A beautiful three-masted sailing ship, with a beautiful bird's head as its figurehead, once again sailed across the azure sea.
The boundless expanse of water, shimmering under the unwavering sunlight of the sky.
Golden waves rose and fell on the surface.
Everything seemed so pleasant.
A long banner bearing the emblems of the Virgin Mary and the Church of the Holy Trinity fluttered at the rudder, guiding their course.
"What do you see now?" Alka asked Jason before her.
At this moment, Alka raised her right thumb, plucking a harp, its movement rippling like waves.
A faint pink mist spread out like a silk thread, entwining itself around Jason.
"A deer... no, it looks like a horse. What the hell?" Jason's eyes seemed clear, yet a hint of confusion lingered. Hearing this, Alka nodded, then looked at Jason. "Are you trying your best to resist?"
"Yes, I even attached my mental strengthening spell."
"That's fine. It seems the effect is quite profound," Alka said, waving a hand.
Lines of silver smoke dissipated.
The slight confusion in Jason's eyes also vanished, and he took in the surrounding scene.
"Is that your new skill? I have to say, it's quite deceptive if you're not prepared."
As the two chatted, Juanlu walked past them, and a crisp crunching sound could be heard.
They turned to look.
They saw Juanlu chewing something, the crisp sound was unusually harsh.
"What are you eating?" Jason asked curiously.
At that moment, Alka noticed the orange-red magic radiating from Juanlu's mouth as he turned around.
It was clear he wasn't eating anything special.
"Ore," he said, raising his hand to show the two the metallic ore.
Then he turned and walked towards the kitchen.
The two watched his back.
"I don't know if it's just my imagination, but ever since he got the treasure through challenge mode, he hasn't been as strict about food as before."
"It's not an illusion. A challenge like that would have changed him a bit," Alka said helplessly, recalling the past.
Then he couldn't help but sigh.
Juanlu ate these ores because his treasure could help him absorb the energy within them, bringing about some changes in their properties.
For example, it made Juanlu's bones and skin harder.
Combined with his activated bloodline, it could digest these things more easily.
However, minerals like this were somewhat difficult to digest, requiring constant use of mana to dissolve them after consumption.
It was a rather time-consuming process.
But for Juanlu, it was acceptable, as it would permanently enhance some of his effects.
It was just incredibly unpalatable.
However, Juanlu had now developed a strong resistance to unpalatable tastes.
For him, these minerals alone were a welcome experience.
Before the two of them could chat for a moment, Juanlu approached, carrying a plate of food.
Watching Juanlu approach with the plate,
Pororo, who had just leaped out of the sea, silently dove back in, as if he had never emerged.
Alka, observing the situation through the nearby mirror, silently turned his head to look out at the sea, feigning indifference.
Only Jason seemed oblivious to the situation, continuing to chatter away beside Alka.
Until Juanlu turned his head and spotted Jason, who was now quite conspicuous, approaching.
Jason seemed to sense someone approaching him and turned to look.
When he saw Juanlu and the plate he was holding, his expression changed immediately.
He looked bitter, but forced a smile as he said, "What, what's wrong? I'm not hungry yet."
"Nothing, try my new experimental dish."
Juanlu said with a smile.
Seeing that Juanlu had identified his target, Alka turned back to Jason with a smile.
Pororo leaped out of the water once again, landing on the deck as if he had just come up.
According to past rules, after Juanlu had one person taste the food and received their evaluation, he wouldn't ask for a second person.
So the two of them were now in a relatively safe position.
Jason smiled bitterly, looking at the food on the plate.
…If it was food.
It was a long, slender creature, dipped in some sauce, swaying slowly on the plate.
It was about the length of a finger.
The creature's skin had rather disgusting markings, making it look unappetizing.
Even though it exuded a faint fragrance, it was still somewhat unpalatable.
But knowing he couldn't escape, Jason silently pinched the long creature's tail with his fingers.
He lifted it up.
As it was lifted, the long creature swung rapidly, its twisted markings creating a visually deceptive effect.
It could easily cause a dizzy sensation.
However, for Jason, it naturally had no effect.
But such twisting made one feel extremely uncomfortable.
Pinching his nose, he swallowed the thing in one gulp.
"Hmm... hm?" Jason chewed it twice, as if savoring it.
"Not bad, actually? It just tastes a little strange, but not terrible."
Gaining Jason's approval, Juanlu nodded.
"Looks like it needs some improvement." He took the plate and left.
"You actually won the prize," Alka said from the side.
Pororo, standing nearby, also looked unhappy.
Seeing their expressions, Jason chuckled smugly. "Nothing I can do, just luck."
