Not in the Right Mind

"Fucking Hell! Just what did you do to attract that monster?!" Lucau finally came back to his senses. "Are we going to die?!"

"Maybe? Hold on!" Linfel immediately used his Magic Energy and pulled Lucau with him... in the direction of the Magic Beast instead!

"Where the hell are you going?!" Lucau was terrified when he saw himself and Linfel going after the Magic Beast.

The Magic Beast, in exchange, immediately pounced at them as well. It's enormous mouth opened once again, making Linfel and Lucau look like nothing more than ants.

And yet, just as it was about to swallow both, Linfel changed direction and pulled Lucau with him to the side. At the same time, his Magic Energy condensed into a Lighting Bolt that shot straight into the Magic Beast's throat!

*Kabrum!*

*Roar!*

The Magic Beast roared in pain as the Electricity flowed through its body. It burnt its insides, causing unbearable pain. However, it was truly a much stronger Magic Beast compared to the orcas. Even though the pain was enormous, it didn't really suffer any significant damage. 

Linfel then took some distance from it. "We will not be able to outrun it on the water. Our only chance is to force it to give up instead."

Lucau was still trembling as he saw the Magic Beast contorting in pain. "We are floating! Can't you just bring us higher in the sky and let it go?"

"I don't have a lot of Magic Energy," Linfel explained. "That Lightning Bolt alone already used half of my reserves. We wouldn't be able to stay in the air for more than a few minutes. If that thing didn't leave by then, we would be doomed. First of all, this is the first time I'm using this kind of energy, so I'm not used to it and wasted all that Magic Energy just trying to create the bolt. I need time to adapt, and time is exactly what we don't have."

The Magic Beast finally stopped roaring as it turned in their direction. However, it immediately saw another one of those Lightning Bolts Linfel had just thrown at it a second ago hovering above Linfel. It wasn't intelligent, so it could only think about the pain it suffered.

*Zush!*

Linfel didn't wait and immediately shot in the Magic Beast's direction as the Lightning Bolt increased in size. Finally, Linfel shot in the direction of the Magic Beast! And yet, just as Linfel's attack was about to reach it... the Magic Beast immediately dove into the ocean.

In a few seconds, it was already tens of meters away, and its speed continued to increase. Finally, not before long, the Magic Beast was completely gone from Linfel's senses.

"Where is it? Where is it?!" Lucau asked nervously. He didn't have Linfel's senses.

Linfel went back to the water and dropped Lucau on a floating plank of the now-destroyed boat. "Don't worry, the plan worked. The second Lightning Bolt I prepared was actually just for show. It didn't have even a tenth of the power of the first attack. After all, if I used something like that again, I would be completely dry of Magic Energy. I only wanted to scare it away, and fortunately, it worked."

Lucau sighed in relief for a moment. Still, he was astray in the ocean now. "You better be right! Let's just hope they won't come back too soon. With the boat destroyed, the marina guards should have caught the disappearance of the GPS signal. They will come to verify what happened soon." He obviously had to explain to Linfel how the GPS worked, too.

"Is there such a thing? This place is truly remarkable..." Linfel couldn't help but comment.

Lucau nodded and calmed down after a minute. He was an old and experienced captain of his own boat, so he had had his own share of experiences in the past. "And here I thought I had made a killing with today's catch..."

"Sorry..." Linfel did feel bad. "You helped me so much, so I truly just wanted to compensate you."

Lucau looked at Linfel. Although Linfel did almost kill him, he also saved him in the last moment, so the Wisp's heart at least was in the right place. The Wisp could have just fled on his own, after all. "Whatever. This is why I pay for insurance..."

"What's insurance?" Linfel obviously had no idea.

Without anything better to do, Lucau gave a quick explanation. Only then did Linfel understand. "Oh! You guys have even that? So convenient! You said that's why you pay for insurance, so you must have your boat destroyed all the time, right?"

Lucau felt like something wasn't right in that wisp's mind. Just where the hell did this Wisp get such an idea? "No one would come out to fish if this is what happened all the time! Are you crazy?!"

"It's not?" Linfel asked back.

"Forget it..." Lucau didn't feel like explaining that. "So, how did you manage to bring that thing out of the water? That kind of Magical Beast pretty much never leaves the bottom of the sea."

