God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Steve walked up to him, his eyes tracing a line from the ships sails to the deck.

He glanced at Cain,

"Are you doing it now?"

Cain paused for a moment, then shook his head,

"I'll wait a bit. Get my affairs in order."

Steve smiled light then nodded his head,

"I thought you'd say that. Then..._

He turned around and addressed the others behind him,

"Alright. Our successful mission comes to an end, and with that, we have gotten to the most fun part of mutant creature hunting..."

He grinned as he spoke the next part,

"Sharing the loot!"

They had acquired quite the number of mana shards in the Cove of Darkness. They had acquired even more materials that could be used in crafting or alchemy, and many other things.

However, what most would have their eyes on, were the mana shards.

Cain shook his head,

"I have no need for them. You all should split it."

He paused for a moment, then added,

"Instead, I'll need the scales, bones and hides we harvested from the corpses."

Steve hummed, then nodded,

"Alright. I'll have someone send it to you."

***

Leaving the others to split the loot amongst themselves, Cain ignored the fervent gazes of those aboard the ship and returned to his cabin.

He lay gently onto his bed, his mind filled with flashbacks of the events of the past day.

The ordeal had been fraught with danger and mortal peril, but despite that, he had come out with his head on his shoulders.

He had also managed to net more than a few rewards as well.

'A job well done if I do say so myself...'

He chuckled to himself.

Then he frowned.

Now that he had achieved Level 199, it was time to take on the {Trial of the Second Order}.

He was both excited and anxious.

Would he be the first one to take on the trial? Would he be the only one?

Would t be similar to the first trial, or would it be something else entirely?

He had no idea...

For now, one thing he did know, was that he had to get some rest.

He didn't want to admit it, but the dive into the Cove of Darkness had taken a lot from him.

It had also revealed a lot to him in return.

One thing was for certain though; he was drained...

Mentally, physically, and spiritually...

And so, his eyes fluttered and the exhaustion began to kick in.

Before he knew it, he sank into darkness, engilfed in the cool embrace of slumber.

***

With a satisfied smirk, Li stored his share of the mana shards into his inventory and stretched.

He turned to stare at Stan who had a contemplative look on his face. Rolling his eyes, he turned to Sue who seemed a bit dissatisfied as she counted her share of the mana shards for the fifth time.

He rolled his eyes, "If you aren't satisfied, you should go beat him up, right?"

Sue glared at him, then snorted,

"What do you take me for?"

Then she sighed,

"I can't complain. It was shared equally. However, this is nowhere enough for what I need."

Li raised a brow, "Aren't you planning to feed it to your sand abomination?"

Sue nodded, her face a bit dark,

"Yeah. But he still needs at least ten times this amount to evolve to his next stage, {Dust Devil King}."

Then he glared at him, "You wouldn't understand. All you do is blow all your mana shards on worthless things like women."

"In my defense, game is difficult to execute these days where your life is constantly in danger. In these trying times, only money speaks." Li said with a wretched grin.

Sue gave her brother a look of disgust before letting out another sigh and throwing the mana shards into her inventory.

"In the end, that's just one day's worth of work."

She paused for a moment and glanced at Stan who still seemed to have a lot on his mind.

She frowned, "You, musclehead..."

Stan glanced up, a look of surprise in his face,

"Me?"

Li glared at her, "Have some respect. Don't talk to him like that!"

Ignoring her brother, Sue stood in front of Stan, both hands on her hips,

"What's on your mind? Spill it..."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Li frowned, and just as he was about to say something, Stan answered,

"Well, I was just thinking, since today was so productive, why don't we keep doing this? That way, not only do we earn a boatload of mana shards, we'll also slowly buy surely begin mapping out the path to the City."

Then he chuckled nervously,

"But then, there are a lot of problems to consider, which makes me feel stupid for even considering it."

Li paused and stared at Stan with wide eyes,

"Stan, you..."

Sue grinned, "You know, you can be smart when it counts."

Stan blushed and scratched his head with a nervous chuckle.

Sue turned to Li,

"That's exactly what I had in mind as well. However, I also acknowledge there are a few problems with that plan, chief amongst them being..."

"Manpower, right?"

Sue turned towards the direction of the voice, a bit startled.

Old Man Ling chuckled,

"You young brats thought I'd already kicked the bucket, didn't you?"

Maya stood with one hand on her hip and a magic staff in her hand.

"I am pleased to announce to you that we haven't been idle at all since we last met. We also have become more..."

When her eyes met Stan's however, the layers of confidence around her withered like a flower hidden from the sun and her face turned bright red.

Seeing this, Old Man Ling sighed and shook his head.

Sue ignored her and stared sharply at the old man,

"I believe you, all of you, should still be in Valestorm."

The old man smiled,

"Yeah, we were. Then we grew tired."

The people behind him seemed to share the same sentiment. Discover more stories at empire

The old man's smile turned a bit grim,

"We weren't able to do much when it mattered."

He turned to Maya, "And we just so happened to have caught wind of what happened today."

Li raised a brow, "News sure does travel fast."

"You have no idea." Old Man Long said.

Then he shook his head,

"You need men. We can be your men. Although we aren't as powerful as you are, we can grow. We won't stay the same."

He placed a hand on his chest, and the surrounding moisture in the air began to crystalize. This was the blessing Levron, the Celestial ruler of the South Cosmic Sea, had given to him.

Before the old world ended, he had been a regular old man on his way to his death bed.

He had lived an unfulfilling, hedonistic life like many others, and when the Devils descended, he had thought his time to die had finally come.

Fortunately, he hadn't died.

Instead, against all odds, he had survived, and he had become stronger than ever.

As a sixty year old man, he used to have greying hair and the years had already taken its toll on his posture.

However, as time went on, after he accepted the blessings of that Divine begin, and continued to absorb the mana shards he could get his hands on, his power had slowly grown, and his vitality returned.

Now, he looked like he was barely fourth, and stood as straight as an arrow.

He had found a second chance at life.

His story was not unique at all. There were many others like him in this ship, and perhaps in other parts of the world.

To have lived, wallowing in the murky depths of life, they felt more dead than anything else.

Now, they were given a second chance.

Who wouldn't want to take it?

Sue stared deeply at the old man and all the people that had accompanied him.

They were the people she had protected some time ago on that shore from the sand worms.

They were different now.

The shadow of despair and fear in their eyes was still there.

But there was something else. A vicious torrent that held the shadow back. A restless spirit that didn't want to be inhibited by the fear.

It was amusing and inspiring.

She snorted, "Hmm... With your abilities, you'll barely be enough as fodder "

Then she turned to Stan who smiled and nodded. Then she turned back to them, sporting a grin of her own,

"But we should be able to make it work..."

She stepped forward and extended a hand to the old man.

With a smile, the old man took it and shook firmly.

Watching all this from the side, Li couldn't help but shake his head with worry,

"Somehow, I feel this will just lead to more work..."

As someone that preferred a life of leisure to one fraught with peril, this was bad news for him.

"Ah!"

He was startled by Stan wrapping his arm around his neck with a grin,

"Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Li paused.

They had definitely gone through a lot of horrible stuff to get here.

But was it fun?

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

'I guess so...'

Sue turned around and gestured at them,

"Preparations are in order... Let us head to Valestorm."