Chapter 643: When the Kraken Awakens

Twelve hours had passed since they entered Beacon Area Two. The waters were calm, and the streets were heavy with fog. There were no violent waves, no rain. Everything was quiet and unsettling at the same time.

Luke stood on deck between bow and stern, close to the mainmast so he could reach the crow’s nest quickly if he had to. He was watching Stephen work in his open-air lab.

“It’s impressive how you manage all that without spilling anything,” Luke said.

“I spent a good chunk of what my ex-wife didn’t take on this equipment,” Stephen replied. “Most of it’s enchanted. Keeps things from spilling, keeps them from getting contaminated. Even the barrels are magical. You can shake them around and the liquid inside stays stable. Perfect for delicate mixtures.”

“I’m not sure watching my father work is actually helping you, Luke,” Jack said.

“He’s a great alchemist,” Luke answered.

“I do my best. Thanks for not judging me, Luke. You know how to appreciate the craft.”

Luke had tried to pick up some potion knowledge from Stephen before, but the man’s specialty leaned in a very different direction.

“I was interested in that special liquid you made,” Luke said. “The one that turned into something dangerously flammable. Would something like that work against enemies with ice powers?”

“Ice powers, huh...” Stephen muttered, staring at the alembic while he thought.

The Rhiannons carried a legendary bloodline tied to ice. If Queen Rhiannon wanted, she could probably summon a storm around herself. Whenever he had the chance, Luke tried to imagine how he would fight that family. Most of it, he based on what he had learned from watching Allison’s abilities.

“What I did back then was more of a high-end alchemical trick,” Stephen said at last. “That’s because my specialty is drink-making, and you know me. I like alcohol, not battles. But with my profession level and what I know, I can make things that get dangerous very fast.”

He smelled something and grimaced.

“Is it bad?” Luke asked.

“Bad? No. It’s perfectly right.”

“What is it, Dad?” Jack asked.

“Rum, my son. A drink most people associate with pirates.” He smiled faintly. “And I know a thing or two about rum.”

Stephen plunged a hand into a barrel of water and shaped it into a glass bottle. Then he pulled a stone from his pocket and transmuted it into a cork. He had plenty of barrels filled with rum.

“One of little Stephen’s greatest mysteries in life, back then, was how alcoholic drinks were made,” he said, his voice touched with nostalgia. “So one day I learned about rum. It comes from sugarcane. Sometimes it’s made from the fresh juice pressed from the cane, and sometimes from molasses, the thick syrup left over from making sugar.”

He tipped a barrel and worked the spigot, filling several glass bottles one by one.

“That juice or molasses is mixed with water and left to ferment, and the sugar turns into alcohol. Amazing, isn’t it?”

He lifted one of the bottles, inhaled its scent, then sealed it with the cork.

“The hardest part was pulling the alcohol out once it was mixed with the water. How do you get it out?”

“Vapor,” Luke answered.

“Exactly.” Stephen pointed at him. “If you heat the liquid, that’s when the magic starts. The alcohol turns to vapor more easily than the water does. All you have to do is capture that vapor and condense it back into liquid form. That gives you a strong distilled spirit. That’s what stills are for. We separate and concentrate the alcohol.”

He took a swig from one of the bottles and immediately twisted his mouth in disgust.

“Well, boys, once that’s done, you’ve got rum. You can drink it right away, or you can let it rest in a barrel and age properly, give it more depth, more flavor. The whole process is alchemy in its own way.”

“Very clever, Mr. Harper,” Luke said. “I once had to study different trades and how they could seem magical without actually relying on magic. I read a little about alcohol.”

“But why is rum a pirate drink?” Jack asked.

“Because sugarcane was everywhere in the Caribbean,” Stephen replied. “That’s where piracy had its golden age. A lot of Caribbean colonies were built around sugarcane, so rum became extremely common. Pirates smuggled it, sure, but they also drank it because they needed it.”

“Needed it?” Jack asked.

“There were no refrigerators or magic back then, Jack,” Stephen said. “They stored water in barrels as supplies. But after months at sea, when they opened those barrels to drink, you know what happened?”

“The water tasted awful,” Luke said. “Store water in a wooden barrel long enough and microorganisms start getting into it, not to mention whatever filth was already inside the barrel. Basically, the water turned nearly undrinkable.”

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“And that’s where rum came in. Alcohol held up a lot better, so it didn’t go bad the way water did. That’s why pirates drank rum. They also mixed rum into their water to make it taste better. See? Drinks save lives, and they tell stories too,” Stephen said.

“I can’t believe rum got its reputation... because of that all along,” Jack said.

“Not that pirates didn’t enjoy drinking. But their shitty water made them sick. Rum helped keep them from getting explosive diarrhea every time they drank bad water,” Stephen said with a laugh.

