Chapter 211 Within The Darkness

"Well then, I am going," Aion said after sunset. "If I don't return in a few hours, don't get worried. It just means that I decided to take on all the enemies on my own."

"We should be ten kilometers away from the location that guy mentioned, and such distance must be too big even for you. Maybe we should get closer," Seris said. "We can't stay invisible, after all."

"We shouldn't risk it. If you get too close, the ship will have a hard time maneuvering if the enemies approach. Even you all will have a hard time finding them in this darkness," Aion said. "Just wait here patiently."

"All right… don't get careless, and don't rush it. Return if something unexpected happens." Sauros said. "Good luck."

Aion nodded, and then he jumped into the ocean. The water was pretty cold, but his body stayed warm since he was swimming. He soon activated Furtivity, and he disappeared from everyone's sight.

Everything in all directions was insanely dark, so Aion felt really weird. Aside from the feeling given by the water, Aion felt like he was swimming like in the emptiness of space. It was truly a weird feeling and quite unsettling.

Since there were no landmarks around, Aion quickly lost the notion of time. Sometimes he felt that he didn't move even a bit, but that was obviously wrong since he was using magic to help. He wasn't a triathlon practitioner to swing ten kilometers with his strength alone, afer all.

"Hmm?" Aion frowned when he felt a weird presence ahead. "Is it already here?"

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Aion used a bit more of his mana, and he confirmed that there was a barrier ahead. The weird thing was the fact that the barrier didn't affect the water… Aion could see it coming and going like nothing was there. In any case, he didn't feel anything odd with the barrier in that part… there must be an entrance somewhere, one that is big enough for ships.

Aion's hard work continued as he began to swim around the barrier. Since it was supposed to protect an island big enough to work as a hideout for who knows how many ships, Aion knew that the place would be massive, but not to the point that he would have to swing for one hour to just surround one-fourth of the whole barrier.

"I could speed things up by changing classes since there are no signs of monsters here. They must be hunted pretty often…" Aion thought.

Still, that was too risky… Letting the operations fail and lose the surprise factor out of sheer recklessness would be stupid. So, Aion just kept going like that…

In the end, it took two more hours for Aion to find an opening in the barrier. It was weird since he couldn't see anything while looking at it… it wouldn't be weird if some barriers could show fake images, but the whole situation was way too convenient for the pirates.

"I suppose I need to check it instead of just bringing everyone here directly," Aion thought.

Aion got a bit nervous, but he still went ahead and passed through the hole in the barrier, and he didn't feel anything. Much to his surprise, Aion saw a weird island in front of him… while it was night, the trees were emitting quite a bit of light. It was because of the yellow gems that they stole during their many attacks. Still, they were spending recklessly.

Although Aion had never heard of them capturing people, he saw several cages around, and some people on chains were working for the pirates. Some of them were cleaning and cooking food while others were dancing for the pirates who were drinking… considering that some of their ships left earlier to investigate, Aion assumed that they would be more on guard, but his guess was wrong.

"I guess they aren't taking the situation seriously…" Aion thought. "They have around thirty ships here, and their base was never found… I suppose I can assume that they recruit the pirates they can trust and reveal the existence of this place… that or maybe they are descendants of the pirates that discovered this place."

He had the chance to destroy the ships right now, Aion just had to aim for the keels, but he decided to retreat for the time being. It was around midnight, so attacking a few hours later would be a better option since those guys definitely aren't morning people. Still, it will be hard to defeat so many of them, and that will have to be done by Sauros and the others since Aion will deal with the ships.

Aion retreated and then looked to the position of the stars to tell which direction he came from. Sauros taught him a few tricks on how to do that effectively. Still, he had to find a way to mark the right position of the entrance without making anything too obvious. In the end, Aion summoned the earth mage, which caused him some problems when he rescued his mother. He made him fly above the entrance on an earth platform. As long as he doesn't move, he won't consume too much mana, after all.

After changing his class, Aion returned to the Breeze of the Sea at full speed and while flying. He already had enough experience swimming at night for a lifetime. When he returned, he saw the ship not using its invisibility, and with the others waiting for him, they sure were a reckless bunch. The agreement was that they would undo it only when they saw him approaching.

"I found it," Aion said after he landed on the deck.

Aion didn't waste time and began to explain what he saw. In the end, the behavior of the pirates only made everyone's blood boil. Without wasting any more time, the whole group began to prepare for battle, and against those odds, a lot of resources ended up being used…