Volume 21 : Chapter 06 : The Miracle of Life Bestowal

Translated and edited by AsianOtakuGuy and Jzar

Having gone back to the underground dungeon of Jigolaths, Weed spent his time carving sculptures. Weed knew he would need more than just his army of undead to defeat the tough enemies he currently had to overcome.

“I have to use the sculptures. Using the power and strength of sculptures, I think I see a way to escape this situation.”

Since learning Nature Sculpting, all of his raw materials looked different to his eye. On the surface of the material and within the core, the material was alive with vibrant and pulsating mana. The look and texture of the mana also had a lot of variety to it. The difficulty of sculpting climbed dramatically with the need to create a sculpture without damaging these dancing forms of mana contained throughout the material.

The act of striking, beating or cutting the ore with a tool can damage ore, even though it’s very hard. When the ore was. .h.i.t or struck the resulting shock wave traveled all the way to the core.

“Smoothly and accurately.”

*Ting!*

==================================

Sculpture Completed !

Does not effect of the artistic value of the sculpture,

durability has risen significantly.

-For the contribution to the arts notoriety decreases by 2.

==================================

Another advantage for the sculptor cla.s.s!

By creating a sculpture, your fame goes up while notoriety falls. Weed laughed satisfactorily.

“Yep, a sculptor shows his true spirit through his sculptures.”

Weed spoke to himself while hard at work ma.s.s producing sculptures. Since his fame was so high doing quests with high difficulty can drop his notoriety easily. Notoriety also drops by creating sculptures.

“I can even commit some crimes later if I have to since I can just lower it again.”

Rather than turning over a new leaf, for Weed, this was like a golden ticket to continue engaging freely in even more rotten behavior.

“To drop notoriety even faster, I’ll make sculptures of angels and little children. Maybe Daycram made his mithril angel sculpture to lower his notoriety after committing a crime too.”

Weed, who was almost as good as a master sculptor, began working!

*Sparkle Twinkle Sparkle*

Pure and innocent, many young children with bright beaming smiles were carved.

Weed’s hard working persona was operating at full speed, he had already created over a hundred innocently smiling little girls.

“Good bye notoriety stat!”

*****

When Seo Yoon was not online, Yellowy, Golden Bird and Silver Bird spent their time watching the sculptures being made.

Since they were sculptural life forms they gained small amounts of EXP just by watching the process of a sculpture being made.

Golden Bird, Silver Bird and Yellowy were quietly talking amongst themselves.

Golden Bird; “Owner’s been sculpting for quite a while now. I haven’t seen Owner with such a happy expression except when he’s beating me and when a good item drops.”

Silver Bird; “I admit I was reluctant about Owner since I thought he was just a foul smelling Lich, but it seems his sculpting skills are pretty good. The most important thing about a sculptor are their sculpting skills.”

Yellowy; “Not only does Owner have good sculpting skills, Owner has a good personality.”

Golden Bird; “Yellowy, does Owner

really

have a nice personality? Do you think that the day will come where we will think of him as a nice person too?”

Yellowy; “So far my life is; being beaten, being threatened to be eaten, and being ridden into battle against scary monsters, but Owner told me that I’m lucky to have a such good master like him.”

Golden Bird; “Umm… Yellowy, I don’t think he’s being truthful.”

As the sculptures of life were conversing about their unfortunate lives, the little girl sculptures looked at Yellowy and suddenly licked their lips. It happened so quickly that no one could have seen it, but it was unmistakable, it

had

really happened.

Growing by itself, Weed’s Power of the Dead stat had started to affect his sculptures. Weed usually didn’t give much attention to the many sculptures he made. Only when the sculptures turned out decent did he briefly inspect them.

“Identify Sculpture.”

*Ting!*

=========================================

A Sculpture of a Young Child Smiling Delightedly

A sculpture of a young girl smiling so innocently that it would be impossible to view her as a troublemaker.

