Chapter 18: Chapter 18. Sea of memories
-Day four in the port city of Limittia.
In the morning, on the side of the dock bridge is the Red Trickerss flying ship.
"Shhh~..."
Writhing, Rina wiped her wet forehead with sweat.
Today was the day of their departure, so Rina and all the crew of the ship had been working hard since the sun hadn't even risen yet.
The boxes full of item they had purchased in preparation for heading to the Floating City Magnel had been delivered to the side of their ship's dock bridge, but they still had to carry these boxes back onto their ship.
Their cannons that had been severely eroded were also sold to the metal retooling industry. Now, its replaced by a new set of shiny and sturdy cannons.
But since Red Trickerss were a small group of pirates with a crew of less than 40 people, with 12 of them being Magicians and Archers, they had to put a little effort to pushing up the very heavy cannons onto their ship.
Even now there is still the last one shiny cannon left that has not been carried yet.
Sitting on the side of the dock bridge, Rina enjoyed the cool morning breeze to relieve her fatigue while watching their male crew members pushing up the last cannon.
"Now we should be ready."
Rina nodded to herself, remembering their next goal.
"However, it's strange... Mana crystal price now keep rising. Should we just change our fuel to Mana stone?"
Mana crystals and Mana stones were the main fuels of all kinds of magic equipment and machines except Monster cores. Red Trickerss pirates' ship also rely on Mana crystals as their main fuel.
Technically, Mana stones could also be used as fuel, but the magic energy purity within Mana stones was very lacking when compared to Mana crytal.
This lack of purity could lead to a myriad of mistakes if magic equipment or magic vehicles using Mana stones were subjected to great pressure.
From deterioration of engine performance to damaged the Rune coating on the engine, the risk was too great if Mana stone was used as fuel for flying ships that were often used in battles like their ship.
Mana crystals and Mana stones were usually supplied from the mine available near a city itself, but for the most part, major countries were the main suppliers of these items.
The mine, as the name suggests, is of course builded at ground, so, seeing how the price of Mana crystal continues to soar, there may be something going on with the mines of the main supplier of Mana crystals in this eastern area of the continent.
"Moondown Kingdom... What's going on with them?"
Rina now began to consider whether she should propose to their captain, Martha, whether they should switch activity areas or not. If Mana crystals price keep raising like this, small pirates like them wouldn't be able to last long.
After thinking for a long time, Rina decided to wait until Tiony came back to them before inviting Martha to discuss this matter.
Standing up, Rina was just about to board the ship's ledder when she saw a young man between the ages of about 16-18 walking while looking down and boarding their ship's ledder.
The young man was in a torn state of clothes and was obviously too small for him; as if the young man's body suddenly enlarged and tore his clothes to the point that he could almost be called naked,
Rina instantly screamed when she saw her: "W-who are you, brat!"
-Rina belongs to the younger group of their pirate group, so she is not far older than Martha and the same age as Tiony. This year, she was about 22 years old. She was at least quite worthy of calling the young man a 'brat.'
Rina blocked the young man's way.
However, the young man seemed unable to hear her and continued walking forward.
"Wait - Ahh!!"
The young man walked slowly while looking down, but he walked very steadily and remained firmly on his feet even though it looked like he was going to fall at any moment.
Finding Rina block his way, the young man continued walking without caring about her at all.
He bumps into Rina, while Rina tries hard to push the young man back.
Soon, the small commotion caught the attention of the rest of the crew.
They originally wanted to help Rina, but when they saw the young man's condition, they stopped. Their eyes pierced Rina.
Rina, on the other hand, began to turn red from exhaustion.
A moment ago, she carried several heavy boxes onto the ship and had just recently rested for a while. Now, she even had to hold back this strangely strong young man.
"W-What are you guys doing!? Help me! Aargggh!!"
Rina began to shed tears.
'Break! My hands will be broken!'
Just when Rina could almost imagine the pain of breaking her two soft arms, that young man suddenly slumped and lost strength.
"Ah?"
As a result, Rina, who had been pushing the young man away with all her might, along with the young man, fell from the ledder and hit the dock bridge.
Rina was very confident that a new lump would soon be added to her head because of this.
***
Zen felt like he had been immersed in a warm sea of pitch-black darkness for a very long time.
He continued to fall into the sea of darkness. Falling deep into the deepest part.
In a semi-conscious state, Zen wondered if he had been killed for the second time, but the other part of himself said no, and instead was eager to continue 'falling' into the depths of darkness.
The longer Zen falls, the darkness begins to dissipate, replaced by moving image pieces.
Inside the piece, a young couple, who somehow made Zen feel warm, smiled at him. The two of them lowered their heads, as if they were seeing Zen as a cute little thing.
