Chapter Summaries

Linsey traveled from Cato Island toward the City of a Thousand Sails and learned that the Seven Seas Alliance’s islands were artworks painted into the sea. On deck, he met a local musician who discovered that Linsey learned instruments quickly but played them with baffling, headache-inducing results.

• A Seven Seas Alliance local paid Linsey’s fare after learning that he could play the flute.
• Linsey met Ala Song, a one-armed painter traveling from Mountain Mist World to the City of a Thousand Sails, and learned about the Alliance’s devotion to art.
• The Fishing Boat departed Cato Island, and Ala Song told Linsey the journey to the City of a Thousand Sails would take four to five days.
• Linsey saw that Cato Island was a three-dimensional painting and learned from a strangely dressed girl that artists had created the world’s islands.
• Linsey played his piccolo for the girl, whose head hurt from his strange melody, so she conjured violins and began teaching him other instruments.
• The girl praised Linsey’s quick learning but grew exasperated when his playing again turned into the same baffling sound.

Linsey learned a wide range of instruments from Wala Wala aboard the Fishing Boat, then asked her how to earn approval with a musical performance in the City of a Thousand Sails. After learning that formal recognition required Master-level skill, he decided to spend his experience points to raise one instrument skill.

• Wala Wala taught Linsey to play many instruments, and the passengers gathered to watch his rapid progress.
• The crew began setting up a stage for an impromptu party, and Wala Wala took Linsey to join the crowd.
• Linsey checked the Voice of the Heart quest, which required him to perform at a music festival and win the audience's approval.
• Wala Wala introduced herself, learned Linsey's name, and recommended the violin as a popular and versatile instrument.
• Wala Wala explained that Linsey's skills were not yet sufficient for formal recognition, so Linsey decided to spend his experience points to reach Master level in one performance skill.

Linsey advanced his Violin Performance skill to Master and gained the Ruthless Player trait. After a chaotic performance on the ship, he helped Wala Wala rescue an unconscious man and ended the night thinking about fishing in the ocean.

• Linsey spent experience points to advance Violin Performance to Master, unlocking the Ruthless Player trait and bringing his performance skills to the required level for the Rhythm Game module.
• During a play, a distraught young man shouted at the tragic ending, and an artist knocked him unconscious with a streak of paint.
• The audience argued over the play and its actors, while Wala Wala used water to pull the unconscious man clear of the crowd with Linsey's help.
• Wala Wala told Linsey where her cabin was and said she could teach him more instruments, then went to bed.
• Linsey woke the man, who thanked him and asked his name; Linsey introduced himself and left, wondering what he could catch by fishing in the ocean.

Linsey spent the day sea fishing from a concealed spot on the ship, collecting unusual ingredients, crafting an Underwater Illuminator, and finding an Ocean Current Crest and a two-weapon set. At sunset, his final cast brought up an Ocean Chest containing a lone blue gemstone.

• Linsey abandoned fishing through the cabin porthole and found a secluded fishing spot near the stern, passing Ala Song on deck.
• Linsey caught fish, assorted colored jellyfish, and other sea items, then collected five jellyfish colors to craft an Underwater Illuminator.
• Linsey hauled up a glowing Ocean Chest and crafted an Ocean Current Crest from its Ocean Element Crystal.
• Linsey fished until sunset, gathering a Sailfish Spear and Swordfish Sword whose combined set effect made him more intimidating to fish.
• Linsey made one final cast, caught another Ocean Chest, and found a lone blue gemstone inside.

Linsey found an engraved Azure Sea Zircon while fishing, then encountered Wala Wala, who urged him to take his performance training seriously. She dragged him toward the deck to show him a real Artist’s performance.

• Linsey identified the Azure Sea Zircon as a naturally formed, hand-carved Advanced Gem and kept it after noticing the names Adores and Lily Danny engraved inside.
• Ala Song found Linsey on deck and explained that he had come from the Mountain Mist World to attend the Art Festival.
• Linsey returned to the cabin with Ala Song and recognized the elegantly dressed girl waiting there as Wala Wala.
• Wala Wala scolded Linsey for neglecting their lessons and warned him not to be arrogant about his talent.
• Wala Wala grabbed Linsey and took him to the deck to demonstrate the skill of a real Artist.

