Far away in the crystal ocean, Mutrad flew above the ocean with Michael. They were heading for the realm of sea folk under a magical starry sky. The only companion they had was the dazzling moon in the sky. Eventually, after flying for a full five hours, Mutrad slowed down.
"It's here," Mutrad pointed at the open water to Michael.
"You might feel a tingling," said Mutrad. With a nod, Michael agreed to Mutrad cast the spell needed to dive into the water and travel to their homeworld. Mutrad raised his hand as Michael noticed a translucent shield materialize around them both.
"Shall we?" Mutraid asked as Michael nodded. Gradually, they moved downwards and soon entered the ocean. Thanks to the shield around them, they didn't get wet and were able to breathe as though they were above the water. Michael calmly watched the clear blue ocean around him and the flocks of fish swimming past them.
"Tell me about your world, Mutrad. Start with how many kingdoms are there," Michael asked Mutrad.
"We don't have kingdoms ruled by kings and queens like the land walkers. Instead, my world is divided into three empires. Water god hall, Sea serpent hall, and Arctic hall rule each,"
Michael knew the Water god hall and the Sea serpent hall were part of the great eight clans. If what GAya told him was true, these two clans were stronger than the Guardian guild itself. Unlike the Guardian guild, the Sea Folk clans waged way fewer wars and avoided meddling in others' affairs.
"Each of them is not a clan per se but an empire itself,
"Hmm," Michael took a mental note of everything Mutrad said.
"The earthen who forged the medallion is in the Sea serpent hall,"
While Michael was flying with Mutrad, he learned a few things about the Sea Realm. For instance, the Sea Folk had five races; Mermons, Earthens, Wraiths, Inferiors, and Giants. Mutrad belonged to the Wraiths kind, who could transform into humanoid form to walk the land. Apparently, the rest of the Sea Folk kind did not consider Inferiors as their kind since they were technically land walers. According to Mutrad, children who got lost in the sea would be taken by the Sea Realm and raised among other land walkers. Michael was surprised to learn that there were thousands of land walkers, including humans, elves, dwarves, and beastmen, living in the Sea Folks as Inferiors. They were raised from a little age to fight and die for the Sea Folk in wars. Luckily for them, Sea Folks hadn't entered into a large-scale war in thousands of years. However, if a war did arise, the Inferiors had to fight in the front line and serve as cannon fodders to the rest.
"Keep in mind while you are in my world, you will be considered an Inferior. Certain places are restricted for you from entering. And please try not to start any wars," Mutrad pleaded with Michael, only to see him chuckle.
"I thought you loved wars,"
"War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil, Dark Lord,"
"I have no quarrel against your kind Mutrad even though they sent you after me. But if they had taken Harry, that's another matter entirely,"
"I hope for everyone's sake it's not the case," Mutrad sighed.
"Me too, Mutrad. Me too,"
They continued to dive deeper into the ocean, and eventually, everything around them turned dark. Michael looked around the dark ocean in wonder as this was the first time he had gone this much deep into the ocean. Without the shield around them, he could tell they would be crushed by sheer pressure. Obviously, the darkness made Michael feel stronger. Despite how strong he felt, the unknown territory and the utter silence slightly caused uneasiness in his heart.
'Once I drop you in the Sea serpent hall, look for a great whale tavern. You might not believe it, but my world is not that much different from yours. We have all the bells and whistles. I will return after I finish dealing with some things in the Arctic hall," said Mutrad.
"You don't have to. You have already jeopardized your position by escorting me into your world. Just give me the name of the earthen, and I will take care of the rest,"
"Thank you, but I already arranged for someone to help you during your stay in the sea realm. He is an Inferior, but he knows the realm like the back of his hand. He will meet you in the great whale. Once you reach the tavern, look for a red-haired one with freckles,"
"What's his story?" asked Michael.
"The typical. Inferiors don't have much to tell about them. He was found in a shipwreck as a baby. We took him in, and he has lived in the realm ever since,"
"You trust him?"
Mutrad shook his head,
"He is trustworthy enough. I've known him for years. When you want to find someone or something in the sea realm, you need Dillon on your side. He knows every crook in the world. Just a friendly reminder, Dillon is a coward. He will bolt out as soon as he senses a threat to his life. So keep that in mind,"
"Noted," Michael nodded.
Even after almost an hour of diving down, Michael hadn't seen a single settlement in the water. In fact, he saw no bottom as the ocean seemed bottomless. Except for the few luminescent jellyfishes, they had no light sources. Eventually, Michael grew a bit tired of doing nothing.
"How long till we reach your world?" asked Michael.
Mutrad looked at the golden compass in his hand for a moment before answering Michael.
