By this time, the corpse, with only the upper half of its body remaining flesh and blood, had been disassembled into pieces.
Arka was completely certain that the constructs on the monster, including the metal plates on its skin, were all grown.
They weren't sewn on.
This necessitated a number of assumptions, suggesting that there might not even be anyone creating undead on this island.
Now there was another possibility: something on this island had affected these corpses.
Even worse, it was possible that these corpses, before they became corpses, were affected by this power when they were still alive and human.
Causing some parts to grow into metal and magical machinery.
The ability to make flesh grow metal, and even to form constructs capable of moving like a body,
Arka felt that this wasn't something that could be achieved by a simple spell.
He seriously suspected it might be the power of a treasure.
Standing up, magical power surged from Alka's hands, and two streams of clear water gushed out.
He washed away the dirt and debris on his body, even though Julia's shield could protect him from any hidden negative energy or bacteria.
Then, Alka turned to the others and said, "Be vigilant! This island is dangerous."
How could it be safe if flesh and blood could grow metal and magical machinery?
And there was the member of the Church of the Holy Machine trapped on this island. He wondered if these strange corpses were related to him.
If he was, then they might have been exposed.
Thinking of why he had come to this island in the first place, Alka frowned.
"Let's keep moving forward."
With that, they maintained their previous formation and continued their journey deeper into the dense forest.
"Metal grown from flesh and blood, and we've already encountered this before even reaching the Vast Ocean. Who knows what outrageous things we'll encounter once we get there?"
Jason couldn't help but grumble as he passed the disassembled corpse.
Hearing Jason's words, Pororo, who was walking ahead, couldn't help but remark, "Is it really that exaggerated? I don't think the book contains anything particularly bizarre."
Hearing this, Alka chimed in, "The story in that book is clearly fragmented and incoherent. The author omitted many things, leaving behind only stories and experiences that a normal person could understand. And we haven't seen the end yet, have we? It's like it was cut off in the middle."
Several people nodded in agreement at Alka's words, realizing they all saw the point.
The book's experiences often jump significantly. For example, at the beginning, they'd just arrived at the Vast Ocean, but then they'd jump straight to having already been sailing there for two or three years.
After that, the story jumped another year or two, with the intervals between each event ranging from six months to three to five years.
By the end, they had already spent twenty or thirty years in the Infinite Sea.
And yet, the voyage continues. Many of the experiences and gains were not detailed, simply brushed over.
In contrast, some of the unique scenery was described in great detail.
And most of the energy written about was unique, experiences that would make one yearn for it.
From this, it was clear that the author had done this intentionally, writing it specifically for those still within the Divine Sea.
As Pororo listened to everyone's comments, he nodded in sudden realization.
So he was the only one who considered the book the complete story.
Humans, that's how they love to scheme.
Silver ripples continued to spread from Sofia's feet to the surrounding area. After advancing a certain distance, Sofia began to lead the group in a circular motion, rather than a straight line.
This would greatly improve Sofia's efficiency in exploring the island.
Because Sofia's first task was to survey the entire island and map its topography for Alka's reference.
Only after the map was completed would they truly begin exploring the island.
This process, developed after several explorations of the Home Sea, had become their team's standard procedure.
Everyone seriously suspected it was a blessing from the Virgin Mary. After all, Alka had seen her revelations twice, and he was from Home Island.
However, Alka didn't say it explicitly, only saying it was a possibility.
Alka himself suspected his golden finger might be a blessing from the Virgin Mary.
They could feel the slope steepening beneath their feet, winding their way around to the cliff they had seen earlier.
Here, there was a massive crater, a massive pit, like the result of an explosion.
Inside lay a large amount of debris, but it was all wooden and had long since decayed.
Alka slid into the pit, surveyed the wreckage, and after examining it for a moment, climbed back out.
"This crater should have been created around the same time as the metal debris. Inside is a section of a ship, probably the side panel at the rear.
I don't know how it ended up here on the island."
Hearing Alka's words, Jason said with some surprise, "The ship couldn't have reached there from around the island or behind it. It had to have come from the front. Who pushed it here?"
"Don't think about it. We have so little information, and even thinking about it doesn't guarantee anything."
With that, they passed by the wreckage and began the other half of the circuit. This first half of the operation went quite peacefully. They then continued their exploration in a straight line, moving sideways toward the center.
As they continued their exploration, the fishy smell wafted again.
