The ship lurched back and forth as Hika clenched her mouth. She didn’t do well on ships ever since her father brought her entire family on a fishing trip to a minor lake.

They were having a good time when something hit their boat. Every member of their family turned to see a dead body. It had a huge cavity in its side and was being slowly eaten by fish.

Neither the parents, nor the younger brother, nor Hika wanted to see something like that again and, every time they saw a large body of water, they would gag. Hika has thought that she would be fine as they would land on shore, but she kept thinking about that experience.

On the other hand, Erin was having a great time watching the sea. He had loved it since he was a kid and his father was a fisherman who brought him on trips.

He laughed as Hika ran to the side of the ship and vomited her breakfast. Hika glared at him and kicked his shins hard enough that he tumbled over. He wasn’t prepared for the sneak attack.

“Hey!! It’s not my fault that you can’t hold your stomach!!”

“Well you shouldn’t laugh at a person’s misery!”

Rune chuckled a little at this encounter and Hika turned to him. She stomped up to him and started pestering him.

“Hey, hey. I’m just laughing at his misery.”

He put his hands up in a defensive position to say that he wasn’t a part of their argument. Hika turned back to Erin and started to yell again.

It was their third day at sea and all they could see around them was salt water. Of course, Rune could transmute the salt out of the water, but it would still taste terrible.

He had caught fish and stored them in his storage to keep some food in case of emergencies. He thought of cooking them right then and there, but decided against it as he wasn’t desperate enough to see a fish lose all its moisture in front of him.

The voyage so far wasn’t too tough as they had smooth sailing, but they were encountering the area that Rune could see past in his map.

Rouna had said that that was the point where some evil sea gods controlled the water and Tiamat was in charge of them. They went over hundreds of procedures to prepare everyone for what to do for a monster attacking. One of the procedures, known as Procedure 15, was for everyone to hide on the second deck while only Rune killed the monster.

People were beginning to become bored and they had nothing to do other than exercise by lifting weights, running laps around the decks, and climbing up and down the mast. This may seem like a dangerous thing to do on Earth, but it was even more dangerous in Arborea where modern medicine was not created and people contacted infections quickly.

Sophia was working on alchemy in the second deck and Rouna was watching. She seemed to be well versed in the use of herbs, but did not have any experience with creating a potion. She wanted to learn but was puzzled by how complex it actually was as she didn’t know any of the sciences.

Riika was working with the radio to try and get a hold of how it worked. Everyone had received an earpiece with a microphone in it to talk to each other over the distance of the length of the entire Human continent.

Kelly and Jared were staying behind to work with Tyler on products. Rune and Tyler’s goal was to modernize at least Rune’s school so that they could relax.

Originally, Rune liked t watch anime and read manga on Earth, but now that wasn’t an option. He wanted to progress technology to the point where television sets were common and he absolutely wanted to have video games.

It was something like a far off plan, but he wanted to see it come to fruition. In fact, he had talked to some of his classmates before the tournament was interrupted and they said that they would love to have air conditioning as some of them were living in the desert area.

Rune, Kelly, and Jared only worked on two types of things. Communication devices and guns were the only things created, but those alone could revolutionize Arborea as they could each help take down a country in their own way.

Riika was looking in front of the ship when she started to yell. She looked panicked and ran up to Rune in a frenzy.

“There’s a monster!!!”

Rune stood up quickly and ran to the spot where she had come from. In front of the ship was a huge shadow under the water. It seemed to surface in multiple places and it had mottled blue scales covering it.

Suddenly, bubbles came up from the ocean and a massive head rose. It had two yellow eyes that looked around for a moment before locking onto Rune. It had red fins on its back that started to close up.

Its jaws were open and have two rows of extremely long and sharp teeth and a pinkish tongue. It roared at Rune and everyone else decided to follow Procedure 15 and fled downstairs. It turned its head and moved towards Rune with two of its arms grasping the ship’s railing.

The sky above them darkened as it roared and it started to rain. Above its head was a swirling pool of water that rain drops added to. It grew to be the size of a small shack and it roared again.