Created by the famous Sculptor and Adventurer Weed. While it has no special abilities, it would make a fine gift.

Artistic Value: 6

Option : Charm +2

=========================================

It was hard to see the changes, they were so small and quick that if you blinked you would miss it. As the pure and innocent sculpture transformed itself, its expression and description completely changed.

*Ting!*

=========================================

A Statue of a Young Child Saturated with Fiendishness.

A statue of a creepily laughing little girl.

Made by the hands of one who is reported to be endlessly corrupt, the sculptor Weed. Whoever owns this sculpture will have continuous bad luck.

Evil : +15

Options : Escaped Convicts, Wanted Criminals, Smugglers, etc, these cla.s.ses will receive an increase to all stats +2

Good Luck -10

Dangerous disasters that are normally unlikely will have a higher chance of occurring.

=========================================

After completing the sculpture, the notorious murderer state showing Weed’s name in red above his forehead completely disappeared.

“Great. Finally.”

The notoriety wasn’t completely gone, but the murderer state was removed. There are many awkward things about being in the murder state. Morata, speaking frankly, was not too strict about security.

Unlike Morata, other cities have castles and religious buildings whose guards will deny entry to those in the murder state. Of course, it’s obvious, that you couldn’t meet with Kings or n.o.bles.

No matter how high your fame is, if you couldn’t be trusted, you wouldn’t receive requests easily.

“Now to expand the range of the sculptures.”

As part of his plan for getting away from Jigolaths he needed to be rid of the murder state. His preparations were just about complete.

“I’ve sent out a ton of floating gla.s.s bottles but I’ve no idea how many of them arrived.”

Seo Yoon and Yellowy were coping well having to endure hiding in a small s.p.a.ce. Seo Yoon watched the sculptures being made, Yellowy could bear it if he could just somehow survive all this.

A furious and determined desire to survive!

Hiding deep inside the dungeon, sparingly eating provisions while making sculptures, their current appearance looked no different than refugees. Weed made sculptures while occasionally also making time to utilize his tailoring skills to make preparations

“For clothes, twenty should be enough. Even if I use lower quality fabric the clothes will… no. There’s no need to use the poor quality fabric and leather for these clothes. I can always sell them later to recover the cost. However, since it will be difficult to make the clothes that I will wear exactly the same, making them look close will be important.”

Weed was making articles of clothing and aristocratic outfits from the Niflheim Empire era, he had learned the style while in Morata, mainly to increase his sewing skills. Based on the era clothing of the Niflheim n.o.bility, slowly only a bit at a time, these clothes were ready to conquer the pirates.

“I don’t know why Pirates bother dressing so well, Pirates should just be Pirates and wear cheap rag tag clothes.”

Weed’s sewing skills, already high, reached new levels while making these outfits making its final look a bit excessive. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to look a bit refined.

Money, skills, and levels, such things will never betray you in life.

Between sculpting and sewing to continue lowering his notoriety, Weed used his crow form to make daily trips to the sea. On the day when there was only a little notoriety left, the distant horizon of the sea was filled with phantom s.h.i.+ps.

“They’re here. Now I can

really

get started.”

When it comes to text messaging, gla.s.s bottles had Weed’s undivided and absolute faith. However, since a phantom s.h.i.+ps duty was to idly wander at sea they had

no

reason not to come.

Even if the ghost s.h.i.+ps hadn’t come, Weed would have just proceeded with his much more difficult backup plan, but since the s.h.i.+ps had been seen as soon as they arrived, the plan became a lot easier.

Of course this plan did not include having phantom s.h.i.+ps enter the Unfreezing River, that was only asking for problems.

Although the number of s.h.i.+ps isn’t exactly known, having a large number of phantom s.h.i.+ps enter a narrow river is not a recipe for a success. They would just be eaten on one side by the Haven Kingdoms 2nd fleet or on the other side by the Pirate fleet. You truly don’t want to feed your enemy.

