"Do you have any idea where Der could have gone?" Daniel asked to Jerigh through a wisp of sound essence, receiving only a simple shake of Jerigh's head as a response. He then stopped to think for a minute, and started to evaluate the situation.
The ship was still moving, and they hadn't stopped, because otherwise, they would have felt it, and an announcement would have been sent out to the rest of the passengers if they did. That meant that they were still moving towards their original destination.
Unsure of which place was set as the first destination of this crossing, he knew that if they waited for a few more weeks, they would ultimately end up reaching it.
Of one thing Daniel was clear.. no matter where they would end up first, if they reached that destination along with these monsters, that would likely spell extinction for the inhabitants of that unlucky world.
In the end, there was only one thing that he could do. He didn't know where Der was, but since he needed to start looking somewhere, he decided that the captain's cabin was the first place to search for information.
On their way, they found a few more closed doors, and whenever they were sure that there wasn't any monster around, and that they could get away with a few knocks, the two of them would stop and try to warn these people that leaving their cabins would mean death, and that if they really needed to, they should avoid using immortal essence, or making sounds altogether.
He would generally get two different results.. The first one usually happened when the people that were more powerful than he was.. they would treat him like an idiot. In the second case, the passengers were less powerful, and while they would still not believe their words, he would at least be able to forcibly pull them out of the room, and show the corridors covered in blood, and the pieces of ripped off flesh strewn all about.
"These damn idiots.." muttered Daniel in his mind, while finally walking out of the area of the passenger's cabins, and reaching the counter where people could pick up their keys, and receive the item that they could use to lock the formations of their rooms.
The sight in the corridors was horrific to say the least, but here, it was actually terrifying.
What was so terrifying about this hall, were not the remains of the people who had stupidly tried to fight the monsters, but the monsters themselves, which were roaming the area like a group of headless chicken.
Daniel had been in the captain's cabin once before, and therefore, he knew that there was no choice but to go through this hall. There were a few more paths towards the captain's cabin, but they would take hours at the speed they were going.
"We have to go through.." Said Daniel to Jerigh, with a wisp of sound essence.
Jerigh, visibly nervous about the idea, quickly took a deep and quiet breath, and nodded in confirmation to Daniel's plan. The two then walked into the area while making as little noise as possible.
Daniel did not know what accidentally bumping against of these beasts would mean, but for some reason, he knew that he wouldn't come out well either way, so, the two carefully avoided each and every one of the two hundred odd monsters that had regrouped in this area.
While walking through them, Daniel quickly noticed a few interesting, yet disturbing details. Some of these individuals had died much earlier than others, and the remains of flesh on their body had already started to rot. That meant that the flesh was not part of the body like the split bones were, as well as the fact that this mess had started at least a few days earlier.
The stench of the rotting monsters had filled the entire hall, and Daniel and Jerigh were barely able to avoid gagging. More than once both of them almost slipped and fell on a random puddle of blood, or piece of unidentified flesh, but the other was able to help them just in time to avoid making loud noises, and being found out.
The monsters were moving around at a relatively fast pace, and for the two of them to avoid bumping into them, while also having to walk on eggshells, was extremely hard. Daniel had more or less found a fix to his problem, by constantly reminding to himself and Sewah of how his survival was a matter of luck.
There was a moment where a monster was walking directly towards them, but thanks to what Daniel jokingly called in his mind a 'divine intervention', a second monster that was nearby changed course, and bumped against the approaching one, causing a short fight to start between the two.
An exchange of lightning speed hits suddenly took place for a few moments.. But then, the two immediately stopped fighting. Daniel started to guess what the reason for the disappearance of their fighting intent could be, and soon enough, an idea popped in his mind. He was relatively sure that the reason, was that the two monsters had quickly realized that they weren't fighting against a 'prey', but against another monster.
After what felt like the longest five minutes of their lives, Daniel and Jerigh finally managed to leave the hall and enter into one of the main corridors, that would then split into various paths that respectively lead to the crew's quarters, and a few other parts of the ship.
These main corridors were relatively empty, and hardly any trace of blood or battle could be seen on the wall, floors, and ceiling. Daniel and Jerigh were finally able to speed up their pace without having to worry too much about attracting the monsters in the hall.
*Clink*
A door suddenly opened from their left.
"Pssst.. hey!" Said a middle aged woman from the other side of the door, trying to catch Daniel's attention.
