Splash!
Waves crashed against the ship’s hull, sending a spray of seawater across the deck and splattering against a pair of immaculate black boots.
Anne stared towards the water as a figure appeared, swimming through it without a struggle. He was also keeping his head down the entire time, no longer needing to turn his head to take in fresh air.
Her grip over the whip loosened slightly as she looked at the scene below.
‘Not bad, he’s improved quite a bit over the past several weeks.’
One could argue that the past several weeks had been hell for Lazarus.
Waking up early in the morning, before even having breakfast, he was thrown off the ship and forced to follow the ship while swimming.
The first few days were the worst.
Because he wasn’t used to swimming, and his form wasn’t very good, his pace was quite slow.
In order to keep up with him, the ship had to slow down.
This reduced their speed significantly, in turn making their trip to the Remnant South longer than it was initially intended to be.
Thankfully, the waters were rather tranquil, and most of the surrounding monsters stayed clear away from the ship.
But to Lazaurs, the waters felt incredibly dangerous.
He could hardly see ahead, and besides the ship, it almost felt as though he was alone in the middle of the vast ocean.
It was an unnerving situation.
One that he forced himself to go through as his speed increased with the coming of days.
By the time it took for him to unlock the spell [Water Breathing], over a week had passed.
The true change happened then.
With the ability to breathe underwater, he was able to increase his pace quite significantly.
The ship also moved faster as a result.
Furthermore, by constantly using the spell [Water Breathing], his mastery over it increased just ever so slightly.
It didn’t take long for him to use the spell as though it were second nature to him.
Thankfully, because his knowledge of spells and runes had increased with the time he spent in the world, he was able to unlock the spell within a week, which was considered to be moderately paced for an intermediate-ranked spell.
Still quite slow for someone of his level.
Splash! Splash!
With his arms fluidly moving into the water, Lazarus slowly turned his head to look a little back.
His eyes paused on the figure that wasn’t too far away from him.
Lazarus wasn’t the only one training.
An’as was also training the same way that he was. Of course, it wasn’t because he wanted to, but because Lazarus had forced him to.
It was all because of his stupid curiosity.
On the same day An’as found himself asking Lazarus what he was doing, he found himself thrown off the boat and forced to swim next to him.
‘Damn it! Damn it….!’
The only good thing about the situation was that he was more talented than Lazarus in swimming due to his more powerful physique.
It was still a massive pain in the ass.
Splash! Splash!
The two continued to swim in the crimson colored waters, their figures gliding smoothly following the ship.
They continued to swim like this unit a certain voice echoed from the top of the ship.
“Alright, that’s enough for now.”
The first one to move was An’as as he came to a sudden stop before kicking the water and jumping up, his feet touching against the surface of it as he dashed forward, his steps leaving ripples behind.
Lazarus followed after, his hand pressing against the water surface as though it were made out of solid, and he pulled himself out of it.
Then, with his legs resting against the water surface, he helped himself up and calmly walked towards the distant ship, his every step leaving a ripple behind.
This was another spell that he had learned over the past several weeks.
It was an advanced spell, and it was one that he had spent a long time trying to learn.
[Gliding]
In order to use this spell, one needed to have absolute control over their mana, coating their bodies with a set of runes that enabled them to treat any surface as though it were a solid object.
Because the spell had no specific elemental affinity, it was much easier to learn, but at the same time, Lazarus understood that with the limits of his current talents, his rate of mastery was going to be extremely slow.
Especially compared to [Curse] type spells.
The same was true for [Water Breathing].
It would take a very long time for him to master that spell due to his lack of talent in the [Water] element.
But that was fine.
He never intended to master the spells to begin with.
He just needed the bare basics in order to put up a challenge against the other lords.
“Hurry up. You’re moving too slowly!”
Overhearing Anne’s words, Lazarus picked up his pace, eventually running towards the ship as he smacked his foot against the water and jumped onto the ship.
Thud.
“Dry yourself.”
A towel appeared in front of him the moment he landed on the ship, as he took hold of it and started to dry his hair.
“I see a lot of improvement between the two of you. An’as, I’m rather surprised by your talent… You have a lot more talent in this aspect than this weird merchant in front of us. Have you ever thought of becoming a pirate?”
“I have no interest in it.”
An’as shook his head and quickly rejected her offer.
“My faith is with the goddess. I do not have any interest in becoming a pirate.”
