For so reason, looking at this status, Dorran felt drawn to it, and his instincts scread for him to get close.
He didn’t even know when he started moving inside the water. His lungs were burning, and his very soul seed ready to leave his body, but he disregarded all thoughts and crawled toward the statue.
Fortunately, the statue was not too far, so it only took a little movent to reach it. As he arrived at its feet, he didn’t feel a rush of divine aura.
For a mont, though, it felt as if air was breathed into his lungs, but the pressure of the wave was still pressing down on him.
The little boy didn’t know what compelled him to act, but he scread in his mind. ’Please!!’
It wasn’t elegant. It wasn’t so prayer braided with wisdom. It was the raw noise of an animal that didn’t want to die. It was the sa sound his father’s heart had made when he leapt with a rope in his fist. It was the sa thing his mother had put behind the word live.
’Please. Please let go back. I’ll do anything. I’ll serve. I’ll... I’ll make it right. I don’t want to die here. Not yet. Please.’ Dorran’s cheeks grew warr, his heart pounding fiercely.
Right at that mont, the eyes of the statue lit up, followed by a flash of ssages across his retina.
However, he didn’t exactly have ti to read them as there was movent just behind the statue.
His pupils trembled. From the back of the statue, where the ocean was darker, a creature with red eyes slowly erged.
It was a shark.
Dorran froze in shock, unable to move. The pressure of the water was already strong enough; even if he wanted to move, there wasn’t much he could do.
The only thing he could do was close his eyes. For a mont, when the statue’s eyes had lit up, he thought he had been given a second chance. It seed he had been wrong.
Seconds flew by, but he still didn’t feel anything. The blinding pain he expected never ca. One of his eyes twitched open slowly, and he saw the shark right in front of his face—staring at him with a strangely warm gaze.
A puzzled gleam flashed across his eyes, and then sothing unexpected happened.
It nudged his shoulder.
When he didn’t move, it nudged harder. Like a dog. As if it was impatient.
Dorran had no air left. Thanks to the statue, he had lasted this long, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to breathe real air. He thrashed weakly. The shark seed to understand and slid under him with a grace that defied its massive size.
Then it surged upward. The pressure eased little by little, and soon the surface shattered over his head. He gasped desperately for air.
The shark slowly moved toward a nearby beach. Dorran crawled off the creature and collapsed on his back, chest rising and falling.
anwhile, the shark angled toward a line of dark rocks and watched from there. It didn’t leave until he could stand.
Dorran fell three tis trying to get to his feet. At last, he looked at the shark and made a bow. "Thank you."
The shark slid closer. It showed its teeth as if grinning. He should have been afraid, but strangely, he wasn’t.
Suddenly, the sa line of text that had flashed before appeared once more in green letters across his vision.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have awakened the Beast Tar class.]
[Please place your hand on a beast and proceed to ta it.]
He blinked at the shark, the green text still floating in his vision. His hand shook. He had no idea what he was doing, but... the words were clear.
[Please place your hand on a beast and proceed to ta it.]
Dorran stepped forward slowly. The shark didn’t move, its red eyes glowing faintly in the dark as if anticipating this. It almost seed to know what was happening.
Naturally, he had heard of different classes, but this was one he had never seen before. He had never even bothered to try awakening, believing it impossible since both his father and mother were non-awakened.
That’s why he was so surprised now. With a determined expression, he strode toward the shark and placed his palm on it.
---
Dorran stopped. The room was quiet enough that Nox could hear their breathing. For a mont.
Nox let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
"So the Navy hunted you," he said, voice even. "They killed Kieran. And your mother."
"Yes," Dorran whispered, eyes unfocused. "That second volley took her. I didn’t see her go. I... I don’t know where she sank. I looked for three tides. I dived until my ears bled, and the shark kept pushing back to shore. Father... he didn’t die just yet."
His hands shook. He clenched them into fists so tight his knuckles turned white. "After I tad the shark, I found out he had sohow escaped the Vermilion. But then he was caught again. I know because the villagers found him two beaches north the next evening. Alive but bleeding... and laughing at the sky like an idiot."
"Then how—" Nox narrowed his eyes.
"The Navy doesn’t forgive." Dorran’s mouth twisted into a sneer. "They followed the drift. They sent a cutter to check bodies. They found him laughing, and they made sure he stopped."
For the first ti since the boy began, the corner of Nox’s mouth quirked. "And you decided the fastest way to get strong was to beco exactly what your father died trying not to be."
Dorran’s throat worked. "I didn’t decide it clean like that. The world decided for . n don’t hire a boy with a shark to escort their nice cargo. They hire him to scare other n with knives. They pay in coin and blood. Coin first. Blood after, when they decide they don’t want to pay."
At that mont, Dorran stopped talking. Silence fell between them for so ti. Although he hadn’t gone into detail about everything, Nox grasped the full picture and why Dorran had beco what he was today.
Still, sothing bugged him. Quickly, Nox retrieved the map he had received from Terra and asked, "Where did you see this statue again?"
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