It looked up at the water as if it expected it to move, but it didn’t. Rune was controlling it so that it wouldn’t move and he sent it down on the beast and impaled it’s left eye. Blood started to pour from the wound and the water further destroyed the creature.

It’s head was right over the deck and blood puddles formed from the red rain dripping from the beast. Rune had made the water enter through it’s eye and used it to crush it’s brain.

The monster slumped over and started to fall into the sea until Rune placed it into his storage. Suddenly, the ship rocked and moved forward as water rushed in to fill the now empty area.

“That must’ve been a large monster.”

“It was. It was one of the Noglavirs whose lair we trespassed upon.”

Rouna was next to him with her tail splashing blood around the deck. She noticed that her green tail was being stained, but by then it was too late and she pulled it out. She started to pout and she went to the washroom to clean it.

Then he could hear Riika’s voice in his right ear. She was already using the radio in the lowest deck.

“What does the beast look like?!”

Rune tapped the button on the earpiece and spoke.

“It looks dead. Anyway, let’s push on ahead. You stay on the radio and connect everyone to automatic use. Send one person to steer the ship and I will defend it. We will rush to Hell’s Gate now.”

“Roger.”

Riika turned the radio to have every noise that the earpiece picked up sent to everyone. This way, everyone could talk without having to press the button. She sent a staff member to turn the wheel and would give him instructions. There was a small screen next to the radio that showed the view of what was in front of the ship.

“Let’s begin.”

Waves of sea monsters started closing in on them and Rune cut them down with the water around them as soon as they got close. There were huge turtles that were the size of ships, serpents whose tails were longer than his school, and even some large flying reptiles that seemed to be fishing for food.

The ship tossed and turned through the churning waves and they pressed onwards. The staff member manning the helm and was shielding his eyes from the rain as it fell around them.

Most of the staff members who were not busy were carrying submachine guns at the ready to defend themselves. Sophia, Rena, and Hika were all in one room in the lowest deck trying to not die.

Some of the Honor’s class was confused about the situation, but soon found shelter in another room on the lowest deck. There, they found a closet that was making more noise than usual.

Erin was in the that room and pulled out a sword and carefully opened the door. A body tumbled out of the closet and it’s armor clanged together as it fell.

Hyht was the first to react and quickly pulled out a long length of rope. Then he tied up the person who was covered from head to toe in armor.

“We found a stowaway in one of the closets. They seem to seasick and have a full suit of armor on. What should we do with them?”

Rune was kind of busy killing several pterodactyls that were dive bombing the ship. Whenever he skewered one, two more showed up in its place and he just kept sighing.

He ended up just absorbing most of the corpses as they crashed onto the deck. The whites of their eyes showed as blood dribbled from their mouths.

Blood spilled from the beasts onto the deck and it looked like a crowd of people were mowed down with a harvester. The secured seats and tables were stained with blood and the metal floor became slippery with the thick, red substance.

To get past the fatigue, Rune had turned into Cursed Armor and was chopping away. He had also taken out some guns and was shooting the flying creatures, but they still had a ways to go before they could fell the beast in one shot.

When he heard about the stowaway, he just shouted quickly before going back into the gore.

“Just tie them up and keep them there until I can come down.”

Rune wiped his forehead after he turned into a human. He needed a shower desperately as the foul-smelling blood was covering him from head to toe. His white hair had turned red and, every time he opened his mouth, he got blood in his mouth.

They had reached a small island with no monsters around it and they put up a barrier around it. All the large barriers they had with them were stationary and would not help the ship when it was moving.

There were some beautiful women on the small island, but they tried to use charm magic on Rune. He was able to see what would happen if they came any nearer by using a title’s skill from Pride’s Chosen. It was the ability to look into the future by three seconds three times per day.

His titles were shown below:

A -Slayer: Knows attack patterns of monsters that title carrier has killed and knows their strength and weaknesses. User also gains knowledge of weapons used a lot.

S -Holder of Iram: Highly resistant to ice and cold damage and can use [Iram’s Grip].

