Chapter 249: 160 Days and Nights Later
When the black curtain of stars covering the entire sky was once again drawn back.
The blue sky, white clouds, and the all-nourishing sunlight appeared once more, illuminating the sea.
In the observation room perched high atop the mainmast, Jason was surrounded by a dense cloud of magic. Vast globs of magic poured down, drawn into his body.
The magic gathering stone above his head was enveloped by a cloud of magic, but soon the surrounding liquid magic dissipated.
The magic gathering stone also closed, pausing dimly above.
Seeing Jason still sitting there, showing no sign of moving,
Yi, who had been observing the situation outside, jumped down, walked over, raised the long needle in his hand, and stabbed Jason's butt.
"Ouch!"
Jason immediately opened his eyes, stood up, and touched his buttocks in pain. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Why do you always call me out in such a violent way? I told you it's not good to learn these things from Er. It's a bad habit."
Yi, wearing a black mask, stared at Jason with calm, dead eyes, unmoved.
The stare made Jason a little nervous.
"Okay, okay, it's my fault I can't beat you," Jason said helplessly. He sorted out the items around him, replaced the magic gathering stone, and closed it.
He stabilized his magic power and felt the current strength within him.
His strength had already reached the sixth spiral. In a few days, he would be able to advance to the seventh spiral.
But even Yi's strength had already reached the seventh spiral.
Thinking of this, he turned to look at Yi, who was staring out the window at the vast ocean, and said, "I envy you guys. You can grow your magic power without doing anything."
Yi turned his head to look at him with disdain, then turned back.
At this moment, the door to the observation room opened, but no one entered.
Seeing this, Jason immediately became alert.
However, the slender short blade was already at his neck, and he felt the slight chill on his skin.
Jason raised his hands: "Well, I'm dead."
"Your vigilance is getting worse." Lucelia stepped out from the shadows.
She was dressed in a black and white Gothic outfit, and on her shoulder was a greatsword larger than her body.
In addition to the sword she carried, she also had a similar blade placed horizontally at her waist. "It's not that I'm getting less alert, it's that you're getting stronger. You're now three spirals higher than me," Jason complained.
Lucelia, who had already reached nine spirals, patted her head. "That's true, but you just said you were envious. So, do you want to join in?"
"Never mind, just kidding."
Jason waved awkwardly, grabbed the coat and scarf hanging by the door, wrapped them around himself, and walked out.
A gust of cold wind blew upon him as he emerged, making him shiver. He tightened his scarf, took the egg from his hat from behind, stuffed it into his arms, and pulled his hood back on.
Now, except for his eyes, he was completely wrapped in his clothes.
"It's snowing again. It's so cold." Feeling the chill of the winter wind, Jason silently slid down the mast.
On the deck, several puppet girls controlled constructs, like machines, to clear the snow from the deck.
They couldn't feel the cold; unless it froze their joints, it wouldn't have much of an impact on them.
Jason was already accustomed to this. He greeted the puppet girls around him and headed towards the dining room.
These puppet girls weren't team leaders, but ordinary members of the team.
Since most of the twelve team leaders had already been created by Alkar and Simon, even the ordinary members would be assembled soon.
As for the extra team leader positions, Alkar had other ideas.
This also made the ship even more lively, which was a pleasant feeling.
As soon as he approached the dining room,
Several puppet girls with wings flew over, took off his coat and scarf, and hung them nearby.
The two puppet girls took the egg from his arms and carried it to the nearby stove to warm it.
There was a special nest for the eggs, built by Jason himself.
The winged puppet girls were still dressed in black and white maid outfits.
Usually, these puppet girls performed these simple tasks on the ship.
Except for Lucilia, who was going up to the upper level for security, everyone else was seated at the table.
Interestingly, besides Er, who sat on Sofia's shoulder,
Julia and Matresa each had a girl sitting on their shoulders.
They were San and Si, with the same hair color as them. San's hair was aqua blue like Julia's, and Si's was wheat yellow like Matresa's.
Speaking of which, the men on their ship who had hair all had black hair, while the women had multicolored hair.
The puppet girls made from the hair of each of them also confirmed the possibility of the second one.
However, it also further demonstrated that the personalities of the puppet girls made from their hair truly reflected their childhood selves.
