The door to the mess hall was pushed open by a fat figure, the fatty entered the lower deck with a plate of meat in his, fervently eating out of it as he walked towards me. "Kid, eat some meat. The meat of beasts are great in nourishing your core energy" the fatty said In goodwill.
With a thanks, I accepted the beast meat. As I bit into the meat, my mouth encountered a surge of energy that seeped into my body. My eyes lit up as I took another bite, once again, surges of energy replenished my muscles and added more vigor to my core energy.
"Owen, keep your cultivation advancements a secret from now on, the moment people learn of your monstrous talent, many ancient organizations will stop at nothing to rope you in, which would bring you a lot of trouble". Ben said solemnly.
"I will be more careful" I replied obediently as I pondered deeply, wondering whether my fast rate of growth has anything to do with my emotional state of mind. Recalling the moment when I felt extremely melancholic, energy seemed to follow into me like I was a magnet. Thus I decided to test it out later as soon as I got a chance.
"Ben, are there any alternatives to cultivating my energy and body besides working out?" I asked the fatty inquisitively. Seeing that I addressed his name and not as a general, he squinted lightly before shrugging it off as my rank of first mate was definitely higher than his rank of general.
"There are many different paths of cultivation. The path you have been taking thus far is the body cultivation technique where you train your body, utilizing your energy to nourish you and build your muscles. Whereas, my cultivation technique is to devour food and amass the energy stored in the food to supplement my energy growth. Kid, there can be many paths of cultivation, it is up to you to find what best suits you" The fatty explained while stroking his beard.
"I see" I stated in thought as my eyes lit up. This led me to believe that there was a cultivation technique that relied on feeling emotions. For some reason, I felt a weird link to cultivating through my emotions, so I decided to research further on this when I got the chance to.
"We will be heading to an island soon, we could help pick out a cultivation technique for you, what do you think?" the fatty said as he sipped some wine from his pocket flask.
"I'd like that, is there a cultivation technique that relies on emotion?" I asked expectantly. As soon as I said this, the fatty's eyes bulged as he choked on his wine, splattering it onto the deck and the sea.
"Emotion?!" the fatty repeated in an amused manner before letting out a raspy laugh while slapping his thigh.
"The cultivation of emotion is a long-lost technique which is riddled with flaws. There have even been people who died trying to follow a cultivation manual that relies on emotions. It's not worth it, I can lend you my meat gobbling technique for a few gold coins though" the fatty asked with a gleam in his eye.
'Eh?' I was had no intention to stuff myself up, I was too body conscious for that. I curtly denied the fatty as I headed into the mess hall with him, prepared to find Angela as it was dinner time.
As we entered the mess hall, the aroma of cooked meat wafted into my nostrils, the tables were filled with cooked meat and rum. I felt the urge to gobble up some more meat, so I sat down beside the fatty and heartily threw a whole piece of meat into my mouth. I felt the energy seep into my body as the meat melted at my bite. I ate till I felt like I couldn't take more, this was the first time I ate such a fill after coming to this world, the food here was truly a reason to stay.
I saw the captain, Angela with a few solemn looking women, seated on an elevated table filled with lavish dishes. Behind her stood a one-eyed man with his hands behind his back, staring into nothingness, seemingly lost in thought, however I could feel strong energy fluctuations from him which signaled to me that he was on wide alert.
Angela ate slowly and gracefully, as if she was a princess from an esteemed kingdom. The moment she saw me, her eyes faintly lit up as she stood up from her chair, scraping the wooden floorboard. The entire mess hall became quiet as she got up, every pirate looked at her with respect
The sight before me truly astounded me as I understood just how high the pirates held Angela in their hearts, she was clearly no normal person.
"Today's battle in the underwater domains of the malicious fish was something I did not expect. My crew managed to slay a basilisk that was at the peak of the baron stage, which is no trivial feet. As a reward for all men who took part in this battle, I award 50 gold coins. And as for first-mate Owen, who personally led the charge against the basilisk and successfully slayed the other female basilisk, I award to him 200 gold coins and a dagger of Talos" She said imposingly, with an aura of a leader.
Murmurs could be heard around the mess hall after a brief moment of shock "The dagger of Talos? Such a powerful dagger in the hands of a kid?".
"SILENCE! I will not have anyone objecting this as he showed bravery that many of you could follow up with even if you've been on this ship for more than an year" Angela said with a hint of anger. She then turned to a corner of the mess hall where most of the murmurings came from and squarely looked at a man with a scar across his face. It was Kyle, the man that abandoned us while we risked our lives against the final basilisk.
