"And then, then he kicked it and it flew so hard it knocked a tree over!"

"My, that sounds scary."

"It was but Captain protected me. And I properly apologized."

"Ah well that's good, I'm glad you are safe and it sounds like you had fun too."

"It was a lot of fun mom!"

I receive a few blushing gazes from Mirna's sisters but choose to ignore them for the time being. Currently, we are eating dinner at the Inn, Mirna's mom was very happy to see her. She thanked me profusely but I brushed it off as natural.

Eating on solid ground once in awhile was a necessity for me. We would still stay on the ship, but eating a meal with Mirna's family was something everyone happily agreed to. Even El seemed to be getting along with the Inn family. Two of the sisters were constantly fiddling with El's green locks or poking the points of her ears, she seems to have no problem with it.

"Though Cole I wonder how many will be enough for you?" Mirna's dad, Lyle says with narrow eyes.

"I swear I didn't intend for it to go this way."

"You didn't?" Lyle asks in shock before laughing heartily and patting the table. "I kid, I kid, But I can't fault you on your tastes."

Please don't look at them like that. They are my precious companions.

Lynn smacks him on the back of the head and turns to me.

"So how long do you think you will stay in town?"

"No clue, we don't really have anything to do. Well, we have tons of requests but nothing urgent really. The plan was pretty much just to float around and find adventure."

"Ah, that sounds like the life," Lyle says resting his chin on his palm. "Surrounded by girls on a ship of my own. Ah…"

*Smack*

~ ~

"We never named the ship," I say between the four of them.

"True…" Rou's voice resounds from beside Aqua.

"You were naming this boat?" El asks with a voice muffled by blankets. I feel a heavy thump on my chest and a head pops out in front of my eyes. "You didn't come up with any ideas?"

She stares into my eyes while asking. I gently lift her off my chest and toss her beside Mirna.

Mirna takes the opportunity to place herself in the space on my chest that El was evicted from.

"You are going to end up on the outside at this rate," I say to Mirna picking her up and placing her beside El who had scooted closer.

"Ah, no. Boo!" She complains raising her fists dangerously.

"But back on topic. A name."

"Hmm…"

"Shark Bait?"

"No, no, no."

"Lizard puke?"

"That's much worse."

"Oh, Rou what is the name of that… Uhm…" Aqua begins placing a finger to her cheek pondering something. "Rou, you remember that story Dad told us. The king who takes the sword from the rock."

"Oh, um… Yeah, I know what you are talking about. Oh! Yeah, what was that?"

"You know what I'm talking about right, not the king but the sword it was…"

"Excalibur?"

""That!""

"Mm, I like it, though I guess I have no real input here."

"Mirna likes too. But El, you are crew too. Crew input matters."

"I couldn't have said it better myself Mirna," I say nodding to El who shyly covers her face in the covers.

"Excalibur though huh? It's a good name."

"Mm, mm. Perfect. Only the chosen could remove it. Only Captain."

~ ~

"Excalibur, huh?" Muscleman says looking at the paper. "Sounds like a hell of a ship."

"Only the best for Captain!"

"Oh, seems like you have some good crew members!"

"Only the best," I say glancing at them.

"Well, now that that's done, guild master wanted to speak with you, you mind?"

"No problem."

"While you do that I'll calculate payment for materials. Seems like you brought a lot again."

"Thank you."

I lead the four girls towards the door he pointed towards and knock twice.

A moment passes and the door swings open. A man with a scowl looks down at us and then up at the counter.

"No, that's him," Muscleman says simply.

"Oh!" The man with the scowl says quickly replacing it with a big grin. "Welcome, come on in."

We follow him into the room. It's slightly messy. Papers+ lay all over the floor and are loosely tacked to the wall. The wind from the door shutting seems to cause a few more to fall but he disregards them quickly sitting down in a plush chair and pointing us to do the same.

I sit down and Rou sits beside me. Aqua Mirna and El stand beside us.

"Sorry I don't have more chairs, I rarely meet people in here."

The three girls nod politely but remain silent. I guess this would be considered a big deal. This is someone only a step below the city's lord in terms of rank.

"No problem, So what did you want to talk with me about?"

"Well first since you are new I will tell you a bit about how the guild typically works. Every week we analyze the completed requests for various adventurers. This allows us to decide if an adventurer should rank up. I say typically because you present an interesting situation. Single handily killing any of the beasts you killed would typically grant you a rank up."

"So…"

"B rank?" Rou asks beside me. doing the mental math.

"So you understand the problem." The guild master says rubbing his beard. "So, in that case, we need to get the Pirate registration completed first."

"Wait I'm sorry what exactly is the problem with B rank?"

"There are only four B rank groups in the entire country. A B rank adventurer is in extremely high demand. At worst you would be drafted into fighting in the infinite dungeon."

