On the deck of the Charizard, the mage apprentice had put on his protective suit and was nervously bouncing his leg.
Captain Manny was inspecting the crew's steam-pump backpacks like a dad packing his kid's bags for summer camp.
"Go quickly and come back quickly. Be careful and keep yourselves hidden out there. Also, protect Mr Dean at all costs."
The bulky giff crewman glanced at the mage apprentice and muttered, "It'd be safer if we didn't bring him."
"He volunteered. If he's willing to help, that's a good thing. Never underestimate spellcasters. Their brains are true treasure. Now, enough nonsense. Move out."
The veteran sailors saluted. The mage apprentice fumbled around, and before he could salute back, the others had already reached the edge of the deck and leapt off.
"Wait for me!"
"Hurry along, Mr Dean. Good luck!" the captain said, smiling and waving.
The mage apprentice jumped from the edge of the deck and fell toward the asteroid below. Before he landed, he pressed the jet button on his hand. The steam pump behind him roared and spat out a plume of white smoke, making his pant legs flap as he landed unsteadily on the ground.
"Careful. The Farstar Belt has always been savage." The old sailor's attempt to reassure the mage apprentice carried a faintly threatening edge, as if he were advising him to hurry back to the ship.
Dean did not understand. He nodded and nervously looked around, as if a raiding ship might drop out of the sky at any moment.
The Charizard had landed in the middle ring of the asteroid belt. Captain Manny had insisted that the crew steer the Charizard deeper in.
Everyone knew that the farther one went toward the inner ring, the denser the celestial bodies became.
Boss Gus had objected. He thought stopping in the outer ring would be enough. Entering the middle ring made it easy to crash into an asteroid and damage the hull.
The captain's reasoning was that the more dangerous a place was, the easier it was to run aground. The easier it was to run aground, the fewer raiding ships there would be. The fewer raiding ships there were, the safer the place was. Therefore, the more dangerous the place, the safer it was.
This rather philosophical statement successfully persuaded Gus, though the huge hole in the Charizard's side silently accused the captain's orders of being nonsense.
The tinker gnome would repair the hull. Good glue could be tremendously useful, and once processed, the hide of filament space jellyfish could be as strong as epoxy resin, making it an ideal material.
Five veteran sailors and one mage apprentice had been sent out. Their mission was to capture filament space jellyfish and mine glowing rock. The former were fairly common creatures in Wildspace, while the latter were comparatively rare. This special material could be used to make propellant, but the radiation it emitted had to be handled carefully.
The old sailors brought the "counter" provided by the tinker gnome. When they approached glowing rock, the light-seeking flies inside the indicator lamp would become agitated.
With the steam pumps, they could propel themselves through space. The giff crewman was equipped with black-powder weapons. They preserved these flammable items very carefully and almost never made mistakes.
Every year, there was news of ships being destroyed and their crews killed when black powder exploded during voyages through the phlogiston sea.
However, taking risks was how one made a profit. Black-powder guns were much more useful than swords and knives, and they gave the sailors plenty of confidence.
The mage apprentice kept looking back every few steps, watching the Charizard grow farther and farther away. The rough tempers of the old sailors beside him suddenly seemed gentle and approachable. He squeezed out a flattering smile and tried to win over every sailor who glanced his way.
What's that pretty boy grinning about? the old sailors wondered as they looked at one another.
The Farstar Belt and the Sea of Winds shared a broad border region, so the sailors did not need to worry about exhausting their air bladders. They could move around freely as long as they returned before the fuel and water in their steam pumps ran out, which gave them a fairly wide activity range.
It was probably the mage apprentice's first spacewalk, because once he pressed the jet button, he refused to let go.
"Hey! Idio, mm, Dean, don't waste fuel."
Dean had drifted higher than everyone else. Very soon, he noticed an unusual flash of light at the five o'clock position.
"Look over there! There's light. Is it filament space jellyfish?"
The giff crewman stuck out his hippo-like head, blinked a few times, then signaled to the companions around him to advance and surround the target.
They scattered, forming a loose encirclement like an open mouth, slowly closing in on the flashing point.
The mage apprentice refused to fall behind, but he did not have the veteran sailors' skill. They could leap freely between asteroids, as if dancing across stepping stones over a river. At best, he was a giant toad, one that sprang forward only to fall straight into the water.
The flashing points really were a group of filament space jellyfish. The sailors cheered for their good luck. They had been out for less than two hours and had already gone straight to the main objective. It could not have been better.
However, they soon discovered that they had arrived too late. Someone else had beaten them to it.
What the sailors saw was a human man floating in space, dressed in rags, his long hair hanging to his shoulders. He was surrounded by filament space jellyfish, yet he calmly cast spells and killed them one by one.
The long tentacles beneath those jellyfish were as beautiful as colored ribbons, but they hid deadly venom. When the jellyfish danced around their prey, the falling tentacles seemed like strands of cloud landing on the body. Tiny needles would spring out from them, pierce the skin, and inject poison. Every victim suffered intense hallucinations, their skin swelling like a water-filled balloon before their fresh life abruptly ended in short, violent agony.
To deal with filament space jellyfish, unless one was an undead or aberration unafraid of poison, wearing thick clothing was a good choice, like a beekeeper's suit.
However, the man the sailors saw was dressed in rags, barely more than a few strips of cloth hanging from his body. Even so, he did not give a single deadly tentacle the chance to get close.
The sailors had seen mages fight before. They waved their staffs like clubs, stroked crystal balls like a lady's waist, passionately muttered toothache-sounding incantations, then hurled roaring fire or lightning.
The Wildspace traveler before them was different. He was calm, like a conductor standing in a concert hall. He raised his hand and poked the air, and the tentacles of the filament space jellyfish separated from their bodies, as if invisible blades were clearing a path for him. The sailors scattered around him all touched their necks at the same time, as if confirming that no sudden wound had appeared across their throats.
That man quickly killed all twenty-plus filament space jellyfish, took all their hides, and left on a breeze.
Not long after he was gone, the crew of the Charizard gathered to discuss the matter.
"What do we do?"
"That move he used was really something. Looked easy as anything. So filament space jellyfish are that simple to kill. I used to think those poisonous stingers were troublesome."
"Dean, kid, do you know what that man was using?"
The mage apprentice frowned and said uncertainly, "It may have been Eldritch Blast. That man might be a warlock."
"Ah, a warlock. No wonder. He really is good."
Dean's expression turned gloomy. He retorted, "Warlocks are unreliable. They all work for fiends, and their study of magic is nowhere near that of true wizards."
The sailors ignored the young man.
"Do we keep looking for jellyfish, or do we go back to the ship and report?"
"I've got an idea," a human sailor said. "We can follow that warlock. Maybe we can make contact with him."
The other sailors looked at one another. The giff crewman with the highest status among them nodded, and no one else objected.
"Why?" Dean shouted in fear. "I already said warlocks are dangerous."
The old sailor patiently explained, "Because he looks like a local, and he knows this area better than we do. Maybe he can find glowing rock."
"What if he attacks us?"
The giff crewman grinned and raised the short-barreled gun in his hand, showing a simple, honest smile.
"Then we'll feed him lead."
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