The Infernal sea was to the east of the Lush sea, and it would take about a day to reach the edge of the Lush sea and then another three days to reach the infernal sea.
Cray swung the storm jar forward in front of the storm-chaser turtle so he could guide it east.
Storm-chaser turtles, as their name implies, chase after storms. Located in the Thundering sea, west of the Lush sea, they would swim after electrical storms with large concentrations of lightning mana to have a meal. Their shell was composed of a conductive bio-alloy and would convert the lightning mana to energy it could use to sustain itself.
Contractors did not often use them for transportation due to the difficulty of making them docile and the exorbitant food pricing. While there weren't many electrical storms outside of the Thundering sea, they could consume lightning-stones as an alternative. Needless to say, it was much more cost-effective to use a departing ship.
However, storm-chaser turtles were nigh unrivaled when it comes to speed; only B-rank contractors or higher could surpass them.
Once out of the small cove, Cray said, "Actually, I never got your names. What should I call you?"
Lenna raised her hand, "I'll go first! You can call me Lenna. I'm a C-rank contractor, like you!"
Cray nodded, then asked Krom, "What about you?"
"You can call me Krom. I'm Lenna's mentor of sorts," Krom said while shrugging.
"Nice to meet you, Lenna, Krom. As I said before, I'm Cray, and the storm-chaser turtle's name is Ruro," Cray said while gesturing to the turtle.
Krom wondered who Cray was because, on top of having a storm-chaser turtle as his means of transportation, Cray was also a C-rank at a young age which Krom estimated to be around twenty. On top of that, he even had a storage ring!
Lenna was also a C-rank, but she was a Hero and was trained by Morg along with having access to immense resources.
Cray's backing definitely wasn't normal.
The journey would take a while, but at least it was better than going by ship. Ships were confined and could take upwards of a week to reach the infernal sea.
Normally, Krom would be able to, quite literally, jump from island to island and reach another sea in less than an hour, but that wasn't an option for him this time around. The sudden acceleration would turn Lenna's internal organs to paste if he had tried to do so while traveling with her.
After Lenna got bored of staring at the ocean, she asked Cray, "Why are you traveling to the infernal sea?"
Cray quickly answered, "I'm trying to get stronger so I can earn money, a lot of money."
"What for?" Asked Lenna.
Cray put on a melancholic smile, "I have seven siblings back at home, four brothers and three sisters. I want them to live normal lives without them having to fight elementals."
"What about you two? Are you on a training journey or something?"
Lenna fidgeted a little, "something like that…."
She lifted the sleeve of her sweater, "I actually have floe corruption, and I need to get stronger, so yeah. In a sense, it is kind of like a training journey."
"Yeesh. Life'll do you like that sometimes, won't it."
The trio went into an awkward silence as they made themselves busy until an hour later when the silence was broken.
*Growl~*
Both Cray and Lenna's stomach's growled. It was already mid-afternoon, and they had forgotten about lunch due to the day's excitement.
"Ughh, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast," complained Lenna.
Cray nodded, "Same here..."
They both looked at Krom with watery eyes, causing him to sigh in defeat.
Krom asked, "Fine. Any requests?"
""Meat.""
He shook his head, "Why did I even ask."
A pan emerged from his space ring and several crystallized ingredients, which he tossed into it after a quick flick of his finger.
Krom then took out a small stone cylinder with a fire-stone inside and placed the pan over it.
The cylinder was a portable flame that used a low-rank fire-stone as fuel, so it was fairly common to find with anyone who traveled often.
"You also have a storage ring?" Exclaimed Cray.
Krom chuckled lightly, "Yeah. Aren't they convenient? Speaking of which, how did you get yours?"
Cray scratched the side of his head awkwardly as he said, "It came from the contractors guild. I have no clue how it fell to my possession because it just showed up in my pocket one day along with a small paper that had the guild's insignia."
Hearing this, Krom sighed internally. It was definitely the doing of the guild master. They had a tendency to do things like this.
Several minutes later, when Krom finished cooking, he handed Cray and Lenna plates with slices of meat and vegetables on the side before getting one for himself.
Upon taking a bite, Cray widened his eyes, "Delicious! Where did you learn to cook?"
Krom curtly answered, "I'm self-taught."
His cooking skills couldn't compare to a talented chef's, but he could more or less make anything slightly edible taste decent.
Lenna suddenly asked Cray, "How do you guide a storm-chaser turtle?"
She had only ever read about storm-chaser turtles in a small paragraph from a book she had read a long time ago. She was curious about how Cray had made it docile because the turtles would typically be hostile to anyone touching them.
Cray smiled, " It's quite simple. The storm in the jar acts as a lure of sorts for a storm-chaser turtle. They are attracted to large concentrations of lightning mana, so by compressing it into a small specially designed container, a guider can persuade it to go in a certain direction."
Krom was also curious about the storm-chaser turtle, "How did you make Ruro docile?"
Cray patted the shell of the storm-chaser turtle, "I didn't make her docile. We are simply friends. Ruro and I both come from the rumbling sea. When I was a kid, I had made a small raft from some fallen trees on my home island and decided to take it out for a test run. Unfortunately for me, there was a storm later that afternoon."
"It swept me out far away from my home. My make-shift raft couldn't hold up to the fierce waters, and it capsized. Well, it turns out that Ruro happened to see me drowning and saved me. I don't know for sure, but I think Ruro was too small and got separated from his family by the storm."
"Anyways, when the storm subsided, I gave Ruro directions, and she brought me home. I had been gone for an entire day before returning, and I'll tell you, my mother was livid! She called me at least a dictionary's worth of profanities before hugging me in relief. From that point on, Ruro and I would meet at the beach every day."
Cray took out a lightning-stone and tossed it into the air towards Ruro, who, followed by a crunch and some sparks escaping, happily ate it.
"It's nice to hear that it was a happy ending," said Lenna.
Once they finished the mid-afternoon meal, they idled around doing menial tasks trying to pass the time. Krom was reading a book while Lenna blankly stared at the clouds passing overhead, and Cray guided Ruro at a moderate speed.
Lenna groaned before turning to Krom, "Ughh, how are you not bored?"
Krom closed his book and held it up while saying, "Because I brought this."
Lenna read the title but quickly regretted it and became slightly wary of the future, "Krom, why are you reading a book titled: How to Take Care of Your Human?"
Krom brushed off the question, "Don't worry about it. Hmm... Give me a second to think."
Suddenly getting a good idea, he leaned over to Cray and whispered something to him.
In response, Cray widened his eyes as a smile formed before nodding in approval.
Krom smirked a few seconds later and asked Lenna, "Do you want something fun to do?"
"It depends on what you're about to say..." She said skeptically.
Krom took out a long and sturdy rope from his storage ring before attaching it to the middle of a short metal rod.
Lenna stared at the creation. Curious as to what it was, she asked, "What's that?"
Tying the other end of the rope to the back of the saddle, Krom answered her question with another question, "Have you ever gone wakeboarding?"