Virgil receives the reward.
After that, he opens his eyes helplessly; he cannot do anything with the reward.
The understanding doesn't even allow him to call out a small fire on his palm.
The laws of the two worlds are vastly different.
He has to first localise the Fire Yang power if he wants to use it.
The only way he can think of is runes.
It is known as the language of law in the world.
Mortal races find it difficult to comprehend the law of the world in their short lifespan, so a god created the runes—Divine runes.
But Divine runes are still difficult to comprehend.
So innumerable people created their own rune language from the Divine runes.
The rune knowledge he has with him is from Saint Caligarh.
But for now, he has to sleep; tomorrow, he leaves Panuz City for the next journey.
He decides not to return to the surface world but to continue with Cynthia, Vincent, Mira, Lily, Magnus, and Clide to find the Silver Stone Blood.
He decides to continue because helping an Elector is sure to be an event that affects the world's future.
Vincent and Mira are students of Lady Mercen, so they must have a close relationship with Elector Vanis.
Lily is the daughter of a count who serves Elector Vanis.
She is an illegitimate daughter, so the mission is for her to gain some power in her home.
He is, however, not aware of why Cynthia, Magnus, and Clide agreed.
The next day, Virgil holds the ship's mast as it sails on the mighty Orchen River.
Their destination is Barbaric Island in the southern ocean.
Targis City's trial field is not Barbaric Island.
It is in a cavern on the second floor of the Underdark, and it is already looted after Targis City vanished.
From a senior Night Spirit, they learned that Silver Stone Blood can also be found in the stone garden on Barbaric Island.
To reach there, they have to sail on the Orchen River and come out in the southern ocean.
On the ship, he continues to comprehend the thirty-six runes, combine the two spells, and meditate to advance to rank four.
In the simulation panel, Blood Mark Meditation (fourth stage) will require seventy-four more days.
He puts the Blood Mark Meditation on the panel after the Life Guard spell.
A month later, Virgil quickly comes out of his room and stares at the west side of their ship; a faint light can be seen moving toward them.
The Orchen River flows through many caverns in the Underdark, and some caverns are only occupied by the Orchen River.
This is one of those caverns, and a place where pirates roam, as in the water-filled cavern, there is no place to land.
Vincent asks a shipmate, "Are you sure it is a pirate?"
The shipmate grips his spear tightly and says, "We are not sure, but it is highly likely to be pirates."
Virgil stares as the light comes closer and closer, and the outline of a ship, cutting through the water at high speed, sails toward them.
The shipmate says, "They are sailing at such speed and heading directly toward us. They are surely pirates."
The shipmate is right, as the flag becomes visible, red fire burning on the skull.
The crew on the ship whispers, "Red Fire Pirate."
"Captain, what do we do? It is Red Fire Pirate; they don't leave any survivors behind."
The Captain's booming voice answers, "We fight."
The ship manoeuvres to face the Red Fire Pirate and sails toward them.
The ships get side-by-side, and ropes and harpoons are shot from the pirate ship to pull their ship closer.
The pirates begin to descend onto their ship.
Virgil meets them head-on.
The pirates are from the Water Lizard race.
They are blue-scaled humanoid lizards with the ability to breathe underwater and control water.
Virgil shortly kills three lizards, attracting the attack of a burly lizard.
When their weapons meet, he feels the strength of the lizard is similar to the dark bear he had killed before near the mushroom village.
The lizard is a rank five professional.
Fighting with strength alone, he is no match against the lizard.
So, he has to rely on his spear skill.
He cannot use it fully, as the fight is on the deck of a ship, and battles rage all around him.
To obtain victory, Virgil fights the lizard's cleaver with his spear.
He channels the Life Sword spell, which has reached perfection, and his understanding of the spell deepens as he considers combining it with the Life Guard spell.
While clashing with the lizard, the Life Sword attacks from behind, breaking its scales and drawing blood.
After a brutal fight and sustaining injuries, Virgil succeeds in killing the lizard.
Wounded, he moves to help the ship's captain fight the pirate captain.
They are both at the second stage of 'professionals'.
Virgil's arrival tips the balance toward the ship's captain.
Although Virgil is a first-order professional, he has reached the peak strength of his rank.
The pirate captain is a second-order rank six Aqua Warrior, but Virgil can still injure him with his strength.
Fighting an equal-strength opponent and facing Virgil at the same time weakens the pirate captain.
Virgil becomes the deciding factor.
The pirates retreat.
They win the fight, but Virgil is seriously injured.
The pirate captain blames Virgil for the defeat.
In the final moments before retreating, his eyes lock onto Virgil with pure hatred.
With a roar, the captain hurls his trident.
It cuts through the chaos of battle, the force tearing the air like a spear of water.
Virgil barely turns, in time, the weapon grazing his side and punching through his armour.
A burning pain floods his body as he stumbles to one knee.
The pirate captain grins, satisfied to have left his mark, before vanishing with the retreating crew.
Later, lying on the bed, Virgil's slight injuries are healed, but the serious ones must heal on their own.
The first-order healing spell does not work.
If the injuries heal naturally, it will take at least a month.
However, he can be healed at the next stop—Trifalm, a town in the Dark Fae Kingdom.
In the Church of Morrise, the priests can heal him.
It will take two days to reach Trifalm.
While lying on his bed, Virgil thinks he must strengthen his body.
If he were slightly tougher and stronger, he would not be seriously injured.
He has no knowledge of human physical professions except for the knight, which requires extraordinary blood.
He does not have that blood.
His mind turns to the martial arts of the simulation world.
He has a middle-rank technique—the Six Pole Technique.
He begins to study the first realm of martial arts, the Sensing Realm.
In that world, they call the physical energy Qi.
Here, it is called Fighting Energy after it is refined by chaotic energy.
He has already sensed his physical energy, so he is already in the Sensing Realm.
The next stage is the Forging Realm, which uses Qi to forge the skin and muscles.
He tries the method, and it works, but pain shoots through his injuries.
He realises he must heal before continuing the forging of his body.
Later that day, while Virgil remains on the ship, his teammates disembark and return with a priestess.
She channels a second-order healing spell into him.
An itch spreads through his wounds, slowly turning into relief.
The priestess says, "To be fully healed, Virgil will need another healing spell tomorrow."
Tomorrow, she will not come to the ship—Virgil will have to visit her.
After a while, everyone leaves his room.
A green energy appears on Virgil's palm—it is his physical energy.
During the past two days of lying in bed, he has managed to combine the Life Sword and Life Guard spells.
He names the result the Life Control spell, having merged the second stage of both.
Now he must draw the Poison Arrow spell model in his empty spell slot.
He pulls the green energy back into himself.
His muscles tremble, pain flickering through him—faint, yet mixed with a strange pleasure, like a deep massage.
The next day, he follows Cynthia to the church, and the priestess heals him completely.
They decide not to return to the ship.
The vessel will be docked for a week to repair the damage it suffered during the battle.
Virgil and Cynthia enjoy the cuisine of the Dark Fae.
While walking along a street, a dark fae runs toward him.
They collide and fall to the ground.
The dark fae quickly scrambles up and sprints away as guards chase him, shouting, "Stop! Thief!"
Virgil stands.
The guards rush past him.
His hand instinctively touches his pocket—inside is an unfamiliar object, placed there by the fleeing thief.