Chapter 82: Infinite sea

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-Aspen POV:

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*Splash!*

"Urgh..."

I woke up after receiving a good amount of water right into my face while I was still unconscious. After my eyes opened rapidly trying to understand the situation, I noticed that I wasn't on the ship anymore... 

Luckily for me, it seemed that guy actually was just there for the Truffle worm... and since the entire ship stood on his way, he destroyed it... Along with me of course...

I was currently lying on a small rocky island at least 4 meters wide that protruded out of the ocean and that was in the middle of nowhere, fortunately for me, my body seemed to have been dragged away by the waves and ended up crashing against this island after I lost consciousness. However, although I could have liked to stand up and reassess my current location, I failed to do so after I felt an enormous pain in my whole body after trying to move.

I opened my status in order to check the current condition of my body, after all, I seemed to have received quite an enormous amount of damage after being sent flying away by the Duke Fishron...

"Ugh, not again... I guess I was hit pretty hard, huh?"

I tried moving my fingers at least, and although I was unable to move them to a great extent, I was still able to make them move sightly, or at least make them twitch slightly. Something that helped me place a bonfire right next to me by using the building ability from [The Player] blessing... Which increased the regeneration speed and also brought some warmth to the really cold and humid atmosphere around me.

An hour passed quickly, and by then my Hp had finally finished recovering completely.

"Now... where the hell am I?"

I stood up from my spot and started looking into the horizon just in case I could see any ship remnants. Unfortunately, I was completely lost.

Thousands of kilometers of pure water with no island apart from this one, and completely alone with no living being at sight... Neat...

Well, I might actually not be completely alone...

Surrounding the island, many sharks started appearing and started encircling the whole island with their mouths wide open while looking at me, as if telling me that I was food.

Well, I might have actually gotten scared before, but fighting a giant eye and being almost killed by the Duke fishron makes these small sharks look like sushi in front of my eyes. 

"And I actually needed some shark fin for creating more potions... Perfect..."

I took out my bow, and I started pointing towards the sharks.

This was good practice for my archery anyways...

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Am I going in the right way?

I glanced at the seemingly infinite mass of water in front of me, and then turned to look at the enormous bridge of stone and dirt behind me that looked incredibly strange without any pillars to support its structure, but was still hanging in mid-air without signs of collapsing.

"How long will it be until I reach Maralfya again? I still need to see if Alyem or any of the elves in that ship managed to survive the duke's Attack..."

I have been building this enormous bridge for at least 4 hours by now, and although there have been a few setbacks every now and then, like being suddenly attacked by sharks, or a few flying fishes that thought it could be a good idea to try and attack me, I have actually managed to travel a lot of kilometers just by building this bridge.

Unfortunately for me, my reserves of Stone blocks and dirt blocks were already depleting very quickly. And honestly, I didn't want to spend my last building materials just yet, what could happen if I am suddenly attacked by another group of sharks and they make me fall to the ocean? Not only could my mobility get reduced enormously, but I could also be in their own environment, and probably get butchered right away in just a few seconds. Thus, that's when these blocks come to play, I can just block their attacks by building small walls, or I can just hide below the ocean and cover myself with stone blocks until the sharks leave.

Besides, who knows whether some shit like a Kraken actually exists in this world and I will be the first one to find it... I really think that I will need blocks in that situation...

"Thus, there's only one option left..."

*Gulp*

I drank one of the potions that I have been preparing during the last few days and jumped off the bridge towards the ocean.

*Splash*

My feet landed on the ocean's surface and created a small shockwave that splashed water everywhere... However, I did not sink in the slightest.

My feet just stayed at the water's surface and supported my whole body perfectly, as if the water was actually a solid surface all this time

"This feels like I'm going to slip at any moment or sink if I'm not cautious... Maybe this is how Jesus actually did it...?"

Indeed, during those many days prior to starting this trip, I actually crafted one of the potions that I have been looking forward to the most. Not because of its versatility in combat, neither because of its strengthening effects... It's because I can fucking walk and run on water like fucking Nar*to!

