“Hey, Gon.” Arcus called me.

“Hmm?” I let out a grunt to let him know I was listening while letting my mind wander.

“You ever wonder why we are here?” He asked.

“It’s a mystery, isn’t it?” I said while looking at the horizon. “I mean, why are we here? Are we pawns in a board played for the god’s amusement? Are we…” I stopped for a moment as some water splashed in my face. “…unstable existences that wander around and do unknown things for no reason, and thus are watched over by then?” I smiled. “Maybe we have a way to find out that kind of stuff, but for now, we can only wonder. Why are we here.”

A moment of silence fell between us as we slowly took in the deep and profound words that I had just said. A faint sound of impact echoed amidst the crash of the waves against the ship’s hull, but nothing else was said for some time.

“…What? How did you even…” He said confused, but was also stopped by salt water. “I was asking why are we here, tied to the ship’s front mast.”

“Oh! That.” I said as I finally got the meaning of the question. “Yeah, sorry. That’s because I taunted one of the sea’s mightiest beings and that almost caused it to destroy this ship in retaliation.” I stopped to think for a moment. “And you stole the first mate’s cookies.”

“Yeah, ye… Wait, what?” He suddenly stopped. I think I heard him turning his head around to look at me, but I couldn’t be so sure since I was also tied to the mast and my view range was rather limited. “Why the hell did we get the same punishment?” He asked confused.

“Oh, probably because being tied to a large wooden pole under the afternoon sun while the sea water that crashes into the ship’s hull and fly into your face every few seconds is a surprisingly good punishment.” I said while closing my eyes as the water once again hit my face.

“Yeah, yeah. But why did we get the same treatment?” He asked confused. “I mean, no matter how I see it, the punishment should be on a completely different scale, right?”

“Well, they probably don’t have enough room to make a private cell for you.” I said with shrug. “But yeah, I agree. Stealing cookies is a serious crime.”

“Right?” He said confidently. Then a moment of silence. “Waaaaait a second…” He said suspicious.

“Master…” I heard Crys say disappointed. I moved my head around a bit until I could see the floating crystal maid.

“Oh, hey Crys.” I greeted her. “What brings you here.”

“I came to remind you that you really should go to sleep already.” She said while eyeing me and the half-beastman tie to the mast. “But I guess you are still being punished.”

“Eh. Wouldn’t be my first sleepless night before class.” I shrugged it off.

“You do reckon this wouldn’t have happened if you had kept your mouth shut, right?” She said in disapproval.

“In my defense, I am actually reflecting on my actions.” I said seriously. She stared at me. Five seconds later… “More than usual, at least.” I said while averting my eyes.

“…Okay, now I’m curious. What exactly happened?” Arcus asked me confused.

“Huh? Didn’t you see it?” I asked confused. I mean, kind of difficult to miss that, you know.

“Not really.” He said with an awkward tone. “El got seasick so Lila and I had to look after her in the ship.” He explained. “We did hear a lot of shouting and the ship shaking like nothing ever before, though.”

“Hmm, fair enough.” I said with a nod. “Guess it’s time for a flashback then.”

“Flashback?”

“Yeah, its when a story plays a scene that happened in the past to either tell something that wasn’t told or help the viewers remember something that happened a long time ago.” I explained to him. There was a silence while I heard the rope complaining as he moved. I guessed that he was nodding. “Anyway, here’s what happened…”

And here we start a flashback.

…

“I think I just found out why the undines were so uneasy.” I said amidst dry laughter while I stared at the shadow of the creature that passed beneath our ship.

Hmmm? Weird, why does it feel like I’m in a flashback?

For a moment I was assailed by the odd feeling, but the sound of the ship creaking at the uneven current produced by a monster the size of a large building kind of made me come back to reality.

“What’s happening lad? I can’t see well from here!” Cherrygrove asked from where he was, his voice worried.

“Well, shortening a long story, we basically have a legendary monster right under our rudders at this exact moment and we’ll most likely all die if he so much as sneezes.” I said in my most non-threatening way.

“Is it a leviathan?” A sailor asked near the captain. “If so, we have already escaped worse.”

“Erm… A little worse than that, I reckon.” I said while looking away. “Does Baltamur the Tide Bringer rings a bell?” I asked awkwardly.

