The entire atmosphere on the ship changed instantly. The six knights seemed chill, carrying the bodies and tossing them into the waters.
Harley was sitting alone on the helm, observing all this. He stretched his hand towards the bodies, repeating a verse.
"Kneel, and be remembered." Instantly, he felt a flood of essence flow into his body, and he took a deep breath letting it flow through him.
This time, it was so much that he felt overwhelmed by it.
All of a sudden, Harley felt something leave his body, like an energy of some sort. He stretched his hand forward and his eyes widened.
'The liquid shadow is gone?' He squeezed his fists, looking at the body of the captain that was being thrown overboard.
It was now that he knew: the captain was the source of the liquid shadow that he, and all the other pirates used.
'How does he even have liquid shadow? I'll need to ask the knights about it later.' He sighed, feeling a bit sad that he had to lose his only self-defence right now.
He had heard about artifacts having the ability to change forms, or some even having the ability to summon storms, so he was getting frustrated that the Oracle didn't give him any rewards within the trial.
Almost all wardens have artifacts, it would be really exciting to have one.
Harley climbed back onto the ship, sitting down on the ground as he tried to regulate the essence flowing through his entire body.
{You have reached scheme 6. Your body grows stronger.}
Harley sighed, rolling his eyes as he chose to ignore the voice of the Oracle.
Apart from the fact that he now felt he could hold invisibility for more than ten minutes, he also felt that he was way stronger than he was before. He should be able to lift one of those barrels without much struggle anymore, in fact, he felt like it would be easy for him right now.
The sun began to rise soon, making Harley raise his head. He squinted, feeling like it was brighter than what he remembered from the one he knew in his previous world.
He didn't exactly remember how it felt, but he at least knew that it wasn't this bright.
"Hey!"
Harley looked to the side, seeing that the knight was walking towards him.
"I'm curious, how did you pull this off?" Eman asked, squinting his eyes at Harley.
Now that he was out of the cage, his skin seemed radiant. Harley had to stand up to not be mogged by the man's height.
"Well, I guess you can call me stubborn." He began to narrate how he took down the entire ship with his string of connected plans.
Leaving out the part where he used Jin in his final plan, he narrated the entire thing to the knight captain.
Harley felt a bit of pity for Jin. He had a very sincere dream and he had a rough childhood, so Harley could understand wanting to not let others share the same fate.
But alas, Jin, and every other person around him, were just conjured to test him. So he didn't care whether they lived or died.
'If it was the real world, would I do the same thing.' Harley frowned remembering how he quickly stabbed Jin to avoid a clash.
He shook his head, feeling bad for people that may stand in his way in the future.
Alas, it was the kind of world he was thrown into.
"Hm?" Harley raised a brow, seeing Eman with a hand on his chin, thinking hard about the explanation he gave.
Harley was about to walk away when Eman grabbed his wrist, holding him back.
"What?" Harley said with a hint of worry, looking at his wrist.
'He's strong.' His frown deepened. Unconsciously, a cold, silver-like aura seeped from his body.
The captain's hand shook off of Harley and he seemed to have snapped back to reality. He raised his head to see Harley staring at him coldly while backing away.
The other knights had also sensed the chilly aura that spread around the ship and came over
"Calm down, I was just lost in thought." Eman laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.
Harley didn't calm down. This time he stood quite a distance away from the knights.
"It's alright that you don't trust us. We just met a couple of days ago. But I have another question." Eman stood up, his brown eyes gleaming as the sun hit them.
"Were you a master of strategy in your old village? How many wars have you fought?" Eman asked excitedly. It seemed like he was about to jump on his toes at any moment.
"Umm, no?" Harley found the situation a bit weird. He was about to jump if anything arose and now the knight captain was acting as if he was meeting a celebrity.
"I don't mean to startle you." Eman said, adjusting the dirty clothes he wore. "I'm just fascinated by the depth of the plan. Each of your actions had slightly above fifty percent chance of happening."
Eman couldn't help but shake his head. Every step of the plan that Harley made was well thought out and was like a chain reaction with each other. There were what-ifs, but what-ifs were not a factor when life was on the line.
Harley, hearing how the captain spoke about just a simple observation and action he took, raised a brow. He didn't know what to say to the man, but there was something on the tip of his tongue that he wanted to ask, so he raised a hand.
"Can you teach me... how to fight?" He asked, shocking the entire crew.
The woman with blue hair looked surprised, raising a brow. She looked at the captain who also seemed dumbfounded and asked Harley herself:
"You are not a warrior?" The lady was confused.
Harley only laughed mildly.
'I can't tell them that I'm in a more advanced world and that they are all illusions, right?' He thought, but his instincts were telling him that he would regret speaking about it.
...
After the first initial discussion, the entire knights team was shocked by how Harley had no training whatsoever.
Of course they were wrong about that but he left it out. He could handle a hand-to-hand fight well but hands don't cut monsters, or people. And it was certain that he was going to face something horrible with the title of a Godsworn.
[Story trial:
Story theme: -Unknown-
Story rank: -Unknown-
Objective: Hunt and kill the Godsworn
Trial completion chances: -1%
Your current chances of survival: -1%
Time remaining: 10 days, 12 hours
Previous challengers: 8
Survivors: 0]
Harley stared at the piece of magical brown paper floating in front of him. He let out a sigh, dismissing it with a swat of his hand.
'My chances went down by one percent.' He thought, looking around the ship.
The last time he checked, his chances of survival were zero percent. Now it went down to -1 and it didn't make him relax at all.
'I escaped dying on this ship and my chances of survival decreased even more. Is there something waiting for me... that is worse than dying on this ship?' He couldn't help but think, looking into the distant waters.
Of course, he could have stepped into his overthinking mode where he calculated everything from every angle. It could just be that the Godsworn grew stronger... which is also bad.
The masts creaked as the winds blew the sails forward. Actually, he was barely feeling any wind so he wondered if the ship had a magical mechanism of some sort.
"Hey, Harleyquin!" Eman's voice sounded behind him and he turned around.
The rest of the team were on another side of the ship, towards the rear, while Harley had been collecting his thoughts in the front, staring directly at where they were going.
"No one calls my name in full like that." Harley chuckled, looking back towards the sea.
Eman stood beside him, once again oppressing Harley with his height. As if that was not enough, he also proceeded to talk first.
"You know, for someone with your kind of mind, aren't you scared?" Eman asked, staring directly at Harley.
Harley shook his head, letting out a big breath.
"I am scared of your strength. But I'm way too weak to even pose a threat to any of you, haha." He shook his head with a laugh. "I saw you dodge a single water droplet that splashed from behind you. I would be very stupid to not want to get on your good side."
"Hahahahaha..." Eman burst out in laughter, patting Harley's back hard, nearly making him trip.
"Hehe, as expected, you've thought it through." Then Eman's voice dropped to a whisper. "Amazing."
"I have an offer I think you would be interested in." Eman spoke, suddenly standing and facing Harley with a proud smile.
The smile seemed to make his handsome features even more striking, but Harley only replied in a tired tone:
"What offer?"
"A chance to start again. Our kingdom has been overthrown. With your help, along with other strategists, we could mount a siege and take back the kingdom. We won't ever tell anyone that you're a jester." The knight spoke solemnly, putting a hand on his chest for the final promise.
Harley kept quiet, walking forward and resting his arm on the rail.
He could see the pointy edge of the ship from here along with the deep waves the entire structure brought.
"You can think about it while I give you the first lesson on wielding a weapon. Come on." Eman gestured, walking towards the main deck.