[EX] Where is this? (1)

The salty sea breeze blew, the horizon was wavy, the ground shaking at the rise and fall of the waves..

I was on a ship.

"Great.." I sighed.

"FIIIIREEEE!!!"

BBBOOOOOMM!

KABOOOM!

KABOOOM!

The explosion of cannonball shells, and the recoil of it which caused the ship to shake a little.. this was real. It wasn't some simple dream.. or could it be a dream?

"For His Highness!!" There was this burly man shouting amidst the fire and fury, his saliva spilling everywhere.

The enemy ship popping their cannonballs at us created a comical sound..

Swoosh. One blew past the ship.

No attacks landed. Lucky.

At least there's some reality factor to this dream as it proves true that cannonballs rarely hit the target.

Oh, right. Everyone must be wondering what the hell is going on. Let me explain.

I equipped the [Spirit Magic (SS)] skill in front of the sexist frog. Come to realize, there were a bunch of these spirits.. vengeful spirits? I wasn't too sure what they were, but they're definitely not your typical elemental spirits.

These spirits started circling around me the moment they realized that I had spirit magic and I somehow ended up in this situation. I don't really get what's going on here, but I'm sure I'm not dead. That sexist of a frog also had this unusual [Dreamscape (SS)] skill, maybe this has something to do with that.

Judging from how the system map is displaying the terrain, I think I'm not in the overworld. Last time this happened, it was during that succubus attack.

"Rashid-san."

"Y-Your Highness."

From the cabin came a well dressed man. This 'His Highness' had black hair and a pair of blue eyes similar to those you would see in westerners. Something about him feels off.. like, he's supposed to be familiar to me.

If this is a dream, I should check myself first um..

I pinched my cheeks– yup, there's substance alright. I can feel the texture of this course rope too..

"Oi! Get ya' ass over here! Don't just stand nare'!!"

Heh.. do I really?

"Um.. what exactly do I do?"

This pirate that called out to me, does he not realize I'm not from here?

"Gunpowder!! Go grab it!!"

What the hell.. where's the gunpowder located anyways..

Oh, I think I have an idea.

I went into the lower, thinking that I'll go hide and activate a concealment barrier..

"Oi it's not.. huh?"

So the gunpowder is not in the lower decks? It's actually pretty dark here..

"Where did he.." the guy tried to look for me, to no avail.

Hm.. let's explore this place for a bit. You know, it's a mystery how there's no longer any specific quest pop-ups. Normally, there should be something I have to complete..

Ding.

Speak of the devil.

===

Event Quest:

Save the demon lord. 200P

===

I went to work and typed up 'Demon Lord' into the search bar. Three dots besides my own appeared.

Three demon lords? Wait, what? Seriously? Three demon lords on this vessel?!

I went back up to the upper deck– there was a volley of cannon fire that shook the ship once more.

"We'll take this route and lead them away with a decoy. Your Highness should leave for another ship."

Another ship. There were other similar vessels sailing closely behind ours. The attacking fleet was over towards the side of the open horizon. They were closing in, but were still quite far. It's as if they were trying to push our ships closer to land.

From my map, the real danger is when our fleet comes close to that bay over there. There are a lot of red dots.. and they're soldiers armed with cannons.. so our enemies aren't pirates?

Save the demon lord right? I'm pretty sure anyone can guess which demon(s) I have to save now.

Let's see..

I scroll through the options of spells I have in my arsenal. Maybe a barrier of wind? Nay, I have infinite mana so a few hundred regular barriers might be more effective. I'm not too sure how they'd fare against heavy cannon shells though..

Where exactly is this ship going, exactly? I'm lacking too much info. Maybe I shouldask. I won't die right? Yeah. I'm pretty sure I won't

I walked up to the 'His Highness' guy, his name is Lancestead.. no doubt about it, he's a demon lord.

"Excuse me, Your Highness."

"You are?" he asked me calmly.

"An extraterrestrial existence."

The burly guy beside him gave me a weird look. I'm not lying.. I don't belong to this world to begin with lol.

"Are you a spy?" His Highness asked again.

I shook my head. "I'm a demon lord too," I showed my horns.

He showed a surprised look.

"I just want to know what's going on. I think I need to save this ship, if not I can't return home."

That's a cheap way to say I want 200 points.

His Highness closed his eyes and contemplated for a moment– then he spoke.

What he said shocked me for a moment before I thought.. this might be the 11th cycle.

Remember how some time ago, Miss Margrett mentioned about there being a demon lord who sought after peace during the previous generations? It's this guys right here.

Here's current predicament. This ship that was on its way to the Kingdom of Darcia, and is being attacked by who-knows-what-kingdom that wasn't fond of the existence of a demon lord.

"Where's the hero then? The hero of this cycle is.."

"He is our opposition. I suspect this attack was planned out either by Welchester Principality or the Grand Highlands or both. I might be wrong, this could be led by some other extremist group."

Hm.. I think it's the latter cuz there are soldiers up in the area of the bay..

"Uh.. like, over there at that bay, there are soldiers lying in ambush. We have to distance ourselves away from land. Or.. should I just cast a large shield over the ship?"

"An ambush?!" the burly guy– Captain Rashid exclaimed.

"Yup."

We were basically being sandwiched. Too far out into the sea and we'll be hit by enemy ships. Too close to shore and we'll be hit by those at land. The Kingdom of Darcia was at least another 4 days away– from what His Highness Lancestead said.

"What do you propose?" His Highness asked me.

"Um.. I propose going further out to sea? If we go too close to land, we'd be attacked from both sides whereas if we pushed out towards the sea, leaving the range of land attacks, we only need to worry about one."

"I'm doubtful of your abilities, could you demonstrate.. Captain Rashid, what do you suggest? "

How exactly should I go about casting a shield? Hehh..wait.. I just remembered that Liliath registered this spell..

"Actually, can I blow these ships to kingdom come?"