Roger gestured towards the whimpering white guard named Zane of the deck who had fainted from blood loss as Louis bandaged his stump.

"Take what is offered now, or lose the opportunity" Roger was beginning to become annoyed as he spoke agitatedly with his thick accent.

Noah joined the oarsmen line with his bowl after everyone assembled to eat after Roger's instructions. All of the oarsmen behaved themselves as they waited uncertainly for the ability-users to retaliate at any moment. The oarsmen believed retaliation would happen unexpectedly when they let their guard down after their revolt from the night before.

Noah was near the end of the line of oarsmen, but there was still a large amount of the questionable goop remaining. He filled his bowl to the brim with the unappetizing goop. The reddish-pink goop had an unpleasant taste and texture, but Noah was unconcerned by that. He hadn't eaten pleasant food since before he had arrived on the boat. Noah's original fussy eating habits have long since disappeared.

Noah approached Uncle Joey, who passed him a small white cube grade-two ration. Noah directly placed the grade two ration inside his mouth as an expression of euphoria passed over his face as he closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling of lifeforce increasing to counteract a small amount of the damage done to his body by Ronan.

The bandage on Noah's right hand had become stained with blood, but the wound had closed beneath it, so he decided against removing it. Noah began to eat the fishy goop with enthusiasm, using his undamaged hand to stuff his face without any delay.

As the oarsmen ate, a few of them managed weak discussions, and Noah could hear the occasional laughter. Greg, the new oarsmen leader, approached Noah, who looked up to watch him as he sat down.

"What do you think's going to happen now?" Greg asked Noah.

Noah shrugged in response as he continued to eat his questionable goop in silence.

"I didn't expect those witches to torture the guard like that. Who could've predicted that?" Greg continued with a bewildered expression on his face.

Noah continued to ignore the man's attempts at conversation while thinking about how he can recover.

The grade-two rations have a similar effect to when I ate the Kraken meat. It increases my lifeforce to a lesser extent than a full meal. That's probably due to its lower grade. I've recovered a portion of my lifeforce, but it's not even a fraction of what it was at my peak. The ration hasn't restored the lifeforce that was withered. I can still feel the lifeforce there, but it's heavily damaged, and it feels like it's in hibernation. My appearance also hasn't changed. I look like a man more than twice my age. I don't know how I'll ever recover, even if I overtake the lifeforce I had in the past. I'm probably going to be stuck like this forever.

"Is it me, or is the air getting colder?" Greg suddenly interrupted Noah's thoughts as he made a display of breathing out, causing the mist to form.

"I think you're right," Noah replied in confusion as he also noticed the sudden drop in temperature.

Noah placed his unfinished bowl of questionable goop beside him on the deck as he pushed himself to his feet to walk over to the rail to take a better look.

"There's ice in the ocean. We were in tropical waters not long ago. Something's happened here," Noah stated distractedly as he curiously watched a chunk of ice bump against the reinforced hull of the fishing trawler.

Other people on the boat were beginning to notice the weather's change as they also moved to the railing around the deck.

"Look over there! What's that?" an oarsman suddenly called out while pointing at an unusual icy mist moving through the sky in the distance.

Noah heard muffled discussion as everyone offered their opinions of what it could be. Suddenly there was a break in the mist as it thinned. What he could see first was a flock of seagulls cawing in the distance. As more of the fog thinned, he could see seagulls nesting atop a smooth blue surface amidst bird droppings and makeshift nests made of sticks and other things. He saw a humongous shadowy shape diving through the mist towards the ocean. The shadow broke through the mist cover to reveal what it was. There were cries of surprise all around the deck in response, including from Noah.

"That's a whale!" Noah exclaimed.

The enormous shadow which the seagulls were nesting on was a massive whale with green-lifeforce flowing through it. Thinning fog streamed from its blowhole and the sides of its mouth. The flying whale let out a loud call towards the flock of seagulls roosted on its back.

『Prepare to dive!』The whale's words were translated by the System inside the onlookers' minds.

"Why can I understand the whale call?" an oarsman asked a rhetorical question in surprise.

Every higher grade creature I've encountered seems to be translated by the System, starting with the alien in the Store. I never wondered how I understood it before. After we defeated the Kraken, the announcement I received from the System said that it was a grade three user, so it must be a grade three feature.

As Noah was thinking to himself, the flying whale crashed into the ocean surface. It opened its mouth wide to reveal its brush-like teeth as seagulls took flight from its back in scattered directions. The whale didn't submerge its huge body into the ocean. It only scooped a considerable amount of seawater into its mouth before rising back into the air with heavy mist streaming from the edges of its mouth. The mist once again obscured the flying whale from view as the seagulls returned to their roosts on the whale's filthy back while cawing among themselves.

"That was incredible..." Greg whispered in wonder.

Greg was standing at the rail beside Noah while watching the fog once again shroud the flying whale and its unexpected passengers.