Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zheng Yang slowly made his way to the hold. The closer he drew near it, the more stifled he felt, as if some extremely terrifying eldritch entity were lying in wait, ready to pounce on him.
The hold-like structures were like mountains, with multiple layers and stories. Each story was like a block, its corridors as wide as city roads and so long that he couldn’t see where they ended. However, with the exception of a handful of lamps flickering like wisps, and the eerie sight of the strips of decayed, tattered canvas hanging on the square masts like beacons to the dead, he couldn’t detect any signs of life.
When he was about 20 meters away from the first “corner of the street” on the first level, he could no longer move forward—not even an inch. The first level alone was about 10 meters in height, and what lay ahead somehow made him stop in his tracks, as if it were telling him that he was about to run into something really, really nasty if he got any closer. He felt as if he were facing off against some invisible wall that prevented him from even taking one more step closer.
Swoosh.
Suddenly, there was the gentle sound of sloshing water, and then of looming footsteps heading his way.
Things were foggy about eight meters away from where he stood, with both the sound of the sloshing water and the footsteps coming from within that misty place. The mist quickly dissipated as the footsteps grew closer, and the mist eventually dispersed entirely, leaving only a shark monster with arms and legs.
The monster was far larger than the fish monster he’d killed last time. It was over four meters tall and was carrying a bone spear that was just about the same height. The monster looked extremely rotten, and the stench was unbearable. Worse still, very long maggots were dangling from it like dancing hairs.
Zheng Yang felt his stomach twist at the sight, and he once again swore that he would never eat fish again.
The shark monster was oblivious to Zheng Yang, who was standing close behind it. As soon as it appeared, the monster took great strides into the “streets” as it headed toward the hold.
Zheng Yang kept his eyes locked on the shark monster.
Woooo.
The tattered strips of fabric above the “streets” were blowing in the eerie wind.
Zheng Yang noticed something flicker in front of him, but he was unable to see what was happening. He was only able to tell that the door to the first room in the “street” had opened all of a sudden, and that the shark monster was swallowed by something behind the door.
That door shut with a loud bang, and he could vaguely hear biting and chewing noises coming from inside the room.
“Holy sh**!”
Zheng Yang gulped and instinctively began to retreat. But suddenly, he froze and turned around slowly…
Something was standing about three meters behind him. It had come out of nowhere, not making any noise. He took a good look and found that it was a person wearing tattered sailor garb. Its skin was pale and bruised, and it was mostly rotted, just like that fish monster from before. One of its eyeballs was hanging out of its socket, and it was eerily staring at Zheng Yang.
Zheng Yang immediately shivered. He wondered just how that thing had gotten behind him. If it hadn’t been for the warning from his spirit vessel, he would have probably kept retreating until he bumped right into that sailor monster.
Zzzzz.
The sailor monster stuck its right arm into its stomach and pulled slowly, drawing out a straight blade that was about a meter long.
Zheng Yang was dumbfounded.
“Wait, what?” he thought. “You can actually hide a blade in your guts?”
After seeing that the sailer monster had yet to finish pulling its blade out completely, he decided to make the first move. He transferred some spirit power to himself and charged at the monster, chopping down with his machete. He knew how to make use of the boost the spirit power provided him, and his movements had such finesse and power that his combat prowess was undoubtedly far higher than it was before.
However, the sailor monster was far from a weakling. As soon as Zheng Yang charged towards it, it finished drawing its blade and spun around, moving its blade from its lower left to its upper right in a diagonal slash.
Clang!
Both blades clashed. Zheng Yang retreated two steps back while the sailor monster retreated one step back. Both of them looked more or less equal in terms of combat prowess.
Zheng Yang clenched his teeth, his hand holding the blade aching. He went on to grip his blade with both hands and charged yet again, using the only move he knew—the downward chop—yet again.
Clang… clang… clang…
He was finally able to gain the upper hand against the sailor monster, eventually chopping off its head—but at the cost of being cut down the middle.
Huff.
He let out a long breath. He continued to grip the blade with his right hand, while he used his left to press against his midsection and keep his intestines from spilling out. His face ashen, he watched as the sailor monster and its blade dissipated into mist, leaving behind only a blot of white light, which then shot into his forehead.
He knew that the light contained the sailor monster’s memories of using its blade, so he didn’t bother to evade the light rushing into him. In truth, he wouldn’t have been able to evade it anyway. However, he took his last lesson to heart and, instead of touching the memory right away, he looked around cautiously, waiting for the dream to end.
Over a dozen minutes passed, and thick mist appeared around him again. He felt dizzy all of a sudden and left the dream behind.
…
He slept until noon. After he woke up, he had a hearty lunch and then went to collect yet another bucket of gum before packing up to flee… no, to venture outside.
Zheng Yang was getting ready to put all his luggage onto his boat and then head out to the back of the island that night to cut down more trees. For the time being, he planned to add a cabin tomorrow night and then leave the remote island the day after that.
He deemed it imperative to bring all the essentials with him, as he had no idea when he would return. As for all the money he owed Hans, he would only be able to pay him back after he came back to the island sometime in the future.
Then, there were clothes, sheets, food, a toolbox, a medical kit, a backpack, a small box of books that Little Zheng Yang’s father had left behind, a mini portable wood stove and a pot, as well as the seasonings and kitchen utensils. He placed them all in the compound.
After carrying out these tasks, he summoned his spirit vessel as midnight approached, steadying the boat with several bricks. Fortunately, his compound was large enough to accommodate—if only barely—that five-meter-long vessel of his.
