Chapter 440: Beyond That

Editor: Tseirp

The two aboard the Neil Anderson, having achieved a complete victory, returned to the original coast.

“It’s good there was only one Kraken.”

“Huh?”

Ryo questioned, responding to Abel’s unsettling comment.

“Well, Krakens sometimes appear in groups. There’s a story about a famous fleet from the Eastern Countries being completely annihilated, losing fifty ships in ten minutes. There’s also a legend in the Kingdom about groups of Krakens… we were lucky there was just one.”

“Like some kind of harbinger of death…”

Ryo, who had assumed Krakens acted alone based on his solitary encounter both here and off the coast of Rondo Forest.

Realized he still lacked sufficient knowledge about his enemies.

“Well, putting the Kraken aside. The underwater scenery was amazing, and so was the battle.”

Abel, getting a grip on himself, spoke with slight excitement.

Being a former A-rank swordsman, his blood must have been pumping.

“Right? Engaging a forty-meter opponent in a fully three-dimensional battle. And then this at the prize!”

Ryo put the Kraken group issue aside for the moment and proudly held up what he had in his right hand.

It was a blue magic stone, the size of two fists.

“That’s huge. Isn’t it about twice the size of the Wyvern’s magic stone we got in the mountains?”

“Indeed. With a body length of forty meters and arms extending up to a hundred meters. Maybe it needed a big stone to distribute magic power everywhere.”

Abel marveled, and Ryo made a speculative comment.

“And the color is very deep.”

The Kraken’s magic stone was not only large but also a stunning, vivid blue… a very deep shade.

“It might have been the dominant creature in that area for a long time.”

Ryo spoke thoughtfully.

His words might have contained the sadness he felt when the first ship, Rondo, sank.

“Alright then, let’s eat. We’ll have those monsters we caught on the way, grilled with salt, right?”

“Yeah. There are seven of them. So even a big eater like you should be satisfied. They’re bigger than ordinary sardines because they’re monsters.”

“I think you’re the one with a bigger appetite, Ryo…”

“Did you say something, Abel?”

“No, nothing at all.”

Abel deftly dodged Ryo’s pointed comment.

Perhaps the two made a good pair.

The seven caught monsters were from the way back after defeating the Kraken. They’d come across a Bait Ball and decided to catch some.

Using the capture arms and the plunder arm.

Seven in total.

Abel quickly gathered dry twigs and coconut fibers to start a fire.

He had apparently obtained a fire starter at some point and struck sparks with his knife.

As expected of a former A-rank adventurer, he was adept at this.

Meanwhile, Ryo was cleaning the sardine-like monsters that made up the Bait Ball… their official name unknown, extracting small magic stones from them.

These stones were smaller than his little fingernail.

Similar to the magic stone Ryo wore on his left ear, the ‘Soul Resonance’.

In other words, the ‘Soul Resonance’ contained a magic stone taken from a sardine-like monster.

Although small, the magic stones were a very bright blue.

“If these were sapphires, they’d be incredibly valuable.”

Ryo muttered to himself, but these magic stones were indeed highly valuable…

He was the only one unaware of that.

The seven fish were skewered on ice skewers generated by Ryo.

And soon found their way into the stomachs of the two hungry adventurers.

“Ah, delicious.”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Monsters taste better than regular animals or fish.”

Abel expressed his satisfaction, and Ryo voiced his curiosity.

Yes, a rabbit monster tasted better than an ordinary rabbit.

The same seemed true for the sardines…

Ryo had always found this puzzling.

“Is it? Since magic power circulates through their entire bodies, it’s natural that they taste better, isn’t it?”

“Magic power… is tasty…?”

Abel spoke as if it were obvious, but Ryo shook his head slightly, unable to understand.

On ‘Phi’ that seemed to be the common belief.

“So that means a magic-wielding Abel would be tastier than a non-magic-wielding Abel…”

“Hey, don’t say such disturbing things.”

Abel reacted sharply to Ryo’s muttering.

Not to mention, there was no such thing as a ‘magic-wielding Abel’.

“If I soaked you in enough magic power and then ate you…”

“Wouldn’t you, Ryo, brimming with magic power, be even tastier than me?”

Abel retorted strongly to Ryo’s muttering.

Ryo’s eyes widened in surprise.

And he became flustered.

