Chapter 210 Hideout

Eventually, Sauros and Seris dealt with all the enemies, and they captured some as well. When they noticed that something was happening in the area of the dungeon, the crew of The Breeze of the Sea also approached to check things and only found one ship worth of prisoners freezing to death.

"We can't move the iceberg to the ship, can we?" Aions asked.

"Of course not," Seris replied. "We need to choose only a few of the prisoners to answer our questions. Half of them are dead, though…"

"Let me take a look at them," Sauros said as he jumped to the top of the iceberg and then looked at the prisoners in the eye. "This guy here is the Captain of this fleet."

"... That is the guy that attacked me from behind… you have some crazy analytical skills to deduce that just by looking at the enemy," Aion said, and then he broke the part of the ice that kept the guy locked and then threw him on the deck.

The impact made the pirate captain tremble all over, even though his legs were numb to the cold. The crew of their ship surrounded him before Sauros approached. As for the other prisoners, Aion decided to keep them alive for the time being, just in case. Aion wasn't interested in torture, but it seemed that he was the only one on The Breeze of the Sea that didn't want to make the enemy suffer even more. All of them had issues with pirates, it seems…

"You know what is going to happen… you know that you only have two options, make things easy for us or harder for yourself and us as well. Which is going to be?" Sauros asked after he grabbed the hair of the pirate and raised to look at him in the eye.

The pirate just looked away… it seemed that he wasn't going to break that easily. Watching torture wasn't one of Aion's hobbies, so he went to get rid of the evidence of the battle and check if the pirates had some magic weapons in their warehouses. Fortunately, the ships sunk in the same area, and only a few pieces of wood were floating around. Maybe Aion missed something, but he believed that he got rid of the most.

On the other hand, Aion didn't find any treasure, and he knew the reason why… they had come from their hideout and left all of their things there… Still, even if damaged, Aion got some materials for his classes, so he was fine for the time being. Also, when he returned, it seemed that Auros had finished with the enemy captain. It didn't look like Sauros wanted to dirt his ship with the enemy's blood, so he made the guy spill the beans after forcing him to eat some rotten monster's meat… his power could also be used like that.

"You can be pretty nasty at times, huh," Aion said.

"Only when I need to…" Sauros said. "Anyway, it seems that our guess was right… they are using a magic tool to keep a certain island invisible. This guy told me the direction and the distance, but even so, it will be hard to approach without being ambushed. They might also have sort of secret entrance, and those who try to enter another way will be attacked by the barrier."

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"I sensed the entrance to the barrier of that first temple, so I can probably do the same here," Aion said. "We will have to approach only at night, though… can you imagine how awesome it will be to swim in the dark ocean filled with monsters?"

"... We can find other ways," Sauros said.

"Not today, I guess," Aion said and then shrugged. "I will do it. We can't waste any more time here."

"We will offer you the necessary support," Seris said. "You have been far more helpful on this journey, after all."

"No need, I can hide my presence from monsters, and you saw before," Aion declared. "The monsters and the pirates won't even notice me going and leaving."

They had forgotten about that, but when they ambushed the ships, it felt like Aion suddenly disappeared in front of them. They knew that Aion wasn't someone normal, but could only Wonder how the heck he learned such a technique.

"Well, I am going to take a quick nap to recover and be prepared for what definitely won't happen," Aion said.

"And that would be…" Sauros asked.

"Me screwing up with the mission," Aion replied after he turned around.

"Sauros…" Seris said with a severe expression on her face.

"I know, we are relying too much on him…" Sauros said. "I guess I should treat this mission like my last since I always end up giving him some difficult tasks and end up letting him almost overwork himself."

"While we invited him, it is pretty embarrassing how much he is covering our backs," Seris said while looking at the ocean. "If you are going to retire, I have no idea who will take your place. We are losing face in front of our underlings, but it isn't like anyone else can do a better job…"

"We barely are halfway through this mission and are already owing him too many favors," Seris said. "Considering how he is interested in certain subjects that our people studied over the years, perhaps we could give him the results of our research. It isn't like he is thirsting for world domination."

"I trust him. The real problem is time," Sauros said. "We can't take our research from our base, and Aion has his mother and his obligations… Well, this is a problem for the future. He is so dependable that we already think that we won't fail on this mission."

Those two left for the Captain's cabin since they had work to do. While Aion was going to find the entrance, they had to make sure that their attack would be perfect since they would be outnumbered once the fight started…