The sailors around me looked around confused at the name. From the looks of it, they hadn`t heard about the behemoth, despite being sailors who are often on the sea. Well… How do I explain this then? Should I get help from the guy who dived earlier?

“…You jest, boy.” Cherrygrove suddenly said, his voice showing his disbelief. I turned to him and he was looking at me warily. “That… Those are naught but legends.”

“Oh, so you know those guys.” I said relieved. “Well, yeah. They exist. And one of them is right under your ship.” I explained while pointing downwards. “And if what I heard is true, we might want to get away from here.”

“…Lorry?” Cherry grove called the sharkman, who was still sitting and trembling on the deck. The sharkman simply nodded weakly. “ALL HANDS ON DECK! WE ARE GETTING AWAY FROM HERE! I want us as far away from this creature as we can right now.” He turned to me and asked. “Where is he. Where is he going?”

“Huuh…” I blinked and looked back towards the front of the ship where I had seen it. “…Huh. He’s gone.” I commented after a moment of searching.

“...What?”

“He’s gone. The shadow is gone.” I said in a mix of disappointment and relief. “At least I can’t see it.”

“I-Is that true?” Lorri asked shocked while standing up and staring at me. “A-Are we safe?”

“Well, it does looks like it.” I said while searching the area around the ship.

However, there wasn’t even a shadow left of the… well… shadow of that had been under the ship just a few seconds ago. For a few seconds the ship was silent in disbelief. Then I could hear some sailors starting to complain that it was just a joke, but others shot the argument down by pointing to the sharkman.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but feel confused. I mean, yeah, it was good that the monster had left us alone, but it’s also kind of disappointing.

Being mildly realistic… I kind of seriously have a lot of doubt about me having the smallest chance of having a major possibility of even dealing a small amount of significant damage to the monster at my current level… But even then, he is my current end game goal, so having just seen him, even if only a glimpse of his shadow, only for him to get away is kind of disheartening.

While I was feeling conflicted about how to react, my eyes landed on both Yuu and Aura, who were oddly enough staring towards the same direction with a serious expression. I was a bit curious about that, but before I had the chance to ask anything, ‘it’ moved.

What is ‘it’ you might ask?

That’s simple. The Iceberg that was only around a few meters away from our ship.

Yeah… What could possibly go wrong there, right? A massive iceberg that weighs around a few hundreds of tons that’s right besides the ship you are currently in started moving.

And just to be more precise, it wasn’t just a simple movement like a slight shake nor anything like that. The iceberg actually bobbed up a good two or three meters out of the water before falling back in.

And if the tip of the iceberg is already the size of the ship, you can only guess how the ship reacted at all that mass moving right next to it.

This time I didn’t manage to hold myself in place and fell on my back as the ship swerved heavily by the wave the iceberg created. Most of the sailors just barely manage to keep their balance, together with Yuu and Kotetsu.

“What was that?” Kotetsu asked shocked. “Icebergs aren’t supposed to move like that.”

“…Sorry. I think I might have jinxed it.” I apologized.

“Men, prepare to turn to port. We are moving away from this iceberg right now!” Cherrygrove barked orders. “I want all mages on sail-filling and wave-making duties. No swimmers pulling. Everyone is to stay on deck.”

The sailors who had fallen quick put themselves back on their foots and scrambled to their posts. Some of them went to manage the front sail, others stood in the middle of the deck while someone distributed mana potions. Finally, another group of sailors lined up on the right side of the ship, the closest point to the iceberg.

Since we knew we’d only get in the way, our group quickly moved towards the railings where we wouldn’t bother the sailors.

“Wave on my mark…” A tall sailor who was on the rudder shouted, he probably was the first mate. “NOW!”

On his shout, the sailors who were lined up on the side of the ship quickly started to cast magic. Soon after, the ship started tilting once again as a decently sized wave start to form underneath it. However, different from the previous wave that took everyone by surprise and threw us out of balance, this time we were ready and managed to keep our balance.

As soon as the ship started to tilt and swerve, the first mate spun the rudder and turned the ship towards the opposite side as to where the wave was forming. Using the wave as a help, the ship creaked as it turned at a surprising rate, and as soon as they had enough of an angle, the first mate barked another order, and the magicians that stood near the sails started blasting wind magic on it, allowing the ship to gather a lot of speed in a matter of seconds be moving away from the iceberg that once again was moving.

