Chapter 117: The Cold, Wretched Rock


    ?


    Ssh!


    From the dark sea, Digby emerged with a dead body in his arms.


    Hended on the deck of the badly damaged ship and dropped Ame''s lifeless body to the deck.


    "Guild master!"


    After seeing their guild master return victorious, they smiled and cheered.


    Lucette and Valora looked at Ame''s lifeless body with hateful gazes. It brought them littlefort knowing that she was finally dead, as they lost a way more valuable member to her.


    "Digby." Zahn heartilyughed. "You killed a Royal Princess!"


    "Lucky," Digby said. "Her emotions were not in the right ce. Her focus was elsewhere. In other circumstances, I might be the one dead on the deck."


    ''That''s what he says, but Digby''s strength is extremely close to that of the Royal Prince.'' Valora thought. ''Sadly, when he goes to do a promotion test, he never performs to his full potential because of his performance anxiety and fear of failure that hold him back.''


    "What will we do now?" Zahn asked. "Our losses are..."


    "I know..." Digby sighed. "We still have to go to the Gathering. We''ll have a word with the council and find out her identity."


    "With such strength, she cannot be some nobody." Lucette said. "She might be guild master of tier 1 guild."


    "If she is, we might be facing war." Digby said. "Let''s talk with the council first. She attacked us first, after all."


    "Will they believe us?"


    "Depends." Digby then turned to the helmsman of the group. "Can this shipst till we arrive at Kuro Ind?"


    "Barely, yes, if we don''t encounter any sea creatures." The helmsman said. "We''ll have to pay for repairs there."


    "Alright, set a course for Kuro Ind."


    As everyone else began examining the damage to the ship, Digby returned to his quarters, took a seat behind his desk, and brought out a bottle of rum.


    He took a long sip, then poured some into a ss cup, and then brought out two different sks-the sk of the Rising Moon and the sk of the Setting Sun.


    He poured both into the same ss cup, then mixed the three drinks together and took a deep breath before downing it all in one go.


    The gaping hole in his waist seemed to close up, the flesh beginning to knit back together as the magical elixir worked its healing powers.


    From the stump of his separated leg, buds of new skin started to grow, slowly but surely regenerating the missing limb.


    "Damn it..." Digby cursed under his breath and pushed the desk away in frustration.


    The desk collided with the door, and the loud bang echoed through the room.


    "Hahahaha..." His low-soundingughter echoed across the room.


    During the past few years, he has felt immense helplessness. He could feel himself reaching his limit and knew that there were only a few years left before he reached it.


    He wanted a sessor. Crimson Hounds needed a sessor.


    Finally, his wishes came true in the best way possible.


    His guild acquired an S-rank.


    It was ridiculous how quickly everything changed.


    He didn''t think, even in his wildest dreams, that S-ranker would want to join his humble Tier 2 guild. Yet someone did.


    "I didn''t deserve it." Digby thought out loud and drank more of the rum. "I finally woke up from the dream, huh? My strength is feeble-if only I could reach the Royal Prince..."


    The next promotion test was in a month''s time. It was perhaps hisst chance.


    The Gathering was thest chance for him to grow in strength.


    Digby opened his system and looked at how much he needed to level up. It was too much. He just finished killing the Royal Princess, which gave him some experience, but there was still a long way to go.


    After all, the leveling up system changes once one reaches Royal Mercenary rank.


    It wasn''t a matter of experience points anymore.


    It was a percentage system.


    One had to reach 100 percent to level up to the next level. It didn''t increase based on how many Chaosbeings one killed, but rather how strong one was.


    It all mattered—weightlifting to increase strength, running to increase agility, bing a better swordsman, etc.


    Learning the Three Powers was the fastest way to gain experience percentage.


    After Digby killed Ame, he did, in fact, acquire a few percentages for killing her. During the fight, he became stronger.


    Digby had been stuck in Level 30 for five years already. The percentage moved at such a slow


    pace.


    He was currently stuck at 81%, a two percent increase after killing Ame-his biggest increase in percentage in a very long time.


    Thatst twenty percent seemed impossible to reach.


    It would probably take him another three to four years, but unfortunately, he didn''t have that


    much time.


    "If only..." Digby shook his head and rumbled in drunken incoherence.


    He then put the ss cup down and took something out of his inventory. It was the


    Transformation Magick Scroll of the Great Shark!


    ''My Magick strength is not the best, but I would still be able to learn this. The creature might


    not be as strong as Ame''s, but it doesn''t hurt to have another trump card in store...''


    He opened the scroll, and a beam of light entered his head through the forehead.


    He received instructions to learn the Transformation Magick skill.


    ...


    Somewhere in the Blind Sea.


    The wind howled like a banshee and made the falling rain feel like icy daggers as they pelted against Adam''s skin.


    He was sitting on the rock, shivering in his soaked clothes, while the endless sea surrounded


    him.


    Half of the rock was submerged, and he was barely sitting on the dry edge.


    It was cold, freezing cold.


    "S-shit..." Adam''s voice trembled.


    He couldn''t just log off and return to thefort of his warm home.


    If he wasn''t logged in and the ship happened to pass by, he would miss the chance to be


    rescued.


    During the Gathering, the Pirate Graveyard received the most ships during that time.


    Without the Gathering, this treacherous part of the sea might stay empty for several months!


    Thus, if Adam missed his chance to be rescued, he might not be able to leave this wretched


    rock for a very long time!


    However, he had a bad feeling that he might not be found.


    The waves might''ve brought him somewhere further from the known shippingnes that led


    to Kuro Ind.


    At this point, he didn''t care whether some pirate crews discovered him. It would still be better


    than being stuck on this rock!


    --


    The cold and stormy night passed.


    Near the fog-shrouded Kuro Ind, a crimson-sailed ship sailed through the mist and


    approached the harbor of the ind.


    It was clear to every onlooker that the ship was not in top condition. It had holes, barely patched by a weak sailcloth, and there was a smell of decay that seemed to emanate from the


    vessel.


    At the harbor, many eyes turned to the crimson-sailed ship. They knew it was the ship of famous Crimson Hounds-a guild that was rather unknown before with only some fame in


    Dawnwatch.


    Now, it was as famous as the top guilds in Imperium City-after all, it was a guild that had a


    rare S-ranker, Adam Palestar!


    On the dock of the harbor, an old man clutched his cane while watching as the damaged ship


    slowly docked at the port.


    The old man''s eyes looked worn out.


    "Something happened..."