The conversation gradually died away. The fog was thickening. They all fell quiet out of caution. Stephen extinguished the flame under his equipment.

“Pirates didn’t make rum on ships,” he whispered while the wood creaked around them. They were passing through a narrow street lined with tall buildings, watching the empty structures, alert for anything that might jump down from them. “Too much risk of explosions and accidents. Spilled liquor, fire, burning wood. But then magic came along. Problem solved.”

The waterway there was clogged with floating timber and scraps of sails. Jack swallowed hard when they saw the wreck of a ship drifting nearby.

“Kraken?” he asked, barely above a whisper.

“Probably,” Luke said.

But then they started seeing more. And more. Destroyed ships everywhere.

Luke moved to his new post. Inside the ship, Artemis was talking with Charlie. Evangeline was staying with Anne. When he got there, Eleanor was already standing watch with her bow in hand. The ship was moving slowly now, trying not to draw the kraken’s attention.

“See anything strange?” Luke asked as he came up beside her.

“Other than the fact we’re in this creepy place? No. Everything’s quiet. Too quiet. It’s just all this stuff floating around now,” she said, gesturing toward the shipwreck debris. “The notification said the Kraken makes its home in Area 2. And I’m guessing these wrecks mean...”

“That we’re in the part of its territory where it hunts the most,” Luke finished. “Yeah. I noticed.”

The graveyard of ships was not scenery. It was a warning.

“Were these wrecks already part of the dungeon,” she wondered aloud, “or were they other challengers?”

After that, Eleanor climbed back to Luke’s previous position in the crow’s nest. Luke stayed there, watching the water. A few minutes later, Charlie approached him.

“Here. Your necklace back, Master Luke.”

She handed Artemis over. Luke put it back around his neck.

“End of girl talk,” Artemis said.

“We’re halfway through the challenge. That’s good, Master Luke. There are still two and a half days left,” Charlie said.

“Yes. And if we finish, we’ll still have plenty of time to reach the next Beacon without rushing.”

“And time... for us to be together more,” Charlie added, a little embarrassed. “We found each other again, but it feels like everything’s been moving so fast.”

For Luke, it would have been easy to spend the whole event in some safe place, just waiting for 51 to end. But something bigger kept driving him forward. The chance to learn anything, anything at all, about Elizabeth Moon. And for that, he needed to win the event.

“And to wait for Angie too,” Charlie said.

“I’m worried about her too,” he admitted. “I know she’s strong. I know she can handle herself. But I suspect she wasn’t sent to the same region of Sunken Realms as we were. If she had been, then knowing her, she would’ve caught up with us by now.”

As they watched the fog, something cut through it and emerged.

“A ship,” Charlie said.

Friend or enemy?

Luke glanced toward Eleanor, who already had her bow in hand. Then the ship suddenly turned at an angle.

“Cursed ship,” Luke warned. There was nobody aboard. Not even at the helm.

A second later, the cannons fired. Eleanor’s arrow flew out and burst into a massive sphere of wind, knocking the cannon fire off course.

Layla came running. “That’s going to alert the Kraken!”

Their ship turned hard as Anne steered them into a narrow street, away from the open water.

“We don’t have a choice,” Luke said, bow in hand. He conjured an [Acid Blood Arrow] and fired.

More cannon fire came in, and Eleanor blocked it again. Luke’s arrow struck the ship. He conjured two more and loosed them in quick succession. The cursed vessel disappeared into a cloud of acid.

More cannons thundered behind them, but they were already entering the street.

“Why didn’t you just blow that thing up?” Layla asked.

“Because if I do that, we’re finished. The vibration from an explosion in the water would absolutely draw the creature,” Luke said from the front of the ship, raising his voice toward the others.

The acid cloud will eat through the wood, and more importantly, the sails. Can a cursed ship still move without sails?

That was something he was about to find out.

“The ship... will... follow us...” Anne said at the helm.

“I know. That’s why I have a plan.”

“Do you think the cannon fire drew it in, Cinderella?” Evangeline asked.

Or the cannonballs falling into the water?

“The only way to avoid a ship-to-ship fight is to go to them first,” Luke said.

He pointed one hand downward and conjured a [Teleportation Pentagram].

“I’ll go through the buildings.”

“I’m coming too,” Evangeline said.

Then a sound rolled across the city. Loud.

A kind of roar, but nothing like a beast in the jungle. More like a whale’s cry dragged through a throat full of gravel and something far worse. Then came a heavy, violent impact. Everyone aboard Luke’s ship went silent.

“K-Kraken?” Jack said, stumbling closer.

“Stop the ship,” Luke said.

[Your title Myth Slayer has activated its skill!]

[A mythological creature is near you! Good luck with your hunt!]