After spending a night in Sisda Town, the group packed up their belongings at dawn and headed towards Narcisse Bay.
The eight mercenaries rode ahead on horseback, while Luo Wei and Troy flew to the bay on their griffin, arriving half an hour before the others.
By midday, the winding coastline of Narcisse Bay was covered in snow and ice. The shallow waters to the north were frozen solid, making it impossible to distinguish between land and sea. Only the deep waters remained exposed, making the deep blue bay look like a sapphire embedded in a silver vessel.
Narcisse Bay was an ice-free port with a thriving fishing industry.
Troy purchased two small fishing boats at the dock, while Cleveland simultaneously negotiated with a captain to sail them near the Demon Sea.
The Demon Island was located over 300 kilometers from the coastline, with the surrounding 10-kilometer waters known as the Demon Sea. Legend had it that the waters there would bubble as if boiling, and demons in the sea would devour passing ships.
While fishermen dared not approach the area, adventurers and mercenaries often rented their boats to sail near it before rowing to the island themselves.
Troy and Cleveland tied the two small boats to the sailboat, and the group boarded, waiting for the sailors to set sail.
It was a long vessel with pointed bow and stern, featuring a single mast in the middle. At about 20 meters in length, it somewhat resembled an early Viking square-rigged ship.
Though this was the finest vessel in Narcisse Bay, its maximum sailing speed was only 12 kilometers per hour.
At such a slow pace, it would take three days and nights just to reach the outer edges of the Demon Sea.
Luo Wei had considered having the griffin transport them, but the creature would be too conspicuous, and exposing it to these unfamiliar mercenaries seemed unwise. Thus, she ultimately chose to travel by ship.
This was also the plan the mercenaries had discussed yesterday.
As for the speed disadvantage, there were ways to compensate for it.
Luo Wei took out a box of metal pieces and asked Troy and the mercenaries to engrave speed-enhancing magic runes on them, which would be placed around the sailboat to increase its speed.
The swordsmen's intellectual capabilities were truly lacking - the eight mercenaries only managed to create five runes in total, with half of them claiming they couldn't draw any. Samuel, the youngest mercenary, alone drew three.
Troy performed slightly better, but not by much - a magic swordsman only managing to successfully draw twenty runes.
"You're a magic swordsman, and your magical power only amounts to twenty runes?" Luo Wei asked incredulously.
Troy's reaction was even more disbelieving: "This is twenty runes! Do you know how difficult it is to draw twenty runes in one day?"
"Difficult?" Luo Wei laughed in exasperation. "I learned runes less than two months ago and can draw twenty in a day, and you're telling me it's difficult?"
Troy stood with his mouth agape, eyes wide as if struck by lightning.
Luo Wei frowned and turned around, only to find all eight mercenaries staring with eyes so wide they looked ready to pop out of their heads.
"What are you all looking at?" she turned back to ask Troy.
Troy struggled to speak: "We're looking at a once-in-a-century rune genius."
"?" Luo Wei asked puzzled, "Where's this genius?"
Troy: "You. Drawing twenty runes a day."
Luo Wei was stunned, finally saying: "If drawing twenty runes a day makes someone a genius, isn't that setting the bar a bit too low?"
"Hiss~" The mercenaries drew in sharp breaths.
What an arrogant statement!
Not considering twenty runes a day genius-level - who had instilled such ridiculous standards in her!
Troy felt like he'd taken a critical hit.
Seeing Luo Wei's serious expression, he finally realized she wasn't joking, which made him feel even more complex about the situation.
He had long known she wasn't an ordinary human and lacked common sense about this world, but hearing her casually dismiss drawing twenty runes a day as nothing special still left him dumbfounded.
"Actually, we normal people aren't that... extreme," Troy said diplomatically.
Luo Wei's mouth twitched. Him? Normal?
How could someone with such overpowered abilities say something like that with a straight face?
"Under normal circumstances, a magic apprentice who can successfully draw one rune a day is considered above average talent. A rune master can draw about ten a day, and only rune array masters can draw more than twenty runes per day," Troy explained.
"Runes are different from spells. Rune talent also depends on the power of one's spiritual world - magical power alone isn't enough to draw them."
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