Sorry for being childish, but this does indeed feel awesome. Besides, they were perfect for a trip on the ocean...

Alright! Let's run back to the Elf Kingdom and report everything to those guys, in the best case most of the elves survived and they are already back to the city while looking for me... in the worst-case... Well, I think it's pretty obvious what must have happened...

*Baaash!!*

I kicked the water with great strength and started running at full speed with the hope of going back to land, or at least somewhere I could rest from running continuously...

Who knows how far have I actually gotten from the port of Maralfya...

Let's hope it isn't much...

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The moon shone beautifully and illuminated the immense vastness of the sea, no sound could be heard aside from the one that the waves produced from time to time, and only the small sound of seagulls rapidly flapping their wings in order to find another place to stay could be heard if one paid enough attention.

*Basha basha basha basha...*

However, soon the sound of an extremely violent force hitting the surface of the sea started being heard, and soon the figure of a human running through water could be seen across the beautiful ocean.

Indeed, this human was actually Aspen, who had been running without a stop for at least 4 hours without taking a proper rest in the slightest, and who actually has been enduring the incredibly sharp pain of having his muscles overheat due to the rapid movement without stopping.

Aspen, who looked slightly pale, but wasn't stopping for the time being, suddenly had his eyes open incredibly wide as he noticed a certain shadow in the distance.

"Finally!!" Aspen yelled in happiness and increased his speed in order to arrive faster to his destiny.

It wasn't long before he managed to reach what seemed to be a small beach, and started gasping in exhaustion while looking at his surroundings.

"Well, this place doesn't look like Maralfya... did I deviate a bit in my direction? I thought I was going west... wait, now that I think about it... wasn't west to the other side...?"

Aspen left the beach and entered into what seemed to be a small forest, and started looking for any signs of civilization.

It wasn't until an hour later that he finally came across an enormous stone road where the forest had been cleared and he could finally see his surroundings properly.

"I guess I might have deviated a bit... but I still arrived nevertheless, I should probably find some elves and ask them for directions, I shouldn't be too far away from Maralfya anyway"

As if on purpose, suddenly the sound of a carriage moving in the distance reached his ears. However, when he turned to look at the carriage, he frowned slightly after seeing that it wasn't the usual elf Carriage that they use for traveling, instead, it was more like an old fashioned carriage moved by horses, and that did not use magic for movement in the slightest. Though when he turned to look at the driver, he finally understood why.

"A human? Did I mess up in directions and ended up going back to the Human territory? Fuck... that's like three more weeks of only traveling! However, I thought that all humans moved to Balroc city after the goblin invasion, did they already start to repopulate the seaside areas?"

He walked towards the carriage and stopped them with a hand sign. However, unlike what he expected, suddenly three guys wearing shiny silver armors came out of the carriage and started pointing spears towards him.

"Declare your identity! Are you perhaps a bandit?!" One of the three guys asked with a serious expression on his face as he pointed his spear towards Aspen's chest area and urged him to answer.

Aspen was dumbfounded after seeing such harsh treatment and being treated as a bandit, after all, he had become very well known after bringing humanity its first win against the Goblin army. However, he still answered with sincerity while thinking inside his mind whether these people were maybe from a village not affiliated with the Human territory, and were living at the borders of the territory in order to hide properly from the goblins, but since all of these villages had been supposedly destroyed by the goblins on their last attack, he thought that it was very unlikely.

"I'm Aspen, and just wanted to ask you guys some directions, no need to be so alarm"

"Ask fast, we don't have time to lose here. Our lord is doing official business and he doesn't need to lose more time than what we have already lost!" The man said while frowning. Aspen, who heard the man's words, felt that something was wrong with what he said, but he chose to ignore it and asked with a calm smile on his face.

"Do you know where Balroc city is? I'm a bit lost you see..."

"Balroc what? There's no city like that here in the Nuwa Kingdom..." The man narrowed his eyes and gripped his spear more tightly when he heard Aspen's words, thinking that maybe he was a bandit that was gaining time for his comrades to attack.

However, unlike what he thought could be Aspen's reaction, all that came out was a...

"Huh...?"

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