"You're here. Are you going to the town later?" Simon asked from the side.
Jason nodded. "According to calculations, Balazs should be here today. He'll be here in a few days anyway."
"Really? He's finally here," Alka said happily from the opposite side.
Due to a lack of materials, many ideas are difficult to realize.
And the puppet girls are just missing this last material.
Jason nodded, expressing his anticipation.
"The list of people exploring with me today: Juanlu, Pororo, and Julia."
The people whose names were called nodded. They had already known about this yesterday and had made preparations.
"Are we going to dig today? With such a heavy snowstorm, why not wait a day?" Jason, who had just entered, couldn't help but ask, looking at the snowstorm outside.
In such a strong snowstorm, even if we went to dig, our efficiency would be reduced, and it would also be somewhat dangerous. It wouldn't be worth the effort.
"This snowstorm won't last long. It blew for most of last night, and it had died down considerably by daybreak. We'd be lucky if it lasted another hour or two," Julia said, observing the weather outside.
As her strength grew, Julia became more sensitive to her surroundings. By the time she reached the Nine Spirals, she could already predict the weather.
Especially in extreme weather.
Hearing this, Jason nodded, picked up the fish cake from his plate, and began to bite into it.
"Oh! Not bad! What's for breakfast today?" Jason asked, somewhat surprised.
"Last night, Pororo caught a powerful sea monster I've never seen before." Juanlu looked up at Jason's praise.
"It looks like the meat is quite good."
Hearing this, Jason looked at Pororo.
Pororo's upper arm was still bandaged, and some lacerations were visible, though the bleeding had long since stopped.
The wounds hadn't healed yet, indicating they were quite serious.
"What kind of sea monster? It looks like you were seriously injured last night?"
"Just a sea monster that had just reached the third stage, with ten spirals," Pororo said with a relaxed expression.
Hearing this, Jason curled his lips in disdain.
He could already hear the smugness in Pororo's voice. "Did you advance to the ninth level yesterday?"
"Hmm!"
"Damn it."
Among the crew members on board, those who possessed treasures had already reached the ninth level.
With the help of the Magic Gathering Stone and treasures, their strength improved rapidly in the Boundless Sea.
Especially Alka, who possessed two treasures, had already reached the ninth level early on and was even beginning to progress towards the third level.
Besides him, there was Simon, who had already reached the seventh level and possessed a treasure.
He might even reach the third level even faster than Alka in the future.
Among the four people who didn't possess treasures, Julia, Jason, Juanlu, and Matriasa, Matriasa had already reached the ninth level.
Julia wouldn't be far behind in a few days.
Jason might still need a few more days to reach the seventh level, and Juanlu had only recently stabilized at the sixth level. According to the current situation, it wouldn't be long before they left the island, as they had already excavated most of the ruins.
Except for those reaching the third level of difficulty.
However, Alka had never considered exploring these third-level ruins.
After all, none of them had reached the third level, and the gap in spirals between the third-level levels was enormous.
10 to 27 spirals all belonged to the third level.
Who knew the specific dangers of this third level?
With one or two more third-level spirals, Alka and the others could easily compete.
A mid- to high-level third-level player might be able to defeat Alka and the others without much effort.
Such unnecessary risks were pointless.
Alka ate his fishcake and looked at the map on the table.
There weren't many light spots left.
Only eight blue dots remained, and about thirty white dots remained.
Of these, only three blue dots remained explorable, and fewer than ten white dots remained.
The arrival of winter had severely impacted their excavation progress.
Even the soil had frozen as hard as iron, significantly slowing their excavation.
Even their increased strength hadn't significantly increased their excavation speed.
"I didn't expect there would be seasonal changes in the Infinite Ocean," Julia complained, chewing her food.
I had thought that in such a chaotic, chaotic place like this, there wouldn't be any seasonal changes.
"If jumping directly from spring to winter counts as a seasonal change, then it's true," Sofia remarked, hearing Julia's words.
That's right, eighty days and nights ago, they were still in spring, and their strength at that time was generally around the 6th or 7th spiral.
However, one night, the arrival of a torrential downpour of snow brought a torrential downpour, and from that moment on, spring turned into winter.
This was extremely difficult for them, coming from the normal seas.
Fortunately, they knew some intelligence from the small town.