Linsey and Wala Wala watched the shipboard performance, where a heartbroken man explained that he hoped to reunite with Nana, who had been taken home by her family. After Wala Wala played a stirring violin piece that encouraged him, Linsey felt inspired to try playing music himself.

• Wala Wala and Linsey watched the next part of the tragic play about Lily Danny and Adores with a man they had rescued the previous day.
• The man told Wala Wala and Linsey that he loved Nana, whose father, Neilgard Kuwait, had taken her home two months earlier.
• Wala Wala played a powerful violin performance that moved the audience and left the man sobbing.
• Wala Wala asked Linsey whether he had felt the power of the music and urged him to practice.
• Linsey admitted that the performance had moved him and offered to try playing something.

Linsey performed Wala Wala’s love song with the cold precision of his Ruthless Player ability, completing the Voice of the Heart quest and unlocking the Sheet Music skill. After Wala Wala fell overboard and was attacked by glowing fish, Linsey rescued her, and she asked him to teach her his performance.

• Wala Wala handed Linsey the Nightfall Violin and challenged him to reveal his flaws.
• Linsey performed her song with chilling precision, leaving the audience stunned and Wala Wala fascinated by the ruthlessness in his music.
• Wala Wala lost her balance in excitement and fell overboard, where glowing fish surrounded her as she struggled to swim.
• Linsey used the Ocean Current Crest and the Knight of Fish effect to drive away the fish and bring Wala Wala safely back to the deck.
• Wala Wala praised Linsey’s performance and asked him to teach her, while her feelings toward him quietly began to change.

Linsey and Wala Wala returned to the ship after falling into the sea, and Linsey inspected the new song he had unlocked. While changing in Wala Wala’s cabin, they discussed Linsey’s origins, and Wala Wala realized he had stories he was hiding.

• Linsey carried Wala Wala back onto the deck, where the passengers cheered them and praised his violin performance.
• Linsey checked the Data Panel and found that Fifth Night's Love Serenade restored listeners’ mental states, especially those in love.
• Linsey went to Wala Wala’s cabin to change and noticed her unfinished paintings before she teased him about what he had seen underwater.
• Wala Wala admired Linsey’s explorer-like clothes and learned he came from the Courtyard in the Forest at the World Border.
• Wala Wala recognized Linsey’s evasion and pressed him to tell her about his adventures.

Wala Wala’s emotional resonance led Linsey to reveal much of his past, including secrets he had meant to keep. She then asked to turn his life into a heroic story, but Linsey urged caution.

• Wala Wala explained that she could sense the colors of a person’s soul and recognized Linsey as a good person.
• Wala Wala asked Linsey about the World Border, and he told her that the Seventh Stage Dragon Beast and the organizer were both dead.
• Linsey recounted his experiences from the Hidden Borderlands and realized he had revealed more than he intended.
• Wala Wala apologized and explained that her Essence of Art had triggered emotional resonance in Linsey.
• Linsey asked Wala Wala to keep his secrets, but she declared him a hero and asked permission to create a story about him.
• Linsey tried to dissuade Wala Wala, reminding her to put safety first.

Wala Wala spent the day searching for Linsey to persuade him to let her write about his adventures, eventually finding him fishing and promising to protect him if his secrets put him in danger. Linsey remained reluctant to expose himself or endanger her, but their conversation ended when he noticed dark clouds gathering ahead of the Fishing Boat.

• Wala Wala searched the Fishing Boat for Linsey and realized he might be avoiding her after Ala Song denied knowing where he was.
• Wala Wala followed a strange sound to Linsey, who was fishing over the side of the boat, and confronted him about refusing her biography proposal.
• Linsey insisted fishing was important to him, but Wala Wala stayed beside him until he stopped fishing and continued urging him to share his story.
• Linsey warned that revealing his dangerous or valuable secrets could bring trouble, while Wala Wala argued that publishing a story would take time and promised to defend him.
• Linsey noticed a vast mass of dark clouds ahead of the Fishing Boat and asked Wala Wala whether such torrential weather was common in the Seven Seas Alliance.

