When Drake, Fang, and I reach the docks, the dockmaster is speaking with a man standing in front of around forty or so men. An entire sailing crew, here to be convinced? There are two other groups here, though they're smaller – just the essential members. The ones who'd likely be able to convince the rest of the ship's crew.

However, I'm interested in the man with the bigger group. He's a merchant I already know, and he also owns his own ship rather than the ship being owned by a noble who lets them use it under a contract.

Despite us being here for a week, I wasn't aware he was here in town. Have they been camping out on their ship the entire time? I've never seen it, so it makes sense that I wouldn't have recognized it. I only ever saw him when he visited in the capital before I ran away as well as a couple of times when he came to visit Granny.

The man isn't large and burly, like the grunt of a ship would be. Rather, he's on the lean side, with some muscle, a sword on his hip. He's dressed in black pants, black boots, and a dark blue tunic with silver trim, his grey-streaked brown hair kept short and neat, his brown eyes watching the dockmaster, his skin tanned from the sun.

He's an adventurer, and a talented one. He'll be taking us, and all I need to do is show him my face for that.

"They're here," Peter, the merchant who will take us, says, his deep voice carrying over to us as we approach. "Though it appears they've picked up another, you said there were only two of them."

All eyes turn to us as small talk fades away, the dockmaster looking at me nervously. He's probably hoping he's not making a fool of himself by requesting this.

"Hello, sirs," the dockmaster greets us once we're in front of them. "These are the three crews who agreed to at least hear you out before deciding if they want to risk the winds dying on them again."

"Let's start with the one with the crew that turned out to hear," I make sure to use my deep voice. "We'll be using your office. I'll speak with the captain alone. Drake, Fang, ensure no one eavesdrops."

I turn and walk towards the dockmaster's office. Inside, I begin closing the shutters, and Peter enters behind me. The other two captains didn't look too happy about me deciding to do this privately rather than as a group. Once the windows are closed, I turn and face Peter, who's leaning against the desk, arms crossed over his chest as he no doubt stares at me sternly.

"Why should you convince only me, rather than me and my crew?" He asks with mild annoyance in his voice.

"Because I'm traveling incognito," I speak normally as I push my hood back. "Hello, Peter. It's been a couple of years."

Peter's eyes widen in surprise, then he breaks out into a grin.

"Nate," he says. "It's been a few years, indeed. The dockmaster said you're traveling to the Sacred Isles, then the eastern continent? Visiting your mother before doing whatever else it is?"

"Yes," I answer. "Though it's tied into why I'm traveling as well."

"The dockmaster," he says. "Claims you used wind magic, like your cousin does. I thought only the Elemental Guardians could use pure magic?"

"Anyone can," I tell him. "It's just not easy. I get a headache casting a basic wind blast. It will likely be a couple of years before that goes away, and that's with training every day."

"Jeez," he says.

"Yeah," I say.

"So then you won't be using wind magic to guide our sails?" He asks.

Peter is someone we can trust with the truth. He'll keep it close to his heart, revealing it to no one unless permission is given. Despite his softer looks, he is a warrior, in heart, body, and soul. Though he has a leaner build, he's like me. His body is built for speed rather than just raw strength, but he's got a decent Strength stat, too.

So I'm going to tell him the truth, because it's simply easier.

"No need," I tell him. "The reason the winds died was an issue with the Wind Crystal. There's an issue with all four of the Elemental Crystals, and we're visiting each of them in order to restore them."

"The wind returned a couple of weeks ago," he says. "If you travel to the Wind Crystal taking a route that goes through Golden Gale and Ivory Breeze, rather than the faster route, and we backtrack that time and factor in you running Dungeons along the way, you'd have left the Wind Shrine a week after the wind returned to normal."

He even put together that I'd have taken a quieter, more roundabout route without an extra moment to think. Peter isn't one of the most respected merchants for nothing, he's quite intelligent, too. I heard stories that he once completely changed our economic climate by himself, but that was before I was born.

Back before he was even my age.

My father respects him highly, and he often told me tales about Peter when I was little.

"Yes," I say. "We've already been to the Wind Crystal, and we've performed a temporary fix to the situation."

"It's only temporary?" He asks.

"It will last for another thousand years," I tell him. "Though after we visit all four of them, there's something else that will multiply that by a hundred."

"What?" He asks.

"I'm not sure, to be honest," I shrug. "I never asked Drake. I figured that if it's relevant, he'll actually tell me."

Though this is Drake. He might not realize we'll need to do something before we can go off to do whatever it is. Maybe I should ask him what it is?

"Drake?" He asks. "Is that your strange friend?"

"The one with the scales?" I ask, and he nods. "Yes. He's not actually from our world, but from the world of the beings who created the Elemental Crystals. He's taken human form in order to blend into our society. It's him who's fixing the Crystals."

"Okay," Peter pushes off from the desk as he lets his arms drop to his sides. "We'll take you and your team. You wanted to go the Dungeon Path, according to the dockmaster."

