Jade Merchants

The path was lovely. The road Gerald took had a blue sea on one side, and nice cozy coastal towns and villages on the other. Even going slowly with the Rockslide, he should reach his destination by the end of the day.

Not much happened on his way. He met a few people, but he simply passed them by. A group of travelers was even attacked by a pack of wolves, but before the guards protecting them could even do their job, the beasts got spooked and ran away.

That's when Gerald came rumbling by, his massive figure sitting on a throne of stone, as he passed them by at the speed of galloping horses.

A few more actions like that and he might even become an Earthen God in the folklore.

"Hehe, yeah…" Gerald chuckled, "A god…" Wouldn't that be nice? He wondered if Cultivation could allow one to become something akin to a god.

The world had something akin to gods in the past, even if they weren't 'true gods.' He would have to try that Cultivation thingy again. It might be simple, but that didn't mean was easy. At least he couldn't make it work on the first try.

Towards the evening he arrived at another port town. He wasn't aware of the name since he came from the seaside, but it wasn't important anyway. It seemed much bigger than Port Dera in any case. Perhaps he would have more luck finding a ship here.

He visited the docks right away. Many dozen large wooden ships were bobbing up and down on the waters there, some even seemingly ready to depart.

It was good that he came straight to the docks. After asking around he came to know that a few ships were indeed departing any moment now, and they belonged to the famed Jade Islands' merchants.

They were going towards the Jade Islands where they would store some goods and load others, before taking them over to the other side of the sea to the lands of sand and stone.

If he missed them now, he would have to wait another week for them to come back, since they were traveling in groups for safety.

Gerald quickly located one of the ships, easily recognizable by the green banners and sails with the mark of Jade Islands on them.

Getting accepted on board was the easiest part of this entire expedition. He just had to hand over some gold and promise not to get in the way. After that, he was shown his own plain guest room with a simple bed and a table.

Staying in such a small stuffy room didn't sit well with Gerald, so he decided to spend some time outside. He made himself comfortable by the wooden railing of the ship and observed the sailors and workers running around, getting the thing ready to set sail.

Three giant sails caught wind, as the anchor was slowly hoisted up with a winch, and the ship slowly moved out of the port under the moonlight.

Only one moon this time, as the other was hidden behind dense clouds at the horizon.

Gerald came to know of some other passengers who paid for the ride as it was just too hot inside the small guest rooms, and they came to get some fresh sea air just like him.

From what he could tell, one of them was an Alchemist. The man was in the latter half of his life and smelled of herbs and chemicals. He was most likely traveling for work, or in search of new ingredients.

Or perhaps he was searching for his long-dead grandpa's secret treasure that the man buried during his long life as a bloodthirsty pirate. Or maybe it was something else? Gerald certainly didn't care enough to ask.

There was a pair of warriors, male and female, most likely in search of adventure, or a place to call home and create a family, or…

Wait, no! Gerald squinted his eyes as he glanced over the pair once more. After a quick peek with the Magic Eyes, he surprisingly discovered they were both females. Why one of them pretended to be a young man was beyond him.

It could have been a good story for a novel, of two hopeless lovers that… Probably not. Disguising as an unassuming man when traveling was safer, most of the time.

Then there was a group of five older men with stout bodies and rough looks. They appeared like seasoned warriors at a first glance. Probably because they were.

Gerald honestly didn't care about any of them. They didn't bother with him, and he would ignore them, as simple as that. They won't ever see each other again anyway, so why even bother saying hello?

He found a pile of thick rope on the deck and used it as a seat. He wanted to try that Soul-refining thingy once more. 'First step to becoming a cultivator, huh?' he mused and closed his eyes, slowly entering a meditative state.

He cut off all his senses, completely turning his focus inward. He even used Magic Eyes to look inside his own body.

For the first hour nothing happened, but this time he persisted, not giving up that quickly. In the middle of the night, amidst complete silence, his mind's eye suddenly opened and he became aware. Aware of his own Life Force, Aura, Soul, or whatever it was called.

This was the first time he truly 'saw' it. It was like mist. Visible from a distance, but intangible and fleeting, like smoke. In this state, he tried controlling Mana.

It worked. His misty Soul coiled around it as it pushed the energy out of his body, creating a spell. But, just as the Soul pushed Mana out of his hand, at the moment they both left his body, the great part, perhaps even 90% of Mana, just slipped through his grasp, leaving only a small part of it behind to create a flame.

Gerald stared at his hand where the tiny fire tongue flickered. He cocked his head to one side, observing all that wasted energy flowing out of him. He never noticed it before.

Well, he actually thought that's how it should be, a spell draining some Mana, but not completely exhausting its energy.

In a way, it didn't really matter. With low efficiency or a high amount of wasted resources, the results were the same in the end. Wasteful magic spells.

It was time to change that!