"Are you unhappy, Moore?" When this cycle was repeated for the fifth time, Darent was no longer satisfied with just pressing once. He put both hands on Moore's shoulders, exerted force with his legs, and made a very short supported jump. "That's Laceres! Hey!"
"…I'm glad." Maul sighed, "You don't act like someone bigger than me at all."
Although Moore looks like an old man, he is actually a middle-aged man at most.
This is the curse borne by the Time Dragon family. When their talent is still effective, they can stably recall past scenes in their memories, and occasionally see the buried past. There is an extremely small probability that they can glimpse the future in a moment.
The side effect is that it burns their vitality and they always age prematurely.
Moore originally thought that he would not live long after he turned thirty (his last birthday his brother Light gave him a handmade coffin), but unexpectedly, after the advent of the new world and the disappearance of his Time Dragon talent, the loss of his vitality also stopped.
The vitality that has been consumed will not come back, but it can still be replenished by adjusting diet and exercise. So even at sea, he still insists on doing push-ups and squat jumps every day, and feels like he is getting younger and younger.
As for this guy named Mapus Darent, it is said that his real age is already over 100 years old.
So think about it -
Moore-Salley, looks 60 years old, but actually 30 years old.
Mapes Darent, looks 40 years old, but is actually 100 years old.
How can this mean that the former is more mature in getting along with others?
Moore couldn't understand this logic no matter how hard he tried. This was completely different from his brother who always liked to say bad things and play pranks. The age difference between them was too big.
"You are acting too mature!" Darent said happily, "The longer I live, the more I tell myself to be happier than I was yesterday! Because being alive is worth savoring with all our happiness!"
"…Are you trying to tell me that you think this way because you have witnessed too much sadness?"
"Huh? How do you know?"
"Why don't you guess what the Sally family did before they joined the Society."
After this little episode, Moore prepared to go back to the cabin to rest.
Now that he had seen the mainland, it would not be long before he landed. He had little time to lie in the cabin, and empiricism told him that there would be endless complicated work to do after he landed.
But it was true that he found himself probably the only one who wasn't too excited about finding Lazarus.
Even the female knight who was traveling with us... named 'Ashley', had been chattering about how she was most eager to go on an adventure on the sea since the first day she met her on board. She wanted to prove that her abilities were no worse than anyone else's, and of course the most important thing was that she wanted to see more of the beauty of the sea.
"The sea is indeed beautiful," she said at the time. "I grew up in a place where I could see the ocean at any time, but just looking at it was like a prison that trapped us. All the beauty seemed so close that we could reach out and grab it, but if you really wanted to try, you might fall off a cliff hundreds of meters high and die."
So Moore could understand why she was so excited at the beginning, but even such a person - after she had been on the sea route with the fleet for more than a month, she began to feel tired of the journey itself.
This is normal, Moore can understand these people.
Anyone - no matter whether he has seen the sea before or not, will feel an impatient joy and intimacy when seeing land after living on the sea for a long time.
Only the Time Dragon is different, probably because Maul knows what happened in this land.
Compared to the boring but risk-free ocean, he was more afraid of the place he was about to set foot on from the bottom of his heart.
"Lazarus... um."
Putting down the nautical chart, Aman stood at the bow and carefully observed the land in the distance with the help of a telescope.
"Strictly speaking, it's Ceres Continent." A woman in a sailor shirt stood next to him. "The map has been updated. Don't use the terms from the old times."
She is very nosy.
A'man glanced at the woman sideways, too lazy to argue with her.
After the incident in Aisha Continent, he survived by chance. Then he did not use his achievements to ask Queen Sarah to help him restore his country, but chose to leave quietly alone, going wherever he went, barely being a ranger again.
When you have money, go get drunk, spend all your money, get drunk and fall asleep in a corner.
If he had no money, he would take on some jobs, such as hunting, moving bricks, fishing and sailing... he was good at all of them.
He once told himself that the only purpose of living was revenge. When that wish came true, he suddenly became confused about how to live his life from now on.
What did it matter? His heart was dead anyway.
He had completely forgotten how long he had lived in this muddle-headed way. When the Sara people, led by Mapus-Dairent, found him, he was helping his neighbor repair a fence, and he directly rejected their invitation to adventure - he no longer had any wishes that needed to be fulfilled by doing such things.
"Think about it, your majesty."
This was Mapes-Dyer's distinctive name for him, and he protested, but to no avail.
"Think about what you are carrying to survive. As far as I know, there is a legend about the dead in Aisha, that is, the dead will possess their loved ones to protect them. So do you plan to let Miss Mary see you in your current state? Hmm?"
This accusation was a bit too much. A'man couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to teach him a lesson, but he didn't hit him.
"We don't need you."
After knocking him down for the sixth time, Darent proudly pulled out from the crowd a female sailor with dark skin, a high nose bridge, black hair tied in a ponytail, a slender figure and thick lips.
"That's our backup, Ms. Bull. She's well-versed in almost all aspects of navigation."
"I'm not……"
“She has more sailing experience than any sailing story you’ve ever heard.”
"But...but that's actually..."
"So this is just to give you a chance to see those new scenery with Miss Mary's expectations."
"...You're not such a coward that you don't even have the courage to take on this responsibility, are you?"
A lie full of loopholes.
So why was I convinced...
A'man was absent-mindedly staring at something, and he thought that it might be because he was really missing something deep down.
He didn't believe in the legend of the souls of the dead. When a person died, he was dead. It was meaningless no matter how he deceived himself because of his own foolish choice that killed Mary.
But he couldn't deny that he could find comfort in "going on an adventure again."
