Any invisibility potion had one major flaw. The invisibility wore off, as if the person that used the invisibility potion touched water. The effect would just wear off, even if a drop of water touched them. So coating an invisibility potion on a ship served no purpose.

Brimstones, which turned invincible when infused with mana, and used to make Levi's armour, negated the water effect, but using that is one way to sink under the ocean.

There was a way around it. A special and expensive invisibility relic, which wouldn't be affected by water.

However, the item's production was stopped about 150 years ago, after a major event occurred to stop the production of this item.. No sailor, awakeners, or the king and any other races could own the item.

After all, the item's key ingredient was a mermaid's core.

The Siren's Heart possessed such stealth powers that none of the monsters in the ocean would spot the ship which made the journey in the Riviera seem like a field trip. Even the strongest of awakeness and elves with exceptional senses had a hard time to spot anything under the magic of this relic .

John, after he came from the dark region, was even investigated to check if he owned the Siren's Heart.

Every laboratory that produced the relic was destroyed and the people who made it were handed to the mermaids. The treatment of those alchemists received...well, it's better for everyone's mental health not to know about it.

Some of the Siren's Hearts survived the testimony of time and the surveillance of mermaids. Every race on the continent agreed to destroy every relic and their owners, too. This made owning and selling the relic hard, but not impossible.

The remaining ones, less than ten, were being sold in the black market. The mermaids, with the help of other races, did catch some owners, but never the relic, and their attempt to destroy the black market also failed.

The primary producers, buyers and sellers of Siren's Heart were humans. They also made the black market. Though the humans helped them, it still made the relations between the mermaids and humans sour, to the point, if any human came to their region without any official documents which needed the Emperor's signature, the person would be killed without a chance to explain themselves.

Levi knew a way to get into the mermaid's territory, without going to those long, boring government papers, but the ship coming at him ruined the plan he had, and put him in a predicament. The mermaids will be killed for their hearts if he ignores the ship or be sold off to a fat, moustached nobleman who will ravage them for his nightly activity.

The second problem was, even if Levi ignored them, the smugglers wouldn't. If Levi did win, he would then have two options. Rescue the mermaids and take them back to their hometown, which would ruin everything he planned before.

'What if I just kill them and throw them into the ocean?'

He thought about that option for a while, but disregarded it. He didn't want to run his whole life to escape from the wrath of those mermaids.

The future really was dire and too annoying to deal with, but he had to focus on the now.

'Central eye, check every section of the ship, don't leave a single corner. See how many people are there, evaluate their strength and start your debuff spell on the strongest of them all?'

[As you wish]

The central eye got to work. Levi took off the Portable barrier and headed to the room where Rika was sleeping.

'She has hardly slept for an hour.'

But he still woke her up. She wasn't fully awake, but once she heard him talk about mermaids being kidnapped, all the tiredness in the body ran out of fear. Even she knew the consequences of the act those smugglers had committed.

He then explained everything he was about to do and asked Rika to do one thing.

"Hide behind this pillow."

Rika denied doing so. Let him fight while she hid under the pillow, waiting and praying for him to come out alive. It didn't sit right with her. He had just fought a hydra, and without any rest was about to fight a crew whose strength and identity were unknown.

"You can't fight alone. I can use the power of the relic and drown-"

"No, you won't"

He interrupted Rika, and the surrounding atmosphere changed. It became heavy and suffocating.

"You passed out, fixing the damage. Drowning the ship could take your life. And don't tell me you are ready to do so. I can't afford to lose you."

Levi said.

Rika looked down in frustration. Whatever he said was true, and she couldn't argue more.

"And I want to deal with them in my own way, a way that satisfies me."

She felt Levi's hand on her head, but it was not warm like how it usually was. She glanced at him and instinctively jumped back.

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The smile he wore and the glint in his eyes were the same. No, even darker and sinister than what she saw when he was killing the hydra.

Her mouth turned dry as her body moved on its own to behind the pillow. Levi closed the magic lamp and walked towards the door. Rika in the dark, still shaking, heard a faint mummer as Levi closed the door and started locking it from outside.

"How should I kill them?"

Rika now prayed not for him but for the men that were walking into the den of a...something she couldn't understand, but fear.

After locking the door, Levi then toured the ship and turned off the magic lamps in all the rooms and throughout the entire ship, making it completely dark.

He wore his brimstone armour, and waited in the dark and his mother's voice intruded his mind again.

'You can get out of this without killing anyone, Seiko.'

'I am not strong enough for that. Showing mercy could cost me my life'

Levi replied.

'And.... I am feeling quite hungry today.'

His blood lust was winning again. He was aware, but like a drug addict, he couldn't help but want more. The stain of blood, the agony, the scream of pain, and the eye losing its light, just imagining it, sent shivers down his spine.

'I am messed in the head.'

********

"Aye, Charles, why do you have the face of a dead corpse? Don't be weird. Come with me and join the crew for a few drinks."

"Weird? Aren't you too nonchalant after what we just did?"

Charles said. He was on a red sofa in the corner of the room, biting his nails and calculating the worst that could happen to them. His partner in crime, Hummels drank the bottle of a rum whole without a break.

