Hopping through the woods to find some unlucky critter that would serve as breakfast, Leonardo could only grumble as his luck seems to have ran out. Even his Sense Life spell failed to pin anything consumable down, and even as the sun almost rose, his stomach remained empty.

‘Even if there’s nothing in this bloody forest, I’ll surely find something at sea…’ Consoling himself in this manner, he drew closer to the shoreline. Obscured by thick foliage, he seemed to see a torchlight in the distance, no doubt a ship.

‘Hm? There shouldn’t be any harbor in miles, though.’

Even as he was mulling over the irregular presence, he saw the ship draw closer and closer to shore, seemingly not intent on stopping. Momentarily prepared to alert them with a Elemental enhanced sound spell, he stopped dead in his track as the light seemed to disappear a moment later.

Perking his ears for the sound of a crash, Leonardo was even more surprised that he heard nothing. Naturally curious, he rushed to the shore without hesitation.

Ras-Ir Raheb was in the North-Western part of Malta. The island had a long stretch of hills on this side, without many shallow beaches one could build harbors on. It was due to this reason that these parts were generally abandoned and untamed. To speak nothing of farming, it would require tremendous effort just to open a proper transportation route.

Having lost track of the ship, Leonardo could only rely on magic to spread his senses around the shore. Since it was still dark, he first enhanced his eyes, allowing his retina to register thermal images. Even so, he didn’t find anything within sight.

Closing his eyes, he shifted through a few other means such as echolocation in case they were invisible but tangible, but it seemed he wasn’t dealing with a ghost ship. It wasn’t until he employed Materia and Spatium did he spot a large crevice in one of the hills.

‘Who would’ve thought it’s just a mundane cove… and here I was hyped thinking it’s a legend.’

Rubbing his face, he shook his head with a wry smile and moved over, soon reaching the top of that hill.

There didn’t seem to be a path leading down to the sea, nor any tunnels dug up to connect to the surface. It was a one-sided cove through and through, accessible only by sea.

Peering over the edge of the cliff, he soon identified a 30m high crevice. Leading sideways into the cliff, it seemed like a narrow fit for a large vessel, but one could probably steer a small caravel through.

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Whether it be from the shore or from further at sea, it would be pretty difficult to imagine there’s a tunnel leading under the cliffs.

‘Seems my luck hasn’t run out after all… Isn’t this a happy coincidence?’

Overlooking the entrance briefly, he considered sneaking in the following night as the sun was already rising. He didn’t know for sure, but something about this place screamed ‘pirate hideout!’.

‘Eh, I’ll just take a quick look.’

Despite seeming casual, he raised his hands and drew a few patterns through the air. As if spawning a black hole at his fingertip, light seemed to wobble in a vortex around him. Before the disturbance could expand, it was quickly quelled by a soft chant. The spell extended just enough to cover his body, then settled over his body like an additional layer of clothing.

Completely obscured by the Invisibility spell, he had to rely on his Spatium senses to move around. Essentially blocking light with an Elemental barrier, he also impaired his natural sight in the process.

Even so, Leonardo leaped off the cliff without worry. He had long since learned how to fight blindfolded without magic, not to mention now when his senses encapsulated everything within 30 meters of him in a 360 degree scope.

Caught in a freefall towards his doom, he seemed unbothered by the reefs and rocks and calmly adjusted gravity in his surroundings. Just as his feet were about to touch down, his velocity was ground to a halt and he calmly latched on to the crevice wall.

Then, much like a skilled gecko, he crawled sideways all the way into the depths of the tunnel. Ignoring the normal pull of gravity, he was instead bound to the side-walls. Thanks to that, he advanced without having to get wet, or recklessly make noise by swimming.

The waters were pretty tranquil in the cove, and he didn’t want to make a splash until he assessed what he was dealing with.

After a narrow tunnel, the broad cove finally appeared in all its glory. Much grander than Leonardo’s thief den, this one spanned a good 300 meters in width and was over 100 meters high. An area in the cove had solid land, with a few dozen huts piled together in disarray atop it.

‘Definitely pirates,’ he mused silently while observing the village.

The ship moored near a makeshift dock just recently, and the pirates had yet to descend. It seemed they took longer to navigate the tunnel safely than it took Leo to crawl over.

The caravel was of pretty standard make, although its condition wasn’t quite mint. It didn’t bear any skull and bone flag and seemed like an average merchant vessel. Yet, it didn’t take long for Leo to disassociate them with above-the-board folk.

A few women and children approached the gangway just as it was lowered. Unlike the boisterous pirates happy to return home with booty, the females didn’t seem to share their joy. Carefully observing them, Leo saw docile husks resigned to their fate, rather than dutiful wives awaiting the return of their men.

Squinting his eyes, he drew closer. He couldn’t hear what the pirates were laughing about, but it seemed something special was about to ensue.

‘Special indeed…’

Controlling his descent, he finally realized what they were celebrating and almost slipped from the rock. Reigning in the outburst of anger, he watched the pirates haul out three women from the ship.