Chapter 50: Hunting Trip

It was dark. Golden glitters hovered in the air like tiny fireflies. A pungent scent of gunpowder wafted from below. I looked down. Once again, I found myself standing inside the golden six-pointed star.

However, something was different. A lone circle sat between two points of the star.

“ Have you been ignoring me, mortal?” a voice echoed among the darkness.

I answered the voice, but nothing came out. Not even a single word.

Fuck .

“ I… ” a second voice answered. A voice that sounded eerily familiar. “ ...am doing… my job .”

“ Then why do you keep interacting with that fish? Have you forgotten my warning?”

I felt my heart leap. That voice sounded exactly like mine. But I wasn’t the one answering.

“ It’s… for the sake… of my goals… as Viceroy. ”

I tried to scream as loud as I could, but no sound came out. I tried calling out the Prince of Lust but she ignored me.

No, she couldn’t hear me.

“ Good. I will be watching you. ”

The star glowed brighter until it devoured the darkness.

***

[SYSTEM BACK-UP SUCCESSFUL]

[PENDING SYSTEM MODIFICATIONS PROCESSED]

Skill [Water Stride(Master)] acquired.

[Seal II] created.

I woke up with a sharp pain at the back of my neck. The same spot where that bump appeared tingled.

“What happened?” Sae said.

The tingle vanished when I touched it. I realized I’d been soaked. Not in sweat, though. A puddle collected in the middle of the boat.

“Why am I wet?”

“I uh,” she cleared her throat, “I crashed the boat, but just a little!”

The boat didn’t have any damages. But I sure slept like a log throughout that.

“Was I moving around?”

“No, you were asleep! I thought you were dead so…”

“So you crashed the boat?”

She cleared her throat again. “N-No?”

I rubbed the bump behind my neck. I felt nothing from it.

A feeling of dread lingered in my chest as if I experienced something scary. I dreamed something really bad, but I couldn’t remember it this time.

What the fuck was happening with me?

By the time I woke up, we were finally out of the fort island’s mist. We rode past the seventh island and the setting sun came into view.

Darkness occupied half of the sky when we arrived at the main island. I rushed back to the inn and jumped into Aesel’s embrace.

“What happened?” she asked Sae.

I shut my eyes. The dread in my chest refused to go away.

“I don’t know! He’d been so quiet since he woke up.”

Aesel brought me back to our room. Sounds of grinding and crushing filled the room while I rested my eyes. I tried my best to search my memories for anything related to what I dreamed about earlier. Unfortunately, nothing appeared.

“Drink this,” Aesel said, handing me a clay cup. A strong scent of bitterness oozed from it.

“Is this poison?”

She exhaled. “Just drink it.”

I grabbed the cup and forcibly swallowed its content. It tasted like a mixture of the worst vegetables ever splashed with sea water. I almost threw it out.

“I should’ve asked what that was for.”

“To calm your nerves,” she said. Then, she sat next to me. “Tell me what happened.”

I gave myself a moment to calm down. Miraculously, a wave of tranquility coursed from my stomach to the rest of my body. I could think clear again.

“I feel better already. What kind of magic is this?”

“I just used a potent amplifier, so you will have to speak quick before you pass out.”

“Pass out? Did you just drug me?”

Aesel pouted. “Dear, I am your wife. And right now I am worried about you. So, please, tell me what’s worrying you.”

Right. I got this woman – my wife – worried.

“Sorry… it’s just…”

I was reluctant to tell her. But if I just kept holding myself back, then these worries might accumulate and end up biting me in the ass in the future.

No matter how powerful I became, I remained susceptible to stress.

“I’ve been having dreams, you see…”

I shared about the recurrent dreams I’d been having. But I omitted details regarding the Prince of Lust.

Aesel laid down and caressed my head as if I was a scared little boy.

“Dreams are the whispers of your environment,” she said with a gentle voice, “although they do not display it in the waking world, they pass their maliciousness through dreams.”

It was a very ancient interpretation. Back on Earth, dreams were interpreted as symbols about one’s psyche. But I couldn’t really dismiss her. This was a fantasy world.

At the very least, I felt at ease sharing my worries with someone.

“I will carve you a talisman.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, yawning. “I’m fine.”

Bits of dread lingered in my chest for the next several days. I’d been taking the same bitter mixture Aesel made and distracting myself by making potteries and preparing for the festival.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t easily shrug it away.

Moving might help. I doubt simple exercises and cardio would work, so I invited Sae for an underwater hunt. I needed a lot of food for the festival, after all.

Sae seemed excited.

“Do you know where we can hunt the largest fishes?”

