Chapter 123
[Entering the Tower's 42nd Floor (EXTREME).]
It had been a while since I last visited the tower.
So much had happened since my last climb.
Teach should have taken good care of my ship, right?
He looked like a resourceful guy, so I trusted him.
But that thought vanished seconds after I stepped inside.
"What the hell is this!"
I screamed.
A calm horizon, dolphins, the occasional seagull flying overhead….
There was no sign of the relaxing sea I had been expecting.
Whoooosh-!
Instead, the storm and the waves greeted me.
Lightning was striking nonstop in the sky, and the huge waves kept rocking the ship.
"Whaa!"
The ship tilted hard again.
Unprepared, I was flung hard and rolled around.
Just before I fell into the sea and got lost, I barely managed to grab the railing.
But there was no stopping my whole body from getting drenched by the waves.
A mouthful of salt.
"Ptui, ptui! No, what the hell is going on here!"
Wasn't the last floor supposed to be a peaceful voyage?
What kind of disaster was this all of a sudden?
"Captain? You've come at just the right time!"
A reply came back to my scream.
When I turned my head, I saw Teach at the helm, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Teach looked too busy to even brush back his rain-soaked hair plastered to his face.
"Why did we come to a place like this?!"
"I didn't want to come here either! What was I supposed to do when the compass led us here?"
"What could there possibly be to see in a place like this…!"
"How would I know!"
The Explorer's Compass. An item that points you to where you need to go.
Teach was saying that compass pointed to the middle of this storm.
It seemed I would be stuck in this storm for the entire 42nd floor.
"Starboard 30 degrees! Another big one coming!"
When Teach's rough hands yanked the helm, the pirate ship screamed as it changed direction.
SPLASH-!
A massive wave was about to hit the ship head-on.
The pirate ship rode the wave at an angle and climbed over it.
If it had taken that wave head-on, the ship would have been shattered to pieces.
A chill ran down my spine.
"Lower the sails! Move it, move it!"
[Move! Move!]
Teach kept shouting until he was hoarse.
The parrot flew over our heads, dutifully repeating the orders.
The crew moved with perfect coordination.
I stared blankly at the scene.
Whether Chohogi found all of this fascinating and fun or not, it had somehow climbed onto my shoulder and was turning its head this way and that.
Come to think of it, Chohogi had said it wanted to learn how to sail.
For it, all of this might even count as study material.
Of course, this wasn't exactly a good environment for learning anything.
Kreeeek!
Once again, the ship narrowly rode over the wave.
An expert's skill.
So he really was a former captain?
In the storm, our voices were swallowed up, so I shouted at the top of my lungs too.
"You're pretty good at steering!"
"Thanks, but you should get to work too, Captain!"
[Work! Work!]
"Ah, okay... But what am I supposed to do?"
[Idiot! Idiot!]
"I can't teach you every little thing! Figure it out yourself!"
"Damn it…."
I'm definitely plucking a few feathers from that parrot later.
With that vow, I headed down to the hold.
Sure enough, there was something I could do.
Water was seeping into every nook and cranny of the ship.
The crew was frantically bailing it out.
"If I seal this off, that'll do it, right?"
I moved the sand and started packing the gaps tightly.
But it felt quite different from usual.
"Something's heavy…."
The sand was soaked through from the rain and the crashing waves.
The damp sand was twice as heavy as usual, and it wouldn't move the way I wanted.
It had been fine on the beach….
Had water's properties changed now that we were actually out at sea?
That same strange sense of unease I'd felt during the last dive was interfering with my magic again.
"Still, I had to do it."
I gritted my teeth and poured in my mana.
Clumps of sand wriggled and moved.
Once I filled the hole like I was spreading cement, the water pouring in stopped.
The crew bailing out water stared at me with wide eyes.
"So this is the new captain's power…!"
"We really did well to switch captains. Teach's ugly mug is hard to look at."
"Quit the nonsense and get back to bailing water."
I waved at the ones starting to murmur.
I went back up to the deck.
Because it still wasn't over.
As expected, the deck above was still a mess.
"Aaaagh!"
Another wave hit.
At the same time, one of the crew was flung into the air.
At this rate, that sailor would fall into the cold sea and be lost for good.
"Catch him!"
I reflexively reached out my hand.
The waterlogged sand shot out like a whip.
SMACK!
The sand rope wrapped around the sailor's waist.
"Ungh…!"
I grunted as I pulled on the sand rope.
Something I would normally have handled easily felt several times harder.
Thud.
The sailor rolled across the deck.
The sailor looked up at me, panting, face pale.
"I-I'm alive…."
"This is the only time I'll save you! Grab the railing yourself!"
I snarled, shouting to everyone around me.
If I used magic like this a couple more times, I'd be exhausted.
"Ugh, this really feels disgusting…."
My clothes and hair were completely soaked.
My shoes were full of water, making squelching sounds every time I walked.
I wasn't exactly a neat freak, but wet clothes and sand clinging to my skin was the worst.
And my stupidly long hair kept sticking to me and blocking my vision.
