Jacob was staring into the vast sea.
The geography of Earth had changed after the apocalypse. No one had a precise figure, but it was at least 50% bigger than before. Some said it was even two-times bigger, if not more.
They had taken a couple of weeks before departing. Jacob and Epagogia had to build a screened vessel capable of threading the waters without alerting Krakens or Hydras.
“Jacob?” someone called him from below the deck.
The indistinct traits of Bob appeared from a bolthole.
“Are you ready?” Bob asked him.
“Sure.”
Epagogia was steering the boat covered in Inscription Patterns all over. They had so many layered protections and inscriptions that they had had to build the goddamn boat with special wood and reinforce it with Qi-infused Steelbark.
Jacob was proficient in many things, but shipbuilding wasn’t one of these. He had never even cared about such knowledge. Weirdly enough, Bob and Hektor, instead, knew a lot.
“You learn about whatever you can when you have to keep hidden.”
That had been Bob’s reason.
“Lots of wars have been made over the sea!”
That was Hektor’s.
The thing was… Hektor never made a war over water. Humanity had never been equipped or stupid enough to do so. The monsters is the ocean were almost as terrible as the Dragons themselves.
Jacob’s worse nightmare was that one day he would find an even bigger monster than the Black Dragon in the depth of the ocean.
He had been there, yes, but he had only fought Nerea.
“What’s the state of your Meridians? Is the Moon acupuncture point mended?”
“The arteries around are still getting accustomed to the increased amount of power circulated, Bob. I don’t think we can touch it for a few days. The Tian points too, they are all fragile at the moment; and unless you want to cause either a collapsed lung or cerebral ischemia, we better not touch those.”
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“Monkey point?” Bob asked.
“That’s good enough. The Popliteal vessels have healed properly. We could start there.”
It was nice talking to someone who knew even more than him about Qi and Mana.
Bob was helping him refine his current body into a higher tier talent. The breakthrough process was insane and extremely painful, but he had found out that after pooling their respective knowledge, Jacob had a shot at the… 7th realm.
The Plague Doctor was a monster without equal in this field.
“You know, Blade Tyrant, it’s such a pleasure working with you. I almost regret not meeting you in my past life.”
“I would have killed you,” Jacob laughed. “But I’m glad we can work on something of this magnitude. I will still need more than one natural treasure for further breakthroughs, but if I can really reach the 7th level of talent, then I’ll have a shot at reaching Hektor’s level.”
“HA! JACOB!”
Bob grimaced.
The Vermillion Tyrant smiled crazily from behind Bob, almost hugging Jacob as he went down into the hull of the ship.
“Man, I can’t wait! It’s going to be incredible! We could spar day and night! Imagine that! HA! I might get incredible insights just from fighting you!”
Hektor was so excited his body almost glowed.
“Vermillion Tyrant, would you mind not burning the ship? Again?”
“Shut up! I let one Vermillion Flame Spear pierce the hull and now it’s all about that!”
Jacob raised his eyes toward the high heavens.
Staying in such a confined space with two people who hated each other’s guts was not pleasant.
Thank God they had taken one day more to build two different cabins for the two of them.
“Jaji-boy~~” a sexy voice came from the third and last cabin.
Oof.
“Come on, Jaji-boy, I’m sure we can try again to have a little baby-devil.”
“It would be nice to discover if our biological natures are mutually compatible, Jacob. Have fun with the Devil and let me know if you want me to help you both with a fertility treatment. I’m sure I could—”
Bob was half-teasing him and half-serious. He would love to research that stuff. Having had to prioritize discretion in his past-life, he was now eager to learn as much as he could from the Tyrants he was stuck with.
“Can we please not talk about this, now?” Jacob said with a sigh.
He wasn’t blushing because he was too old for that. But he was annoyed.
This situation he had created for himself had… spiraled out of control. He should have known way better than spending two months in the same room with a naked Epagogia was going to create some problems for him.
“Bob, the stupid Monkey point, please. Hektor, go back to your cabin. We need the space.”
Jacob laid down on a very thin mattress he had brought thanks to Kevin’s dimensional storage.
“I have to admit, Jacob, if I had been present when those idiots named this stuff, I would have killed all the names instantly. And killed the idiots too. What kind of name is Monkey point? Because monkeys jump? So, we call the point behind the knee the Monkey point? Why not the Popliteal point since it’s right behind the homonymous vessels?”
“To be fair, we started giving very weird names to Martial Techniques and Cultivation Techniques too,” Jacob shrugged.
“Exterminating such fools would have made this world a better place.”
For once, Jacob almost agreed with the Plague Doctor.