Seed Of Speed

"Diego! Come quick! It's a school of violet-fin tuna!" Lyno shouted from the bow of the boat.

Diego wiped the sweat from his brow as he placed his spear on the rack attached to the mast and walked over to Lyno and Qujan, the former passing over a harpoon with a rope on the end.

"Same rules as last time, the biggest catch gets the night off from chores?" Diego asked with a light smile.

"Now, now, don't act all high and mighty. Your daddy over here has been going easy on you, on account of your injury, but we are two weeks out now and you haven't done a single chore," Qujan, the plumb fisherman, chuckled as he patted his b.a.r.e c.h.e.s.t.

"I've just accepted it. With you around, there's always enough food, so I'm not complaining," Lyno said as he perched a foot on the railing and examined the fish below.

Both Lyno and Qujan were at the Seven Stage of the Mortal Body while Diego's body strength, without chi to reinforce it, was on the lower end of a Fifth Stage, Mortal Body cultivator. During the first few days, when there was not fish to catch or something else to do, Diego had taken the chance to spar with the two men to see just how far he had fallen, but he had actually surprised himself.

While he had lost the ability to use any of his skills, he found his Spear-Intent could recreate some of the effects, and he realized what his master meant when he said the Way of the Spear was still open to him. He could not match their strength or speed entirely, but his reaction time, experience, and Spear-Intent made his victories rather easy. After making that discovery and having the thought of wanting to improve his Spear-Intent, a unique Timed Mission appeared.

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Timed Mission Acquired!

Before your dantian recovers, improve your mastery over your Spear-craft!

- Every point earned in {Spear-craft}, from now until your recovery, will be doubled!

-Remaining time: 5 months, 26 days, 8 hours, 57 minutes, 22 seconds

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Without someone like Swordflash to spar with, he thought it might be difficult to raise his mastery since it was much harder than to train than grinding out some of his skills or spells, but the manipulation of his Spear-Intent proved to be what he had always been missing. Moving his Intent was not like moving his chi which the system could control for him manually, and he began to wonder if he had been too reliant on it.

Too many times on this journey his thoughts would turn dark, and after he ran out of wine he would share with Kang Chen, he was left with his mission to focus on instead. At any time of the day, or middle of the night, Diego could be found practicing, often until he dropped.

Lyno and Qujan never asked what was troubling him, but Qujan, in particular, would give a knowing look when Diego would collapse from exhaustion, just to try to pull himself back up. Instead, they both made attempts to include him with the fishing, or a game of cards, which Diego appreciated.

Lyno was the first to haul in his catch, a large seventy-nine-kilogram violet-fin tuna, and Qujan dragged in his eighty-five kilograms fish. While both men had more experience picking the larger fish, Diego's advantage laid in coating his harpoon with Spear-Intent and piercing through two or three fish with a single throw. This time, however, he managed to pull in four with help from Lyno, they were all around fifty kilograms.

"Damn it all! I'm using two harpoons next time," Qujan grumbled as stormed off.

Lyno chuckled as he helped Diego bring the fish to the stern where Qujan would clean them and portion the meat. Lyno would grill up a few pieces for them to eat tonight while the rest be turned into jerky to preserve it for the journey.

"While we do all the work, again, why don't you play us something," Qujan said, still grumbling.

"If you don't wanna lose, don't bet," Lyno laughed as he kicked Qujan stool and sat at his normal spot next to him.

Diego pulled out his keyboard and set it up on its stand then sat on his usual box. Since he was sailing, he thought might as well have some fun and played "Come Sail Away" by Styx.

"I'm sailing away, set an open course for the v.i.r.g.i.n sea

Cause I've got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me

On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard

We'll search for tomorrow on every shore

And I'll try, oh Lord, I'll try to carry on

I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory

Some happy, some sad

I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had

We lived happily forever, so the story goes

But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold

But we'll try best that we can to carry on

A gathering of angels appeared above my head

They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said

They said come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me now

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me now

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me

I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise

We climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skies

Singing come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me now

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away with me

Come sail away, come sail away

Come sail away, come sail away…"

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Under the full moon light, a figure was dancing about the bow of a ship to a fevered beat. Faster and faster, the spear in his hands flashed about, releasing colorless waves of power from the tip. When he reached the crescendo, he stabbed the spear into the air above and seven bolts of Spear-Intent shot straight up.

Diego stumbled back and fell onto his b.u.t.t with exhaustion. He was covered with sweat and breathing heavily, but there was a light smile on his face. He had finally got the hang of using Spear-Intent in lieu of his chi. He still could not match his former power, but when he did recover his chi, his strength would likely make a quantum leap.

Qujan had been sitting on the stern of the ship, tending the wheel, but had practically fallen asleep at this point. This month at sea had been the longest the old fisherman had ever spent, and with another still to go, he had fallen into to the lull of the routine. The Likho Sea was not popular due to the dangers magic could bring, so even pirates would rarely sail these waters.

