Painful!
Very painful!
My shoulder hurts so much!
Kano grabbed the bloody stump that was left after he tore his arm off. The bloody, raw sensation made his own skin crawl when touching it. The vivid sensation of him taking the initiative to tear off his own arm kept replaying in the back of his mind.
He felt it all so vividly!
The bone, the nerves, the flesh, the muscles tearing apart!
The excruciating pain, vivid pain of his senses capturing every moment of the event.
He felt a numbness in his shoulder region, the blood flowing out quickly. His hand trembled feeling his raw nerves, bone and muscle. The stinging pain at ends felt like a scalding piece of iron was rubbed on each fiber of bone tissue, nerve, and flesh! Like a thousand ants were eating them away by the smallest chunks possible each time.
Just the shock nearly knocked him unconscious, but he stayed awake through the force of will!
He wanted to scream out because of the pain. Scream from his stomach. Scream so loud the skies would shake!
Kano bit his lip until blood flowed to stop himself from screaming, his trembling body made a mess of something so simple and he had once again given himself another wound but it was worth it, the scream was pushed down.
I don't have much time before i black out.
I need to stop the bleeding.
Kano felt his consciousness slipping as be lowered himself on his raft. The weakness within him was growing stronger and stronger.
The heat of the sun made him miserable, and the waves splashing against his raft also irked him, right now the only thing on his mind was survival and any distraction was unwelcome.
Feeling the solid wood beneath him with the faint scent of mint and ginger, rising slightly with the push of the waves, Kano's eyes immediately brightened.
He was now in the Endless Sea World!
That meant he had the novice items that existed after the Genesis period!
and the core awakening stone from entering this world!
Glancing at his remaining hand to find a lifelike rippling flag with a mysterious pattern, Kano immediately willed it to open and watched as the contents spilled out.
He locked onto a crystalline stone seemingly made out of amber yet also made of ruby.
This was the talent awakening stone.
In the Genesis period along with luck and human ingenuity, it was only thing that allowed the survival and rise of humans.
Said to be a fragment of the dimensional wall between this world and theirs.
According to the schoolbooks, all the other items are as a result of humans deal with several Great Heavenly Demons. Thus, each had a price that must be paid for, at every use, not something uncommon for use of cursed items. Although deals directly with the weird (devils/ghosts) are normally frowned upon and discouraged for their generation, it was the sacrifice of the pioneer martyrs before them that gave them these items as newcomers. Even the lowest of cursed items was not easy to obtain for everyone across the board.
What could one do?
These items were too valuable and essential for lifesaving for the rootless weeds just entering this world.
It made them all truly equal, as their use extended far beyond first order. So even the first order items that could be brought in could not outweigh their utility.
Kano paid no mind to the other items as each waking moment weakened him, and immediately reached out to crush the talent stone after putting them back.
Talent awakening elevates one’s state of being to that of a quasi-professional, although the body will not undergo a complete metamorphosis like becoming a first order professional from a mortal. One’s physical qualities were enhanced several folds.
Early pioneers relied on this to carve their path in this world and their descendants used it as a stepping stone and guide to their future professional paths.
Right now, Kano wanted to rely on becoming a quasi-professional to relieve his loss of blood flow and save his life.
It would be even better if I awakened a peerless healing ability! SSS... no even just an S level would be ideal.
But Kano could only wish, such a convenient stroke of luck was very unlikely. As long as the bleeding stopped then he could use his medical knowledge to make a shoddy prosthetic, while he was far from an expert, the superficial knowledge taught in school was enough for a stopgap.
An SSS level ability, particularly the advanced branch of the S-14 Greater Regeneration was very likely able to instantly regenerate limbs even as a quasi-professional! Of course, any SSS level ability would do as the increase they would bring to his body is definitely enough to stop the bleeding from his right arm.
However, Kano would settle for Greater Regeneration as that was enough to save his life.
Of course, an A level ability was the bare minimum for survival and it still had to be a healing specialty talent, after all he was still largely mortal, it would be a different case if he was a professional.
