The intent behind Siegbert's words aside, Gaston turned his head once more.
The other man on the table that had not yet revealed his opinion on the matter, was Nicolaus Jung.
Amongst the people here, Nicolaus was the only one here that Gaston had met prior to arriving at the ship.
Albeit they only met once, and it didn't develop into a friendship, it did happen quite recently.
Nicolaus was a hunter by trade, having retired long ago from the Royal Court, citing reasons such as boredom as the main factor behind his departure, which caused quite the controversy at the time.
Since then, he has spent the last two decades hunting powerful creatures all over the Empire.
It could even be said that the Empire had solely him to thank for the lack of beast tides that it had to deal with ever since he had dedicated himself to hunting.
A few years ago, Gaston had met Nicolaus whilst he was out hunting himself, and after realizing that the two of them were looking for the same prey but for different reasons, they decided to work together.
It was a very pleasant cooperation, even if it didn't last very long.
Before he could ask him for his thoughts on the matter however, a heavily bandaged Hasso was seen climbing down the stairs, shouting something at the top of his lungs.
As cultivators, their hearing was sharp enough to hear a pin drop from across the room, much less a man shouting with all his might.
Once they heard what he said however, they all forgot what they were talking about.
Their faces lit up, as they all rushed up the stairs.
...
In the blink of an eye, Gaston found himself off the ship, and in what seemed like a forest.
To his surprise however, he wasn't back awake, but in another memory!
'It looks like Hasso is one lucky boy. If we hadn't discovered land at that time, I'm not sure that my past self wouldn't have agreed to make dinner out of him.'
And seeing who he was all with, he couldn't help but think to himself.
How much time had passed in between memories he wasn't sure, but Hasso looked to have been completely healed from his injuries.
'I doubt enough time has passed for him to recover like this naturally. This has to be connected to cultivation energy!'
As someone who was dealing with a severe injury as well, Gaston was happy to find out that even someone with Hasso's injuries could make a complete recovery.
In comparison to him, his arm injury was just a scratch, and one he was now looking forward to recovering from way sooner than he had expected.
In the meantime, the memory continued on without waiting for him to focus on it.
Gaston, Nicolaus and Ruben were leading the way through the forest, while Hasso and Siegbert were following, not too far behind.
The reason for this was because Hasso and Siegbert were the only two people without a shield.
Hasso primarily wielded a spear, while Siegbert was most famous for his two-handed axe.
Nicolaus, Ruben and Gaston on the other hand, were all at least familiar with using a shield, even if it wasn't always their preferred choice.
Ruben for example, grew up raised as an assassin, meaning that he often only carried a short sword at most on his person.
The only reason he ever learned how to fight with a shortsword and shield, was because he wanted to fit in and be able to fight like most soldiers.
While Nicolaus was primarily a javelin thrower, only using the shield when he deemed it fitting for specific prey.
Interestingly enough, in such scenarios, he didn't opt to pair his shield with a spear, but an axe instead.
A far less appropriate weapon when it came to hunting one would assume, but who was Gaston to doubt the man?
Looking at how in-sync all five of them were while they were moving, Gaston assumed that this was far from their first time moving like this.
"The woods have been quiet for far too long for my liking. Be on alert."
Gaston saw his past self give a reminder to the others, behaving as if he was the leader.
This didn't come as a shock however, as Gaston was the strongest cultivator here, so it was only fitting.
What did come as quite the surprise, was the manner in which he communicated with the rest of his men.
Throughout the whole process, Gaston's lips barely moved and sounds were definitely not audible in the slightest.
He saw his past self guide his cultivation energy in a certain way within his body, which then got released outside of his body, and diverged into four different directions.
The small traces of energy which contained whatever information he wanted to convey, came to his targets maybe even faster than if he had spoken out loud.
In this way, a completely silent way of communicating was established.
A problem he saw with this however, was that one, his teammates never replied in this same way, which he assumed was because they weren't Qi Refining Stage cultivators, and were thus incapable of using the same method.
And second, that these little streams of energy that protected the information and carried it to its destination, looked far too fragile.
He wasn't sure what methods other cultivators had, and how a fight between cultivators even looked like, but his common sense told him that this way of communicating was far from perfect.
Regardless, all methods had their uses, and for now, this one was either the one he had chosen, or the only one he knew.
Ruben and Nicolaus went on full alert when they heard the information, displaying a very high degree of trust in Gaston's words.
Even Hasso and Siegbert, who were trailing a bit behind them had also become more wary of their surroundings.
"Whoosh!"
Apparently however, not wary enough, as a spear shot straight towards Gaston from behind him, where Hasso and Siegbert were supposed to be.