"MY PRECIOUS!!"

Sergei Leian shouted while lunging for the qualis gem with his currently tired and weak body. The captain, anticipating the weird actions of the patient, was prepared and stopped Sergei Leian's attempt. Seeing that he won't be able to retrieve the gem anytime soon, Sergei Leian stopped his futile action and sulked in the bed, talking to himself like a schizophrenic, ancient, hobbit-like male of no fixed abode.

“We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky one armed cyclopses. Wicked, tricksy, false!”

Said he while making strange, swallowing noises in his throat. The captain, seeing that the man he was talking to seems to have a weird knack for taking serious things lightly and has no respect for authority whatsoever.

"(Why this again? Just now, we seem to be having a good chat, then he just turned into this. Have to try again, maybe this guy is only acting like a fool.)"

Captain Philippe Scrowe cleared his throat, looked at Sergei Leian for a while, then said.

"Mr. Leian, if you really dont want to see this thing again, I dare you to continue fooling around. I'm a very busy man, of a very busy ship, and on this ship, there is no space for those without ability. I can take you out of the water, but I can also put you back into it. Your performance is rather dissapointing, and I still need more proof before I consider bringing a stranger like you with me to civilization."

"Okay, you win, but I'll need your word that you'll return back that thing to me. It's important to me. It's my only keepsake of my homeland aside from the clothes I was wearing back there. By the way, where are those clothes of mine?

"Right cabinet, top left drawer."

"Thanks. Oh, it's you, finally back eh, my brain's getting messed up due to lack of food, now where's my soup?"

"Here's your soup. Your milktea. And you're coffee sir. And some hors d'oeuvres for everybody, bon appetit!"

"Let's take a small break first. Like the old people say, the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"Very well said!"

"The fastest way is through the fifth left intercostal space, midclavicular line."

"????"

"What? It's just a tiny bit aways from the heart."

"If you say so."

--small break, sounds of eating--

"Now, who's gonna return back these stuff to the messroom?"

"I guess me, huh."

"Good, you have the bearing of a man who might make a name out of himself, some day."

"Well done lad, Captain rarely praises somebody, you know."

"A strong capable man with a nice head on his shoulders."

"So, where were we again?"

"We was talking about the thing, sir?"

"What thing?"

"The thing in you hand, sir?"

"But I don't have it, I told you too carry it from the bridge."

"Well, I did carry it, but you took it from me, sir, to show to him."

The messenger pointed to Sergei Leian, who is currently playing with a familiar gem, while listening to the both of them talk.

"???"

"How did you get that?" X2

"What do you mean that? Oh, you mean this, woah!!"

Upon seeing the gem, Sergei Leian was surprised and almost dropped the gem, keyword almost because he managed to scoop back the falling object with unnatural dexterity.

"Wow, did you guys see that? Did I just do that? I never though I was this cool?"

"You're a thief?"

"You're the thief! You're sister's the thief!! You're whole family are thieves!!!

"No, I don't mean that literally, but still, that hurts a bit you know."

"Oh, sorry. What thief you talking about then?"

"Well, the thief is the basic arm of the assassin class, whose primary skill is to infiltrate and dismantle other territories not belonging to their master plus other unsavory stuff their lord needs them to do, like inciting revolt or plaguing the enemy countryside amongst many others."

"So, what's it got to do with me?"

"A thief needs to received some training and has a trace of Mana connection back to their lord, only with that can their lord mobilize them, but you obviously don't have any and you're body is merely that of a magicless civilian. Why can you do that? Don't tell me you just spent your whole life training that particular movement."

"Well, you could say that. Oh, by the way, this thing is a tear from a dragon. In Pendor, it is called a qualis gem for the dragon is named Qualis."

"What does it do?"

"Well, it's a rare artifact and is only traded to select group of people for more practical stuff. I don't know too much about this stuff, really. Can I have it back?"

"Can we study it? There are dragons here, and we could create a production line for this, you'll have more gems than you can count. If this thing can be useful, we can market it to the whole world and profit from it."

"First, I have to ask. What is Mana, how is it quantified? Where can you find it?"

"Mana is the energy of this place and can be used to cast and maintain spells and summons. It is inexhaustible, and can be found everywhere."

"Then, I don't think it's a good idea to create a production line for this gem. I may not know much about your dragons and your factories, but from my limited knowledge of both, dragons surely won't be happy working in your production lines. And I don't want to stay in a place where many unhappy dragons can be found. Besides, Pendor where I'm from, has lost all it's magical energies already, and this type of gem could be the last medium of magic."

"Hmm, I still have to satisfy my curiosity. By any chance, does this gem have any connection with the goddess that transported you here?"

"Yes, the dragon I told you about has a connection to this goddess. The dragon is like one of her avatars."

"Then, this matter can only be finished. I have a hunch that the goddess of Pendor has managed to capture all the magical energy in your place, creating a network of magic where only those who use the mana refined by her can be able to use magic. That's why she can survived even in a mortal realm. She might even be eyeing our realm too, that's why she sent you here."

"I don't think so, she must have been really angry, for I killed her precious Noldor and sacked their only last remaining refuge. Now that I think of it, I have regretted doing that, sadly there is no medicine for regret."

"It's called waking them up, your grand deed has allowed their race to give birth to new ideas. Out with the old, in with the new, like my old man once said."

"I like that, reminds me of, Just as the waves of the Yangtze river behind drive on those ahead, so does each new generation replace the old one."

"I've never heard of this Yangtze, but from the way you put it, it seems like a good enough place. Cheers to Yangtze!"

"Long live Yangtze! Maan seoi maan seoi, maan maan seoi!!"

"But milord, we don't even know where Yangtze is."

"Shut up! Can't you read the mood? Oh, why am I surrounded by these fools?"