*PA*
A translucent silver barrier appeared in front of Angele. Suddenly, the water beam split into seemingly countless jets of water before hitting the barrier.
The water jets were too fast. Angele's barrier failed to block all of them, thus resulting to his chest becoming soaked.
Most of the water dropped to the ground after the silver barrier vanished into the air. Angele patted the water stain on his chest. He was really interested in the fish.
"Hey, can you put it in a tank for me?" he asked a sailor standing beside him. The sailor was still in a shocked state from witnessing Angele's silver barrier.
Inside Angele's cabin, he stood beside a tall wooden table and stared at the water tank. At the bottom of the tank, there was a Red Sphere Fish the size of a fish blowing bubbles as it breathed, seemingly relaxed.
He observed the fish's behavior for a while before sitting down by the table. Angele grabbed a white feather pen and wrote down a title on a new paper.
'The Possibility of Simulating Ranged Splitting Without Forcefield'
The chip had already finished enhancing the Lesser Fireball and Angele asked Zero to help him construct detailed plans on how to maximize the power of Metal Mastery. He had saved the other task slot for easier analysis tasks.
Angele needed to figure out why this fish's water beam could split halfway in the air. If he could apply the results to his metal forcefield, his fighting ability would be greatly increased.
Furthermore, he also needed to modify the Lesser Fireball using the Wizards' method later. There were far too many things left for him to do, so he did not feel bored on the ship at all.
He stayed in his cabin the whole afternoon and kept forcing the fish to use water beam. He recorded all the valuable information he had acquired on the paper.
One of the books Angele found in the library had the explanations of the principle of forces in this world. He combined it with the knowledge he learned on Earth and finally discovered the core physics of this water beam.
It was a chain reaction. The 'water' inside the fish was not simply water but a special liquid that would explode after leaving the fish's body.
It took Angele three days to figure out how to administer the findings to his spell enhancement procedure.
Velvet visited Angele several times after the rumor spread out. Angele's potion had increased her mentality greatly, so she wanted to show her appreciation. She knew that Angele did not stop the rumor from circulating because Angele wanted to protect her. Velvet checked many times, but she had finally realized that Angele wanted nothing in return.
She felt grateful that Angele helped her simply because she was an old friend.
Time flew.
The Future vessel finally arrived at the next dock ten days later.
Luc Lando, Nancy, and several other Wizard apprentices had disembarked here. There were barely any people around. The stones almost covered the beach, and Angele could only see a huge gray mountain beside the forest. There was also a simple wooden bridge at the dock.
The brown wooden bridge was supported by four rotten stakes that looked like they would break down at any time. The sky was covered by thick gray clouds and the wind was howling.
There were two people standing on the bridge, both wearing white noble clothing. The two looked like a young couple as the lady was resting her head on the young man's shoulder.
They boarded the ship and bowed to the two Wizards before walking down the stairs. Angele was not sure who they were, but people who boarded the ship had relations to Wizards. No one else boarded the ship apart from the young couple. The ship left the dock right away.
Angele stood on the deck and looked at the disappearing coastline.
"Are we heading to the open sea?" he asked the bald sailor behind him. It was a man with a thick beard and smoking a cigar.
"Yes, master. The next dock is on the other side of the sea." The man smiled. Those sailors were hired by the Wizard organizations, and they knew who they were working for.
"How long till the next stop approximately?"
"We're sailing against the wind and it is winter, so we need to be extremely cautious. We can get into trouble easily during this time. It'll take us about two months to reach the next stop," the bald man answered.
"Two months?" Angele's eyebrows furrowed.
"And what trouble?"
"Sick Sawtooth Fishes, forbidden area of Merfolk, mymarids, and areas with strong waves in the winter. Without an experienced navigator, no one would sail during this season." The man was proud of what he could do.
"Ah, so you're our navigator?" Angele asked curiously.
"Aye," the sailor laughed.
