The waters of Talia were dangerous. That was a fact known by anyone who lived next to a big body of water since they were young. Oceans, seas, even big lakes all had aquatic monsters that were beyond the ability of most adventurers. That was especially so for seas and oceans. The deeper reaches of the two were forbidden zones for all races in Talia.

  Especially when taking into consideration that monsters and Behemoths weren't the only threats out there, alongside them, supernatural events, Ocean-Dwellers, Ghost and Fallen Pirates, were all threats that you had to be mindful of in the oceans.

  Some fishing and trade was still manageable if you stayed close to the shore, but going to the open waters was suicidal. It took ages, the discovery of Cornerstones, and a lot of sacrifices before considerably safer routes were found. And even those routes were only through seas. The Imperial and the Eastern oceans were still an unsurmountable challenge and every attempt at exploring them and their secrets was met with failure.

  At least till it came. The collective effort of an empire, a project that took years to complete and made the Alliance question whether the Empire was going to destroy itself by pursuing a useless endeavour. But that never happened, in the end, it was born, the King of the Oceans.

  A ship so out of this world that it was called a divine wonder, it lived up to the expectations of the empire and more. Boasting a size that dwarfed every other ship in the world, something that was acknowledged by the system itself. With a length of more than 130 meters, a height of more than 40 meters and a similar width, in the eyes of whoever saw it, it was truly the king of the ocean.

  All of that without even mentioning that the ship could be considered a Cornerstone in itself. It was that bit that made it so that exploring the ocean wasn't only an empty dream anymore.

  Following its completion, the King of the Oceans led many expeditions to the ocean it ruled. Under the leadership of Admiral Kain Montclair, who deemed the exploration of the Imperial Ocean more fruitful than the Eastern one, many discoveries and astonishing achievements were made. From safe routes that led to several resource-rich islands, to surviving an attack against a Behemoth and most important of all, the discovery of the Western Continent.

  Those achievements and more could be attributed to the King of the Oceans and how much effort the Empire put into making a ship that could handle all that gets thrown its way. But it couldn't be ignored that if not for the leadership of Admiral Kain, what the King achieved wouldn't have been the same. The grim-faced old man had been trying to explore the ocean even before the King of the Ocean left the drawing boards.

  "Admiral," A young glasses wearing crew member saluted as he stood a respectful distance from the hugely built old man. After the salute was returned, the crew member continued, "We've been getting some warnings about unusual weather for the last couple of hours from inland. They say it's like nothing they've ever seen and are asking us to be on the ready in case anything happens."

  Admiral Kain grunted in acknowledgement as he looked at the stormy weather outside. He didn't see any of the weird weather they were talking about, it was still following what his skills indicated. He wasn't stupid enough to ignore what the base sent, though. For something to be deemed urgent enough to be sent their way with no care for the cost, its importance couldn't be argued with.

  Still, they were far enough from inland that whatever was happening there might not even reach them, so he just took note of it and turned his attention to the matter at hand.

  "What about our target? Any traces left" He asked after thinking for a while.

  "Negative, sir," The crewman said, "From the accounts of the surviving barbarians, there was one ship only, it was black as night and seemed to appear out of nowhere. They hit fast and retreated even faster."

  "An unknown route?" Kain's gruff voice sounded as he spat, "And most likely even using a Deepdark, damn parasites."

  Krakens were dwellers of the deep ocean, yet unlike Greater Krakens, they weren't its masters, that title went to the Behemoths that roamed those places. The Krakens were able to survive in those waters due to their ink. Once threatened the kraken would release some black ink that would cover hundreds of meters of water and confuse the senses of their predators. Deepdarks were ships that had their wood soaked in the ink of a Kraken, making them invisible to sea monsters. A Kraken's ink sac wasn't big though, it was barely enough to finish a small ship.

