Gazing at the new storm ahead,
Arka looked slightly puzzled and said, "Is it my imagination? Why does it feel like this storm isn't as strong as before?"
The others nodded in agreement, as the storm had clearly weakened. While there was still thunder and lightning and howling winds,
The power of this storm was clearly much weaker than the previous two.
Pororo stared at the storm ahead, his eyes gleaming with a faint blue light. He said with certainty, "You're not mistaken. That storm is much weaker than the two we encountered before."
"Much weaker?" Jason thought it was indeed weaker, but not by much.
"If the storm we encountered when we left the Sea of Home was rated on a scale of 10, the storm in the Sea of All Beings would be between 8 and 7, and this storm before us would probably only be a 5."
Pororo gestured with his hands.
"Only 5?" Alka muttered to himself.
Calculating it that way, it's indeed much weaker, only half the strength of the Home Sea.
When it comes to sensing the strength of a storm and foreseeing it, no one can compare to Pororo, the Warrior of the Sea.
His accuracy in storm assessments is truly exemplary.
After hearing Pororo's analysis, everyone couldn't help but relax a bit, no longer needing to be so tense.
As they drew closer to the murky waters, the ship plowed through them.
This time, Pororo stood at the bow, not even letting the waves lift them forward.
Simply standing at the bow, the water-like lines on his body lit up.
The sea ahead was split open, and the Voice of Dawn rose and fell under the churning waters.
But it was much weaker than the previous two rounds. Everyone only needed to gently steady themselves to avoid being swayed.
Thunderbolts occasionally fell, striking the shields and causing ripples.
In this way, after spending half a day, they successfully left the stormy sea near noon.
The process could be described as effortless.
The attention of everyone on the ship had long since shifted away from the stormy sea.
Jason leaned against the bow railing, looking ahead, and asked, "Can you roughly estimate how far we are from the place you mentioned?"
Jason was already impatient to reach the island; he longed to put his feet on dry land.
At Jason's question, Alka shook his head. "No, the distance in dreams is very abstract when compared to reality. There's no fixed standard. Its connection to reality is precise and distant."
It's possible that this distance corresponds to the same distance in reality. It's also possible that the proportions vary, fluctuating at any moment.
Trying to accurately determine the distance in this situation is sheer wishful thinking.
Perhaps it will be possible once Alka has gained a sufficient understanding of the dream world and has further improved his strength.
"Alright, we're now on our way to our destination. Let's prepare for battle," Alka said.
Based on his experience in the dream bubble last night, if this truly is an island, it's unlikely to be one without danger.
It's always wise to be vigilant.
Hearing Alka's words, Jason nodded and returned to his room; he needed to make some preparations.
Everyone else also left the bow.
Before long, as the Dawn Voice sped along, a black dot appeared at the end of their field of vision. It was an island.
Alka was now standing in the observation room, his head transformed into a crocodile frog, his strange, enormous eyes fixed intently on the distance.
As they drew closer, the island came into view.
It was huge. Compared to Shipwreck Island, it was truly enormous.
If I were to make an analogy, it was probably a size larger than Turan Island.
The island's direction towards them was shrouded in sheer cliffs, the highest point of which reached at least 50 meters.
The exact height was too far away to be fully estimated, but the cliffs made it impossible to clearly see the interior of the island from their direction.
The cliffs were like a high wall, obscuring their view.
As they drew closer, Alka realized that apart from the cliffs facing them, there was really nothing to see.
Silently, he left the observation room and came onto the deck.
By then, everyone on deck was already prepared.
"How's it going, Alka? Have you observed anything on the island?"
At Jason's question, Alka glanced ahead, then shook his head, indicating he should look over there.
Jason picked up his telescope and peered through it, seeing exactly what Alka had seen.
"It's all cliffs, nothing to see."
"Looks like we have no choice but to go to the island. We need to go around to the front and see if there's a place we can land," Sofia said.
As they got closer, they could clearly see the massive island with their naked eyes.
The waves crashed against the steep vertical cliffs, and sharp rocks protruded around them.