"Carthage Memnon is my name, Master Wizard." He held the wheel tight with the right hand and put his left hand over his heart to show respect.
"I'm counting on you, sir." Angele smiled.
"The best navigator from Dock Seahawk, at your service." Carthage looked relaxed. Angele knew the man was a noble after seeing the suit the man wore.
"We call it the cursed season. I think only a few navigators from the eastern lands have the guts to sail in the Gem Sea."
"Gem Sea, that's the name of the area between the two lands?"
"Yes, the name was found on the chart. This area is as beautiful and as shiny as a perfect sapphire gemstone."
Angele nodded.
"Wait, can you see those strange creatures coming towards us from the sky?" He pointed at the left side of Carthage.
Carthage turned his head around immediately and his expression changed.
"Harpies! Damn, I thought they wouldn't approach the Future since it's not an ordinary ship." Carthage waved his hands while yelling.
"Ready to fight, my brothers! It's the harpies. They're trying to raid us, protect the Future at all cost!"
"Harpies? How dare them! I killed three the last time!" a muscular man shouted.
"Grab your weapons and shields! Stop wasting time!"
"Don't get hit by their stones!"
The deck became busy as everyone prepared for battle.
The sailors grabbed spears and knives and equipped themselves with black iron helmets and arm shields. They looked like a well-trained army.
The Wizard apprentices stood beside the stairs but were just watching. Velvet was there too.
Angele and Tymoral stayed beside the railing. They raised their heads and looked at the sky. The sailors stayed away from them because they did not want to get caught in area spells.
Those Harpies looked like a bunch of black dots in the sky. Angele finally had a clear view of the creature as they approached the Future.
The creature had the wings and feet of an eagle, head of a maiden, and body of a bird. It was half-naked and its bottom was covered with gray feathers. Their wings were dark, and they were flying toward the Future at full speed.
Those Harpies had ugly faces. Angele saw two strange yellow claws on the tip of the wings. Their breasts were exposed to the air.
*GA GA*
The noise they made was loud and weird.
Angele could see them holding gray stones the size of a head in their claws.
"Take cover!" a man who seemed to be the leader of the sailors yelled. All the sailors raised their shields above their head to block the oncoming stones.
The Harpies arrived. They lined up and quickly dropped the stones onto the deck.
*BAM*
The first stone was blocked by a sailor and it broke into pieces.
The second, the third, and most of the stones were blocked by the sailors without any problem. Several people were hurt by the cracked stone pieces, but no one was hit directly.
Angele raised his head and looked at the sky. The Harpies were still hovering in the sky after they finished dropping the stones.
"Harpies shares a part of the ancient blood. Sadly, they're weaker than mortals now." Tymoral looked at Angele and smiled.
"They're dumb and they don't have a language. They're just beasts living in groups. Filthy creatures that only know how to rob ships around the coastlines," Tymoral continued.
"They're weak." Angele nodded.
Suddenly, a stone was dropped onto his head.
*BOOM*
A silver metal barrier appeared above Angele and blocked the attack. The stone bounced into the sea after the collision.
"They don't even know who they are attacking. Sad indeed. I thought beasts like them would choose to run when they know that their opponent was strong." Angele shook his head.
"I know the Harpy is an ancient species. They kidnap human male adults to help them reproduce, and the man will be eaten after they are satisfied. Each Harpy tribe has a queen, which has white feathers as the symbol. I read about them in a book, but I'm not sure if the information is still up-to-date."
"You know them quite well, impressive." Tymoral looked a bit surprised.
"I'm not familiar with their habitat. It's not important to me. However, I do want their blood. Many Wizards have tried to find out the secret of the ancient races, yet most of them failed and a lot of rare resources were wasted. I still think there is hope."
"Interesting." Angele blinked his eyes.
"Maybe I'll catch one for my future research."
"Haha, shall we see who can slay those Harpies faster? What do you think?" Tymoral chuckled and shrugged.
"For sure." Angele raised his hands.