"Woah! What is even this species of fish." Redd curiously walked around the giant fish with a curious look.
The creature was at least 4 meters in height and 2 or 2.5 meters in thickness. Its gigantic, fishy eyes were ruby in color and it had very rough green skin. It looked like a gigantic tuna in appearance except for one single thing. The fish had two insect-like arms protruding from its lower abdomen that wriggled and moved disgustingly.
"What the hell?!" Redd was disgusted at the sight as he watched it curiously.
"Oh, that's…" Limmy approached the fish and looked at it from up close before his eyes lightened up and he snapped his fingers.
"This looks awfully similar to a creature I heard about in fairy tales on my island. What was its name again? Hmmm, I forgot." Limmy thought about it. "Oh, right! The Verdant gazer."
"Verda- What?" Redd rubbed the back of his head quizzically.
"Verdant Gazer, my grandpa used to tell me a lot about this thing and that it exists in the northern seas and that it eats ships and small boats that sail too far away from civilization. It's a mythical monster."
"Such a thing exists?"
"Apparently yes. Perhaps it's a result of the Hunter's Dream? I mean, such a thing looks so magical. Fits perfectly with the whole 'Dreamy world' description of the Hunter's Dream. But, if you ask me, this looks like the product of a nightmare rather than a dream."
"Yeah! That does look like something I'd expect to see there!"
"But the question is, is this even eatable?"
"Of course it is!"
"Huh? How do you know?"
"It's a fish. Of course, it's eatable." Redd chuckled.
"I don't think that's a logical conclusion you could reach."
As the two were thinking about what to do with the fish, Redd suddenly got a notification.
[Ding!]
[You have killed a Level 6 Verdant Gazer.]
[You have gained +16 exp.]
[You have gained + 4 Agility.]
[Ding!]
[You have leveled up to level 5.]
[You have gained +2 points to allocate freely.]
"Oooh, this got me some pretty nice rewards!" Redd smiled as he felt his arms and legs gain a boost of energy out of nowhere. His Agility was now at the same level as his strength.
"I also got some experience and stat boost. Holy shit! That's a lot! But, wait, does this mean we shared the experience points and the stat boost?" Limmy's eyes widened when he saw the numbers in front of him. Although he did hunt down some animals, this was the first time he got that many exp points and status points in one single swipe.
"Maybe? It makes sense since we both pulled it out. I guess it's indeed some kind of monster considering the fact that smaller fish didn't give me exp," Redd murmured as he approached the fish.
Immediately, a notification appeared in front of him again.
[Target detected!]
[Would you like to absorb the blood essence of the target?]
'Yes.'
Immediately the blood inside the creature swelled up inside the veins before it moved out of the creature's mouth, shocking Limmy. Then, the blood accumulated in Redd's hand, forming a ball at least 4 or 5 times the size of his hand.
Then, the ball disappeared gradually.
[You have gained +3 strength, +2 stamina, +1 healing.]
[Crimsonmorph has absorbed 30% of blood essence.]
'Oh, right, the spear takes blood essence too.' He thought.
"W-W-What the hell was that?!" Limmy asked as he pointed at the now skinnier creature after losing its blood.
"That's one of my aspects."
"Oh? Oh, yeah, right. Hahahaha! That scared the hell out of me."
"Anyway, I'm going to skin this big boy up. You can deal with the smaller ones if you want."
"O-Ok…" Nodding his head, Limmy pulled out a knife he had on him for protection and started cleaning the fish.
Meanwhile, Redd had a bigger job of actually skinning a gigantic fish alone. It was a hard process but it wasn't impossible for Redd since he was accustomed to skinning big animals like bears and wolves.
After an hour or so, the two finished their job.
Redd wiped the blood stains on his face with a long sigh.
"Good. This meat should sustain us for a while."
"Wait, us?"
"Hm? Of course. You helped me a lot so you get your share." Redd smiled innocently.
"Redd…" Limmy looked at the boy with an astonished expression. Never did he think that he would actually get food out of this.
The boy knew that having food on this ship was a necessity and yet he was still going to give Limmy some of it. It truly touched his heart.
"Thank you, man."
"Hahahaha, don't worry about it. But, before that. We need to do something important." He said before he quickly cut a big part of the fish and then dissected it into smaller pieces.
"Hmm, we really need a stove and a pot to cook. Does this ship have a kitchen?"
"Yeah, but it's compromised by Maleck and his goons."
"Good! I'm going to cook this fish there." Redd said as he picked up the diced pieces and walked inside the atrium. "Keep an eye on that fish for me. It won't take long. Oh, by the way, where is the kitchen?"
"Hey, wait, Redd! You will really get in trouble if you enter the kitchen!"
"Don't worry. I'm not using his food. I'm just cooking mine. Now, where is the kitchen?"
'Oh, god, he will really get into a huge problem!' Limmy was panicking inwardly as he tried to find the words to stop Redd.
"Limmy… I want to save those people on the lowest floor. They need food before they die. Please tell me where the kitchen is." Redd's smile vanished as a serious face took its place.
"..." The scrawny young man opened his mouth to speak before he closed it and looked down. "It's… on your left." He said with a defeated tone.
Although he was worried, he knew that he couldn't really stop Redd. The boy was just… Bizarre. He had no reason to save these people and yet he's still trying to do that with a carefree smile on his face. Limmy thought that the boy was simply naive and dumb at first but he quickly realized that Redd was way smarter than he looked so he certainly understood the danger that comes with offending an unknown force of nature like Maleck.
'Am I really doing the right thing here?'
Allowing Redd to go to the kitchen could potentially save the people on the lowest floor. But, at the same time, it would put the boy's life at risk. Redd was kind to Limmy in a place where he didn't find a single redeemable person. He was like a breath of fresh air.
'Let's just pray that he would be fine.' He thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Redd headed toward the kitchen with a carefree expression. Reaching his destination, he opened the door and walked inside. The interior was certainly spacious with multiple stoves for cooking, a plethora of utensils, spices, vegetables, meat, and countless other things all stacked in boxes.
'That bastard…' Seeing the overabundance of food there and seeing the state of people in that place made Redd's anger boil. But, he took a deep breath and focused on what he needed to do.
"How should I cook it now? Hmm… Grilled fish is a good idea."
Putting the fish on the table, he washed them with some water. Since Redd had extracted the blood out of the fish and also skinned it and deboned it, the chances that it was still poisonous were almost zero.
After that, he seasoned them with some salt before he put them on the stove cooking.
"Hm, hm, hm…" Humming a song as he cooked, Redd was having a good time.
Until, he heard the sound of the door opening.