Inside the pieces that appeared next, the screen of the pieces shook and shook as he moved forward, while the young couple had grown a little older and were smiling very pleasantly.
But 'Zen' is not alone. Next to him, there was a young toddler who began to stagger.
Zen immediately understood after he saw it.
This is the memory of the owner of this body.
The woman Zen suspected to be the mother of his body, at this time, smiled and lifted his body, which was probably a toddler at that time.
"Brust is the first! He's a big brother now!" said the woman.
The memory fragment only moved past Zen as he continued to fall into the depths of darkness.
After that, Zen passed through other pieces of memory several times.
Once, Brust invited his younger brother to play with some kids in town. At other times, Brust fights with his brother.
The further Zen fell, Brust inside the memory piece continued to grow as well.
Until finally... The memory reached a point where Brust reached 11 years old.
He, his younger brother, as well as his Mother, were separated from their father when the town suddenly turned very noisy.
Everyone ran around.
"I'll join the city soldiers and try to drive them away! You with kids should immediately run away from this town with Digord merchant group!"
It was the sentence that Brust's father left behind before run towards the town walls.
Their mother was crying, but she immediately wiped away her tears soon after.
She tried hard to keep smiling. While holding Brust and his younger brother's hands tightly, Brust's mother boarded the caravan of Digorn merchants and immediately set off for the town gate on the other side of the direction Brust's father had gone.
The whole town was in a state of panic.
The cries of childrens and babies who feel uncomfortable with the town situation can be heard everywhere.
Hundreds of caravans full of people rushed out of the town with whatever items they considered most valuable to them.
"Don't worry, Mom will protect you!"
Brust's mother hugged her two children tightly.
Taking refuge in the arms of their mother, Brust and his younger brother endure their fears.
The piece of memory stops there.
Instead, another piece of memory appears after it.
This time, the town's circumstances had changed completely.
Everyone left the caravan and ran as far away as possible from the town gate.
It was only a glimpse, but Zen saw the figure of Zombies flooding the town.
Brust's mother took Brust and his younger brother to find a nearby shelter building.
After running for some time, they Mother knocked on the door of the inn, which, according to Zen, was most likely the inn where Zen first woke up.
The memory piece stopped there.
Zen couldn't help but feel a bad premonition at the last piece that came after.
In the hallway of the inn building, Brust suddenly fell and grabbed his right arm hard.
Brust's mother and Brust's younger brother, who at the time were looking for a place to hide in any room they could find, looked back only to realize something terrible.
Brust... Have been infected.
"N-No... No way..."
Brust's mother fell limp seeing Brust's condition. She looked very desperate.
Brust's younger brother also looked at Brust with wide eyes as if he couldn't believe what was happening.
Brust, on the other hand, gritted his teeth. He seemed to understand what was happening.
The memory chip screen gets wet.
"Mom... Laim... Goodbye. I am so happy to be born as a child of our small family! Really, thank you for everything!"
Without waiting for a reply from the two of them, Brust immediately ran and entered the nearby empty room.
He locked the door, then leaned against the wall of the room.
The pieces of memory now look so blurry because they are wet with tears.
The memory snap ends with the scene of Brust stabbing himself in the stomach with a small kitchen knife that he had been hiding from the beginning.
"..."
Now that he had seen all of that, Zen felt that the connection between his body and soul had been completely connected.
Zen's soul had now completely consumed the last remaining point of Brust's soul.
Those memories were just remnants absorbed by Zen.
Zen couldn't help but feel amazed by Brust.
Although the scene where Brust is bitten by a Zombie is not shown among the pieces of memory he managed to absorb, Brust does not scream or pull away after receiving such a large wound.
He continued to endure the pain and followed his mother in silence so as not to add to the worries of his poor mother and younger brother.
Brust, after all, was just an ordinary boy.
He wasn't a cultivator with over 500 years of life experience like Zen.
Zen would indeed not blink even if a part of his body was blown up, but he was able to endure that level of pain only because he had experienced it repeatedly.
If Zen was just an ordinary Human without such an experience, he would probably cry if he suffered an injury like Brust.
Moreover, Brust realizes that he can't be saved anymore and even decides to commit suicide before he actually becomes a Zombie.
Zen wasn't sure how much time had passed since Brust's death until now, but looking at the condition of the inn as well as the Frincaal town itself now... Perhaps most, or even all of the people have become Zombie.
However, as a tribute to Zen having lived in Brust's body since he came to this world for reasons he couldn't even know, Zen recorded in his brain to find out the whereabouts of Brust and Liam's mother if he had time and had solved the problem of the risk of losing his sanity due to becoming a Zombie.
Even if he could only find the Zombie form of Brust's mother and Laim in the end, he didn't mind. At least he could rest them for good.
Registering this new destination in his life, Zen reached the bottom of this dark sea.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone