Given the scenery, Severin half expected them to still arrive on that same day, but when he asked Samuel he learned this would not be the case.

In fact, at evening when the sun set, the [Berserker] stopped the ship altogether, leaving them hovering who-knows how many kilometers up in the sky as if anchored in place.

Based on some information he pieced together, Severin roughly understood that someone had to actively control a flying artifact for it to keep moving.

That revelation left him a bit stumped as he, at no point, felt that Samuel was behaving any different from usual, much less actively driving the ship.

Also, apparently the top speed of an artefact like this was not only determined by the quality and quantity of the installed crystals, but dependent on the person controlling the ship as well.

Severin’s first, game-knowledge inspired, thought was that maybe the ship was using mana as some kind of fuel which had to be actively channeled into those crystals for them to act as the engine.

Then he remembered that as a [Berserker] Samuel shouldn’t have any mana whatsoever.

It also wasn’t clear to him why, even when the ship wasn’t moving, and therefore, he assumed, not actively controlled, was it still able to float about?

Severin had great interest in those crystals and similarly many questions, but after some consideration he thought it best not to ask them; they would only arouse suspicion or, at the very least, evoke some unwelcome counter-questions in return.

‘Maybe I can look into it once we arrive in Hanvia. Find some shipbuilder or artificer or whoever builds these things and approach them for some information. Or anyone, really. Anyone who isn’t under the impression that I must own one of those ships myself.’

Severin made some rough plans for the days to come, but those were soon put to the back of his mind when he heard someone mention the word food.

No longer was he able to ignore his body’s complaints about being deprived of lunch. His stomach began to growl, and Severin realized he didn’t eat anything since he had come on board. When the others had lunch, he must’ve still been asleep.

The discussion about what to eat was still ongoing when Severin took the initiative and, without hesitation, summoned several full menus worth of everything his kitchen had to offer to share with his hosts.

Not just as a sign of gratitude for being able to tag along, but also because he had stocked up his personal inventory exactly for this occasion. He also knew from the comments of his regulars that even when stored this way, the food was still perishable. Not sharing while it was still fresh would simply be a waste and if it earned him some goodwill, then all the better.

And indeed, his gesture was well received.

Seeing Miriam and Timothy pounce on the food, especially on the somehow still slightly hot pizzas, Severin was reminded of his first [Employee].

He turned his attention inwards and concentrated in an attempt to contact the girl.

‘Em?’

But something just didn’t feel right. It was no different from simply thinking to himself; he could tell immediately, based on the missing feedback he usually experienced whenever he made use of the System-provided telepathy-like ability, that something wasn’t right.

‘Damn! Guess that’s another feature that only works within the limits of the Emporium.’

The other feature was, of course, the minimap that had disappeared the moment he stepped onto the ship.

‘Should’ve thought of that possibility earlier! Wonder what else isn’t working out here.’

It was something he should probably have verified earlier, but hadn’t thought of because of his lack of sleep. After that, he simply forgot.

He felt stupid and that it was a gross oversight on his part; one he decided to rectify on the spot.

During the next half an hour he checked which of the feature were still working, and which weren’t.

The result wasn’t nearly as bad as he had feared.

Apart from the telepathy and minimap features, he was happily surprised to find that all others were still functioning; albeit some only to a limited extent.

Whereas he had still full access to his own private inventory, for example, he could still examine the contents of the one belonging to the Emporium itself, but not insert or withdraw anything from it. The same was true for the respective balances; it also meant that even in his absence he would still be earning some gold coins he could use during his travels as long as he set the income conversion settings accordingly.

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His finding elevated much of his worries and with a mind of ease, he went to bed relatively early that evening; after all, though he had already caught up a bit on sleep earlier, it was only for a few hours and just after a long previous day at that.

..

Next day was largely uneventful.

Shortly after Samuel took up the invisible helm again, Severin found they were leaving behind the rural parts.

What he had seen the day before were some few houses with maybe one or two equally small fields to sustain the residents, but overall, these settlements were too small to even be called hamlets.

Now, something resembling real villages started to pop up.

Then towns.

But none of the scattered flying artefacts they encountered ever seemed to pay those any attention, whatsoever. The kind of people who could afford those artefacts were obviously not interested in those backwater places.

Sooner rather than later, even Severin had lost all interest in them; he could never make out more than their general shapes, anyway. So once the novelty factor had worn off, looking into the distance really wasn’t all that entertaining.

Severin decided this might be a great opportunity to pick Samuel’s brain on a few matters. Only to find that the man was busy fulfilling his duties as a mentor, leaving Severin to his own devices for most of the day.

As a consequence, most of his time was spent observing the landscape, after all. That, and, more often that he would care to admit, he checked the numbers on his System screen to see whether his two [Employees] had made any sales in the meantime.

At the beginning, he had tried to listen in to Samuel’s lectures, but quickly gave up on that.

Lessons on monster anatomy, resource-management, itemization choices, and combat formations were surprisingly much less interesting than he would have imagined.

Only in the evening, when it was time for dinner, which Severin gladly provided, did the lessons come to an end and the conversations turned to a more interesting topic. Even if said topic was still the same as the days before. But after hours of twiddling his thumbs, the youths’ enthusiasm was strangely infectious to Severin, so that in the end he too couldn’t help but look forward to the spectacles.

Learning that a bunch of healers of various different classes were apparently on standby throughout all of the event somehow made the idea of spectating some gladiatorial games just that much less repulsive to him. He didn’t fool himself in regard to the effectiveness of these measures, but flying limbs and spilling guts were more easily acceptable to him when he knew those were just a byproduct of the show and not the main attraction.

Though the day had overall been rather dull, Severin was in high spirits, and now that his interest was piqued, he had a couple of questions about the event he wanted to ask.

But that was when the [Berserker] suddenly interrupted them.

“Okay, that’s as far as we’ll go today.” Only now did Severin realize that the ship had stopped, above a coniferous forest, the lights of real cities visible in the distance.

“If we keep going, we would arrive in the middle of the night. At that time, processing would be painfully slow. And then we’d still have to find our accommodations. It’s a hassle. I say we call it a day and then enter the city in the morning before it gets too lively. So, get some sleep, will ya.”

“It’s way too early!”

“We’re not kids anymore!” Miriam and Timothy immediately started complaining, realizing the words were more than a friendly suggestion. But the old man was having none of it.

“Consider it part of your training. Just like good soldiers, good adventurers should be able to take advantage of any off time they can get to get a bit of sleep and replenish their energies. You never know when the next opportunity arises.”

Samuel had only specifically addressed the two youths, but Severin naturally took the hint. On the day before, he might’ve also complained, at least inwardly, or roll his eyes just like the two youths. Now that he didn’t feel the need to rush anymore, however, checking out the perceived competition could easily wait one more day. Their beds wouldn’t be as comfortable as those on the ship, anyway.