Close Combat Mage

Broken sails, shattered boards, the ocean waters…

A small, destroyed sailboat floated along the surface of ripping sea. The white sails had already been shredded into strips, dancing in the wind like a streamer. The deck and cabin of the ship could not be more broken. Although small ships like these were not too common, they definitely existed. Typically speaking, these were seen as ghost ships!

“Report!” While Suo Jia was inside his cabin concentrating on creating scales, the echo of someone reporting rang out from outside. “We’ve spotted a ghost ship in front, should we conduct a search?”

“Ghost ship?” Suo Jia’s eyes couldn’t help but brighten at this. He had once read records about ghost ships a very long time ago, but this would be his first time ever encountering one first-hand.

A ghost ship did not have people on it, and the items stored on them were typically organized and tidy. Most ghost ships had large amounts of treasures, but…typically speaking, a mariner would never dare to search one. According to legends, ghost ships were ships that had been taken over by evil spirits, an ominous sign.

However, over the years of Suo Jia’s life, he had seen seemingly everything except for ghosts. Moreover…even if he did meet one, so what? Suo Jia did not even fear the living, so how could he be afraid of spirits that were just intangible wisps?

After thinking this, Suo Jia nonchalantly stored away the scales and declared, “Bring me over immediately. This time, I will be the one to personally search the ghost ship!” As he spoke these words, he strode out from the cabin.

When Suo Jia saw the tattered flagship across from them, his heart automatically began to race. Breathing in some of the sea breeze, Suo Jia suddenly jumped up, crossing horizontally through the sky to descend down from the space above the ship.

Thud. Both of his feet landed on the small ship. He scanned the area closely; although the ship was very run-down, it gave off a feeling of familiarity to Suo Jia.

Suo Jia knit his brows together and pondered over this for a long while. Finally, his eyes lit up. This ship seemed pretty much identical to the ship they had steered out from the second checkpoint. The more he looked at it, the more similarities he saw. By the end of his inspection, Suo Jia seriously suspected this was the ship they had previously abandoned.

To confirm his suspicion, Suo Jia walked towards the main body of the ship. As expected…even the layout of the body was identical. He casually pushed open the captain’s quarters, which was where Suo Jia had previous stayed…and immediately, a familiar sight appeared before his eyes.

Although the exterior was in shambles, the inside in the same state it had been in since the beginning. Suo Jia brushed his hand past the furniture he knew so well, and couldn’t help but feel a myriad of regret when he recalled how he had spent his days in this cabin back then, how unreasonably foolish he had been.

In this exact ship, Suo Jia had spent several weeks inside this cabin. He had not been training nor planning the group’s future; the entire time, since the moment the ship had first left the shore, Suo Jia had been pining for that woman who had moved his soul!

Suo Jia shut his eyes in pain. The emotions of longing and desire that had originally been hidden deep inside his heart were now starting to resurface outside of his control. He recalled that smile on the face of that beautiful, green-haired girl, her image materializing in his mind once more.

“Sigh…” Suo Jia let out a soft sigh as he opened his eyes in disappointment. However…he immediately dropped his jaw open in shock. Although he had opened his eyes, that figure with a beautiful smile had still not disappeared from his vision. Currently…she was looking at him with tears in her eyes.

……

To execute her plan, Miya had stepped out for a bit after Suo Jia had left. She had not expected for Suo Jia to leave so early. However…by the time Miya had returned to the village, she had been shocked to discover that Suo Jia’s party had already departed!

With lack of better option, Miya could only hire two sailors to navigate the ship out to see in pursuit of Suo Jia’s party. However, the ocean was so vast that finding a small ship without knowing its course was no different from searching for a needle amidst the ocean.

Originally, it was fine. Although they had not caught up to Suo Jia, the sea had been very calm. But as time passed, the ship Miya was on finally encountered a storm two months later. Her two sailors had been killed in the storm, and the ship had been decimate to an extremely horrible state. The body of the ship still had hundreds of holes in it, and the sail had been ripped to shreds.

