"Crackle..."
In the middle of the ocean, a damaged sailing ship burned.
On the pitted deck lay the scattered corpses of pirates. Their leader, Mad Captain Connors Victor, had been cleaved in two, his blood and innards spilling across the floor.
The perpetrators of this carnage, Silas's sailors, were currently searching the ship.
Under the command of the bosun, Sea Serpent Walter, they rescued the natives from the lower cabins and brought them up to the deck.
Once the sea breeze hit them, and seeing some of their own people among their rescuers, the natives gradually came to their senses.
Their expressions and reactions varied, some cheering with joy, others weeping.
One native boy was crying loudly, clutching a dead middle-aged woman and saying something repeatedly in the local indigenous language.
"That's his mother."
Filia, herself a native islander, understood his words. Her face showed sympathy. "His mother on the ship was... by the pirates..."
Several other sailors of native origin also looked pained.
"Alright! Everyone quiet down!" Sea Serpent Walter raised his voice, calling out in fluent native language.
He immediately drowned out the natives' voices, making them look over somewhat fearfully.
"We are the fleet of the Scarlet King, Alexander Gascoigne," Walter said. "We've come to fight against Loen and rescue you. You're safe now!"
"You can board our ship with us, and we'll take you home.
Additionally, we're recruiting crew members with excellent conditions and benefits. Anyone interested in joining us can stay..."
On the Doe across the way, Silas gazed through the captain's cabin window, watching Sea Serpent's recruitment speech from afar.
He saw that most of the natives were cowering, but a few had angry fire burning in their eyes, indicating they wanted to join them.
He observed for a while longer before returning his attention to the sea chart spread on the table.
This chart was covered with densely packed lines that overlapped with each other, starting from the Sonia Sea, crossing the Southern Continent and the Raging Sea, finally terminating in the Sea of Mist.
During this time, Silas had accomplished two things:
First, using Vice Admiral Disease's intelligence, he'd tracked down related individuals, successfully killing a batch of Demoness Sect members and peripheral organizers.
Second, every time he arrived at a new location, he summoned the key to the Black Throne and collected directional information.
Since Demoness Sect members were scattered throughout the Sonia Sea, he'd successfully drawn numerous radiating lines on his chart.
That should be enough...
Silas thought, picking up a pen.
"Swish, swish."
He carefully moved the pen tip, shading in the overlapping sections. Gradually, one area became prominent due to being repeatedly shaded over.
This region was in the center of the Sea of Mist, in the waters between Aroka Island and Easter Island.
"The Sea of Mist..."
Silas frowned.
Roselle's diary had indeed mentioned that he'd once led a fleet to explore the depths of the Sea of Mist, seemingly encountering something related to the Abyss... It made sense that he'd leave his flagship cruising in that area.
"Thud, thud, thud."
As he was pondering, footsteps approached and First Mate Anderson walked into the captain's cabin.
"Captain, you wanted to see me?"
He poked his head in with a grin.
"Yeah," Silas nodded. "Come in first."
Once Anderson entered, he pushed a slip of paper across to him. The latter took it with confusion, unfolding it to reveal several lines of text:
[Sequence 4, Iron-blooded Knight.
Main ingredients: Magma Giant's core, Stone of Catastrophe.
Supplementary ingredients: 80 milliliters of boiling magma, 20 grams of flora powder corrupted by a Stone of Catastrophe, 20 grams of soil soaked in soldier's blood from a large battlefield, one acorn.
(/n: that acorn is the most important ingredient)
Advancement ritual: Form a team of at least thirty people, cultivate a deep friendship with them, make them strong one after another. The higher the strength and tacit understanding of the team, the better the effect of the ritual.]
"This..."
Anderson looked at the paper.
At first, he just glanced at it casually, but was quickly shocked by the text. "This is... the potion formula and advancement ritual for Sequence 4 of the Hunter pathway!"
He exerted tremendous effort to tear his gaze away and look back at Silas. "Captain, what are you doing?"
Although Silas had promised to give it to him before, his contributions were clearly insufficient. Why was he giving it to him today without warning?
Honestly, he really wanted it, but Silas giving it so readily made him feel uneasy instead.
"Consider this an advance."
Silas smiled, his expression growing serious.
"Anderson, I need to go somewhere alone. During this time, you'll command the fleet.
Keep doing what we've been doing: intercept slave ships, free natives, recruit people."
"...Captain, are you serious?"
Anderson looked at him dubiously, asking him several times before finally confirming Silas wasn't joking.
"But Captain, we have so many enemies. With you gone, I'm just a Sequence 5. I can't handle them all." He smiled bitterly.
"Our fleet's overall strength depends entirely on you. Once you leave, I won't even be able to face other pirate admirals on my own."
Silas didn't explain what he was going to do, and Anderson was smart enough not to ask, only clearly stating his difficulties.
"That's easy to solve."
Silas said, reaching for his left arm.
"Riiip!"
With a teeth-grinding tearing sound, he forcibly ripped off his arm and threw it on the ground.
The arm began writhing as soon as it hit the floor, quickly transforming into a flesh puppet identical to him.
"Hum!"
Silas's eyes turned golden as he murmured a few words under his breath, pressing his finger to the puppet's forehead.
Its originally vacant gaze quickly became animated, its expression cold as it surveyed its surroundings.
"He can probably display strength around Sequence 5, and his usual behavior won't differ from mine."
Silas said, then produced a flesh charm that radiated an obvious demigod aura.
He tucked the charm into the puppet's clothing, and its presence strengthened further, looking quite convincing.
"Also, I'll leave you a few magical items. With them, you should be able to hold things together."
He tossed Riviel's desperate scream and Horace's black iron gauntlets to him.
"If things really get urgent, destroy that flesh charm and I'll sense it immediately and return as quickly as possible.
"I'll be back as soon as I can."