Juanlu often uses all sorts of bizarre, even disgusting, foods to create dishes these days.
He asks everyone on board to taste and draw conclusions.
At the time, they didn't understand why everyone agreed so readily. After all, Juanlu's culinary skills were so impressive, how could even a prototype be so bad?
Later, they all regretted it.
Because these prototypes weren't just sometimes unpalatable, they were also mentally and visually torturous.
Sometimes, all three combined: visually, mentally, and tastefully unbearable.
If a dish turned out delicious, it would be considered a winner.
Because at least it tasted good.
Watching Juanlu bustle into the kitchen.
Alka sighed and said, "Perhaps this is the price of progress."
In the past, Juanlu hated strange foods and always used decent ingredients to make delicious dishes.
For example, when Alka sometimes suggested that he experiment with certain unusual ingredients, Juanlu would refuse.
But now, he would definitely start making them with great interest.
However, Alka wouldn't dare to make any outlandish suggestions out of the blue.
Because the others on board would suffer if they did.
I wonder if this could be considered progress.
…
"According to the estimated time, we should be arriving soon," Sofia said, looking at the Guidance Flag fluttering on the rudder.
According to Nova's words when Alka took the Guidance Flag,
The so-called Twin Islands they were heading to were less than 20 days and nights away from the Trial Island.
It was considered relatively close for a sea voyage.
"I think so. Haven't we seen ships passing by recently?" Alka said.
On the vast expanse of the ocean, encountering other ships during a normal voyage was a stroke of luck.
Unless it was near some islands.
And they had encountered them many times in the past few days, which meant that there was a landmark island near this area of water.
This situation could only occur when a landmark island and its surrounding islands formed a sea area.
Because there were enough people active in this area, they would all be sailing in this area.
And in the past few days, they had encountered more than a dozen ships in total.
This meant that the landmark islands around here were clearly quite famous.
"Look ahead! Look at that ship!"
Jason's voice came from above, and his voice was clearly agitated. After a short while, a ship approached.
Alka looked closely.
It was a massive, three-masted sailing ship, painted gold and green, over 60 meters long.
The sight of the color scheme gave him a familiar feeling.
Because the Church of Our Lady often used ships with this color scheme.
As expected, as the ship drew closer, everyone could see the emblem of the Church of Our Lady emblazoned on the massive sail.
How long had it been?
It had been several years since they left their home sea.
Seeing the emblem of the Church of Our Lady again was a familiar feeling.
As the Voice of Dawn passed within a few hundred meters of the ship,
A ray of light inexplicably appeared on the hull of the Voice of Dawn.
The entire ship's speed instantly increased by a knot.
The somewhat cheerful music of the dawn sounded.
Experiencing the familiarity of the light,
A smile broke out on Alka and the others on the boat.
This was clearly a buff bestowed upon them by the nearby Virgin Mary ship.
It was impossible for every ship they encountered to behave like this.
Either Alka and his companions were lucky.
Or perhaps someone on this ship had noticed some characteristic of Alka and his companions.
This led them to believe that this ship contained Virgin Mary followers, perhaps even apostles.
"It looks like we're not far from the Twin Islands," Alka said, looking ahead, his mood brightening.
It wasn't long before.
Around the time of nightfall, they could already see the islands in the distance.
The number of ships around them also grew considerably.
They came and went, but each kept a safe distance from the others.
"Ah, this place is so prosperous," Sofia couldn't help but exclaim as she looked at the surrounding ships.
Because she was wearing a pair of data-scanning glasses.
These glasses were extremely concealed, primarily detecting fluctuations in magical energy, not individuals.
So, generally speaking, few people would notice they were being monitored.
And by looking at the surrounding ships through these glasses, one could see them.
None of these ships were ordinary; they were all spellcraft ships. The most outrageous thing was that among the comings and goings, there were already more than a dozen ghost ships.
In the glasses, the energy reflections of ghost ships were much greater than those of spellcraft ships, making them very easy to distinguish.
They were getting closer.
The group finally had a clear view of the Twin Islands.
The island was indeed enormous, connected on both sides and stretching to the horizon.
The sky darkened in an instant, a black curtain of stars covering the blue sky and white clouds.
The sea was instantly plunged into darkness.
A large number of lights emanated from the island ahead, and two huge beams of light suddenly shone down, piercing the sky.
The two beams of light could be seen from afar.
They must have been the light from two lighthouses, guiding the ships sailing around in the darkness.
Looking around...
The Twin Islands had a strange structure.
It was hard to imagine such an island existing in nature.
It was composed of two islands, almost touching each other.
The entire island resembled a relatively regular circle, bisected in the middle, with a circular hole cut into the middle.
