God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Vincent stared gleefully at his newly acquired belongings...

"As expected of the boss! You truly are a tycoon!"

Cain glared at him, "Just give it here."

Staring at the fatty, Cain was overwhelmed with the urge to use his cheeks as sandbags to train his punches. Still, he fought it back...

Vincent quickly made to transfer the vessel. Seeing him approach, Cain was curious. What methods did Vincent possess. How was he able to store something as large as a ship.

Vincent stretched out his hand and summoned something from his inventory. When Cain stared at his hand, he blanked. Steve looking over Cain's shoulder stole a glance and almost died of a heart attack.

"You... You... You!"

Cain's lips contorted as he felt anger bubbling to the surface. Seeing Cain's barely restrained expression, Vincent quickly explained.

"It is a real ship! Trust me, I would sell you a toy!"

Indeed, sitting is Vincent's hands was a bottle, and in this old bottle was a small caricature of an actual ship. While it did look like a real ship, it would only be able to house a few hundred ants at best, not hundreds of humans.

"There is a special enchantment on it that keeps it at this size and makes it portable. There are many other things the ship has, but you'll only be able to know once you can use it."

Cain calmed down. If Vincent wasn't lying, then the thing had a similar enchantment to the {Draconic Blast Furnace} and the {Gate of Stars}, able to make adjustments on size.

Truly wonderful...

Cain could only imagine what sorcery could bring about something like that.

Cain sighed, "So, how do I use it?"

Vincent swallowed hard, "Actually, I don't know... The system said the language etched on the bottle might contain instructions, but it isn't recognized by the language catalogue."

Cain's eyes narrowed, "So you are trying to screw me over..." Cain immediately began leaking bloodlust.

Vincent composed himself, "Of course not! I wouldn't dare do something like this if I wasn't confident. I've spent some time doing a ton of research, and I thing I might have a solution."

Cain frowned, "What's that?"

Vincent grinned, "Back in the old world, there existed legends quite similar to this. Legends about great, mystical pirate ships kept within glass bottles!"

Cain's frown deepened. However, he couldn't hide the curiosity on his face,

"I'm listening..."

Vincent's grin widened, "Thinking about it, the story checks out. However, we do need to put our current circumstances into consideration. If this is a magic ship, then we need to use magical means, no?"

Cain nodded, "Get to the point already."

"In the original epics, the ocean-faring bandits usually just threw the bottled ships into the water and BOOM! the thing pops out of the water! Why not pour a bit of mana into the bottle first, before doing the same?"

Steve stopped him right there, "Where... where did you hear this?"

Vincent raised his head proudly, "You might not know this, but I am a huge fan of pirates! I once had a dream... A dream that seems to far, yet so close at the same time! The dream to become the ruler of the seven-!"

"Boss, kill him! Kill him!" Steve egged Cain on as he approached Vincent with his sword drawn.

The surrounding Beastmen waiting for orders stared at the scene blankly...

'We are following them? Isn't this a death sentence?' They all thought in tandem...

Cain eventually calmed down, "Ha... There's no harm in trying, is there?"

Steve shook his head, "There's no need, Cain. Just get your stuff back from the useless fatty!"

Cain threw Steve a curious glance, "How did you even know he had something like this?"

Steve smiled, "A new truck I just learned."

Seeing that he had no intention of expaling further, Cain decided to drop it.

'It might work, it might not work. What matters is to try.'

Cain helt the bottle in his hand. Within the bottle, the waves the ship rode on undulated like the sea in a storm. The ship itself looked incredibly realistic. With his keen eyesight, he could make out very fine details.

With a sight, he poured all his hopes and a bit of magic into the bottle.

At first, nothing happened. Then, the bottle began to pulse with a dim light gently.

"Eh?" Cain, Vincent and Steve said at once.

"Could it be..." Steve couldn't help but exclaim.

Cain's heart sped up as he continued to pour in more and more mana. The pulsating light grew in intensity and frequency.

Cain suddenly felt a subtle connection. And that connection told him to throw the bottle away as fast as possible.

Without even thinking about it, he piyred strength into his arms and threw the bottle into the ocean.

The bottle hit the water and disappeared into the inky depths.

Silence...

Nothing happened. Even after waiting for ten seconds. Cain turned to glance at Vincent and found that he was sweating buckets.

'Fuck! This fatty is trying to rip me off!'

Just as Cain was about to tear into him, a deep rumbling came from the ground.

"What the hell?!"

"What is happening? An earthquake? A tsunami??"

"Shit! We haven't even stared fighting yet!"

The Beastmen exclaimed as the rumbling grew deeper, causing the ground to vibrate.