"Ten minutes,"
Finally, Michael sensed several people in his environmental scanning. Michael was surprised to see these people slowly surrounding them as though they planned to ambush them.
"How about that? A welcoming party," Michael stretched his arms.
"What are you talking about?" Mutrad was confused. He didn't arrange any welcoming party. In fact, Mutrad told no soul except Dillon about bringing another one to their world. A few moments later, Mutrad realized what the Dark Lord meant by a welcoming party.
"Shit, I should have expected this," Mutrad mumbled under his breath, thinking the Dark Lord wouldn't hear him. The sight of bandits annoyed Mutrad. He thought he could reach his world without coming across the bandits, but his bad luck brought the bandits right to them.
"What do we have here?" Michael heard a voice. For the first time, Michael saw a Sea folk man in his true form. Calling him a man would be a bit of a stretch considering the figure had no humanoid features except two hands. Each hand only had three fingers and was covered in thick scales. Holding a trident in one hand, the earthen moved toward them
"A talking carp," Michael was amused by the earthen. This person immediately reminded Michael of carp fish as he looked exactly like one. His diamond-shaped scales radiated a dim golden glow. The others around Michael lacked the same glow as the one with the trident. If Michael had to guess, he would say the Soul Refining cultivation might be the reason for the glow in his body. Nonetheless, Michael was not an expert in Sea folk anatomy. Thus, he remained silent, waiting for Mutrad to make the first move. Something told Michael that Mutrad and the earthen were no strangers to each other.
In the earthens' eyes, Mutrad stood beside just a weak Body Strengthening stage Inferior. Since Michael didn't mimic a Fusion Stage warrior's energy radiation, the bandits naturally thought of him as an Inferior who grew up in the Sea Realm. Anyone else, namely any outsiders, must be at the Fusion stage to survive the pressure despite having a Sea Folk kind and their shield.
"The young master of House Halrid is trying to enter the sea realm through the backdoor. What a strange sight, a strange sight indeed," The earthen holding the trident said. Despite being in the water, Michael heard the earthen loud and clear.
"This does not concern you, Cato. Move away," Mutrad growled.
"I beg to differ, my friend," The earthen shook his head. Then, he slowly started to circle around them. Michael watched the earthen and his underlings surround them without uttering a word. To be honest, Michael was amused by the talking fish and wanted to see where this was going.
"You are in my backyard. The last I checked, you didn't ask my permission to step into my backyard. So what should I do with you?" Cato rubbed the strand of hair hanging from his chin.
"Cato, for your sake, leave us alone. We can settle whatever dispute we have later," Mutrad tried to save Cato from the Dark Lord's wrath. Although Mutrad was at the Fusion stage, he wasn't strong enough to take on all the earthen around him. It was an earthen territory where they had the advantage of home ground. Most of Mutrad's spells wouldn't work in the water as they would in any of the three empires. Besides, If Mutrad went all in, it would certainly draw some unwanted attention or worse, the attention of the giants.
Cato was surprised to see Mutrad, the arrogant young master of House Haldrid, trying to talk his way out instead of battling.
"You and I both know how much I loathe the land walkers. I killed my fair share of them. But recently, a human has inspired me. You must have heard of him, given you spent the last year among the land walkers. They call him the Dark Lord,"
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom The moment Michael heard Cato talk about him, he was pleasantly surprised and shocked to see his reputation had reached some bandits in the sea realm.
"A year ago, he took over those pesky pirates and united them under his rule. When me and my brothers expected him to pillage and wreak havoc among the merchants, he surprised us by not doing that. You know what he did," Cato paused and moved to meet Mutrad in his eyes.
"He put a rule that to conduct business in his waters safely, the merchants have to pay a percentage of what they transport. Now some of my brothers thought, why take a pie when you can have the whole pie? Do you know what I said?"
Cato waited until Mutrad shook his head.
"I said if you take the whole pie forcefully, the people will eventually stop bringing pie altogether. But if you take one piece from one pie, they wouldn't mind it and will keep bringing them. All we have to do then is do nothing and enjoy the tributes,"
"What are you getting at, Cato?" Mutrad snarled.
"Just like the Dark Lord, a silly name if you ask me," Cato laughed as Mutrad glanced at the Dark Lord, who seemed calm as usual.
"I want a piece of what you have," Cato's voice completely turned colder. Soon, his underlings summoned their weapons out and raised them against Michael and Mutrad.
"Hand over your space rings, both of you," Cato threatened them.
"I-" Mutrad was abruptly cut short by Michael. When Cato saw the Inferior move in front of Mutrad, he frowned.
"Let me ask you something, Cato. What do you taste like?" asked Michael as black lightning bolts began to crackle around his wrists.
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