Chapter 88: Pirate

As soon as they reached the beach, Tu Ba Ge couldn't wait to jump down from Rekton's shoulder, but Rekton was quick-eyed and quick-handed, scooping him up in midair.

"Wah~ Boss, put me down quick!" Tu Ba Ge thrashed his four legs in midair.

"Don't get yourself covered in sand, or you'll walk back on your own later. I won't let you sit on my shoulder all filthy." Rekton raised the hand gripping the rabbit a little higher.

"Alright then, but I still want to taste the seawater!" Hearing that he'd have to walk back to the inn, Tu Ba Ge finally stopped struggling.

"That's simple," Rekton said softly.

Tu Ba Ge sensed something was wrong and was about to say something when his boss threw him. A fat rabbit draped in a black cloak traced a parabola through the air, plunging toward the nearby waves.

Rekton then scattered a handful of iron-black powder into the air and chanted an incantation. A giant invisible hand steadily caught Tu Ba Ge as he fell toward the sea surface.

Tu Ba Ge, who had been flailing his claws wildly in the air in fright, discovered he was caught by an invisible hand, then calmly straightened his somewhat disheveled clothing and pretended nothing had happened.

He then lay down and, with the help of the giant invisible hand, took a mouthful of seawater.

Rekton saw an expression of vivid panic and regret on his rabbit's face. Tu Ba Ge lay on the giant invisible hand, constantly spitting.

Rekton controlled the giant invisible hand to lower Tu Ba Ge a little. Tu Ba Ge, still lying there spitting, leapt up in fright and started cursing in rabbit language over the sea surface.

It wasn't until the spell's duration was nearly up that Rekton controlled the giant invisible hand to bring Tu Ba Ge back.

"Is the seawater tasty?" Rekton asked, suppressing the smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Wu~" Tu Ba Ge covered his mouth and shook his head frantically.

Rekton brought the dispirited rabbit back to their inn room. Tu Ba Ge clutched a cup in the room, drinking water nonstop, wishing he could swap out his mouth for a new one.

After resting for the night, early the next morning Rekton boarded a ship and set off with Tu Ba Ge.

This ship was only passing through the Dixi Gulf; its final destination was the Southern Continent. Rekton planned to stay in the Dixi Gulf for a few days, confirm the Star Admiral's range of activity, then take a ship over. Relying solely on the convergence law of non-extraordinary characteristics, Rekton felt wasn't reliable enough.

On the second day after the ferry left Sevia's dock, the convergence law of non-extraordinary characteristics didn't attract the Star Admiral's Future, but a group of pirates did get attracted over.

Rekton gazed at the vessel on the sea approaching the ferry he was on. Its sail bore a huge pattern composed of a skull and a cutlass.

"This pirate is quite flashy, but why don't I have any impression of this pirate group? It doesn't seem to have been mentioned in the materials I obtained from the Church of Knowledge either?" Rekton leaned against the ferry's deck railing, pondering.

"No need to worry, these are just a small group of pirates. Our steamship is the most advanced, and its speed on the open sea is far beyond what these pirates sailing an old-fashioned ship can match." A hearty voice came from behind.

Wearing a shirt and vest underneath, a black trench coat on the outside, and a half-tall silk top hat, at a glance he was a rather fashionable gentleman, with a pair of blue eyes that seemed to brim with wisdom and knowledge.

Rekton politely greeted the man, then said in a casual, chatty tone, "From Lenburg?"

"Oh? You can tell that?" A faint expression of surprise appeared on the fashionable gentleman's face.

"One only needs to glance at your eyes to recognize it easily. Of course, if you added a pair of glasses, it would be even more obvious." Rekton's gaze swept over the man's blue eyes.

"Haha, it seems I might need to learn from you young people's style of dress!" the fashionable gentleman said with a smile.

He then added, "My name is Ruth Coll, a merchant from Lenburg. May I ask how to address you?"

"Al Tynes, a scholar traveling about." Rekton stated his temporary identity with natural ease.

"I thought you were out traveling with an elder. You can't be much older than my child," Ruth Coll said with slight surprise.

"Boom!" A massive explosion from inside the cabin interrupted their conversation, and the steamship's hull trembled slightly.