“I-I-I-I-I wouldn’t taste good at all! Besides, cannibalism is generally frowned upon…”

“Ohh~”

Abel responded coolly to Ryo’s words.

Desperately, Ryo tried to change the subject.

“Th-th-th-that reminds me, today we had monster sardines, but where did you usually get food, Abel?”

“What a forced topic change… Well, alright. Mostly from the forest over there. Mostly fruits and animals.”

“You went into the forest? That’s amazing, really admirable, and quite brave.”

Ryo praised Abel.

Of course, it was to avoid Abel’s sharp retorts, but Ryo genuinely appreciated that Abel had been gathering and cooking food, allowing him to focus on building the Rondo-class ship.

His gratitude for that was sincere.

Yeah, truly.

“Well, even though I went into the forest, I didn’t go deep. There’s plenty of fruits and animals near the coast. Surprisingly, no monsters.”

“I see. Then maybe we should gather supplies from the forest before setting sail…”

Ryo replied to Abel’s words with a single nod.

However, he was a bit curious.

About what lay deeper in the forest.

“I’ll just take a look from above.”

Without waiting for Abel’s reply, Ryo chanted.

“”

In an instant, he soared into the sky.

“That… makes me a bit envious.”

Abel muttered as he watched.

While he rarely wished he could use magic, the idea of flying.

Even just hovering, intrigued him.

The desire to fly might be a fundamental human wish.

Ryo floated in the sky.

“The forest is quite extensive…”

He murmured, glancing around.

“Could it be that we’re not on an island… but on the tip of a peninsula or cape?”

Although there was a vast ocean around them…

And then, deep in the forest, about ten kilometers away, he saw something he shouldn’t have seen.

Thus he chose to ignore it.

He descended back to the ground to report to Abel.

“Th-there was nothing, really.”

“Why are you acting suspiciously and stammering?”

“I didn’t see anything I wasn’t supposed to see, nothing at all.”

“Sounds like something was definitely there!”

Ryo’s attempt at concealment failed.

“So? What did you see?”

“Uhh… I saw what looked like a town beyond the forest.”

“Seriously!”

“And we’re not on an island. We’re on the tip of a peninsula or something.”

“Well, I never thought we were on an island.”

“What!”

It seemed that Ryo was the only one who had assumed, without any basis, that they were on a deserted island.

“Why didn’t you tell me we weren’t on an island!”

“Well, you never asked… We never really discussed it…”

Abel deflected Ryo’s accusations smoothly.

Then he launched a counterattack.

“More importantly, there’s a town. We have to go check it out.”

“I knew it… I knew you’d say that, which is why I tried to ignore it.”

“Why wouldn’t we go? We need supplies to return to the Kingdom, and we don’t even know where we are or how to get back… we could use Ryo’s ship, but we don’t know the direction, right?”

Abel stated the obvious.

“But… if we go to the town, we’ll definitely get caught up in some trouble!”

“What do you mean by caught up in some trouble…”

Ryo’s meta-reasoning about typical light novel plot developments confused Abel.

In other words, he assumed “something would definitely happen”.

“We’re in the south… really far south. So we just need to head north. See, no problem, right?”

Ryo had figured out from the sun’s height that they were near the equator.

At the very least, they were south of Rondo Forest in terms of latitude.

Yeah, he knew the latitude.

“But we don’t know where we are in the south. Are we south of the Central Countries, south of the Western Countries, or somewhere else entirely? Just heading north won’t solve anything.”

But didn’t know the longitude.

Ryo had no counterargument to Abel’s perfectly reasonable rebuttal.

He let out a huge sigh.

“Haa~”

A very exaggerated. Very intentional sigh.

As if to say he was completely opposed to the idea.

But Abel knew better.

He knew that despite what Ryo was saying, deep down, Ryo was eager to go.

Because both Abel and Ryo were adventurers at heart.

Trouble might come their way and things might get messy.

Sure, that’s true.

Nobody likes that. Of course, they don’t.

But they also knew that trouble wasn’t the only thing waiting.

There would be something new and unknown.

Definitely.

Something that couldn’t be found in an office, the Kingdom, or the Central Countries.

Something they might only encounter here.

Something they might never come across again if they didn’t seize this chance.

Not going wasn’t an option.

Ryo knew that too.

That’s why he pretended not to see anything while floating.

Because he knew they would definitely end up going…

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