Normally, a human corpse would start decomposing in a few minutes. However, that isn't apparent for the first few hours since it was an internal change. Maggots and worms would start eating the body from the inside out, slowly crawling their way out of the skin.
If Victor adds the humid nature of the atmosphere around them, that decomposition slows down even more. But, with the state of the ship, he was expecting to find skeletons, not fully intact corpses.
'That means this ship… It was destroyed very recently… Maybe even today or yesterday.' Victor thought to himself as he stood up and looked around him with a frown.
That simple realization had somehow made the entire place even more eerie. With how old the ship looked, it was shocking that it had just been destroyed and whatever destroyed this ship was still a mystery.
"The damage doesn't look like it's the result of lightning… The holes are too big for that to be the reason. It cannot be seawater either." He muttered as he rubbed his chin. "Then, what could it be?"
Victor felt a chill run down his spine as he thought about it. All the signs were leading him to one single answer and he didn't want to even look at it. When he felt that he was about to overthink, he shook his head and looked up.
'Let's check the rest of the ship first. I feel like this place is hiding something.' He thought to himself as he pursed his lips.
With that, Victor passed over the dead corpse and left the room through the broken door. Immediately, he was met with a horrifying sight. Outside on the deck, he saw a giant pile of dead corpses riddling the entire place.
The bodies were mangled and destroyed in all kinds of twisted ways. Some were cut into pieces while others were simply crushed to smithereens. The smell of blood filled the entire place. If there was a normal person there instead of Victor, they would've vomited right there and then.
"... This is… a massacre…" Victor said in a cold tone as he slowly stepped into the deck, looking around. He could easily count dozens of dead corpses everywhere. All of them looked fresh even though they were barely recognizable.
Staring at their faces, or at least the intact faces of some of them, he noticed an almost identical look in all of them. They all had wide empty eyes, filled with endless shock and horror from what they witnessed before their demise.
That similarity was very unnerving considering the mystery of how this entire ship met its demise. 'What did they see?'
Inspecting each face, Victor noticed another small but very important detail. Almost all the corpses were staring in one single direction. Slowly moving his eyes across the mass of corpses, he noticed that the direction they looked at was east.
"... Whatever did this to the ship, it probably appeared from the east. Not that this could be useful."
However, even then, Victor noted down every single detail he noticed. He didn't know if that would come in handy soon or not. Never too safe, after all.
After that, he continued walking through the massive deck. The destruction inflicted upon this particular section of the ship was huge. Many of the areas around him were rendered into broken wood with barely any areas to safely stand.
Whatever was still intact seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. So, Victor had to make sure he counted every step he made.
Eventually, he reached the other side of the deck where he entered through a small broken door into another section of the ship. Looking around him, he saw a giant area, filled with tables, chairs, and a huge countertop at the end.
"This is the kitchen, I assume…" He muttered as he walked inside. The creaking sound of the wood was particularly strong in here so the dark atmosphere felt even more eerie.
"It seems the deeper I go, the more disturbing this place turns out to be. I should probably leave after exploring this are-"
As Victor passed a table, he immediately froze in place as he saw a glimpse of something moving in the distance. Squinting his eyes, he immediately went quiet as he crouched down before slowly starting to crawl his way toward the noise carefully.
'There is something alive in here…'
As he listened to the noise, Victor realized that it was all a bunch of whimpers and faint cries that mixed with the sound of the storm outside.
As he got closer, the whimpers grew louder and more disturbing. At this point, Victor was certain they belonged to a human and yet… They didn't sound human at all. The contradicting thought made him even more alert as he started channeling his Runic Energy.
Finally, he reached the place where the whimpers came from and took a peek. There, in a small corner, he saw a man curled up into his own body, crying silently as he hid his head.
"Please… S-Spare me… S-Spare me… End my life from this hell… Please…" The man seemed to be muttering some incoherent words mixed with pleas for help.
Victor didn't know how to react to such a situation at all. The man was clearly traumatized by something.
'Should I try talking to him? That's probably the play.' Deciding on his next move, Victor stood up as he spoke.
"Hey, you there."
The moment he spoke, the man went completely silent as he froze. His shaking body went still too as if he had turned into a machine. Then, the man slowly peeked at Victor. That's when the boy saw a glimpse of his face and it only made him take a step back warily.
The man's eyes were very red, almost to a horrifying degree. His face was pale and the veins running across it were dark blue. Saliva was dripping out of his mouth endlessly. As far as the boy was concerned, this was not a human at all. At least, not a normal human.
'Is he affected by something?' Feeling the underlying threat of the situation, Victor didn't take another step forward. He felt as if he was dealing with a rabid dog at that point.
"Help!! Heeeelp!!! AAAAAAGHHH!!! HELP ME!!!"
As if seeing Victor had triggered something, the man shrieked loudly, almost making his vocal cords burst before he rushed toward Victor on four limbs like an animal.
"What the fuck?" The boy cursed as he quickly took a step back in surprise. He didn't expect the man to rush at him this quickly. But, since he had no time to escape, he decided to simply stop him.
"AAAAAGHHH!!! I will give it to you!!! Take it all!! Take it! Take it! TAKE IT!!!!!!!" As he lunged in the air, the man tried to grab Victor and push him down.
However, the latter quickly moved to the side, barely dodging the attack. Then, with a swift move, he hit the man in the stomach with his knee.
"BURGH!!" The man was sent flying a few meters before falling to the ground. He coughed huge mouthfuls of blue saliva mixed with blood before he looked up with a maniacal glare.
"... The disease… Take it!! Spare me the misery!!!"
'Disease?'
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"SPARE ME THE CURSE INFLICTED UPON THEM! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!"
A//N: If you liked the chapter, support the book on your way!