The salty sea sprayed my face when the keel of the ship cut through a wave. I laughed and enjoyed the cool water on this warm day. We were out at sea on Fardream, a trading ship of House Salakin. The open sea glistened beautifully ahead in the horizon and the creaking of the wooden ship had a pleasant rhythm to it.

I had never been called by the sea, but having traveled a few days on the ship, I was starting to get the allure. There was a primal freedom to all this.

I looked behind me and saw Alik huddling against the mast, his face green and gray. He gave me a suffering look.

Veena approached with a steady gait. Her long blonde braid fluttered in the wind and she was dressed in a green skirt of fine cloth.

“Not often I see you not training,” she said.

I just smiled and gestured down. Veena leaned against the railing and saw my water globe spell. I was fishing to my father’s delight. I was using the water globe to catch the little snappers that often came for the barnacles on the ship’s hull. So far I had three in the barrel next to me. But the snappers were damn fast, and my ability to move the spell quickly was still limited.

“I should have known!” Veena said and crossed her arms. “Why will you not train with me?”

“You could train with Alik,” I suggested.

Veena looked at Alik, whose cheeks bulged when the ship suddenly rocked. 

Veena gave me an unimpressed look. 

“Look,” I said. “I enjoy training with you. In uhh… small doses, but—”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked and glared at me.

I sighed. How could I explain this delicately? Veena was great fun, and training with her sometimes was very productive, especially when I wanted to work on my barrier, or some subtler kinetic effects. But there was limited use I could get out of her currently.

“I need you to get stronger,” I simply said.

It started from her ears, but the furious blush reached all the way down to her neck. She balled her hands into fists and bit her lip so hard it drew blood.

“I know, okay!” she said. “Do you know how frustrating that is?”

I admittedly didn't. My problems were the exact opposite. I had to device training methods that involved multiple attackers. Only Ranok and the giant centipede had truly challenged me so far, and currently I was above those previous threats too.

I was really looking forward to Baros. It was said that almost everyone had a Class there and they had strong warriors and even a culture of using magic, although it was mostly artifact based.

Veena had expressed interest in learning artifact-based magic usage when she arrived on the continent. She apparently had a good relationship with some big shot in the family and would demand training from him.

This was really good for me.

Veena was now part of my strange little family, and it would be useful to have someone who could speak with the noblefolk. I had her teach Danek to do this, and he was an eager study. 

I contemplated teaching Veena Mana Absorption. I was starting to trust her. Despite all the haughtiness, entitlement and hot temper, she was… earnest and kind, as strange as that sounded.

“What are you going to do to get stronger?” I asked her.

She scuffed her feet. “Maybe I need to learn magic too. I know a build for an Evolved Warrior Class I could learn on Baros with my grandpa.”

“With artifacts?” I asked.

“Yes, like Ranok,” she said. “We could run some dungeons on Baros and get enough money, so I could buy artifacts that work well with my agile fighting style.”

“House Salakin won’t just give them to you?”

Veena gave me a dry look.

I raised my hands. “I don’t know anything about how these things work.”

“Hmph. Fair enough. You really do need me to teach you everything, don’t you?” 

“Yes, yes. So why won’t your family fund you? I thought you were good with your grandpa.”

“Oh grandpa loves me, but that’s just not how it works. Look, I’m very talented.”

She paused as if to weigh my reaction.

“I believe you,” I said.

“Hmph, you’re so annoying. But I really am. Father had always prepared for me to journey to Baros for a better life to join the main family.”

“But?” I asked.

“But Baros is on a completely new level. Me being talented on the archipelago makes me mediocre at best on Baros.”

“Why?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Natural attunement with mana? Just understanding how the System works, maybe? Nobody really knows what talent is made up of. But there’s also an advantage of living in a higher density mana area.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “When you have more mana available from food and air, you naturally use your Skills more and they develop faster.”

“I guess you do know something,” she said. “This is why Ranok was so dangerous. He trained all his life on Baros, so he had way faster advancement than I did.”

I could only imagine the monstrous rate of advancement that was possible at the higher tiers. I needed to beeline there, so I could cast the biggest baddest magic that has ever been seen!

“What are you thinking about, you magic pervert?” Veena said and narrowed her eyes. “I know that look. I hate that look.”

“I’m thinking maybe I should teach you a Skill.”

“What kind of Skill?”

“A good one. Related to use of mana. Alik has it.”

“I knew he had something like that! That boy has way too much stamina. He can use his Class Skills endlessly. Why is your little island producing monsters like this. If he keeps this up, I’ll be third rate. It pisses me off! Teach me that Skill! Why haven’t you brought this up before?”

I laughed as Veena went on blustering and berating me. She was such a sweetheart.

Yeah, I think I could trust her. I brought her down to my cabin and showed her the Skill Scroll.

“What in the…?” she gasped. “This is…”

I just grinned. Her reaction was even more shocked than Alik. She probably understood it’s value better.

“How did you get this? Do you have any idea how valuable this is?”

“It’s very nifty, I agree.”

“Nif — NIFTY!? This is an Epic grade Skill! The Perks must be…”

“Oh yeah, the Perk is really good. I think the Perks are stronger the higher the grade of the Skill is.”

“You think!? How are you so powerful when you aren’t even sure of basic knowledge? What Perk did you get at level 10?”

“Mana Augmentation,” I said. “It allows me to strengthen my body with mana, allowing me to, you know…”

I used the Perk and jumped in the air and did a double backflip.

Veena dropped the scroll. “You— I want that. Leave me!”

