-Knock.

“I’m awake, what’s up?”

Roth slowly pushed open the door to Cundy’s room, his brow creasing as he saw his crewmate. He hadn’t heard any snoring, and now he saw that the reason was because Cundy wasn’t sleeping.

Instead, he had pulled a small nightstand in front of his bed and was using a pen to scratch something down on the paper.

“Hendricks woke up. Should I wake Holl right away, or let him sleep longer?”

Cundy’s eyes looked somewhat unfocused and lost as he glanced up at Roth.

“Wake him, probably. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

The black and gold pen in Cundy’s hand was lowered back down to the paper even as he spoke. It didn’t seem too odd for Cundy to write stuff down- he had previously kept track of their goods on the ship- but it was still very early in the morning.

Roth backed out, rejoining Alisa in the main room.

“Alright, please continue.”

“Regards are graded in five ways, do you know this?”

Roth nodded. Lia had previously explained it to him- Human, Spirit, Legend, Deity, and God tier Regards.

“More important than those are your progress through them. For example, someone with a ‘Second’ Spirit Regard will have a slight edge over a ‘First’ Legend Regarded.”

Alisa continued speaking as they walked over to Holl’s door.

“When you first get a Regard, it will be at Base. It has no abilities and does just about nothing. After you get some mist- the amount varies, depending on the tier- you will reach First, and gain an ability.”

Roth frowned for a moment, then remembered how Holl had seemed to appear out of nowhere when they were searching for him. Was it because of the mist he consumed?

“After first, there’s half. It doesn’t give an ability, but it strengthens the first ability and your body. If you gain more mist after that, you will advance to Second and gain another ability. After that, Full will strengthen your abilities and body again. It’s the end of advancement for a Regard, most of the time.”

Alisa’s explanation was paused as Roth woke Holl, and while the captain was getting up, the two younger folks headed over to the table.

“There is one more level after Full- Transcendent. You can’t reach it by just taking in more mist, though, and I’ve never personally met anyone who’s reached it.”

There were still a few chunks of jerky left on the table, and Alisa grabbed one while they waited for Holl and Cundy to arrive.

“I also haven’t heard of someone stealing part of a Regard, outside of some likely false stories. I do have a solid guess, though.”

Alisa pulled back her sleeve revealing a Regard snaking down the length of her arm.

“Mine is a Spirit Regard. If you have a higher-tiered Regard of a similar nature, it could explain how you took a part of mine.”

Higher than Spirit… is that a good thing? If it’s too high- a God-level one- will it start changing me?

Holl and Cundy both came out from their rooms after a short period of time, and Alisa’s composure collapsed after talking to them for a short time.

The ‘investigator team’ she’d been hoping to rely on seemed to know next to nothing, and even asked her to recite what she’d told Roth.

Rather than being trained professionals sent by Wilson to solve the island’s problems, these were just a bunch of random sailors.

“This… I’m not even sure what to do now.”

Alisa leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling.

“I only have one Regard, it’s a Full Spirit one. Both of the hunters should have Human Regards around half, but they seem to be convinced that I’m the one behind all of this, so they won’t be any help.”

Alisa looked back down at Holl.

“You should be a Spirit Regarded, somewhere around First, right? Cundy doesn’t have a Regard, and Roth is still at Base. The corruption- Lord Enthenglem- is at least a Half Deity.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Alisa slowly nodded.

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“It wouldn’t be impossible to deal with, if it was a human. I’ve already searched the entire town, though, for months. Either whoever has this Regard is impossibly cautious, or it isn’t a person at all. If it’s something like an artifact, I have no idea how to deal with that.”

“Can we just… run away?”

Roth looked over at the door as he spoke, and Alisa wasted no time answering him.

“No. Never. The people in this town helped raise me, and I’m not leaving them to become mind-controlled husks. Even if we ran, it would still catch up to us. Something at a Deity level won’t stop with a small island like this.”

Alisa unconsciously rubbed her Regard as she continued speaking.

“It’s not impossible for us to kill it. If its First ability is focused on mind control, I should be stronger than it in direct combat. Without the townsfolk there to protect it, Enthenglem is still a killable target.”

Just as Alisa finished speaking, there was a small noise outside the front door. Only Holl, Alisa, and her dogs managed to hear it, and all of them reacted simultaneously. Alisa and her pets bolted back to the bedroom, closing the door soundly behind her, while Holl drew his gun.

