45 Land in sigh

Once Mike finished convincing Julie she weren't fat it was time for his 3rd fight, he stood up and walked into the ring and was faced with a man in his 40's that he had seen sitting next to the organizer of the fighting tournament and immediately got a bad feeling

"I surrender"

Mike walked back to his seat admits booing and sat down next to Julie and spoke to her

"Be careful of that one… I feel that's the closest I have been to dying in a while"

A red light flashed in Julie's eyes before she gave a nod

"Got it"

After Julie made another person surrender she was picked as the number one in the tournament with the other four that were left being given the option to challenge her for the number one spot, unsurprisingly the man that Mike had surrendered to was the only one to challenge her confirming Mike's suspicions that he was level 4

"Be careful Julie"

Julie stood face to face with the man in the ring with a confident smile on her face, the man spoke

"Don't hold back now, it's been a long time since I have have had a decent workout"

Julie didn't respond she just waited for the signal to start and as soon as it came they both moved at speeds that were unimaginable for a level 3, at this moment the crowds realized that they were both level 4 and the man had been hiding his strength the whole tournament, the two clashed both wielding one handed swords and at the moment it looked like the man had the advantage in strength as he pushed back Julie slightly before she broke the lock and began circling the man at high speed using the passive effect of her [Hellwalker] skill to max effect as she struck out against him from all sides with her wooden sword, the man looked like he was struggling until he was forced to use a skill

"[Viper senses]!"

As he used his skill his eyes turned an eerie shade of yellow before he suddenly seemed to be able to keep up with Julie's speed and even lunch counter attacks at her and then suddenly he used another skill

"[Heavy blow]!"

Julie sensed the incoming danger and instead of parrying the strike she twisted her body thereby dodging with a paper thin margin before she then stepped out of the man's range, the man showed a superior smirk as he spoke

"Surrender or don't, makes no difference to me I'll still beat you up"

Julie narrowed her eyes and then suddenly lowered her wooden sword before she spoke

"Surrender or my next strike might kill you"

The man's eyes twitched slightly before he asked in a low voice

"You dare threaten me!?"

Then without waiting for Julie's next words he kicked off the ground and charged at Julie that gave a smirk and muttered

"[Hellwalker]"

At that moment the shadow of the man seemed to come alive and suddenly turned into countless shadow beasts that bit and clawed into his legs making him fall over forwards, at the same time Julie stabbed out with her wooden sword, the tip of which landed right on the man's throat even sinking in somewhat deciding the winner of this match, Julie stood amidst cheers, as for the man that now was choking on his own blood no one paid him any attention and let him expire on his own, Julie walked over to the woman that had organized the tournament and pointed her wooden sword at her before she spoke

"Money. Now."

The pale faced woman trembled and bit her lip before she unwillingly handed over a pouch with the competition money in it to Julie while she mentally cursed her…

Time passed and after 'celebrating' with Julie for most of the night Mike declined Her 3'rd invitation to 'snuggle' he left the cabin and went up on deck to wash off, when he walked up on the deck he was jumped by Serina that missed some attention and so after being washed off first by her face licking he walked over to the water plant in the back end of the ship with Serina following behind him and pumped some water into a bucket before he took off his shirt and washed up

'Man I miss a proper shower… Or a bathtub with hot water, that would work too…'

Mike had gotten into the habit of washing up with this world's tools, he just didn't enjoy it, he missed the proper tools, that being warm water mostly… That would go a long way

'It would be cool if I could use magic to warm water, or mana for that matter… just like those formations on the igniter paper…'

Mike thought about it for sometime but nothing came of it so in the end he just shook his head and decided to leave it be for the time being

'I don't have the basic knowledge needed to make my own formations… And it seems like I could get pretty hurt experimenting with my shallow knowledge on the field…'

Mike put his shirt back on and then decided to spend what was left of the night on the deck along with Serina which she was overjoyed for…

The next morning Mike was woken by Julie that shock him slightly while she called out to him

"Mike… Wake up…"

Mike opened his eyes and looked blankly at Julie as if silently demanding an explanation as if to why she had ripped him out of his pleasant dreams, but Julie didn't pick up on this as she spoke in a hushed tone

"It's Elina… I think she's dead"

"Oh… wait a moment"

Mike closed his eyes again and felt his connection to Elina for a moment before he opened his eyes and spoke

"She's not dead"

"...Are you sure?"

"Yeah"

"Then come take a look at her will you?"

"...Sure, let me wash my face first"

After washing his face at the water plant Mike went below deck to cheek on Elina which he could still feel a connection to, but it seemed like she was deeply asleep and when he arrived at Rebecca and Elina's room he found out why, on the bed lay Elina, or rather what was left of her, her skin was sunken to her bones and had turned brown in one word she looked like a mummy when she lay all curled up on her side, just without the white wrapping as she lay there Mike could see how exactly Julie thought that she was dead but he stroked her sunken cheek and confirmed once more before he gave a nod

"She's hibernating"

Rebecca let out a sigh of relief, if it was Mike saying it then it must be true, Julie however didn't have the blind faith in MIke and asked him

"Do you have any idea how to wake her up?"

"Yeah, with blood"

"Oh… That makes sense"

"Yep, she's a blood zombie after all… Although I don't know what amount of blood would be needed for her to completely recover"

"...Looks like we need to find some blood as soon as we reach Thera…"

Mike gave a nod

"Yeah I am starting to get thirsty too, or rather the knife is"

"...I've got to say it's one weird magic weapon"

The day and then night passed uneventfully and soon the dawn broke, the ship would be arriving at Thera in the evening, Mike played around on the deck with Serina all day, getting her some much needed exercise, as for Molly the griffon she had been flying around within view of the ship the entire journey so there was no need to get her back in shape seeing as she already was in fighting from.

During the day the itch or rather thirst for blood got more intense, Mike could still endure it and some some of the more experienced people on the boat began avoiding Mike like the plague, they too could feel the thirst for blood that he was radiating, in the evening Mike laid on the deck with Serina besides him, she was too on her back with her four legs in the air while her tongue flopped out of the side of her mouth as she hyperventilated while she wagged her tail, she would almost be cute if not for the fact that she was a half ton murder machine. Just as Mike was going to head for the water plant the lookout yelled

"Land in sight!"

Mike looked towards the front of the ship and within a minute land appeared on the horizon, Mike gave a slight smile as he patted Serina on the side, she too was looking towards the land in the distance

'I wonder what Thera holds for me… Hopefully we will be able to make it to the dungeon and hit level 4 soon…'

As Mike's expectations built a slightly twisted smile crept up on his face as a red light flashed through his eyes