"Yeah," I say. "So that we can get our Levels up some more. Being of the species who made the Crystals doesn't give Drake the ability to go to them without doing their respective Elemental Trial. It does, however, give him some pretty decent stat bonuses. He's already a Tier III in power, but is only Level 25. If we can get one of his Classes up to the next Tier, the Water Trial should be quite easy for him."

"Most likely," he says. "What is he?"

"A dragon," I answer, and his eyes widen. "Yeah, they're apparently real. He sacrificed his true form to come here, and he can't return home, either. However, those sacrifices will be for nothing if we don't finish this quest in the next few years. Unless all four are restored to glory, the world will become inhospitable. We've already done one, and we're doing the Water Crystal next."

"Then the Earth Crystal, then the Fire Crystal?" He asks. "Assuming you're going for the shortest route?"

"Yeah," I answer.

"Good luck," he tells me. "My crew and I were planning on setting off if the winds remained for another week. Every day we're sitting here doing nothing, we're losing money. We have a massive load from the Silver Table that we're supposed to sell on the eastern continent, among other things."

"The Silver Table?" I ask. "Are you going to introduce the alert crystals over there?"

The Silver Table is the company that created the alert crystals and guardstones, among many other things. Most of their things are sold here, but they do start sending sales over to the Sacred Isles and the eastern continent after five to ten years, so that they're tested and known to be reliable.

I should have realized as soon as I saw Peter here. It's been a decade since those were invented, and he's the merchant used to sell goods off-continent for the Silver Table.

"Yes," Peter answers. "We have more than one hundred thousand of them, along with twenty guardstones. I might have to raise their prices a little due to the delay, but if we can get enough people willing to pay a higher ticket price for traveling to the Sacred Isles or over to the eastern continent with us, we can use that to make back some of the money we've lost."

"Good luck," I tell him. "Are you willing to wait for us on the Sacred Isles? We'll be doing Dungeons before going in, then running the trial, and Drake became ill for a week after we fixed the Wind Crystal."

While I do trust him, I'm not going to let him know everything Drake is sacrificing. Someone's essence is a more personal thing. That, and I just remembered that Fang can probably hear us, and he's going to be traveling with us even longer. I don't want him worrying too much about the extra stuff, and he's already going to feel bad for Drake for giving up his home and true self.

"Yes," Peter tells me. "We'll wait for however long it takes you, Nate. Do you think your mother will let you go through the trial?"

"Once we explain that Drake is fixing the issue," I tell him. "She'll most likely let us in. I'm not so sure about the last two Elemental Guardians, but I have faith everything will work out."

"That's not what I mean," he walks over and ruffles my hair. "She's your mother, and I'm going to doubt you're strong enough to handle the trial. Especially with a team of three people."

"Two," I say. "Fang isn't old enough to be in the System yet, he's got about six months. So it's just Drake and me doing them. Drake handles all of the fighting. I'm mostly there for dealing with traps, navigation, and healing."

Peter gives me a knowing smile.

"I'll convince her to let me go into a situation that would normally kill someone of my Level going into it with just one other person, when it normally takes a group of fifteen people with two more Classes and at least one or two more Class Tiers on all of them in order to do with any level of safety."

Peter laughs, then claps my shoulder.

"Alright," he says. "Before we head out and I tell the crew that we're moving our departure up a week, I have another question."

"You're always welcome to ask."

"Are you planning on keeping your identity hidden the entire journey?" He asks.

"I'm only easily-recognized here," I tell him. "In this kingdom and the surrounding areas. Once we leave here, I'll probably let my identity be known. Sure, Calvin's probably going to be known in areas on the eastern continent, but most people probably won't realize he's related to the Oracle. Or if they do, not know the rumors that I'm supposedly going to be the next one."

"Are you?" He raises an eyebrow.

"According to Granny," I chuckle, then remember something. "Hey, actually, you have Warrior, Guardian, Treasure Hunter, and Thief, right?"

"Yeah."

"Is there an Ascension Skill for someone with Arc Slash, Bash, and Stoneskin?" I ask. "I never really looked into that, and forgot to while we were waiting for today. Drake hasn't applied any Levels after taking on Guardian just in case there is one."

"There is," Peter tells me. "Soaring Punch. It's an Ascension Skill for Arc Slash and Bash. It's a punch with an effect like Arch Slash."

"So it projects a punch forward, striking with the same force as if he'd punched them himself?"

"Correct," he tells me.

"Alright," I say. "I'll let Drake know later. We'll go for our first Ascension Skills once we're on the Sacred Isles, probably."

"Good luck," he says. "Anything else? Or shall we go out there?"

"Let's go," I pull my hood back on and speak with a deeper voice.

Peter and I return outside, and a quick look at Fang shows that he's processing what I said inside. Drake has a small smile on his lips, which means that Fang probably had an amusing reaction to the news. Based on how the sailors and merchants look, none of them know anything that would be revealing about what we're doing.