This created a relatively straight channel that cut through the entire island, with a large circular inland sea at its center.
This inland sea served as the shared harbor for both islands.
The direction they faced was the seaward side.
All the ships were heading in the same direction, exiting from the exit in front of them.
Not a single ship was seen heading in the opposite direction.
The number of ships sailing along this channel indicated the sheer number of vessels surrounding them.
It seemed that if they wanted to land on this island, they would have to go around to the other side, enter through a different entrance, and then dock at the harbor in the central inland sea.
A small vessel approached, its color scheme somewhat peculiar.
The entire vessel was gray and black. As it approached, everyone realized it wasn't the color scheme at all, but rather the material of the entire vessel, for it was made of steel. The ship's style was unusually unique, with a sharp bow. There were no bow or stern structures. There was only a tall command tower in the center of the ship.
Looking at this design, Alka couldn't help but recall the past.
The ships of the past world bore a striking resemblance to this ship.
A flag, bearing the gear symbol, could be clearly seen atop the ship.
This was the ship of the Church of the Holy Machine.
A shrill alarm rang out on the ship, and it stopped in front of them.
The voice came from afar.
It wasn't a specific language, but rather a chorus of strange syllables.
Even though they couldn't understand it, they could still grasp its meaning.
"This is the exit. To enter the island, please enter the inner harbor from the other side."
Although everyone had already noticed this, they were stopped before they could adjust.
The Voice of Dawn quickly turned.
Only after seeing the Voice of Dawn turn did the steel ship depart.
"Is that the Holy Machine Church's steel ship?" Sofia looked at the departing steel ship and turned to Simon, who was not far away.
Simon nodded. "Yes, but it's strange. Why is it exactly the same standard ship used by the Church in the Bright Sea?"
After all, the two churches are so far apart, yet they use exactly the same technology.
"That's normal, right? Why does it seem so strange?" Jason asked puzzledly.
"Because the technology in this ship was still a test piece when I left, and hadn't been used in actual production. Many of the technologies on it are newly developed.
I've met many researchers of new technologies, and even participated in the research of some of them."
In other words, some of this ship's technology is unique to the Four Gods Sea, based on the time he left his own sea area.
This ship is really
It's installed, not surprising.
What's strange is why the Endless Sea was able to implement it so quickly.
Because they can confirm that the technology indeed originated from the Four Gods Sea.
Logically, this shouldn't happen.
"Perhaps the connection between churches is much closer than we imagined.
After all, the Four Gods hold the world's most primal secrets, don't they? They must have connections we don't know about.
For them, the Endless Sea might not be as difficult as it is for us.
Perhaps there's an internal passage."
Because Alka has always had this suspicion.
For example, his biggest suspicion is that the Pope of the Home Sea is far, far weaker than that of the Endless Sea.
This doesn't make sense.
You could say that the Home Sea restricts the development of power, but Alka will know after experiencing such a weak power.
It's more than just a simple lack of strength.
Many things require strength as a foundation. Including some understanding techniques and ideas.
And the most outrageous was the [Scepter]-level spell.
Already possessing two treasures at the time, he could clearly sense that the Archbishop must possessed a [Scepter]-level treasure.
Could someone not even at the second stage control that existence?
Clearly unlikely.
Everyone chatted, waiting for the Voice of Dawn to sail along the edge of the island and around to the other side.
The island they were circling appeared to be Zuozi Island, occupied by the Church of the Holy Machine.
You could see various strange-looking steel buildings.
In Alka's words, it looked a bit steampunk.
In addition to some simple wooden houses, there were also quite a few large steel buildings, somewhat resembling factories.
"Look up in the sky, are there ships flying?" Lucelia shouted, pointing upwards.
He looked up.
He could see a large, oval-shaped object, carrying a ship-like structure, slowly flying in the sky.
An airship, a very conspicuous airship structure.
Alka had heard Simon say that airships already existed in their area.
However, even in the Home Sea, they were said to be not very practical.
"That's an airship. See that huge, conical balloon on its head? It's filled with some kind of gas that keeps things afloat."
"But it's really not very useful. The slightest bit of turbulent weather at sea can shatter it into pieces."
"It can only be used on islands like this, and at most for distant intelligence reconnaissance."
They had indeed only seen this one in the sky, and no more.
Indeed, in this vast ocean world, airships were of little use.
The weather in the Vast Sea is particularly severe, as it's undeniable.
Even with the existence of the Signpost Island and its large population, the Dream World's Mist Creatures prioritize repairs in this area.
However, this still doesn't prevent the problem of severe weather. Even in the Four Gods' seas, inclement weather is an unavoidable issue.
Therefore, this item isn't very practical.