Smugglers

"Rudy, I'm glad to see you've secured us a boat, but do we have anyone who knows how to sail?", Roxy asked.

Elinalise and Tallhand both shook their heads 'no'.

"It's been many years, but I have some experience sailing", Ruijerd offered.

'Hmm... this is kind of awkward', I thought.

Truth be told, I mostly made the helm for aesthetic purposes. I can't say I know how steering systems in boats are supposed to work; I was just figuring on pushing us along with wind magic and using earth magic to steer the rudder.

"Uh... actually, the helm doesn't really control anything. I was going to just control the boat with magic."

"That's crazy, Rudy, you'll run out of mana and we'll be stranded out in the middle of the sea.'

"Don't worry, Master Roxy, it's not too far to Zant Port and even if I were to run out of mana, I could simply rest for the night and recover."

"This is far too reckless of a plan, I can't approve", Roxy complained.

"Hmm.. What if I prepared some oars in case of emergency?", I said as I conjured up six of them.

Everyone but Eris and Ruijerd still seemed hesitant.

"Trust me. I know I can do this."

"I have complete faith that Rudeus will get us to Zant Port without a problem", said Ruijerd.

"What? You don't trust your own student? Of course Rudeus can do it!", Eris added.

"Eh... I suppose so", Roxy caved. She still seemed a bit worried.

With Roxy's approval, we set sail. I began firing a steady stream of wind into the sail to propel our boat using the wind blast spell. It didn't take long for Eris to get sea sick. Roxy offered to use healing magic to heal her, but she didn't have the mana to do so continually for the entire trip.

"Rudeus... Heal me..." Eris looked completely miserable.

The rest of the trip I kept propelling the boat with wind magic using one hand, and used the other to heal Eris, occasionally adjusting the rudder to steer as well.

After about eight hours of continuous sailing, I could finally see land on the horizon.

"Land Ho!", I yelled.

"Hmm?", everyone just looked at me confused.

"Um. I see land up ahead."

I always wanted to yell that. I guess they don't have that custom here.

Everyone was excited, especially Tallhand. Like Eris, he also wasn't a big fan of travelling by boat. Eris meanwhile didn't have the energy to be excited. Despite my constant healing, she still felt miserable.

"Wow, you really did make it all the way across in one go. Aren't you tired, Rudy? You've been casting magic nonstop all day, I don't know how you're not out of mana."

"I never seem to run out of mana. Honestly, I could keep this up all day. I still need to sleep though, so yeah, I'd get tired eventually."

"It's unheard of for someone to have so much mana. You're not only talented, but also extremely blessed. I wouldn't be surprised if you became the most powerful mage in the world one day!", Tallhand remarked.

"It's true. I've never met anyone like Rudeus before. He's one of a kind", Ruijerd added.

Once we reached Zant Port, we all gathered our belongings and got off the boat. It was getting a bit late in the afternoon so we all decided to stay the night in town. Eris returned to her normal lively self the moment she set foot back on land.

The first thing we did was exchange some of our currency for that of the Millis Continent.

Next, we looked to reserve a room at one of the Inns. Nearly all of the Inns were full. The rainy season was nearly upon us, and unique monsters not normally seen in these parts appear only during the rainy season. Adventurers come from all over to harvest valuable materials from these monsters; this is why all of the Inns were packed. We rented two rooms at one of the priciest Inns in the city, as all of the moderately priced places were full.

"I'm going to stop by the Adventurer's Guild to check if Paul sent us any letters and to post one of my own in case he comes here", I announced to the group.

Nobody objected.

"I'll be back shortly, then we can get food."

I unpacked all of my things and left the Inn carrying nothing but the clothes on my back. I made my way to the docks and slipped inside a large building labeled 'Warehouse 3'. There was only one man inside the warehouse, quietly cleaning. I walked up to him.

"Hey kid! You shouldn't be here."

Instead of responding, I simply raised my right hand and pointed at him. I used gravity magic to lift him into the air and press him up against the wall with a decent amount of force.

"W-What is this!? How are you doing this? Who are you?"

I lifted my other hand in the air, pointing it at him. I fired off a stone cannon into the wall right beside his head. I then conjured another one and held it in the air, pointed directly at him while spinning furiously.

"You're going to guide me through your secret tunnel to the house in the woods where your organization bases its operations", I said calmly.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!", he protested.

"If you don't tell me, I'll simply kill you and find it myself. I know it's in one of these large boxes somewhere." The stone cannon began spinning so fast it was emitting a whirring noise.

