Zachary stood there silently, confusion still lingering in his mind as the ship creaked beneath the crashing waves.
Around him, Vascal's crew stared at Barnacle in complete fear.
Some gripped their weapons tightly.
Others didn't even dare move.
Sweat ran down several of their faces as Barnacle stood motionless beside Zachary, its hollow gaze fixed forward.
The pressure alone terrified them.
Zachary finally snapped out of his thoughts.
"…What is 'that' place?" he asked simply.
Vascal didn't answer immediately.
The large man stood still for a moment, his expression unreadable.
Then—
The grin on his face slowly disappeared.
"How would I know I can trust you?" Vascal asked calmly.
His tone had completely changed.
The friendly attitude from earlier vanished, replaced by a neutral—but unmistakably threatening—look in his eyes.
Zachary glanced around the ship again.
The crew members were still terrified of Barnacle.
Some couldn't even look directly at it.
"…Disappear."
The moment Zachary spoke, a black circle formed beneath Barnacle's boots.
Dark tendrils slowly rose upward, wrapping around its armored body as it descended into the darkness below the ship.
The crew collectively froze.
Barnacle vanished completely.
Silence filled the air.
"How… h-how did you do that?!" Vascal suddenly asked, genuine shock spreading across his face.
Zachary paused briefly before answering.
"…Guess you could call it a summon," he said casually, making up an excuse on the spot.
The crew exchanged nervous looks with each other.
Then Zachary remembered something.
"By the way," he said, looking directly at Vascal, "what class are you?"
"…Class?" Vascal repeated blankly.
He looked confused for a second—
Then realization hit him.
"Oh…" he muttered. "You mean Sanctified?"
Now it was Zachary's turn to look confused.
"…What's a Sanctified?"
Vascal leaned slightly against the ship's railing before answering.
"It's what we call people blessed by the Goddess herself," he explained. "People who gain extraordinary powers beyond normal humans."
He pointed toward Zachary.
"Like yourself."
Zachary's eyes narrowed slightly.
"…Wait. Wait, wait," he interrupted suddenly.
A memory surfaced in his head.
"Where, or what exactly caused you to gain these 'Extraordinary' power, or what you call them"
"When we touched a stone in a cave…"
His voice slowly trailed off.
The pieces finally started connecting together in his mind.
The stone.
The awakening.
The powers.
It was the same.
The exact same type of stone used back on Earth—the ones people touched at the age of seventeen to receive their classes.
Except here—
They called it a blessing from a Goddess..
And suddenly—
Zachary realized something even stranger.
This world… or dungeon.
Had hunters too.