Chapter 36: Strange Stone Sculpture

Warlock Gargon quietly placed a blowgun made from bones near his mouth when he saw Alvin in a daze.

Whoosh!

Clang!

With his battle instincts, Alvin swung his sword just before the blowdart hit him and cut off the poison arrow at lightning speed.

Although he was unharmed, when he turned around and saw the old man who was dressed weirdly, he could not help but break out in cold sweat.

Although he was a little worried about Uncle Gull facing that weird and disgusting “monster” alone, Alvin thought he would better end the old man’s life first.

“Gagaga, stupid sailor, I have already seen the sign of your death!”

To Alvin’s surprise, the strange old man did not escape after his failed attack but instead crawled out of the cabin and continued to attack Alvin with the blowgun.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

From his dark brown skin, one could infer that he should be an aborigine from the Southern Continent. His body was also covered in bone ornaments, and tattoos covered more than 80 percent of his body, seemingly the image of an aboriginal warlock in the stories he heard as a child.

Alvin became extremely careful.

That was because in the legends, it was rare to encounter such weird people in the civilized world. Although he might not have enough combat power, he possessed all kinds of weird and frightening witchcraft that was extremely dangerous.

Although Alvin was at the peak of martial arts skills, he could not let his guard down.

“Sword Art: Pontoon!”

He moved with agility and easily blocked off all the arrows.

Indeed.

Seeing how his darts were unable to hurt Alvin, the warlock laughed weirdly and took out a dark green ball from his pocket made from the skin of a python and threw it at Alvin.

“Die! Your death is near!”

Alvin’s sharp eyesight allowed him to identify what the ball was. His eyes narrowed. It was a human head that was shrunk by some unknown means. One could still see its eyebrows and eyes clearly though it was shrunk several times.

Bamp!

A strong wave of thick, sticky, green mist exuded from the human head and spread rapidly on the deck.

Alvin did not want to test out the strange object personally. He leaped up the mast and stood at the jib of the main sail to avoid the poisonous gas.

“Ah! Help!”

“Cough… Cough… I can’t breathe…”

Alvin was able to avoid the gas, but not everyone on the deck could. Many of the pirates and the sailors who were in a battle with them inhaled the poisonous gas and died.

“Go and die!”

Alvin was frustrated.

Although he had realized that this was witchcraft, Alvin was unable to turn a blind eye to this and watch his comrades die mercilessly.

“Wo…!”

The sea breeze soon blew away the poisonous gas, but the pirates and sailors who survived this were still in shock. They hid in a corner and did not dare to leave.

The warlock hid behind some barrels and monitored the situation on the deck. He mumbled, “My divination can’t be wrong. Death, a strong and young body, crows—aren’t these symbols telling me that I will be able to get hold of the corpse of a young, powerful individual for me to cultivate the powerful art of the living corpse?”

Alvin, who had arrived at where the warlock was, felt absurd. Was this guy dreaming? Fighting against a warrior just because he saw that Alvin would lose in his divination?

If warlocks were all lunatics like that, then it was no wonder the churches had decreed witch hunts.

Alvin thought witch hunts were means for the ruling class to force the commoners to fight against their opponents. Now he felt that he should reconsider that perception.

“At least someone like this old warlock who doesn’t care about human life shouldn’t exist!”

Those thoughts did not restrict Alvin’s sharp and brutal movements.

Holding his longsword, Alvin leaped down like an eagle hunting for his prey. He made use of the force of falling and drew a beautiful arc using his sword. The sword passed through the warlock’s neck.

Thump—

The wrinkled head fell on the ground. His face was still in disbelief and there were no signs of life in his eyes.

Alvin tapped the deck with his toes and continued rolling forward, getting out of where the warlock was. He was afraid that the warlock was like Zack of the Blood Anchor and would pull others down even after he died.

Fortunately, the warlock was not competent enough and Alvin’s worries did not take place. The warlock died immediately.

Alvin did not dare to touch anything on the warlock’s body. He did not know anything about witchcraft and might end up hurting himself.

Alvin found the remaining kerosene on the pirate ship and set the warlock and his belongings on fire to completely get rid of him.

While the fire was still burning, Alvin cooperated with the sailors who boarded the pirate ship to get rid of the remaining pirates. This time, they did not encounter any opponents who were difficult to deal with.

The quality of the kerosene prepared by the pirates was high and the warlock’s body was burnt to ashes when everything was over.

The deck, which was fireproof, also had a large portion charred. Fortunately, when Alvin lit the fire, he removed the flammable materials nearby. Otherwise, the pirate ship might end up like the Warrior.

However, some items were not burnt.

“What’s this?”

Amongst the ashes, a black, shipwreck-like stone sculpture lay quietly. Its smooth, clean surface made it seem as though it had not been burnt at all.

Step… step… step…

Alvin walked forward and looked at the strange object. He placed his hand on it and felt the coldness. The flames seemed to be an illusion to him.

Plop!

However, the next moment, Alvin felt as though he fell into the ocean. He felt like he was sinking extremely quickly and his skills fell to rock bottom immediately.

He was shrouded by darkness.

The mud from the bottom of the sea covered him. It was suffocating, cold, smelly, and overwhelmed Alvin.

Time suddenly accelerated and countless barnacles, tubeworms, moss worms, mussels, seaweed, and other parasites began to grow wildly on his body. When he raised his hands, he realized that one had turned into the pincers of a crab, while the other one had decomposed into black moss.

The horror caused him to gain consciousness for a moment. Suddenly, he saw a giant, red exclamation mark in his vision and a shrill warning sound echoed in his ears.

“Mental state deviation, alert! Alert!”

Instantly realizing that he was caught in an illusion. Alvin gathered his strength and struggled.

Plop!