it and found himself on a deck full of sailors, all busy with various tasks. Just by looking at them, he could tell they weren’t those "soldiers."

"Hey, Captain! He's awake!" someone suddenly shouted, and shortly afterward, a tall man with an eye patch approached him.

The man smiled at him slyly.

"So, you’re the castaway, huh?" he began.

"Yes, that’s me. And who are you?"

"Me? I’m the captain of this ship! You can call me John, just like everyone else does."

"John, huh? Why did you pick me up?"

"Why do you ask? We would never ignore a castaway, whether friend or foe."

,So they’re not after me. Good!´

"And who are you, Mister Stowaway?"

"I’m Kawao."

"Kawao. Welcome aboard our ship. Tell me, how did you end up in this situation?" John asked.

,Should I tell them? I think I should, but I should try to be careful,´ he decided.

"After my home island was attacked by... pirates, I decided to seek revenge on them. But my boat was destroyed by a giant red crab."

,That should be good enough!´

John thought for a moment, then replied, "I understand that you’re out for revenge. You’re not the only one on this ship whose life has been ruined by pirates... But neither I nor anyone else here would advise you to seek revenge. We’ve all left those thoughts behind and moved on with our lives... As for that crab, it must have been a fire crab. You’re lucky to have escaped it. We can take you to the next port. From there, you’ll have to figure out your next steps. But only if you help out on our ship, understood?"

"Sure thing. Gladly!"

And so, Kawao set off on his journey to the nearest island: Isulon.

Two days after Captain John had picked up Kawao, he had adapted well to life on the ship.

Shortly after agreeing to help out on the ship, Kawao asked the captain what they were doing, why, and where they were sailing.

The question seemed to surprise John, and he quickly realized that Kawao knew nothing about the world.

He then took Kawao to his cabin to explain.

John told him about a vast continent called "Unas," which had four countries that had been at war with each other on and off for the past 200 years.

Over time, the largest of these conflicts became known as the "Three Wars of the Lost." The last one had ended just 15 years ago, and since then, there had been a fragile peace.

John and his crew were part of a trading company from the country of "Kasaka," also known as the "Land of the Iron Flame."

This country was ruled by an emperor and a strict military dictatorship and was located in the southeast of the continent.

Currently, they were in the waters south of Kasaka, where the only "civilized" place was the island of Isulon.

They were sailing there to gather supplies before continuing to the great eastern port of the country, Karuni.

After this explanation, Kawao was trained and gradually learned how to sail a large ship.

In his free time, he tried to understand his ability better and quickly realized that he could gather and use the energies of the environment.

So far, he had only strengthened his body with it, but if he learned to control the energy better, it could open up many possibilities. While attempting this, he also trained his body in hopes of being able to gather more energy.

----------------------------------------

One afternoon, while training in the storage room, the ship was suddenly shaken by an impact. He quickly ran up to see what was happening.

"A fire crab is attacking! Watch out!" someone shouted.

He reached the deck. Another tremor.

The crew was running around wildly, looking for cover when suddenly a column of water shot up from the starboard side (right) and revealed a large bright red crab with a single right claw, which it used to cling to the railing.

,If this thing fires directly at the ship, we're done for!´ he thought.

He sprinted towards the crab, gathering as much energy as possible in his right arm.

With a mighty punch, he not only knocked the crab overboard but also left a large hole in its body.

"That should hopefully not cause us any more trouble."

He looked at his arm. He could still move it, but another punch like that would leave it paralyzed again. John came running up to him.

"I didn't know you could use Nyd!" he shouted.

"Nyd, what's that?"

"Right, you don't know about any of this. Nyd is a special power that some people possess. It settles in various objects and can then be used by their owners. What's your Nyd object?"

"I don't know."

"Hmm. Well, you'll figure it out! Thanks for saving us. We owe you one."

"Ah, it's nothing."

So they continued sailing peacefully until...

"Land ho! Isulon ahead!" the lookout suddenly called out.

Three days had passed since John had picked up Kawao.