The blazing sun beat down mercilessly.
Wearing nothing but his underwear, Dylan sprawled spread-eagle on the rear deck, mixing with the salty sea breeze. He felt like a salted fish—one that was nearly dried out.
The scout's mimicked backpack leaned against the shadow cast by the ship's cabin. Today its magical power was still sufficient, so it hadn't drawn from Dylan's reserves.
The sound of boots scraping against the deck approached. A one-eyed, dark-skinned burly man carrying a bag arrived at the rear deck and immediately spotted Dylan in the midst of his performance art. Clearly, he was already used to this sight.
"Sunbathing again, Dylan? You really don't tan at all, do you?" He tossed the bag in his hands overboard from the stern, then continued, "By the way, didn't I tell you that you could sunbathe on the forward deck? Some of the planks back here still haven't been replaced."
Just as he said, one of the planks beneath Dylan was indeed broken partway through.
"Garon, dumping garbage back here again?" Dylan opened his eyes to glance at the first mate stepping over him, then said helplessly, "The forward deck is crawling with sailors going back and forth. If I lie there, I'd be in everyone's way. Even if they don't say anything, I'd feel awkward about it."
"Heh, you..." Without lingering long, the first mate soon returned to the cabin.
Dylan continued lying there until evening, fully charging his magical power for the next several days.
He found the ship's second mate and requested a bucket of fresh water to take back to his room.
The second mate was a water-system mage. For thirty silver coins, Dylan could get a bucket of water from him daily.
In fact, any decent ship would have someone capable of creating fresh water aboard. More advanced vessels would even have priests skilled in healing, though this ship only had an ordinary ship's doctor.
After setting aside water for drinking, Dylan placed Puffshrooms into the bucket. Only after Puffshrooms had absorbed enough did Dylan use the remaining water with a towel to wipe down his verdant green body after canceling [Mimicry].
Through the window, Dylan watched the three-colored moons rise one by one, calculating their journey in his mind.
It had already been over twenty days. Probably less than a week remained before they could reach Siren Island.
Though it wasn't Dylan's final destination of Silver Sand Bay, ship traffic between the islands was frequent, so finding passage from Siren Island to Silver Sand Bay would be easy.
Once he reached Silver Sand Bay, he'd immediately seek out local information brokers.
During this journey, Dylan had given much thought to matters concerning himself and his daughter. The mainland's situation was growing increasingly tense—war could break out any day now.
After finding Bella, perhaps he should come clean about his current state and take Bella with him to the underground city to avoid trouble. At the very least, they should stay in rear towns like Windless Town, lest they get caught up in warfare someday.
With the backing of his boss, their safety would be far more assured in any case.
Of course, Dylan absolutely refused to let Bella become parasitized as well. Setting aside everything else, Bella was naturally beautiful—how could she be transformed into his kind of grotesque mixture of flesh and mycelium? Turning green would be even more unacceptable!
*Dong dong—dong dong—*
The sound of gongs Dylan had never heard before drifted from outside the window, interrupting his thoughts.
What was happening?
Shouldering his backpack, Dylan opened his room door to find other passengers also emerging from their quarters.
"It's the Blood Shark!" As soon as he left the cabin, Dylan heard the lookout's repeated shouts from the crow's nest.
Blood Shark?
That sounded like the kind of name a pirate ship would have.
"Hard to port! Catch the westerlies! They're running a triangular sail—they're much faster than us in crosswinds!" The ship's captain, normally nowhere to be seen, was now personally commanding loudly on deck. "All oarsmen below deck, below deck! Start rowing!"
Dylan ran to the ship's rail and looked around, quickly spotting the triangular-sailed vessel following behind them. He could even faintly make out the black flag hanging from its mast.
Unlike the Windfeather, which was still organizing its oarsmen, the triangular-sailed ship's dark oars were already rising and falling rhythmically in the ocean on both sides.
Dylan felt that, never mind whether the Windfeather could outrun them at full speed, the enemy would probably catch up during just the time it took them to reach top speed.
"How... how are they so fast?" one sailor said in disbelief.
The captain seemed to realize something: "Damn it, they must have a wind-system mage!"
He then looked toward Dylan's group of passengers who had emerged from the cabin to observe the situation, calling out loudly: "Do any of you have a wind-system mage? If so, step forward quickly! If we're caught by pirates, none of us will have a good time!"
The passengers looked at each other, but no one stepped forward.
Which made sense—this was originally a cargo ship, and the passengers were just hitching rides. There were only eight or nine people total, and forget wind-system mages, there probably weren't any mages at all.
"Everyone back to your cabins, back to your cabins! Don't cause trouble on deck right now!" Seeing no wind mages, the captain directly shooed everyone away. He had no time to manage these passengers now.
Some passengers were too anxious to return, but Dylan went back to his room.
"Would a Diamond-rank become a pirate?" Lin Jun asked directly through the mycelial network.
The two ships were still relatively far apart, so Lin Jun couldn't see the status panels of those on the opposite ship.
Dylan immediately analyzed: "Not many, but some do. To dare attack a ship alone, they'd need at least multiple Gold-rank combatants. At minimum, the mage who can control their sails is definitely Gold-rank."
Multiple Gold-ranks...
If he used the knight they'd killed earlier as the Gold-rank standard, the scout could handle one quite confidently, would need some time for two, and would face a hard battle against three.
Add in a bunch of pirate minions, and it would become even more troublesome.
Fortunately, the Windfeather wasn't without combat power either. The captain was a level 42 warrior, and the first mate had level 35 strength. If conflict broke out, they could share some of the pressure.
However...
"Dylan, will the pirates kill everyone after boarding?"
In Lin Jun's impression, even medieval pirates would only massacre everyone if they were among the most vicious. Some pirates who controlled territories on a larger scale would even transform into toll-collectors of sorts, though that was getting off-topic—the one behind them clearly wasn't that type.
"Kill everyone? Probably not. But boss, the pirates will most likely capture everyone on the ship as slaves..."
Why didn't the island leaders do something about this kind of trade-disrupting behavior?
Or were they unable to manage it all?
There wasn't much time to think. From outside the window, he could already hear the pirate ship catching up from behind.
The backpack form wasn't quite suitable now. If the pirates searched backpacks later, it would be hard to explain. Lin Jun didn't want to stick out like that. Regardless of whether he could win, it would expose too much. If the pirates were just here for some quick money, Lin Jun didn't plan to interfere.
Controlling the scout Puffshrooms to mimic again, the backpack quickly transformed into a solid wooden stool, with all tentacles hidden inside its body.
"Quick, place me somewhere inconspicuous on the deck."
The reason for staying on deck was fear that being too far from Dylan might prevent timely response if something happened.
When Dylan came out carrying the scout, he suddenly felt something odd—had their ship's speed decreased?
Looking up, he saw a white flag hanging from the mast...
So the captain was this pragmatic? Seeing escape was impossible, he decisively surrendered?
Setting down the scout, Dylan saw the pirate ship now nearly alongside them.
"Everyone stay where you are and don't move!" With a shout heavy with regional accent, several grappling hooks bit into the ship's rail. Before long, over thirty pirates had leaped aboard the Windfeather's deck.
The leader, a scarred man, twirled the curved blade in his hand while smiling as he surveyed everyone on deck.
Meanwhile, Lin Jun pulled up status panels for all the pirates.
Three Gold-ranks.
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