Once the rum was finished, he let out a satisfied noise and sat next to Charles.

"You are too much of a coward. Who's gonna catch us now? The mermaids couldn't sense our presence. The ship's invisible and if anybody notices, you can do the wizardry stuff that you do."

"I cannot teleport all of you without sacrificing my life, and I don't think we are close enough for me to sacrifice myself."

Charles replied.

"Of course you won't sacrifice your life for the crew."

Hummels wrapped his arm around Charles' shoulder and grinned, showing his crooked teeth.

"You don't need to do that. They are strangers to you, but we two are brothers. You won't teleport me? The person who has been your friend for 10 years now?"

Charles got away from the stink of alcohol coming from Hummels' mouth.

"I wished I never met you that day and stayed as an honest imperial magician."

"Honest? You are the greediest person I have seen. You would kill me for a copper coin."

Hummels replied.

"I'd rather be called greedy than a woman-chasing horny dog. I still can see what you see in in that woman so much. She is like every regular chick you have fucked. Maybe the biggest hoe out of them all"

Charles had been with Hummels for a long time. His friend, who had the crookedest teeth of all humanity, loved alcohol to the point his liver might be immune to it now. And of course he loved women, but never did he have a serious relationship with anyone.

It was always a one-night stand. But now Charles could see a different intoxication running in his friend's mind, other than the alcohol. Lust or love he didn't know, but Hummels was ready to do anything for that woman.

"Charles"

The drunk called the magician's name and cracked the rum bottle he held on the wall. The bottle broke and pieces of glass pierced his hand, to which he showed no reaction at all. He pointed the shattered bottle at his friend , as the drunkenness in his eyes disappeared.

"Say anything you want about me. Curse me, drag my name through the mud to the whole damn world, but not a single bad word against Violet. Don't even speak of her."

Hummels let go of the bottle and stood up from the sofa in anger. As he was about to walk out, he stumbled upon a chair and fell down on his knees. A small chuckle let him as he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

"So it takes 4 bottles for me to get drunk. I have fallen off from my prime drinking days."

Charles sighed. He picked his friend and started casting healing magic on the wounded hand.

"What's so special about her?"

"Everything. She is special in every way imaginable. You don't know what she does to you, Charles. Her voice, face, body, everything is greater than every woman and alcohol altogether I have ever tasted."

Hummels wasn't just praising her. His life now was devoted to her. To the point, Charles couldn't help but wonder if the woman was a succubus.

As Charles was about to say something, one of the crew knocked on the door, entered and took a step back, seeing the shattered glasses and blood on the floor.

He stood an inch away from the door, kept his back straight to show respect, and said,

"Captain Charles, we have spotted a ship coming from the south, straight towards us."

"From the south? Wasn't the port at Barl closed?"

Charles remembered that the port was closed, and if he also knew why. And by the look of it, the port wasn't going to open anytime soon.

They didn't have any way to connect to the outside world.

"If only someone dropped the Communication Orb into the ocean, trying to balance it on his head as a party trick."

Charles said as he looked at Hummels, acting as if he wasn't responsible for it.

"How big is the ship?"

Charles asked

"As big as ours. One archer from our crew used his [Detect] skill on the ship.

There isn't the presence of anyone on the ship, except a magic item that is steering the ship. The ship also seemed to be damaged, probably an attack from a hydra."

The man replied.

"But a hydra usually destroys the ship itself."

Charles, in the past, had some encounters with hydra, and those creatures barely left anything behind. Did the owner of the ship jump off and the hydra chased them, leaving the ship alone?

If so, it made sense for a ship to just steer like that without anyone on it. However, he couldn't come to conclusions yet. One wrong move and their months and months of hard work would end, with death as the parting gift.

Charles headed up. Hummels followed him with his drunk feet and ordered his men to gather around the deck. Charles saw the ship far away, its hazy silhouette getting clearer.

"Everyone should be on the guard. No drinking, no card games, and messing around until we identify what is inside that ship. Do you understand?"

Charles ordered

"Yes, captain."

The twenty men on the deck shouted, some sleepy, and most of them drunk out of their mind

Charles pointed at the archer and the other three men.

"Take a boat and check what is on the ship. If you find anything suspicious, do not touch it. Something goes wrong, runs or sends a signal."

The men nodded as they took a big gulp. They didn't want to get on a boat and sail the blue region, where they could be swallowed whole, but they couldn't defy the captain either. A death from the sea monster would be more merciful than one given by Charles. They got on to the boat, and the crew slowly let it down on the ocean.

Hummels could barely see the silhouette of the ship and questioned,

"That ship is far. Why didn't you put a barrier on their boat?"

Charles didn't answer that, cause Hummels wouldn't like it.

"Wash your face, you stink."

Charles said with a disgusting look and Hummels left the deck. Charles again looked at the silhouette of the ship getting closer and closer. Though the archer didn't find anybody on the ship, he couldn't help but worry.

He didn't know why, but something felt wrong. Not the ship, but whatever was inside it. He didn't have the skill of the archer, but the years of experience he had brought insights to him. And now every cell in his body wanted him to run away as far as he could.