Arlo kicked down the front door and took a look around the shack for materials to build a ship. The shack had plenty of materials, but the problem was that everything had corroded or rotten. They had even found some blueprints for building ships, so it was even more deviating seeing all the broken materials.
"Doesn't look like we'll be able to build a ship to leave this place, since all the supplies have expired. Even if we try to use wood from the dead trees outside they'll probably be too brittle for the ocean" said Arlo frustratingly while sighing.
They had no idea what they should do, maybe it was for the best for them to just head back to where they came from and come up with a different plan.
"I didn't want to waste my mana, but it looks like you need the help of a sage"
Although Krause had kept it a secret, he would die if he had depleted all his mana. Because of that he would rarely cast spells and be greedy with his mana.
Krause had told Arlo to bring him back inside the shack so that he could cast a restore spell on the materials to bring them back to their original state. Krause started his spell and all the materials had started to glow slightly. Arlo had watched the process of the restore spell and it was quite interesting to see for him, he wondered if a restore spell could turn him back into a human.
"Alright all done, now it's your turn to build the ship. Also, no restore can't return you into a human, so don't get any ideas"
Arlo was shocked and thought that Krause read his mind, but he grabbed the blueprints and had started building the ship not long after. Many errors were made while building the ship, a lot of supplies were wasted while making test runs, and months had passed untill they had finally finished building the ship. Even if it was difficult, it was still very fun though.
"Would you look at that Krause, it's our master piece" said Arlo with the feeling of having accomplished something very big.
In front of them was a majestic and big wooden ship with a beautiful, sexy skeleton mermaid carved at the front of the ship and a skull flag at the top if the ship.They boarded the ship and set sail after admiring the ship for a bit.
"This is so exciting Krause! We're floating on water haha" said Arlo with awe.
"Well it's exhausting for me since I have to constantly use wind magic on the sail. Also you'll be bored soon since It'll take over a year to reach the shore of Orion"
After a few months of sailing, the sky was still pitch black and there was nothing to be seen except endless water. And as Krause had predicted, Arlo was bored beyond belief. He had even started to sit in the corner and mumble to himself out of boredom, since Krause was focusing his magic on the sail and wouldn't speak with him.
"Hey Arlo, pick me up. I'm censing something"
Arlo became extremely happy hearing Krause' voice again and rushed to him to fulfill his request.
"Umm.... Arlo i think think we're domed....." Said Krause with a tone of despair
Right in front of them a fierce storm had appeared, rocking the ship left and right furiously and almost tipping over the ship. Krause had focused all his mana on putting up a barrier on the ship since he knew that if the ship sunk then they'd be doomed because Arlo couldn't swim. Even if he could swim, they'd be stranded in the endless Ocean. The barrier started to break after a few days and Arlo started packing
"Krause, it's breaking!! We're done for" said Arlo with the fear of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean for eternity.
Krause reinforced his barrier with even more mana, but felt like he couldn't keep it up any longer.
Krause' mana was fastly depleting over the next few days because of protecting the ship from the storm. There were many thoughts going through his head in the face of death "Am I at my limit? I feel so tired, maybe I should just shut my eyes (books don't have eyes though?), Life is too hard anyway. I spent my whole life training my spells with no break, I spent 500 years stuck under some stupid books, maybe it's for the best to just give up" all of that was in his mind as he was filled with nothing but despair by now.
"Just hold on a little longer, Krause!!! I think the storm is going to end soon"
Krause looked at Arlo and thought something "I've never had a friend before because a genius wouldn't be allowed to have friends and should spend all his time training instead. But I think that this idiot is what a friend would have been like, no he's already my friend. Even if i use up all of my mana here I should at least use it to save this guy. I don't like the thought of dying but I think this is it. Farewell my friend, hopefully I'll see you again in my next life"
The storm had finally stopped and the clouds disappeared revealing the bright, shining sun. The sun that they both hadn't seen in ages. They were now outside of the badlands.
"Woah!! Krause look it's the sun! The sun!"
"....."
"Ummm Krause... Why aren't you speaking? Krause..."
"Why aren't you answering???"
"..."
Arlo looked down and saw he had the body of a human. It was Krause' illusion spell to help him blend in with humans. It was Krause' final gift.