I laughed. “Keep the scroll on you for now. I trust you’ll learn it faster than Alik, so you’ll get to gloat. I think he is particularly receptive to gloating right now.”

We heard the sound of profound retching and something wet hitting a barrel above deck. Both of us broke into giggles.

I left Veena to study the scroll and checked in on Danek. When we had left, he had used a lot of money to purchase books. I found that a peculiar investment, but I trusted that he knew what he was doing. For a boy of only five years of age, he was very smart.

Good for me. The smarter he was, the less I needed to worry about things outside of magic.

He was propped on his stomach on the bed, reading a large tome. I figured I read in the exact same way, and I smiled fondly.

“Got a minute?” I asked and knocked on the doorframe.

Danek immediately closed the book. “For you? Always. What do you need?”

I shrugged and entered. “Nothing. Just wanted to check in on you. What are you reading?”

“Master Balator’s Introduction to Trade and Barter,” Danek said excitedly. “It outlines the basics of local economics, arbitrage and…”

I let him ramble on for a while. He gushed on about soup lies and dead mans until his candle went out.

“Excited for the continent,” I asked when he calmed down.

“Oh, very,” he said. “I am a little unprepared. I would have preferred to consolidate my wealth and experience in Aligapa further, but your advancement is key.”

“You put a lot of faith in me,” I said.

“It’s not blind faith,” Danek said. “You… You simply don’t seem to appreciate the effect you have on your local reality.”

“That is an interesting way of putting it.”

“I observe people,” Danek said. “And I usually can predict what people will do. You are the most predictable of anyone I know, but I still find myself amazed by you.”

“Stop it,” I said and laughed awkwardly. “I hear this so much from my parents already.”

“Well, that’s because they know you and spend so much time with you,” Danek said and offered a tentative smile. “Because they’re your family.”

He let that hang in the air. I scooted closer and put an arm around him.

“Just like you are,” I said. He looked down and let out a little cough.

“I’m so grateful to have joined your adventure,” he said quietly. “Ever since I can remember thinking, I have longed to see what was beyond the shores of Asaid.”

“Well it's our adventure now,” I said. “Or do you really believe I can be bothered to learn about soup lies?”

“It’s not soup lies!” he cried. “There’s no soup! It’s SUPPLY!”

I laughed and we chatted a bit more. Eventually I left him to his reading and headed back towards the deck, as I contemplated my own advancement and next steps.

I had done some reading myself on the ship. Mez’s spellbook still had some value, although at this point I had already learned to cast all of the forty-eight spells in the book.

Most of them were small utility cantrips and not worth developing further. Not because they weren’t immensely interesting, but because I needed to become more powerful, and right now that meant deeper specialization, not a broader toolkit. 

Fortunately, since I had the Keen Mind perk, it was really easy for me to memorize the spells. I just needed to cast the spells correctly once, and the perk would make sure I remembered how the spell formula was supposed to go.

That didn’t mean I had mastered the book. There was still value in combining magical effects from different runes and symbols. I knew the language now, and I knew a lot of words and how to make sentences out of them. But I wasn’t fluent yet; and I was far from a master.

This actually made me happy. Magic was such a wonderful mountain to scale! I never wanted it to end.

There was one interesting thing I had noticed when learning these spells. I had learned some fire magic, some light magic, and even some earth magic cantrips. But they were all much more difficult for me to control than water and kinetic magic. Especially so when I used my cultivation to cast magic. I asked about this from Veena, but she just shrugged and told me to ask someone on the main continent.

I had my own suspicions about why water and kinetic magic were so much easier for me, but it was too early to draw conclusions. Wind was also fairly easy, but I figured that was because it resembled kinetic magic a lot. Either way, I would learn more once we arrived on the continent.

For now I would keep perfecting Lingering Casting. I could use it well with my barrier, but Water Jet would benefit greatly from it too. I would also need to get faster at casting structured magic, now that I could free up mental space. I could learn to stack lingering effects and create some crazy bullshit!

I leaned against the ship’s rail, lost in my thoughts. Eventually Veena returned with triumph on her face and proclaimed she had learned the Skill. I congratulated her, after which she immediately proceeded to rub it in Alik’s face. He looked at me from his vomit-barrel like I had betrayed him. Veena returned to lean on the railing next to me. 

Soon seagulls started flying overhead and the sailors noticed.

“Captain!” the first mate yelled. “We are approaching the islands!”

“Very good!” the stocky captain said brusquely as he leaned against the helm on the upper deck. “Prepare the caltrops. I will activate Sailwinds and Still Waters. We have good wind, and should use it. Tovo and Jens, man the harpoons.”

There were some more instructions from the captain. I looked at Veena questioningly. She realized what I was doing and took on a smug expression.

“Oh, I sometimes forget that you’re a baby who doesn’t know anything.”

“Yeah, yeah… What’s this about?”

“See those islands over there?”

I covered my eyes from the sun and peered into the distance and nodded. Even though it was a clear day, there was thick fog in that direction, but I could see the outline of two large islands and several small ones.

“Those are the Pirate Islands,” Veena said. 

“That’s where the Trola are from?” 

Veena nodded. “Not all Trola are pirates, but all pirates are Trola,” she said. “Hence the name. They call their home something else, but who cares about that.”

“So what is the crew doing?”

“They are preparing for a possible attack. The pirates have been more active the last months for some reason. We should be fine as long as it isn’t the Pirate Prince Bom—”

“Oh no!” the first mate cried out. “It’s him! It’s Pirate Prince Bombasar!”