"Okay, everyone, don't worry about it. I'll leave the book in the library. If anyone wants to read it, just check it out."
"We've been working so hard for so many days. Let's take a day off tomorrow."
After all, they hadn't rested much since arriving in the Vast Sea. They'd been out and about as soon as the sun rose, gathering intelligence or excavating ruins.
Now, both the intelligence gathering and the ruins' gains had come to an end.
We needed to organize our gains before proceeding.
After chatting with everyone for a while, Alka returned to the captain's cabin.
After learning so much about Vastva, he naturally needed to review the map.
He believed that many treasure locations would have new information, and he would be able to gain a better understanding of the city-state through this information.
This would also allow him to replan his next target.
He entered the captain's cabin and took his seat. A pale light shone from the illumination stone, and a map of the island appeared in Alka's hands.
He laid it on the table and blinked.
The vibrant morning light and the dazzling golden light flashed first, striking the eye.
The blue dots and ordinary white dots pale in comparison, like embellishments.
Alka first clicked on the orange light, eager to see if the information he had learned would reveal any new treasures.
After all, by some strange coincidence, the temple they had first visited was exactly where the orange light was.
He was certain there was nothing there.
He also felt that something as high-level as this treasure would be hidden deep within.
[Heart of Vastva]
[Difficulty: Quarter Power (Level 3)]
[Popularity: 126,000]
[Treasure Information: The city-state of Vastva, an ancient city, worships the ancient god of mystery, Quartet, also known as the City of Change.
The Temple of Parstva, the heart of the city-state.
Here lies the heart of the city, its eternally beating heart, the most important thing in the entire city, the very essence of everything.]
Alka frowned slightly as he looked at the information revealed by the morning light.
Compared to the last time, this treasure revealed little useful information, only one sentence.
Calling this treasure the most important thing in the city, the very essence of everything.
If this was a scepter-level treasure, could it be so powerful?
He couldn't help but think back to the dark realm he'd once traveled to in the Home Sea, and suddenly it seemed normal. Perhaps scepter-level treasures are just that powerful.
What about higher-level ones?
Arka's thoughts drifted.
After a moment, he regained his composure and focused on the golden light again.
Hoping the golden light would reveal more useful information.
[Direction Supreme Item]
[Difficulty: Hunter (Phase 2)]
[Popularity: 0]
[Treasure Information: Enshrined in one of Vastva's four great temples, this item represents the Four-Fourth God, representing one fourth of its treasures.
Revered as "Supreme" by the Vastva people, this item is one of the Four Great Treasures and can only be used by the master of this temple. The master of the great temple will choose from the Eye of Mysticism and the Hand of Conquest.]
The information revealed by this golden light is even more useful.
One-fourth of the treasure...
If one of them is called "Upper," wouldn't the other three be called "Lower, Left, and Right"?
Does "four-four" refer to directions?
Alka could only guess.
Is the master of this temple of higher status than the Hand of Conquest and the Eye of Mysticism?
After all, the selection must be from one of these two positions, and there are only four such positions in all of Vastva.
As for why these two titles are considered positions, it's because the Grand Master Vita mentioned earlier that after completing his studies, he might be promoted to the Eye of Mysticism.
Civilians are called the Eye of Mysticism, and the Hand of Conquest is clearly a military officer.
Alka was looking at the golden light.
The strength required for the orange light and the conditions for a quarter of its power were clearly not possessed by them.
However, the difficulty of the golden light had only reached the second stage, and it was still designated as a hunter, so it clearly didn't require any special conditions.
Both of these were within their acceptable range.
Alka looked at the location of the golden light.
It was at the end of the long island, the very back of Area 3.
Alka and his companions had visited that area before. It had the largest number of Warcraft territories, with bloody battles occurring almost constantly.
And with this hunter level, coupled with the difficulty, it was clear that the danger posed to them wasn't from the temple itself.
It was from the Warcraft surrounding the temple.
So the question was, should they pursue this treasure?
After pondering for a moment, Alka put the question aside and looked at the other blue and white dots.
He wanted to see if these dots could provide him with any useful information.
Furthermore, their efforts during this period were clearly directed towards the orange light. Alka couldn't possibly give up on it, even if his current strength wasn't enough.
He also had to perfect the information about the treasure within the orange light, figuring out what the Four-Part Power was and where it was hidden.
Only then could he find the direction to pursue his efforts and achieve the conditions.
As Alka clicked on the blue and white dots, he discovered that the information about the treasure expanded.
The names previously mentioned in Vita's experimental records all appeared, and many of these blue dots were the experimental locations of those individuals.