Everyone was forced to remain vigilant once again.
"Stop."
Xadaiti said, crouching down, and everyone followed suit.
She extended her hand and pointed in a direction. Looking closely, they saw an arm jutting out from the side of the tree.
It dangled to the ground, and a piece of metal could be seen through the exposed part of the hand.
Lucilia's voice came softly from above: "There's another one at 9 o'clock."
Hearing this, Alka looked over. That one was well hidden.
There was a clump of grass there, and only through the gaps in the grass could one see discordant colors, as if something was hidden within.
Alka stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers, then waved his hand towards the two men, giving instructions.
Everyone nodded.
Alka first threw a blue card, and Jason fired an ice bullet at the zombie in the bushes.
Xadaiti and Pororo each charged at a different monster.
The two zombies had clearly not hidden there intentionally; they simply collapsed.
When the ice bullet froze one and the blue water chain bound the other, they seemed to awaken and began to sway, trying to stand up.
But by then, they were already trapped.
Pororo and Sofia had already reached them.
Neither of these monsters had mechanical limbs, only metal plates covering their skin.
They were easily dispatched.
Then everyone came up and looked at the two bodies, which looked no different from what they had seen before.
However, Sofia seemed to have noticed something. He squatted down and briefly washed one of the corpse's clothes with water.
A vague symbol appeared.
"The Church of the Holy Machine?"
Alka asked, looking at the symbol.
"Is this the symbol of the Church of the Holy Machine?" Jason leaned over to take a look.
It was a gear symbol, with an eye in the center.
The symbol was very easy to recognize.
"Can someone tell me what the Church of the Holy Machine is?" Juanlu asked, raising his hand slightly.
He looked at everyone who seemed to know everything, but he was completely confused. He had never heard of this church.
In the Home Sea, there was only the Church of Our Lady.
Julia, standing beside her, explained, "You can think of the church to which the Wise One of the Gods belongs as the Church of Our Lady of the Ocean of Delusion. They should be of the same rank."
Hearing this, Juanlu nodded in sudden realization.
Although he had joined them last, Alka and the others had shared some information about the outside world with him.
For example, the four seas controlled by the gods and the Four Gods.
As for the churches corresponding to the Four Gods, besides the Mother, they only knew of the Church of the Holy Machine.
"So this is a member of the Church of the Holy Machine?" Juanlu asked.
The clothing on the corpse before him had long since ripped apart, with only a portion still clinging to the body. It was stained black by the pus produced by the decaying corpse.
It was impossible to tell that he was wearing the attire of some kind of church.
"It's very likely."
Alka said, feeling somewhat puzzled.
Would members of the church also leave the seas controlled by the gods? After all, if they were just believers, they wouldn't wear the trappings of church personnel.
He asked the question.
Although he was from Home Island and a born believer in the gods, he knew exactly what he was.
As a former candidate for the Holy Mother Church, Sofia nodded and said, "Yes, I've seen such records in some church records.
But such people are rare. Most are those who have been trained by the church since childhood."
"They had an adventurous spirit and left Home Sea, and there's no further record of them."
"I only have limited access to confidential information. If I ask my father now, he might have higher authority."
At this point, Sofia couldn't help but think of his father's position as a regional bishop.
At that level, he was considered a core member of the church, and much of the core information would be available.
"Really? Never mind, let's keep going."
As they neared the center, the zombies multiplied, even appearing with half their bodies completely mechanized.
Thankfully, these half-mechanized monsters were still not fully developed, resulting in unusually strange movements.
Even with a strength of five spirals, they were easily dispatched by their coordinated efforts.
Most importantly, Alka and Julia were able to handle them with ease.
"It looks like we're approaching some kind of core of this island. How many have we encountered along the way?" Pororo swatted a charging zombie with iron plates, sending it flying into a nearby tree trunk, where it turned into a pancake.
Hearing Pororo's question, Jason raised his left hand and froze a zombie with an ice bullet. He then replied, "That makes it the 12th one, including this one."
Then the zombie, frozen like an ice sculpture, was smashed into pieces.
"Isn't there a dense forest ahead?" Sofia said, looking ahead. The forest was relatively dim, but a large swathe of light was already visible ahead.
And her silver ripples had already detected what was ahead.
The group passed by the corpses, the formation began to shrink, and they emerged from the dense forest.
As the sunlight shone, the view suddenly became clear.