*****

The day Weed escapes Jigolaths with Seo Yoon and the sculptures of life.

Weed along with Silver Bird and Golden Bird landed on top of the Sculptor’s Tower. Standing besides him as escorts were the coal covered Golden bird and Silver Bird.

“It can’t be right.”

They had come here to check out one last thing that Weed was suspicious about.

“There’s no way it’s possible.”

Even among Weeds adventures, the hards.h.i.+ps that occurred in Jigolaths had been particularly severe.

When Weed had arrived he knew a normal approach wouldn’t work so he used his Lich and the Undead, along with every trick he knew… yet it hadn’t worked.

Weed had tried the Copper Plate of Rest, but it had fallen short of success. If Seo Yoon hadn’t made her timely appearance the quest might have failed. If it had failed, it would have failed in a very public way!

The combat difficulty of this sculptor quest was extremely high, Weed had then reasoned that perhaps he was supposed to, or needed to, make use of Emperor Von Arpen’s Sculptural Life Bestowal skill.

A shabby sculptor that came to the Jigolaths empty handed by following the old Emperor’s creation, Golden Bird. This sculptor then bestowed life to a another sculpture belonging to that Emperor to create the subordinate Silver Bird. How could all that not be leading to an epic quest accomplishment.

If you don’t do at least that much it would hardly be a quest. The problem was the point of that understanding came only after the middle of the quest.

“Some of the sculptures are on the low quality side, not worth very much. Still even if you leave the lesser work there are lots of sculptures that are just too good to leave.”

The Sculptor’s Tower is filled with amazing art, it contains masterpieces several times over.

Except for within the private palaces of Versailles or within the Dwarf nation, nowhere else would you find a collected treasure of sculptures like the ones within this forgotten tower in Jigolaths. There are not many places like this in the world, an abandoned tower full of treasure and no one with a claim to it, a treasure with no heir.

If he couldn’t take all of them, Weed wanted to at least take several of the good ones, even if he had to give up levels.

Weed thoroughly searched the surrounding area near the tower for any Hermes Guild members. Fortunately, there were only two pirates keeping watch at the tower.

To receive the benefits of the Sculpture Tower members of the Hermes Guild would come here every morning. However, since looking at it more than once does not duplicate the effect, they did not come more than once a day.

The Sculptors Tower is eye catching by its very nature and was located on a flat terrain where it was difficult to hide yourself, so there wasn’t any suspicions that Weed would show up here.

Weed was, however, paranoid and he had plenty of experience fighting against guilds. Killing him by using tricks, traps, or surprise attacks was fairly difficult.

So far hiding in the Jigolaths dungeon had been hard but they endured and were able to avoid their enemies successfully.

The Hermes Guild, if they understood Weeds personality, had a new plan. Instead of mobilizing a large amount of personnel and trying to drive Weed into dead ends, there was a fool proof way to catch him. They would put outrageously expensive items on the ground.

A trap that could put Weed into a tremendous turmoil!

*****

Weed with Silver Bird and Golden Bird, stealthily approached the pirates standing guard around the tower.

“Yaaawn! I’m sleepy and bored”

“Weed will never come to this place so I don’t know why we even bother to guard it.”

Weed heard the pirates’ grumbling. Weed was approaching by using a bird’s hopping way of running when a Pirate nonchalantly turned his head.

Weed and the Pirate’s eyes met.

“A crow?”

Weed was scratching his wings with his legs, then burst out crying *kaw kaw

*

. He also looked at the pebble next to him and kicked it with his feet. Silver Bird and Golden Bird were also rubbing their bodies and doing other bird like things as well, while pretending to be indifferent to the pirates.

“They sure are having fun. Jus’ look at ’em.”

Weed was going to approach again when the pirates lost interest but since sentry life was boring, they watched Weed for a rather long time. Weed finally let out a long drowsy yawn. Silver Bird and Golden Bird quickly did the same, the Pirates soon turned their gaze elsewhere.