“More visitors. Hopefully not the bad kind.”

A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door, and Raymond’s tired old voice sounded.

“Sorry to wake you early, but there is danger in the town.”

“No worries, my crew and I were already awake and about to have some breakfast.”

Holl pulled the door open, but stood in the entrance, keeping the townsfolk outside from walking inside.

Raymond, Jean Farsue, and three other townsfolk were there, a few of them holding flintlocks.

“Did you hear all of the gunshots last night?”

Holl nodded at the townsfolk’s question.

“Was someone hunting too close to the town? It sounded pretty close.”

“Hendricks, Tolus, and Enric attempted to murder a number of townsfolk last night. It is only by Lord Enthenglem’s grace that we all made it through the night.”

The speaker peered behind Holl, trying to see inside the cabin.

“They are likely hiding out somewhere around town. If you see one of them, strike them down immediately.”

The speaking townsfolk tried to peer inside again.

“Your inside door, why-”

“If your crew could join us in searching for the culprits, it would be helpful.”

Jean Farsue suddenly cut off the other villager, then gave a small bow to Holl.

“Much of the town is awake already and searching, so I already cooked up a large pot of stew and bread. There is a lot extra, I will bring you some. Praise Lord Enthenglem!”

Jean patted the suspicious townsfolk’s shoulder.

“Come, help me bring some food over. Even in a tough time like this, Lord Enthenglem must still provide for all.”

After thanking Holl for his time, the townsfolk dispersed from their cabin’s entrance, leaving to search the rest of the town.

“Well, they’re definitely looking for her. If not for the baker being too devout to this evil lord, we might’ve been screwed there.”

Seeing as how Jean planned to come back, Alisa stayed in the bedroom. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the baker returned to the house, an entire small pot of stew in his hands. There was still only hardtack to go with it, but it was still a more than satisfactory breakfast.

There was even enough for Alisa to eat her fill, as well.

After dropping off the food for the crew, Jean gave another small bow.

“Once you’re done, please bring the pot back to my shop.”

-

-

After eating, the crew discussed their plans. It was tough for Alisa to move around the town, or even for her to just send her dogs out. They also didn’t think it was the greatest idea to leave her in the house alone.

If the townsfolk came back again and decided to investigate inside, it would spell the end of their stealth.

Eventually, Cundy and Roth decided to head out to search the town for any clues about who or where the corruption was now, while Holl stayed back to learn more about Regards and how to utilize his from Alisa.

According to the girl, the corruption was definitely moved away from the boat shed. Hearing her words, Roth was immediately reminded of the red dot he’d seen moving on the map.

It could be tracking it! Wherever the dot is, that might be where the corruption is!

After leaving the house behind Cundy, and while holding a now-empty stew pot, Roth paused by the side of the road and unfurled the map.

The red dot was in a similar position to before and was now in the small alleyway next to Tolus’s house.

That’s where I’ll check first, the- huh? There’s another red dot… and it’s moving?”

The new moving one was outside of the town’s bounds, on the southern side of town. It wasn’t actually too far from their cabin.

As Roth watched, though, it seemed to be moving eastward, away from their residence.

After a few more moments, Roth rolled up his map and tucked it inside his backpack. Picking up the pot once more, he continued on to the bakery. The streets of the town were even busier than any of the other days he’d been in town, and a lot of folks were carrying whichever firearms they could get their hands on.

Jean was already waiting inside the bakery when Roth arrived, and he thanked the young man for bringing back his cooking tool.

“Your name is Roth, correct? I’ve heard that you have some skills in cartography. Directional intelligence is a great thing to have, especially when searching for enemies. Please join me today in hunting for the attackers.”

Jean Farsue reached under the counter, then straightened back up before placing a flintlock on the countertop.

“You don’t need to worry about any danger, I will take care of it if we encounter any.”

Part of Roth wanted to decline and run back to the cabin, but another argued back. Ignoring all of the issues declining might cause, this could be a good opportunity.

If I’m with one of the town’s most devoted members, I shouldn’t be in any danger while looking into the corruption, so long as I don’t do anything irrational. The townsfolk don’t seem to have anything against us right now. This is a good opportunity to look into what the red dot by Tolus’s house is.

Seeing Roth nodding, Jean spoke again.

“Let’s head over to the eastern street first, then. Our Lord is telling me to search there.”

The place Jean suggested was the same one Roth wanted to check out.