Can Feric's ship defeat Nero's battleship?

The next day, the King made a speech to everyone that survived. The king will support the city until it recovers, and every noble is ordered to also help. Once the speech was over, the king called me in front of the crowd. It didn’t seem like he will do anything bad, so I walked to the king.

“Lady Shera Nillin was the one who saved the city, and fended of the colossal monster. For her achievements I will give her a raise in adventurer rank, and a rank of Duchess.” At the kings word, a strong looking person walked to us. He bowed to the king before speaking.

“I am Lanza Keriol, the branch head of the Kanaria Adventurer’s guild, and I hereby raise Duchess Shera’s rank to reis(high) for all her accomplishments.”(Lanza)

Am I supposed to be happy? Since I didn’t know what to do, I simply smiled while they continued their speech. I listened quietly until the king said he will give me land, how am I supposed to travel if I need to take care of something?

“Sorry, I can’t accept the land. I plan on traveling, and taking care of the land will hinder my plans.”(Shera)

The king raised his brow, and rubbed his beard. After a while, he smiled at me and started talking.

“Do’t worry Duchess Shera, I will send people to take care of the land while you are away. The land will stay yours, so you could come back to it anytime you want.”(King)

“I see”(Shera)

I smiled for the rest of the speech, and finally got out. After me, other people with great achievements in the defense for the city, were given rewards. It seems that 3 reis rank adventurers killed a lot of the monsters while I was fighting Azrahel, and were given nobility status. Although it didn’t seem like the came for the status, just like me, they came here to fight strong opponents.

Feric was raised to platinum(low), and Nero finally got to the gold(high) rank. It seems that Nero saved a lot of people, and was eaten when he got tired. Using his blood hunt skill, he continued to sap vitality while inside the monster, and got out after getting back a bit of strength. After giving gold ranks, the king walked away. Members of the adventurer’s guild were given rewards by the branch head and his assistants. The whole day was about giving rewards, and at night, everybody celebrated for the successful defense against the monsters.

I don’t know why they are celebrating, even though we won, the city still lost a lot. Based on what I saw while running around, more than half of the city was destroyed, and many citizens died. I didn’t say anything because, I didn’t want to ruin the festive mood of the citizens. I was the center of attention of the celebration, and I had to go with the odd events, they even made me sing. Feric, Ciela & Pooch retired early, and went back to the tent. The children are already back to their tents, and a few adult and nobles were left for the celebration.

The nobles started giving out bitter tasting drinks, but it looks like I am the only one that didn’t like the taste. Since most of their faces turned red as the drank the liquid, I understood that I was drinking alcohol. The nobles were quite decent, and when they noticed they were getting drunk, the returned to their tents. One by one, people slowly went back to their tents, and in the end, only the King, Nero and I were left.

“Duchess Shera, I have a proposal to make.”(King)

“...What is it?”(Shera)

“First is that, I want you to be the next queen of this continent.”(King)

“Eh?”(Shera)

“I fear for the safety of my citizen, and having you with us will solve the problem. Since I am asking a lot from you, I have to give you something in return. If you protect this continent from future enemies, I will support you, and make you the queen of this kingdom.”(King)

“I told you I want to travel, I don’t want to stay in one place, or at least until I am satisfied with my adventure.”(Shera)

“I know that, you don’t have to accept it now. The offer will stand as long as I am alive, so you can enjoy your life for now, and if you decided to stay at one place, the kingdom will welcome you as its queen.”(King)

“B...but I have to marry someone to become queen right? I already have someone I love.”(Shera)

“If that is the case, then you can increase the power of your soon to be duchy, and when you have enough forces. The royal family will step down, and let you become the queen.”(King)

“Are you taking the title of a ruler seriously? I mean, I may be strong, but I don’t have the same blood as a royalty. I don’t even know what a royalty does, look I am obviously the only lein in this continent, are they even gonna accept me as a ruler.”(Shera)

“Have you seen how the people reacts? Even though they only seen you for a few weeks, you already have a lot of supporters. When I gave you a noble title, none rejected the Idea, even the nobles accepted it. I doubt anyone would reject the Idea of you being the queen, although you have to study a bit in ruling over a continent.”(King)

“T...this is too much responsibilities, and I think you should think about it more. You don’t even know much about me, I think you should reconsider.”(Shera)

“Hahaha I have seen a lot of people in my life as a king, so I can easily tell that you are what this continent needs. People will jump at the offer of being the queen, yet here you are, rejecting the offer with all of your strength. Your charism is another factor, you naturally attract people to you. Well, your strength is also another factor. You have the strength to protect this city, and I don’t.”(King)

“I still think you are rushing it a bit.”(Shera)

“Hahaha I guess the alcohol is starting to affect my head, so I’ll rest now. Anyways, I am serious about my offer Duchess Shera, please think about it.” The king started to walk back to his tent.

Why can’t I just travel normally? Different things pop out and try to hinder me. Can’t I just enjoy my life while traveling with my friend?...by the way, Nero is too quiet. I looked at Nero, and he was already sleeping. I raised his head, and put him on my lap. I caressed his hair, and stared at his face.

