After his discussion with Snowlily, his stomach growled and demanded his attention. Thomas stroked Snowlily's head and collected all the food he'd left out for her back into his inventory. Once everything was cleaned up and he was properly dressed and lightly armed, he turned to look at her, "I think we missed breakfast. I'll cook us something though."

Snowlily wagged her tail a bit at the mention of him cooking. Though the food prepared by the ships cook was far from bad, it wasn't quite as good as just a simple grilled hunk of meat. Well, in her opinion anyway. Together they made their way through the ship and up a small flight of stairs to arrive on the deck. There were a few sailors manning different stations and performing various tasks. Thomas still wasn't much of a sailor so he wasn't entirely sure what they were doing. As the weather was nice and there was a constant breeze blowing they were moving at a nice clip with little worry.

Thomas observed for a few minutes before picking a spot near the bow that wasn't frequented by the soldiers. He wanted a nice open spot to cook at. Now, he wasn't an idiot. Despite not knowing much about sailing he knew enough to not start a wood fire on the deck. He had no intention of doing that when he had perfectly good magic to use! He pulled out a piece of thick cloth and lay it on the deck then set out his camp grill on it. He selected a few cuts of orc meat from his inventory and prepped them with some salt and pepper. He also retrieved a cast iron frying pan and a mix of vegetables. With a simple flick of his fingers, the vegetables were cleanly sliced into bite-sized pieces by a precise application of wind magic.

He added a bit of butter for the vegetables to cook with into the pan and sprinkled on some salt. He set the pan on one side of the grill and the orc meat on the other side. He placed his left hand beneath the grill and channeled his mana into the palm of his hand. Soon it started to glow orange as scorching heat was emitted from his palm. It had been quite a while since he'd last used Heat magic, as could be seen from its low rank, but thanks to his Magic attribute and Mana Control the heat was pretty intense and started to heat up the pan and meat immediately.

Snowlily curiously watched Thomas as he cooked their food. His left hand stayed beneath the grill to provide heat while his right hand flipped the meat and stirred the vegetables in their pan. He didn't have control over the specific temperature of the heat flowing out of his hand, it wasn't like there was a knob he could turn, but he could tell when it was too hot and somewhat control the output so that he didn't instantly turn the food into charcoal. As he cooked without a care in the world, a few of the sailors glanced over at him and shook their heads. They'd seen their fair share of strange passengers, but a man cooking food using magic while a white wolf watched was a first for them.

A few of the sailors wanted to go over to yell at him but didn't really have a reason to do so. Thomas wasn't using fire at all so there was no danger of setting the ship on fire. Additionally, he'd set down a cloth to catch the greasy drippings of the orc meat so they couldn't even yell at him for making a mess. It wasn't long before the scent of grilling pork and cooking vegetables filled the air and mixed with the scent of the ocean. Though the breeze was blowing the majority of the scent away from the ship.

Once the food was cooked properly, Thomas killed the Heat magic coming from his hand and pulled two smoothly carved wooden plates out of his inventory and started stacking them with food. He'd cooked several pieces of orc meat at the same time as well as a fair amount of veggies. He piled heaps of them onto both plates and set one down in front of Snowlily with a grin, "Don't forget to eat your veggies."

Snowlily huffed and looked nonplussed at having to eat the veggies, but she would do so. Thomas knew that for himself nutrition didn't matter in the least, but for Snowlily it might be different. Even if it wasn't he felt that vegetables had a nice taste and texture so he encouraged her to eat them regardless. Snowlily dug right into her food while he retrieved some simple silverware from his storage ring before digging into his own food. He left the grill out to let it cool down in the wind before he would store it away.

The meal was simple with just the salt and pepper to enhance the natural flavors of the ingredients. The enhanced flavor of the orc meat was a pure pork experience that would be hard to replicate in the real world. Snowlily seemed to find the food, even the veggies, to be delicious as she chowed down on the pile of food. Thomas ate somewhat slower than her but finished just a minute or two after she did. With their meal finished, he collected the grill into a ring and carried the pan, dirty plates, and silverware to the side of the ship. They needed to be cleaned before he put them away.

Thomas held one of the plates in his left hand and pointed his right index finger out of it. Water sprayed out of the tip of his finger like a miniature power washer and easily blasted away the grease and leftover tiny bits on the plate. The dirty water fell over the side of the ship and into the ocean. Since it was all natural stuff he didn't feel like he was polluting. It would all be either eater by small sea creatures or just naturally break down over time. It wasn't like he was throwing heaps of plastic into the water. Using this method he blasted all of the dishes clean and thanks to the water being magic it instantly evaporated after doing its job meaning he didn't need to dry anything.

As he was washing the last dish he looked out over the ocean and saw a black spot on the horizon. He squinted his eyes and activated his 'All Seeing Eyes' to zoom in on it. As his vision magnified he recognized the spot on the horizon as another ship heading in the opposite direction. He couldn't see details from this distance but the ship looked similar in size to the one he was on. He guessed it was a merchant heading in the opposite direction as them. It had nothing to do with him so he finished what he was doing and stored everything away.