Dawn's Voice circled nearby, allowing them to get a clearer look at the island's interior from the side.
A dense forest lined the side of the island.
"The forest is so dense? And right at the edge of the island."
Sofia frowned as he looked at the dense forest that blocked their view.
Logically, trees shouldn't grow easily around an island, let alone a forest as dense as this one. The lush foliage showed how well they thrived here.
A scene like this was enough to indicate something was amiss on the island.
As she spoke, Julia walked to the side of the boat and raised her hands slightly.
A strange song emanated, bringing a spring breeze to the air. A halo appeared behind her, and four streamers shot out from it, emitting a faint glow toward the dense forest.
The Voice of Dawn continued to circle the island.
Julia had closed her eyes, as if sensing something.
After a moment, she opened them.
"This island has a high concentration of magical energy, but it doesn't have the conditions for such a dense forest. Something's affecting it, and these trees are very unnatural."
Julia told everyone what she had sensed. The others nodded, frowned slightly, and became alert.
All this showed that this island was not as peaceful and simple as imagined.
Pororo approached Jason, leaning slightly, and said, "Now you're being a pessimist."
"Damn, it's already this late," Jason said with a mixture of helplessness and anger.
If he had known this, he would have kept quiet.
Pororo laughed a strange laugh, revealing his sharp, white teeth, and then shrugged.
Finally, the Voice of Dawn reached the front of the island and saw a low beach. They could leave the Voice of Dawn on the sea and land there by boat.
Alka had already arrived inside the ship. As the internal machinery revved, she slowly floated out from the bow on the Flying Swallow.
As the retracted mast rose, everyone jumped down, landing on the Flying Swallow.
Zero and One, dubbed the Puppet Knights by Lucilia, were left aboard, while Two followed Sofia down.
As the Flying Swallow sailed, everyone arrived at the beach, pulled the boat ashore, and tied a silver bell.
Then they stepped onto the sand and took in their surroundings.
Ahead, the dense forest still obscured their view.
The group had dispersed slightly on the beach and began to survey their surroundings.
As Sofia's silver waves swept across, she began to record the island's topography. Then she noticed something. She scraped vigorously at a spot in the sand with her foot, revealing a sharp black corner. She reached out and pulled it out with force.
It was an irregular, twisted piece of metal. Buried in the sand, it hadn't rusted, indicating it wasn't iron, but some kind of alloy.
Alka walked over, turned the metal fragment over, and examined it carefully for a moment.
The metal fragment bore clear markings of a spell, but only a small portion. The rest was completely broken and inoperable.
"This is a broken section of a large metal device, with some kind of spell metal added to it to conduct magical power."
Alka said, grasping a corner of the fragment with her hand and gently channeling magical power into it.
The magic power flowed smoothly, briefly illuminating the now-inoperative, damaged spell before extinguishing.
Jason, approaching, listened, briefly glanced at the broken metal, and asked, "Can you tell when it's from? It doesn't look too old."
Arka nodded. "Very new, no more than 10 years old."
Compared to the debris on Shipwreck Island, it was indeed quite new.
"Could it be another island like Shipwreck Island?" Julia asked, approaching.
This island still had high magic. Although it had an unusually dense forest, the high magic remained unchanged.
It shared the basic characteristics of the Shipwreck Island we encountered previously. The high magic meant that this island would experience even more strange things.
Magic influences everything.
Alka didn't answer. Instead, he looked up at Sofia and asked, "Can you feel any more debris around here?"
"Yes, most of it's buried in the sand. It's quite fresh, and there's a large fragment."
With that, Sofia led a few people to a spot on the side of the beach and pointed downward.
Pororo looked at the spot and bent down, shoving his entire hand in. With a fierce force, he lifted a large mass of sand to the side.
A deep pit, not too large, was revealed, and the surrounding sand was slightly sliding away.
But within the pit, a massive metal object had already emerged. Pororo then grasped a corner with both hands and fiercely pulled it from the sand.
As the entire object was pulled out, the surrounding sand began to slide into the pit.
It was a massive metal fragment, two or three times larger than Pororo himself. It was the same color as the previous piece of metal, bearing the same incantation patterns, and also dented and broken.
