When he transformed, William felt something different about his spirit. He felt a connection with something far, far away from him, like some sort of a bond. He didn't need to think deeply about it, knew this was something related to that Mystic Art he did, the connection with that spirit.
In the meantime, he tried to walk in the transformation form, ending up feeling exhausted weirdly after five hours every time.
He tried to look for the reason, and he spotted it on his fourth attempt. It felt like if he transformed and did nothing, didn't fight or anything, his spirit power would deplete in five hours! It was new, strange, and yet quite alarming.
That made him try to fight something. As Sloth didn't accept his request to train, asking him to not waste time and keep heading fast towards the continent, he decided to try fighting the ocean monsters every time they passed a trait.
All the islands were connected together by some sort of a huge bridge. And yet monsters still came in and stormed the bridges whenever people walked over it. That was why the main place they found masters stationed at was at bridges, watching over those who were going to cross, helping them to safely pass.
Every time William left the mission to fight these monsters to Sloth. The latter was getting bored from all this tranquillity and peace and wanted to spend some time fighting anything. Yet after realising the crux of this problem, William decided to fight ocean monsters as well.
This wasn't new for him, and so he didn't feel the same excitement as Sloth. But when he fought for one hour, he noticed his weird spirit power consumption faded away, and he even gained spirit power as if he was regenerating it, or consuming a potion.
It wasn't like when he used elixirs, but it was remarkable. "Like this, I can sustain longer in battles… but trying to run using my spirit body won't do anymore…" he weighed what he learnt, and knew the ins and outs of the changes he experienced.
As he figured out what went wrong, he stopped wasting his time dealing with ocean monsters. Ocean monsters were the same as land ones, and had cores and materials. The cores were the same, but the materials did indeed differ.
It was widely known that using ocean monster materials in forging and concocting would bring water-based traits to any product. Not to mention it'd grant anti-fire features if high-class materials were used.
Gradings of ocean monsters were the same as land ones, but it was harder to fight monsters in the water. If the master didn't have any water-based element, then he'd struggle to survive the attacks of them over water.
It was a new experience for Sloth, and that was apparent in the loud laughs and shouts he kept issuing all the time. For a moment there, he reminded William of Ibra, and he knew what fate awaited that violent and hot-blooded friend of his.
They took roughly a month to cross the islands and reach the mainland. The last couple of islands looked different. They got more masters there, and news about big events in the continent reached these places.
"So we won?" Sloth muttered when he heard the news.
"Why act like you didn't see this coming?" William rolled his eyes, "Come on! They are waiting for us back there."
"Of course you are happy, your guild ruled over that war, and got a nice boost to their name and fame. And you left behind genius kids indeed, they didn't miss the chance and hurried to recruit masters from the city. If I don't know you, I'd say this genius idea came from my princess."
"She is part of my guild now, old man," William rolled his eyes, "even if she was the one to propose it, it's still considered an idea coming from my guild."
"She is my kingdom's princess and heir!" Sloth used to speak with William like he was speaking with his grandson or something. From this long travel together, and after witnessing too much with him, the two became familiar with each other, speaking like they were old buddies or something.
On many occasions, Sloth would feel like William wasn't a teenager, but a grown-up man, one with tons of experience. And that made him admire this youngster even more.
Yet from time to time, William would still act as an annoying jerk, making Sloth lose his cool and temper at most times, like now.
"Ok old man, don't forget she fought against everyone to be with me!" This wasn't the first time the two argued about this point, and William always won the debate by using such irrefutable facts. Whenever Sloth got reminded of this point, he'd try to change the subject at once.
"Do we need to board a ship to go to the shore?" Sloth seemed a bit startled when he heard this. During the past journey, they just passed over bridges. But weirdly enough, there wasn't a bridge linking this island with the mainland.
"What's wrong old man? Don't tell me you are afraid of riding ships!" William felt like Sloth's reaction wasn't groundless, and there was more beyond that man's last comment.
"Come on, like I'm not the only master growing sick after boarding a ship!" There was a reason why Sloth never treated the ocean or fought ocean monsters before. He wasn't afraid of the ocean, but he always ended up pretty dizzy and weak every single time he boarded a ship.
If that occurred, he'd turn pretty useless and damn weak, something he hated when he grew up and became stronger.
"Growing sick? Oh, you are one of those suffering from Ocean Spirit Sickness, right?" William resisted the urge to laugh, and yet his face told Sloth what he was having in mind.
"Come on! Do you think I'm a pushover or a weakling? I'm sick on water, a lion on land, what's the problem?"
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