Weed then lead the way approaching with Golden Bird and Silver Bird!

*Pick Da-da-dak!*

After striking first at the top of the foot they climbed straight up while continuously pecking!

As the average level of Pirates was low, the three high level birds delivered an unbelievable amount of damage in a coordinated attack that dealt with them easily.

Weed released his transformation and returned to his human form

“It won’t take them long to discover that the Pirate guards are dead so we’ll need to hurry.”

Within the tower are many Masterpieces and Magnum Opus’s which are the only ones Weed intends to give life to. Right now Weed’s level is at almost 400, he can’t afford to grant life without limits, in the long run his level won’t grow itself.

After first seeing the tower full of sculptures Weed hadn’t used the bestow life skill, since the quest’s difficulty level was so high, he worried that it would be a waste of his levels as the the sculptures would most likely die.

Just inside the entrance to the Tower, Weed carefully placed his hand on a masterpiece sculpture of a Knight.

“Should I bestow life on this Knight?”

He wanted to at least have a Knight as a subordinate. Since it would consume levels and art stats he was left with no choice but to be very cautious.

Finally, Weed reached his decision.

“Sculpture Life Bestowal!”

Sea creatures, large living organisms, monsters without names, the Knight sculpture in the midst of this huge variety stored within the tower was without a doubt the real prize and was thus, granted the miracle of life.

‘A Knight has high loyalty level. I must be sure to make some amazing food for him and get him hooked.’

*Ting!*

=========================================

This masterpiece sculpture was made by the 8th Sculptor’s Guild Master, Jenbarin and members of the sculptor’s guild.

‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’ has been waiting for life bestowal.

=========================================

“Huh?”

Weed was sure he had bestowed life on the tower’s Knight sculpture created by the sculptor Villas. Yet the system window message saying ‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’ has been waiting for life bestowal, was still floating open before him.

*Ru-um-um-um-umble!*

A huge sound is heard from the Sculptor’s Tower and it starts to shake, thick crusty dust that had been piled up for ages crumbles away by the force of that sound and it’s vibrations.

The encrusted dirt breaks away to expose an ancient sculpted stone Tower!

A miracle created by bestowing life!

Images flowed into Weed’s eyes. It was, by this time, a very familiar event.

*****

The Sculptors arrived by boat to Jigolaths. They not only bravely set out to find helium, they even made their sculpture masterpiece’s here. The sculptor’s all had the strong will to never back down in face of any hards.h.i.+p.

Jenbarin was exemplary, a ideal model that inspired this group of sculptors.

He said the following in a very determined voice.

“This treasure trove of sculptures can not be stored in a poor or common way. We may not be the last sculptors that come to Jigolaths.”

Welcoming their end at Jigolaths, they even thought about other sculptors that might come here.

“We will plan and create architecture that will hold our treasured sculptures. This structure that we build will reflect and hold all of our hopes and dreams.”

It was of course very important to find Helium, but here at the end of their lives, making a place to leave the treasured sculptures was their top priority. They will need to find a safe place from earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions, all the sculptors cooperate in working toward that goal.

“Let us create a place that can withstand any threat, but is still artistic.”

The Tower was entirely carved from a ma.s.sive rock. The floors were cut out, an entrance was tunneled, the rocky outside surface was sculpted

It’s hard to see that Sculpting and Architecture are completely different branches. The sculptors made it by sculpting it completely out of the ma.s.sive rock

A grand sculpture. A Tower to keep their treasures safe.

========================================

Masterpiece

!

‘

A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’ has been completed.

These sculptors who came to Jigolaths made a Wonder!

A sculpture made by Jenbarin and his comrades by combining talent and effort. Several secure rooms and s.p.a.cious showrooms were made inside. The tower was divided into four separate themes; the Sun, the Volcano, The Sea and the Sculptures.

Artistic Value : 17,695

Special Options :

Sculptors who sees the tower will receive double their maximum value of health for a day.

Improved intimacy with monsters that have been sculpted.