“Heh, he is sleeping so comfortably.”(Shera)

I doubt the tournament will continue, so what do we do now? We haven’t really planned our next destination. Ah, who cares, I’ll just enjoy playing with Nero’s hair. I enjoyed my time with the sleeping Nero, and slept outside.

The next day, people with high status congratulated me. Feric’s father said he would help in the construction of my duchy, since as of now, my land is only an empty space. There were some people that wanted to serve under me, but I felt it was to early to rule a land, and postpones that kind of talk. Our party was getting a lot of attention, and it seems the hate for Nero faded. Some were even calling him the Crimson Hero, which is sounds cool in my opinion.

There were too many people on the adventurer’s guild, despite what happened yesterday, so we didn’t update our plates and stats. We roamed around, and it seems the tournament is already finished. The winner of both tournaments will be us, and will be given the prize money later, which is 40 reis coins in total. Large sum of money will be given to us, it’s kinda scary holding on to it.

The construction of the city started, and other cities will send supplies later. The nobles sent a message to their territory using einolon birds. I happen to see one, and it looked like a human sized blue eagle, with horns. No wonder they could send fast messages, by the way, einolon birds are summoned beings, and not a native animal. Now that we talk about animals, let’s remember what Feric told me.

Animals and monsters are differentiated by destruction levels. Destruction levels span from level 0 to 15, and every creature at destruction level 2 or higher are treated as monsters, while those at destruction level 0 or 1 are animals. Animals are generally creatures that can be defeated by people, even if they don’t have experience in fighting. Monsters on the other hand are creatures that needs to be handled by experts or a group of people. In short, animals aren’t a threat, while monsters are dangerous.

Creatures in this world are different from our world, although there are some resemblance. An example is the juggernaut rabbit, it was blue in color, and looked like a normal rabbit, except for its intimidating size. It was at destruction level 4, and is as big as a 2 story building. I remember how big the elephants on my world are, and in this world they have a slightly deformed body, and violet skin. Guess what the destruction level of the elephant is...it’s 0, it’s as small as an apple, and can’t do any lethal damage to the people. The thing I noticed is that, as the destruction level increases, it gets farther and farther away from how animals look like on earth. An example is the one we saw before getting to Kanaria city, a Groagan, which have a spherical body, 6 arms, and 2 legs.

Now that you think about it, maybe I should buy books about creatures of this world. We spent the rest of the day visiting different places of the city, we happen to pass by Ranzal, it seems that his grandchildren are safe, but his own children died protecting them. I tried to help by giving a gold coin, but Ranzal rejected it. He said that the thought was enough, and the other nobles were already sending help financially. After dinner, we started talking about our next destination.

“The land given to you was here, so if you want to check it out, we could pass through the kingdom and go to your land. After that we could pass though this city, and directly go to the port city, if you want to go to other continents.”Nero was pointing at the map.

There are a lot of cities we won’t see if we use that path, but I guess it's ok. Not that I want to see each and every city in this continent.

“I think we should go to other places on our travel, instead of just directly going to cities. There are good places to visit, like Lanara falls, Ether canyon, and other places.”(Feric)

That’s it! It feels too bland to just go to cities.

“Are there any good place we could visit in the middle of Kanaria city and the kingdom?”(Shera)

“There are 3 choices.The fastest should be by going to the Ether canyons, 2nd should be by the Iosop forest, which houses rare mosters, and the slowest path should be the Erald Lake. We could just use the plains for a faster travel though.”(Nero)

“Can’t we pass through all of them?”(Shera)

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“...That would be impossible, we would have to go back to use the other paths.”(Nero)

“Don’t worry, there are also other places we could visit between the kingdom and your land.”(Feric)

“The problem should be our supplies, and coach. We need to restock, and buy a new coach.”(Nero)

Ah, now that you think about it, our coach got destroyed...those damn monsters, how dare they destroy my beautiful coach.

“Most of the stores got destroyed, and I already asked everyone, but it seems there isn't anyone left that sells coaches.”(Nero)

“...so we have to stay here?”(Shera)

“We could use father’s coach, he said he will stay here to fix the city anyways.”(Feric)

“For supplies, I guess we should just store water, and get food from the wild.”(Nero)

Why is it so hard to travel? It’s irritating how we have to prepare tons of stuff before we could travel.

“Um, if we can’t get water then we can use this path, there are lakes in this path that we could use to restock. And the place is brimming with animals.”(Ciela)

Ciela pointed at the Iosop forest path, and also marked places on the forest, which  tells us where the lakes are located.

“When did you get this information?”(Nero)

“People usually tell me different stuffs when I jog around the city. I piled up a bit of information from different people...”(Ciela)

Our talk continued, and in the end, we will use the duke’s coach, and go through the Iosop forest. With that our day ended. When I woke up, Feric was already out of the tent, probably talking to his father about the coach.