This indicated that this was normal, and they had entered a long winter.
This winter could last for a long time, even hundreds of days and nights.
And this only affected this island and the surrounding sea.
They were no longer bothered by such a situation; they had long since grown numb to it.
Even if the sky of the Infinite Sea suddenly shattered, they wouldn't be too surprised.
At this moment, Si, who had been sitting on Matlisa's shoulders, suddenly jumped off.
"What's wrong with you?" Matlisa turned and asked.
Everyone cast curious glances.
Si used his little snake tail to swim to the side of the egg and tapped the crystal-like shell.
"I feel... the egg is about to hatch."
"Bang!"
Hearing this, Jason jumped up, and the chair he was sitting on fell to the ground.
He quickly ran over and touched the egg beside the fire. Turning to Si, he asked, "Really? You're not lying to me, are you?"
Si hurriedly waved his hands and said softly, "No, no, it's true."
At this moment, Matlisa swam over, lifted Si and placed her on her shoulders.
She stretched out all four of her arms and placed them on the egg. She also pressed her face against the shell, closing her eyes and carefully sensing it.
"It's almost there. The life inside is taking shape. She's gathering strength. She'll soon emerge from the egg."
Malisa spoke softly, closing her eyes.
Hearing this, Jason's expression became a little excited.
"Is it finally going to hatch?"
This egg has been with him for three years. Is it finally going to hatch?
The thought of this made Jason excited.
"Now? What should I prepare?" He was already a little incoherent.
Looking at Jason's excitement, Matlisa covered her mouth and smiled. "How can it be so soon? Even if it gathers strength, it still takes some time. Don't worry."
Hearing this, Jason calmed down and nodded.
"Your baby is coming, Jason," Pororo said teasingly.
"Haha." Jason smiled and didn't refute.
If it were before, he would have refuted it, but after hearing such teasing for years, he was used to it.
He couldn't help but touch the eggshell.
It's finally going to hatch.
"Is there a baby inside?"
"Is the baby finally coming out?"
"What will it look like?"
The maid-clad puppet girls fluttered their wings around the egg, chirping.
"I don't know what's inside either." Jason gave an awkward laugh at their questions.
Alka shook her head amusedly, then stood up and said to the people at the table, "It's almost time. Let's go too. The snow is about to stop."
The snow outside had died down to a gentle breeze, fluttering with falling snowflakes.
After finishing their meal, they grabbed their coats and scarves, donned them, and one by one left the boat.
As they disembarked, five puppet girls, dressed in fitted black clothing, vanished into the shadows and appeared on their shoulders.
The men weren't surprised by the sudden appearance of several puppet girls on their shoulders; they were already used to it.
Thick-soled boots traversed the snow-covered plain, leaving deep footprints with every step.
None of them carried anything other than clothing. The massive excavation tools and accompanying structures they once carried were no longer necessary.
A mirror floated before Alka, and he watched the figures in it march across the snow.
"Is this the same group from a few days ago?" Juanlu asked, approaching.
Alka nodded.
"You're truly ungrateful," Porollo said, glancing at the image in the mirror.
Alka didn't say much, but shook his shoulder, and the puppet girl on his shoulder turned to look at him.
"Yiyi, take your team and follow them."
"Yes, Captain."
With that, the puppet girl on Alka's shoulder leaped and disappeared into the nearby bushes like an arrow.
In the shadows.
The puppet girls on everyone's shoulders also disappeared.
These puppet girls belonged to Yi, specializing in tracking, reconnaissance, and sentry duties.
They had specialized assassin training, and even the materials used to construct them were related to these characteristics.
These puppet girls were ordinary members, so their strength was only slightly above the fifth spiral, but weaker than the sixth.
Lucille's strength was at the ninth spiral, and her vice-captain, Zero, was also at the ninth.
The captains, who were in the second tier, were in the seventh spiral.
These ordinary members were weaker than the sixth spiral.
However, Lucillia's strength had only recently reached the ninth spiral, and she hadn't yet fully established herself there.
Once she had fully established herself there, the strength of these members would likely stabilize at the sixth spiral.
All members were closely tied to the strength of their leader.
"What are you going to do if they don't know what's good for them?" Julia asked from behind.
"If they don't know what's good for them, they'll naturally pay the price," Alka said quietly.