Today's weather at sea was a rare exception, sunny and bright.
In such unusual weather, everyone didn't stay in their cabins, but instead flocked to the deck.
Because, on the vast ocean, sunny weather was the norm.
And with such unusual weather, there was only one possibility: they had arrived in a certain area and encountered a unique phenomenon that could occur there.
The main reason was that this time, several Vastva people had arrived on their ship.
"Is this the sky outside?" Raphael, venturing out for the first time, was incredibly curious about everything in this world.
Had Jason not stopped her, Raphael would have nearly fallen into the sea.
The breeze, the ocean, the sky, even the sun, even the white clouds drifting overhead.
They all felt strangely familiar to her. These things, once only found in books and history, had now transformed from the illusions of books into reality that she could see with her own eyes.
It was like fantasy illuminating reality.
Not to mention that Raphael was the only remaining historian of the Vastva people.
Alka and the others had learned much of their knowledge through Raphael's help, and she was also the one who answered questions they didn't understand.
A light mist was spreading over the ocean.
For the Infinite Ocean, this was a rare weather pattern.
"So is this fog?" Raphael asked.
After all, there's no such thing in space; there's only eternal silence.
Sofia, standing next to him, nodded.
"How is this fog formed?"
"It's caused by the drifting and coalescing of water elements, mixing with some gaseous elements.
It could also be that the chaotic surroundings are causing this unusual weather, perhaps triggered by magic."
Lucille said, sitting on Alka's shoulder.
Hearing this explanation, Raphael nodded in understanding. Alka, on the other hand, rubbed his brows and looked up at the sky.
Though it was drastically different from what he had known in his previous world, this was the truth of this world.
"What's that?" Raphael suddenly pointed toward a black speck that had suddenly appeared in the distant fog.
Such a black speck, appearing so conspicuous in the vast ocean, was instantly noticeable to Raphael, who had been observing the surface.
The moment they saw it, everyone immediately looked in its direction.
"An island?"
"Is that an island? What does an island look like?" Raphael asked, incredibly curious.
Because of the fog, they could only see the black speck; nothing else.
And in the months they had been at sea, they hadn't come close to an island.
It's important to note that by the time Raphael and his companions emerged through the membrane suit, Alka and his companions had already set sail and left Southern Cross Island.
"It's a rare sight to come across a drifting island, so let's go take a look," Alka said after a moment's thought.
They needed supplies anyway, so it was a good opportunity to see if there were any supplies available this morning and collect some.
Generally speaking, drifting islands should be rich in wildlife and plants, given the time of year.
Even if there weren't, they could collect the plants from them and bring them into the space, allowing the Vaswa people to make a nutrient solution for future use.
No one objected.
After all, they'd been sailing for months, and it was rare to see an island.
Everyone wanted to go up there and relax.
This was what they did most of the time when they encountered a drifting island.
Alka patted the mast.
The Voice of Dawn, understanding Alka's meaning, turned the ship around, heading in the direction of the black dot.
As the ship headed towards the island,
The surrounding fog, however, gradually thickened. As the fog thickened, they could clearly see the outline of the island.
This strange phenomenon was clearly not normal.
Feeling the fog thicken around them and the island becoming clearer ahead, Alka reached out and shook his hand.
The misty white fog had already enveloped the entire ship.
"Ah, it looks like we've won the lottery," Alka said involuntarily.
It was clear that they had encountered no deserted island this time, but an island with strange powers.
Such islands were rare, but it was a drifting island after all, so someone would encounter one.
Just how dangerous the island was was unknown.
Thinking of this, Alka raised his head and glanced in Jason's direction.
Jason was extremely sensitive to any glances at him at this moment.
"Why are you looking at me? That's not what I said before. This can't be blamed on me," he quickly distanced himself from the matter.
"I didn't say I blame you."
"Hmph, that's better."
"Want to go to the island?" Sofia asked.
Raphael, standing next to him, seemed to sense something was amiss and said, "Why don't we just leave? You can call me back next time we see an island."
Alka shook his head and smiled, "Why leave? Isn't this the guidance of the sea?"
Hearing this, Pororo walked over, gave a thumbs-up, and smiled brightly.
"Well said, my brother."
Such legends are forever circulated on the sea.
