Only I Am A Reader

Other than remaining by his side for the majority of the time, Yeon stayed as silent as usual. Leo could tell that her negative feelings had been washed away, but that only seemed to have left her hungering for more connection.

On the other hand, Cheon Sohee and Cheon Yong moved more flexibly on the ship. Yong was more invested in making use of the unstable footing to train his sword preparation for the hunt, while Sohee did a little bit of everything including accompanying the couple on deck to watch the waves.

As for the seniors that followed them as background characters to initiate the dealing with the Northern Ice Palace, Cheon Jeong didn\'t act much differently from her second student. Cheon Chang, however, kept to himself as he more or less spent the whole day in his room, not that much different from what the Bing siblings did.

"Time for food, join up!"

The ship\'s personnel were the ones responsible for all of the chores including cooking, but Cheon Jeong still took on the role of the mother who called her children to the food.

Regardless of what they were doing, everyone appeared on deck when it was time to eat. The original six members of the team had quite the good synergy building up from their time in the Heavenly Furnace, but the Bing siblings\' silence made things a bit awkward.

\'I wish time would pass by faster…\'

Considering that she only received red signals from everyone present, especially Leo and Yeon, Bing Baek had no plans of getting to know her fellow passengers. She only hoped that the trip would come to an end soon. The only reason she and her brother attended the joint meal was that she didn\'t want to anger Cheon Jeong.

However, unbeknown to her, she wasn\'t the only one who wasn\'t so fond of mealtime…

\'More seafood…\'

The one type of food that Leo usually had to force himself to eat, if he ate it at all was seafood. No matter how he tried, he simply couldn\'t get used to the fishiness that came with each meal. If not for the fact that he would appear immature if he were to refuse the meal, Leo would have abstained from food for a while till he received something. The luxury of being choosy was something that could only be enjoyed back on Earth.

However, just as Leo was about to set down, he sensed something as he saw Cheon Chang standing up. The Absolute Spear stretched out his hand to call for the Black Dragon before lightly throwing it into the sea!

Kragg!

A scream resounded from under the ship as the Black Dragon rose once more, acting as a skewer for the fishy creature that it pierced to death.

\'Merfolk.\'

Leo instantly recognized the enemy that was soon to surround their ship. Unlike the legends of merfolk and mermaids that had looks that were absolutely stunning and brilliant scales that shone like gems, the merfolk that crossed over through the opening of dimensional cracks looked like nothing more than a bunch of uglies…

Dirty green scales covering its entire body rather than just a half, the dead merfolk was like a creepy fishman who possessed both the body details of a fish and a man, a horrifying sight to look at.

\'They sure are restless despite letting the protagonist have a safe trip to the island.\'

Grabbing his Silver Dragon at the side, Leo dashed towards the rails to find that a few merfolks were trying to climb the ship. As they followed suit, a storm of weapons ensued as the four seedlings defended the ship, fighting at a distance while trying not to lose their weapons as Peak Martial Artists who still lacked the ability to use Internal Energy Telekinesis…

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Meanwhile, Cheon Chang\'s spear continued going up and down, quickly filling up the raw fish skewer before dropping all of its contents into the sea, starting another skewing sequence!

Cheon Jeong simply remained in her seat to finish the meal as if nothing had happened. Although she didn\'t deny Cheon Chang giving the kids some help, she believed that they had to deal with such reasonable elements of danger if this was to be an educational outing!

\'This annoying fishiness!\'

The merfolks were barely as strong as 1st rate Martial Artists, making them easy prey for the Peak level team. However, Leo suffered under the constant contact with their fishy scales…

Swish!

Clearly noticing Leo\'s hidden unwillingness to deal with the disgusting enemy, Yeon went all out! Sending a stream of ice blades down the ship, she directly turned the remaining merfolk into ice sculptures that slid down the ship\'s hull, putting an end to the temporary threat.

Thankfully, the ship was barely damaged thanks to the quick response.

\'Finally.\'

The small episode ended too quickly for anyone to have a say on it, but Bing Baek had managed to roughly confirm her temporary teammates\' level of ability. Coincidentally, she could now also tell that Leo hated fishiness…

"Those pesky monsters are really getting out of hand."

The sailor only let out a simple comment as the ship resumed moving, as usual, dealing with danger in the sea was normal, especially since the monsters\' invasion started.

\'Let\'s hold on…\'

Trying to look at the full cup and enjoy the relaxed journey, Leo stomached the meals that could be said to have gotten progressively better. Thankfully, there were no more merfolk attacks after their first one, so Leo was spared from dealing with them once more!

Just like that, week after week passed as the Pitch Black ship grew closer to its destination. Soon enough, Leo finally saw the pure white snow of the Northern Ice Palace…