Chapter 90 - Isle of the Drowned Dead
In a wooden boat drifting in the middle of the ocean, three Deviants and a Pirate Captain were heading towards an island where the dead were half-alive. All this just to steal a ghost ship…
"Hey, Flyn!" Luke called out to the pirate, who was sitting and drinking.
"It's Captain Flyn... Speak, Skewered."
Luke ignored the nickname but instinctively placed a hand on his chest. Even though he had been healed, the sensation of a blade piercing him still lingered. Sometimes, he could feel his heart as if it were an integral part of his consciousness. Luke understood how crazy this sounded; after all, the heart is a vital organ. Yet, for him, it felt completely different from something like the stomach. The stomach simply exists inside a person, without the ability to be pinpointed or felt exactly where it is, like a tactual sensation. But Luke could feel his heart, almost imagining himself tracing its curves with precision.
"How is this boat moving through the water if we're not even rowing?"
The captain looked at him as if he had asked a strange question.
"I don't know how things worked in your world, but here, we use prana to move the boat. In this case, I'm using my prana, or if you wanted, we could use prana crystals too. But... you're right; the boat is moving pretty fast."
The boat was traveling at a much greater speed than if they were rowing.
"That's because I'm an Summoner. I can generate winds wherever I want; I'm focusing the winds on the boat and also creating a counter-wind so that the breeze doesn't mess up the ladies' hair or spill my rum," he chuckled and went back to drinking.
Interesting, a perfect ability for a pirate.
"Are you a Deviant too?" Anna asked, joining the conversation.
"Deviant? Hmm... I'm just a Pirate. But maybe in your world, that's what you call people like me. From what I know about outsiders, you're as much a pirate as I am."
"What do you mean?" Anna asked.
"Well, you use your abilities and have the power to access other worlds where you can loot treasures and powerful cards. That's what a pirate does, except we do it on islands."
So even though he's a Deviant, he can't leave this world... In theory, neither can we. What we do is find a way around it? We've found a path to the Oblique World, and through it, we can access Campaign Maps... which, to Flyn, is an entire world where he lives. So what exactly is a Campaign Map? Is it another world? But a world inside a card? Or is the card just a portal to that world? Does this mean there's a card for Earth somewhere?
"We're here!" Flyn announced.
In front of them was a huge island. The striking difference was the color of the trees' leaves—a darker, more muted green. And there was a gigantic mountain in the background shaped like a skull.
"Over the last three days of travel, you've squeezed every bit of information you could out of me about this place, but remember: even I don't know everything because I can only go this far. If I circle around and drop you off too close to the lair, the drowned dead will alert the boss. You don't want to piss that guy off; he's different. That thing can use the ship to leave this place. Once he marks you as his target, he'll hunt you down and won't stop. And I don't need to tell you that in terms of speed, that ship would run circles around us, even if I use all my power on this boat. That guy will find us with his army of drowned and then... goodbye for us."
"R-right," Anna agreed nervously.
"Are you sure it's safe for us to get in the water and swim over there?" Alice questioned Flyn.
"Safe? Of course not. But I'll lure those things away with the boat and clear the path for you," Flyn said, taking a swig from his rum bottle and then pouring a bit into the sea. "In my culture, this means 'good luck.' And believe me, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I wouldn't waste my rum on just any three kids."
The trio jumped into the water.
"Good luck! Steal that thing quick, the longer we take... the more my wife's gonna be pissed at me," he laughed, steering the boat in another direction.
My God! I never thought being in the water could be this terrifying. I'm scared to look down... I'm even scared to move.
"Hurry up!" Alice urged, and the trio swam toward the island.
As soon as they reached the shore, they collapsed on the sand in relief.
"Thank God!" Anna sighed, lying on the ground. "I thought something was going to drag me under at any moment."
"Yeah, me too," Luke agreed.
Even Alice was scared... and to think she once drew a sword, ready to face an entity.
"Let's find a safe place and map out where we are and where the lair might be," Alice suggested.
"Something tells me the lair is right where that skull-shaped mountain is..." Luke said.
All Flyn had mentioned was that his instincts told him the lair was on the other side of the island and that he couldn't cross the sea. Maybe it was because the sea creatures were more dangerous, or perhaps the drowned dead really would alert the boss. But I suspect there's another reason... that he's afraid to go to that side. One thing I noticed is that he genuinely feared going there... just how dangerous is this boss?
They stood up and looked around. According to what they had learned, this side of the island was the most peaceful. The monsters would get tougher as they got closer to the lair. Since this was a territory boss, he had his own minions patrolling the area around his lair. The denser the region became with these creatures, the closer they were to the lair. Unlike the anomalies they had faced, like the Corrupted Undine who sealed off her area because she didn't need minions, bosses typically had their underlings spread out, protecting them.
Luke wondered what the boss of the flying castle in the Veil would be like. But according to the girls, the creatures inside the Veil and that area have their own ecosystem and dynamics. The Corrupted Undine herself wasn't a subordinate of the potential boss of the castle. Corrupted Regions like the Veil don't follow common logic. There, you could find a Peculiar or Advanced-ranked creature wandering alone or in groups. The boss of the castle might not even fit the structure's theme.
Where they were now was known as a "Thematic Region." The monsters followed the boss's theme since they were his subordinates. A fire monster in a volcano wouldn't have a fish creature that lives in the sea as a minion; in Thematic Regions, things follow a pattern, even if it's distorted.
A Boss that guards a Thematic Region considers it his territory. In the Oblique World, these great bosses usually guard a Bonfire waiting to be claimed. The Oblique World is so vast that the kingdom and its Deviants use the claimed bonfires for teleportation. The procedure is to conquer a large region by defeating the boss of the territory; with the Bonfire of that area claimed, they can establish a base to advance further into other regions. Not every known region has been claimed; there are some very powerful and well-known bosses guarding certain areas that even the kingdom doesn't want to claim. Sometimes, these creatures produce materials and minerals with their power, so no one dares to claim certain specific regions.
The kingdom holds control over the territories and the claimed Bonfires, and it's considered a crime to try to claim a bonfire without proper authorization. After all, they don't want anyone going into the wolf's den, provoking the boss, and then leaving. It could anger the creature, and it might very well be like the boss of this island. It could decide to follow the Deviant who disturbed it, potentially bringing the monster into a conquered region in the Oblique World where humanity lives in peace.
Too bad killing the boss of this island and claiming a Bonfire to return to land doesn't work. Not that we could kill him even if we tried...