Whenever he woke up with a goal in mind, he would always think back to the days when he was a ranger in Sarah and Mary followed him. His heart, which was intoxicated by alcohol, seemed to burst with new vitality and no longer looked so decadent.
"How about it?"
The woman next to him glared at him unhappily, "Do you sense something hiding nearby?"
Her name was Nellie Bull, the "Ms. Bull" that Darren pulled out.
Even though Darent praised her to the skies, she actually knew exactly how capable she was.
There are also seafaring families and navigators... When the gray fog hadn't dispersed, who would dare to risk their life to sail out to the sea?
Her so-called experience was, at best, sailing a boat along the coastline to fish offshore, and sometimes helping to transport goods on commission.
The few adventures he had were fighting against pirates in the near sea. These experiences were actually of little value compared to the long-distance voyage adventures described by Darent, but Nellie-Bull was already the most suitable candidate.
She took this trip very seriously, not because of the big words the other party said... things like expelling the gray fog and future life.
And future life, isn’t future life all about money?
If you have money, you have a future life.
Without money, there is no future, let alone life.
Her parents died early and she had two younger sisters to support. That was how Nellie understood the word, and they promised to pay a large sum of money, so she got on board, it was that simple.
The fleet consists of 6 large ships, each carrying more than 100 people.
Considering the guns and cannons, and the food stocks that filled the warehouse, Nellie believed that there was a country behind this operation.
She doesn't care, as long as she can get the money.
She quickly got to know everyone and there were no problems overall.
It’s this Aman... He is obviously working in the fleet and is working quite seriously every day, but he just feels like he is isolated from all the atmosphere.
It really feels strange.
It is said that he was once the king of Goliath.
He was said to be depressed by the death of his lover.
It is said that he has special powers and can control sea monsters.
It is said...
Anyway, this guy is really weird.
It's just the death of a non-blood-related companion, why are you so sad?
And that ability.
If the rumors are true, then it would be a waste of power to give him this power.
"No feeling, probably not."
After closing his eyes and sensing it, Aman gave his own "judgment".
It is completely transparent.
But judging from the feedback, it should be some offshore fish schools. This is not worth mentioning. On the contrary, the problem would be if there were no fish schools.
Angelo's power is becoming more and more clear in me... If I want to, I can easily drive the fish to surround me.
It's this woman who seems to be very unhappy with me.
What's wrong? How did I offend her?
Just then, Darent called him to a meeting. Aman casually handed the nautical chart and telescope to Nari, ignored her dark face and went downstairs.
The fleet had already dropped anchor and was moored on the sea surface more than 100 meters away from the shore. The team that went ashore to investigate brought back the first intelligence, and the meeting was to analyze the value of this intelligence and how the team should act next.
"Just as expected, everything is in ruins."
Darent was the team leader. He was rarely serious and sat in the main seat to introduce the plan.
"La... There used to be hundreds of human kingdoms in the continent of Ceres. The documents unearthed in Sarah mentioned that there was a naval battle with the people of Ceres. They had a highly developed civilization that was not much inferior to that of Ancient Selan, but they quickly fell after the gray fog appeared and were the first human territory to be swallowed up."
"And we - all gathered together! Our purpose in coming here is to dig out as many things with text as possible from the ruins, and then record them together and send them back through the Dream Shadow Technique."
Ashley raised her hand.
"…What's the problem?"
"What is 'Dream Shadow Technique'?"
"One of the latest research results of Shadow City." Darent raised a finger. "Nowadays, people can't enter dreams by conventional means, but as long as the spiritual power exceeds the 'present spirit' level, they can communicate directly with the dream world with the help of the present spirit. It is actually more convenient than the blood spirit technique."
"Can all the spirits be used?"
Moore asked, frowning.
"No, it's the kind that needs to untie the knot in your heart."
"What does it mean to untie the knot?"
"It means that using the present spirit will no longer lead to inner corruption. If you can't do this, you will not be judged as 'discharged'."
"???"
"That's your job." Aman interrupted their conversation. "Anyway, our mission is to go ashore, search the ruins, and collect as many books, slates, tombstones, and other things as possible. It's best to bring back anything with words."
"That's it." Darent nodded.
"What if something hinders us along the way?" Moore narrowed his eyes. "Laceres has always been covered by gray fog. This place is like another world to us."
"Oh, I remember that the Time Dragon is someone with experience as a ranger, exploring new worlds - doesn't that sound familiar to you?"
"It's different!" Moore said in a more serious tone, pointing at the landing report in front of Darent, "You've also read what's in it... Don't tell me you don't know how different it is from Icarolin!"
Another world, this statement is not a metaphor at all for Moore.
Elsa is a special case, because there is another force - the power from the King of Blood to fight against the gray fog, which prevents it from being completely polluted and eroded. As long as the evil essence is purified, it can still return to its original form.
But Lassereshi... According to the information I read before setting off, all the people on it are dead...
All the traditional life forms that conform to the Namibian worldview were wiped out here, replaced by endless fog.
So the question is, after being immersed in such gray fog for two hundred years, will this land undergo some irreversible changes?
For example, germs.
There is a saying that there is a space-time channel in the gray fog, which can connect different time and space dimensions. Passing through the gray fog may lead to the world where evil gods and monsters live, or it is possible to see another world that has been eroded and polluted.
If we think about it more carefully, could there be some deadly pathogens in these areas that could spread quickly?
Will the land composition of these areas change?
If they are immersed in the gray fog and produce some unique "specialties" that belong only to their own territory - and these "specialties" are actually living things, how can we judge their degree of danger?
