Loki Comes Aboard

"Bastard! Harald! We're not friends anymore! You're a coward!"

As the last sound of the sky splitting abruptly ceased, the epochal battle that had shaken the Underworld came to an end, and all the commotion died down.

Loki craned his neck to look ahead, but he was too far away to know what had happened.

Frustrated, he scratched his head and ears, too anxious to sit still.

Kaya stood calmly beside him, having already sensed the presence approaching from afar.

"Damn it! I failed in the end."

Rocks emerged from the devastated primordial forest. He had put away his longsword and sustained some injuries, but they were nothing serious.

The most noticeable thing about him was the displeasure and frustration written all over his face.

"Did he turn you down, Rocks?" Kaya asked.

"Yeah. Pretty embarrassing, huh? I invited him so many times, but I didn't expect him to reject me more firmly every time!" Rocks said angrily.

Then he spotted the little giant sitting beside Kaya: Harald's son, Loki.

"Rocks! What were you just doing?" Loki grew excited as soon as he saw Rocks, his voice full of admiration.

"Nothing! Your dad's an idiot!" Rocks had no concept of how rude it was to insult a father to his son. "Join the World Government? Get accepted by everyone else? Isn't that like a tiger pulling out its own claws and fangs to show goodwill to the weak?"

"The giant king is too naive. I can understand what he's thinking, but the World Government can't be trusted. He wants to integrate into the world, but the government will only treat the giant race as slaves and military weapons," Kaya said, shaking his head.

"That's what I told him, but he just wants to leave the giant race's violent past behind and lead this country toward peace." Rocks's temper eased as well.

They followed different paths and could not work together. Harald was determined to move closer to the rest of the world, so there was nothing more to say.

"Rocks, are you leaving?" Loki realized what was happening and hurriedly said, "Take me with you! I want to go out to sea too. I want to follow you!"

"Huh? A little brat like you? I already told you no! Keep pestering me and I might kill you!" Rocks made an exaggerated face.

"Don't underestimate me! Everyone in the village is afraid of me. That proves how strong I am!" Loki stood and pounded his chest like an ape.

"Haha, this kid's different from his dad!" Rocks laughed and said to Kaya.

Despite what he said, Rocks found himself reflecting.

Harald, whom he had always wanted to recruit, paid him no attention, yet Loki, who was still a child, kept pestering him.

"I've already agreed to take him with us," Kaya said.

"What!" Rocks was stunned. "He's too young... All right, he doesn't look small at all, but are you sure you want to do this?"

"Harald isn't willing, but Loki is. If Loki wants to leave, his dad can't stop him." Kaya looked up at Loki. "Right?"

"Yes! That's right! Exactly!" Seeing that he seemed to have gotten what he wanted, Loki burst out laughing.

Rocks fell silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Kaya, you really are a bastard too!"

"It's a bastard of a world." Kaya smiled.

By saying that, Rocks had effectively agreed.

"Great! I can finally leave this awful place!" Loki hopped around excitedly, spinning first one way, then the other.

"Don't celebrate too soon. How are we supposed to take him out of here? He's grown even bigger than he was years ago! Are we supposed to squeeze him onto my ship?" Rocks had a headache.

"Treasure Tree Adam is an extremely rare kind of wood in the world, but it's ideal for building ships. And that wood... is everywhere here!" Kaya swept his gaze around the area.

"You want to build a ship with the wood here? Let me make this clear first: I don't know a damn thing about shipbuilding, but I can help you chop down trees." Rocks spread his hands.

"I can help too. Just give me an axe!" Loki said eagerly.

"No need," Kaya said calmly.

The next second, the ground in the area shook and the mountains trembled.

The tremors were so violent that Loki instinctively lowered his body to keep himself from falling and embarrassing himself.

Rocks stood firm, surveying his surroundings.

The roots of the ancient trees, which had lived for who knew how many years, burst from the earth one after another, moving like giant pythons thrashing in the mortal world, or like slumbering dragons!

Damp earth and stones were thrown up, pattering down and rolling across the ground.

The trees did not grow haphazardly. With a strange sense of purpose, they stretched toward the sky, ever higher.

The ancient trees were gnarled and twisted, controlled by an invisible hand. They coiled in every direction, twisting and winding around one another as if brought to life.

The tangled roots were dark brown, their rough surfaces covered in the marks of age.

"Form!" Kaya's gaze sharpened.

The old wood touched and tangled completely together. Rather than simply piling up, it intertwined, wove and locked together in an ingenious fashion!

It was as though countless invisible hands were performing intricate carpentry, making the scene both spectacular and eerie.

The thickest main roots, like a keel, were the first to bend and take shape in the air, outlining the rough form of a ship.

A broad hull bottom that curved slightly upward.

More roots, like ribs, curved upward along both sides and joined together, gradually forming the contours of the hull.

"A ship... a ship..."

Loki raised his head, staring in a daze.

Rocks was also deeply shaken, as though he were seeing Kaya anew.

Kaya made no movements, simply standing there.

Yet every tree within range was under his control, winding together on its own to construct a ship.

It was not perfectly smooth. Instead, it retained the rough texture and natural forms of the roots, every grain telling of the ancient trees' long history.

The hull formed a seamless whole, as though it had always been meant to look that way, giving off a rich, fresh scent of wood and the aura of ancient life.

The ship's structure was simple, without even a cabin.

It had just one defining feature.

It was big!

Exceptionally big!

A ship this size was more than capable of accommodating the prince of Elbaf, whose body was far larger than a normal human's.

As the commotion subsided, Kaya let out a soft breath.

"Now we have a ship."

The process was incomprehensible to the others, but with his power, it was nothing more than changing the form of the surrounding environment and bringing about a specific transformation.

Reishi was as ubiquitous as air. As long as it was the Reishi belonging to the air in this area, objects could be fashioned from nothing.

It simply required immense power to support it.

"Can this thing sail? Why does it look like an enormous raft? It had better not sink straight to the bottom," Rocks said.

"I can sail it once I get aboard," Kaya replied.