SS -Envy’s Chosen: Send out Bloodlust or crush enemies weaker than owner anytime.

SS -Gluttony’s Chosen: Ability to eat anything one touches that is weaker than user.

SS -Greed’s Chosen: Steal anything user can carry in one’s sight three times per day.

SS -Lust’s Chosen: Charm or persuade anyone who is not aware of it with no condition immunities against charm or persuasion three times per day.

SS -Pride’s Chosen: Ability to see three seconds into the future three times per day and gain respect faster.

SS -Sloth’s Chosen: Paralyze anyone or make them sleep three times per day.

SS -Wrath’s Chosen: Deal explosive blows and enough force to destroy adamantite with one hand and is active at all times.

Unique Titles:

SSSS -Demon King: The one being either worshipped and feared by Majin and has every ability score squared.

He had received seven titles from absorbing the seven Demon King crystals. After he used one of them, his head hurt and he grew dizzy, but it wore off after a moment. This time, when he used Pride’s Chosen, he felt some discomfort, then cut down the women.

They were sirens who had taken the shape of women and, when they died, they turned into hags with sharp fangs, a fish tail instead of legs, and had gills in their necks. To be truthful, they were awfully disgusting.

He absorbed them and gained [Sonar] which allowed him to sense vibrations in fluids that he came in contact with, like water. He really didn’t want to touch the extremely repulsive creatures, but his desire to gain power was far greater.

“Oh my god!! How could you touch something so gross??!!”

Hika looked at the things that he touch and promptly threw up in the only bush on the small island. The island was less than one eighth of the size of the ship.

“Well, let me look at that stowaway.”

“Here you are, teach.”

Erin came down from the ship on a ladder while holding the person in one arm. He shifted the person on his shoulder when he got onto the sand. He placed the person in front of Rune and it looked like they were dying.

It seemed like a green liquid was slowly moving down from inside their helmet and they were teetering from side to side. Their armor was black and white and Erin threw their weapon to Rune.

He opened it up to see Excalibur. No doubt about it. It was Elisa.

“What are you doing here?”

She didn’t answer and he took off her helmet. Then she threw up the food from her stomach. Rune teleported to Sophia faster than the vomit could reach him and he moved to Elisa’s side.

“So, ELisa, what are you doing here?”

“I-I… I am here to… help… king sent… me…”

She threw up again and Rune frowned.

“How did you survive in the ship without food?”

“I… h-had food… in a… bag…”

She shook her head and Rune untied the rope. He handed back the sword and she snatched it from his hand quickly. She started to move towards the water and cleaned out her helmet.

“Ok. Let’s head out now. We should be able to reach the coast within a day.”

Elisa stopped moving and swiftly turned her head to look at Rune. Her eyes were full of fear as she seemed to not be on the water anymore. She started to argue and Rune explained to her how it would be better to reach the continent in one day than to return in three.

Everyone climbed back aboard and Elisa dragged her feet as she slowly climbed the ladder.

“You know, I think that killing this many monsters should make me famous. How many have I killed so far?”

Rune had become Cursed Armor again to kill the monsters that pestered the ship. He was getting quite fed up with just cutting down the creatures.

He had started to get excited when he saw a large creature that was at least five times the size of the ship. It looked reptilian and had some tentacle whiskers above its mouth. It had six yellow eyes that looked in every direction. One of those directions was Rune’s cruiser.

It had four arms that made small hurricanes whenever they moved. The water behind the giant was churning and large waves splashed about. It had five large fingers with thin skin between them because they were webbed.

It had three fins on its back and spike jutting out from it like long spears. It had teeth as large and long as two people stacked on top of each other. It had two tongues, one behind the other, that moved out of its mouth.

However, it was disappointing when it started to leave and Rune ran to the ship side. He stretched out a hand towards the beast and sunk to his knees when it left. It was a great loss for him as soon as it left. He could have used it for weapon materials or gaining power.

“Umm, Mr. Samuv? You should get up. I think I can see a port.”

“Hmm?”