For a month, Miya had been drifting randomly with the waves in despair, watching the horizon from that little ship every day, hoping to bump into a crew out at sea who could rescue her. However…even after the ship’s rations and water had been completely finished, she still had not spotted a single trace of a ship.

Two more weeks had passed. Although Miya’s strength was at a ridiculously crazy level, she was so weak now that her conscious was starting to become a blur after not eating for two weeks. After all, food was a necessity regardless of how strong a person was.

Just when she was about to perish, a powerful wind suddenly blew the sails out, and a cluster of enormous white clouds suddenly materialized on the horizon. At first, Miya had thought they were just clouds. However, as time gradually passed, an indescribably grand and magnificent fleet of gigantic ships gradually appeared before her.

When Miya saw the unimaginably huge ships, she couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement. However…to her despair, those ships simply passed by without paying any mind to the small, ruined boat.

Originally, Miya would have cried out for help. But after two weeks of starvation, she no longer had the strength to shout, and she could only powerlessly watch the boats all slip past.

Week after week, the ships that appeared next to Miya gradually increased in number. Boats of various sizes would constantly float past. The issue was that all of them drove straight past, as if they had not spotted the little boat at all.

Finally, after three weeks had passed and Miya’s consciousness was already on the verge of disappearing and she was blankly staring outside the window to gaze at the ocean, waiting for her death…an endless line of white slowly appeared along the horizon.

Miya watched in amazement as the white line approached closer. It was as if she was watching the arrival of an imminent storm, but…as the white line neared her, Miya finally realized that…it wasn’t a storm, but a fleet!

In all her years, Miya had witnessed unspeakable wealthiness…but such a massive fleet was something that she had never even dreamed of before. She could not even count how many large ships there were. They were currently lined up in the incomprehensible shape of a “人”. The ships literally covered the heavens and the seas; even on such expansive and vast ocean waters, this fleet still took up a good majority of that space!

Stunned, Miya watched the fleet steer closer. She was not planning on keeping any hopes up, but when she a figure she knew very well leap up from the flagship and land on the deck of her ship, she felt as if she was in a dream.

After a while, that familiar figure lightly pushed the door open. He blankly stood at the doorway in a daze, not noticing Miya standing behind the door as he spaced out.

Ecstatic, Miya gritted her teeth and walked up to the person sporting a face she knew well. Finally, she could no longer continue holding back the hot tears now rolling down her face. Having suffered so much, been punished so much, and nearly lost her life, the person Miya had been searching for had finally appeared before her.

While Miya was feeling both delighted and grieved, choked up with emotions and unable to speak, the male in front of her reached out his palm. Seemingly in a daze, he murmured, “Heavens, am I dreaming again? Why…why do you only appear in my dreams? You said before that we would meet again, but where are you now?”

Miya was moved by the male’s words, and after a moment of stunned silence, she leapt into Suo Jia’s arms. She had never possibly imagined that the boy whom she had only meant face-to-face once would actually think about her like so. Such a precious feeling was even more unforgettable after floating alone amidst the waves for so long. To think that there was actually someone in this world that she could feel so intimate with…

Miya hugged the boy tightly as she sobbed, “You scoundrel, why didn’t you wait for me before heading out? If you run away like that, how am I supposed to find you!”

Suo Jia could not get enough of hugging the soft woman in his embrace, with the scent of her familiar aroma. It took a while before Suo Jia abruptly snapped out of it, his body stiffening in shock as he rigidly said, “Wait-wait-wait! Do ghosts really exist in this world?”ƒ𝒓e𝐞we𝚋𝙣ｏ𝚟𝚎𝘭.co𝙢

He thought back to the records that he had read from books in the past. Apparently…ghost ships could hold bewitching ghosts. The instant one stepped onto a ghost ship, these ghosts could trap the person into an illusion. If one liked money, then a large amount of money would appear on the boat. If one pined for a specific person, then that person would materialize. After sinking deep inside [the illusion], one would unknowingly end up wasting away amidst their contentment.

Suo Jia pushed away the girl in his arms in shock, backpedaling frantically as he shouted in fear, “Oi! Are you a ghost’s illusion? Let me warn you, even though this woman materialized here is indeed the one engraved into my heart, I…I…”