Chapter 306 (Patreon)

The sun still lingered on the horizon, stretched thin across the sky like molten gold refusing to fade, as the vessel pushed farther from the safety of the port. The city behind them shrank into a blur of rooftops and noise, until even the shouting of merchants and gulls became nothing more than a memory swallowed by the wind.

At first, the sea was gentle.

The waves rolled gently beneath the hull, rocking the ship in a slow, almost comforting rhythm, as if the ocean itself had decided to play host instead of predator. The sails caught the breeze with a steady pull, and for a moment, it felt less like a dangerous expedition and more like an unexpected escape.

Suri, of course, embraced it immediately.

She stood at the very front of the ship, arms slightly spread, letting the wind rush against her as her red hair danced wildly behind her. There was a brightness in her expression that only came when she found something new to enjoy.

“This is actually fun,” she said, her voice carried easily by the wind.

Kana stood a few steps behind her, arms crossed, eyes narrowed not at the sea but at Suri herself. “Be careful. One wrong step and you’ll end up feeding the fish.”

Suri glanced back, a smirk already forming. “I can fly, remember?”

As if to prove her point, she lifted herself slightly off the deck, hovering just a few centimeters above the wood. A quiet little victory she clearly wanted acknowledged.

Kana sighed, shaking her head. “What a showoff.”

At the very tip of the beam, Thorne mirrored Suri’s enthusiasm in her own peculiar way. The small lizard stood proudly at the edge, eyes closed, basking in the wind like a tiny monarch claiming dominion over the sea. Her body swayed slightly with the motion of the ship, but she didn’t seem the least bit bothered. If anything, she looked pleased.

Two mortal enemies seemed to be in agreement today, Kana thought, both equally proud of themselves for not touching the ground.

Behind them, however, reality struck with far less grace.

Boris looked like he was fighting for his life.

He staggered slightly before dropping heavily onto a crate, gripping the edge of it as if the world itself had decided to tilt against him. His face had gone pale, lips pressed tight as he swallowed whatever rebellion his stomach was preparing.

“I hate this,” he muttered, voice strained.

Kana turned, and for a moment, she simply stared at him. Then she laughed. 

“Stop acting like a small girl.”

Boris slowly lifted his head, eyes filled with betrayal. “That… somehow hurt more than this,” he said, gesturing weakly toward the sea, which seemed to tilt again just to prove his point.

After a few moments, the ship creaked as it carried them farther out, the gentle waves beginning, ever so slightly, to lose their patience.

The sea did not bother with warnings. It simply changed its mind.

One moment, the vessel drifted like a leaf in a lazy river, and the next, it was a splinter caught in the breath of something vast and unseen. The waves rose without pattern, not quite storm-driven, not quite natural either, as though the ocean itself had grown restless beneath the sun’s calm gaze. The sky remained bright, almost mockingly so, while the water below churned with a quiet kind of violence.

Kana stood near the edge of the boat, her balance unshaken despite the wild pitching beneath her feet. It wasn't an effort, not really. Her body simply… knew. Adjusted. Like a blade finding its center.

Behind her, the chaotic waves had chosen its victims.

Boris clung to the side of the vessel with both hands, his face pale in a way that no battlefield had ever managed to achieve. The massive spear strapped to his back looked almost comical now, as though it belonged to someone braver. Or at least someone with a stronger stomach.

“I think we can find a few of those here,” Blitz called out over the crashing waves, his voice carrying the confidence of a man who had already decided survival was likely enough to be worth the risk. “This is the gentlest part.”

Suri, gripping a thick rope near the center of the ship, turned toward him with narrowed eyes. “You consider this gentle?”

Blitz didn’t answer. Men like him rarely explained the sea. They just survived it.

Instead, Mik and Jam scrambled into motion, hauling open wooden crates that groaned in protest. The scent that spilled out wasn’t pleasant. It was mineral-heavy, with a faint rot beneath it, like something dredged from a place that sunlight had long forgotten. Inside were squat, brick-like stones, dull gray at first glance but threaded with faint veins that shimmered when the light struck just right.

Blitz lifted one, knocking it against the crate’s edge. The sound was heavier than it should’ve been.

“From your reaction, you are new to these things,” he said, holding it up, “These are what you’ll use to get down there fast.”

Kana’s gaze lingered on the stone, her mind already working through the implications.

“These things react to saltwater,” Blitz continued. “Once you’re in, they’ll drag you straight to the seabed. Faster than any skill you’ve got, unless you’ve got wings hidden somewhere.”

Suri snorted softly at that, though her grip on the rope didn’t loosen.

“Usually, they’re used for harvesting deep grass,” Blitz added. “Feed for magical beasts. Expensive stuff but very dangerous to get.”

Blitz reached into his coat and pulled out several small vials filled with a murky blue liquid. They sloshed thickly, like oil pretending to be water.

“And this,” he said, “keeps you from getting eaten on the way down. Turn your skin the color of the sea. Most creatures won’t bother looking twice.”

Kana opened her mouth to respond, already weighing cost against necessity, but Suri beat her to it.

“No need.”

There was a quiet confidence in her voice now. Not the playful kind she wore like a mask.