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  Kain could feel his teeth ache from grinding them whenever he faced one of those ships. The number of times a Kraken was hunted by humans could be counted on both hands, and half those times were by him and his crew. To see those parasites of the Empire sell what he fought tooth and nail to acquire to some pirate scum or smuggler, did nothing but make him want to throw them to a Kraken and watch as they suffered.

  "Most likely. It's also almost guaranteed that they were slavers," The crewman nodded. He was going to continue with his report when he suddenly felt as if the raging storm outside froze, and the air around them thickened to the point where he found it hard to breathe. His trembling eyes moved to the Admiral and his heart almost stopped.

  The old man was as still as a statue, he wasn't even breathing. The crewman felt as if his life was going to end right then and there, in fact, it wasn't only him, everyone on the King of the Oceans got the same feeling. Fortunately, that didn't last for long, soon Admiral Kain shouted,

  "Turn the ship around. Signal the other ships to follow, We are heading to the mainland." Even before he was done with his words, he had already grabbed the crewman next to him and started walking to the ship's Communication Center, leaving the other crewmen behind running around like headless chickens, just with much more purpose.

  Dragging the crewman as if dragging a sack of potatoes, Kain's expression was frozen in his usual grimace, yet inside, his emotions were in turmoil. The Title had disappeared, a bigger fish had been released into the pond. They needed to make their way to the Empire as fast as they could, without them, its waters could be in danger.

  Soon they made it to the Communications Center, a well-defended room in the depths of the King. The guards standing outside the door stepped aside once they saw the Admiral and the poor crewman he was dragging.

  "Code Red, initiate the connection," He growled at the specialists inside.

  The crewman he had been dragging and the helpers inside the room got busy, working as fast as they could, circling the man-sized crystal contraption. The Link was a new tool made by the Empire's brightest minds, one that enabled communication through long distances. There existed other communication tools before it, but it was the only one that could work over the huge distances between the King of the Oceans and the Empire.

  A Code Red meant that the call was going to be sent straight away to the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor would be notified and arrive soon to receive the news.

  "Leave," was all Kain said after the connection was established and they only had to wait for the Emperor's arrival.

  It didn't take long for words to start appearing on the smooth surface of the Link,

  His Majesty, Emperor Ronald, has arrived!

  Kain put his hand on a palm-shaped crevice before speaking out loud,

  "Admiral Kain Montclair welcomes His Majesty."

  With the annoying formalities out of the way, Kain went straight to the point,

  "Your Majesty, I would prefer if we have this conversation privately."

  It took a while to get a reply, most likely because the servant manning the Link relayed and passed his message to the Emperor before awaiting his orders.

  It's Us, Speak. Did something happen in the western waters?

  "Your Majesty, things are still as usual here, but something major has happened, I have lost the title, I have lost the Supreme Captain."

  It took a while for the next line of text to appear, Kain knew that this time, it was because the emperor was just as shocked as he was before.

  When did this happen?

  "Just now, I contacted you as soon as I lost it." Kain took a deep breath, "I recommend putting the Navy in a high alert state, we don't know when an attack can arrive, and without the King of the Oceans there, it would be hard to fight against whatever this would turn up to be. I'm already returning with the fleet."

  It shall be done. Do you think it was the Alliance?

  "I doubt it," Kain scoffed, "Those worms are years away from finishing their toy. I would have loved for it to be them though. That ship of theirs has nothing to it but size."

  The Supreme Captain, a unique title that the system gave to the captain of the biggest ship in the world. From how he got it, Kain knew that the title would change owners once the new captain took his ship to the open waters for the first time. Only then would the system acknowledge his position. This piece of information was an open secret to the royalty of the different kingdoms, which was what made Kain and the emperor worry.

  Whoever owned this ship, they were able to build something bigger than the King of the Oceans without anyone noticing. Once such a person moved, they would do so with purpose, with a clear goal in mind. Anywhere could be targeted and anything could happen. Kain felt the long stagnating winds were finally moving.

  BONUS CHAPTER if any of the goal below are reached!

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