Chapter 1439: Moving On
“What now?” Jasmine asked. “Since we’re done, do we return back to Horace?”
“There’s no need to return to Horace,” Ning explained. “Nothing is going to happen there even if we do return.”
“Oh,” Jasmine said. “But isn’t that person supposed to contact you through the hotel concierge? We didn’t even check out.”
“We bought the room, so we can remain out for as long as we want,” Ning said. “As for when that person contacts me through the hotel, I will find out immediately. You don’t have to worry.”
“I see,” Jasmine said. “So what do we do now that we’ve found one of the treasures you mentioned.”
Ning shrugged. “We continue our travel through the sea,” he said. “Although, we should take some rest of today. It’s night time already, so you guys are perhaps tired. Tim here needs to test out his new treasure too.”
Tim nodded. “I do want to do that,” he said.
“I have to go through my notes. Make sure I noted down everything correctly and didn’t miss anything,” Tony said. “This place is massive, so there should be a place for us to sleep comfortably, right?”
“Of course there is,” Ning said. “Right this way.”
Ning took three of them along and showed them their quarters on the submarine.
Jasmine opened the door to her room and saw the inside with a large bed. Before the bed, however, was some sort of circular design carved onto the metal floor that confused her for a while.
She looked at the intricate design with the circle and turned around to ask Ning what it was.
“Oh, that is… something to use by people during an emergency,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about it. Neither will there be an emergency such that you will need to use it, nor will you even be able to use it. That requires mana and you don’t have any.”
“Mana?” Jasmine asked.
Ning pushed her inside. “Just go rest,” he said and took the boys to the other quarters where they got to stay. Ning told them all where they could go find food if they were hungry or relieve themselves if they needed to.
Once he had settled the necessary matters, he returned back to the bridge of the submarine and sat on one of the chairs, looking out at the screen as the submarine slowly moved through the dark waters, making its way out of the giant entangling forest of stone pillars created by some highly evolved corals.
He watched the outside world, spending the time he needed to as he made the ship move toward somewhere.
Tony was the first to wake up. He ate some breakfast and went to find Ning to see if he could get Ning to answer some of his questions.
Ning talked with the man on some scholarly questions, answering some of his questions, while leaving most of it for him to find the answer to.
Jasmine arrived second, still yawning as she did. “Where are we going today?” she asked. “Are we still inside the reef?”
“No,” Ning said. “We’ve long since left the reef. We are back in open waters and heading toward our next destination,” Ning said.
“Oh, where is that?” Jasmine asked.
“You’ll find out in a while,” Ning said.
“Ooh, are we going to find treasures for me? I want ones just as good as Tim’s,” she said.
“I’ll try to find what I can for you,” Ning said. “I can only work with what exists. If something doesn’t exist, I can only give you what is best.”
“I can work with that,” Jasmine said. “You’ve already dealt with my debt, so even getting this is quite a lot.”
Ning smiled.
The submarine continued its underwater journey, and both Jasmine and Tony got to enjoy the view outside. Because the sun was shining bright in the sky, the ocean floor was much brighter than it was around evening time yesterday.
Jasmine and Tony could see a lot more fishes and other aquatic beasts.
Tim arrived at the mix an hour or two later, looking very weak and tired. He stumbled his way into the room and crashed into one of the seats next to Ning.
Jasmine and Tony looked at him, surprised at how bad he looked.
“What’s wrong?” Tony asked. “You look terrible.”
“Not… nothing,” Tim said. “Sir Ning, do you happen to have a cane for me? Walking feels very hard with my situation.”
Ning smiled and brought out a simple staff from his storage. “Here, use this for now. If I can ever do it, I’ll find you a walking cane that is also a treasure.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Tim said. “I can make do with normal canes.”
“What is wrong with him?” Tony asked.
“Nothing,” Jasmine answered for him, as she watched Tim with a grin. “He’s just using his treasure. Ignore him.”
Tim gave a small smile. He turned to Ning and asked, “I have come to realize that it is hard to know what memory to place into it and what not to. Do you have any idea how I should deal with the problem?”
Ning frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Because I place my memories into my treasure, I’m realizing that I do not remember what memories I have lost until I watch the treasure to recall it. But I can only know what it was while I was watching it and shortly after. I cannot hold onto the memory for too long a time.”
Ning frowned. “I suppose your only choice is to store part of the memories in there so that you know what part is missing and can check it whenever you want to. That is how I would do it at least,” he said. “You should practice with disposable memories and see how things work out.”
Tim nodded. “I suppose that will work,” he said.
Just as he finished talking, he and everyone else felt a sudden loss in gravity as though in freefall.
“We’re surfacing,” Ning said. “We’re here at our destination.”
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