Every drifting island you encounter while sailing is a gift from fate, a gift you're bound to encounter.
Accept the gift, don't resist it.
And the drifting island, while clearly not a deserted island, was more of a fateful encounter.
This was a theory Alka and the others had known for a long time, and most people who sailed the vast ocean believed in it.
Though it was merely an excuse people used to comfort themselves, allowing themselves to find a way out amidst the loneliness and dangers of the ocean.
Even if the dangers posed by the island ahead could lead to their deaths,
This was the first time Alka and the others had encountered a drifting island with such strange phenomena.
How could they just leave like that?
After all, the drifting islands they had encountered before were either deserted or inhabited by wild animals—generally speaking.
Raphael looked at Alka and the others, their faces lit up with excitement.
Clearly, this wasn't what she had imagined.
It seemed she needed to learn more about the outside world.
The Voice of Dawn continued to sail through the thick fog until visibility on the entire ship became extremely low.
Urulius, who had originally flown out, flew back and stood on the deck.
"I can't see! This thick fog is mingled with magical elements, nearly blocking all normal vision.
Even with special vision, it's difficult to penetrate; it's too thick."
Hearing this, Alka was unusually decisive: "Raise the shield, and increase the detection wave to maximum!"
As the words fell, a melodious song rang out. A pale white, translucent shield expanded from the top mast, enveloping the entire ship.
The detection wave began to spread outward from the bottom of the ship. Because the Voice of Dawn had long since merged with the trees on board, it had become a living ship with life.
So, she even possessed the ability to learn.
The detection ripples pierced the water's surface in silvery tones. This was a spell transmitted from Sofia.
Soon, the once clear outline of the island vanished.
Completely obscured by a thick fog, they were lost within it.
"Can you still discern the direction? Has the direction changed?" At this point, Alka immediately turned to Ululius and asked.
Ululius shook his head and said, "The direction where there's no target is still in this direction. The fog hasn't changed our understanding of the surrounding direction."
"That's good."
The increasingly dense fog reduced their visibility to a few meters around them.
One after another, fiery red balls of light appeared on the ship.
Sofia controlled these balls of light, filling them around the ship.
Soon, a blazing light slightly dispelled the fog, brightening the surrounding visibility. At least it would allow Alka and the others to see the situation on the ship through the thick fog.
"Without visibility, we can only rely on our senses. Everyone, be alert," Alka said, looking at them.
Suddenly, the sound of wooden planks clashing could be heard.
Alka immediately came to the side of the ship and looked in the direction of the sound.
He saw a wooden object crashing into the edge of the ship.
The wooden object was only about two meters long and only half a meter wide.
Through the thick fog, Alka could only make out a faint outline, unable to discern its true nature.
It looked like some debris drifting on the sea.
But even debris drifting in such a place could potentially contain something.
A melodious voice echoed, the voice of the Voice of Dawn.
There was no life within it.
"Bring it up."
As Alka finished speaking, a vine stretched out, wrapped around the object, and dragged it onto the deck.
As the water above continued to recede, everyone finally saw what it was.
It was a wooden box.
It had been severely corroded by the seawater, but the overall structure was fine, and the packaging was still intact.
Although there seemed to be some words and patterns carved into the wood, they were now blurred.
"This thing... why does it look a bit like a coffin?" Jason said, taking in its appearance.
Long and narrow, isn't this a coffin?
To be honest, it looks exactly like one, though it seems to be made more crudely.
Alka waved gently.
Magical power pushed the lid open. "It seems this isn't just a feeling; it's a coffin."
Inside the coffin lay a completely weathered, withered skeleton, though something seemed to be carved on the back of the lid.
The coffin also contained once-too-tattered and rotten clothing and blackened metal burial objects.
"Ka-ka!"
The sound of bones colliding rang out.
As everyone watched, the skeleton actually crawled out of the coffin.
"Is this... is this the skeleton creature mentioned in the book?" Raphael asked, trembling but still maintaining her curiosity.
She had only seen these things in books.
Simon, standing beside her, nodded.
A dark green mist emanated from the skeleton, making it even more sinister. But in Alka's eyes, the skeleton's strength hadn't changed much; it remained somewhat fragile, probably only at the second stage. "I didn't expect it to be an undead," Alka said, condensing a golden arrow of light in his hand and launching it directly.