On top of that, controlling the sand was harder than ever.
All I wanted was to get out of this storm as fast as possible.
"Teach! How much longer until we get out of here?"
"We can't get out! The compass is still pointing here!"
"There's nothing but a storm here—where's the treasure?!"
"Kieeeeeek!"
Then it happened.
A shrill scream, different from the sound of the waves, burst out from the dark clouds.
A grating sound like nails scraping a blackboard.
Everyone on the ship, including Teach and me, snapped their heads up.
"What is that?"
The moment lightning flashed.
Black silhouettes hiding among the clouds revealed themselves.
"Eagles?"
"No! Those are…."
Birds far larger than children.
But on closer inspection, their heads were human.
Half-human, half-bird monsters. Harpies.
"Everyone, duck…!"
The instant Teach shouted.
The flock of harpies dove through the storm.
Their target was obvious.
Riiip-!
Their sharp claws ripped through the sails and ropes.
The moment the taut ropes snapped, disaster struck.
The ropes snapped like whips, lashing everything around them.
"Dodge them! If they hit you, you'll be split in half!"
Teach shouted.
Sure enough, that was how it looked to me too.
Ropes as thick as forearms were whipping through the air at nearly invisible speed.
One of the crew was standing right in their path.
"Move!"
I moved reflexively.
KWAANG!
The sand barrier I had raised between me and the rope collapsed in an instant, and the rope slammed into my arm.
Luckily, I barely felt any pain.
That was because I had turned both arms into sand at the right moment to soften the impact.
"C-Captain!"
"I'm fine. I wasn't hurt at all."
I reformed my arm and stood up.
The harpies circled overhead as if laughing at us.
The parrot flying beside Teach squawked toward the sky.
[Bird! Relative! Friend! Peace! Surrender!]
"Yep, definitely a birdbrain…."
The parrot kept making bird noises that wouldn't fool anyone.
Kieeeek!
The harpies didn't seem interested in accepting that stupid parrot as one of their own.
This time they dove in like they were going to snatch up the crew.
"Shoot first!"
The crew drew their guns and fired.
But most of them were too soaked from the rain to even fire, and the few that did had terrible aim.
On top of that, the mast had been damaged, and the ship's balance was collapsing fast.
It was already hard just to stand in place.
"Teach! Can't you do something about this?"
"Move some of the cargo! Down below!"
I understood what he meant immediately.
Unsecured supplies were still sliding around and making the rocking even worse.
If we moved everything below deck and lowered the center of gravity, it should rock less.
"Perfect timing. The sand had gotten pretty heavy anyway."
I slammed my staff into the deck.
Sand scattered all over the deck rushed toward me.
The sand I'd loaded onto Floor 41.
It had soaked up water and become much heavier, and it was harder to control, but it wasn't impossible to move.
"Everyone, hold on tight!"
I poured in every last bit of mana I had.
Despite the resistance, a massive river of sand began to move.
The target was the very bottom of the ship.
The heavy sand started gathering in the ship's lower hull.
Creeeeak-!
The ship slowly began to level out.
It was because I'd forcibly lowered the center of gravity.
Now it looked like we could withstand the waves somewhat.
"Good, the rocking is under control."
Now it was time to deal with those pests.
But firing a few bullets like before wouldn't make it easy to hit them.
I needed another way.
"Chohogi!"
At my call, Chohogi, who had been perched on my shoulder, hopped down.
It was soaked too, and its skin had taken on a muddy feel.
"Grow! Get as heavy as possible!"
I was a little short on sand.
I turned every bit of junk around me into sand and stuck it onto Chohogi.
Chohogi's body swelled in an instant until it was the same height as the harpies.
"Shake it off!"
At my command, Chohogi shook its body hard.
Like a wet dog shaking itself dry.
Thud-thud-thud!
Clumps of mud flew everywhere from the giant body.
Kieeeek!
The harpies screamed.
Mud splattered all over their feathers.
Their wings grew heavy in an instant.
Plop.
Plip.
The harpies that had been arrogantly flying through the sky started crashing onto the deck one by one.
"Now! Crush them!"
"Aye, aye!"
The crew rushed in with their weapons.
Once they hit the deck, they were already dead.
The tide of battle reversed in an instant.
It was just as we were finishing off the remaining harpies.
Kieeeeeek!
A screech on a completely different level from the others.
The storm clouds split apart, and a huge shadow descended.
It was at least twice as big as the other harpies.
It was clearly the leader.
"That is…."
A peculiar lantern emitting an eerie glow hung around its neck.
An item?
Before I could even think, the leader picked a target and dove.
And the target wasn't Chohogi or me.
It was Teach, who was holding the helm.
"Damn it!"
Before Teach could react, the leader's claws snatched him up.
Teach was lifted into the air by the shoulders.
"Hahaha! I'm flying!"
Teach shouted from the sky.
"Captain! The compass is pointing to this guy! I'll pin him down, so hurry and grab him!"
"What?"
I stared blankly at the scene, dumbfounded.