Three days had passed since he had killed the two murlocs that had come to eat him, this time using the long odachi to kill them cleanly. To his surprise, he did not feel as disgusted or sick as he had expected; apparently, the mask also protected him from mental agitation, allowing him to remain lucid and sober. It was something he was deeply grateful for; he knew very well that without the calmness the mask provided, he would most likely have vomited at the bloody scenes, further accelerating his dehydration.
"Although it's a little strange, I don't think Waver's Mask had those abilities."
His memories of Shadow Slave were not blocked like those of Lord of the Mysteries, so he still remembered the different important aspects of the first one very well.
The Waver Mask had the ability to perceive the strings of fate and hide the identity of its wearer, preventing even the gods from seeing behind it.
"Simple Trick won't do anything because there are no flaws in this world; that only comes with sealed artifacts. I'm not sure if I'll be able to see the strings of fate; maybe if I try, I'll succeed, but that's a very painful way to go insane... As for the mask's ability to hide the identity of its wearer, that's something that comes by default."
It was like possessing a grade 0 artifact with anti-divination and anti-prophecy properties that even the gods couldn't penetrate, the highest level of protection in this world where the gaze of strange entities is the greatest cause of madness or death. That alone made the Mask of Waver priceless.
"This trick turned out to be much more useful than I thought; it's a bit like Klein's gray fog in that aspect.
As he thought, he felt thick drops of water falling on his face; shortly after, those drops continued to increase until they became a heavy storm.
This was the reason he hadn't died of dehydration yet; apparently it was storm season, so it rained very often, and the rainwater managed to keep him hydrated enough that he didn't die. In addition, along with the storms also came groups of murlocs, so he had a constant source of water and food.
"I thought murlocs were controlled by the Church of the Storm Lord; they are the main ingredient for the Sailor's Potion."
Maybe it was because this island was far from the church's jurisdiction that there were so many murlocs around here. That wasn't good news; it meant that there would be no Mandate Punishers ship to rescue him if they were on one of their patrols. Not only that, but the murlocs had begun to avoid the island, apparently realizing that their companions who came here disappeared, so he was slowly running out of food.
"This is so boring..."
He had absolutely nothing to do, and it wasn't as if there was wood or anything else he could use to try to build a raft and escape; he could only hope that at some point a ship would pass by and finally rescue him. His only source of entertainment was killing murlocs; every time he killed one, he felt as if a current energized his body. By this point, he was sure that it was the Shadow Fragments that Sunny collected when killing Nightmare Creatures.
"If I collect enough, will I form another Shadow Core? Or will I stick to the rules of this world and 'advance in sequence'? This is something I have to think about seriously."
Did his powers count as a sequence path? Or was it more like harnessing the powers of a powerful sealed artifact? Although Waver's Mask seems much more special than that, plus it worked slightly differently than in Shadow Slave, it even comes with the Cloak of the Underworld and the odachi. If it counts as a path, will I have to gather certain ingredients to advance, or is gathering shadow fragments enough? Will I have to perform some kind of advancement ritual in the future? Will I have to follow the acting method?
"What would the name be? Path of the Shadow Slave? Path of the Waver? Path of the Demon of Destiny? Hmm, will it have any reaction with the path of the Mercury Serpent?"
With nothing to do but wait for his rescue, Lewis let his imagination wander, creating all kinds of theories about how his powers would adapt to this world. Finally, after a very long time, the storm subsided, revealing the eerie but strangely beautiful crimson moon.
Lewis stared silently, alone with his thoughts. After a while, his eyelids began to feel heavy, and he gradually fell asleep. But after an unknown amount of time, his eyes flew open before he sat up and looked around. His spiritual intuition had awakened him, and he was trying to figure out why. Finally, after looking around, he noticed a silhouette steadily approaching his island.
It was a ship.
Lewis's heart leapt; he finally saw hope of leaving that desolate island. Almost immediately, he wanted to jump up and shout at the top of his lungs to get the attention of the people on the ship so they would rescue him. But he stopped abruptly; that was because he managed to take a closer look at the approaching ship. The sails that propelled it had the clear silhouette of a skull with two longer bones crossed in an X shape.
"Pirates..."
As far as he knew, there were only a few truly friendly pirate crews, and he was not willing to trust his luck to believe that he had encountered one of them. However, he could not just stand still and watch his only chance of escaping this island slip away.
"Who knows when another ship will pass by here; even that ship could belong to a pirate."
As his mind raced with solutions, he finally made up his mind. The shadows around him seemed to grow darker before his body was swallowed up by them, as if they were some kind of black onyx liquid. Imposing armor and a mask that hid any glimpse of the wearer's face appeared and covered his body. His hair also changed, becoming long and white like hundreds of silk threads.
He positioned himself in a discreet, dark spot on the island and waited for the ship to approach. Little by little, the distance shortened until it was only a few meters away, passing by the small island.
Without hesitation, Lewis reinforced his body using his shadow, which seemed to give him an even more sinister aura. He exerted force on his legs and took a great leap, rising several meters above the ground until he reached a height higher than the ship's deck itself.
'Shit! It was much higher than I thought'.
He didn't really know how strong he was, so to make sure, he had enhanced himself with his shadow and jumped with all his strength to make sure he reached the ship's deck, but the impulse had exceeded his estimates.
'At this rate, I'll end up alerting the pirates'.
Fortunately, everyone seemed to be asleep now; however, when he fell, causing a commotion, it would be inevitable. He immediately tried to find a solution to his problem.
Drawing on that almost tangible feeling inside him, a large odachi made of shadows appeared in his hand. The structure of this long sword began to shake and deform; Lewis was trying to change its shape, something he had tried to do before, but without success. But this time he didn't want to transform it into something concrete; he simply wanted to extend it to turn it into a kind of parachute to slow his impact.
The odachi shook and extended, greatly increasing its width; before long, it took on a shape similar to a tablecloth made of darkness, which trembled in the wind; its form was unstable and seemed about to fall apart. However, it had already served its purpose.
Once he was close to the ground, the shadow construction he had created vanished, and he landed rolling on the ground upon impact to effectively reduce noise. The armor not only gave him increased strength but also improved his reflexes and flexibility. This, combined with the analytical calm that the mask gave him, resulted in his entire operation going smoothly in no more than a few seconds.
'Good, crisis averted, time to hide'.
Like a shadow, Lewis moved through the darkness as he searched for a suitable place to hide. He planned to be a stowaway while he waited for the pirates to reach their destination, then he would get off without anyone noticing and find a way to get an identity and some money.
After a bit of searching, Lewis found some stairs leading to the storeroom, a perfect place for someone like him to hide. As long as he was careful and these pirates didn't have any Beyonders skilled in tracking, he believed he could throw them off the scent without any problems.
However, once he opened the doors, he was paralyzed.
The warehouse did not contain what one would expect to find on a ship. There was no food, no rations, and no looted treasures.
There were cages, cages full of people. Men, women, elderly people, and even children—people of all ages and ethnicities were locked up in cages as if they were animals. Some showed clear signs of abuse, others seemed to be barely breathing, others had empty stares as if they had already accepted their fate, while those who still held on to a glimmer of hope cried silently.
Lewis stood silently watching this scene. Of all the ships, of all the types of pirates he could have encountered, he came across some who were engaged in human trafficking. He could do nothing but let out a deep sigh.
"What a lovely coincidence."