“Is it the monster?” A sailor nearby asked while staring at the iceberg that now found itself directly behind the ship.

“I’d guess so.” I said with an awkward tone while swallowing drily.

“How huge is it to move the iceberg like that?” Kotetsu asked me.

“I’m not sure I want to know that just yet…” I replied.

However, it looks like Baltamur wouldn’t give me the chance. As we began to wonder what exactly was happening to the iceberg, it suddenly happened.

“…By Ukanlos’ chin… The iceberg is flying.” I muttered in shock.

Yes. That’s exactly what’s happening. While I was looking at the iceberg, it suddenly swayed oddly before suddenly being launched upwards in a straight line.

Let me tell you, no matter how realistic a game may look, there’s something about the scene of a building-sized iceberg being launched hundreds of meters upwards that just takes a long while to be registered.

Even Cherrygrove was looking back from his place as the main mast in shock, his eyes refusing to believe in the scene.

Then, he appeared.

And boy, was I glad that the treant had moved us away from the iceberg.

A massive creature that was too big for me to even understand leapt out of the water, it’s massive rounded body chasing after the iceberg as the jaw opened apart. When the massive block of ice finally remembered the laws of physics, the creature closed its mouth, a loud shattering noise reaching us as a massive part of the iceberg was broken and eaten by the creature.

My mind couldn’t even begin to process the insanity that was the scene before me.

Massive didn’t even begin to describe Baltamur. His body had a shape not unlike that of a fat cigarette, except taken to an extreme scale. Massive being an understatement. The closest comparison that I had from a real world animal was a whale, however it could only go so far.

First off, was the massive pair of tusks that sprouted from the side of its mouth. Each one was about as thick as our ship and many, many times longer. On its back was a series of irregular carapaces in that looked like dirty brown ice were dwarfed by a massive sawed ridge that ran down its spine, while its belly was a creamy colored looking layer of fat.

Attached to its side was a pair of what looked like a hybrid between claws and flippers. With a bulky and somewhat flat shape so that it could propel itself underwater, at the end were short and stubby claws that gave it a dangerous appearance.

At the base of his body, near where the second set of flippers and the tail began, I noticed two large protuberances from where a massive jet of water was being ejected, propelling him out of the ocean.

How can I say this… This scene was so damn surreal that suddenly the iceberg seemed to make all the sense in the world.

Silence fell around the ship as we all watched the scene in shock, confusion and fear. It took us almost a full ten seconds for someone to move again. And it was none other than yours truly, Cheerrygrove, who suddenly shouted.

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

Oh yeah… The big dude also needs to eventually fall.

And you can imagine what happens when something the size of a small island falls into the ocean.

The earlier waves looked like a joke compared to the one that he made. While the previous one we had ridden the wave, this time we were simply carried by it, the size alone being enough to swallow the ship a couple of times over.

Even Cherrygrove dropped the sails and held onto the hull before the wave hit us, and I saw as some of sailors started grabbing onto ropes or something. One of them threw us a rope so that we could also brace ourselves a bit better.

I quickly coiled the rope around my hand before turning to Aura, Lieutenant, Pebblesworth. For a moment I considered what to do, but I quickly dismissed their summoning, since I decided that was safer than trying to have them hold on.

“RIO! FLY AWAY! NOW!” I shouted to the little wyvern who was already halfway into leaving the ship.

Just as she managed to go high enough to avoid the waves, we were hit.

The ship tilted almost a full ninety degrees. Maybe even a bit more than that, since I saw the ship deck moving away from me for a moment. I silently thanked the fact that my real life strength wasn’t correspondent to my strength in game as I clung for dear life to the rope.

Before long I could see as we left the wave, the ship now floating weightlessly after having been thrown out of the sea before starting its fall. I think I heard some screams of surprise and fear, and some people fell out of the ship and into the ocean below.

I heard Hanbei shout something from under me, but I couldn’t quite find out what had happened, as I saw the massive Ent grabbing onto the ship’s side, his fingers digging into the ship’s hull as he firmed his grip and twisted his body backwards, forcing the ship to follow his movement.

Somehow, he just barely managed to fix the ship’s position before we landed back on the water, riding down a second wave that had come after the first one.

