The marine warship continued sailing, the calm sea surrounded it, and seagulls flapped in the sky.
Several times, a few large shadows were seen underwater. However, they swam right past and ignored the man-filled warship.
An average-looking marine sat on top of the mast with a telescope resting on his lap. A few yawns left his mouth, and his eyelids seemed to grow heavier.
Then, a dark spot appeared on the horizon, attracting the marine's attention.
He slowly stood up, the telescope already in front of his right eye. Then, he zoomed in and saw the dark spot becoming clearer.
An outline of a forest-filled island appeared, and above the island, long-winged birds flew with seemingly no destination ahead.
"Captain, island ahead!" Without further ado, he aimed his shout below him, toward Marine Captain Leeway, whose attention was on the neatly folded map.
Everyone heard the marine's shout, and the ship grew louder. The marines started preparing for docking while Leeway shouted orders.
He pocketed the map and gave explicit orders to everyone. This way, the preparations went easier and smoother.
Liam left the indoors among running Marines. His face was slightly dirtied after all the cleaning, but a clear sign of excitement sparkled in his eyes.
"Finally…" After a week of sailing, we finally arrived at our destination, an island where a pirate with a bounty of 50 million berries resided, at least, according to last intel.
The floor scrubbing brush was still glued to my hand, and it felt like another limb of mine. Without showing any suspicious behavior, I began cleaning the dirty dock.
I managed to not-raise eyebrows and was allowed to stay in the dock under the radar.
Several times, I raised my head and looked toward the rapidly closing island. I was tired out of my mind during the sailing, and even though I could have stayed in real life to spend the time, I still had my cleaning duties.
During the week, the news of Fantasy Online rocked the world. The world was still in a state of shock, and it had been quite busy days for every big organization.
I heard from my father and mother that several of their co-workers instantly resigned and began their own journey in Fantasy Online.
Still, the pace of anyone growing stronger was lackluster at best. Even though my growth had decreased by a lot without Garp's help, my strength was still insane compared to my past self.
Soon, the ship docked at the shore.
The shore was filled with sand and small rocks. The waves kept splashing against the sand, making it wet and grainy.
Behind the sand was the seemingly endless-looking forest with bushy leaves and flower patches. There were bushes and long trees with mostly dark-looking trunks.
In the distance, we could hear the sharp whistling of birds flapping— otherwise, the forest was eerily quiet.
"Alright, gather up!" Marine Captain Leeway whistled, and everyone gathered around him with the deboarding stairs already placed.
I was in the crowd, sneakily listening. Surrounding me was the muscular marines with a clear intention of capturing the pirates and giving them the fist of justice.
"Half of us will enter the forest, and the other half will keep the ship safe!" Leeway glanced at the forest and murmured under his breath, "The forest doesn't seem completely safe…"
"Link, choose ten strongest marines, and come to the forest." Leeway told the marine nearby and hopped out of the ship. His feet slowly landed on the sand, and he entered the forest with his sword unsheathed.
Link began discussing with nearby marines, and quickly, the ten marines were assembled, and they followed after Leeway.
The rest marines went into their positions, and several went to prepare the jails. Then, the waiting began.
I was still moving the brush side to side. The fluffy end of the brush was as dry as it gets, and the cleaning was basically doing nothing at this point.
But, no one actually paid any attention to me.
Then, the calmness was disturbed.
Bang! Bang!
A loud firing sound echoed from the forest, and several birds flew away from the trees and began flying rapidly toward the shore.
The marines looked vigilant and saw the enormous birds opening their beaks with their talons in striking motion!
"Everyone, defend!" The marines used their rifles and weapons to fight against the birds who attacked out of nowhere.
One of the massive green-feathered birds managed to drive past the encirclement of the marines and soared across the dock with his target being Liam!
Crack!
After seeing the bird coming toward him, Liam broke the floor scrubbing brush in half and sharpened the tip.
"Ah… I enjoyed that!" I grinned after breaking the brush in half. Then, I started thrusting it forward, and the bird's malicious breath was already close enough to smell.
Spurt!
The sharp end of the wooden brush drilled through the bird's eye and caused enough damage to kill it swiftly.
The talons brushed past my outfit, which made my skin goosebumps.
The bird lifelessly fell to the ground, staining the deck in its blood, which enraged me. It will take me the whole night to clean it!
I gritted my teeth, pulled the pike out of the bird, and defended myself against the birds.
Then, loud ding rang in my mind.
Ding!
[You Killed Land-Bird!]
[5 XP Earned!]
Swoosh!
This time, the birds rose airborne and kept their distance from other marines. However, that gave marines more time to reload their guns and fire once ready.
Bang! Bang!
Several birds fell from the sky with gunshot wounds riddling their bodies.
I changed the grip on the wooden shaft, pulled my hand back, and channeled all my strength into my right arm. I shifted all my weight in front, and my arm moved in whirlwind motion as I threw the pike toward the screeching bird.
Swoosh!
The sharp pike cruised through the air and penetrated through the solid mass of the bird.
The bird fell lifelessly to the sea with the sharp item still stuck on its body.
"Wow, nice one!" Surprisingly, the nearby marine managed to see my feat, which wasn't an easy one because of the speed of the bird.
"Heh." A grin stretched my mouth, and this time, I received a sword from the marine, who wielded two-sword style, and I fought against the hoard of birds alongside other marines.