As a storm battered the Fishing Boat, Linsey discussed Wala Wala’s determination to restore the truth about his achievements and found her sincerity moving. When he checked the map, the Sea Person towing the ship had vanished, and a cluster of Red Markers was closing in from the storm.

• Linsey knocked out a painter who ignored the storm warnings and helped the sailor the painter had struck.
• Linsey and Wala Wala went to Ala Song’s cabin, where Wala Wala asked Linsey to let her pursue the truth about his accomplishments.
• Wala Wala explained that she pursued art to save herself, and Ala Song praised her sincerity.
• As the storm intensified, Linsey heard a Sea Person’s cry and checked the map.
• Linsey saw that the Sea Person towing the ship had died and that a cluster of Red Markers was rapidly approaching.

Linsey discovered that Red Sea Mermaids had killed the Sea Person and were towing the ship through a storm. Wala Wala warned him that the mermaids were in their mating season and that their reproduction was dangerous to males.

• A storm rocked the ship after the Sea Person towing it died, and Linsey, Wala Wala, and Ala Song rushed onto the deck.
• Linsey used his skill to see that something underwater was still pulling the ship, while the Sea Person’s corpse had disappeared.
• Linsey fired arrows at the underwater creatures, then identified them as Red Sea Mermaids through his Hunting Notes.
• Wala Wala explained that Red Sea Mermaids were usually gentle, but it was January, their breeding season, and they might be using the storm to lure the ship away.
• Wala Wala warned Linsey that Red Sea Mermaids laid their eggs inside the bellies of male creatures.

Linsey and the passengers were trapped by Red Sea Mermaids who wanted to take the men to their island to reproduce. The mermaids searched the Fishing Boat cabin by cabin, and Linsey’s disguise kept him from being noticed until Wala Wala spotted that he was hovering in a half-squat.

• Linsey abandoned the Mermaid's Love task and told the captain that Red Sea Mermaids had surrounded the ship.
• Linsey stayed aboard instead of escaping into the sea, believing the mermaids would overlook Wala Wala because she was a woman.
• The Fishing Boat reached an island where the mermaids lured passengers ashore, and a mermaid dragged the captain into the sea.
• The mermaids flooded the ship and forced cabin doors open, taking the men while allowing women to go ashore safely.
• A mermaid entered Wala Wala's cabin, overlooked Linsey hiding behind her, and left after realizing Wala Wala was a Madam.
• Wala Wala noticed that Linsey was not sitting on the bed but hovering in a half-squat.

Linsey and Wala Wala escaped the Red Sea Mermaids and investigated the storm surrounding the island, discovering signs of human activity and a larger mystery. They decided to split up to examine the storm and uncover what was happening inland.

• Linsey told Wala Wala that his Game Player skill let him conceal his presence, then said he planned to investigate the mermaids and find a way to leave.
• Linsey and Wala Wala slipped off the ship and found that a Sea Storm surrounded the island, leaving only the waters near shore calm.
• Linsey's skill appraisal indicated that the storm could distinguish friend from foe, though Wala Wala said the mermaids had no known weather-controlling abilities.
• Linsey surveyed the island and found human structures, campfire smoke, and many markers inland, beyond the mermaids' usual reach.
• Linsey proposed that he and Wala Wala split up to investigate the storm and the island's dangers.

Linsey explored the storm surrounding the island, discovered it was an Artificial Storm, and fished up a Wind Vane and materials he synthesized into a Sky Compass. His next catch was a beautiful mermaid who landed on his boat.

• Linsey discovered that Hallucinogenic Mist covered the island and used Filtering Cloth to protect himself from it.
• Linsey chopped trees and built a small boat, then entered the storm to investigate whether he could escape the island by sea.
• Linsey found the storm impossible to cross and began fishing from his boat.
• Linsey caught a Storm Elemental Crystal and a Wind Vane, then synthesized a Sky Compass from those and his other equipment.
• Linsey checked the Sky Compass and learned that the storm was an Artificial Storm that would not dissipate within three days.
• Linsey cast his rod again and caught a beautiful mermaid with a fishtail.

Linsey caught a Red Sea Mermaid while fishing and struggled to stop her advances without hurting her. After using the Double Serpent Coin to make her obey, he headed back to the island and encountered Ala Song at sea.