"I don't know. I just cleaned some of the impurities of the Magic Stones' Energy and spread it underwater," Linfel answered. "I felt like the Whiskers Tunas didn't seem very pleased with the Magic Energy that generator of yours was spreading, so I made it look a lot better."

"Cleaned the impurities?" Lucau didn't know much about the Magus World, but he did know that the cleaner the Magic Energy, the higher the level of the Magic Stones. "You can clean their Magic Stones' Energy?"

Linfel nodded. "Pretty much. However, most of the Magic Stones' Energy is lost in the process. For example, after cleaning the Magic Energy in the boat, only 10% of the Stones' Energy was left to use underwater."

"I see..." Lucau pondered a bit. His son, who was a Level One Magus, should know more about it. "I don't know if this is something impressive or not. However, you would better keep this information for yourself. I'll ask my son about it when we return to the land."

Linfel nodded. "Thank you for the advice. Also... would you mind keeping the fact I'm a Wisp secret? I would rather be considered a Familiar. Back from where I came, Wisps were hunted down all the time because of our Primordial Energy."

Lucau didn't mind. "Okay, but you better make it up for me later. When the rescue arrives, just pretend you are my Familiar. I'm obviously not a Magus, so if anyone asks, just say you were given to me by my son. Oh, and don't talk about the battle with the Magic Beast. Just say it swallowed the boat and left."

"Yes!" Linfel couldn't help but like this old man more and more. "By the way, Lucau. Would you mind telling me more about this world? What is a Magus?"

Lucau nodded and was just about to speak when a sound echoed from a distance. Linfel and Lucau looked in that direction, and sure enough, rescue arrived. "That was quite fast..."

Lucau nodded. "This is an ocean where Magical Beasts live, after all. Although accidents are rare, it is still life-threatening, so the government keeps the marina guards active all the time to help those in need. That's why we pay taxes, too. Hahaha!"

Linfel was surprised every time he heard anything new. Government helping the people? Back in his time, the law of strength was all that mattered. Any of the lords of the time would only care about their own welfare. Those who actively helped unknown beings were extremely rare, and they usually had some hidden agenda. But then again, Linfel's old friend, the one who put him in the capsule, was one of such beings. 'I wonder what happened to you, Horan. One day, you asked me to enter that cold box, and the next thing I knew, I was floating in this ocean...'

A flying vessel approached the location where the boat's GPS disappeared. Linfel looked at it, excited. The vessel seemed to fly without any kind of propulsion, floating in the air just like him. Yet, it moved extremely fast and precisely even though it was so big. "This is a very nice ship."

Suddenly, both Linfel and Lucau began to float in the vessel's direction, being carried by a feeble yellow light coming from the bottom of the vessel. "It's just a Rescuing Magical Aircraft. But yeah, I do think they look nice too."

Linfel and Lucau were quickly brought into the Aircraft by the light, and there, Linfel saw something new. That light that brought them into the Aircraft had some kind of very complex diagram that seemed to interact with the Magic Energy. 'Hum? This is not a primordial energy rune, it is a lot more intricate. Could it be that all the equipment around use this?'

Linfel spent a long time with his old friend in the past, who was an expert in Primordial Arrays. He learned quite a lot about Primordial Runes, so he could tell that Magical Diagram was very different. Linfel kept looking at the Diagram and how it interacted with the Magical Energy for some time. 'Seems very interesting. I'll ask Lucau later where I can learn more about it.'

The rescue team made several questions to Lucau, who simply came up with an excuse. "I think my Dissonance Device stopped working, and to count my luck, a giant Magical Beast happened to be near the surface for some reason. I could only jump out of the boat with my Familiar before it was swallowed by that thing."

"Your entire boat was swallowed?" One of the rescuers found it hard to believe. "Considering the model of your vessel, it would need to be at least a Level Two Magical Beast to be able to eat your boat whole."

"Believe me, it was much bigger than the boat," Lucau completed with a sigh.

The rescuers didn't have a reason to doubt him. They already checked his identity and knew he was a Whiskers Fisher with quite a lot of years of experience. "Send the message to the headquarters and a warning message to all the vessels around. There might be a Level Two Magical Beast in the area, so everyone should be careful. Oh, and ask them to send a Magus as well."