Wretched Seeker of the Absolute

THE JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH 3 - THE EXPEDITION

"Premium treatment my ass!" It was partly Balendon's fault to break the customer-seller barrier after helping people with daily chores out of boredom. He was a workaholic at heart and now, every time mercenaries needed extra muscle, they were running to Balendon to ask for help. Cooks were asking him for help with the kitchen, even sailors were calling him at fishing spots to fish together. Balendon endured working for free since he enjoyed learning new things, and sailing was one of the rare things he could not have the chance to improve himself at.

"If you can do everything, they make you do everything," he thought with a big sigh while unfurling the sails. The sun was bright. The wind, which had been lazing in this clear weather for days, had gotten stronger. Their days of enjoying, except the rowmen, the still waters ended. Working people on the ship were treating him as their own with a friendly attitude since he was enduring the same hardships as them. He even started feeling normal. His life was starting to change. Maybe from now on, he could live like a normal person, or maybe, but it was too late for that. In fact, he could act friendly and compassionate, but he was not feeling it. Not after Lennya's death.

He started to think how despicable society is. These people must have bullied someone or felt jealousy towards someone at some point in their lives. They were only friendly towards him because he was useful to them. He dazed off to the distance to the point he almost let the ropes go. One of the sailors asked if he's alright with a concerned tone. Balendon had a dark facial expression. He was trying to suppress his rage inside him after reminiscing his past and the pain in his neck started aching violently.

"Do you really care?!" He turned to the poor guy suddenly. He could rip this man off with his finger. He had the power. This guy could be another Shou if he had the power. What about himself though? Would it not be bullying him now if he killed him? What if he's someone like Lennya? What if he has a Lennya at home? Lennya!

Balendon calmed himself. Returned to his pretense and with an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I remembered something sad and got angry over it." The sailor, hardly relieved himself of the terror Balendon just emitted, said, "I apologize for startling you then man, most of us have sad memories of our past, tonight we will throw a party because half of the journey is done. Would you like to come?"

Instead of lying in his cabin alone, this seemed a good idea. It was easier for him to socialize with people by working for him thus instead of customers, like any other customer, he socialized with working people on the ship. "I think I will ask Mo to pay me wages considering how much of 'help' I have done for you, I am now even considered as staff! Sure, I will come!" he replied. Both laughed and got back to work.

Soon after, the door to the captain's cabin opened. Balendon could vaguely see a woman lying naked on Mo's bed before Mo walked out adjusting his belt. "It's a long journey and having some fun is needed by everyone, I guess," Balendon thought, but it was still strange since there were a lot of women mercenaries yet Mo hooked up with his customers often. Maybe it was his retirement plans or maybe his preferences or maybe he was 'pressuring' his staff enough that he didn't want to 'add' to that pressure.

Surprised with what he saw, Mo quickly walked up to the helm to check for something. Balendon started having a feeling; he hated when he was having a feeling. Soon after Mo shouted from the navigation deck, "Fools! Did I tell you to unfurl the sails?! Furl them back and get back to rows, we are turning the ship!"

In a split second, Balendon looked for the first mate who gave the order. Nobody questioned Mo and started working on it. Mo was scolding his first mate that he gave the order as people furled back the sails. Ship started turning west but kept floating towards south. Something was definitely not right. Ship finally did a 180 degrees turn and despite the rowing, it was still floating backwards.

"It's too late! Unfurl the sails again!" Mo said and turned the ship again in 180 degrees. This time it sounded like inconsistency in captain's words thus people started panicking. Whatever they were going towards, they were going in full speed. They have entered some sort of illusion barrier and suddenly clear weather turned into a storm with a downpour and ear-shattering lightnings. It was dark as if the sunlight was screaming to get in, only to be barred away with malicious clouds that are torturing whatever below them.

One lightning hit one mast suddenly which was far from Balendon. Some sailors, or pieces of them, fell to the hole created by the explosion, some disintegrated and some just scattered away off the ship. Fire caused by lightning was extinguished fast thanks to the rain which was also killing the ship. Lower decks had already started collecting water. Mo was anxious but kept his composure as if he had a plan. After a moment, everybody could see what was the plan.

The ship was going faster than it ever could towards a hurricane bigger than the eye could see. Maybe it was because they were seeing it up close, or maybe it was indeed big. But the terror of this massive storm already broke the hearts of some sailors before their bodies. Mo tried his best to keep the steer still while shouting for everyone to go to the lower decks or hold onto something if they couldn't. Several lightnings continued to rough up the ship's outer hull.

Balendon grabbed the mast he was working on along with the sailor he was working with. He first tied the sailor to the mast and tried to proceed with tying himself. The ship suddenly sank below sea level as the hurricane, instead of lifting them, was pulling them down. Water! It was volatile? As they sank deep, Balendon started feeling tingling at first. It was getting worse as it was electrifying. He started feeling numb. His world force usage was not helping in defending against this invading foulness. The water had no world force in it either, yet it was still consistent against it.

The last thing Balendon saw was Mo using a fortification skill to endure this malice. Balendon could endure this, but he saw the sailor losing his consciousness. He tried to tie himself next with the rope. It was strange, how could there be electricity in the sea? What was the source? Some electric eels could not create this amount of current. One could not see anything in this deep blue because of the storm above.

What happened next was unexpected again. The ship slingshotted to the sky a few hundred meters. It was flying like a bird as Balendon, unable to finish tying himself, lost his grip with the sudden change in momentum and went overboard. He saw the sun was on his left, so the ship was flying towards the south. Before he got caught in the hurricane along with a few unlucky others, he started spinning upwards as he grinned and said, "Bastards will reach the south faster than me, if they survive, if I survive."

He was feeling dizzy already. He knew his life was in some danger, but this was the first time that he was not afraid of death. Balendon knew he had changed, he had lost his survival instincts. He thought he was invincible, as he had nothing else to lose. He could die. He did not care. Fate was playing with him as if it had some grand purpose with Balendon. He resigned to his fate, and his fate was going to deliver him to his wishes.

He was flying mid-air, faster than his brain could catch up. He started feeling dizzy, then started seeing a woman's malicious smile in the sky. The last feeling he felt was his body slamming onto the sea from high above. He lost his consciousness for a brief moment.

When he started feeling again, he could not see or hear. The only thing he could feel was water touching his skin where it wasn't destroyed. He had learned how to repair his body subconsciously from the fairy and did so. Slowly, first vital parts so he would not have seawater mixed within his veins, and then he repaired his eyes and ears. He purified his body from any leftover seawater.

Now he could see himself afloat on the sea inside some kind of mist, and luckily, heading towards an island. He healed himself completely and swam towards the island. As he landed on the island, he saw a small dock made for rowboats, along with a few rowboats. The flora was completely different than what he had seen so far in the north.

It was an island with a big forest all around it, with a strong mist covering it. There was a big yellow light in the sky that Balendon could not see clearly due to the mist. It was probably the sun. He could not waste time figuring out what time it was, nor could he care less. He had to secure himself and contemplate on what to do next, for this island could be hostile to him. He could not feel anything unordinary or hostile from the island except the unnatural mist. He set off deeper to explore.