They were also various temples.
This also gave Alka a certain understanding of the power within Vastva.
First, there was the Grand Master. To lead an experimental project and own a temple, one had to be a Grand Master.
The corresponding military class is the Great Warrior. Alka discovered the remains of the Great Warrior between two blue dots, clearly indicating weapons and equipment.
Further up are the Eye of Mysticism and the Hand of Conquest. They also control a temple and continue to oversee research.
Further up is the High Priest, the head of the four great temples. It's unclear if this is the pinnacle of power, or if there's someone above them with even greater authority.
However, judging by the expansion of this information, Vastva seems more like a parliamentary system.
Until Alka started clicking on the white dots, he finally found the one he wanted.
[Observation Hall Museum]
[Difficulty: Hunter (Four Spirals)]
[Popularity: 0]
[Treasure Information: The diplomatic reception hall of the Vastva city-state, a must-see for all first-time visitors to Vastva.
This detailed account of Vastva's development from its founding to the present day, describing the growth of the Vastva people and the teachings of the Four-Part God. It served as Vastva's public face.
Found it! Fortunately, there was a white dot at this location.
Alka looked at the treasure information displayed. This meant that if he found this location, he would essentially have a comprehensive understanding of the city of Vastva.
Not to mention, both the Golden Light and the Orange Light would surely be expanded upon.
Not to mention, the difficulty of this location was only four spirals, making it quite easy.
There was essentially no danger.
Alka checked his position on the map.
It was roughly to the right of the center of the island, not too close to the town, but not too far either.
Alka decided that this would be his next target. After learning more about Vastva from the museum, he would examine the information conveyed by the two dots of light.
Then he would go and capture the Golden Light. After determining his target and planning his route, Alka breathed a sigh of relief and put the map away.
After resting for a while, he couldn't help but think of Balazs, who had invited them to a date tonight.
From Shadati, he knew Balazs wasn't a believer in the Virgin Mary, but he had simply concealed it.
Perhaps he hadn't imagined that the Virgin Mary would truly bless everyone who believed in her.
Regardless, it was strange who he had made such a plan for.
Alka and his companions certainly hadn't revealed their faith in the Virgin Mary on the island, not even using hand gestures.
On the contrary, Simon and Mathilda had demonstrated their prayer gestures to their respective deities. Even if he was feigning affection, he shouldn't have used the Virgin Mary's hand gesture.
Unless...
At this thought, Alka narrowed his eyes. Unless he had seen that Alka and his companions believed in the Virgin Mary.
First, Alka was the leader, and within their group, the most devoted to the Virgin Mary.
Alka, Shadaiti, Jason, and Juanlu were all natives of the Home Sea, and all believed in the Virgin Mary.
If he could discern Alka and the others' beliefs, wouldn't he also be able to discern the treasures they possessed?
You see, although Alka and the others' group was small, they possessed a considerable number of treasures.
One possessed a total of five treasures, an absolutely astonishing number.
And even among Alka and the others who possessed such a large number of treasures, the strongest was only at the Seventh Spiral, while Balazs was clearly at the Third Stage.
It wasn't uncommon for lower-spiral individuals within the same Stage to defeat higher-spiral individuals by outnumbering them or employing other tactics.
But facing an enemy across Stages was not so simple.
The disparity in strength displayed across Stages was truly dramatic.
Unless Alka had reached the second stage of perfection, he couldn't guarantee he could defeat Baraz.
This was just based on intuition.
Either he truly couldn't see, or he saw more.
After all, if he could tell that Alka's men believed in the Virgin Mary, he could naturally tell that the others in the group believed in other gods.
And they had gathered all four gods.
And with the exception of Juanlu and Lucilia, the rest could all be considered members of the church.
Even this alone was enough for him to befriend Alka and the others.
Thinking of this, Alka stopped worrying.
Just as he had initially thought, inviting them to a banquet would be the most foolish thing to do.
He could simply take advantage of Alka and the others' unfamiliarity with the Infinite Sea and create obstacles and launch surprise attacks.
Balazs wanted to befriend them, offering them assistance during their most uncertain times after arriving in the Vast Sea.
A helping hand in need is always better than adding icing on the cake.
After putting his worries aside, Alka returned to his room and fell into a dream.
He briefly cleared away the dream creatures surrounding them.
He then flew towards where Balazs's crew was.
Although he felt the information Balazs had discussed today was highly credible, he still wanted to verify it.
Before, he hadn't been able to ask specific questions. Now that he knew, he could naturally obtain accurate answers through specific inquiries in his dream.
He could also determine the accuracy of this information.