Unfortunately, Kano's chances were slim to none as even a marquis lineage wouldn't be certain of awakening a S level ability despite their heritage much less he who was a commoner who likely had unremarkable ancestors. This was a large part of the rationale for contracts with lesser nobles and commoners as they had even a greater chance of awakening high level and useful talents, for they outnumbered the core members of noble families.
After crushing the stone, Kano felt his consciousness separating from his body.
A scene unfolded before his eyes.
***
The whole world fell into silence.
Except for just one sound, the sound of the waves. At first the sound was negligible similar to the calm waters Kano had found himself in after crossing, but the sound grew louder and louder.
The sound kept growing like a snowball rolling down a mountain of snow.
Bang!
The climax of the buildup of crashing waves was here nearly rupturing his eardrums with a heaven-shaking quake.
A picture unfolded before Kano's senses at that moment, it was like a painting come to life.
Colorful fishes, dragons, crocodiles, whales, birds, stone, the elements, mountains, ancient bronze cauldrons, wicked spirits, the sun, the moon, the stars, and an untold number of marvels decorated the canvas that had a variety of different colored lines running through it. The area it span was massive like the horizon of the setting sun.
Yet Kano could still somehow see the vivid edges of this wondrous spectacle. Vitality surged from the floating images swimming on the canvas like they were each alive but were countless worlds away. This beautiful scene overwhelmed the senses and kano was left in a drunken stupor blankly staring until he noticed a deep darkness.
I can't see the whole picture; only a very small portion. The level of the talent awakened depends on what you can see, based on the area the darkness covers... I guess my talent isn't that high level.
That means, the healing effect would be negligible unless it was a healing talent. Kano thought in dismay.
A warm sensation soothingly ran against Kano's abdomen the next moment.
Before he could think any further, his fears became true, and he blacked out.
In the white expanse with the flowing images on the mysterious canvas,
A cold mechanical voice appeared.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Limit Breaking Scroll detected.
Consumed.
Detecting species upper limit.
Confirmed SSS level.
D-0657 talent [Treasure Sensing] awakened.
Limit breaking...
[Treasure Sensing] forcefully shatters the limits.
EX-0 talent [Allsea Hidden Treasure Map] awakened
***
"Grandpa look! A person!"
Sometime afterward a wooden boat with a small cabin passed by the unconscious Kano.
"Leave him be Alice. One of the rules of the sea is not to let strangers on board your ship, lest you invite calamity, how many times must i lecture you."
"But Grandpa look, his raft is made of Black Inswood!"
"Black Inswood..."
"He has such strange clothes too."
"..."
"Fine but we have to keep an eye him.."
Kano vaguely heard some voices, but he couldn't make them out clearly before his consciousness went completely dark once more.
***
Where am I?
Am I dead?
Kano came to in an unfamiliar room.
The ceiling had a strange chandelier with the bones of a strange two headed fish and a sewed doll with a creepy smile. The centre light bulb with an odd texture was quite normal in comparison. Outside of the chandelier, this was a normal wooden house that was quite clean.
Kano noticed his blanket had frills and looked quite feminine but on the table, a few feet away was an ashtray with fresh ashes and unused cigars. The walls were well kept but were slightly weathered showing that the inhabitants had lived here for quite a number of years.
He tried moving but his body didn’t listen, an aching pain came from his right shoulder.
Looking at the clean bandages with no sign of heavy spillage Kano breathed a sigh of relief.
Someone saved me, judging from this house it must be a native. I’m unchained and I felt nothing out of the sorts with the rest of my body. Have I truly lucked out and met a friendly native?
Friendly natives were scarce after years of otherworlders invading their world, seizing their lands and treasures, and forcefully capturing their friends and family. Even if this was a novice area that had a reduced influence from the noble society, several natives had contractual relationships with the nobles who left measures to take care of their descendants as they were barred from entering after leaving.