You can learn method to hunt monsters.

You can restore your health and mana at a faster rate by rest in the interior of the Tower.

Increases the ability to adapt to the environment of Jigolaths.

Decreases the effects of temperature and weather.

55% rise in resistance to flame magic

Increased resistance to fire type monsters.

All stats increase by 39 as long as one has the sculptor cla.s.s.

Increases effects of sculpting skills by 8% for a day.

If sculpture is displayed inside the Tower, sculpting achievements are easier to obtain.

========================================

A Masterpiece sculpture completed by Jenbarin and his comrades.

While exploring Jigolaths they had died, but other sculptors had come and created work here.

Sculptures were stored inside one by one, thus ‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’, became a marvelous and wonderful work.

*Ting!*

=========================================

A ‘permanent preservation’ magic has been applied to the sculpture;

‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’.

=========================================

Among the more versatile sculptors there were those familiar with magic. The tower has powerful protective magic encasing it, thus the many sculpted artworks were able to be safely stored away.

Over hundreds of years the tower and sculptures became as one.

*****

The video that Weed was watching ended.

“This tower was a sculpture and I didn’t notice.”

The tower had been covered with crusty dust of at least a few centimeters. Because of that the exterior of the tower didn’t give away that it was in fact itself a sculpture.

*Ting!*

=========================================

-You have granted life to a sculpture.

The level of the sculpture is based on the level of the art stat.

The sculpture ability will be converted from the current art stat of 2,041, so the sculpture’s base level will be 461.

Since the sculpture is a Masterpiece with the added bonus of being a Historic Sculpture, the level will have added an additional 32%, increasing it to 608.

Three attributes are bestowed upon the sculpture lifeform

These attributes will vary in power according to the form and quality of the sculpture.

Attribute of Art (100%), Attribute of Guardian (100%), Attribute of Life (100%)

Due to the Attribute of Art, The Tower likes sculptures and painting, and 150% of the work’s effects can be drawn out.

This applies not only to you but to all colleagues as well.

Due to the Attribute of Guardian, this sculpture will attempt to safeguard the owner and all colleagues from danger.

Due to the Attribute of Life, sculpture is born with overwhelming health

Due to being the work of Jenbarin and his comrades this sculpture is bestowed a special courage

Due to the protective magic the sculpture has a strong defense.

5,000 mana has been used.

The skill efficiency has increased, so the level and stats consumed when bestowing life have decreased by 20%.

Art stat has been permanently reduced by 6.

The reduced stats can be replenished through sculpting or other art related activities.

Level has dropped by 2

Due to the decrease in level, 5 points have been reduced from your most recently upgraded stat.

The stats will be regained once you regain the lost levels.

Please cherish the bestowed life given to the sculpture.

Upon death, the sculpture must be granted life again to return its soul.

The sculpture cannot be revived if it has been completely destroyed.

=========================================

Before the now animated tower asked Weed for a name, something happened.

-A sculpture is made with blood and sweat. No different from one another, we are of one body.

=========================================

– ‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’ is using the power of Art. The life force has been distributed among all of the sculptures.

=========================================

As Weed watched, numerous small cracks appeared on the Knight’s sculptured surface which then opened and split apart. After a while, the statue started moving announcing that it was alive. Watching a sculpture lifeform being born was captivating no matter how many times you witnessed it.

But the process wasn’t finished. From the Knight more cracks were spreading to the other sculptures .

“Perhaps this is?”

Giant creatures, numerous monsters, insects. The dust covered sculptures were starting to move. The large number and variety of sculptures bestowed with life took their first breath.

The sculptures had come to life as if the long time spent rooted to one spot was just a lie. It’s not just the tower level where Weed was located, all the sculptures in the tower were coming to life.

=========================================

– Due to life bestowal skill the sculptor has given life to all the sculptures in the Sculpture Tower.

-Due to ‘A Serene Tower Waiting for a Hero’ sharing its life force, it will have its health decreased by half.