Thankfully, the first one was by far the worst, and while the ship rocked violently while riding the subsequent waves, we still managed to hold on.

“By Ceadeus’ beard…” I muttered shocked when the ship started to settle down.

“GON!” Crys suddenly called to me worried as she floated down closer to me. “Yuu and Kotetsu fell down!” She shouted worried.

It took me a second to understand what she meant, before finally turning back and seeing that neither of the two were present on the deck, despite the fact that I had seen them grabbing the rope.

…Cygnasdammit.

I quickly let go of the rope and dashed through the still shaking ship towards the rear of the ship, or whatever it was called, disregarding the sailors that were already trying to go back to doing their jobs.

As I cursed myself for not noticing it sooner, I quickly reached the rearmost part of the ship and looked over the railing, searching the ocean for the signs of either one of the two martial artists. As my eyes scanned the ocean, trying to find signs of them amongst the pieces of the ship, cargo pieces and sailors.

Then, I found them… Flailing on the water while trying to keep their heads out of water… Ah, no, never mind. They are swimming.

The same could be said to pretty much all the other sailors.

As I felt that it was a bit anti-climatic seeing them so casually swimming towards us, I quickly recalled the massive beast and looked towards it, wondering if it would go after those swimming… But no, it just laid in its place, chewing on the iceberg while not even sparing us a glance.

Even now I couldn’t help but swallow drily as I once again took on the sheer size of the massive creature. The movement of his jaw every time he bit into the iceberg was enough to create sizeable waves.

I couldn’t help but contort my expression into one of disappointment, but looking at the sailors swimming back to the ship, I decided that I could worry later.

Looking around, I found a coil of rope that was laying on the ground. I called to the first mate who was hugging the rudder with an exhausted expression and asked him if I could use it. He gave it a quick glance before nodding.

I threw the rope over the railing and into the ocean while trying to tie the other end to something solid.

I won’t mention the fact that I really suck at tying ropes and had to hold on to it myself when the first sailor started climbing it because that’s bad for my image as the protagonist.

“Stone-mister!” I heard Rio calling out to me while she flew down and landed on my shoulder. “Are you alright?” She asked me worried.

“Y-YEAH…” I muttered while trying to hold on to the rope while another sailor started climbing it. “R-Rio… Here…” I coiled the rope around my arm and grimaced as the pain settled in for using only one arm to hold one or more peoples worth of weight. Using my free arm, I quickly took a couple of health pots from my belt and handed it to her. “Ughhhh! Look for anyone… Who seems injured in the water… Give that to them.” I told her.

She was confused for a moment, but nodded and grabbed the potions with one of her claws and her mouth before taking flight once again.

By the time the third sailor climbed aboard, they finally noticed that I was in pain and quickly tied the rope to the ship, allowing me to stop and wait for the pain in my arm to go away. And I didn’t mean it in the chuuni way.

“That was surprising.” Yuu said while hopping onboard the ship.

“Damned low level. Can’t even allow me to hang on to a rope.” Kotetsu complained.

“Ah, Shishou! Are you alright?” Yuu ran over to me when she found me leaning against the railing.

“Yeah. Just found out trying to hold a rope so that several people climb it isn’t exactly a good idea.” I shrugged it off while I looked up at my HP that had dropped a decent amount. As well as the injured arm debuff. Then, I couldn’t help but look away for a bit while I started searching my inventory for a certain thing. “here, Yuu, you might want to put this on.” I said while taking out the old leather jacket I had made back when I was starting to learn leatherworking.

She blinked surprised, but quickly accepted it and put it over her clothes.

How should I say this, but the sight of the usually innocent Yuu wearing wet kimono had a lot more destructive power than I could have expected. Even though there wasn’t anything about it besides it clinging a bit tighter to her body than usual.

“Is everyone accounted for?” Cherrygrove asked while standing up.

“There’s still some sailors on the water.” Kotetsu said while looking back.

“Swimmers to the water. Rescue anyone who’s injured or straggling behind. Everyone else is to prepare ship for sailing.” The first mate barked orders. “Seek the golem’s white wyvern. She should be searching from the sky.”

