Bang!

Roseus was glad to feel the recoil of the gun, rather than his hand exploding into a hundred pieces.

Unfortunately, due to his blurry vision, the gunshot missed any vital points and hit one of Richie’s arms.

The elbow joint spiralled and contorted disgustingly, causing him to let go of the weapon with that hand. Momentarily, his advance was paused.

That was enough for Roseus.

He rolled out of the way once again and used Bloody Fingers to drink more of the blood from his wound. Eventually, he felt that one Unit of blood had been stored into the glove’s fingers, signalling that it was ready to be used for healing.

With only three arms, Richie held onto the weapon and stalked towards him. Meanwhile, Roseus placed his pointer finger against his forehead wound and used the treasure to heal it.

His own blood seeped from Bloody Fingers and was used to knit his flesh back together. It was a painful process, and the entire Unit of blood was used just to heal the wound enough so that it would no longer leak blood into his eye.

Before he knew it, he was dodging the blade again. Strike after strike whipped through the air and left small craters in the dirt from the thunder.

Roseus noticed that although Richie had a powerful treasure, he didn’t seem to have been reincarnated with many of his skills. Thus, he was slow and one-dimensional.

It didn’t take long for Roseus to check the chamber of his revolver to make sure that the Monochrome .38 Special wasn’t going to be fired.

Once certain, he aimed his gun at Richie’s head and fired.

Bang!

His already half-broken skull was completely shattered, as the flesh around it began to spiral and contort, mixing his brain, bones, and face into one amalgamation of flesh.

...

For a moment, the four-armed man stood there, still.

Afterwards, he dropped his weapon to the floor and fell backwards into the lake. His corpse sank, rather than floating atop the surface.

[You have defeated, Returned]

[Greater Soul Absorbed]

[The Ocean Beckons You...]

Roseus gathered his breath as he was given his rewards for the battle. He wasn’t surprised to see that the Returned was of the same rank as the Blood Shark he had previously killed, though he did feel like it had been a much more difficult battle.

That wasn’t because of the Returned’s strength itself, but rather the use of its treasure.

Roseus slowly walked over to where the item had dropped. From behind, a voice called out to him.

"Good fight." Blodwen growled with a grin on his face.

The other members of the crew also expressed how impressed they were, but their words were filled with a mixture of fear and worry.

Roseus blocked their words out for now and lifted the sword from the ground. When lying on the ground unequipped, its blade was black, but when he lifted it, certain parts glowed gold.

He was then filled with its information.

[Epic Treasure Equipped]

[Greycloud Longsword]

[Positive Effect I ~ When this weapon makes intentional contact with another physical object, the area of impact is struck with the force of a moderate lightning strike]

[Positive Effect II ~ The user becomes immune to all lightning and shock effects]

[Negative Effect I ~ After prolonged use, the user is forced to hear the inner conflicts of Sea God Rai’zac.]

As soon as he read the information about the weapon, Roseus swiftly stabbed it into the earth, unequipping it. He didn’t need to worry about accidentally creating thunder, as the effect only activated when he intended it to.

Blodwen, who had only fought against the blade before but never used it, asked the question he had been wondering.

"What are its negative effects?"

"Only one," Roseus said warily. "It says that after prolonged use, the wielder will be forced to hear the inner conflicts of Sea God Rai’zac."

The others who heard the name were filled with deep confusion.

Roseus was pleased to have learned the name of another Sea God, and he was extremely pleased with the weapon he had earned, but in order to seriously weigh the dangers, he needed to know who this god was.

Luckily, Blodwen seemed to have the answers.

"Rai’zac is one of the Sea Gods who has some control over the storms here in the First Ocean. Tales say that he has struggled to stretch his domain into the Second Ocean, and is almost non-existent in the Third."

Gathering this knowledge from Blodwen felt surreal.

It was no surprise that different gods had different levels of strength. However, hearing it worded in this manner raised a lot of questions and forced Roseus to consider a few things.

Why can’t his domain stretch any further, and what might his inner conflicts be about?

Could it be that stronger lightning gods have prevented him from travelling any further, forcing him to stay within the weaker oceans? If that’s the case, then would his inner conflicts consist of him expressing his anger towards these more powerful gods?

...

If I was to hear these conflicts, wouldn’t I be able to learn more about the gods?

Blodwen must have noticed the look on the captain’s face, as he furrowed his brows.

"The gods’ thoughts are not for humans to hear. I haven’t heard them myself, but I can almost guarantee that. Keep this in mind when wielding that weapon." Blodwen warned.

Roseus nodded his head, but deep down, he had a hypothesis.

Unless Richie’s body had mutated due to the usage of the sword, the man otherwise seemed normal. He had kept his dignity and respect even as a Returned, waiting for his opponent to be ready before striking.

This didn’t mean that Roseus planned to actively try to hear the conflicts of this god, but rather that he wouldn’t shy away from using the weapon because of the risk.

...

Before anything else could be discussed, the Redflower Pirates heard a shout coming from the shore of the island.

It was the shout they had planned to use once the Navy ships could be spotted by the standard human eye.

In other words, it meant that they had reached the final hours of their preparation.