novelraw Chapter 442 - 230: Massive Merchant Ship_3
Chapter 442 - 230: Massive Merchant Ship_3
Of course, this wasn’t a bad thing. At least he could still read a book in Lucilia’s Dream Realm, or casually fabricate his own dreams to amuse himself. However, now was clearly not the time for such things.
Because he fell asleep early, the dreams of Chadite and his companions weren’t present around his Dream Bubbles. Instead, there were Dream Bubbles from other creatures in the town.
Looking at these Dream Bubbles, Alka smiled slightly. Hopefully, I can glean enough information from these people’s dreams today, he thought. After all, every dream is different, and the information gathered can vary as well. Thinking this, he dived into others’ dreams.
This continued for nearly several hours before Alka emerged and returned to his own Dream Realm to rest. When he woke up in reality again, he began to tally the information he had gathered from the Island residents’ dreams.
Awake, Alka was somewhat silent. The information he gathered was not quite what he had expected. He thought that people living on this Island would provide numerous pieces of information related to these ruins in their dreams, but the opposite was true.
For ordinary people, they feared these relics and didn’t even want to hear information about them. So, in the dreams of most ordinary people, there was simply nothing related to these peripheral relics. Even if he found one or two people willing to answer questions about dreams, they appeared somewhat confused.
Clearly, these ruins had left an indelible impression on their hearts. Yet, they knew very little about these relics, only that they were dangerous because many had died due to these cursed things, generation after generation. There were always times when some relics were inadvertently opened. Alka could well imagine.
Although Bai Shi would briefly mention the sacrifices caused by these relics whenever he talked about them, it didn’t sound like much—almost every relic only claimed one to three lives, not counting the indirect impact. For this town of only a few thousand people, every death was heartbreaking, yet they seemed to have grown somewhat accustomed to it.
Moreover, the Hunters who had sufficient knowledge of the relics were far too few compared to the ordinary people who were not Hunters. Not to mention, among them, even fewer were willing to answer Alka’s questions in their dreams. In such circumstances, Alka had failed to gather any significant intelligence in the Dream Realm to guide his subsequent actions. The reliable information from those luminous spots in the Dream Realm hadn’t expanded at all either.
This time, the intelligence harvest could be considered quite poor.
Fortunately, after extensive questioning in the Dream Realm and the time spent recovering, the outside world was already bright. As the sky brightened, the entire town became lively again. After Alka and his companions had a quick wash and a light breakfast, they set off on their respective tasks, maintaining their original team assignments.
When Alka and his group arrived at the town gate, Bai Shi was already there waiting for them.
"So early, sorry to keep you waiting," Alka said.
"Early? A strange greeting," Bai Shi remarked curiously, but still smiled. Here, there was no concept of ’early,’ only darkness and light.
Everyone seemed very familiar with each other, not at all like people who had only known each other for a day or two—though if one were to stretch out that day or two, considering all that had happened, it would feel much longer.
"Alright, today we’ll explore the middle area," Bai Shi announced. "Follow me. We’re sure to have some minor battles with those magical beasts today, so be prepared."
Today, they were to explore the second zone he had demarcated, an area they were about to patrol. Evidently, the magical beasts here were more numerous, which also meant they were more aggressive.
At this time, aside from the few exploring the terrain with Bai Shi on the Island, Jason and the others were also hard at work within the town. It was even possible to hear them utter a few words resembling the Island’s language—words they had learned in the past few days, a testament to their efforts.
***
Far out on the sea, a giant ship appeared. It seemed to be a cargo ship, its length an astonishing 70 meters. Indeed, as it drew closer, they confirmed it was a cargo vessel. It was a huge, three-masted sailing cargo ship, also possessing substantial combat capabilities. Three giant masts, like ancient, thousand-year-old trees, stood upright on the deck. Their white sails were painted with a design, their emblem: a hand clutching a Gold Coin.
And this ship was slowly sailing towards the Broken Island.
A man, whose attire and bearing marked him as the ship’s captain, came onto the deck. Soon, those aboard could see a distant black dot, and an ever-lengthening coastline came into their view. As they drew nearer, they discovered an unfamiliar sailboat, one they had never seen before, moored where they usually docked their ship.
"A bird-headed ship?" the captain wondered aloud, puzzled, then shook his head and smiled. But smile or not, he continued to carefully scrutinize the vessel as it drew ever closer. I can clearly sense the Holy Mother’s aura emanating from that ship. That’s not uncommon here, but I’ve never seen this particular vessel before. It seems we shouldn’t provoke it carelessly.
Then, turning to the First Mate behind him, he asked lightly, "Have you seen this ship’s design, or its emblem, anywhere else?"
The First Mate scrutinized it for a long moment before shaking his head, confirming he had never seen the emblem before.
An unknown faction, perhaps, or maybe just a small group, the captain mused.
"’Never mind. This place is vast; it’s normal not to recognize everyone,’ he grumbled lightly. Then he instructed, ’Whatever you do, don’t provoke them. That ship carries the aura of the Holy Mother.’"
After speaking, he guided the huge sailboat toward the port. Due to its great size, the ship had to anchor outside the harbor. Smaller boats were lowered one by one from its sides to ferry supplies ashore to the Island.
At the port, people could be seen waiting to welcome them. Among the crowd, aside from some residents, were Jason and the others, watching the commotion. This was evidently a good time to gather intelligence, so naturally, they had to be there.