Alka looked at the shape of the metal, tilting his head in thought.
"This thing looks... a lot like the fragments of some kind of vehicle. There are even burn marks on it."
Alka pointed to a corner, where the metal had slightly melted and then solidified.
Jason looked at the massive block of metal and, after hearing Alka's words, said, "A ship made of metal?"
Such a large block of metal couldn't possibly be part of a ship; it wouldn't require such a large area.
Unless the ship was ridiculously large.
Alka nodded. "What's so strange about a ship made of metal?"
"Isn't it strange?" Jason asked, puzzled.
Alka turned around and looked at the puzzled expressions on everyone's faces before nodding in sudden realization.
Yes, the reason he wasn't surprised was because of past experiences.
For those of them who lived on the Home Sea, an ironclad ship made of steel was indeed strange.
"Okay, don't worry about it."
After saying that, he tapped the iron plate in front of him and said to the group, "This metal and the metal we just saw likely came from the same source. And it couldn't have been damaged more than ten years ago; it must have washed ashore on this island."
"Let's explore inside."
After saying that, Alka glanced at Sofia beside her and tilted her head, motioning for her to lead the way.
After all, Sofia was going to be the one mapping the island, so she would lead the way.
Sofia nodded and took the lead, with the others following behind, heading into the dense forest.
As they entered the woods, a breeze carrying a fishy scent blew through the dense forest.
"This smell is a bit unpleasant and strange," Pororo said, instantly noticing it and covering his nose.
For him, the smell was too pungent.
The others could only smell the fishy odor when the breeze blew by; their sense of smell was much weaker than Pororo's.
"Then you'll have to bear with it for a while," Jason said, patting his thigh with a smile.
"The magic power is stronger here," Julia frowned, then added, "and it's even more chaotic. Be careful."
Jason had already drawn his emerald archer and donned a magic bullet-launching glove on his left hand. The patterns on it lit up, ready to fire, ready to attack at any moment.
Sofia's hand was also wrapped in a magic bandage. The others were also ready for battle, and the battle formation had slightly changed.
Although Sofia was currently leading, Pororo leaned forward slightly, so that if danger arose, he would be the first to charge.
The weaker Juanlu walked in the center, with the powerful and versatile Julia standing beside him.
Jason and Alka walked at the back of the group, with Lucelia perched on Alka's shoulder.
Silver ripples, leaving no trace, spread outward as Sofia advanced.
The trees in the forest were unusually dense, forcing their formation to slightly disperse, otherwise they would have been unable to advance.
The trees grew denser the further they went.
Alka shook his shoulders, and Lucelia gently kicked Alka's shoulders and leaped onto a branch.
Then they disappeared, a shadow fading among the leaves.
As they moved forward, Alka kept observing their surroundings and every detail.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
He spotted a distinctly unnatural chasm not far to the side. He leaned slightly toward it, stood on tiptoe, and peered carefully for a moment before retracting his gaze.
A soft voice echoed in everyone's ears.
"Be careful! I just saw some marks that clearly weren't made naturally. They're very deep, even though it's been a while.
It must have been plowed into the ground by a large object. Even after so long, the marks are still very obvious."
Everyone nodded. Pororo even arched his back slightly, a gesture of combat readiness.
Besides the gentle breeze ruffling the leaves in the forest, the only sounds were the rustling of their breathing as they moved.
The smell of fish carried in the breeze from time to time.
The increasingly dense forest caused their formation to become increasingly scattered. Although still tightly packed, they were forced to swerve to the left or right to advance.
"Clatter!"
A sound of something piercing through branches and leaves came overhead, and Alka, standing at the back, jumped back suddenly.
He sensed the sound: it was above him.
A small, red sound emanated from the shadows of a nearby branch, crashing heavily onto the falling object above.
The object was sent flying sideways, breaking off a mass of leaves and branches before crashing against a tree trunk and sliding down.
Countless leaves and branches fluttered down from above, obscuring everyone's view.
Another object fell from above.
This time, the target was Julia.