When Diego had recovered some of his energy, he stood up, storing away his spear, and walked over to Qujan. His footsteps awoke the old fisherman, who chuckled and pulled out a strip of fish jerky to chew on.

"What do you make of those clouds?" Diego asked as he passed him to lean on the railing.

Qujan turned around and peered out into the night sky. Far on the horizon, dark clouds were starting to gather and grow. He moved next to Diego with a frown and his arms crossed.

"Why do I get the feeling the desert is chasing you?" Qujan asked.

"It might be," Diego replied dryly.

Qujan gave a snot and said, "Go wake up Lyno. That storm's going to catch up with at soon rather than later if our sail is still closed."

Diego nodded and trotted over to the main hold of the ship. He opened the trapdoor and dropped down the meter and a half to the floor. It was short and filled with a number of crates, but it was also a perfect place to string up a hammock.

"Lyno, storm's brewing in the east. Qujan says wake up and get the sail open," Diego shouted into the darkness.

There was a groan followed quickly by Lyno's sleepy voice, "Alright, I'll be topside in a minute."

Diego hopped out of the hole and walked over to the sail. He started untying a few ropes while he waited for Lyno and then they both hoisted the sail with a pulley. The whole ship rocked as the cloth caught the wind and the ship began to move faster.

(So, why again is magic forbidden in this region?) Diego asked silently.

::Mandu Nolie Leeches: about the size of a finger, but able to drill through solid bone and wood alike. They typically dwell deep underwater, near the floor where elemental crystals naturally form, but can easily be drawn to the surface of the water if they detect any mana. Once a single one locks onto 'prey', it will chase it for over a hundred kilometers while drawing in every other leech it passes::

(Couldn't I just fry them with electricity?)

::As something that eats mana to live, do you really think magic will work against them?::

(Touché.)

Diego could hear Katalina's chuckle in his mind. Since using magic to escape the storm was truly out of the question, he could only wait and see how strong this storm would be. Although this was the largest fishing boat from the village, the idea of facing a storm in it was more than a little worrisome for Diego.

Even in his past life, he had never been sailing before and he had always heard how dangerous it could be for a small vessel. While this world had magic and chi, with magic being out of the question here, this ship was not much better than a 12th century cog ship.

"Relax, we are in open waters. If we were back home, we'd have to deal with the Shark Fang Rocks or the coral, but we have nothing to hit out here," Lyno assured.

("Yeah, well, I'm a magnet for trouble,") Diego thought to himself.

A few hours later, the sea had turned dark and uninviting as the clouds swallowed the moon. The winds had been picking up the closer the storm came, but when the waves started to grow larger than the boat, Lyno and Diego took over control of the sail at Qujan's order.

"Pull 'em closed, damnit!" Qujan shouted over the roar of the wind as he fought the wheel to turn the ship left.

Diego and Lyno were both pulling on their ropes as fast as they could, but the wind fought to keep the sail open. The bow of the ship crashed into large wave, breaking it, as water splashed across the deck. They managed to wrestle the sail closed, but they had to keep ahold of the ropes, or it would be ripped opened again.

"Half-mast!" Qujan shouted.

"Diego, go first!" Lyno yelled.

As the one with the weaker strength, Diego needed to go first in case he lost control, Lyno would have the strength to keep his side down. Another wave crashed across the ship, but not as cleaning as before, sending a torrent of water across the deck. When the water hit him, Diego's feet were knocked out from under which caused him to get dragged upwards with the rope as his half of the sail was ripped open.

"Diego!" Lyno and Qujan shouted.

"I'm fine!" Diego yelled back as he dropped to the ground then dashed back to the pulley he was manning.

He jumped back on the rope and yanked it back down. Diego was able to get the sail back down to half-mast and then Lyno moved his side. They were forced to fight this back and forth game with the storm while Qujan did his best to the ship upright, but the storm was not passing fast.

Unlike the other two, Diego could not use chi to increase his endurance and, while his Seed of Speed could regenerate his stamina and repair any muscle strain indefinitely, it put a strain on his mind. After nearly two hours into the storm and the ship caught a bad wave, Diego slipped again, but this time, he lost his grip on the rope.

Diego was thrown back and slammed hard into the railing, causing it to crack. He tried to pull himself up, but his mind felt like it was drowning in quicksand, making his movements clumsy and slow. The ship was hit by another wave, but on the side he was on this time. Although he managed to grab the railing, it completely broke and he was carried away with the wave then washed overboard.

He could hear Lyno and Qujan shouting, but Diego had taken a hit to the head in the tumble and was just focusing on keeping ahold of the chuck of wood. Another wave hit him and pushed him underwater. When he broke the surface again, the ship was even further away.

"I should have freaking known!" Diego cursed as he accepted his fate and was pulled out to sea.