While others were still washing up, Nick brought Steven and Clayton to the former ‘brothel’ and without listening to their protests ordered to cover themselves in a paste of greenish color and then soak in a bath tub. He promised to come back two hours later with food and left. The two grumbled a bit, but understood his intentions. While for now adrenaline was still pumping, they felt strong and energetic, but if they set sail at this moment, several hours later only Nick might be able to remain useful.

Nick didn’t intend to cook anything special for the former captives. Although he felt for them and even pitied, they could cook for themselves later and any minute he spent here was a minute less he could spend rushing after his friends. Therefore he effectively organized the few strongest people and with their help brought out fruits and bread from warehouses. Then he suggested that the weaker men and women could cook a warm meal while others helped the general and this suggestion was received with cheers once again. Everyone felt they could be useful, even if they were only capable of peeling potatoes.

Then Nick went over to the residences of the three kings and searched for anything useful. He decided to not waste any second and to check king Black’s ring later therefore he gathered all the books he could find as well as some chests which seemed to hold alchemy ingredients.

Although Nick cleaned the alchemist’s house earlier, he always welcomed more materials. There were a couple of chests with low rank beast cores and he also found maps of Nestri continent and confiscated those along with few sacks of the local currency, both silver and gold. After all they might spend a month or two here and the transportation might cost a lot as well. Afterwards he went to the warehouse district and searched for more useful stuff.

When Nick returned to the brothel with his wristband almost full, he realized that leaving Steven and Clayton together might have been a bad idea. While they both soaked in their tubs, Clayton retold everything he heard from Nick while they were checking the ships and as the result Steven got even more agitated and with his worries infected Clayton as well.

Seeing this, Nick seriously reprimanded both of them, “If you’ll be like this, it’s better if I go alone. If you can’t keep your calm, how will we rescue them? Do you understand that at some point we might see someone hitting them or pulling off their clothes? And what then? You will heroically run in and die, spoiling the whole plan? We need to rely on each other, because we have to save them, not our egos or pride!”

Nick didn’t listen to their apologies, but made them swear on the lives of their mothers that they will keep calm till everyone is back in Aurora. He was still uneasy, but there was nothing more he could do.

After the bath they had a simple breakfast while deciding on their following actions. Nick had almost two more days time to think about this, therefore he was the one who mostly spoke. They would pick the fastest boat there was and sail towards Berin, but sink the boat before reaching the city somewhere nearby and proceed on foot – there was a high risk a random pirate could recognize the boat in the harbor and they would get in unnecessary trouble that way. Afterwards they would purchase the fastest transportation means possible and proceed to intercept the girls on the way to Olava. After the rescue they would go back to Berin or another harbor city and find a way to go back to the Mainland continent, no mater what country.

With everything decided, Clayton was tasked to choose the ship for them and both boys gathered the necessary supplies. They only had to travel for two days, thus they didn’t need much, but still they wanted to be well prepared. These two days to Berin were important, since both former captives had to recover their strength as much as possible.

They left without causing a big ruckus, only the general and few Qi masters were notified. Despite that, when the busy people on the shore saw one small sailboat set the sail, they all cheered and waved. Even if there was some confusion at the beginning, during the last three hours everyone learned whom they actually owned their lives to.

While they were leaving the lagoon, Clayton checked the naval maps Nick brought and decided the course they would take. Basically they could almost go directly to Berin and only had to go around a few smaller islands. There were no hidden dangers, like reefs or underwater cliffs. It was no wonder that pirates had taken this place as their base – it was safe, easily accessible and an excellent logistics spot between the continents.

Clayton gave Nick few instructions and the latter passed few rank three beast cores to each of his companions to speed up their recuperation.

Nick took the helm and continued to perform his first Qi technique as well.

Although the waves were playing with comparatively small sailboat, Nick never felt safer during the last month. He had two reliable companions on board and there was no need for any theatrics. If the girls were not on their way to another mass murderer and psychopath, he would even enjoy this trip.

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While watching the waves he thought if the scene was similar to the Caribbean sea or the region around the Indonesian islands. The weather was hot, water was turquoise blue and the islands they passed seemed to be taken out of some movie or a picture.

