"One day out at sea and you’ve already awakened both systems?" Kruger said as he scratched his hair.

The ex-navy man was starting to wonder whether he was useless, as it had taken him much longer, and he still hadn’t been contacted by a god.

The others all spat out a bunch of questions, struggling to believe that he had awakened both systems so quickly.

It seemed everyone had momentarily forgotten about the incoming danger.

Dawn looked over at Roseus with a look filled with many questions.

"So, what does the skill do?" She asked.

Roseus’s gaze landed on Kruger, who was still brooding with jealousy.

"Can you teach me how to share my system information with others?" He asked, drawing the man from his thoughts.

"Who, me? Ah yeah, it’s simple really. Just place two fingers on your temple and think about outwardly sharing your information with those around you. You can choose what information to share and who exactly to share it with, it all comes down to focus."

After hearing Kruger’s explanation, it didn’t take long for Roseus to share his skill with the others.

As they were delivered the information of the skill, their eyes went wide.

"This is incredible!" Dawn exclaimed, clearly impressed by her captain. The others grunted in agreement.

"Problem is, it doesn’t help us with our little navy problem. With every second that passes, they keep getting closer." Kruger said honestly.

That drew everybody’s attention back to the matter at hand. Roseus straightened his face and addressed everybody once again.

"That’s why we keep sailing, and hope that they don’t catch us before Silius, or someone else, awakens a skill that can get us away from them."

"And if no one does?" Petyr added, fencing sword already in hand as though the enemy could board their ship at any moment.

The crew all waited for Roseus’s answer. He didn’t mince his words.

"Then we will have to fight."

...

After the crew were dismissed, Roseus stood at the quarterdeck alone, staring out at the navy ship that approached them.

Even civilians knew that the navy ships came in different tiers. The slick design of the ship chasing them, not much larger than their own, and the fact that it still had sails to catch the wind, meant that it was only slightly powered by steam.

This made it a patrol ship, which likely meant that it had a lieutenant aboard, the lowest ranking leader figure within the navy, above all of the other soldiers.

Roseus knew of an Executive Officer to a Lieutenant, which was the rank directly below them. He knew one very well.

It was a man who had gone against his father’s words. A man who had abandoned his family to become one of the empire’s slaves.

Roseus’s teeth clenched, and he drew his father’s cutlass from its sheath. He knew that his crewmates were watching him at that moment, but he didn’t care.

He had to train. It was all he could do to take his mind away from his anger and thoughts.

Now that he was awakened, this was more important than ever. Awakening a skill related to ship management was useful, but not quite so much in battle. If the navy caught up to them, then he would have to rely on his melee skills.

He focused on his system, noting that his rank sat at a low one. He hoped that he didn’t have to engage in physical combat to strengthen this, and hoped that he could make progress through sparring and going through forms. Otherwise, he might have to rely on calling upon the dangers of the deep sea to give himself enemies, which he hoped wouldn’t be the case.

With nothing else to do, Roseus swung his sword.

He practised the forms that came naturally to him due to his father’s cutlass effect. However, he did not just want to mimic his father, he wanted to surpass him.

His sword told him the most efficient strikes to use with the cutlass.

Pirates rarely ever had official training, unlike the navy, so the experience that came from his father’s weapon would be purely based on what had worked best for him over the extensive amount of battles he must have had.

Most strikes were sweeping swings, all of which were performed with a one-handed grip. The curved design of the cutlass made it so that swinging the blade was more favoured than thrusting.

...

As he practised for what felt like ten minutes, locked away in his own world, he heard footsteps approaching him.

He turned to find Petyr standing there with a smile on his face. The man’s long purple hair was tied back and out of the way, and he held his fencing sword in his hand.

"Mind if I train with you, captain?" the man said, twirling his blade. "I’d like to be prepared for when the navy arrives."

Roseus kept his face straight and faced the man.

"We don’t know if they are going to reach us."

Petyr shrugged and pouted his lip. "If you say so, Captain."

Out of all the members of the Redflower Pirates, Roseus was most sceptical of this man, Petyr.

Most of the members, he had met himself. However, when he had made it clear to Dawn that he would not become a pirate, she was forced to find the final members herself.

That was when she found Petyr, a famous fighter in an underground fencing league. He was unrivalled, yet constantly sought out those who were better than him.

When he found out that at sea there were those whose fencing skills were augmented by powers, he decided that he wanted to take to the seas and become the greatest fencer of all eight oceans.

It was an admirable goal, but there was a simple reason why Roseus had always been sceptical of the man.

It was his inability to value human life.

...

The duo sparred, and although they had agreed not to actually strike each other, in case they caused injuries, there was never a time that Roseus felt like he had the upper hand.

If anything, sparring Petyr felt useless. The man was just so many leagues above him, even whilst Roseus was augmented by the speed and agility boost of his weapon. There were just some skill gaps that physicality couldn’t overcome.

However, it seemed that for the purple-haired fencer, the sparring wasn’t so useless.

At some point, he simply froze, looking down at the thin sword in his hand as though he had forgotten about his spar.

Roseus frowned. "Did you realise that I’m too weak to be of any help to you?" he asked, lowering his own blade.

But the man shook his head and laughed.

"No, you’ve been a great help. I just awakened, captain."