Leaf was sent flying through the air after a particularly vicious punch from Lucian.

He landed in the water, creating a big splash. "Damn it!" he shouted, spitting out water.

Lucian was next to Fishbone in a second. He grabbed him and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him to the deck.

Fishbone grunted in pain, his speed no match to Lucian's. "Damn, Boss...ugh... is in another league now."

Jax and Roland both attacked from the side, trying to take him down. But Lucian was already ahead of them.

He grabbed their fists before they could punch him and pulled them toward him, hitting their foreheads against each other, causing them to stumble back from the impact.

Jax held his forehead, his face red and burning from the blow, while Roland shook his head to get rid of the dizziness.

Lucian didn't give them any time to rest or think. He moved forward and struck Jax's stomach with his leg then Roland's, sending both of them overboard.

Their screams were followed by a pair of splashes as they hit the water.

Fishbone quickly jumped overboard to escape the same fate as the rest. He was a big guy, so his fall caused a small tidal wave that rocked others back into the water.

The subtle smoke was still coming off Lucian's body after the fight, creating a haze around him.

His senses and instincts were running wild. It wasn't overwhelming like Voice's power was. Everything was enhanced, yet his body didn't feel overextered.

"..." Goblin, Cansan, and Loreno stared at Lucian, who won against four southerners. Easily. Effortlessly. Like they were a joke.

While regular southerners were superior to regular northerners in terms of strength, northern knights and southern hunters were on the same level.

Jax and Roland would have to awaken at least twenty percent of their tattoos and advance to two marked hunters to stand a chance against Lucian's iron knight level strength.

'Let's try again,' Lucian turned to Blocky, positioning his left hand for a punch, and threw it.

This time, the hand imprint went deeper into the wood until he reached the metal plate. The force of the impact didn't crack the wood, but rather melted it.

Grinning in satisfaction, Lucian removed his shirt and jumped into the water to join the rest, his body cutting the surface neatly, leaving almost no splash behind him. He surfaced a moment later, shaking his head, spraying water everywhere.

He didn't expect the difference between an iron stage and iron knight to be so drastic. The bottleneck was a real deal.

Cansan also decided to jump into the ocean, swimming around and enjoying the sea breeze, "Fishbone, could you ask your wife to pass a message to my Mumbai?"

"Sure," Fishbone agreed.

Mumbai, Cansan's wife, ended up having motion sickness and couldn't join them on the voyage. She stayed in the capital, keeping an eye on things for him.

"Arghh," Goblin tried to absorb the sun's energy faster so he could join the fun in the water as well, "...arghh!!"

It was a terrible decision.

Goblin regretted it very much as he got sunburnt from absorbing too much too fast. He looked like a roasted turkey, his skin charred to a crisp.

Loreno went to fetch a bucket of water with a towel. He placed the items next to Goblin's shoulders before returning to his lab.

"Ugh, thank you," Goblin groaned, slowly dipping the towel into the water, then wringing the excess out. He slapped it over his face, then continued to sunbathe while muffling in pain, "May my beast be in a good mood today and not bite me..."

To be able to awaken more of his tattoos and become a marked hunter, Goblin had to tame the guardian beasts of the tattoo. Ones that could kill him easily if they didn't take a liking to him.

Southerners' violent nature was often due to their inability to tame their beasts, which made them prone to outbursts of violence.

The northerners often accused them of being shackleds in disguise, waging war and spreading chaos.

The southerners would retaliate back by accusing northerners for being shackleds, who were spreading lies to bring destruction to the world like true shackleds would.

It was a never-ending loop.

Lucian swam deeper and deeper. Sea plants tickled his sides and fish swam away in fear. He was looking for a gift to bring back home. Something to make her smile.

He didn't have gold coins to spare and he bet she would also rather have him not waste it on her, who already had it all.

He still wanted to congratulate her for blinding their enemy, and show his support.

Awed by the colorful and beautiful sea plants he saw, an idea came to his mind.

An exotic glass tank of sea plants and fish could be sold as a decoration inside the noble houses. It would be another overpriced product for the wealthy, to show of their wealth.

The idea was too tempting not to try.

Lucian immediately swam up and signaled for the crew to help him collect the sea plants and fish. The crew was confused but helped him nonetheless.

Lucian climbed back up to the ship and marched inside Lorano's lab, "I need to use a corner."

He was dripping water all over the floor, his golden hair soaked and sticking to his face.

He moved an empty glass tank that was used for Lorano experiments into a corner, removed the small wooden ship from it, and then asked Lorano to start pouring water into it.

"If we can help tropical plants survive in a different climate inside our glass palaces, then the same can be done for these as well," Lucian said, just in time for Leaf to carry in a batch of sea plants and a fish.

They had no idea how the fish and plants would survive inside the glass tank, but they could experiment until they found out.

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