The arrow of light pierced the undead's skull. The undead, who had just crawled out of the coffin, froze in place, collapsing into a pile of bones.
A very weak skeleton, and indeed, an undead creature, extremely suppressed by the Holy Light.
"There's actually an undead! It seems this fog-shrouded sea isn't peaceful," Jason said, looking at the undead.
Julia, on the other hand, shook her head. "No, there's a certain amount of undead elements in the surrounding air, but it's very rare, not enough to easily transform a single corpse into an undead creature."
This statement clearly didn't match reality.
Alka arrived at the pile of bones, and his eyes saw something different.
He shifted the bones and pulled out a single bone.
In his eyes, it looked different from bone; it seemed to carry a message.
He reached out and gently touched the bone, probably a thigh bone.
A blurry image, like a phantom, appeared in his mind.
He saw a middle-aged man, presumably a bricklayer, working on something at a construction site. It seemed to be a temple.
He saw sculptors carving a massive statue.
The image then blurred and fragmented, until it became a scene of war.
A massive object fell from the sky.
It looked like a broken building, or the bow of a ship, crashing straight into the temple.
The massive temple statue, already built, was shattered by the impact, and the entire temple was instantly destroyed.
The surrounding residential buildings were also severely affected.
Some people wearing religious attire were gathering.
A group of men in disarray seemed to be attacking.
The chaos of war had spread to the middle-aged man's city.
Screaming, cheering, war cries.
A sharp blade jutted out from the alley, and the middle-aged man, fleeing with his family, saw his vision go black.
Clearly, this was his death.
The illusion dissipated.
Arka looked at the bones in his hand; the lingering aura had faded considerably.
He carefully examined the pile of bones before him.
The skeleton's left ring finger was missing a section, just as the middle-aged man in the illusion was. Clearly, it was the same person.
He saw the illusion, the memories left on the bones.
Normal undead possessed no such thing.
It seemed as if they had been affected by the flames of war.
However, if the blackened, damaged area before his eyes signified the end of his life, then he should have been gorging on the wilderness, not placed in a coffin.
"Did you sense anything?" Sofia asked, observing Alka. Alka's current behavior was clearly abnormal.
Alka nodded. "I saw some fragments of this undead's memories from his life. Very few, only a few that were clear."
This left everyone bewildered, and they didn't know what to say for a moment.
How could he suddenly see something like this?
"Maybe it's a little bit of talent."
Alka said, and began to examine the coffin, the burial objects, and the man's remains, looking for anything unusual.
What was the reason for that vision just now? Was it because this undead was special? Or was it special in life?
But judging by the memories just now, that was clearly unlikely.
Alka didn't quite understand, so he could only study and explore carefully, trying to uncover the secret.
Suddenly, he saw a different holy symbol on the back of the coffin lid.
It was the symbol of a tombstone pierced by a sickle.
But Alka had never seen such an emblem before, and I was sure I hadn't seen it anywhere else.
It seemed to have a different meaning.
"Do you know Lucelia?" Alka decided to ask the knowledgeable Lucelia.
However, Lucelia shook her head. "No, I've never seen an icon like it, or even anything like it."
"But you see it often on tombstones."
"This..."
"This emblem appears to be that of the Undertaker," Raphael muttered vaguely, examining the design.
"Undertaker?" Everyone turned to look at her.
They had never heard of this door number, yet Raphael knew it. Combined with their historical knowledge, it was clear that this person, or god, known as the Undertaker and his emblem must have appeared during the Golden Age.
"Undertaker, guardian deity, one who brings the dead back to unity, the scythe that leads to the afterlife."
These are all historical records, and these are the titles of the deity known as the Undertaker.
In essence, most coffins, unless they are based on a specific faith, are used after death as Undertaker coffins.
People believed that such coffins would allow the bones and souls contained within to pass peacefully into the afterlife. "
Everyone nodded in interest at this.
This kind of information could only be heard from people like Raphael.
After all, it was information from tens of thousands of years before the Golden Age.
As he spoke, Sofia seemed to sense something and looked toward the distant fog.
A green light flickered within the thick fog.
Everyone else saw this green light as well.
Suddenly, Sofia clearly felt someone's eyes widen.
"Enemy ship!"