"And if I finish my pirate registration before ranking up?"

"Pirate registration would basically exempt you from Noble Drafts. But I should be clear I doubt Lord Carrington would draft you, it would just put unnecessary pressure on him from the prince and princess. Currently, he doesn't openly support either side and they ignore him because this guild doesn't produce many high-level adventurers. You change things."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I see."

"They are already aware of something strange. I received a query about the Magic stone sent to auction. They wanted to know who brought it in but that's against guild policy so I kept them at bay."

"Hmm, it seems I'm already getting wrapped up in politics."

"Yes, I'm sorry about that. I think what you endeavor for is a marvelous dream. That's why I will do everything I can to help you achieve it."

"So is there anything else?"

"Well, actually yes. there is. And I know it contradicts everything I've said earlier, but I think this is probably of great importance so I will give you it."

He hands me a piece of paper. Rou and Aqua gasp at the seal on the top. It's gold with a silver angel in the center. I recognize the angel as the same one I have in the hold. This is a royal family summons. Why was he giving me this?

"What? I thought you just said…"

"If I'm right, that one isn't regarding the dungeon at all."

"He's right, look that's not the prince or princess's seal, that the king himself."

"Precisely, if I had to guess it's about A rank."

"Not a chance!"

"I agree with Rou there's no way. You won't do it, right Captain?"

"I'm still not entirely sure whats happening."

"Ah, you really are as unknowledgeable as Muscleman said."

Oy, is that his actual name?

"A rank means the one who fights the Demon King. It's a super big deal you know."

"Hmm, demon king huh?"

"Mm, they say he revives every hundred years, but it's nearly impossible to keep track of when that is exactly since he's often not found until many years after his revival. A rank was then created to act as a bulwark against him whenever he finally rears his head."

"And there are no A rank currently?"

"Well many people consider the prince and princess to be A rank, but they are officially B. They currently act as the apex of B rank. They even throw a tournament each year to prove their strength. The finals have been the prince against princess 10 times running."

"Oh, that sounds fun."

All eyes turn to me, but I was being honest. Honestly fighting a demon king sounds like fun too. I kind of want to go to that tournament and put them into the ground just to shock everyone. This world is great, I really can't thank that god enough.

"You have a strange sense of fun." The guild master says.

A knock sounds from behind us and the door opens a moment later.

"Captain Cole I have a request for you personally. It came by raven moments ago."

"Oh?" I say grabbing the paper from Muscleman. He was acting tense so I was curious what the problem was.

This is indeed a big deal though. An island village has been attacked by bandits. The request is for Food Aid as well as Medical. The request says nothing about the bandits though. Shouldn't I hunt them down?

"We need to go now," I say standing up and replacing my hat after nodding to the Guild master. He seemed to understand after hearing a few words from Muscleman.

"We will talk further about this later." He says towards me as I step out the door.

~ ~

We raised the sail in seemingly record time. Rou was charting our course as the other three worked to get us ready. Once Rou confirmed it we began our second voyage.

We weren't requested to subjugate the bandits but I refused to let them escape. They had kidnapped woman and children. I would find them and destroy them. Hopefully before anything happens to them.

When I say as much to the crew they seem to agree. We wouldn't let this go.

"Full Sail. We need as much speed as possible!"

"I might be able to help with that" El says pulling on my shirt and pointing downwards.

I follow her to the hold and she stands on the center of a large beam running the length of the ship

"Elven boats. The color, are you aware why it is like that?"

"It's the type of wood, or like a treatment maybe?"

"Treatment. It is similar to that. Watch closely." She places her hands on the wood and shuts her eyes tightly.

Within moments two bright stains seem to begin infecting the wood where her hands are placed. It spreads slowly along the grains, it was incredible to watch. It had almost stretched the entire length of the hold when El suddenly began tilting and I noticed the drips of sweat assembling near her brow.

I catch her as she hits her limit. I lift her into a princess hold and take her towards my bedroom to rest.

I lay her down and pat her head with a dry rag. I hadn't gotten a chance to ask the purpose of all that, but I had a pretty good theory.

I return to the deck and check the situation. We seem to have surpassed our max speed. Good work El.

~ ~

After waking up, El demanded to continue work on the hull. I was nervous about it but allowed her, so long as she promised not to pass out again. She was now limiting herself and adding more mana to the beam ever half hour. Before evening the entire slab of wood had been dyed a deep purple. She claimed that doing the rest of the hull would take her months but I told her she had already done more than enough.

And I wasn't just being nice. We had easily added a knot to our speed. The mana seems to help cut through the water, and it apparently keeps monsters away. Though I'm not sure how true that is seeing how El's boat was attacked by a Kraken.

No, she had done more than her fair share. Now we just had to rely on the wind from here on out. I thought of saying a prayer to the spirit of the ocean like Aqua but decided against it.