"So, why on earth did you think you could sail into the Endless Sea with a broken-down sailboat, ahhh!!" Dark Seele yelled frantically while desperately patching the boat to prevent water from flooding in.
"How was I supposed to know the creatures in the sea would get so fierce as soon as we left the waters around Jialan City!"
Ryn also shouted back in a panic. With his left hand, he swung a harpoon wildly to fend off attacking sea creatures, while his right hand, holding a propeller, moved so fast it became a blur, giving the small sailboat immense power to speed through the sea.
Seele loved the sea and was full of curiosity about it. Ryn wanted to be the King of the Pirates, fulfilling a childhood fantasy. The two of them hit it off and set sail on an adventure.
The only vessel for a new explorer was a meager and small sailboat, but it was more than enough to accommodate Ryn and Seele.
The two didn't think much of it when they set off, charging straight out of the Jialan sea region and into the Endless Sea.
But neither of them understood why the guild only gave newcomers small sailboats... it was because the guild was afraid that new explorers, being greenhorns, would rush out of the Jialan sea region and into the Endless Sea.
Evidently, their fears were realized. Ryn and Seele were the very greenhorns they spoke of.
Under Ryn's high-speed paddling, the oar finally couldn't take it anymore and broke into pieces.
Ryn, holding the remaining half of the oar, turned to look at Seele, who had turned back into White Seele.
"Seele, make a choice. Do we want the fish, or our lives..."
"Whether it's these fish I've never seen before, or this ship named after us, the Ryn-Seele... I don't want to give up either... but if I can only choose one..."
Seele looked at the boat full of unfamiliar fish and the tattered sailboat. After a long hesitation, she finally stammered:
"How about we let the Ryn-Seele hold on a little longer, and then go catch a super big fish in the Endless Sea to be our mount?"
"......"
Ryn blinked with some suspicion, wondering if Dark Seele had secretly taken over without him noticing...
"Seele, are you sure you said to go catch a mount, and not to turn back immediately?"
"Mhm... I'm sure! My other self's chains are very useful. Every time we encountered a sea region, we would just catch a few fish as mounts to carry us away!"
"Alright, since Seele has spoken. Let's go big!"
Ryn grabbed a large fish from the boat that looked like a whale but was only about two meters long.
"Seele, catching fish is just a casual pastime for ordinary people. But making a fish your mount, now that's a science! Watch closely! I'll show you how an extraordinary person catches fish!"
"Mm... I'm watching!" Seele looked at Ryn with anticipation, wanting to see how he would use one fish to catch another, bigger fish.
But Seele didn't quite catch that Ryn said an *extraordinary* person... not an ordinary one.
Ryn slapped the restless, flopping fish into submission, then plunged his hand straight through its body, his palm sinking into its flesh.
The next moment, a green light emanated from Ryn's hand. The power of Creation surged from his hand into the fish, transforming it.
Three minutes later, Ryn picked up the constantly twitching fish and threw it out. It landed on the sea surface a few hundred meters away.
*BOOM—*
The sea surface instantly erupted with a huge roar, creating waves tens of meters high.
A massive, seventy-meter-long narwhal with a single horn leaped out of the sea, tracing a beautiful azure arc in the sky.
The narwhal's body was incredibly smooth, without the wrinkled skin of typical giant creatures. Instead, its body was covered in many shimmering purple Honkai energy circuits, like beautiful phosphorescent scales that flickered with each of the narwhal's breaths.
The seawater it carried scattered into the air, turning into mist. Sunlight passed through it, creating a beautiful rainbow.
Ryn shook his hand, turning his back to the sea with a profound and lonely expression.
"There are too many people in this world who can't catch fish, to the point that few have ever seen a truly massive one.
So, being a kind person, I never fish. I am merely a creator of big fish."
"Ah... this..."
Seele's two big eyes widened in astonishment. Before, she had been shocked when Dark Seele would just toss her chains into the sea and pull back a bunch of big fish.
Now, Ryn had turned a large fish into a super-massive fish out of thin air, which nearly shattered Seele's worldview all over again.
Ryn scooped up Seele by the waist and, with a light step, landed on the narwhal's back.
Then the narwhal opened its black-hole-like, dark and deep mouth, and swallowed the Ryn-Seele, storing it away.
Although it was just an ordinary sailboat, its name, the Ryn-Seele, held enough commemorative meaning to be worth saving for Ryn.
Of course, it had nothing to do with needing to present the ship upon returning to Jialan City. If the people of Jialan City found out that even the starter ship had been wrecked by Ryn and Seele, they would probably have their adventurer qualifications revoked.
Seele landed gently on the narwhal, carefully treading on its skin. Seele had never seen a whale before, let alone a narwhal created like this.
She took each step with great care, as if the narwhal beneath her feet was not a mobile natural disaster, but a fragile work of art.
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As Ryn and Seele happily sailed freely on the great sea, riding the narwhal, they didn't notice that they had already entered the observation range of a pirate ship...
On a massive wooden pirate ship, the pirate captain, wearing a pirate hat several sizes too big for her head and a small, delicate eyepatch, was listening to a subordinate rush over to report.
"Report, an unknown giant creature has been spotted ahead. Should we evade or prepare for capture?"
The pirate captain tore off her eyepatch and tossed it aside. She waved her small hand lightly, fanning herself to cool down.
Finally, seeming unable to alleviate the heat by using her hand as a fan, the captain took off her hat and threw it aside as well.
Freed from the hat's restraint, her naturally curly white hair cascaded down her shoulders. The young captain skillfully tied her hair into two large, spiral-shaped pigtails.
Then, she turned to look at her close friend and subordinate, the purple-haired girl, Houraiji Kyuusyou.
The pirate girl, Kiana, spread her hands and said to Houraiji Kyuusyou with a listless expression:
"Alright, Ryn, no need to be so serious. Let's just rest for a bit! This inner world is so boring. I don't know when we'll be able to go back. I'm already sick of this King of the Pirates game."