Dehydration had finally caught up to Rena. And not just that—one of the fish they’d caught and eaten turned out to be poisonous.

William could handle the poison thanks to his powerful body, but Rena wasn’t as lucky. Because of that, she passed out.

That worried him, but luckily she was still breathing. That was a good sign.

He did everything he could to find help, but no matter how far he went, there was nothing.

Until the fourth day. On the fourth day, he finally found something! William saw, from a distance, a ship.

It was much bigger than the one he had—the little boat being pulled by the shark he had tamed.

And there were people on that ship. A full crew. That gave him hope.

To avoid drawing too much attention, he commanded his shark to dive and hide in the depths. Then William started rowing toward the ship, yelling and calling for help.

“Help! Help!” he shouted.

It didn’t take long for the crew to notice him. He saw the ship stop moving and begin drifting slowly with the ocean waves.

William rowed until he got close. When he did, he looked up at the crew—and well, they didn’t look too friendly.

His luck was just too damn bad. First, they were stuck in the middle of nowhere, struggling to find anything, and now that they finally found something, the people didn’t seem trustworthy.

It was terrible.

“Can you help us?” William asked.

The man who spoke was an older guy with a long beard, scars on his arms, a parrot on his shoulder, and the classic pirate look.

“Of course we can help you,” the pirate captain said, glancing at his crew and grinning. “Come aboard.”

William wasn’t stupid. He could tell those men had bad intentions—and he knew damn well they’d try something.

He picked up Rena and climbed aboard. The crew kept staring at her with disgusting looks. William knew exactly what was going through their minds.

Was he scared? Hell no. He was ready to take on all of them if he had to.

But William didn’t make a move right away. They looked and acted like shady people, but he decided to wait and see.

The ship’s captain led them to a room with a bed.

“What happened to her?” the pirate asked.

“Dehydration—and maybe poisoning from a fish we caught and ate,” William replied.

The captain then described the specific poisonous fish from that region—and it was exactly the one they’d eaten.

“And you didn’t get sick?” the captain asked, giving William a suspicious look.

“I ate it too,” William said. “But the poison didn’t seem that bad.”

That surprised the captain. Not even his crew could handle the poison from that fish without getting seriously sick. In fact, he only knew about five people who could endure it.

That made him look at William differently. At first, he was relaxed, totally unbothered by William’s presence—but now, he was paying closer attention to his every move.

“Well, you’re in luck. We’ve got the antidote here, and water for her too. Wait here,” he said.

The captain left the room and went to the ship’s storage to grab water and the antidote. When he came back and William saw the antidote with his own eyes, he said, “If this doesn’t work, you’ll pay the price.”

He said it in a tone that left no room for doubt. A clear threat.

The pirate understood that perfectly.

“Don’t worry. This’ll work,” he said.

The pirate captain didn’t want to take any chances after seeing how William spoke to him. He wasn’t fooling around anymore, and the idea of trying something had already left the captain’s mind.

William placed his hand on the back of Rena’s neck and gently gave her the antidote.

“It’ll take some time to kick in,” the pirate said.

They exchanged glances. William asked, “Do you know where we can find an island or any sign of civilization?”

The pirate found the question strange. “What do you mean? Don’t you live around here?”

The whole pirate crew was probably made up of NPCs—or at least, that’s how William saw them.

They were part of the dungeon, not outsiders. So how could he explain that he had gone through a portal and ended up here? That would never make sense to this guy.

“We came from far away,” William said, “and it’s been days since we last saw any island in this area.”

The pirate looked at him for a moment before finally saying, “We know of an island. But we’re not heading there anytime soon.”

William looked at the man with a deadly gaze. Then he spoke, his voice cold, “We are going to this island, right? You and your crew will enjoy it. You know, a nice and pleasant time to rest.”

The pirate just stared at him in silence. It looked like he was weighing his options, wondering if it was worth going against William.

In the end, he said, “I think you’re right. We’ll go there and rest.”

William smiled. The captain left after that—he had a crew to command and a ship to steer.

Rena and William were alone in the room again. He sat next to her and waited until she finally woke up.

From time to time, he gave her some water, trying to make her feel better.

It took about six hours for Rena to finally wake up. During that time, William stayed awake, watching over her and making sure she was okay.

He wanted to keep an eye on her vital signs to make sure that so-called antidote the pirate gave him actually worked against the poison from the fish they had eaten.

The last thing he wanted was to be tricked and end up making her suffer even more—or worse, die.

When she finally woke up, he let out a sigh of relief. “You’re finally back.”

Rena looked confused. She glanced around the room and pressed her hands against the bed. “Where are we? I don’t remember our wooden boat being this fancy.”

She was trying to make a joke, even in that situation. William laughed, then got serious again before answering, “We’re on a pirate ship.”

“What?”

Anyone would be alarmed to wake up and find themselves on a pirate ship. William understood Rena’s reaction, but he tried to calm her down.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already dealt with them. They’re taking us to an island where we can rest and hopefully learn more about this dungeon floor.”

“Are you sure these pirates can be trusted?” Rena asked, sounding a bit suspicious.

She couldn’t imagine a world where those pirates were trustworthy people.

“Well, stay alert in case you notice anything weird, but don’t worry. If I need to, I’ll fight them.”

The pirate captain opened the door to the room right at that moment. He had overheard William’s last sentence.

“No need to worry, there won’t be any fighting,” the captain said. “We’ve arrived at the island. Let’s go.”

The captain wanted William off his ship as soon as possible. William felt the same way—so everything was going according to plan.

“Can you stand?” William asked.

Rena slowly got out of bed. He held her to help her stay on her feet. She was still feeling weak, so it wasn’t a good idea to risk any sudden movement.

William grabbed her staff and carried it for her, since she wasn’t in top shape. Then they left the room and made their way to the upper deck.

As soon as they stepped outside, they saw they were at a port—and yes, there really was an island with a town right in front of them.

The other thing William noticed was the angry look in the pirates’ eyes. From the moment they had stepped onto the ship, those men had wanted to do something bad, but it was clear the pirate captain had spoken to them and told them to behave.

Those looks were more than enough to make them pick up the pace and get off that ship, stepping onto the port.

The town seemed lively, with several ships arriving, and even though the pirates clearly looked like pirates, the city guards didn’t do anything about it.

“This city seems pretty open to all kinds of people,” William said, looking around. “We need to be careful here. It’s probably crawling with more pirates or other criminals.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Rena replied.

The only thing she didn’t like was how weak she still felt, especially in a city like that. In her current condition, it would be impossible for her to fight anyone if something happened.

“Let’s find a place to rest,” William said.

*

In the forbidden region of the continent, a place few dared to go, an entire army had gathered.

Sarah, one of the summoned heroes, was there too.

“We’re heading to that portal to finally invade the demon island,” one of the captains near Sarah said. “Excited?”

The only thing she could think about was William. She had a bad feeling in her gut.

“We’ll invade slowly and set up camp nearby. It’s not like we have infinite soldiers.”

“Yes, of course.”

Master Elric was still in another continent, but even so, he was speaking to Sarah and commanding things from afar.

William had no idea any of this was happening.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep