The black mass flew towards Liam, carrying with it a slight scarlet highlight. The curse burst upon collision and soaked into his body.

He squeezed his eyes shut, willing his circuits to work. His Od cycled through in an attempt to resist the invading magecraft-but not matter how hard or how long he pushed against it, the curse always settled.

Liam gave up eventually. He could feel his body temperature rising, signifying a virus suddenly infecting him.

'That Gandr curse is ruthless-even when it's so weak.' He thought to himself, holding his gut as a wave of nausea passed through. He looked up at Rin pitifully.

"Your Magic Resistance is seriously horrible." She concluded, lowering her finger. "You'll be doomed if any good curse hits you."

Liam nodded in agreement, pulling his black coat tighter around his torso. The chill somehow managed to even penetrate below the ship. He thanked his past self for packing some sort of warm clothing.

"We believe my Origin has a play in that, so I'm coming up with countermeasures." He explained, pacing around the dining area. The tables were pushed up against the walls to create a makeshift training spot. "Mainly using contracted spirits or familiars to protect me." She gave a nod to signal she understood.

Unfortunately there wasn't any area large enough, nor hidden enough, for them to actually train combat. She instead opted to just give him some tips with magecraft. This was definitely Rin's limit, though, as he discovered she wasn't the best of teachers.

"Actually," The woman started, "there is something I might be able to teach you."

"Oh?"

"Well, explaining the whole thing would be too complicated, so I'll just tell you the importance stuff." Rin walked to one of the tables they placed against a wall, taking a seat. Liam likewise sat a few feet away on the floor, crossing his legs.

"I heard of a woman using self-suggestion to transform herself. Not like our triggers or incantations, but to change her actual body. When she did it, she was no longer a 'human', but a 'weapon'. Even her biology changed." She explained, crossing one leg over the other. "According to my source, however, she wasn't exactly an... ordinary human, even for a magus."

Liam nodded as she spoke, allowing the information to soak deeply into his brain. He understood why she told him this: his Origin of "Seamless" may allow something similar to occur.

Body and mind combining into one.

He rubbed his eyes. Eyelids growing heavy, muscles pleading for rest, even his mind was beginning to break down. For two months straight he had done nothing but train and study, twenty hours a day. He had lost all concept of "rest" or "normality", even if his body still remembered it.

"Why're you trying so hard?"

Liams eyes shot open, staring back at the calm and serene face across from him. She continued upon seeing his confused expression.

"While I'm certainly an advocate for working hard, humans aren't machines. You need to let go every once in a while." She spoke plainly. "There's only so many all-nighters one can take."

He gave a chuckle, finding the situation slightly funny, but mostly saddening.

"Let's just say... Some people haven't made my life easy, transitioning into being a magus." He spoke slowly. His mind went back to the past few months: waiting every night for a curse to befall him, for a zombie to suddenly manifest behind him, for some unknown magus to just rip out his heart. He spent so long afraid he didn't even realize he still was.

"And now I'll have to fight again." Liam murmured as he leaned forward, arching his back.

"And that's exactly why you need to stop now."

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Rin hopped off her seat after speaking, checking the clock which hung on the wall across from her.

"If you try to fight as exhausted as you are, you'll die." She explained as she walked to the doorway, preparing to exit. "You have two weeks to sit around and relax."

- -

Turns out relaxing was extremely hard.

He stood against the edge of the ship, leaning over the railing that separated him from the vast ocean. It had already been a week since the ship left Britain. The weather had slightly warmed up, leaving brighter, white and sparse clouds to float along the sky. The sun shown brilliantly as it brought out the white of the metal ship. It pleased Liam's eyes, bringing a warmth that he had missed when he first saw the ship. He found himself noticing things like this more since he stepped back from magecraft.

That isn't to say he didn't practice at all.

