Chapter 182

Brenna

Ocean Voyage

In all, finding a vessel to sail in was a lot easier for the trio than anticipated. The village that they had stumbled upon had a harbor filled with many ships that had been destroyed or capsized over time. With the use of qi, the trio managed to find a boat, patch the holes with qi, then forcefully remove the water from a recently capsized ship within moments.

The process for movement was simple, Pentra would push the boat forward on generated currents of water. While Brenna and Lykan both took time patching and hardening the ship.

Then when the ship was up and mostly floating Lykan would find himself moving back and forth between different tasks. From generating air currents to help with the waves, to creating waves themselves to help with propulsion, and finally with earth to help continue to strengthen the ship.

The only time that Brenna truly felt useless was when they had gone a half days journey away from the shore, at which time she found her connection to the earth sever almost instantly. One second the edge of the coastline was barely available to her, then the next it was gone.

That was the moment Brenna felt truly alone and frightened, as she realized just how useless she was. Of course, this time only served to show how valuable Pentra was to the operation, with her onboard Lykan could help make minor changes to the ship’s direction.

More than once Lykan looking off into the distance saw storm clouds coming. Normally such large storm clouds would spell the demise of such a small vessel that was clearly never meant to go out so far from the shore. The ship they were on was a craft that was thirty paces by twelve, more than needed for fishing near the shore, but a terrible ship needed to cross the endless ocean.

Yet, Lykan saw it as just another challenge before him. One more hurdle to cross. He was confident that their small ship could make the journey, so long as all three continued to work in unison. With this, everyone was granted tasks.

Pentra was in charge of continuing to propel the ship forward, while also ensuring that no liquid made its way or stayed within the boat.

Brenna had been assigned the task of strengthening the boat while also making it more durable and able to float. This was a much harder concept than Brenna first anticipated. All her life she had focused on making things denser to make them more capable of surviving. This she had found was not the way to keep a boat from sinking. Luckily Lykan had been there from the start, and expressed the concept of buoyancy, a word and idea that Brenna sort of knew, but never fully understood until she had been given the task of keeping the small fishing vessel from shrinking.

This had been a test from Lykan, at least that is what she thought the process was. He had given her a task, and she had failed.

“You don’t have to make the entire piece of wood dense, just the outer layer. If you feel that it will still collapse, then just create a support lattice work inside.” Lykan said, as he handed Brenna a paddle.

At first Brenna was confused as to why he had handed the device that was about as useful as a toothpick was for the Leviathan. It wasn’t until Lykan took the paddle and threw it into the ocean that Brenna finally got his point.

The paddle that Lykan had infused with his qi and hollowed out floated. Better still, the outer layer was resistant to water, meaning that it wouldn’t gain weight when they went out. Seeing the paddle drift off into the distance caused a spark of understanding to bloom within her mind.

From there, she began experimenting. She created intricate lattice works, looser lattices that had thicker protective walls. In the end she found that there was a give and take to the ship. Certain parts needed to be protected, while others didn’t. The main hull and the joints needed to be reinforced, these were the spots where she used the dense protective beams with the dense lattice work structures for reinforcement.

The rest of the boat was filled with what Brenna took to be half supported beams. These were beams that had a hard outer shell and a minor protection on the top, or inside of the ship. With this design, Brenna managed to do several things. First and most importantly she strengthened the boat, while also creating a water tight seal around the outside of the boat. Next she made it so the boat was far lighter than it had any right to be, meaning that Pentra only had to work half as hard to continue pushing the boat forward.

With the ship mostly taken care of, Lykan found himself working to produce other minor miracles. He would randomly leave the boat, only to come back with fish and other forms of food. Food that was drained of blood far away and drained of qi as well. Still the fish was tasty, if a little lacking on the amount of energy made available.

At times, Lykan looking off into the distance would spot an incoming storm, only to go out and intercept it before it had a chance to get close to them. With this, they avoided most major storms that would have otherwise capsized their small vessel.

By the time they got to the middle of the ocean, the waves and storms from far away were so intense that Lykan spent his entire time flying around the ship. Brenna watched in fascination as he withdrew qi from incoming waves, or storms. How he charged headfirst into the fiercest of spots, all to make sure that nothing too violent hit the ship.

With Pentra at the helm, the crew experienced a few minor waves that caused the ship to rise a few dozen meters in the air. Still the ship never rocked, never even tilted. All of this was a testament to how diligently Pentra put to her studies. How relentless she was at mastering her craft.

Sometime during her second week at sea, Lykan saw something in Pentra. He had been watching her closely for the past two days or so. Then finally on the third day he landed on the ship.