Although this was a novice area, those natives either had an antagonistic attitude with some bad blood from their ancestors or were just genuinely wary, others were greedy for their possessions, but Kano felt all his items in his personal space.
Kano had yet to worry about third order natives hunting him down on the order of the noble families and yet he had taken refuge in a native’s home by their initiative.
Although things didn’t go as smoothly as planned at least I’m relatively lucky and also safe for now.
Thinking of the red-haired man and the woman who ripped of his arm Kano’s anger flared,
“Those motherfu!!!-cough cough”
Kano’s chest suddenly tightened as he coughed in pain. His body hadn’t recovered just yet. At the next moment the door opened, and a young girl came in. She had brown hair, big lively eyes and hair tied in pigtails, her smile exuded youthful vitality and she hummed as she came in with a basin of water and a towel.
“You’re awake! You have such strange clothes. Grandpa said you are probably from a place far away. What’s it like there? What’s with that tattoo on your hand? Grandpa says kids shouldn’t get tattoos and you just look a bit older than me. Where did you get a raft made of Black Inswood? That’s quite rare, Grandpa said its wasteful to use such a precious thing to build a raft, windows and doors are better to keep away the evil spirits. Speaking of which how did you survive and not get eaten? Grandpa says evil spirits like the taste of children the most so don’t play around also-”
Before the young girl could continue her bombardment of questions, Kano started coughing again. Seeing this she quickly rushed over and fetched some water to give him.
“Here drink this, this is the water to wash your bandages, but it hasn’t been used yet so you can drink it.” Kano didn’t resist as the girl fed him the water.
“Where is this place?” Scraping together a few words through his sore throat Kano felt like he had been run over by a car.
“Your fever is gone that’s good” The girl placed her hand on his forehead to check. “We’re at the Strawtooth Island don’t you know”
She asked matter of factly.
How could I? I wasn’t even awake!
Kano resisted wasting energy to roll his eyes and continued asking, “Where’s that?”
“The Crescent Stone Archipelago silly”
“And where’s that?”
“Well and then it’s the….the….lets see the Crescent Islands are in the Goose Sea and outside of that it’s the….ahem it’s the Opaloguerismoguh Kingdom!”
The girl said confidently.
Kano’s eyes twitched in response to such an obvious lie.
“The Ill Maren Kingdom.”
An aged voiced responded as a figure approached from the door.
“You should stop skipping lessons Grechen.”
“I knew it was the Ill Maren Kingdom, I was, just testing if you knew because I knew you were listening.”
Strawtooth Island, Crescent Stone Archipelago, Ill Maren Kingdom…none of these were familiar to him. They matched with none of the 12 novice areas!
“Are you sure?”
“Indeed young fellow, she might have messed up the last part but everything else was correct.”
Kano was lost in thought.
A few moments later he continued, “What’s the largest force in the nearby seas?”
The old man stroked his beard before lightly saying, “Largest? I guess that would be the Great Gollow Merchant Fleet. Now if it were the strongest then I’d say the Yallas Island’s Moon Knights.”
After a few follow up questions, Kano’s confusion only increased exponentially. He recognized none of those places and names. That’s impossible! Unless…
Suddenly a lightbulb went off in Kano’s mind as everything connected.
“…..several reports from the borderland cities confirm the frequent earthquakes that are lasting longer with each outbreak but not to worry, representatives from the royal palaces of many of the 108 duchies and grand duchies have stepped forward to assure the public that there is nothing to worry about”
The late shopping he saw when coming home, the principal’s speech, the courageous wishful thinking from his peers in the ceremony, the facts right before his ears…
Those all pointed to one thing...
A new novice area!
Whenever a novice area appeared the earth expanded for some reason, there were detailed records, but Kano did not have access to such high-level information.
Those children and their parents were preparing for the new novice area!
Kano trembled with excitement as he struggled to believe it, but everything pointed to his suspicion being true! The secrecy of the nobles was nothing to be surprised about, this also explained the martial law jointly passed by the dukes to lower ranking nobles! And why he was so easily expelled and other commoner classmates suddenly lost the right to bear a flag! Many, more than usual, had to enter without a quota and fend for themselves while the nobles got the right to be a ship captain.