"Don't think I did not hear of your cowardice, disobeying the orders of the first mate naturally do have consequences" Angela said in a threatening tone.
Kyle immediately straightened up with visible horror on his face "Captain please! I…I…". Just as he was about to talk anymore, Angela flicked her finger, sending a sharp line of energy flying towards Kyle, Kyle raised his hand to avoid it but was too slow, the swift bolt of energy hit him squarely in the chest, sending him flying at the wall, smashing onto an ornamental head of a bear and landing on his face.
"With that, are there any objections to my award?"
The whole mess hall was extremely quiet that some even shivered in fright. Angela smile as she nodded in approval, "So it is settled. Here are you coins and here is your dagger, this dagger is extremely lethal and can be quickly used if you ever lose your main weapon", she said, tossing the gold and dagger towards me.
I was stunned at how fearful these pirates were of Angela, no wonder they dared not offend her, she was ruthless.
my eyes lit up as I held the dagger and examined the ornamental engravings on the hilt of the dagger. I felt an extremely powerful sensation as I held this dagger, it was as if this was made especially for me.
I immediately thanked Angela and she nodded at me as she sat back down. The merry environment resumed at the instant that Angela sat back down. I snickered at the disoriented Kyle, he lifted the ornamental bear head off of his head and looked at Angela in fear as he sat back down, chugging down a whole mug of rum.
Angela didn't seem to drink much, she simply ate the meat and proceeded out of the mee hall. A few seconds after she left, I followed behind her as I too was done with the environment in the mess hall.
I entered the entrance to the inner chambers, and I couldn't even see her figure in the corridors, so I looked around to check if she was there. Right as I turned around, I met the eyes of Angela, slightly frowning at me for some reason.
"I suggest you don't follow me around" She said with a hint of coldness.
"I….I was looking for the restroom" I said quickly, trying to cover up the fact that I indeed was following her. But I realized how bad my cover up was as her frown became even more distinct.
As if remembering something important, her frown disappeared and her eyes gleamed "Come, I think its time I showed you something", she said as she quickly led me towards the chambers. Seeing this and following behind her, I couldn't help but think back to some unholy incidents that occurred between the two of us, I blushed as I wondered what she was going to show me.
I was sure that it had nothing to do with what was currently on my mind, but nevertheless, I felt that it was something highly important. Soon, we reached her chambers, she opened the door, letting me in and closing it after herself.
The captain's quarters was a very exquisite room, spacious and elegant. A tapestry hung on the walls, depicting Poseidon, the god of the sea stabbing his trident at a massive figure on the sky. The rest of the room was adorned with various weapons and a large bed with a small table by it's side.
"Take a seat" she said while pouring a cup of wine and handing it to me, pouring some wine for herself too. Since I don't really drink, I simply held it in my hand as I took a seat on a wooden chair.
Still standing, she took a large gulp out of her cup of wine and looked me in the eye. "You do know why you got here done you?".
Feeling the change of tone from her question, I took another look at her before coming to the realization that she was talking about how exactly I found myself on this ship.
"Not really, I am still extremely confused" I replied honestly.
She raised her eyebrows as she looked at me with a complicated gaze, "Looks like you were not given a proper briefing before you were sent here. Let me make it short and sweet. All we need to do is complete the mission handed over to us by the emissary and we could go back home" She said.
"Mission by the emissary??" I asked, filled with confusion.
"Yes, the one that gave you a wish before bringing you to this world. I still don't understand why it took you so long to transmigrate, it would have just taken a day, but you are an year late. I too was given this wish at the same time as you were, but I came here an year earlier than you. I don't have my memories from earth, and I don't wish to know about my past, all I know is that I was weak" she explained. "We should grow our strength as soon as possible and obtain the god's decree, for that is our mission"
I nodded absentmindedly as I listened to what she said.
Taking in this load of information almost made me lose several brain cells, but I understood what was going on. We both were sent into this world by the mysterious masked figure who Angela addressed as the 'Emissary'. We were both given a mission to obtain something called a god's decree. However, I was an year late to be sent here, and Angela's memories of who she was back at earth seemed to have disappeared, which led me to question why I retained my memories and whether I would lose it in the near future.
And lastly, I still wonder why we do this, there seemed to visible reward except and empty promise to let us go back to earth. This all seemed like a giant scam to me.