Right now, for instance, his mind glided over the various spells that must've been placed on the ship: protections against water, concealment spells, wards against rain and lightning. He found it oddly relaxing to let his thoughts wander to such topics. The difference being that he didn't drag himself through it, it just so happened that he wanted to ponder magecraft right now.

Liam wondered how many magi truly enjoyed what they did, and how many craved something like his old life.

He winced as a stranger chopped him in the head.

The boy turned, face shrinking into a mixture of confusion and irritation until he saw someone he didn't know.

"Sorry. Miss told me to make sure you're not so tense." The woman apologized with a grin. She was simply another one of the workers on the ship, and Liam almost swore he saw her helping to load the cargo onto the ship last week.

He nodded and gave a small chuckle, although if anything, that just made him tense all over again.

Liam turned back around to face the ocean, staring down into his dark depths...

Why was it dark? The water was previously a nice, vibrant blue when he last saw it ten seconds ago.

He leaned further over the railing to inspect the water before he noticed that the darkness cut off after a few meters. If anything, it was just a perfect circle of dark waters.

"Oh shit."

Before he could yell, the spirits leaped out of the waters.

The boy jumped backwards, his body weak and without enhancement. He was lucky his reaction time was fast, otherwise his torso would have been torn to ribbons. Several of the entities jumped out of the ocean on both sides of the ship, cornering any who stood in the middle of the deck, including Liam.

They were made up of some sort of blue substance, goopy and thick as if it was blood. It evaporated and condensed in seconds, cycling between a liquid and gaseous form uncontrollably. In reality, it wasn't truly a liquid or gas, since it wasn't physical.

It's image changed as fast as it's "physical" state, shifting from an at a humanoid form before it devolved into an uncanny, monstrous form, it's limbs lengthening as its liquid substance grew too heavy. It's jaw grew more and more until it evaporated and collected itself into another version of a human being.

'Ghosts of drowned victims?' Liam wondered in his head as four began to slowly approach him. He could hear more climbing up sides of the ship, which would mean either two things: they were either too weak to make the jump earlier, or their bodies were too heavy to jump, in which case, they would be much stronger.

"Collect (Bind)!" Liam cried out. His circuits shot open as it sucked in the mana latent in the air, as well as that which lurked beneath them in the sea. Seeing that the spirits seemed quite slow, he decided to take a risk.

"Those poor souls, lost in the dark. Be subsumed. The Depths are calling."

The shadows in the area stretched, reaching for the targeted spirit in response to the five count incantation. The air squeezed and twisted as his magecraft worked on the World.

The flooding and sinking of Atlantis, tales of other islands and countries being consumed by the ocean depths, stories of lives being lost to abysses both aquatic and terrestrial. This was the Mystery Liam manifested.

Unfortunately, the spirit was a bit stronger than he anticipated.

The intention was for the spirit to be crushed and malformed under the pressure generated by the spell, akin to being dragged to the ocean floor in just a few seconds, but it simply continued to reform itself. It moved faster and faster to Liam as it resisted the spell easily.

'Must be my Water Affinity-it's too resistant.' Liam cursed to himself as he pushed the spell further. The spirit darkened more and more, as if the entire space was suddenly stripped of all light, but it continued onwards.

A black bullet tore the being apart.

More precisely, it was a Finn shot, generated by a Gandr curse pumped with absurd amounts of magical energy.

"Stop experimenting and get to work!" Rin shouted from behind Liam. He was sure if reality allowed it, her outstretched fingers would be smoking from the sheer power inside the Gandr she just fired. It seemed she had just rushed out from the living quarters beneath.

Liam spun his head to face her. Her expression was fierce, her blue eyes locked onto her next target. He turned back around to face the other three spirits in front of him. He could hear the next four climbing up.

His heart was surprisingly calm. Sure, he could still feel it beating through his veins, up into his neck and through his ears, but his muscles were relaxed. Adrenaline was kept to a minimum. Yet fear remained, like an itch at the back of his brain.

"Yes ma'am." He muttered reluctantly.