The Journey To The East

Before I could inquire any further, I checked my skills. 

[Skills (3)]

[Judge of the dead Lv 2]

[Can select the fate of those you kill]

[Hellfire Lv 1]

[Can summon and control hellfire]

[Freeze Lv 1]

[Can stop time in a 5m radius, for 30 seconds with a 5 minute cooldown]

I was overjoyed. Freeze may only last for 30 seconds, but, if that was only level 1, I could only imagine how powerful it would get eventually. 

Plus, judge of death levelled up, which could only make it better. 

The others seemed to be feeling the same, as they shared their screens with me. 

[Ulric's skills (2)]

[Body our of body Lv 3]

[Can summon attack clones using hair (30%)]

[Golden fiery eyes Lv 1]

[User's vision is enhanced, the effects of illusions is lessened]

Meanwhile, I got to see Cain's skills. 

[Cain's skills (4)]

[Headless Lv 1]

[The user can survive without their head]

[Spirit physique Lv 2]

[Can become intangible for 1 minute, 5 minute cooldown]

[Weapon proficiency Lv 1]

[User is better at using all weaponry]

[Oxygen independence Lv 1]

[User can survive without oxygen for longer than normal]

Having thoroughly looked through all their skills, I finally decided to ask Ulric the important question.

"Why do you want to go to the east?"

"Alright, I'll explain", he began. "Sun Wukong has a grudge against a particular Buddha - Sakyamuni - and would like me to take care of him before he gets too strong to deal with."

"Okay, but why east? Couldn't he have picked anyone?"

"No", surprisingly, it was Wukong who answered, "That Buddha, even if he claims to have shed all material ties, he still loves his country more than anything. He will be in China."

"Not to be rude to Ulric, but, if you're after someone in China, why didn't you pick a Chinese vessel?"

Wukong seemed to pout as he explained, "All the good ones over there were taken."

Ulric, offended, then decided to ask us both, "Will you come with me or not?"

Without question, I decided to go. I had nothing tying me to this country, and had always wanted to go east. Of course, I wanted to go on holiday, not on a pilgrimage to lynch Buddha. 

Well, they say you should try everything at least once. 

Cain, on the other hand, wasn't so quick to agree. He didn't like unnecessary effort, and had no intention of leaving England. The climate was good, it had once been quite a safe place to live, and the insects didn't want to kill you the way they did abroad. 

The again, thinking of Ulric's power, and his army of clones, he had little choice but to go. After all, he'd be far safer with Wukong, didn't really have to worry about insects anymore, and the weather wasn't a good enough excuse not to go. 

In preparation, Ulric plucked some of his hairs to create new clones. When his skill was upgraded, his existing clones wouldn't be, so he'd have to make new ones. 

He then took hairs from each of his new clones to make even more. Of course, he couldn't make infinite clones, as too many in a short period of time would inevitably exhaust him. It was already quite a lot of effort to control them all. 

Along with that, only the new ones received the new skill - golden fiery eyes. Because of this, Ulric left a group of new clones to command the existing ones at the train station, bringing the rest of the new batch with him. 

The group commandeered an abandoned ship and prepared to set sail, before coming to the common realization, "None of us know how to sail."

We asked our supporters, but Wukong only knew how to steer rowboats and the dullahan didn't even bother answering. The only one who could was Yama. 

"I can sail, but I'm not sure how well I can explain it."

And with that, we set off, with me placed at the wheel and Ulric's clones acting as my deck hands. 

"First, you need to hoist the sails, adjust your heading and trim to the wind. When we get going, keep an eye on the front of the sail edge on the main and jib." While I struggled to understand the jargon, the others took their time relaxing and thinking about the route. 

As we set off, we received another message.

[Next round of inheritance will take place in 24h, 0m, 0s]

They seemed to be getting less frequent each time, but more significant. 

We had planned to avoid land, sticking to water where there would be far less people to worry about, but that might not've been the best idea. 

Quickly, our ship ran into some trouble. 

An inexperienced sailor navigating the channel is hard enough, but, it became even harder, as large whirlpools started appearing everywhere. 

I managed to avoid the first few, but, as they became more frequent and closer together, I had no hope of getting past them. 

It wasn't long before Cain and Ulric picked up on the whirlpools and decided to investigate. Ulric sent some clones with golden fiery eyes into the water to look for whoever was doing it. 

After sending eight clones - many of which never made it back - we eventually managed to locate the perpetrator. 

A large man, seemingly from the Mediterranean, supported by a massive sea monster lingering behind him. It wouldn't take much guessing to figure out that it was Charybdis. 

Ulric did command his clones to attack him, but none of them managed to get past the strong currents. 

Cain fired a few shotgun rounds, but the water was far too deep. 

If we could've avoided fighting him, we would've. Unfortunately, there was no way to get past without defeating him. We decided, as his skills were most appropriate, that we'd send Cain to deal with it. 

He leaped into the water, activating spirit physique straight away. Even if it had levelled up, the duration was still pretty short, so he had to be careful.

He ran, ignoring the water as it passed through him, straight towards Charybdis' vessel. 

As he got close, he pummeled the man, selectively deciding what could make contact with him. He would've preferred to use his shotgun, but, obviously that wasn't possible. 

Before he knew it, his minute was up, and the enemy hadn't been dealt with. 

Luckily, as he noticed what was happening, the man stopped attacking Cain, thinking he was just going to drown. Little did he know that we had prepared for that. 

With oxygen independence, as long as he held his breath, Cain could stay under water for nearly half and hour. 

To avoid the man noticing, Cain stopped moving and let himself get dragged around by the whirlpools, playing dead. 

While we tried to steady the ship, Cain endured the violent tides, patiently waiting for his cooldown to end. 

As it did, he reactivated his skill and rushed at the man. Already beaten pretty badly, he was so surprised that he hardly even tried to counter-attack. 

Another minute passed and the whirlpools ceased. Cain, victorious, was taken aboard by a group of Ulric's clones, and we could sail again.

Despite the success, we all agreed that we'd alter our course to be on-land as much as possible. Sure, land was more populated, but the water was far more dangerous when so many people had so much control over it.