Tu Ba Ge obediently hugged Rekton's pant leg tight, nervously surveying his surroundings.

"Papa!" A slightly panicked female voice came from the crowd not far away.

A mature, elegant lady dressed as a noblewoman came over with a girl of about thirteen or fourteen. The young girl's blue eyes bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Ruth Coll's.

"The steamship's speed is slowing. It seems pirates have come aboard with us." Rekton keenly noticed the steamship's speed beginning to drop, as if it had lost power.

"No wonder they dared to sail such an old-fashioned pirate ship to raid us," Ruth Coll said, his tone somewhat angry.

"It seems we're in big trouble!" Ruth Coll surveyed the crowd, which had become chaotic once more, and sighed.

"Papa, we'll be okay, right?" The young girl seemed to already know what was going to happen next, uneasily tugging at her father Ruth Coll's hand.

Ruth Coll patted the girl's head, soothing her unease.

"I'm here! Nothing will happen!" Ruth Coll said softly to his daughter and wife.

"Wu~"

Tu Ba Ge tugged anxiously at Rekton's trouser leg.

Sensing something, Rekton activated his Spirit Vision. A group of spirits was rapidly passing through obstacles, drifting toward the ferry's aft deck.

"Why are there so many spirits on this ship?" Rekton murmured to himself.

After staring in the direction of the aft deck for a moment, Rekton bent down, hoisted Tu Ba Ge onto his shoulder, and headed toward the aft deck.

"Are you going to look for the lifeboats? They're most likely already controlled by the pirates. I'll go with you—more people means better odds." Seeing Rekton about to head toward the aft deck, Ruth Coll hurriedly spoke up.

Rekton fell silent for a moment. Following that group of spirits would likely lead to a fight.

"Didn't you hire bodyguards to accompany you?" Rekton turned and asked.

Ruth Coll smiled bitterly and shook his head. "No, this isn't a cargo ship. I originally just wanted to take my family ahead of time to the Dixi Gulf for a trip, then depart with the cargo ship."

Rekton nodded in understanding. This could only be called bad luck. The shipping route from Fenepot to the Dixi Gulf was actually quite safe. Rekton had been thinking only about inquiring after the Star Admiral once he reached the Dixi Gulf, not about encountering a pirate ship here.

"Do you have firearms? Or can you protect the two ladies behind you?" Rekton asked a different question.

The girl of about thirteen or fourteen pressed close to her mother's embrace. Ruth Coll looked back and gave them a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. If I weren't confident, I wouldn't have suggested going together to find the lifeboats," Ruth Coll said.

"Mm, be careful. There's most likely danger over there." Rekton nodded.

Since the man was confident, Rekton figured finding the lifeboats along the way would be fine too. If they couldn't deal with these pirates, they'd really have to flee for their lives.

Following the traces left by that group of spirits, Rekton led Ruth Coll's family toward the ferry's aft deck.

"Papa, it's so scary here!" The young girl tugged at her father's sleeve and whispered.

"If you're feeling unwell, you can go somewhere sunny and bask in the sunlight!" Rekton said to the three behind him.

There were traces of a large gathering of spirits here. The residual cold and the erosion of death aura would make ordinary people feel unwell.

A spirit with a bluish-black face and damp marks on its body, as if drowned, abruptly stuck half its body up from the lower deck of the cabin.

"Ah!" The young girl screamed in terror.

This terrifying undead was less than half a meter away from her, almost bumping face to face.

Lu Si·Ke Lu Er and his wife hastily turned around, only to see a black shadow abruptly burst out of the ground and then disappear.

"There-there is a ghost!" the little girl's voice was full of fear.

Pointing toward where that undead had just appeared, she lunged into her mother's embrace and told her parents:

Lei Kedun's brow furrowed; that undead just now was not an ordinary one, likely a wraith formed from the death of an extraordinary person, and it had already reached the level of Sequence Eight.

Lei Kedun drew a handful of gray‑black sunflower powder from the hidden pocket of his coat; sensing danger, the undead aura that had been gathering around him came to an abrupt halt.

"This group of undead has a leader, or perhaps a controller!" Lei Kedun speculated to himself.

(End of chapter)