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CHAPTER 49
Kreegan needed to finish this fight within 30 seconds, or he could not evade the bullets. He lowered his stance and closed his eyes rather than distracting himself with projections. He drew his left arm back and raised his right arm with great difficulty, then extended it forward. He grasped Ichinami from its pommel and rested the tip of the blade on his right hand's thumb.
The voices were getting clearer and clearer; Captain Joke was circling around him. For Kreegan, there was nothing but the sound of footsteps. While his eyes were closed, it was like in darkness; he could see water ripples from every footstep and started following them.
Captain Joke was so sure of his ability and was circling Kreegan, but Kreegan started to follow him with his head even though his eyes were closed. At first, Joke couldn't believe it and chalked it up to chance, but Kreegan kept following him with his head. In a panic, Joke stopped and aimed at him, but at that moment, Kreegan disappeared.
When the footsteps stopped, Kreegan lunged forward with all his speed. This attack was even faster than Shishi Sonson and Rashomon. While he lunged, he extended his left hand to its limit and trusted the sword. All of his speed and weight were behind this thrust.
"Jolt, Ittoryu: GOTATSU! (Fang Thrust)."
For a moment, it was as if Kreegan had teleported. Joke couldn't perceive where Kreegan was, and when he was able to, it was already too late. The sword stabbed through his skull.
"How... is this... possible?"
Kreegan wanted to be sure he was dead, so he cut his body into three parts. Just as he was about the turn his back, he looked at the torn body and said,
"Let's just be sure."
He kept stepping on the skull, which turned into a dust pile. While he was stepping on it, he freaked out. A great shudder ran through his body, and all his hair stood up.
"You... creepy... shit, I... hate... un...deads."
"Ihh! You can never be sure if an undead is really dead. These creepy things would always jump up and bite people when you thought they were dead."
He acted disgusted. He immediately walked over to Lex and saw that he had regained consciousness.
"Are you okay?"
"Don't worry; I won't die from this. Ahh! It just hurts like hell."
Lex saw Kreegan's arm and said while pointing with his head,
"How is that? Are you okay?"
"Same hurts like hell; it will heal, but going to leave a mark."
Right at this moment, Kreegan heard a "ding" sound, and then a robotic sound only he could hear started talking.
- Detected a source of great mana. For analysis, direct contact is needed-
Kreegan turned his head toward the treasure and slowly started climbing the stairs. When he reached the top, he saw a giant red pearl standing inside the fountain. This pearl had a red hue around it, and it was glowing red.
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Kreegan touched it and heard the robotic sound again.
- Analysis started. Please continue the physical contact-
-Chaotic essence of the sea detected-
-Attempting to stabilize it, Host help is required. Focus on the pearl and attempt to balance the energy inside. Failure to achieve stabilization results in the destruction of the treasure.-
When Kreegan heard "destruction," he panicked, and the mana inside the pearl started to rage more. Realizing this, Kreegan took deep breaths and began to calm down, trying to calm the mana inside the pearl, he realized It was as if there was a storm inside the pearl, and the mana was crushing around like a tsunami.
Lex was making his way up the stairs with great difficulty and was also calling out to Kreegan, but Kreegan was not responding. He was just standing there while touching the pearl. It had taken more than 5 minutes to crawl up to the very top of the temple, and just as he was approaching Kreegan. He saw the giant pearl, and it was turning from red to a deep blue color. As he tried to make sense of what he was seeing, the pearl gave off a deep blue light that blinded him.
If we were to ask Kreegan, he would think that the hours had passed, but it had been 10 minutes since he started stabilizing, but after a great struggle, he was able to take control of this mana and calmed it down. Thanks to the calming mana, the color of the pearl had changed to a deep blue. He heard the robotic voice again,
-Stabilization is achieved, and Essence of the Sea can be turned into an artifact.-
-Analyzing the available artifacts.-
-Artifact found.-
-Coat of the Seven Seas-
-Growth-type artifact created with the power of the seas, able to provide 5 AC and a slotted spell "Air Bubble"-
-Do you accept, or would you like to seal the essence?-
Kreegan thought he needed to be crazy to choose the sealing option after working on it this much. Even if it only gave 5 Ac and wasn't a growth-type artifact, he would have still chosen the damn coat.
-Host can limited customization options for the coat-
Kreegan thought for a moment and wanted to clearly declare his reason for being a pirate hunter. He added a word at the back of the deep blue coat with a white color, "Justice" (正義, Seigi).
The coat had lightning, cloud, and wave motifs all around it, and Kreegan had added a big white word at its back; it was a bit of a challenge and a declaration to be a marine. With a blinding blue light, a huge pearl had turned into the Coat of The Seven Seas. Kreegan grabbed the coat, and the coat changed its size to fit him. At this moment, Kreegan finally managed to hear what Lex was saying.
"Kree, what is wrong with you, man? You are worrying me, man. Come on, snap out of it."
Lex had started to shake him while grabbing his shoulder and was just about to slap him. Kreegan turned to him and said,
"I will punch your face in if you slap me."
Seeing that Kreegan was back to normal, Lex said,
"That was such a good opportunity. Damn it."
Kreegan smirked upon hearing what he said.
"Sorry, I must have made you worry. It must have been hours since I started this."
"What are you talking about, man; yes, you were unresponsive for a while, but it was at max 15 minutes."
Kreegan could swear it took him hours but didn't dwell on it too much now. Lex looked at the coat and said,
"Where the hell did you find that?"
Just as he was about to answer Lex, he heard the robotic voice again.
-Lose of energy source detected. Six hours until the destruction of the naval.-
"FUCKK!"
Kreegan now understands why the system asked if he wanted to seal the thing. This was the reason the naval existed, and now it was going to collapse.
"We don't have time now; I will tell you later. We have to evacuate the naval in 6 hours and leave with the natives."
"What, why?"
Kreegan got under Lex's arm and lifted him with his left arm his right arm didn’t have any strength left in it. With all that wounds and exhaustion, it took them close to 1 hour to reach the village. While coming down, Kreegan told him what had happened without telling him about the system part and told him his plan.
The natives had already agreed to go with them, but if they learned about the last guardian's death. They might change their mind, so they decide to lie that they failed to kill it. From all their wounds, it wouldn't be so hard to sell it. Then told them that the enraged guardian might attack the village, and they should leave there as fast as possible.
It took them a little more than 4 hours to get ready and load all the people onto the ship. The village doctor managed to patch them up, but this guy was a half-quack. He told Kreegan they had to cut his arm, or the wound would fester.
This guy only knew how to patch up wounds. Kreegan entered his room, smeared the wound ointment on his arm, and then drank one of the medicine bottles. Lex was still too exhausted to stand, so he made people bind him to the railing and told Meroie what she had to do.
"Pull the lever on your right... now pull the nob at the side of the helm and then push it two times."
Kreegan could hear the steam engine start working.
"Now, take us to the uplift wind."
When we reached there, Lex kept telling her what to do, and she was having a hard time but was able to pull it off, but when we lowered our sails to the side and used them as wings. Keeping the ship straight becomes harder for her, and a few people start to help her keep it straight.
As we rose up into the air and got close to the top, we could see the island was shaking because all the buildings were collapsing even the mountain had shattered. A few minutes after we got out, the naval closed up. Seeing this, some of the natives started to cry. It wasn't easy to leave their home behind and see it destroyed in front of their very eyes.