𝑜𝑽𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t

Ning was brought to the shore around twilight and was taken into the fishermen’s village.

“Young man, sit by the fire,” the fishermen who saved him said as they placed him close to the bonfire that seemed to be placed in the center of the village.

Ning looked around, getting a distinct feeling of deja vu. It felt all so familiar to the Klavian village he had arrived all those years ago, with people that sat by the fire at night, eating fish.

“Can you speak now?” one of them asked.

“Yes, I can,” Ning spoke as well as he could. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Of course,” the fisherman said. “That’s what we are supposed to do. Sit here, we will get you something to eat.”

Ning nodded and waited. A few minutes later, the man brought back a bowl of steaming fish soup and handed it to Ning.

Ning saw a small wooden spoon and took it to eat the soup. The taste wasn’t all that great, it was simply salt and maybe one more mild spice, but getting to eat the hot soup when he had been freezing cold just a few moments ago made it feel so good.

“This is delicious,” he told the man who brought the fish to him.

“Haha! My wife is an amazing cook. Eat up and don’t hesitate to ask for more,” the man said.

People started surrounding him soon enough, asking questions as to who he was and where he was from. Ning told them exactly what he knew.

“I woke up on an island without my memories. I survived by eating the fruit there for a few days. Then it turned out that the island was actually a giant turtle, which was…”

Ning continued telling the story and each person around him had a distinctly shocked look on their face.

He could understand their feelings too. Like, who would expect an island to turn out to be on the back of a turtle, one that killed a giant freaking snake.

Some of them started praying while others decided to move away from Ning.

“You have met the Divine beast then,” one of them said.

“The what?” Ning asked.

“Divine beasts. Legend says they are beings of incredible power that can destroy the world if they felt like it. Maybe humans of incredible power wish to reach their strength as well, but very few come close,” the fisherman said.

“There are humans that are as strong as those beasts?” Ning asked curiously. “Can I meet them?”

“No,” the fisherman shook his head. “Us lowly humans will never have the opportunity to meet the ones who have reached the pinnacle of Essence itself.”

“Essence?” Ning asked.

The fisherman looked at him weirdly. “Do you not know what Essence is?” he asked.

“I’m afraid this is the first time I’m hearing the word after losing my memories,” Ning said.

“Dear lord, you must have fallen in a terrible shipwreck,” the fisherman said. “Or worse, the divine beast stole you from somewhere. You did well to leave.”

“Anyway, about Essence,” Ning asked. “Can you tell me more about it?”

“I can tell you a bit,” the Fisherman said. “But I must say, I as well as everyone here is mostly ignorant in the ways of the Essence. The only thing most of us have managed to do is reach the Physical Improvement realm. Only us two have reached the 5-Sense Improvement realm, which is why we hunt so far out in the sea.”

Ning heard what they said and thought he understood it, but he still asked them to explain it a bit more.

As expected, the Physical Improvement realm was where one’s body improved significantly when compared to a normal human being. One could go anywhere from twice as strong to ten times as strong in the process.

The improvement depended apparently on the quality of the essence one took in, which not many had control over. Also, it was apparently very hard to get to the next realm without using a technique, but the poor fisherman had no way of buying any.

In the many dozens of years they had been alive, only two had managed to reach the 5-Sense Improvement realm.

As the name suggested, the 5-Sense Improvement realm improved one’s 5 senses, allowing them to be far more perceptive of everything around them.

They could improve so much that they could feel the subtle change in air pressure, temperature, and humidity just by being outside in the air. They could taste the subtlest difference between two similar flavors, or smell the difference between two similar smelling odors.

They could even see the smallest movement and could in fact see many, many miles away with just their naked eyes.

Similarly, they could also hear the faintest sound once spoke and distinguish individual sounds in a crowd.

That was to say, the 5-Sense Improvement realm was a major improvement to a normal human’s daily life, making them far better at almost everything in comparison.

Since these two fishermen were the only ones that were in such an amazing realm, they took on the task to go for more dangerous areas where they could fish for the village.

They talked for a while and Ning learned a bit more about Essence, but these people had nothing important to give him. Ning asked a bit about where he was and where he could go next. They couldn’t even tell him much about that.

However, there was apparently a city that they would be visiting 2 days later, so Ning just had to wait around for that. They would be going to the city to sell what little they could and buy some grains.

Ning decided to spend the two days he had here and then he would go to the city to continue his journey in this world.

‘Essence huh?’ he thought to himself. ‘I wonder if I interacted with it before. I must’ve since I removed the memories. Anyway, this should be fun.’