I did land not that far from the anchor, easily spottable in the clear water. I quickly grabbed onto it and started climbing.

It went easier than expected. After sinking to the bottom, I expected that it would be pretty hard to just climb out using a piece of rope, or vine rather, like that. I had to be a lot heavier than before, you know, being a piece of rock and all, even if you count that I was in the water.

Later, I realized that I was very lucky. While I was not sure how exactly my crystal would react to the touch of, let’s be real, living wood, the ship was no longer made of it. It was just plain old, regular wood, no magic, no life, nothing fancy.

I quickly got out of the water, but getting onto the deck was a harder part. I was right about me being heavier - when I was just walking on the ground, I didn’t really feel much of a difference, nor when I was in the water, but trying to climb a rope while not completely submerged definitely gave me a good idea about my weight. Definitely not light.

Even then, being made out of crystal helped - I could just wrap my hand with the rope and slowly lift myself up, not having to worry about the pain that would inevitably be absolutely there - from my full weight squeezing my hand with the vine-rope.

I hate to admit, but even then it took me longer than it should. Damn my laziness and overall lack of fitness.

But I digress. Already on board, the first thing I did was to check up on the crystal that was powering the illusion and the whole boat.

It actually was still there. Well, mostly.

It was in pieces. I don’t know if it was because it somehow took damage, or if it was just used up - but it definitely was completely empty. I already knew that beforehand, not noticing any mana source on board with my enhanced senses, but seeing that still made me slightly worried.

I gathered the pieces of the crystal scattered around the floor, to inspect them closer.

They were not exactly like the pieces of Origin Crystal I found back then. Those looked more like crushed glass than a broken rock. And, if my theories were correct, if they were also the Origin Crystal, they would’ve vanished already, turned into dust after being drained.

That meant that at least some of the ship enchantments were now useless. Or at least until I found some kind of replacement for it.

I stopped and gazed at my palm, covered with damp cloth.

Replacement, huh? How about me? I mean, I was a good source of mana… I even once used myself in an exact way as it was just needed. It was unpleasant, but still.

But as soon as I was having this idea, something stopped me in my tracks. Not something physical no, not a person or a thing. It was just… a feeling. Like a brief thought, that, without words, was telling me that it was not a good idea. It was the worst idea I had. Ever. To not even think like that. Stop it you fucking idiot.

I quickly shook off that ominous feeling and instead focused on the ship itself. How exactly did it work? It had a magic circle somewhere in the back…

I finally remembered the hatch and how it was used by that mercenary, or soldier, or whoever that was, when I first got on. But was it going to work? After all, the crystal got shattered and depleted.

I opened the hatch in question and immediately realized that it should not matter. Reading what little I could see of the magic formula and comparing it to the one on the table below me, I understood that this was a completely different spell, not even connected to the one below deck. Why didn’t I realize that last time?

From what I could understand, the boat had two systems. At least that is, from what I could see.

First one was the one fueled by the crystal that used to be on the table. It worked as a “heart” of the ship of some kind. It was responsible for the illusion spell, the repairs, navigation, all of that. No wonder it was that big. Strangely though, the spells themselves that were carved into the wood were not complete. Actually, they were missing a lot, and what was written there was barely even able to be called “working”. All of them were lacking the, let’s say “smart part”. It had its basics perfect though.

But, judging from what I’ve known about this ship, I assumed that the rest of the formulas were just hidden from plain sight.

The second system though was a lot more crude - that was the one connected to the magic circle hidden within the hatch.

It was basically an emergency system, just with basic functions that were needed to move the ship. And, what was the best thing - it definitely did not need the crystal.

It did need the mana though. But hey, I’ve already seen people use it and be fine, so it should work, right?

Well, now when I mentioned it, it actually had a casualty, right? That guy from the island DID collapse after using it…

I mean, was it the fault of this ship though? He did use a lot of mana during the attack, he sealed a bunch of houses… overall, he did waste a lot of energy.

Now, when I think about it, he actually had a pretty considerable supply of mana to begin with. After seeing more people and getting a hang on the “regular mage” and their reserves, he definitely had more than average. If I was to guess, he was somewhere between Bert and Odar. I know, that’s a bit of a large spectrum but still.

Fuck, I used the stupid thing as well, and I was fine. Besides I had a lot more mana than him and was fully recharged, even a bit overcharged so it should be fine.

Hesitating was not going to bring me anywhere. The strange feeling of “stop it, don’t try even” did not come back, so I sat down next to the hatch and, after unwrapping it, I placed my hand on the circle. I sort of feared at first that it’s going to start turning to ash, but nope. My crystal did not consider the boat to be worthy of a target to drain, I guess.

-Hipiso zurxa!

It worked like a charm. The wind picked up and started pushing the boat slowly away from the coast, towards the open sea.