What lay before them was a vast expanse of ruins. This ruin wasn't a building.
It was the wreckage of two ships, one made of metal and the other of wood, wrecked together.
The debris and wreckage that had been left scattered across the island must have belonged to these two ships.
"Why are the ships here?" Jason couldn't help but ask, observing the situation before him.
They had just circled around and didn't see any unusual signs of movement. Since the ships were here, there would surely be signs of dragging.
Unless they were built right here, the surrounding traces were even more erroneous.
These two ships looked as if they had fallen from the sky.
They had emerged from the direction directly behind the metal vessel. The vessel was completely twisted and broken in half, but its former appearance was still visible.
Looking at the stern of the ship, Alka seemed to understand.
Because the stern of the ship was not flat and tightly wrapped like the ships they normally used.
Instead, it had a large circular hole, although it was slightly distorted by the damage.
The more Alka looked at the hole, the more it looked like a power nozzle.
"These two ships might have come from the sea."
Without waiting for anyone to ask, Alka pointed to what he saw ahead and explained:
"See that hole in the tail? If there's a device inside that can spit out intense flames, it could instantly lift the ship into the air.
If we adjust the angle just right, we might even be able to unleash an incredible burst of power, allowing us to escape quickly or catch up with the enemy."
"As for that wooden ship, it's likely to have a similar structure, or perhaps simply use a spell to briefly fly."
After all, in a magical world, using magic to make ships fly shouldn't be difficult.
It makes perfect sense.
"Should we go inside and take a look?"
Jason asked.
Alka shook his head, squatted down, and dug in the ground beside them. Several human bones emerged from the soft soil.
They had seen skeletons like this on the road before, many already.
They were all just fragments of limbs. It seemed they hadn't been turned into undead because they were so broken.
If they were even slightly intact, they might be able to stand up and move.
"Forget it, don't rush. Let's go around and explore again."
Alka had already seen the interior of the ruined ship. The metal-limbed zombies were lying or leaning, hiding everywhere.
In one case, one hand and one leg had been completely transformed into metal.
This transformation meant that the zombie was at least four or even five helices strong, and its limbs were intact.
Unlike the ones they had encountered on the outskirts before, even if they were strong, their incomplete limbs made them difficult to harm.
Both ships crashed here, so there must be some treasure left behind, after all, so many people died.
As long as they knew the location of the treasure, they could get a rough idea of the difficulty. It wouldn't be too late to come in and explore later.
This is safer.
After hearing Alka's words, everyone agreed. It's always good to be vigilant.
Then everyone began to move around in the ruins.
He circled the ship at the edge of the island, allowing Sofia to record the surroundings with silver ripples.
"Alright, we've completed our general record of the island. We can return."
After hearing Sofia's words, Alka nodded and said to the others, "Alright, let's return to the ship and prepare. We'll return tomorrow to formally explore the two ships."
He glanced up at the sky. The sun had already set, leaving only a faint glimmer of yellow light.
Whether it was the lack of a map or the current situation, it wasn't suitable for exploration.
Not to mention that they had already traversed a storm that morning, so their condition wasn't exactly good.
Then everyone headed out.
Because they'd chosen a different route from the one they'd just taken, they encountered a few more zombies along the way.However, they already had experience dealing with them and easily dispatched them.
The main reason was that these zombies were generally weak, with most at the 2-3 spiral stage.
Because they lacked brains, their attack methods were extremely limited, making them unlikely to cause any trouble.
As for the zombies with four spirals, they only encountered three in total, and with their skillful coordination, they were easily dispatched.
They made their way to the coast.
By the time they reached the shore, the sky had completely darkened. Considering the island unsafe, they boarded the Flying Swallow and returned to the Voice of the Dawn.
They stopped the Voice of the Dawn not far from the island's beach, not wanting to stray too far, lest they be swept away by the relentless current, unable to return.
The currents seemed weak, but Alka and the others had tried, and finding it difficult to return by heading back.
These currents are wave-like, with periodic strong surges. Coupled with the constant breeze blowing forward, even the most aggressive sailing would still be pushed slowly.
Unless one possesses strong power, they can return in such a countercurrent.
Only around islands like these will the current's strength be significantly reduced.
After returning to the island, Juanlu began preparing dinner for everyone. Considering tomorrow's operation, he decided to prepare a feast.
Sofia also began drawing a map in his room.
Alka waited quietly.