==========================================

Towards Weed, each of the many variety of sculpture lifeforms showed him their grat.i.tude for the gift of life in different ways. Some showed him an open mouth or snout, others wagged their tails, a few waved swords, or made a roar that filled the air.

In the midst of the electrifying spectacle taking place, the Sculpture Tower discontentedly said.

“Why is my body so dirty?.”

The artwork that liked to stay clean was busy brus.h.i.+ng off the dust. The other sculptures also diligently cleaned off the dust stuck on their head, shoulders, and body.

Weed would have been more than willing to take them to a hot spring. h.e.l.l, he’d even scrub their backs.

The sculpture lifeforms all spoke out at the same time.

“Master, grant me a name.”

“Master, thank you for letting me be born. I will faithfully serve you with all my heart.“

“Master, what will my name be?”

“Keu keu keu. Who should I fight with you.”

It’s clear that with so many just giving them a name each is no easy task.

Rolling about on the floor is a huge sea monster that resembled a dolphin, a fire giant masterpiece belches fire whenever it spoke. There was no single size or similar looks, every lifeform was spread about in such a disarray that it was chaos.

“Your name is…”

Weed decided to postpone making names. With such a huge variety of sculptures it will be hard to match the characteristics of each, more time and careful consideration for each name would have to be done later.

“Names will come later.”

“That will make it difficult to call on us.”

The knight lifeform spoke up politely, he wanted a name. A name was important for the sake of honor.

“For now, I’ll just call you, Hey you, Dude, You there, and so forth.”

“…….”

Since the Weed was not the person that sculpted it, the Knight sculpture did not start out with high loyalty towards him.

Knights consider honor very important, treating it lightly was hard for them to endure. Yet Weed really didn’t have much time.

“In a little while we might have to fight a battle soon so let’s put off proper naming till later.”

The idea of upcoming combat caused the eyes of the sculpture creature to sparkle.

For now, Weed got ready while keeping both land battles and sea battles in mind.

“Anyway, presuming this area gets damaged, there probably won’t be any pointless deaths . For now I’ll continue as planned.”

******

Pirates were guarding the temporary marina. Docked in long rows in the Unfrozen River are the Pirate s.h.i.+ps and the s.h.i.+ps of the Haven Kingdom’s 2nd Fleet.

“This is totally boring.”

“When are they going to catch Weed? We are only guarding these boats, even if something happened, we wouldn’t even know.”

“Just wait a bit. Good news is sure to come soon. Weed just has to die, then once we get back home we’ll have something to brag about.”

The discontented pirate complaining had to draw a card from the deck. In the dead of night gambling was a way to pa.s.s the time when there was nothing else to do.

When they had first come to Jigolaths it had seemed that Weed’s capture would be imminent but that did not work out so well. Weed proved to be quite tricky and could slip away from them easily. The extremely large and extensive underground dungeons of Jigolaths was utilized to lure them into traps.

There was chance that the Thieves and a.s.sa.s.sins might be able to track down Weed but they most likely wouldn’t. Going by the traces left on the ground was one of the best ways to hunt down a target. However the false trails Weed left had made tracking so difficult the net had not been able to close around Weed.

The traces left by the monsters, users, sailors, and pirates have completely mixed together.

“Still, because he’s confined it’s just a matter of time till they catch him. They’ve completed the map of the underground dungeon, so now each area can be quickly searched.”

“Yeah ok, but will that be enough? I don’t think Weed’s reputation is just talk. It looks like the Hermes guild is experiencing some real pain right now. ”

“Ah

hem hem

!”

One Pirate suddenly loudly cleared his throat and stood up from his seat. The other Pirates took the hint and also quickly got up.

Head of the Pirates, the Pirate king Griffith hadn’t been seen walking up to the temporary docks.

“Reporting! No problems while on duty sir.”

Griffith walked and clapped each of them on the shoulder.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Not at all sir.”