At first, I was going slow, limiting myself from pouring too much mana into the ship, but after a couple of minutes I sort of got a hang of how I should operate this thing and picked up the pace.

Steering that thing was… surprisingly easy. Easier than I remembered, actually. But I did use that strange auto-guiding system instead and barely even tried my hand on manual control, so maybe that was just that.

With a lot of mana to spare and still having some supplies to recover myself, I was not stingy on mana and gave the boat as much as it looked that it was able to handle. Which is, I might say, quite a bit. After a while it started looking more like a motorboat than just a sailboat - if anyone was to see me, they would definitely not be able to believe their own eyes.

Thanks to that, and the great weather, I managed to arrive at the island in record time.

I say arrived, but while the boat was easy to steer and easily picked up speed, slowing down was not its strong suit.

As I was getting close to the shore, I cut the amount of mana that I was supplying the spell by about 90%, wanting to slow down and calmly approach the familiar, old pier, but the spell… Well, it was crude after all.

The wind started dying down alright, but not as fast as I wanted for it to. Even when I cut the mana supply completely, I realized that it was not going to work out - the spell barely changed its output.

Thanks to me pumping so much mana into the spell and the magic formula overall, some sort of overflow formed. When I was speeding up before I had to hit some kind of safety barrier, meaning that I was supplying the spell with more mana faster than it was able to process and turn into the wind power pushing the boat. The excess power had to go somewhere, and apparently was slowly gathering right at my fingertips - in the magic circle itself.

And now, even with the fresh supply cut, it still had plenty of power to waste and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Realizing my mistake, I wanted to absorb the mana back, using the crystal and its power to drain mana. While it was risky - I probably could destroy the boat in the process, or at least would damage the magic circle, turning something into ashy mush accidentally, but it did not matter. I was too slow anyway.

Before I even could react, the boat rammed, bow first, into the beach right next to the pier, barely missing it. But even then, the spell was not yet finished and was still pushing the boat forward. The sudden hit made me lose balance and I fell off the boat, with a heavy thud landing on the beach. Meanwhile, the boat, after losing a lot of ballast, picked up even more speed and rammed itself into the forest, doing a whole flip, making an ungodly amount of noise, after which it finally stopped, outside of my view.

Gathering myself up from the sand I quickly gazed around. With that amount of noise, if there was anyone even remotely nearby, they were definitely now coming here and I should move. But, alas, even using my enhanced senses, I did not notice anyone nearby, so I slowly gathered myself and went towards the boat, to see the damage.

Unsurprisingly, the boat was in absolute shambles. The hull was pierced in multiple places by some broken trees, while the bow was now in complete tatters. The boat stopped right at one of the thicker trees, or rather in. If it was made out of metal, it’d probably be wrapped around it like a horseshoe.

-Well, I now know how I am NOT getting out of here…

Yeah, I didn’t have to even check closer to know that the boat was completely useless, but I went ahead and looked through the rubble anyway. I was hoping that I could maybe find some parts of the spell woven inside it intact, or at least readable, but nope. I could read a word here and there but it was nothing that would even be remotely useful, just like a book that went right through a shredder.

I sort of considered setting all the rubble on fire, you know, just to hide any traces that would point towards me, but then I remembered - that boat was not exactly mine. After all, it used to be here in the first place. Maybe not in the exact same spot and not in one piece, but still. That sort of worked out nicely.

But nevertheless, I did not want all that being so obvious - after all, anyone who’d get even remotely close to the pier would notice the large skidmarks it left behind. Maybe not the destroyed boat itself - it got flung so deep that the trees were hiding it for any prying eyes.

-Usc fi wipvu.

Knowing that I am alone, I created an orb of wind, trying to erase the skidmarks.

The idea was to generate enough wind for the sand to pick up and cover any marks that the boat created. Well, it sort of worked, but I I had to dial back on the mana usage a bit. Still not very used to my new output, I at first created way too much force, creating a small tornado, sending sand everywhere.

It worked out in the end. The effect was good enough, and while if someone was to try and investigate the area, they would probably find the strangely shaped sand anyway, but it was good enough for me. From the pier, the beach looked undisturbed, so it was fine.

With that done, I started walking into the forest, towards the inn hidden deeper into the island.

On the way, I noticed some strange things. While the place was as deserted as I remembered it - checked that with my mana sense of course - the path looked a bit more… civilized. More clean, as if it was used a lot more recently. I did not know what to think of it, so I just shrugged and ignored it, not like that mattered.

Another thing that was different, or maybe I just didn’t notice it the first time, was that the island was full of life. And I don’t mean animals or plants.

The soil and environment itself was sort of similar to the caves under Kalkano, though definitely not as potent, there was no comparison. At first I just attributed it to my recent changes and me being overall more sensitive to that lately, but after a while of walking, I realized that it was not it.

