The teens looked towards Nathan's hand in anticipation. Of course, Nathan himself had no idea how to activate the decompression rune on the ship, as Ruben hadn't shown him how to. To the Berserker, there hadn't been any reason to rush into it, and Nathan fully agreed.

"The Racron ship," Ruben breathed.

The atmosphere was charged with suspense that even Ruben's words couldn't break. From the corner of his eyes, Nathan saw Ciara giving him a questioning look. It was way different from the ones on the rest of the squad's faces. On their faces was the question "when?" On the mage's face was the question "are you sure?"

It was a good question, and to be honest, Nathan wasn't sure what the answer was supposed to be. A part of him felt like he was making the wrong decision by bringing out the ship. Perhaps it was too soon, too abrupt, but for Nathan, there wasn't much left for him on the island. Maybe the singular C-ranked dungeon might give him a run for his life, but apart from that, he couldn't see anything that could challenge him.

The motivations of others were quite easy to piece together. Ruben probably wanted to find the closest active fast food chain and stuff himself with pizza. Daniel and Diane would want to reconnect with civilization—the feeling would definitely be stronger for the pair than the rest of them, as they'd opted out of joining his faction.

Tasha and Pirlo would go with the crowd: Tasha because the ranger believed in strength in numbers, and Pirlo because he'd prefer to protect everyone from the background. He took a minute to relax and dissect Ciara's motivation, or lack thereof. The mage didn't want to jump on the bandwagon of those itching to leave the island.

Maybe she doesn't like the unknown.

It was a valid feeling. More than anything in the world, the one thing that humans feared the most was the fear of the unknown—the fear of what comes next, the "what ifs." Most people never want to confront the fact that life is a two-sided coin, and while when you flip it, it might land on an unfavorable side, it was also very possible that it'd land on a favorable side. But people preferred to hang back, staring at the coin and never flipping.

"So I believe it's time we get off the island," Nathan said.

"Wooop, wooop!" Ruben said excitedly. "I'm finally about to become a pirate!"

This dude.

Against his better judgment, Nathan cracked a smile at the Berserker's words, and so did a few others. Of course, they all knew that they weren't going to be pirates, but they had let the teen have his fun.

"Any destination in mind?" Pirlo asked.

"The closest land mass," Nathan replied.

They had no GPS or maps, and to be honest, Nathan wasn't sure if a map would've been useful at this point. Nathan had no idea how to work one and had major doubts that a group of teenagers in the year 2024 would. That wasn't the only issue on the ground too—they still had to decide if they'd split their forces and a couple of people would stay back. They also had to consider the weather; sure, golems wouldn't be bothered by the chilly winds, but they would. Staying under deck was a meh solution to that problem, though.

"So closest land mass," Ruben said. "What if there isn't any pizz... Sorry, if there aren't any people there?"

"Then we hit the next landmass. We have no idea how long it is going to take, but we have a ship and food rations, so we should be good," Nathan said.

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"What about the sea creatures? We haven't seen any, but I doubt that it'll just be normal fish under there," Tasha asked.

Sea creatures.

It was another valid concern, one that made Nathan hesitate before responding. He didn't know what exactly was going to be in the sea; he had no idea if he could handle it. He sighed at the conundrum. Suddenly the unknowns were increasing in number, and they hadn't even stepped out of the cabin.

Before speaking, he had to ask himself a question: was it worth risking his life, and theirs by extension, by sailing on a ship surrounded by a water body that probably housed monstrosities? On the other hand, he had to note that most of them would be willing to brave whatever storm was going to be thrown at them, regardless of whatever monster was in the sea, so it wasn't just him.

"We'll risk it," he said finally.

We'll have to.

If they weren't willing to take that risk, then they might as well admit the fact that the island itself was nothing but a prison—an interesting prison, but a prison nonetheless. To Nathan, it was no longer up for consideration; he'd have to leave the island. It was just a matter of when.

"So, I vote we feed Daniel to whatever monster accosts us on our sea voyage," Ruben joked.

"Well, I vote that Ruben is tossed off the ship, monster or no monster," Daniel rebutted.

"I vote for both of you to be left behind at the first land mass we explore," Pirlo breathed out in exasperation.

"Nooo, Nate would never do that," Ruben argued.

"Would you all relax? Nobody is getting tossed out the ship, fed to a monster, or left behind... Well, you're all safe except Ruben," Nathan chuckled.

"Hey, Nate... That's not funny," the Berserker whined.

He didn't know about the others, but he found it really funny. The look on the blabbering Berserker's face was enough to make the entire interaction worth the while. He wasn't going to give the Berserker any assurance; he'd rather watch his words mess with the mind of the Berserker.

"Boys," Ciara and Tasha both breathed out in annoyance at the same time.

Nathan watched as the only silent person in the group—the priestess—chuckled at their back and forth. He contemplated ending the light banter but decided to let it keep going on; they deserved to let loose if anything. As teenagers, most of them had no idea how to communicate properly, and some of them over-communicated. By some, he meant Ruben, and while the Berserker rarely kept quiet, Nathan couldn't tell the Berserker's true feelings at any time.

Ruben was good at keeping his real emotions hidden like that, and for someone like Nathan who was experienced at reading people, it was something to applaud. The Berserker blabbed to the point that Nathan's gut instinct went haywire, unable to put a pin on the blabbering teen.

"I apologize on behalf of all the boys," Daniel said.

"Look at that, a perfect gentleman," Tasha giggled, much to the amusement of everyone seated around the fireplace.

Pirlo rolled his eyes at her words, and he didn't say anything, preferring to let his facial expression do the talking. As always, Ruben tried to throw his two cents on the matter and had his mouth covered by Daniel's palm, muffling whatever the Berserker wanted to say.

"Okay, now that we have gotten that out of our systems, back to the topic at hand: leaving the island," Nathan said. "So logistics—we have enough food rations for about five to six months, assuming Ruben eats like a normal person—"

"Hey, all this talking makes me hungry," the Berserker interrupted, finally having his mouth released by Daniel. The ranger looked at Nathan apologetically.

"Well, shut up," Pirlo said.

"One more thing before that," the Berserker said before turning to Nathan. "Have you figured out how we're going to move the crates to Blood Rock or mine the remaining Tora at the... mine?"

Nathan resisted the urge to scratch his head at the question that had just been thrown at him by the Berserker. They were certainly good questions and ones that Nathan hadn't thought too much about since getting back to the cabin, but it couldn't be too hard. At most, he'd use his bag of holding as a means of transportation, or maybe he could even empty one of the food vats and use it as a means of transporting the ore. So in all likelihood, he had that covered.

The second issue was one that he really had to think about before he offered an answer: the handling of the mine. The thought provoked a pause in Nathan's current train of thought, making him reroute to a thought he'd already had on the issue before. Some of them would have to stay behind, both to handle the stronghold and at the same time mine the Tora ore.

"Uhh, so the transportation of the Tora that has already been mined wouldn't be an issue, but the mining of the Tora will be," Nathan said. "Some of you guys are going to sit out this first sea voyage."

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