“I tested it,” Suri continued, brushing a strand of hair from her face as if they weren’t standing on a violently swaying deathtrap. “At the harbor and on the way here. My skills hold. Even in saltwater.”

Before anyone could question her, she lifted a hand. Mana stirred, faint but precise, and then Boris—

Boris turned blue. Not gradually. Not elegantly. One moment he was pale and miserable, and the next he looked like he had been painted by an artist with questionable judgment.

Suri smiled, pleased with herself. “See? Perfect.”

Boris stared down at his hands, then back at her, eyes wide with a mix of horror and betrayal. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again, but whatever protest he had drowned somewhere between the waves and his pride.

Thorne, perched atop his head, tilted her tiny lizard face, then nodded in solemn approval.

Kana exhaled slowly, somewhere between amusement and concern.

Blitz scratched his chin, studying Boris like a man reconsidering his own merchandise. “I guess…” he muttered, “that works.”

Then his expression changed..

The grin softened. The eyes sharpened like someone who had cheated death a few times.

The wind howled past them, carrying the scent of salt and something deeper, something older. The ocean stretched in every direction, vast and indifferent, its surface hiding whatever truths lay waiting below.

Blitz’s gaze lingered on them for a moment longer before he spoke again.

“Just remember,” he said, voice flat as the horizon, “out there… anything can happen.”

A wave crashed against the side of the vessel, sending a spray of cold seawater across the deck.

“If you die,” he added, almost casually, “we’re not coming after you.”

No one laughed.

Even Suri didn’t have a clever reply this time. Because beneath the noise of the waves and the creaking wood, beneath the strange tools and stranger magic, there was a simple truth settling in like weight in the gut—

Everything was going to be their first time.

Kana slipped beneath the surface like a blade disappearing into a sheath, the roaring waves swallowing her in a single, hungry gulp. One moment she stood against the chaos of wind and water, the next she was gone, leaving only ripples behind as proof she had ever been there at all. 

The sea closed over her with a heavy silence, muting the violence above into a distant, muffled thunder. Cold wrapped around her body immediately, sharper than she expected, seeping through the thin cloth she wore like a thousand tiny needles testing her resolve. For a heartbeat, her lungs protested, her instincts screamed to return to the surface, but something deeper—older—settled her. Familiar. That was the strange part. As if the ocean itself was not an enemy, but a place she had once known.

….

After a few moments, the ship creaked and groaned like an old beast unwilling to endure another storm. Suri stood at the edge, her staff faintly glowing as she maintained the illusion wrapped around Kana’s form, her usual confidence dimmed by the restless sea.

Captain Blitz was impressed by Kana’s skill to remain underwater for so long. He was chatting with Suri as they waited for Kana.

 “I’m telling you,” Suri muttered, more to herself than anyone else, “she doesn’t have any water-related skills.” Her fingers tightened around the wood as if gripping it could somehow tether Kana back to safety.

Captain Blitz, who had been squinting at the water with the practiced eye of someone who had seen too many bodies vanish beneath similar waves, suddenly swore under his breath. 

“That’s not bravery,” he said, voice rough, almost offended. “That’s madness.” His gaze flicked to Suri. “No water skill, You just let her jump?”

Suri didn’t answer immediately. She kept staring at the water, as if expecting Kana to resurface at any second with that usual calm expression, as if this were nothing more than a walk through the academy halls. 

“She said she’d be fine,” Suri replied at last, though the words sounded thinner than she intended.

Below, Kana descended.

The enchanted stone in her grasp did its work too well. The moment it drank in the saltwater, its weight multiplied, dragging her down faster than gravity alone ever could. The light from above fractured quickly, turning from bright gold to dim green, then to a murky blue that swallowed detail and distance alike. The deeper she went, the more the world simplified into pressure and motion, her ears ringing faintly as the ocean pressed in from all sides. Her body adjusted instinctively, movements efficient, controlled, each motion cutting cleanly through the water as if she had trained for this countless times before.

Strange.

She noticed it again. That quiet familiarity. The way her limbs moved without panic. The way her mind stayed clear instead of drowning in instinctive fear. It was as though some part of her—something buried beneath layers of memory she couldn’t quite reach—recognized this place.

Shapes began to form in the dimness below. Jagged rock formations stretched like the ribs of some ancient beast, and between them, long strands of deep-sea grass swayed with the current, slow and hypnotic. The chain at her waist rattled softly, a thin reassurance that the world above still existed, that she could return if she needed to.

Then she saw them.

Among the rocks, half-buried in the seabed, were clusters of dark spheres—too smooth, too perfect to be natural stone. Black pearls. Even in the dim light, they held a faint, unnatural sheen, as if they drank in what little light reached them and refused to give it back.

Kana reached forward, her fingers brushing against one.

She squinted her eyes, [High Awareness] in full effect. There was a familiar bluish light not so far away from her.

Above the surface, the waves crashed harder against the hull, and Blitz clicked his tongue, unease settling into his bones. “She’s been down too long, you sure she’s still alive?” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Post note:

Someone needs an anti sickness medicine. Wish we get a potion version soon 😂

2nd chap of the week!Hope you enjoy the chap 🙂

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