Then everyone saw Rhode vault over the side of the ship.
"Huh?" Nat Pagle instinctively reached out to grab him, but caught nothing.
Had the mage not only given up resisting, but fallen into such despair that he was taking his own life? Was this his so-called moment to witness a miracle?
"Rhode!" Lilia cried out in concern, leaning over the rail to look down.
The sailors also clung to the masts and peered beneath the ship.
They saw a blaze of light.
But it was nothing like sunlight. It was a dazzling, icy light!
Just before Rhode's feet touched the sea, white, icy light spread out from beneath them, rapidly expanding until the entire stretch of sea beneath the merchant ship turned white.
The sea had turned to ice!
Rhode landed safely on its surface.
And that was not all.
Soon, everyone heard a series of cracking sounds from beneath the sea, as though ice were squeezing against something.
Frozen solid!
The entire surrounding stretch of sea had frozen solid!
Who knew how many meters down, everything beneath the surface had turned to ice!
There was no more banging against the hull from below, not even the sound of seawater washing against it. There was only silence.
Clearly, all the Naga in the sea had been frozen as well.
"Long live the mage!"
Someone shouted.
Even a blind man could have told that Rhode's powerful ice spell had saved them.
"Long live the mage!"
"Long live Rhode!"
"Long live Rhode the mage!"
"Arulululu lalalalale..."
At once, everyone on the merchant ship's deck and in its cabins cheered at the top of their lungs, overwhelmed by the joy of escaping death.
They reveled in the happiness of that moment.
Rhode, meanwhile, was panting slightly.
After all, casting an ice spell on this scale took quite a bit of effort. In game terms, it cost an enormous amount of mana.
He looked beneath the ship and could see the Naga, their savage expressions frozen in place.
The relatively basic Frost Nova he had cast in the cave on Darrow Hill had frozen those yetis for less than ten minutes, perhaps?
This was an enhanced version, much bigger and thicker. Surely it would last at least twenty or thirty minutes, perhaps even longer. After all, stacking spell models like this was not a matter of simple addition.
That was enough to kill the Naga.
They were underwater creatures and could breathe in the sea, but that did not mean they could go without breathing.
Just like freezing a fish solid: before long, it would become a salted fish with no dreams left. (?)
At that moment, a ladder was lowered from the ship on Captain Sander's orders.
The battle was over. It was time to welcome their hero back aboard!
Rhode slowly climbed up.
If only I could teleport up there. Slowly climbing a ladder really lacks style for a mage.
But when he reappeared on deck, the crowd erupted into even louder cheers than before.
"Rhode the great hero! You really are a great hero this time!" Lilia's delighted cry made Rhode feel particularly good.
"Gumadada magaga, awoowoo wagam." (You killed the evil creatures! We Murlocs are free, and I can go home too!)
Hmm, for some reason, even Bumpelba's voice sounds pretty nice now.
Just then, a sailor called out from the bow, loudly reporting to Captain Sander, "Captain, the sea beneath us is frozen! We can't get the ship moving!"
Captain Sander turned his gaze toward Rhode.
Rhode smiled at him, then held out both hands, palms flat.
Two enormous Mage Hands abruptly appeared behind the stern and pushed. The ship shuddered gently.
"The ship's moving!" The sailors' delighted cries reached his ears, and cheers once again filled the deck.
Unlike the rough storm from earlier, the Mage Hands gently, softly pushed the ship off the ice until it returned to open water.
Only then could the sailors aboard see the terrifying, vicious creatures beneath the ice, and they once again cried out in relief at having survived.
"Resume sailing! Destination-Southern Island!" Captain Sander issued a fresh order.
"Whew... safe at last," Nat Pagle murmured. "This fishing trip has been downright dangerous."
"Now that's what I call an adventure!" Lilia was still excited. "It'd be great if we ran into some monsters on the island too!"
"You're jinxing us again." Rhode smiled and lightly tapped Lilia's nose. "Have you forgotten not to tempt fate? I don't have much mana left now."
"You're right, Rhode." Lilia stuck out her tongue. "Then let's wait until you have mana again before we run into monsters!"
Everyone laughed.
Of course, not every careless remark brought bad luck.
The visit to the island went smoothly.
Captain Sander's sailors moved cargo, Nat Pagle fished, and Rhode and Lilia wandered around with Bumpelba.
When they returned to Southshore that evening, Captain Sander was not the only one to go ashore. Many of the sailors were also given leave and headed to Monica's tavern for drinks.
Sailors were always talkative.
How was bloodstone ore production going at the Arathi Mine?
Had crocodile hide prices gone up in the Wetlands?
Why did the people of Gilneas always wear such tall hats?
Was the Kul Tiras navy really the best in the world?
All sorts of things could become topics of conversation among the sailors.
Naturally, Southshore's townsfolk also enjoyed listening to these widely traveled, experienced men talk.
And so, in the bright candlelight, the sour smell of men who had worked all day mingled with the heavy scent of alcohol and the sounds of lively discussion.
Today, however, almost all the talk in the tavern revolved around a single subject: Rhode the mage.
"I heard Rhode froze the whole sea in one go?" a farmer suddenly asked the sailor beside him.
"He sure did! The whole sea! And there were twenty or thirty of those Naga monsters frozen in it too!"
"No, no, there were definitely more than twenty or thirty." Another sailor leaned over, his breath reeking of alcohol. "I leaned out and took a good look. I reckon there were over a hundred!"
"Over a hundred, all frozen? Not moving at all?" the farmer pressed.
"Not moving at all," the sailor said. "That ice must've been at least five stories deep!"
When sailors, especially drunken ones, described things they had or had not seen, their favorite rhetorical device was exaggeration.
But nobody cared about those "details" now.
"Amazing," a miner said admiringly.
It was Hackett, one of the three miners who had fought Rhode outside the tavern that day.
Now he ought to be grateful that Rhode had only been playing around with them back then.
"Yeah. Without him, we'd all be dead. He's a truly brilliant mage!" The sailor who had joined the conversation even wore a look of undisguised pride. "Having fought alongside a mage like that, I can die without regrets."
"So where is he now? Where did Rhode go?" Hackett asked.
"Oh, right, he caught a Murloc on the ship and made him his pet." The sailor rolled his slightly bleary eyes. "I heard he's following the Murloc to look for his home."
"Oh... a little Murloc looking for his mommy?..."
Before you continue