Around five sailors near us nodded and leapt out of the ship, while some others quickly threw another rope to facilitate the climbing. All the while they kept an eye out to Baltamur. The behemoth had stopped munching on the ice and laid idly on the water. It was clear that everyone was waiting to see what it’d do next.

It took the sailors five minutes to rescue everyone who had fallen into the sea, with Rio returning once the last one was on its way here. She gave me back the potion she was carrying in her feet, while the pot on her mouth was empty.

“Everyone accounted for, sir!” The first mate barked, to which Cherrygrove nodded and once again held the sail-cloak open. Soon after, the magicians started using wind-magic to fill the sail and propel the ship forward.

A series of relieved sighs echoed from the sailors and our group as we started taking distance from where the giant was.

Even I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. I mean, I’m all for fighting stronger enemies, but that? Yeah, no way in hell I’ll be fighting that. Heck, I could use my long-sword as a freaking acupuncture therapy for him? Arrows? Maybe they’ll clog his pores.

Heck, does a thing that size even use pores?

“We are lucky it doesn’t care about us.” Crys sighed.

“Y-Yeah…” I smiled awkwardly before sighing and taking a deep breath. Talk about good luck.

…Huh… I feel like there’s something slightly wrong with what I’m thinking.

(Gon is now processing. Please wait for a moment as he falls back into his usual mindset. For your convenience please imagine that elevator music is playing at this moment.)

So… That guy is literally one of the creatures I had set as my target, one that I was still searching for information just a few minutes ago, and the first thing I think after seeing it is that I’m glad it’s not coming after me?

Yeah… There’s something wrong with me. I have no idea when I’ll next meet him, so how could I just be satisfied that I’m getting away.

Time to fix this.

I stormed my way towards the back of the ship once again and dramatically put my feet on the rear railing for dramatic purpose while pointing towards the behemoth.

“OI! YOU OVERSIZED MOHRAN RIPOFF!” I shouted the loudest I could. I’m not sure he could hear it, but I didn’t care. “YOU MIGHT HAVE SCARED THE LIVING KUT-KU OF ME TODAY! BUT KNOW THAT ONE DAY I’LL COME BACK TO DEFEAT YOU SO I CAN USE YOUR SKULL AS A HAT!” I stopped for a moment to think a bit better. “OR AS A BOAT! WHICHEVER FITS BETTER! SO WASH YOUR HIDE AND WAIT FOR IT, YOU HEAR ME?”

I grunted satisfied with the powerful threat I made it and finally felt a bit more satisfied.

“Seriously, boy?” Kotetsu said in disbelief.

“That’s how master is.” Crys said with a sigh, only to suddenly freeze as her eyes landed on the giant. “Y-You don’t think it h-heard you, do you?”

“Huh?” I blinked surprised and once again looked back at Baltamur.

He was moving. His body contorting as he turned towards our direction, and after arching its back, it sunk into the ocean. The only thing that went on my head was a repeated string of curses and self-blame.

Not long after, the behemoth appeared once again, its body poking out of the water as it balanced itself so that it could stay just outside of the water in a vertical position.

While we had gotten some distance from him already, he was still close enough to once again remind us of how massive he was. As he turned towards the ship, it opened its massive mouth.

Then, it roared.

I doubt anyone in the ship left with their ears intact, but at least I could say I went deaf fast enough so that I didn’t feel the worst part of it. However, as if going deaf wasn’t good enough, the sheer wind pressure the roar created threw the ship forward with a scary speed.

Luckily, that wasn’t enough to capsize us. Even luckier, Baltamur had decided that we weren’t worth his time and didn’t pursue us any longer.

Well, I did manage to piss off a lot of people, though.

…

“Gon…” Arcus said in monotone as I finished the story.

“Yeah?” I asked confused.

“Chosen can’t die, right?”

“Well, kinda, yeah… Why?” I asked worried.

“When I’m freed from here, I’m using you as target practice for knife throwing.”

“…Sorry!” I said, sincerely regretful.

“I’ll take some from master’s inventory. That way you don’t spend your money.” Crys added in a cheerful tone.

“…SORRY!” I cried

Yuu! Aura! I need help! Please, save me!

Aah, yeah, Yuu logged out for the day and Aura was still mad at me for what I did.

Aaah… Is this Karma for annoying people? Must be.

With that, I cried while another wave crashed against the ship and splashed in my face.