Clayton was experienced sailor and managed to choose a really fast boat. If the wind direction and strength remained the same, they might reach Berin in the evening of the next day, at least that was what Clayton said. This gave Nick more hope and he tried to make some plans while staring in the distance. Unfortunately they lacked information way too much. He had no idea of transportation routes or methods on Nestri continent and had to postpone any plan making till they were in Berin.

Then Nick remembered the meteorite ring he took from king Black and decided to inspect it.

‘This guy … was he some kind of a treasure goblin?’ Nick got a huge shock.

The whole cubic meter was filled with precious gemstones, gold, high level beast cores and seemingly rare alchemy ingredients. No wonder king Black was carrying his axe on his back – there was simply no room inside the ring and if one estimated the value of the axe by calculating its volume, it was probably a complete trash when compared to the items in the ring.

While sitting at the helm for several hours Nick had nothing much to do, so he started to analyze his resistances again. Although he felt hot, it wasn’t unbearable, but that was only the way he felt. For the first time during this whole trip he had spent the hottest part of the day on the deck and his skin began to turn lobster red. It meant that in the future he had to pay more attention to actual cold and heat, and, just because he didn’t feel discomfort, it didn’t mean his body was alright.

The same was regarding poison – after the detoxification few years ago he probably lost most of his immunity and couldn’t just let any random insect or reptile to bite him. It also meant that most likely he was the same as any other regular Qi practitioner when defending against poison attacks.

‘Does it mean I got a serious sunburn today?’ Nick wondered.

He called out Clayton and asked to switch, went in the cabin and used a healing paste on his burned arms, legs and neck. Then, approximately after an hour of meditation, checked his situation again only to realize that the unhealthy redness was replaced with a nice tan.

In Aurora Nick spent a lot of time outside and got bronze tan every summer, but this trip started in early spring and during the voyage on the “Queen Elizabeth” he mostly spent time in the galley and didn’t catch sunshine at all. The tan he got now wasn’t as strong as he usually had at the end of the summer, but at least it proved his body recuperated from sunburns extremely quickly.

‘I hope I don’t get melanoma or another skin problem.’ He shook his head and decided to make another test the next day.

While Nick was meditating, Steven took over the helm and gave his beast cores to Clayton. The latter was like a sponge regarding the Qi absorption, therefore after some consideration, Nick gave him a whole sack of level three cores to speed up his recovery process. When his companions saw this extravagance, they had another shock – this amount of wealth could feed a regular aristocratic family for half a year at least.

When Nick saw their faces, he asked, “How much is Kate’s life worth?”

From that moment on he never had any weird looks or discussions about the cost of anything on this trip from these two companions. Indeed, it was just the matter of perspective.

Steven had mostly recovered and it will take few more days of good food in addition to decent sleep for him to be at full strength. On the other hand Clayton’s injuries he got when defending “Queen Elizabeth” were heavier and still there, but with enough medicine and beast cores he could fully recover in ten, maybe fifteen days.

Thus both Nick and Steven let Clayton take his time while they sat and chatted about the events that transpired during the last month. Of course, the one who mostly spoke was Nick and they consciously avoided the topic of captives and their tragic situation. No one would like to reminiscence or even imagine the nightmare Steven and the girls went through and now, while listening to Nick’s stories, Steven got to laugh hard for first time in a month.

Although many things were hilarious, he realized that most of what Nick achieved was because of his incredible Qi control. To be able to keep his ability to practice Qi a secret from renowned Qi masters like pirate kings, it required an amazing skill and for a normal Qi practitioner, even for many Qi masters, it was an impossible feat. And that was only one of the many things Nick achieved while he himself was in the cage.

Therefore Steven immediately decided to start practicing Qi manipulation separately from his sword skills as well and asked his friend for a guidance. Nick, of course, wasn’t stingy and shared his experience while suggesting few easier exercises that could be used in the beginning. They talked till late evening, when Clayton came out and sent them both to sleep. His argument was simple – he wouldn't feel safe if one of them was at the helm during the night anyway, so it would be logical if the two youths would rest and replace him early in the morning.

There was an incident just before Nick and Steven got inside. All three of them got a huge scare when a big whale suddenly surfaced few meters from the boat and loudly exhaled. After few seconds, when they finally realized what happened, the three made few jokes about necessity to change their pants and finally boys went to sleep.