Putting away and taking out the boat cost him 30 spirit power points this time, which indicated that the vessel would consume more spirit power the larger it was. He put everything other than whatever he was carrying in his backpack onto the boat, storing it all in the compartments below deck. Then, he filled the freshwater tank with more or less a cubic meter of freshwater before putting the sails down and letting the boat recharge so he could easily transport it tomorrow.
The boat’s spirit power reserve was recharged to its full 100 points by around two in the morning. Only then did Zheng Yang put the boat away in the pocket space.
The pocket space was a rather mystical thing on its own. He couldn’t store anything other than the spirit vessel inside it. However, so long as the items were in the boat, he could put them in as well. Of course, if he needed any of those items, he would have to summon his boat out of the pocket space in order to get them. The pocket space would reject any living creature on the boat, as they were strictly forbidden from entering the space.
Zheng Yang slung his backpack onto his back and arrived at the back of the island at noon the next day. Along the way, he chopped a bamboo cane that was about five meters long so he could use it to pull his boat close when approaching the shore. After cutting down over a dozen lanky trees—the same kind he’d used for his boat—he also picked a thin strip of bamboo for a fishing rod, along with some dried twigs and weed for firewood.
He did his best to take into consideration everything he would possibly need for the trip, making sure to bring enough supplies to at least last him seven to 10 days at sea. He didn’t have enough firewood or food to stay out at sea any longer than that. The nearest port was the English Harbor, which was 65 nautical miles to the east. If the wind was with him and he boosted the spirit vessel’s speed with spirit power, he would actually be able to reach the English Harbor in less than a day.
However, he knew that this could only happen under ideal conditions. A sailboat’s speed was extremely unpredictable, as it depended on the speed and direction of the wind. If the winds were against him, he would have to move in a zigzag pattern, and that would make the journey considerably longer. If he was unlucky and veered off-course, he probably wouldn’t be able to reach the harbor, even if he were to spend about half a month at sea.
There was also the option of chucking his boat away and taking a ride on one of the fishing boats to the ports, but the fishing boats in his village hardly even went there once a month. After all, they usually sold their catch along the way to the massive ships owned by the marine product companies.
Furthermore, he would actually like to challenge himself and try to take the trip on his own, driving his sailboat and treading the waters.
“How am I gonna take on the sea if I can’t even take on this bit of challenge?” he thought. “How am I gonna take on the curse if I’m afraid of everything?
Some people are naturally hard on themselves. They take on risks and push themselves to do better, constantly challenging themselves. Zheng Yang strived to be more like that.
After packing up two bundles of firewood, Zheng Yang rested on a rock and activated the information page to check if there was anything that could be improved in his cabin designs.
According to his designs, the cabin would be placed in the center of the boat, near the stern. It would be 2.5 meters long, two meters wide, 1.8 meters high, and would have a flat roof. A space of 1.5 square meters at the bow was reserved for the deck, while a space of one square meter at the stern was reserved for an open-air shade.
The mast would be increased to 1.8 meters once the cabin was added in order to fulfill the sailboat’s needs.
The cabin would be made completely out of wood and would be covered by the magic formation, just like the rest of the boat, plus a layer of natural gum, which would prevent corrosion from the elements.
The door and windows of the cabin would also be made out of wood since he had no glass to spare, and he would install slanted vents outside the windows.
He looked at the supposed finished boat and found it to be a little too small still, so he modified the hull, lengthening it by a meter and adding half a meter to its width.
“Now, that looks a lot better,” he thought.
After he finished altering his plans, surprisingly, the information page told him that he couldn’t make the boat any larger, since the magical formation had reached the maximum coverage limit for a level one spirit vessel.
“Since there’s level one,” he thought, “there should be level two and level three, then. So, all I need to do is find out ways to upgrade it, then… by the way, is that to say that the limitations were due to inadequate coverage by the magic formation? And that a spirit vessel’s level is determined by its magic formation? If so, how should I go about upgrading the magic formation, then?
As he mulled over these questions, the moon rose high in the sky. He had deliberately waited for nightfall before doing his modifications. Besides gaining the auxiliary power source in the form of moonlight, modifying his boat at night would prevent the people from the village from seeing what was going on.
“The moon is probably at its fullest tonight,” he thought. “It’s gonna wane starting tomorrow night.”
This time, he didn’t wait for the tide to rise, as he’d already tied up the logs with vines and hauled them to the seaside. Instead, he went ahead and pushed the logs into the water and supported them using bamboo.
The sunken ship saw its most devious thief yet again.
Zheng Yang summoned his boat and gave the order to begin modifications. As the magic formation absorbed the logs off to the side and the metals in the tip of the wreckage, his boat began to lengthen and widen, and a hold slowly started to materialize in the silvery light near the stern.
“Without taking into consideration the part at the front capable of being stowed away,” Zheng Yang thought, “the vessel is now six meters long and 2.5 meters wide at the widest part, making it even bigger than Hans’ fishing boat. I guess since the boat is being upsized and refined, the mast should have an effective height of eight meters, no? If I took this thing to the canals, I probably wouldn’t be able to get under some of the bridges then, eh?”
Because the keel was integrated with the stabilizer, and because it was reinforced with steel, the mast’s center of gravity was extremely low. With the addition of both the fish hold and the freshwater storage tank weighing the boat down as well, the sailboat was effectively as stable as a Chinese tumbler doll. As such, the mast could be made taller than the vessel’s length and not cause the vessel to capsize.
The modified cabin was three meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 1.8 meters tall. The deck at the bow was two meters long, while the deck at the stern was a 1×2 meter area covered with a shade, with said shade being 2.2 meters tall, making it 40 centimeters taller than the cabin.
The cabin being three meters long made it so that even if a bathroom were placed near the rear door, the cabin itself would still be spacious enough.