“I see… What a pity.”
Anne’s focus then turned towards the merchant.
“Well, you’re doing good too…”
It was very clear to her that he didn’t have a lot of talent to be a pirate. What took others days to learn took him weeks to learn. The speed was fine, but at the same time, she could see that it would be incredibly hard for him to reach higher levels with the spells in the future.
He was just not very talented in these aspects, which was fine since he only needed to know the bare basics.
Regarding everything else…
Nothing really needed to be said, as even Anne found him scary whenever she saw him train.
While training in the water, Lazrus didn’t neglect his regular training.
He continued to refine his domain, trying to find ways to fully combine the two while at the same time, trying to reach the seventh tier.
He was just a little shy away from reaching the halfway point of Tier 6.
His rate of progress was incredibly fast, but he was still not satisfied. He wanted to grow faster.
…However, from the way things stood, he’d need at least a year or two before reaching tier 7.
It felt slow, but he was on track with beating the woman from the Empire in terms of speed of progress.
Her progress started considerably normal compared to others, but her true monstrous aspect came from her progression in the later stages of her tiers.
It was almost as if she got faster and faster the more she progressed.
Laazrus was on track with beating someone like that.
But still…
It wasn’t enough for him.
He wanted more.
“The two of you should go back and get changed for now. There’s still quite a bit that you need to learn, but we’re starting to cross the quarter point of the journey. We’ll have to grow more alert from this point. I’m afraid that we’ll soon be getting eyed by the other lords.”
Lazarus’s expression flickered upon hearing her words.
At his current strength, he wasn’t sure if he could put up a fight against the other lords.
Especially not if they joined hands together in order to fight them.
‘Rather than waiting for them to inevitably come, it’s best if we directly attack them…’
The thought crossed Lazarus’s mind as he scanned his surroundings.
It was much better to attack than to be attacked. They would hold the advantage then.
Lazarus held onto the thought for now.
They still had some time. He planned on training further in the meantime.
‘I’ll think about it more when the time comes.’
Taking a deep breath, Lazarus excused himself and moved towards his own room, closing the door behind him.
Clank!
As he did, he paused for a moment and stared at his own hand.
It was trembling faintly.
His lips pursed, and his just barely faint hints of clarity appeared in his gaze.
‘….You better come before it’s too late.’
***
Haven.
It was busy in the Academy.
Time passed, and while not all wounds healed, the general mood had improved in a few people.
At least… for now.
“Hand in your papers. Your exams are over.”
As the Professor’s voice echoed through the room, several figures sat silently by the desk, their bodies entirely white, as though every trace of pigment had been drained from them. Eyes closed and faint smiles on their faces, they appeared eerily serene.
The figures were Evelyn, Aoife, and Leon.
“Congratulations on finishing your theoretical exams. I wish all of you good luck for your upcoming graduation trial.”
Even as the Professor left and so did most of the class, they remained in their seats with their bodies completely still.
Eventually, Kiera arrived before them and adjusted her glasses with her finger.
“I take it that you all bombed the exams.”
“…..”
The three came to life the moment they heard Kiera’s words as their faces scrunched up.
This was especially so for Aoife, who almost felt tempted to spit on the ground.
She didn’t because she had an image to maintain.
Staring at Kiera, she felt disgusted as she started mumbling things like, ‘where is the Kiera that I know? Since when did she get so good at studying? This makes no sense…’
Evelyn nodded beside her, repeating like, ‘yeah, yeah. Makes no sense. I’ve even checked to see if she was possessed, but it doesn’t look like it. Should I check again?’
“What the fuck?”
Overhearing their conversation, Kiera looked at them in disgust.
She felt rather insulted.
Then…
Her head slowly turned towards Leon, who was looking at the air absentmindedly.
He seemed lost in his own thoughts. Something that had been happening quite often lately.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Only when Kiera called out to him that Leon snap out of it as he looked at her.
“It’s nothing.”
He shook his head, reaching for his neck as he started to massage it.
“I was just thinking about the upcoming graduation trial. It’s tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah…”
Kiera answered slowly, her head throbbing after thinking about the long journey that was ahead. From what they had been told, they’d need to stay in the Mirror Dimension and survive for several months.
That…
It sounded like such a pain.
“I see.”
Leon nodded faintly, his gaze turning unfocused for a brief moment.
“….I see.”