• Linsey knocked the Mermaid Girl unconscious with the Bang Bang Fish Stunning Hammer after she declared her interest in him.
• Linsey repeatedly stunned the Mermaid Girl whenever she woke, then refused her advances and explained that catching her had been a misunderstanding.
• The Mermaid Girl attacked Linsey with a cage of seawater, but he pulled her onto the deck and used the Double Serpent Coin to make her obey.
• Linsey abandoned fishing and rowed toward the island to check on Wala Wala and learn about the humans there.
• Ala Song emerged from a canvas over the sea and called out to Linsey.

Linsey and Ala Song learned that a Seventh Stage artist had trapped Mermaid Island behind a storm and was aiding the mermaids. After questioning a Mermaid Girl, Linsey decided they would have to force their way through the storm to escape.

• Linsey and Ala Song met at sea and realized that a powerful artist had created the storm preventing anyone from leaving the area.
• Linsey questioned the Mermaid Girl, who revealed that a lord on the island had helped the mermaids for as long as she could remember and had created the storm.
• The Mermaid Girl explained that humans lived on the island, visitors arrived twice a month on enormous ships, and the lord had never dealt with emissaries from the City of a Thousand Sails.
• Linsey ordered the Mermaid Girl to return to the sea and keep their identities secret, then he and Ala Song headed back toward the island.
• Linsey rejected using the visiting ships or slipping through the storm and told Ala Song they would have to force their way out.

Linsey, Ala Song, and Wala Wala uncovered a counterfeit-art operation on the island and learned that its town also manufactured the addictive Rainbow Dream Potion. They realized the island was a stronghold for Fallen Artists, while Linsey's plan to escape by powering a ship remained unresolved.

• Linsey and Ala Song returned to the island, avoided the mermaid nests, and waited in the forest for Wala Wala.
• Linsey told Ala Song that they could escape if they found a way to power one of the sturdy ships on the island.
• Linsey spotted a green marker watching him from the water and guessed that it belonged to the mermaid girl he had rescued.
• Wala Wala returned and reported that the island contained a developed town and a counterfeit-art workshop hidden behind the mermaids.
• Wala Wala revealed that the town produced undiluted Rainbow Dream Potion, leading her, Linsey, and Ala Song to identify the island as a stronghold for Fallen Artists.

Linsey learned that Rainbow Dream Potion was used to control intruders on the island and set out with Wala Wala and Ala Song to rescue the Fishing Boat's passengers and escape. At the seventh mermaid nest, he recognized a captive who had been traveling to rekindle a romance with a noble young lady.

• Wala Wala explained that Rainbow Dream Potion was addictive, could muddle even the Awakened, and was forbidden to sell or trade in the Vana Aurora Sea.
• Linsey deduced that the island used the Red Sea Mermaids as a cover and drugged unexpected visitors to control them instead of killing them.
• Linsey gave Wala Wala and Ala Song Sleep Healing Grass, and Ala Song disguised himself as a blonde beauty while Linsey transformed into a fish-headed creature.
• Linsey, Wala Wala, and Ala Song entered the mermaid nests, put the mermaids to sleep, and rescued the Fishing Boat's passengers, but found no Awakened who could sail the boat.
• At the seventh nest, Linsey recognized the captive man who had been heading to the City of a Thousand Sails to rekindle his romance with a noble young lady.

Linsey rescued captives from the mermaid nests and learned from the Fishing Boat captain that a Deep Sea Behemoth might be able to tow their ship off Mermaid Island. After a mission appeared concerning Anthony’s pursuit of true love, Linsey stopped rescuing people and saw Anthony return, newly determined to keep searching for love.

• Linsey knocked out a mermaid, rescued a captive, and urged him not to blame himself for being victimized.
• Linsey rescued the Fishing Boat captain, who explained that a passenger with the right connection might summon a Deep Sea Behemoth to tow the ship away.
• Linsey sent the captain back to organize the rescued passengers and ask whether anyone could summon such a creature.
• While continuing to rescue captives, Linsey received a mission to take Anthony off Mermaid Island and restore his pursuit of love.
• Linsey halted the rescue operation, and Anthony came to him, declaring that he believed true love could overcome every obstacle.