Suddenly, a portion of the ocean began to bubble violently. White frothy bubbles breached the surface as the previous calm was disrupted.

Cain's expression turned astonished as he watched the bow of a ship rise from the surface of the water.

"Holy fuck... It actually worked..." Vincent couldn't help but exclaim.

Everyone, with no exceptions stared as the rest of the ship broke through the waves.

Describing it, the ship could only be described as a tattered beauty. Like the beautiful young miss of a royal family forced to endure the hardships of a commoners life.

Cain felt that subtle connection again...

{The Drowned Pearl of the South Sea, Gwendolyn, has recognized you as its master. Do you wish to claim ownershi6of this vessel?}

Cain was shocked. Since when did the system have property management feature?!

Cain answered in the affirmative...

***

{Congrats to host... You have obtained the cursed magic vessel, The Drowned Pearl of the South Sea, Gwendolyn}.

{+3,500 Free attribute points}.

{Gwendolyn}:

Description: 'Fourty men died on a night filled with thick silver light from the moon, shining on thick silver coins. Their hearts beat and turned silver, they breath stolen from their mouths, and their souls trapped within these coins, suffering eternal damnation for their greed. Oh, Gwendolyn, you beautiful, yet broken thing...'

***

Cain stared at the description of the ship passively. He tried to make some sense of what he just read, but couldn't make any sense of it.

'System...'

{Replying to host: It would seem that the desc6of this item details the curse that inhabits this faring vessel}.

Cain sighed, 'What curse?'

{Replying to host: The Curse of the Blighted Wicked Hearts}.

Cain frowned. That didn't sound like something good.

'What does the poem mean, and how can I get rid of the curse?'

{Replying to host: The poem tells the story behind the curse. According to rumors spread across the South Sea, a very famous pirate by the name Sinless Rakshasa, encountered a chest filled with silver coins on a quest. These silver coins carried a curse that caused the greed of men to blossom in their hearts.

Such that they became consumed by it and turned into demons that could give real demons nightmares. Seeing his men tear each other apart, feasting in their own flesh, he was forced to attempt to transfer the curse to the ship itself}.

'How? How did that happen? Is that even possible?'

{Replying to host: No, and yes. Sinless Rakshasa failed and was consumed by his own men. However, a trace of the curse remains on the ship. The longer one stay on the ship, the longer the demon of greed infiltrates their soul. There is no way to get rid of the curse besides destroying the ship itself}.

'Fuck! I've been scammed damn it!'

Cain somehow new he wouldn't get anything good from this deal. To think that the ship he would eventually get his hands on would be cursed with something like this.

{Replying to host: The host need not worry. Whole the curse might be scary, it isn't undefeatable. Besides, while the transfer of the curse was unsuccessful, the essence of the curse remains on the ship. Greed can only be borne of living souls. The shop bore a greedy spirit as a result. Now that it is linked to the host, it will greedily seek out anything the host so wishes}.

'Hmm... How can I manage the curse?'

{Replying to host: Curses are original arcane arts, different from magic, yet vastly related. They manipulate causality and laws themselves. They are beyond mystical and are more occultic that regular magic. Dealing with them is not advisable. However, the host can purchase or create curse warding trinkets for anyone seeking to board the ship. With it, there would be no reason to worry.

However, without it, one would be easily consumed by the curse and would devolve into nothing more than a rabid monster}.

Cain sighed, 'More things to buy...'

Still, it was better than nothing. Buying a few more things was worth it.

He stared at the magnificent ship floating in the surface of the pitch-black ocean, completely dazzled.

The ship was old. It had sails. However, they were tattered and dirty. There were many runes and magic circles on them, but they had been destroyed by the crule mistress that is time.

The hull of the shio was a bit damaged, but apart from that, it was still in decent shape.

It didn't look like any ship Cain had seen in any books. Cain was confounded by its shape and symmetry. Its masts were huge, and the ship was even larger, probably with a capacity to fit more than a thousand people. Its body seemed to have been crafted from some sort of magical darkwood as he could sense faint traces of mana from it.

There were hundreds of thousands of small magic circles etched into the vessel. There were lamost invincible to the naked eye, instead, forming a beaut6mural that covered the ship.

And finally, at the bow of the ship was a strange, yet beautiful creature. The face of a goddess, with cloth wrapped around its eyes. A neck covered with a serpents scale, and a pair of bat wings on her back. The body of a sea nymph, hands clasped tight as if in prayer, and the tail of a dragon coiled around a tree.

This was the Cursed Drowned Pearl of the South Sea, Gwendolyn...