I did forget that Drake and Fang have better senses than humerases, due to their other traits. Whoops.

"I've been convinced," Peter declares. "Crew, make sure to supply for three months, but plan on picking up some things on the islands as we travel, so don't get excessive. Standard fare! Gregory, Thomas, Richard, and Blake, you four head through the town. We'll be taking travelers paying ten thousand vanri for a ticket, to cover the risk in addition to the supplies. Stop at noon, and say that we'll take no one knew after one, and set sail at two."

"Yes, Captain!" His crew responds, then they immediately get to moving.

"Come on," Peter tells Drake, Fang, and me.

The three of us follow him onto the ship, and he leads us to private quarters. Most ships don't have private quarters for anyone but the captain and maybe the first mate, but I guess Peter does in case he has special guests.

"This room provides privacy," he says. "There's just one bed in here rather than some hammocks, and it's not that large, but we can set up some blankets for-"

"We share a bed anyway," I tell Peter, still using my deep voice and keeping my face concealed for now. "And that one has enough space for the three of us with the way we normally sleep."

"Okay," he chuckles, then leans against the doorframe as I sit on the bed. "So Nate, how long ago did you set off on the journey, if you're already Tier II and with a second Class?"

He's wanting to know how much training we're doing, since most people train for several days to several weeks before Dungeon runs, including running the Dungeon for several days of non-CP runs. He's going to lightly scold us when I tell him that we aren't doing that.

"Ah," I say. "We aren't really doing much training between Dungeons. We're going straight from one to the next."

"That's not good," he says. "You need to make sure you train as well, Nate, or you'll never improve and rely on the boosted Stats and the System Skills too much."

"Yeah, I know," I say. "But we're also somewhat in a hurry for this quest."

"I can't believe there's something so severe going on," Fang mutters as he sits beside me, Drake sitting on the floor. "Why isn't a bigger party going and doing this? Can't your brother teleport? Couldn't he-"

"No," I interrupt. "You know how I'm rumored to be the next Oracle?"

It should be safe to discuss this here, even with the door open. Unless someone was sneaking by, we'd hear their steps on the wooden floors of the ship before they were within earshot.

"Yeah."

"It's true," I tell him. "I've inherited some of her power. More than my brothers did. One day, years and years from now, I'll take her place as the Oracle. I've already developed a few senses. Originally, I could only sense things like danger, treasure, and the weather."

"Treasure?" Peter asks.

"You have no idea," I tell him. "How much your storage rooms and your cabin are setting off that sense. You've got a few pretty valuable things here. Anyway, I'm also able to sense people now, and if I focus while in a Dungeon, I can get a rough sense of the direction of the exit ring, along with what a room we're at the entry of will contain.

"However," I tell them. "I've also gained a few other, ah, senses. I've begun having visions recently. Well, I've only had two so far. One of them was of the three of us in bed together a few years in the future, which is how I knew you'd probably join us once I let you know that your turn-off wasn't actually an issue.

"As for another sense," I think over the feeling I have. "Anytime I think about having Calvin teleport him and a bigger, stronger group around with Drake as an escort, I get this feeling that something bad would happen. I don't know what it is, just that it's bad. Bad enough that we shouldn't do that. Drake and I need to make this journey, taking it as it goes. The faster, seemingly-better option will yield a massive disaster."

"So you're trying to rush," Peter says. "Foregoing training in favor of using Drake's higher strength to get through things."

"I'm tough enough for it," Drake states.

"I'm sure," Peter says. "I've known Nate since he was little, and know the people who trained him. I doubt he'd act too irrationally and would stop for training if he felt it was needed. That said, the reason it takes most people years to reach Tier III isn't just because they spend Skill Points on Ascension Skills and taking on additional Classes and Leveling those. It's because they spend time preparing themselves, training further. Strength only goes so far without having the skill to back it up."

"Nate's shown me that," Drake nods. "He's skilled in fighting, and can take me down. But if he goes up against someone with more skill than him, they can take him down."

"Exactly," Peter says. "You can delay a few extra days to a week or two, for the training, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "We still do want to work on this as fast as possible, though. Every day that passes is another day that things get a little worse."

"That's fine," Peter says. "It won't be too much. However, you do need to do some additional training in order to keep your skills up and improve, Nate, so while we're traveling, I'm going to be training the two of you. Each island we stop on during our trip through the Dungeon Path, along with the islands we stop on along the way to the eastern continent, I'll be giving both of you some lessons. Drake with his sword, you with your knives, and both with your bodies."

"Not him with his sword?" Drake asks.

"A little of that, too," Peter says. "Though his talent lies in knife attacks and martial arts, and it suits his style better. I'm going to make sure things are going as planned. You three can stay in here or head up on deck, but please try to stay out of the way as we work."

"Will do," I tell him.

Peter leaves, then I look at Drake and Fang.

"I hope neither of you are seasick," I say. "Because this is going to be a long journey if you are."