He had strained his body from the prolonged activation of his talent and the Death Flag Banner for more than fifteen minutes. He had begun to feel the pressure after ten minutes, and for the next five minutes, he fought relentlessly before finally losing consciousness.
Zuriel knew he could have lasted much longer if he had focused on just one—either the activation of his talent or the Death Flag.
"Are you okay, Captain?" a familiar voice resonated within the room.
Zuriel turned his head to the side and saw Finn seated on the chair beside the edge of the bed. Noticing that he had awakened, Finn swiftly stood up from the chair and leaned towards him to check his condition.
"I'm exhausted from thoroughly depleting my mana. I will be able to recover after a few minutes of meditation," Zuriel responded, shaking his hand away.
Finn withdrew back his hand and sighed in relief. Suddenly, a thought entered his mind. "You haven't lost your memory, right?" He asked, his expression tinged with worry and suspicion.
"No, I haven't lost my memory," Zuriel shook his head in response as he pushed his body to sit upright.
"That's good; I thought I would have to go through the same dilemma as before," Finn responded, sighing again.
"How's the condition of the ship?" Zuriel asked.
"Although it's damaged, it was only due to the maddened beasts' attacks before the electric barrier pushed them backwards and protected the ship from being destroyed. If we were to enter a dungeon in this condition, it might break down in the process, and we would have no choice but to abandon it," Finn responded, his expression and tone serious.
"We should abandon entering a dungeon for now and head toward the nearest land. I have calculated our current location and the distance, and I know the perfect location where we can lay low to escape from the Salt Rock Shelter Leader's pursuit until the ship has been repaired," Finn said.
The ship was magically enchanted, so they would need the hands of a professional handyman to repair it. Until then, it was too dangerous for them to venture into a dungeon.
It didn't matter their location on the high seas; Finn was confident he could lead the ship towards its destined location.
Zuriel nodded in understanding, "Don't change course; we going to explore that dungeon before heading to land to repair the ship," he responded.
He realized he had been unable to properly control the maddened beasts from damaging their ship. Nonetheless, he was relieved that the damage was negligible. As for abandoning the dungeon and returning to land to fix the ship... not a chance!
Zuriel sensed that Stormshell was currently resting within his beast space. His beast space was more powerful than the previous Zuriel, so he reasoned that Stormshell would be able to swiftly recover to full health soon before they reached the dungeon.
Though he trusted Finn's navigation skills, who knows what other hidden cards the Salt Rock Shelter Leader possesses or if he has connections and someone with navigation comparable to Finn to track their location.
So, he couldn't take the chances and would instead focus on becoming stronger even if the ships fell apart before or after they had completed the dungeon. It had fallen apart after Malik completed the dungeon in the previous novel, and he had abandoned it before he got a better one.
So Zuriel didn't have any reason to be sentimental about the loss of this particular ship. At most, they would have no choice but to survive on a few smaller boats until they reached land and could purchase a better ship.
Hearing his response, Finn frowned. He wanted to disagree with Zuriel's words, seeing it as reckless to continue their sail while their ship was in this condition. Still, after remembering his exceptional strength during their previous encounters with the Salt Rock Shelter Leader, he remained silent.
An individual becomes eligible to become a beastmaster when they turn 18, starting as a novice beastmaster. The novice beastmaster has three ranks: third-rate, second-rate, and first-rate, ranging from the weakest to the strongest, with each rank determined by the amount of mana the beastmaster possesses.
Finn could discern from Zuriel's formidable prowess during the battle that he was close to reaching the level of a second-rate novice beastmaster. To his knowledge, Zuriel was currently 19. For him to have reached this level, with such frightening capabilities and a powerful magical beast that placed him at the edge of third-rate novice beastmaster, almost reaching the level of a second-rate novice beastmaster, was impressive.
Such a talent was unheard of and something he never believed existed in the first place. It made him understand why the Head of the Zahara Household had given him their clan's most sacred heritage and sent him to venture into the treacherous seas alone.
Zuriel Zahara wasn't an ordinary young man; he was cunning, powerful, and resourceful. He had the potential to become a formidable beastmaster who could contend with other rising, capable beastmasters of this era.
Even Malik, though also powerful in his own right, possessing magical beasts with bizarre skills, could not be compared to Zuriel's monstrous talent and would only be left in the dust if they placed them to face off against one another.
Finn realized his future would be limitless if he could continue growing at this pace.
With no reason to dispute his words, Finn nodded in understanding.
"I will inform the helmsman to remain on the course to the dungeon. But I reckon we should arrive there soon, so you get ready," he said.
"How is our prisoner?" Zuriel asked, rising from his seat.
He sniffed his body and, smelling its filthy odour, decided to have a bath to wash off it. Fortunately, they had a filter onboard that converted the seawater to fresh water for grooming and drinking. He had a fresh wardrobe within his storage ring, so he had no reason to worry about his hygiene.
"He's still confined in his cell. I have assigned one of the crewmen I trust to keep a direct eye on him so he doesn't send a message to the Salt Rock Shelter Leader ships again," Finn responded.
"However, I suspect that rather than sending a message, the prisoner has something that they can track to lead them towards our location and has been lying to divert our attention. I suggest we remove him from the ship to see if we can successfully escape their pursuit," he suggested.
"Even if we let him go, they would still chase after us because of my clan's sacred magic tool. We should keep him imprisoned as a hostage, which we can use in case we encounter the Salt Rock Shelter Leader and are left with no choice but to use him. He cherishes him as though he was his own son, and we can take full advantage of that," Zuriel responded, a glint flashing through his eyes.
He had also come to the same understanding as Finn. The Salt Rock Shelter Leader was tracking them. However, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, knowing he couldn't throw him off board regardless, as he needed Malik's presence to grow stronger.
Zuriel planned to capture and imprison the other main characters, using them as a never-ending source of editor points to harvest. He knew that Malik would still chase after them and might become more powerful. For now, it was best to keep him locked up and delay that progress.
He wasn't sure how powerful his luck was compared to the other main characters, but he knew that a petty figure like 'thegreatquill' would place his luck at the bottom of the barrel, far below the main characters. He had only become one of the main characters because of the Beastmaster Editor system, so he couldn't afford to be too overconfident.
Besides that, who knew what other changes 'thegreatquill' had made to the story?
A look of understanding emerged in Finn's eyes, and he nodded. "You are right. Forgive me for not coming to such a conclusion before making such a suggestion," he apologized, as his suggestion would have cost them more than they had expected.
"It's alright. You don't know them more than I do, so it's expected that you would make such a suggestion for our safety," Zuriel responded, waving his hand nonchalantly,
"Arrange a bath for me. Send the chef to deliver me a meal to my room. After that, we will head to the brig to meet our prisoner and inform him of our encounter with his stepfather," he added.
"I will make the preparations and inform the chef immediately," Finn responded. He stood up and swiftly exited the room.
After the preparations were completed, Finn returned to inform Zuriel. He led the way forward, with Zuriel following behind.
…...
It took an hour and a half for Zuriel to be done and head to the brig.