When it was time for lunch, Feric returned with  black colored coach. The emblem of their family was carved on a yellow piece of wood at the back. There were windows around the coach, unlike before where only the door had a window. It was elevated by 3-4 ft, and had stairs below the door.

“You came at the right time, I just finished preparing food.”(Nero)

“The adventurer’s guild isn't that crowded anymore, we should go there after eating.”(Feric)

As he said, we went to the adventurer’s guild, and updated our plates. As always, I was the last to check my stats.

Spoiler :

NameFeric Morc OsdwinRaceTalarAge157GenderMaleTITLES[Awakened One][Savior]Level61ClassWizardVitality50Agility31Strength39Defense24Magic Attack198Magic Defense148

NameNero VentusRaceVallarAge77GenderMaleTITLES[Awakened One][Crimson Hero]Level55ClassBerserkerVitality127Agility87Strength122Defense83Magic Attack3Magic Defense2

NameCiela VentusRaceVallarAge31GenderFemaleTITLES[Hidden Gem][Awakened One][The Hard Working One]Level28ClassBlade DancerVitality70Agility36Strength42Defense39Magic Attack3Magic Defense2

Everyone got stronger...wait, it’s just been 2 weeks yet their level increased dramatically, especially Ciela. If this keeps up, Ciela would surpass them in a year or 2. Aside from that, it looks like all of them were shocked at their stats, did they get a new title or something? Ah, anyways, it’s my turn.

NameShera NillinRaceUltima MajinAge1GenderFemaleTITLES[War Goddess][God Slayer][Rift Walker][Void Magician][Chain Caster]Level494ClassSage, Fist FighterVitality165,894Agility1216Strength2319Defense1684Magic Attack1495Magic Defense1027

Nothing new here, there are additional titles, but it’s not like this is the first time it happened. Wait, I finally have a fist fighter class...but isn’t it supposed to change to rune fist? I can also use magic after all. When all of us finished, it seems like Ciela got raised to silver(low). 

Seriously, if you think about it she has the most talent out of the 3. She isn’t even half of Nero’s age, and she is already at this level. For Feric...since he is the researcher type, I guess I shouldn’t expect him to have the same growth as Nero & Ciela.

After getting Ciela’s new plate, we headed to the dome. The money was already packed in a stash by the time we got there, after getting it, we have no more business with this city. We used the our free time, to say our farewells with the people of the city. Most of the noble, and even the king will stay in the city for a while. When night came, we started heading to Iosop forest. It would take a month or 2 to get to the forest, and 3-4 months to get to the kingdom.

As our coach started moving, I remembered a few things that Azrahel said. If you think about it, Azrahel mention 11 artificial gods. If there are 10 more like him which will attack this continent...Ah, it doesn’t concern me. I am not the protector of this continent, so I’ll simply move as I want.

___

As we traveled, I saw a lot of new things yet again. Because there were more windows, I could clearly see what’s outside. Different animals, monsters, green grass, blue grass, different colored trees. We could also see different rock formations from a far, and a few villages, where we replenished our supplies. Well, at most we could get 3-4 days worth of supplies from the small villages, so we still had to get food from the wild.

Feric would drive most of the time, and he always pushes me to Nero. It feels like he is helping me, what a good guy. Pooch seems to be interested in training Ciela, and they would go off somewhere when we take a break. Nero was in charge of food, supply management and driving, Feric was in charge of cleaning and driving, Ciela was in charge of taking care of the horses, and I was in charge of sitting inside the coach and hugging Pooch...Ok so I don’t help that much, I did feel guilty, but they all told me to stay inside,what could I do?

As we traveled, Ciela’s growth could easily be seen. Unlike before, Ciela alone could fend off the monsters, and she even killed 3 bandits on her own. She still look around 8, so it was kinda funny seeing grown men get defeated by a child. Her fighting style also improved, she was starting to use her wings to boost her speed even while fighting on ground. Seeing her growth, Nero & Feric also started training themselves on their free time. I guess they didn’t want to see a child surpass them.

It was fun, everyone was doing their own stuff, seeing them have fun, bonding like a family, and a lot of things that I never could have experience before. As we traveled, we got closer and closer to each other. The silent Feric was replaced by a more cheerful and supportive Feric.

A few weeks passed, and we finally reached the Iosop forest. It composed of blue and orange trees that were 15-20 ft tall. The ground was filled with blue grass, and small creatures could be seen moving around. There wasn’t really a road for the coach to enter, but there were visible paths we could enter. By the way, it was still morning when we got to the entrance.

“It’s pretty” I went out of the coach to observe the entrance of the forest.

“Yeah, it is.” Nero also followed, and looked around with a happy expression.

“IF YOU LOVE HER, THEN GO FOR IT!” Ciela suddenly shouted inside the coach, and pushed Feric out of the coach.

There she goes again, energetic as always.

“Ciela that was a bit...”(Feric)

“Ok, time for training, come with me pooch” Ciela started running inside the forest.

“Master, don’t worry about her. We’ll follow you later, so you can enter the forest without us.” Pooch started running after Ciela.

“Ok, everyone time to enter Iosop forest!”(Shera)