"After killing the creature, strange words appeared in my mind. It said I had slain a lesser creature, known as a Sucker, and absorbed its soul. Apparently, the seas beckon me. I’m not sure what to think of that..."

Roseus and Petyr stood over the grey creature with the absurdly large jaw. Just looking at the thing made his skin crawl.

"A Sucker..." Roseus made sure that the term stuck in his mind. Later on, he would create a journal to keep track of all the creatures he had faced.

"You have any idea what these souls are, or perhaps what a lesser creature is?" Petyr asked Kruger, who was currently trying his best to help Pip calm down.

Having her arm nearly swallowed seemed to have traumatised the young girl a little bit.

"No certain ideas, but I can make guesses. We won’t have any concrete ideas till we run into more experienced adventurers... hehe, that’s if they’re willing to help us," the ex-navy man answered.

During the fight, those who were manning the ship continued to steer and navigate it in the right directions. Silius seemed to have some idea of where to take them, or at least where to avoid.

They were currently travelling south-east, which was away from where his father first travelled, which was north-east. Silius had explained that this was due to the fact that the closest navy base was north of their current location. If they wished to avoid it and their patrols, they had to go around.

"C-can you please throw that thing overboard..." Pip eventually stuttered, turning to face away from the creature. "I can’t even look at it."

"It is an ugly thing," Petyr said in his flamboyant tone as he scrunched up his pretty face. "But I wouldn’t dare touch it, if not with a blade."

A few members of the crew looked at the captain expectantly. It was definitely work for a lesser man, but he seemed least bothered by the creature.

With a sigh, Roseus lifted the Sucker and felt its wet body against him. Then he tossed it overboard and listened to it splash into the darker water below.

Whilst standing by the railings, he looked out at the sea, towards the land. They had sailed far from the continent now, and the land had faded over the horizon.

So far, there were no signs of the navy.

Are we safe?

Slow footsteps suddenly began to approach Roseus from behind. A hand landed on his shoulder.

He turned to see Dawn looking at him as she joined him, looking out into the sea. They were close enough that their shoulders were almost touching.

"What happened back there?" she asked softly. "When you fell unconscious."

Roseus continued staring out at the sea.

He had chosen not to focus on the strange pact he had made with a god, let alone tell the rest of his crew about it.

Secretly, he believed that eventually he might be able to sever his pact with this god and be free of its strange drawback. He had no intentions of taking all the treasure for himself.

Yet he was warned what would happen to him if he did such a thing. He would be cursed by this Sea God, Nammon.

"Will you keep it a secret if I tell you?" he asked, looking out into the sea and avoiding the eye of his friend.

She thought for a few moments before responding.

"No, not if the rest of our crew need to know about it. Are you sick, Rose? Lyna can look at you. She might not be awakened yet, but we have enough provisions to look after you."

Roseus shook his head. She didn’t understand, and yet he couldn’t tell her if there was a chance she would tell the others.

Then, he thought about it further.

In a way, he had been tricked into making such a pact with the gods. What if a similar thing happened to the others, and they unknowingly put themselves into a situation that was similar to his, or perhaps even worse?

It was then that he came to a decision.

He would have to talk to his crew.

...

The sails were lowered so that the ship only drifted in the currents. Silius remained standing by the rail, looking out at sea and keeping his compass in hand in case something went wrong.

The rest of the crew sat around the deck with Roseus standing over them.

He had told them there was something important they needed to know before continuing.

Right afterwards, he explained his meeting with the god.

He explained the excruciating pain he had felt, followed by the realm of darkness he had been dragged into. Then, he explained the question he had been presented with and the reason for accepting the god’s call.

When he explained how simply answering this god’s call had created a pact between them, with a cost that could not be undone without being cursed by the god, the crew slowly began to realise the horror that was the sea gods and the unknown possibilities that could happen whilst travelling the oceans.

What eased Roseus’s mind was that none of the crew members saw his decision as a betrayal, or if they did, they didn’t express it outwardly. Instead, they felt sorry for him.

"So, what do you plan on doing?" Kruger asked. "As long as this pact exists, the treasures that we might stumble across can only be taken by you. Agh, what sort of sea god is this?"

Roseus’s face remained stern as he looked at each member of his crew.

"I will break the pact," he answered with conviction that surprised each and every one of them.

"As for which god this is, I would assume he is linked to the concept of greed. If I had known then, I would have never accepted. Greed isn’t a thing on this ship. I’ll make sure of it."

Dawn’s face seemed slightly worried. "But what of the curse?" she asked, not able to help herself.

Since they lacked knowledge, none of them had any idea what such a curse would bring. All he could be certain of was that breaking the pact would anger this sea god, Nammon.

"Let the curse come," he answered. "When it does, we just have to be prepared to defend ourselves. That means that each of us has to become stronger."

A shiver ran down a few of their spines.

"And how do we do that?" Lucas One-Hand asked, struggling to keep the fear from his voice.

Roseus remembered just how frightened the boy had been when faced with the Sucker.

He stepped towards him and stole his sword from its sheath, then thrust it into the boy’s hand.

Then, he looked deep into the boy’s watery eyes.

"We sail the seas until we awaken, train with our weapons, and hunt for treasure. Isn’t this the life of pirates?"

A smile spread across his face as he remembered the reason why he had fallen in love with the seas in the first place.

It wasn’t only because of prophecies, like what had motivated his father.

It was the thrill of adventure that had beckoned him.