Elemental Cats

After getting rid of Cark's attack with his bare hand, Toz walked up to Cark. Cark was too stunned and overwhelmed with hopelessness at Toz's might, so Toz didn't even have to use magic to close the gap between them.

Cark also realized he didn't stand a chance against Toz and lowered his arms to accept his fate.

Toz slapped Cark off the stage, marking the end of the first challenge to his reign.

Toz's eyes lit up in recognition as he remembered the sensation of striking Cark. he finally realized who he was. However, Cark was already lying unconscious on the ground off the stage, so it didn't matter. It just provided some closure to Toz.

Toz looked at the crowd of wide-eyed pirates. He had intentionally held back so that everyone could see how much he outclassed Cark and that someone needed to be able to do the same in order to challenge him. And the only ones capable of something similar were already on the stage, on the other side of Toz.

However, the three pirate leaders had no intention of challenging Toz. It was one thing to be defeated in private. But getting overpowered by Toz in public and in front of a crowd would drastically lower their prestige.

Pirates weren't necessarily too concerned about their reputation, but getting defeated by a fifth level mage in front of the entirety of Pirate Haven was bound to affect their business and operations, whether they cared about their reputation or not.

After confirming that there were no more challenges, Toz decided to drop a few words about how the other kingdoms might try and take revenge for what happened to the Starsling Kingdom's navy as soon as they heard what happened.

The pirates didn't exactly see it as a surprise since they understood grudges and taking revenge better than most. Toz's words sounded troubling, but since he promised he wouldn't abandon Pirate Haven now that he was their king, people prepared instead of panicking.

After making everyone accept him as Pirate King and saying what he wanted, Toz disappeared.

A combination of space, void, shadow, and lightning magic made Toz vanish from everyone's sight before they noticed. Red Hook turned to look and saw that the cats were also gone.

After Toz disappeared, the pirate leaders wrapped the Pirate Meet up and encouraged the pirates to lay low and prepare for an upcoming war with either the human kingdoms or the demon realm.

The pirates weren't ready for a war with the demon realm, but the announcer comforted them by saying that it would happen on their terms and after they settled things with the human kingdoms. Toz's reasoning that the pirates would be doomed along the human realm if the humans lost the war seemed to convince a lot of the pirates that fighting against the demons wasn't so bad.

What convinced most pirates, though, was the promise of looting the demons who had repeatedly defeated the humans. If the humans lost in their fights against the demons, they would inevitably leave behind a bunch of treasures, weapons, items, and whatever else was useful in a war.

If the pirates joined the fight and helped push back the demons, a lot of those things would end up in the pirates' pockets.

Since the war was large enough to involve the two realms of humans and demons, the treasures and items probably weren't something that the pirates could pick up by looting refugees and merchants, no matter how long they worked.

Pirates usually weren't the most hardworking and diligent individuals in matters other than robbing, stealing, looting, and general piracy. However, the promise of treasures beyond what they had seen before encouraged most pirates to train and hone their skills.

No one knew how far away or how long it would be until they had to fight, but the sooner they started training, the stronger they would get and the more loot they would be able to pick up.

After ending the second Pirate Meet with a party to celebrate the victory over the Starsling Kingdom's navy and the election of a new Pirate King, Pirate Haven buzzed with activity.

The pirates and crews cooperated to complete trades and deals to help other pirates train and grow their strength. Resources and assets that were hidden away to prevent other pirates from growing and overcoming competition were exchanged.

The pirates brought out manuals, grimoires, treasures, and weapons that helped everyone grow stronger.

The Bunglehopper exchanged much of the loot in their treasury for things that helped everyone grow stronger. Wulf got a couple of great axes he could use to reinforce and strengthen his inclination. Hayar got several poisonous objects to increase the toxicity of her poison mist. Stitches and the other Bunglehoppers also got items to help them raise their strength.

Aside from Tasha still not waking up, things were looking great for the pirates of Pirate Haven. Even Red Hook was satisfied with what was happening, and her previous annoyance at Toz becoming the Pirate King was gone like the wind.

However, what made Red Hook the happiest was the weapon she traded from the Bunglehoppers. In exchange for a great axe and a couple of poisonous fruits and objects, Red Hook got the Hidden Blood Dagger.

The Bunglehoppers had no use for it, but after Red Hook saw it during one of the Bunglehoppers' demonstrations of their inventory, she didn't want anything else.

Wulf had only quickly revealed the dagger hidden within a sword since he and the others still didn't feel comfortable in its presence. But while the others felt discomfort, Red Hook only felt drawn to it.

Brunswick was there to confirm the goods and trades, and he confirmed that the red air only he could see didn't have any intent to harm Red Hook. It actually looked like the red misty air was integrating with Red Hook. Unfortunately, Brunswick's eyes couldn't see more than that, and he was forced to close them due to the stinging pain that appeared whenever he looked at something he couldn't figure out.

Brunswick wasn't too affected by the blazing atmosphere of motivation and fighting spirit filling Pirate Haven since he wasn't a combatant, but he still wanted to improve and become stronger. He had more recently begun thinking that he could only control his fate, which had always lain in the hands of others if he had sufficient strength.

He wasn't too motivated since he knew that no matter how much he grew, he wouldn't be stronger than those around him, especially not Toz. But being less weak was better than being completely useless. What had just happened with Red Hook and the Hidden Blood Dagger was proof that his eyes, his only useful trait, were falling behind his surroundings.

It was a wonder he could even see what he saw at his current level, but it would only take him so far, and if he couldn't keep up with Toz and the others, who knew when he would be dumped and left behind or outright killed.

Brunswick sighed before picking up the trinkets he couldn't decipher in order to train his mana according to what suited his inclination.