He had thought the nobles were just being overbearing again but the issue was truly strange now that he thought about it, the commoners who paid tuition were sometimes no less than the nobles, most were vassals and followers even, so why would they rob their own people when they were certain not to betray? A special attendance like himself was a given, just a show for the rest of the serfs and even commoners but the others without scholarship treatment were truly gifted.
Several teachers and strong figures in the city were also commoners, so blatantly robbing them would widen the rift and strengthen the conflict between the commoner faction and the nobles!
Kano had found it odd when transfer students suddenly appeared and a ranking competition was held that didn’t prohibit weapons which was obviously favoring the nobles. Despite his lack of respect for the principal, the old man was born a commoner himself, so the nobles never overtly suppressed the commoners at such a level before.
Kano didn’t care about the commoners’ plight and even relished their misfortune. Serfs and Commoners were the bottom of the ladder, but they weren’t friendly. Kano didn’t think of himself apart of the serf faction, he merely suffered from nobles and commoners alike, so he had no love for either as such he ignored the matter when it reached his ears.
A new novice area was an uncharted region!
No one knew what the waters held in store!
But history told tales of the chaos that ensued when the first 12 novice areas were born.
Legendary Crewmates! Legendary Professions! Devilish beasts! Powerful Natives!
Treasures of all shapes and sizes!
New Technology!
The limit would not be Glory Gold and even Starry Legend was not necessarily the limit. As an unexplored region they were the pioneers! The hidden treasures at the end of the maps would be there. No one had gotten to them yet. The natives had no impression of them! They could win their loyalty and become kings! Rare beasts had not been hunted to extinction. Their corpses could be used to make treasured weapons and armor, they could be tamed as mounts and pets. The natives could teach them secret methods, buried secrets would see the light of day. Land was unclaimed!
This opportunity was only given to new blood that washed the novice region.
All dangers would not exceed the third order.
But the nobles would have prepared for this since the early signals had warned them.
Heirs of Dukes, Marquises, Viscounts, Earls, and Barons would show their faces. Even hidden groups such as the Truthseekers, Assassins Guilds, Thieves Guilds and Evil God worshippers, not to mention the mercenaries and dead men the nobles would have sent in on contract. They would definitely aim to devour everything down to bone.
The words of the principal were not baseless. This new novice area stood on the shoulders of the other 12…a new duke would be born! maybe not only one.
Nevertheless,
They would all be aiming to be that person.
The maximum quota for ship captains is 10 000 000 each term, flagless entry is ten times that.
Fortunately, the nobles don’t decide who gets flags, its merely the gift the first entrants receive when crossing. Nevertheless, flagless bearers can be first order professionals so nobles would still have an advantage with them as followers…Still this is beyond my wildest dreams!
It was merely a desperate attempt to not end in mediocrity. He still had planned afterwards and was afraid to face the decision to disfigure himself to escape the eyeliners of the nobles in the novice area, not only did he not have to worry, his dreams of a Glory Gold treasure were no longer unreachable!
Kano sensed the ability he had awakened and couldn’t help but smiling.
After awakening the talent its use came instinctively, like a spider knowing how to spin webs.
He had never even heard of it, but its effects were against the skies!
With this alone he was a capable of competing against all those monstrous peers of his that were backed by generational wealth.
These waters were bound to be turbulent soon.
Chaos would rule the seas!
And as it settled a those who had climbed to the top would leave their names in history!
He had truly chosen a good moment to be enlightened and risk his life.
“Hahahahahaha!!!”
“Stop laughing so hard you’ll kill yourself!” A youthful voice attempted to stomp Kano’s maniacal laughter.
Cough-!
“See you laughed yourself unconscious!” A voice rebuked.
Kano had no way of knowing a bounty had been put on his head.
Even nobles could never have too many Glory Gold items.
He also didn’t realize…
The seas had already become turbulent with their arrival!