Mimic Awakening

Chapter 39: Over The Open Waters

Somewhere in the world, a massive floating island is flying over the sea. It is very unusual to see a sight like this, even in this magical world, but no one witnesses it right now other than the ones on board.

The floating island is shaped perfectly circular, and it is flying around twice the speed of a cruise ship. The bottom part of the island hovers at least five thousand meters from the surface. The noon sun cast its huge shadow on the ocean, inflicting a false alarm on the marine monsters and animals underwater.

At the very front edge of the island, a seemingly man-made structure, an elevated wooden octagonal gazebo, is built to serve as a command deck of the island. From there, a man is standing with his arms folded as his gazes are fixated on the open seas, which stretches to the horizon.

"First darkness, then trees, and now waters. Am I cursed to be surrounded by one thing one at a time?"

Azrael reminisces about how his new life has been so far. The life in the dungeon may be rough, but it builds his current self even though he exchanged his emotions for it.

The world is giving him the toughest challenges of his life, which involve several life-and-death situations. His mimic body is sure physically weak and vulnerable, but he learns to adapt and use his foes to enrich himself.

In the end, his efforts come to fruition, and he considers something as trivial as sea breeze a reward for it.

(You are at it again. Do you tend to contemplate anything?)

"There’s nothing wrong with viewing things from different aspects," he responds to Claire’s whine. "By doing that, you have an image of everything you need to know and get an understanding of the things that could happen. But right now, this island is going nowhere. It is just wandering aimlessly over the open waters trying to get away from the continent."

(Yeah, right.)

As they discussed last night, they planned to move this floating island, which contains a massive dungeon, to a safe place. Since anyone would notice a giant piece of land hovering in the sky, docking it above land immediately means revealing its location.

For that reason, they decided to move it over the ocean, where no humans would dare to venture. For a floating island, the ocean is basically an endless moat filled with gigantic sea monsters.

Similarly, the Floating Kingdom of Laevern shares the same reason and placed their islands over the eastern sea, isolating themselves from the mainland civilizations. But realistically, the Floating Kingdom cannot survive on their own due to their limited resources.

From what Claire has known, the Floating Kingdom has been engaging in trades with other nations to sustain itself. She heard that the Kingdom of Laevern has a full-year spring season due to its altitude, so it can produce crops basically for the whole year.

Azrael and Claire have yet to decide where to park the island. So for now, it has been flying northwest just to get away from any civilizations, as the flying island holds the dungeon that is highly sought after by nations.

(Say, Azrael, wouldn’t the plan of blaming the massacre on the dungeon outflow become kind of redundant since we turned the whole place into a lake anyway?)

Once the floating island has been made, Azrael finds it aesthetically unappealing to leave a massive six-kilometer-deep hole in the forest. Not to leave a bad taste in the mouth, he has Claire fill the hole with water.

Azrael consumes a few archdragon magic cores to regain enough mana to conjure permanent water through ritual casting. With Claire’s awakened ability, the ritual did not need to have multiple casters to execute multiple Hydro Meteors, a supreme-tier spell.

"I think not. I left a few survivors slash witnesses at all."

(Oh. I didn’t realize it.)

"So where exactly are we going again?"

(I have no idea. All I know is that we are currently over the ocean northeast of the continent. Since the waters are far more dangerous than the lands, humanity barely sails the high seas, let alone the ocean. I think no one ever got this far from land.)

"I see. It’s really that dangerous, huh?"

(It is. Even nations with a massive navy avoid the vast ocean beyond the east and west of Revoria. Boats and ships only sail the northern and southern waters as the ice continents are making them relatively narrower.)

"There are a lot of things to visualize. Perhaps I should get a world map. Anyway, while we were at it, we should consider starting to develop this island, as I have decided to live here, making this my base of operations."

(I agree.)

"Firstly, we should do something about her own estate in the kingdom. If the empire were going to reclaim the kingdom, they might do something about it like demolishing it or going to sell or lease it."

(About that, that shouldn’t be a problem. Its location is pretty isolated, so they would have a hard time finding it. Moreover, I deployed multiple barriers around it that make it invisible to normal eyes.)

"That’s reassuring. My loots are stored there after all. Well then, I think this spot is far from the land now. Let’s dock this island here for now."

(As you wish.)

At Azrael’s command, Claire begins concentrating her focus on the whole island. From a constant pace, the flying island then decreases its speed, which Azrael feels due to the change of acceleration. The deceleration takes a whole minute and around half a kilometer for the island to make a full stop.

"First things first, we need to settle the matter for your resurrection. I think it’s about time for you to regain a physical body."

(!! Wait! Do you really mean it?!)

Upon hearing his words, Claire immediately asks him if he was genuinely serious about it. The thought of gaining a body truly makes Claire excited. She has been longing for it for quite some time. Living inside Azrael is not bad, but she prefers not to prolong further.

However, gaining a physical body would not come free.

"Of course, I mean it. The question is, can you hold on to the agreement we have agreed to?"

(...I know. That’s our deal.)

In exchange for sparing her life on top of giving a new body, Claire has to pledge her allegiance to Azrael. She does not know how he is going to make use of her, but regardless, she already has accepted her fate.

She would bear anything, and that includes the possibility of becoming his slave. If he wanted fidelity instead, she would not hesitate to comply. Knowing how powerful and ruthless Azrael is, she knows fighting back is utterly useless. She would do all of that for the sake of survival.

"I’m glad you got it. I have a lot of things to do with you." He smirks.

(So what are you going to do, Azrael?)

"Before we can proceed with your reanimation, I want you to teach me how to cast this God’s Tongue spell."

(You did mention before that you wanted to learn at least the common language of this world. Learning to understand and speak the common language would probably take months to years to achieve the basics. Is there any particular reason why you need the spell right now?)

"I need it right now because I plan on coming over to your secret villa. Your servant wouldn’t understand me if I speak in my language, yes?"