"Hell yeah!" Adriana answered first, drawing her rifle from her back. She was the short-haired girl with a crazy love for guns and ammunition.

Her gun was no Treasure, but it was still lethal. Roseus knew that if it struck one of those sea zombies in the head with a bullet, the creature would fall.

The next person to ready themselves was Petyr, the feminine-looking fencer. His sword was thin as a needle, but everyone knew that when it came to blade work, he was the best.

The others also readied themselves, keeping their hands on their swords.

"I hope you have a good reason for this, my dear captain," Petyr said flamboyantly, as he twirled his sword in his hand stylishly.

"Just trust me... I wouldn’t take such a risk for no reason."

Roseus took in a deep breath as he lifted his hat over his head, then placed it atop his long red hair. Like before, the guidance line of his father appeared in his vision, followed by the strange sense that he was being watched.

As quickly as he possibly could, he focused on the effects of the Treasure.

[Rare Treasure Equipped]

[Captain Redeye’s Hat]

[Positive Effect I ~ When equipped with the entire Captain Redeye set, the wearer can see the path that he travelled through the sea.]

[Positive Effect II ~ When equipped with the entire Captain Redeye set, the wearer can view old scenes of the Redeye Pirates’ journeys once passing through locations of importance.]

[Negative Effect I ~ When equipped with the entire Captain Redeye set, the dangers of the sea target you.]

...

There it was. The second positive effect.

Roseus swiftly removed the hat from his head before he became the target of some deep-sea creature. He didn’t dare dwell on what the effect meant until he was certain that he was safe.

For a while, the crew was silent and on edge. All that could be heard were the groans of the ship and the splashes of the waves.

Roseus sighed in relief. He thought that he might be safe.

He thought wrong.

Suddenly, a series of banging noises came from somewhere beneath the deck, as though a group of creatures were attempting to break into the ship.

The impact wasn’t enough to wobble the ship, but it quickly spread throughout the entire hull. It felt like the creatures were rapidly moving from place to place, trying to find a weakness in the wood.

Roseus roared out to his crew. "Get ready! Whatever it is, there’s more than one of them!"

"..."

When he was answered with silence, he was confused. He looked around at his members.

Some were frozen in fear.

That was when Roseus realised only he and Kruger had probably ever seen the monsters of the sea.

The other members, especially those that were younger and lacked knowledge, were fearful of the unknown. Most particularly, Lucas One-Hand. The boy held his steel blade in a shaky hand, and his knees wobbled.

Roseus marched over to the kid and grabbed him roughly by the shirt.

"Pull yourself together, Lucas!"

"I-I can’t, we’re gonna die."

Die?

Roseus shoved the boy a bit too hard, and he fell onto his ass.

"If you think we’re gonna die, then at least go out fighting. Whatever that is down there is getting closer to the deck. It will only be moments before they—"

THUD

Roseus’s words were cut off as something wet slapped itself heavily onto the deck. Screams followed before he could even turn towards it.

By the time he had, a creature had Pip’s arm in its mouth, trying to eat the limb from her body.

The acrobatic young girl screamed as she tried to pry the creature off, but found no success.

BANG

A shot sounded and crashed into the creature’s neck with force, causing it to stumble backwards and fall over the ship’s railing, back into the ocean.

Through the darkness of night, Roseus was unable to make out exactly what the creature was before Adriana had already shot it with precise accuracy.

It didn’t matter. Not long afterwards, another one landed on the deck, and then another.

The first flew out of the water and landed right next to Petyr, the fencer.

The other landed right in front of Roseus and Lucas One-Hand.

He could see it perfectly now.

Its body was human-shaped, but small, like a child in their early teens. Its skin was grey and wrinkled due to a prolonged period spent in the sea. It was naked, but had no genitals to mark it as male or female.

Its face... was far from human. It looked more like a frog, with a mouth that took up the majority of its face. Its lips were large, and its jaws constantly hung open, causing its enormous tongue to fall from its mouth, drizzling drool onto the deck.

The creature looked stupid. Stupid and dangerous. From the way it had attacked Pip before, it seemed to want to use its giant mouth to suck limbs from the body.

Roseus wouldn’t let that happen.

"Move, Lucas!" he roared, as he noticed the young boy standing there in a foolish trance.

As he stood face to face with the creature, he didn’t know what to do.

The creature must have noticed this, as it immediately turned its attention towards the weaker-looking man and leapt forwards, jaws open and tongue wagging.

Luckily for Lucas, Roseus was fast, amplified by the positive effects of his father’s sword.

He thrust his sword into the creature’s back, skewering it on his blade like barbecued meat. Black blood ran down the length of his blade as he used all of his strength to drag his sword sideways, whilst keeping the creature skewered on top of it.

With all of his might, he swung, and the creature slid off the blade and landed on its side a few metres away. Unlike the sea zombie, it seemed these creatures could feel pain.

The creature clutched at its bleeding wound before trying to push itself to its feet and run away in an attempt to dive back into the sea.

Not so fast.

Roseus used his left hand to draw his revolver and fired.

*Click*

Empty. He had completely forgotten that his revolver only had one bullet.

He cursed to himself as he allowed the creature to get away. It leapt into the water with a splash and retreated back into the depths of the ocean.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the deck, a creature lay with its head decapitated, and Petyr stood over it.

The fencer spun his thin sword to clean it of the mess. Bits of black blood and gore splattered on some of the other crew members.

They were safe, Roseus noted. But he was beginning to see just how dangerous the First Ocean could be.