Now that their late breakfast/early dinner was over, Thomas found a comfortable out of the way spot on the deck and relaxed with a good book. Snowlily came with him and rested her head on his thigh while she took an after-meal nap and relaxed as well. It would be quite a while before they needed to do much more than eat and relax. Thomas was somewhat annoyed that he couldn't earn any experience by killing monsters, but that was a price that had to be paid for traveling so far. When he got to the next continent he would have to find a dungeon and go on a killing spree. He needed a new large supply of mana crystals so it would be two birds with one stone.

Several hours after he sat down to read the book, the ship he'd spotted on the horizon was passing by their ship. The two ships kept a respectable distance away from each other and kept a wary eye on each other until they were close enough to see clearly. Though rare, pirates did exist and had become a little more prevalent since the hero summoning accident. The introduction of millions of new people to the world had caused a fair number of issues. Not all of the summoned people showed heroic qualities, some were even downright villainous. It was necessary to be cautious of every passing ship until the people on board could be seen. The ship passed them by without any issue and their journey continued without issue.

For the next seven days, the journey was peaceful. Thomas spent his time either in his room or on the deck of the ship reading. Snowlily spent almost all of her time either relaxing with him or launching Ice magic spells into the ocean to get some practice. Thomas even spent a little time showing her different shapes she could form her icicles into for different effects. The first time she fired off magic the crew of the ship were shocked, but after that, it just became the norm and it didn't even raise any eyebrows. Snowlily had become something of a mascot for the ship's crew, they even went out of their way to sneak her snacks when they thought Thomas wasn't paying attention.

He didn't spend all seven days just reading. He also took some time to practice his Alchemy and make a handful of different potions. In that group of potions he made some magical rarity healing potions, mana potions and a few buff potions with various effects. Sadly, his supply of mana crystals was limited to the ones he'd purchased from the Alchemy shop back in the city so he couldn't make as many potions as he'd purchased ingredients for. Still, he had about thirty potions on hand now. He also took the time to test all of the shells he'd made for his spell cannon by firing shots into the ocean. When bored he would join Snowlily and practice his own spellcasting.

During the week they'd passed fifteen other cargo ships heading in the opposite direction with their cargo. Thomas was surprised at first but considered that a large number of ships would be required to trade in large quantities. Each day they would pass at least two ships heading toward Utstad so it became a familiar sight to Thomas. Every time a ship would pass the crew would grow tense until they could confirm the ship passing wasn't hostile. Honestly, Thomas almost hoped one of the ships would actually be pirates so he could do something to stretch. The journey was far more boring than he expected and while reading gave him a lot of information it also grew extremely tedious.

On the eleventh day of the journey, just over halfway through it, the crew started to get cautious. A sure sign that they spotted another ship heading toward them. Thomas paid no attention to them and continued to read his book. This happened several times a day so it was nothing to bother worrying about. As time passed and he read the tension continued to grow while the sailors became more vigilant. Thomas looked up and over the side of the ship to see the other ship was getting closer than other ships had previously. As the ship got closer a flag was run up the mainmast to flap in the wind. Thomas couldn't help smirking when he saw the classic skull and crossbones showing on the black flag, "Ask and ye shall receive."

He chuckled to himself as he snapped his book closed and stored it inside of his inventory while climbing to his feet. He dusted his backside off and looked in the direction of the quickly approaching pirate ship. At this distance, it was too late for the crew to make a drastic change in course to avoid them. Additionally, the pirate ship was a little smaller with similarly sized sails giving it more speed and making it impossible for them to be outrun. The crew started to run around in a mix of chaos and order as they prepared to meet the pirates.

Due to a lack of cannons, there was a mix of bows, crossbows, and swords to use for fighting instead. The ranged weapons would be used to fire volleys at the pirate ship while the swords would be used if the pirates attempted to board. While the crew went about their preparations, Thomas went about his own. During his normal time on the ship the only weapon he carried was his Peace Maker in its holster on his right hip, but with the pirates incoming he started to equip himself from head to toe with all of his usual gear.

Once he was geared up he pulled his Spell Cannon out of his inventory and made sure it was the Fire Arrow shell inside of the chamber. The gun and all of his shells were fully charged and ready for combat. Thomas held the Spell Cannon in his left hand and his Peace Maker in his right hand. Though the Spell Cannon was more powerful it had nearly zero recoil. The Peace Maker had a large amount of recoil so he held it in his dominant hand to help control it easier.

As the two ships got closer to each other the conflict began. The pirate ship was the first to act. At the bow of their ship a man lifted his hand and summoned a burning sphere of fire. In response, the ship's mage, someone Thomas had paid no attention to, summoned a sphere of water. The spells fired within moments of each other and collided in midair causing a temporary explosion of steam before both spells faded. Thomas smiled playfully as he heard a roar of excitement from both ships. This was going to be fun!