The two were feeling the urgency of finding Der, and after the dangerous situation they had just been in, they didn't want to stop anymore.. But since Daniel didn't know if there were monsters nearby, he had no choice but to stop.. If one of those remarks used by the woman to grab his attention actually ended up catching up a monster's attention instead, they would be the ones to be screwed, as the woman would only need to close her door, while Daniel and Jerigh would be out in the open in the corridor.
Without thinking about it twice, Daniel dashed quietly towards the door, and after pushing it gently open, he entered along with Jerigh. The woman on the other side did not resist, and let the two enter. She had thrown carefulness to the wind, as she had thought that no one in this situation would dare to have bad ideas.
Once in, Jerigh and Daniel quickly noticed that the cabin was filled with people. At least twenty individuals were sitting, crouching, or standing all around.
"How did you arrive from the hall? That place is swarmed with monsters.." Asked the woman out loud.
Daniel was quickly worried about the monsters on the outside hearing them, but then, after noticing his reaction, the woman said "Don't worry, the formation on the crew's quarters is different. There is a sound blockade, and nothing you say can be heard on the other side."
After taking a deep breath in relief, Daniel asked "Do you have any idea of what is going on?"
"Yes.. I was working in the reception when it happened. The ship hit something.. Usually the spatial formation around the ship would deflect either the object, or if the object is too big, the ship itself.. But this time, the space that was protecting the ship started to destabilize. Instead of bouncing back against the shield, the object went right through it." Responded the middle aged woman.
"What was it?" Asked Daniel with curiosity. "Is the ship damaged?"
"No.. as the object reached the deck, it went right through the floor, and towards the water tanks. After that, a bunch of these monsters started to come out from the area near the restaurants.." She then said, almost as if recalling one of the most horrifying days of her life. She then muttered to herself "The theater was full.. All of those kids.."
Suddenly, one of the men that was standing nervously in the room approached the woman, and said "We have to reach the bridge, and turn the ship towards the closest planet. If we don't, we will all die."
"Again with this!? No! If we land now, these monsters will exterminate the entire planet's population!" Said the woman in response, seemingly for the umpteenth time.
After hearing the exchange between the two, Daniel remembered something, and asked to the middle aged woman "Hold on.. Where is the ship going right now?"
As if remembering something important, the woman opened her eyes in realization, and said "The course wasn't changed.. The original course was supposed to take us to the isolated planet for the VIP passenger first, then towards the prison situated in one of Wuvia's moons, and finally, make us land on Wuvia.. If.. if we don't change course.."
"Did you try to escape through a pocket dimension?" Asked Daniel with curiosity.
The woman and the man suddenly became pensive, then said "Us members of the crew aren't allowed to own spatial containers or pocket dimension. It due to a measure taken by the second in command, after some of us stole a few objects from the guests."
"What about you?" Asked Daniel to the rest of the cultivators which were clearly passengers.
"All we have is within our cabins.. And we lack the comprehension to create one right now.." Responded one of the passengers.
It was not unreasonable for the passengers to leave all they possessed. The rooms were basically vaults, and it was near impossible for unauthorised people to break in, unless they had the power of an early eighth stage cultivator.. That power could be compared to that of the powerful members of the various factions, like the keeper of keys, or the envoys. It was extremely unlikely that any of the passengers would possess that power.
"I have one with me." responded Daniel while showing one of his pocket dimensions. This pocket dimension was, of course, not the one which contained his city, nor the one that contained his company building. It was one that he had randomly created, and inside which he stored a cultivated field of herbs.
The man that had spoken earlier quickly said "Is there a second exit?!"
"There isn't, but at least you would be safe there.." retorted Daniel. He was aware of what the man was worried about. If Daniel was killed and the ring destroyed, the pocket dimension would become a prison, and those that entered it would be stuck inside forever.
Many of the people in the cabin were thinking about the same thing, but a few of them were not. Almost as if preferring to be imprisoned into a livable yet limited place forever, than trying to survive in this nightmare, a few people walked towards Daniel, and begged him to allow them into his pocket dimension.
Without saying it out loud, Daniel decided to move those that wouldn't be a threat into his actual pocket dimension, while the strongest ones would have to go to the empty one.
As the first girl approached Daniel, he started to eject a bit of immortal essence from his body, then, after covering her with it, he turned it into spatial essence and prepared to move her into the pocket dimension.
Just as he was about to put a bit of power into it, he immediately stopped.
He retracted the immortal essence from around the girl, and used to it cover one of the wooden drawers. Then, he tried once more.. After a few seconds, the drawer exploded into splinters. Half of which entered Daniel's pocket dimension, while the remaining half shot all over the room.
The people that had asked for refuge were now looking at the place where the drawer was, with eyes opened wide in shock.