After a round of inquiries, he confirmed that there was nothing wrong with what he had learned today.
Balas hadn't deceived them about these matters.
Those living in this boundless sea indeed improve rapidly during the first two stages, their magic power surging, not calm.
In other words, Alka and the others are indeed very conspicuous.
Although Baraz harbored no ill will towards them this time, one cannot expect everyone to harbor no ill will.
Furthermore, strangers would occasionally arrive on the island, and Alka and the others wouldn't leave anytime soon.
As Baraz said, if only one or two people's magic power remained stable, it wouldn't be surprising; there are always many such cases in the world.
But if a large number of people were like this, then there would be no room for speculation.
Baraz would also leave this place in a few days. As a traveling merchant, he couldn't stay here for long, otherwise, if the island drifted, it would be difficult to return to the Southern Cross.
This matter required careful consideration.
After all, it concerned their safety.
With this thought, Alka returned to his dream.
He also cleared out the dream creatures around him.
Not long after Alka woke up, daybreak arrived.
However, today was meant to be a restful day, so the others didn't leave the ship, remaining on the deck to rest.
Just after breakfast, Simon dragged Alka up to the deck.
"What's with all the hassles?"
"What else can we do? We haven't even tested the cannon yet," Simon said impatiently.
Hearing this, Alka remembered the incident.
On the deck, he retrieved the cannon parts from the others' pocket rings and watched Simon reassemble them.
Looking at the cannon before him, the overall design was remarkably simple, unless one paid attention to the pattern on it.
"How do you open this thing?" Alka, who hadn't studied the cannon before, turned to Simon and asked.
Simone shook his head. "I don't know. Time was tight yesterday, so I only briefly studied it."
He resumed his study.
He held the cannon, fumbling with it for a long time before he seemed to understand how it worked.
Several energy stones appeared in his hands.
He pulled the cannon's tail open, revealing a small square with densely engraved patterns around it.
He dropped the energy stone inside and then pushed the square in.
Jason's hands gushed with magic power, pressing against the sides of the cannon's tail. As the magic power poured in, patterns lit up all over the cannon.
Three spell arrays appeared at the muzzle, overlapping one another.
"Wait, wait, you're not going to fire here, are you?" Alka interrupted quickly.
Seeing Simon's slightly confused look, it seemed he really did want to fire here.
He quickly waved his hand and said, "Voice of the Dawn, drive the ship one kilometer along the edge of the island."
Then he turned to Simon, "Where is this place? How can you fire at someone else's port?"
Hearing this, Simon remembered he was too excited and quickly let go.
The waiting ship approached the cliff face of the island, and the Voice of the Dawn came to rest on the sea.
"Now you pick a target."
Hearing this, Simon rubbed his hands eagerly, and Jason watched eagerly from the side.
This cannon looked very powerful.
He also wanted to fire twice.
Simon swung the barrel of the cannon, aiming it at the top of the cliff.
As he controlled it, magic power converged on the cannon.
The triple magic circle floating above the muzzle began to rotate.
"Bang!"
A huge roar of artillery fire rang out.
The entire Sound of Dawn sank slightly into the sea. The recoil of the artillery fire was extremely exaggerated.
An energy shell was fired from the muzzle.
The conical, light gray shell landed on the clifftop Simon was aiming at in the blink of an eye.
A dazzling light flashed, causing everyone to squint slightly.
The shell exploded in a spherical shape, with a radius of about three meters.
There was no splashing, simply a simple diffusion of energy into a circle.
When the circular energy dissipated. A perfectly neat, deep, curved notch appeared at the top of the cliff, like a piece of butter scooped out with a hot spoon.
"So, is it powerful or not?" Matlisa asked quietly, seeing no one speaking.
"It should be quite powerful. The notch is so smooth. If this shell had landed on the Voice of Dawn, the wound it inflicted would be no different from the one on it," Simon said after a moment's thought.
But what's the maximum damage this shot could cause? That's not known for now.
At least it's incredibly powerful.
Just then, Julia said, "The energy ball created by the shell is like a spatial cut. The piece of soil was cut away by space, not blown up."
"Huh? So powerful?" Simon himself hadn't expected this shot to be so powerful.
It's actually an attack with spatial properties.
Hearing this, Alka patted the Azora Destroyer beside him.
"This thing might be the most powerful weapon on our ship. So where should we put it?" Alka asked.
He couldn't wear it all the time; it was clearly fixed somewhere.
"Let me see. Let me find a good spot."
Simon planned to install it on the ship, and he had to take advantage of its wide attack angle.
He also had to connect it to the Dawn's automatic control system, allowing it to fire independently.