Then without saying a word, he gestured to the bow of the ship. This was the seat that was often left for Lykan when or if he wanted to land. Seeing Lykan give the preferred spot to Pentra sent waves of jealousy down Brenna, but she quickly squashed such emotions. She knew that ultimately such emotions of jealousy would only hinder her own personal progress.

Instead, Brenna felt powerless as she watched Pentra take up her perch and stare out over the waves. Then Brenna watched on in utter fascination as Pentra seemed to become one with the ocean waves.

Waves that the ship rocked and glided over she not only began to anticipate but began to brace herself for. Then over time, this anticipation began to slowly give way to Pentra’s draining of qi from specific waves. She would drain the energy from the base of a particularly large wave, to take away the sharp sting of impact. Slowly over time, more and more violent waves became nothing more than gentle caresses for the ship to gently bounce over.

Then finally after three days of sitting on her perch, Brenna got to witness one of her greatest fears happen. She saw how over time Pentra became more and more at peace with the ocean. She watched as the waves of qi energy slowly filled her, until finally she was one with the ocean. That was when she got to witness Pentra’s breakthrough to the second tier of her own cultivation.

It started with a simple glow.

A swelling of blue ocean qi filling her, riding up and through her body over and over. Each wave that passed, left a tiny flavor of its qi with Pentra. Each wave built up over and over, until finally her body all but burst with a tidal wave of force.

Whoosh.

The currents that had been excitedly drawn to her, suddenly fell flat as her own presence of qi seemed to subjugate the waves before the vessel. It was as if a queen had come down and with the simple raising of a hand caused the farmers and villagers who had come out to witness her, all were held in place by her sheer majesty. As if she was the true descendent of destiny sent by the very heavens themselves to witness this moment and bow in her reverence.

Just from looking, Brenna knew two things. First, she knew that Pentra had herself evolved to the second tier of cultivation. The second thing she knew was that she now had to work twice as hard again, to keep pushing herself forward. She could not be upstaged by the second apprentice. The one who came nearly half a year later and was now already caught up to Brenna.

Well that wasn’t entirely true, Brenna knew that she still had a few weeks of forging her foundations, and making sure she was strong in her own personal understanding of earth qi. But out here on the ocean, far away from her element, she felt lost.

She felt that she was missing her greatest asset.

Of course she would not dare to speak these words out loud, she knew that she would not and could not state them in front of Lykan. She knew that if she even tried to utter such words of weakness, Lykan would just get that sullen look that always fell on his face. It was the look that Brenna had begun to equate with Lykan failing. It was the look he seemed to wear most often. A look that said he had somehow failed, when it was clear that the failure lay somewhere else, or with someone else.

In a way, that was what made Lykan such an annoying teacher. He took no joy from the success of his students, instead heaping all the praise upon them. Yet, he would also shoulder all the burden for the reason why his students would not succeed.

Pentra for her part seemed to recognize none of this, as she stood up and all but glowed with her smile. A smile that she moved all of her tentacles out of her face to show her nearly perfect teeth.

Looking at Pentra, Brenna was reminded of the stories of the Medusa, women who could turn men to stone by just glancing at them. While she knew that Pentra had no such powers, she could see how people stumbling onto a chamber with a Titan still alive could have sparked such stories to have sprung to life.

Pulse.

There was the strange pulse of power. A pulse of power that felt oddly familiar to Brenna for some reason. She was about to ask what it was that she was feeling, but Lykan beat her to the point.

“Pentra, take the helm.” Lykan said as he jumped up from the deck and began flying off in the distance.

Stone.

Brenna felt something as old and powerful as stone moving within the waters. Only now that she had been used to her chosen element for so long could she begin to see the sheer strength and power of the giant monster that now moved within the waves.

Badump.

With but a sight, Brenna knew that the creature rising from the depths of the ocean was a Leviathan, one similar to the very creature Lykan had fought with and nearly died against in a biome.

The only problem was, this monster was far larger. This one was not contained by the biome it was encapsulated in.

In a second Brenna had the vision of hundreds if not thousands of those titan dungeons burrowing their way deep into the ocean floor below. Then she imagined them all opening up their biomes. Yes, many species would die or be crushed to death by the pressures of the deep before they had a chance to truly survive. But that only meant that the ones that survived, the ones like the leviathans would be able to expand rapidly in a qi enriched environment.

Seeing the monster rise from the depth, and seeing the way Lykan made his way towards the towering beast, Brenna pulled her mithril axe from her back and had but one thought before she dove in.

Not today, you will never have him!

With that one thought filling her, she found herself lunging forward rocking the ship back and sending it to drift for a full league before Pentra was able to regain control. Seeing his wife jumping into the battle a faint smile filled Lykan’s lips, as he nodded in appreciation as both charged forward to take down the mighty beast.