"Okay! Okay! I'll show you! Just spare me!"

I released him from the gravity magic while maintaining my stone cannon. "Good. Take me there now. Hurry!"

"Yes!", he scrambled to his feet and cautiously guided me deeper into the warehouse. We approached a large wooden box, large enough to fit about five people inside. He pulled a torch from it, and the box opened up to reveal a staircase, descending down into the darkness.

I pointed down the stairs and commanded him, "Go down. You're coming with me."

The man lit his torch and proceeded down the stairs into a damp cave that narrowed into a tunnel. We walked further down the tunnel for nearly an hour. Finally, we left the cave and found ourselves in the middle of a forest. Apparently we were outside the city at this point. He continued to guide me through the forest until we reached a large building hidden behind thick rows of trees.

Once the building was in sight, I said "Thank you for your help."

Before the man could turn around or respond, I fired a stone cannon at him from behind, striking him in the head and killing him instantly. I'm not fond of killing when it can be avoided, but if I let even a single one of these men see me and escape, I'll be having to deal with assassins sent my way for years. I remember from my experience with the Milis Church after we stole their God-Tier spell. Also, these people were true scum. They kidnap children, beat and even kill them.

I walked up to the front door, and rather than knocking, I simply decided to blast the door off its hinges with wind magic. The only one I saw inside at the entrance was a white haired man in a butler's uniform. He was laying on the ground, dazed. It would seem he was struck my my wind magic. I finished him off with a stone cannon before he could come to his senses.

My eye of foresight saw an arrow come at me from the side. I fired another blast of wind in the direction to deflect it. There were three sleazy looking men in the corner of the room, all of them now laying down on the ground. I froze the three of them instantly with a powerful frost nova spell and then destroyed their frozen bodies with more stone cannon spells.

At this point I could hear a commotion coming from other parts of the building. There were a set of stairs heading up to the second floor as well as another going down into the basement.

I remembered that the slaves were held in cells in the basement so I decided to head there. While I was descending the stairs, I launched a powerful exodus flame spell back up into the first floor and quickly covered the stairwell entrance with a dense and thick earth wall to protect myself from the explosion.

There were still twelve more smugglers in the basement, but I made quick work of each of them using precise stone cannon strikes. One of them had attempted a sneak attack from around a corner, but my eye of foresight saw it coming and I used a water ball spell to soak the area on the ground and then cast electric at the water near the corner where he was waiting in ambush.

Once all of the guards had been taken out, I walked to the prison cells to find seven small beast children, including Minitona and Tersena, being held captive.

When I approached, they were terrified of me, growling and hissing at me as they backed into the corner.

"It's ok. I'm here to save you", I said in Beast God Tongue.

They were all surprised when I spoke to them and calmed down significantly. Several of them had bumps and bruises from their rough treatment. One girl had a broken rib and another a broken femur. One of the boys was crumpled up on the ground barely breathing. I treated all of them with healing magic.

"I'm going to take you back home. Could you please follow me?", I asked.

"Yes", Minitona answered.

On the way back out, I destroyed the magic crystal powering the barrier that imprisoned Leo; or I guess I should just refer to him as the sacred beast for now.

As soon as Leo was free he got up and stretched before pouncing on me and licking my face as thanks for freeing him. I gave him some scratches and pets until Minitona scolded me.

"I thank you for saving us, but you shouldn't do that to the Sacred Beast!"

"Okay, Okay." Leo settled down and we made our way to the stairs leading up out of the basement. I removed the earth wall I had conjured earlier and we were greeted with sunlight as the building above had been completely obliterated. In fact, the trees surrounding the building had been blown down from the explosion as well.

"What happened here?", Tersena asked.

"I used a fire magic spell to take care of the smugglers who had abducted you."

All the children looked around in awe of the sheer destruction. The entire house that once stood here had been leveled.

"Please follow me. I'll guide you to the nearby city. I'm sure your parents will come looking for you there."

"Yes! Thank you!", Minitona answered.

I guided the children back to Zant Port and we made our way to our Inn. I noticed several looks come our way as the kids were dressed like slaves in dirty robes, not to mention the sacred beast tagging along. It didn't take long for us to reach our Inn.

By now it was dusk and I'm sure everyone was worried as I've been gone for over two hours when I said I would be right back. I was trying to think of how to explain returning with all these beast children and this huge dog when I was just heading to the guild to post a letter, but ended up deciding I would just wing it.

Eris opened the door and froze when she saw the small horde of beast children. After a few seconds a huge smile appeared on her face and she yelled into the room, "Rudeus is back!"