Griffith was wearing a Pirate Admiral’s hat. A hat with a known restriction of over level 400 which the other Pirates have no choice but to envy.

“What brought you here sir?”

“It was stuffy so I came out for some clean wind and fresh air.”

Griffith’s voice was deliberately deep and husky like it was fake.

“Are you going to board your s.h.i.+p?”

“Yeah, my s.h.i.+p…”

Griffith stopped speaking and hesitated for a moment.

The amount of s.h.i.+ps anch.o.r.ed in the unfrozen river is ma.s.sive. A shocking scene of tall s.h.i.+p mast looking like a forest stretched out on the river. The temporary dock on the river was lacking s.p.a.ce. More than half the s.h.i.+ps were still not anch.o.r.ed in the docks.

Officers were always greedy for overly large and luxurious s.h.i.+ps, The Jungfrau was just such a s.h.i.+p. However, it also would require a lot of manpower to operate.

“Should I order The Jungfrau to be prepared?”

“You don’t need to go to such trouble, I just need some air. I’ll just go out with a fast sailboat then return.”

“Should I prepare a crew? We’d all like to sail with you.”

With a Pirate King on board a sailing s.h.i.+p can experience the fastest sailing speeds possible. That’s precisely why the Pirates were looking hopeful.

Griffith shook his head, rejecting the offered help.

“Too troublesome for a quick trip. I’ll be going alone.”

“Yes, understood sir. Please take us with you next time!”

“I’ll definitely give you a ride if the chance comes up.”

Griffith departed sailing a mid-sized s.h.i.+p that had been moored at the temporary dock.

Watching the s.h.i.+p sail with the speed of a snail, the pirates grumbled in disappointment. They couldn’t understand why he was sailing so slowly.

“When

you

can smash into enemy s.h.i.+ps at full speed like Griffith can,

then

you can comment on his sailing speed.”

“As much as I hate those rowing galley s.h.i.+ps, no one commands one better or faster than Griffith.”

Instead of following the Unfreezing River towards the sea, the medium sized sailboat ’The Quail’ turned around and headed upriver towards Jigolaths.

The volcanoes were spewing smoke all the way to the white fields of snow. Since the fresh air and view at that spot on the river was something to be admired the Pirates didn’t harbor any doubts.

However, the moment they were out of the Pirates’ line of sight, the mid-sized sailboat turned to the Jigolaths river sh.o.r.eline. It was hard to anchor the s.h.i.+p due to the rocks but Griffith was able to anchor close to the sh.o.r.e.

“You can come out now.”

*Moooooo.*

Yellowy popped out from the exit of the dungeon that was nearby and galloped toward the sailboat. Then came Seo Yoon, Golden Bird and the other sculpture life, they all emerged in rapid succession.

They were boarding the s.h.i.+p under the cover of darkness.

“Hurry up and get aboard!”

Griffith was actually Weed in disguise using sculptural transformation.

By making a lot of sculptures he lowered his notoriety and got out of the murder state. Of course there were those in the Navy and in the Pirates that were also in the murderer state or wanted criminals. It was quite common for both crews. The hat and the uniform Griffith usually wore were all fabricated in order to improve the disguise.

If it had been daytime, the difference of the clothing stats and options would have been like heaven and earth, but it was hard to tell the difference at night. Intermediate sewing skills could easily create fake materials that looked on the surface very close to the original!

The humanoid sculptures used rope and started climbing aboard, the ones that could fly grabbed others and flew aboard As more of the living sculptures got aboard the mid-sized sailboat the heavy weight caused the s.h.i.+p to ride much lower.

“Well, let’s go. Good bye.”

Weed took off his hat and waved it in farewell to the Sculpture Tower in the distance.

It was too big to take the Sculpture Tower by s.h.i.+p. It was made in Jigolaths and it would have to remain there. It had completed its mission of guarding the other sculptures, so it will remain as a guardian of the land to the very end.

“Farewell.”

