At the edge of the cloud, there was a brilliant white patch, like a turning page catching the sun. The rest was dove grey with a subtle hint of purple, just enough to announce the coming sunset. The coastline welcomed sea and sky, the bluest of brothers, together with a covenant of everlasting beauty. Along with nature's evening sky and coastline, the man-made harbor formed a scene that looked like a painting. The ships of all sizes floated on the water, taking the rest they deserve before starting their journey.
This was not a military harbor so there weren't any warships like a brigade or man of war. The biggest ship that could be seen on the harbor was a merchant ship with four cannons on the top deck. The crane with a huge wheel attached to it kept producing creaking noises. One could see almost half of the Royal land from the crane's top.
When the last of the sunlight faded away from the place, two figures appeared on top of the crane. Their black capes fluttered in the wind. The light coming from the half-moon vaguely showed their bodies.
"That's the ship" Gaya pointed at a lone ship silently floating on the water far from the rest of the ships. It was a merchant ship but didn't have any cannons. From the outside look, the ship looked no different than a typical merchant ship used to transport goods from one port to another except Michael could see ten Core Formation level 8 warriors on board disguised as crew members.
"Where are the armored guys Aria was talking about?" Gaya asked.
"Maybe in the below decks"
"We need to know their exact locations before doing anything human. They are not some weaklings we could waltz in and kill"
"It's time for a new skill," Michael thought as he entered the system with a specific skill in his mind.
"System, I need you to take whatever points you need and get me the X-ray vision. Remember, I need to see what's inside the ship and container so don't get me a level one skill and ask me to upgrade until I have no points left"
[Jeez, I get it. I know the right thing to give you and I'll integrate it with eyes of darkness for 2000 badass points. So the total of buying Xray vision, upgrading it to max level, and integrating it with eyes of darkness would cost you 8000 badass points ]
"Get it done"
He felt the familiar acute pain in his mind for a few moments. The moment the pain disappeared, he could feel another skill. Activating it was just as easy as breathing to him.
When he willed his mind to activate the X-ray vision, the view in front of him turned dark blue. Soon, he started to see yellow and red shapes moving around. This was not just an X-ray vision, this was a thermal vision. He willed his mind again to change his vision as his vision changed into another, the night vision.
He had a smile behind his mask as he changed his vision to X-ray vision. He could now see in three types of visions. In addition to three types of vision, he could zoom in. How cool was that?
"They are in the back, below decks. The girls are there too"
"Wait a minute. How do you know?"
[oh I forgot to mention one thing, host] When he turned to look at Gaya, he couldn't help grinning thinking about something. However, the system read his mind and decided to crash his mental party
[You cannot see people naked using your visions, hehehe] the system let out a burst of evil laughter. It kinda sounded like a cartoon supervillain.
"You really are a god in the making. Can't you give some of your powers to me?"
She trusted Michael enough to not poke into his secret that he obviously couldn't share with her. Although she was proud and happy for him, she also felt a bit jealous.
"I'm sharing. How do you think your cultivation speed is skyrocketing?"
"Stop joking around. I'm awesome, that's the reason for my cultivation speed" she proudly exclaimed. Michael wrapped his hand around Gaya with utmost care and love. From the moment he met her to this moment, everything seemed like a dream to him. He cherished every moment he spent with her.
"Let's stay like this for a little longer" she rested her head on Michael's shoulder. They were just about to engage in a battle yet the wind, the scenery, the quietness brought them closer.
"You know if this conquering the world doesn't work, we could just leave this world and run off to some other worlds together"
"You said it yourself, I'm a god in the making. When was the last time you heard a god fail?"
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
While they were embracing each other, a bell ringing sound came from the harbor. Soon afterward, the ship with the Core Formation warriors slowly started to move. They didn't jump down from the crane to reach the ship. They just waited for the ship to sail far away from the harbor so no one would be able to call for reinforcement from the land.
Until now, Michael never directly messed with the Guardians.
"What the fuck are these guardians doing with SilverMoon girls? I know they are a shady bunch unlike many humans think but this is too much"
"We can't say for sure the entire guild has a hand on the kidnappings. Maybe a few corrupted guardians are the ones responsible for this" The guardians were Michael's main foe yet he couldnt believe the entire guild would involve in human trafficking. A few corrupted guardians using their guild's power to do this shady thing seemed more likely.
"Even if we hand the scumbags responsible for this on a silver platter, the guardians wouldn't do shit to them. They'll just tell us they would take care of the matter in-house. Best case, the scumbags will be stripped of their guardian title. At worst, they will get a slap on the wrist "
"Typical" Michael snickered inside. The Guardian Guild wasn't too different from a government in some countries where politicians rarely got punished for their crimes.
If the guardians hadn't branded him as their foe who must be killed by any means necessary, Michael would have left them alone. Since that wasn't the case, he needed to root out the guild before they found out about his true identity and kill him.
"Come on, we should follow them at a safe distance" Michael slowly started to ascend to the sky with Gaya. He didn't cast the lightning dash to speed up his pace. They just followed the ship keeping a safe distance from the ship. Due to their black armors, it was impossible to see them in the night without casting any spells.
"Wait" while Michael was flying above the ship, he noticed several defensive arrays on the upper deck thanks to the eyes of darkness.
When he was in the treacherous ocean, he had to pop in a bunch of perception pills and depend on the system to break the illusion formations. But now, he could easily find the source points to break the formations.
Although he found the source points, destroying from where he was would reveal his location as well as alert the guards. That's where Gaya came in. He quickly bought a laser pointer from the system for 100 badass points.
"What?"
"Can you shoot that exact point from here?"
"Can I? Humph" she sneered as the bow of Legolas painted in black materialized in her hand. She knocked an arrow, feeling the wind's direction before releasing it. The arrow soared through the arrow-like a bullet. The moment the arrow hit the place pointed by the laser, Michael saw the defensive formation fade away. The guards were oblivious to the formation's disappearance.
"That's how you break a formation, find the source point, destroy it" Michael explained the reason why he asked to shoot that place.
"How many formations are remaining?" She nodded before asking.
"One on the rudder stage, one on the crow's nest"
"Use the ice arrows"
The first formation was located on the ship's far back so firing an arrow did not alert the guards. However, there was a guard steering the rudder and another one would soon come to take the crow's nest so he or she could watch over the skies and the sea around. If they found the arrows, they would alert the guards which might make killing them difficult. Stealth seemed to be the best option to kill the warriors, especially the two Core Strengthening stage cultivators. Who knows what kind of spells they possess? Therefore, Michael wanted to kill them as discreetly as possible.
Because of his Alchemy trait, he created a new type of liquid. Mixing the liquid with water made the ice arrows immune to the fraction produced when flying through the air. Hence, the ice arrows won't dissolve in the air before hitting the target. However, after hitting the target, the liquid mixed water's molecular structure would be changed due to the collision force, resulting in immediate evaporation. The only downside of using the ice arrows as they weren't strong enough to penetrate a human body.
That downside didn't matter when it came to destroying source points.
Gaya quickly fired an arrow to the formation source point on the crow's nest before flying to the rudder stage where they saw a Core Formation warrior steering the rudder while whistling carefree. Currently, there were five Core Formation guards roaming on the upper deck on top of the guard at the rudder. One of them reached the crow's nest with a quick swift jump.
Boom!
Boom!
The sound of thunderclaps could be heard coming from a distance. In addition to streaks of lightning, he saw a tornado forming in the distance.
"We should use that storm as a distraction to kill them all," She said what's on Michael's mind.. With a nod, Michael moved away from the ship instead of taking a risk of firing the ice arrow to the formation source point on the rudder stage.