While the mana was not even dense enough for me to start glowing even a slight bit, the more I was walking towards the inn, the stronger the feeling got. I was amused at first, but soon it started getting suspicious. Especially after I reached the abandoned town.

I constantly was monitoring my surroundings, on the off chance of finding someone here still, but even after I reached the familiar building, everything was as deserted as I’ve seen it last time. Maybe even more. Some things did change though.

The vines… or rather growths that a certain someone created on all the doors in town were missing. Some doors looked like they were straight up replaced, while others had very visible stretch marks after someone - I assume Jack - cut through them with something sharp and removed them that way.

The one building that got destroyed with the tree was sort of cleaned and patched up. The part which the tree ruined was removed and the wall behind it was reinforced using brand new planks, the door was also brand new.

The tree on the other hand was still there, although it had very visible signs of someone trying to chop it down. Looks like it didn’t go so well, because it was still standing strong.

Not very interested in that, I first went towards the inn.

I already knew beforehand that it was deserted, but I went inside anyway.

Inside was the exact same as I remembered it. The only thing that was changed were the growths that that guy placed were removed, some with better effects than others, although the place upstairs where his mana went haywire was still blocked off - to get there there was made another entryway in a room next door. Not the best solution, but what can you do - if you can’t remove it, just roll with it I guess? That made me wonder, what were those trees exactly that he couldn’t just cut them down…?

They did look a bit more “lively” to me, as in having a bit more mana than any other tree on the island, but nothing that would say that it would be that hard to get rid of.

The other interesting thing I noticed was that every room in the inn looked abandoned. And I mean even more than everything else - beds were lacking any kind of sheets and the rooms were overall more dusty. On the ground floor, the bar had nothing on it and even the strange sculpture that I’ve seen here was missing.

I did check the back room too. The doors that I remember were sealed last time were wide open and the room empty. Where there used to be a desk filled with paperwork and other garbage there was absolutely nothing - not even a scrap of paper.

-I mean, he said that he’s going to move from here but… - I muttered to myself, leaving the building.

It was a bit concerning, but not the end of the world. I did want to hide after all, and this deserted place was as good as any other. But that was not the end of my journey - I did remember one particular place that I have not checked that would be possible to find a sign of someone at least.

I started scouring the surroundings in search of the trapdoor that would lead me to the hideout where we at first left a certain guy in. Surprisingly, it was harder than expected - the door this time was hidden a lot better. Besides some greenery that apparently took over the area, the trapdoor was also now under a nice and thick layer of soil. If I didn’t know beforehand where to look, I would never have found it.

That could be a good sign - it could’ve meant that Jack indeed had to hide something there.

Or I could be completely wrong, and it was just that it was so abandoned that nature really just did take it over.

Sadly, it seemed like the latter was the case. The tunnel leading to the house was overgrown with random plants, some roots were even poking through, making the walk harder.

The hatch leading up, towards the room was still open, the room itself barren. Even the furniture was gone. When I entered the room I started cursing myself almost instantly, realizing that I just gave myself trouble without double checking first - the door was wide open and as I peeked out I realized that I could’ve even seen it from the main door of the inn.

I don’t think that I have to say that I was a bit annoyed at myself. Using the hardest way, forgetting to check the obvious one. Well, it didn't matter in the long run, so whatever.

Next on the bucket list were the rest of the buildings in the area - that went pretty quick, because apparently whoever was last in this place cleaned the area thoroughly. Every single house looked exactly like the one I just walked out of - no furniture, no nothing. I even double backed and checked the half-ruined one, but there was nothing to find.

Scratching my head I started wondering what exactly happened here. I mean, sure, Jack moved, but isn’t that a bit of an overkill? To move every single piece of furniture? Besides it being just straight up weird, how hard would that even be? To transport all of that somewhere? Sure, it was supposedly his property, but still.

Lost in thoughts I started wandering away from the town, towards the other edge. I did remember that there used to be a platform over there as well, but I found out that even it was missing.

-What the fuck…

That was even stranger. It’s not that it was missing, there wasn’t even a sign of it being there in the first place. Everything was cleaned up, not even a mark in the ground or anything.

Besides all that being weird, I also started feeling something strange.

The feeling of stronger mana was not originating from the town. I noticed that when I left the town and went deeper into the forest, where the platform used to be. I was expecting the feeling to die down, since I thought that the source was either the tree that destroyed one of the houses, or the one in the inn itself, but nope. While both of them were there, the strange oppressive mana was not from them.

When I started moving deeper into the forest, the feeling was slowly but steadily getting stronger, which made me curious. What exactly was that?

Not the worst time to find out - after all, there was nothing to do in the town itself, and if I was to move forward or at least use this abandoned place as my temporary hideout, I probably should know what was going on in the surrounding area.