Weed regretfully said farewell once again.

‘

I wish I could’ve taken you to Versailles Continent, I would have put you to good use.’

The Sculpture Tower’s choice is resolute.

Rather than live in the wide continent, the Tower had decided to live in Jigolaths to honor the memory of those sculptors who had vanished from the land, it was not possible to change its mind.

‘

The future Jigolaths might get to see a new boss monster.’

“Guoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

The Tower cried out loudly urging them to leave quickly

From the Towers lowest floor rising to its highest came a sound that emitted a mysterious resonance. The Sculpture Tower had succeeded wonderfully in keeping all of the sculptures safe but now it was time to say good-bye.

“Well, let’s go.”

Weed gave all the living sculptures directions at last raising up the anchor so they could leave.

Golden Bird and Silver Bird flew up to the mast and untied the ropes allowing the sails to unfurl and spread wide open.

‘

This is our parting from Jigolaths.’

It was a big increase in weight for a mid-sized s.h.i.+p. Living sculptures filled the cabins, corridors, and the deck.

Maximum capacity was more than exceeded!

Even with the wind completely filling the sails it was almost not enough to get them moving, but slowly, they started to pick up speed. Weed took the helm, as the s.h.i.+p was heavy and slow he needed a lot of room to make the wide half circle turn in the Unfreezing River.

They sailed pa.s.sed the pier, then they pa.s.sed through the Haven Kingdom’s 2nd Fleet and the Pirate Fleet. Those fleets did nothing to block this since they had been notified that Pirate King Griffith was sailing that s.h.i.+p. With the fair wind they were getting they started to speed up as they sailed the Unfreezing River.

Just a second later, users from the Haven Kingdom Fleet reported to their superiors.

-The Pirate King Griffith has taken a s.h.i.+p and is heading out to sea.-

-What for?-

-It’s nothing. The Pirate guard at the marina said he wanted to get some fresh air.-

-Okay.-

A report was made as it helped control s.h.i.+p traffic, yet neither the Hermes security team or pirates gave the report any real consideration. Since the person reported was their ally the Pirate King Griffith, the s.h.i.+p didn’t require special permission or attention.

Then after some time pa.s.sed.

The Navy Knight that received the report urgently sent a whisper.

-Didn’t you report earlier that Griffith was headed for the sea?-

-Yes, I did.-

-Was it really Pirate King Griffith?-

-The Pirates are the ones who confirmed it.-

-d.a.m.n! This is bad!-

-What’s the matter?-

-Pirate King Griffith is together with Drinfeld right now. The person on that boat isn’t the d.a.m.ned Pirate King.

-Wha-what? You’ve got to be joking…-

-It’d take too long to explain. Hold on to that s.h.i.+p!

-It’s not here.-

-Then sail after it!-

“Hurry! get to the s.h.i.+p.”

“Move faster!”

The personnel who were guarding the docks and the battles.h.i.+ps boarded the nearest s.h.i.+p and sailed after them. But among the living sculptures were sea creatures who were lying in wait for them to move.

Despite the arrows and cannon fire they were eventually sunk!

The users along with their Guild and Pirate teams were angrily returning to the docks when they found their road blocked by the Sculpture Tower.

“Guoooo!”

The Sculptors Tower trampled on the users and soldiers. It was blocking them in order to protect Weed and the sculpture lifeforms’ retreat.

The majesty of a powerful destroyer!

The soldiers were about to counterattack the Tower when Admiral Drinfeld shouted out with his orders.

“That

thing

can be taken care of later. Get to your s.h.i.+ps! catching Weed is the number one priority.”

The main force of the Hermes Guild and the Pirates boarded their s.h.i.+ps while avoiding the Tower Sculpture. They had taken some tremendous damage but they set their sails and sequentially left the marina.

“Guoaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The Tower Sculpture that had interfered until the end turned away and started moving towards the steaming volcanic regions of Jigolaths.

*****end chapter 06*****