Chương 1443: 1442. Auk Archpelago

The second day at sea was uneventful. Shooting through the sky, they simply enjoyed the sight of the beautiful ocean below. Around midday, the girls did some sparring to help Monique get used to her enhanced power. The chosen of Athena adapted quickly, and they had to end it at light sparring, so nobody got hurt. It seemed like Monique would only see some real action to test out her new gear once they reached the Auk Archipelago.

"Land HO!" Grodin called out from the bridge. It was the evening of their second day at sea. The small crew assembled on the bridge to see the first signs of land on the darkening horizon. The last rays of sunset illuminate a small group of flat islands.

"These are the Southern Isles. They are small and uninhabited. The danger here should be low, so we could anchor here. When we continue tomorrow, we will be able to reach Alcin Prime, the main Island of the archipelago," the knight explained excitedly.

"Hmm, I get why this place was popular," Mina muttered, admiring the clean white beaches glistening in the last light of the day. The lush palm trees would have looked breathtaking in the sunlight. After taking in the view, Seth checked the <Map>. It now showed a thin line connecting Larida and their current location. At the edge of the revealed area, he could see a couple of small islands in front of them.

Not quite trusting Grodin's assessment, Seth used the clairvoyance of Theia's Vision to have a closer look at the island swallowed in twilight. After all, the knight had been here years ago; meanwhile, all scouting parties vanished. However, it was as the local had said. There was nothing on these islands. No people, no animals, no monsters, nothing bigger than a bee came in sight despite the bard's meticulous scanning. That in itself was even weirder.

Since the dungeons on the archipelago were not managed, there would have been regular bursts after the first dungeon shock that destroyed the place. The place should have been teeming with monsters. And if not monsters, at least some animals like crabs, birds, or lizards.

"It's okay to anchor in the vicinity, but let's keep our distance from the island. Nobody should land either. I don't think they are as harmless as they try to seem," he instructed. Seth secretly released a couple of golem eyes to observe the island before sharing his findings with the others. Even Grodin and Robin were allowed to listen in.

"I did not expect such skill from a blacksmith," Robin admitted, and didn't dare to argue. Seeing Monique and the rest listen to him without a doubt was enough to convince him. Grodin, although hesitant, saw no reason to doubt either and agreed to anchor at a good distance from the islands.

"It just means you are underestimating blacksmiths," the bard said with a shrug. It was clear that Robin had grown a little suspicious of the roles everyone was playing. After all, Monique, who was supposed to be the highest-ranked in the party, was not really acting her part, while everyone seemed to listen to the court blacksmith more than Lady Lest. However, Robin left it at that, and everyone was able to return to their rooms and get some rest. Even Seth and the girls simply went to bed.

Tomorrow, they expected to be embroiled in battles, so the night was actually used to recover energy. In the night, Seth was woken up by the beeping of the tablet he had placed on the nightstand beside the bed. It was the one that could be used to check on the live feed of the golem eyes and their location. He left it outside because he would have gotten any alarms if it were in his inventory. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The rhythmic alarm, together with a blinking red light, signaled that the golems had found danger on the empty island. He had suspected as much, but not what the transmission was showing him right now. One moment, he had drowsily picked up the tablet to look at the screen, the next, he jumped out of the bed, scrambling over Fin and Mina. He did not spare the two ladies a glance as he left them behind in stupor after giving them a rough awakening.

Clad in his full Scorpio Set and half-awake, and tumbled on the deck, running to the bow of the ship, the closest part to the island, to see what the golems had warned about. The beach of the island was covered in a vast, squirming mass that also reached deep into the darkness of the forests behind. A mass of squirming bodies in the dark, that not just covered the beaches but reached into the water and even stretched a long, twitching tendril for the bow of the ship.

With his Sight of Theia, the dark and distance could not hide what this was. The mass looked like a swarm of bugs or ants. Small creatures, covered in shiny black carapaces. Their gnarly mandibles were hungrily opening and closing as they worked together and greedily reached out for their ship. He could almost read the greed in their faceted eyes. This was more than enough explanation for him.

If other scout teams had stopped on these "safe" islands to prepare for what they thought was the bigger danger, it was no wonder nobody came back. His hand suddenly gripped a familiar staff. As harsh as it sounded, Seth didn't care for the previous scout teams. He could even understand that these malicious devourers were probably just acting on pure instinct. Still, who the fuck did they think they were to try and reach for his ship? His very new(to him) and very expensive(for others) ship!

"Grains of wrath, seize and bind, Have their flesh in stone confined. In shifting sands, from desert's heart, Their crystal lives will break apart- Winds of Erosion!" Seth cast the full chant for the advanced desert magic and swung his Meteor Rod. The magic cast from the legendary staff summoned a raging sandstorm that easily covered the small island before them in a tide of sand and wind.

Although <Earth Magic> and <Desert Magic> were not Seth's forte, and he rarely got the chance to practice it, he did reach the point where he could cast advanced spells like this. He just couldn't shorten the spell to a single word. In the blowing wind, the horrifying tendril of crawling horrors was not broken apart, but struck back, flailing in the storm. As the black flood sought strength in their number and resisted being ripped apart, the spell unfurled its true power.

With all the additional Earth Affinity from his equipment and the increased Earth magic damage, it didn't take long for the black flood to develop a crystalline disease. Like mold, white blotches grew everywhere in the mass as the insect that made it up calcified, turning into stone. Seth had heard of the phrase "turn into a pillar of salt", but he never imagined it would look like this. It wasn't just the squirming black mass of monstrous beetles that were suffering the crystallization process.

Every plant and tree was also quickly petrifying. Then, for a short moment, everything had turned into crystals. The tendril of monsters, the black mass, the whole island had become a shining sculpture. The breathtaking image only persisted for a moment, not even a breath, then the winds started breaking everything down into grains of sand. Their crystal lives were breaking apart, joining the storm and helping to dissolve everything on the island into a desert.

When the storm finally subsided 10 minutes later, the island had become nothing more than a heap of loose sand and rock. The paradise, the crystalline landscape, all the beauty the island had shown prior was gone with the wind. Completely blown away. Seth swallowed; his mouth was a little dry, his eyes wandering back and forth between the staff and the island.

The blacksmith had chosen this method because he thought it would be less conspicuous than starting a massive fire or playing music in the middle of the night. Since this was his first time using this spell in earnest, after a long time of not using <Earth Magic> at all, the result was a little more than he had expected.... Still, it was probably better than starting a fire or singing a song. Until morning, nobody would notice, and by that time, they would already raid the main island.

Yeah, this was probably fine...