The terrifying Bansy

It was nearly ten before all the crew members across the fleet finally got moving.

After completing all the checks, the fleet got underway, slowly sailing out of Damir Port.

Kronos sat on deck, watching Damir Port recede into the distance, then waved.

"I'll be back," Kronos murmured.

That was certainly true. They would pass through here again on their return from the Southern Continent, and there was also that drop of blood from the Ancestor of the Phoenix. All of that meant Kronos would return more than once.

At noon, everyone in the fleet got to eat the cured meat Kronos had bought, and their faces were full of cheer.

That was why he had bought it in the first place. There was hardly enough cured meat to sell; it was just meant to give these people a change of taste.

The fleet consisted of cargo ships, so the vessels were heavy and somewhat slower than passenger ships. They passed Bansy Harbor the following morning without stopping.

The sailors aboard were all surprised. Bansy was a large island, and Bansy Harbor was a major port with considerable commercial value.

Those sailors who had spent years at sea had never seen a merchant ship bypass Bansy Harbor.

Just as everyone was puzzling over it, a rumor spread: the company's new owner disliked Bansy Harbor and had crossed it off the route.

That single rumor set off a chorus of mockery aboard the ships.

"An amateur like him dares tell us how to sail? He'll go bankrupt sooner or later!"

"Exactly! Our captain should be the owner. He'd be far better than this so-called new boss!"

"Right, and that Benjamin is useless too. He has such good ships and still can't make money. Give me this ship, and I'd become the richest man in Backlund sooner or later."

Kronos felt nothing as he listened to the sailors' remarks.

In fact, Kronos could guess that the rumor had come from this ship's captain, because he was the only person aboard who knew about the decision.

This was the captain's way of expressing his dissatisfaction. Although he did not know Kronos was aboard, these remarks would eventually reach Benjamin and the new owner.

Kronos could understand it. After all, the captains' earnings were tied to the fleet's revenue.

If they made money at Bansy Harbor, the captains would get a share.

So the decision not to stop at Bansy Harbor must have upset quite a few captains, and they were trying to put pressure on him.

Meanwhile, Benjamin kept breaking out in cold sweats. Similar remarks had surfaced on the lead ship where he was staying. He went to confront the captain, only for the man to stubbornly deny everything.

Benjamin knew that if such remarks were spreading even on the ship he was aboard, the ship carrying Kronos certainly would not be spared.

Whose fault was this, when all was said and done? The sailors' and the captains', of course, but how could he escape responsibility as the company's manager?

Kronos paid no attention to those remarks. Instead, he stayed in his room, diligently familiarizing himself with the spells and looking for ways to develop new ones.

But just because Kronos could sit still did not mean Gner could. Still, Gner did not act rashly; he went straight to Kronos's door and knocked.

"How can you stay so calm? It feels like your employees are about to rebel!"

Kronos chuckled. "What would they rebel with? Do they have weapons, or powerful Beyonders?"

"So you're just going to let them make all this fuss?" Gner asked angrily.

"If they settle down and work properly after making a fuss, I'll act as though nothing happened. But if it keeps getting worse, I'll fire the whole lot when we get back to Backlund."

Gner, who always preferred to get his revenge on the spot, found that hard to accept. "That's it? What about now? You're just going to put up with it?"

"Bansy Harbor is a major port. Stopping there would bring the fleet a decent profit, and the captains would receive their share. That's why they're making a fuss. And I really was the one who ordered the fleet not to stop there, so their complaints about me aren't entirely unjustified," Kronos said calmly.

Then he added, "But they can't let it interfere with their work. That would be a problem."

That piqued Gner's curiosity. "Why won't you let the ships stop at Bansy Harbor? Is it really like they say? You hate the place?"

Kronos glanced at Gner. "Why would I hate it? I've never even been there. It's dangerous, so I don't want to take the risk."

"Dangerous? How dangerous?" Gner asked again.

How dangerous?

Bansy was once called Binsy, and the descendants of Medici, the King of Angel, lived there. How dangerous did that make it?

The evil god worshipped by the Medici Family's descendants was called the God of Weather, favored bloody sacrifices, and was an angel of at least sequence two. How dangerous did that make it?