She smiled proudly. “You asked the right mermaid!”

Once again, we bid our farewell. We didn’t have to lie, though – we told them about our hunting trip.

We used Rulof’s boat again to travel all the way to the east, sailing past the seventh island.

“Sae, where the hell areyou taking me?”

“You said you wanted the largest fish?”

“Yeah, I did. But not the size of a mountain, okay?”

She snorted. “You should’ve made it clear.”

She just confirmed a fish the size of a mountain existed.

Instead of going all the way to the east, we rerouted to the north. The sun had peaked in the sky, and something massive appeared on the horizon.

“Is that a mountain island?” I said.

“No,” Sae responded as she paddled faster, “that’s the queen’s remains.”

As we got closer, the mountain turned out to be a massive, long skeleton that mimicked a mountain range. It was similar to that of a snake. It sheltered a forest as flora crept all over the bones.

At first, the enormous skeleton looked imposing from afar. But up close, I bet it would make a great summer retreat.

The air felt thicker, though. And something heavy pressed against my flesh. I felt a bit nauseous.

“Were you alive when she was ‘killed’?”

“No, but the elders make sure no one forgets.”

It was exactly as what Horeln told me. About a hero who used the Sea-Slayer to cut Agaphonet’s abdomen open and kill her from the inside.

But since Agaphonet was somewhat of a god, no mortal weapons could truly kill her.

Waters splashed as we neared, and I already sighted massive fishes and long eels swimming around.

“The fishes taste the best around here,” Sae said, “but we don’t always hunt here because landers pass often.”

I grabbed a harpoon, and Sae materialized one made of ice. I, too, was capable of that so I shouldn’t have bothered bringing a hunting gear. So I did the same.

Sae leapt into the ocean, shooing the marine creatures away. I followed her and we started hunting underwater.

All sorts of enlarged fishes swam here, and the smallest ones were the size of an arowana.

Sae threw her spears with ease, hitting targets far from her.

“Why are we even throwing spears? We can literally just shoot icicles!” I said underwater.

“There’s no fun in that!” she said.

And so I started spearfishing, too. It was challenging hitting a target from afar. If my spearfishing skill wasn’t a mere journeyman, I wouldn’t have to suffer like this. So I resorted into shooting icicles instead.

“Boo!” Sae said, laughing, “such a loser move!”

“Oh shut up!”

I would fuck the shit out of that mermaid until I got her upgraded spearfishing skill. Then I could compete with her.

We ended up having so much fun. The sun had already vanished from the skies. We filled the boat with fish and still had half the amount left.

To solve that, I made a flat bowl of ice and moved the fishes there. It also served as a fridge to prevent spoilage.

Since it was already dark, we went to the island to spend the night. I felt more nauseous the closer we went, but Sae remained unaffected.

“Aren’t you feeling it?” I asked.

“What?”

“Something feels wrong about this island.”

I doubt it was radiation, though. But if something similar existed in this world, it would be mana.

“It must be the essence. My queen’s remains still radiate essence after all this time.”

Deeper into the island were deep-blue crystals clinging on the roots of trees. I asked Sae to grab me one out of curiosity.

“This must be a crystal mana,” I said.

If so, then I just found myself another source of income.

The nausea wasn’t too bad. But it bothered my sleep so much that I decided to sleep on the boat. Sae didn’t want to be alone so she followed me.

But I still kept waking up. Sae was grinding on my dick.

“Are you horny?”

“...yes.”

I didn’t hesitate and dropped my clothes. I pressed her against the boat, fucked her hard, and filled her womb with cum. It was worth it.

Skill [Spearfishing(Journeyman)] upgraded to [Spearfishing(Master)] .

Everyone at the pier watched our arrival. Not because they cared about their mayor. It was the massive bowl of ice towed by our boat that caught their attention.

Their jaws dropped after seeing the massive fishes inside. They began murmuring among themselves as if they hadn’t seen fishes before.

Horeln came running after squeezing through the crowd. “Master— eeeh!”

I chortled. “What was that squeal about?”

Even Sae laughed.

Horeln pointed at the bowl with a trembling hand. “Those… those fish! Did you fish from Serpent Island?”

“Serpent island? Oh, the one with Agaphonet’s remains? Yup. It was fun.”

The murmurs got louder. But I could hear compliments thrown at me.

“He really is beyond human…”

“No one else but the mayor can do that!”

“I would never dream of fishing in that island!”

I cleared my throat loudly. “Come on, guys! It’s just fish. We’re all gonna eat them for tomorrow’s festival, anyway.”

Silence fell like a guillotine. Shock painted their faces as if they had seen a ghost.

Did I say something wrong?

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