Bansy had a passage leading to the sefirah known as the City of Calamity, and there was no telling when it might open. How dangerous did that make it?

Because that passage to the City of Calamity existed, it could draw the Primordial Demoness's attention at any moment. How dangerous was that?

Was there really anywhere in the entire world more dangerous than this place? Perhaps the moon had it beaten by a little!

Kronos could not be certain, but one thing he did know was that he absolutely would not come here before reaching sequence one.

Of course, he could not tell Gner any of that. Quite apart from whether Gner would wet himself in fright, there was a considerable chance that simply hearing it would bring corruption upon him.

"I can't really explain how dangerous it is. Just remember to steer clear."

"Stay away for the rest of my life? Could I go if I became a demigod?" Gner was unusually determined to get to the bottom of things today.

"Once you become an angel, you won't necessarily die. Until then, stay away." Kronos shut down Gner's questions with a single reply.

Gner studied Kronos for a long time before finally reaching an outrageous conclusion: Kronos was not lying. He was serious.

That truly shocked Gner. If becoming an angel merely meant he would not die, there had to be at least an angel there. That really was beyond anything he could afford to provoke.

So Gner decided to erase Bansy from his map entirely. Unless staying away meant certain death, he would never go there.

Seeing that Gner had taken his words to heart, Kronos felt reassured.

The journey from Bansy Island to Tiana Island took only a little over a day, and Kronos did not leave his room during that time.

He was conducting an important experiment: searching for materials suitable for time spells. This was the first step in creating a spell, as recorded in the Spell Grimoire.

All of a Warlock's spells were invented through an understanding of mystical knowledge. Warlocks themselves did not possess the power of those authorities, so how could they invoke them using spirituality alone?

The answer was materials. These were not actually supernatural materials, merely things found in everyday life.

But they differed in their sensitivity to various supernatural powers.

Earlier practitioners had identified these materials through painstaking experiments with various supernatural abilities, selecting those most sensitive to each power.

Thus, scattering them and pairing them with unique symbolic signs could invoke the corresponding authority and produce the appropriate spell.

So the most important thing when beginning to create a spell was finding the right material. Without it, all the rest was wasted effort.

The Mystic Pouch at Kronos's waist held nearly five hundred kinds of materials. He was now testing them one by one, hoping to find something compatible with the power of time.

As for the later steps-understanding the essence of the ability and designing symbolic signs-just thinking about them gave Kronos a headache.

Without understanding an ability's essence, he naturally could not design its symbolic signs, and understanding that essence was far too difficult.

By now, Kronos had begun to feel that time spells might not offer a shortcut to getting ahead. Instead, they might be a winding detour leading who knew where.

If Kronos had found any other way forward, he would have given up long ago.

Would I ultimately have no choice but to research the Marauder Pathway? The main problem is that it really is rather frightening. It doesn't suit my cautious approach.

But if I really wanted to look into it, it wasn't as though I had no leads. Wouldn't the Hermits of Fate be an excellent one?

The organization as a whole was powerful, but I could find a weak member who was alone. Lanevus, for example-that unlucky fellow who was forced to become the vessel for the True Creator's descent.

Capturing him would effectively spare him a terrible calamity. Surely studying him a little in return wouldn't be asking too much.

But someone backed by an organization and watched by powerful figures really wasn't easy to touch. More importantly, I didn't quite dare.

So Kronos still had not made up his mind. He would first put some real effort into his research on time. If he still had made no progress after returning to Backlund, he would consider the Marauder Pathway then.

In any case, Kronos did not want to trap himself at sequence 7 for years.

It really was a terrible trap. Once Kronos advanced to sequence 6, he absolutely would not read any family secret grimoires. He was sure they were all the same sort of thing.

A day and a night passed as he experimented. By the time the fleet came to a full stop at Tiana Harbor, Kronos had tested more than half the materials in the Mystic Pouch.

Unfortunately, never mind finding a material highly sensitive to the power of time-he had not found a single one that showed even the slightest response. Every material was completely unresponsive to it.

But since they had reached Tiana Island, he had to ask around for opportunities to act. So Kronos left his room in an utterly miserable mood.

"What's got you so unhappy? Tell me so I can have a laugh."