Shrouded Seascape

Charles stared at the content of the letter for a very long while before he finally folded it and stuffed it back into Bandages' hands.

"I know the situation is not looking great down there, but that's reason for us to be more cautious. If anything were to happen to you, it would make our exploration even harder. You're the First Mate of the Narwhale, after all."

Bandages silently tucked the letter away into his coat pocket. "Captain… do you think… we can… retrieve… the darkness?"

"We definitely will! No qualms about it! We're already working together with the Foundation, and they have the means to capture the darkness. Now, all we have to do is find the boundary, and then we can definitely bring the darkness back home!!" Charles declared in a firm tone laced with unwavering certainty As the captain, he had to display absolute resolve and remain clear of his goals. If he showed even the slightest hint of hesitation, the entire ship's morale would plummet.

Giving Bandages a reassuring pat on the shoulder, Charles turned around to leave.

Hooonk!

A piercing steam whistle abruptly blared.

Charles halted in his tracks and immediately jumped toward the nearest window. The whistle was out of place—it wasn't coming from the Narwhale!

Dangling upside down form the underside of the Narwhale, Charles immediately spotted a white exploration ship approaching them from the right. Looking at the markings on the gas balloons, it was one of their previously dispatched exploration ships.

Upon arriving at the bridge, he saw Second Mate Nico using binoculars to observe the approaching ship. "Captain~ those guys are using flag semaphore and seem to be signaling for help."

"What kind of help? If it's nothing major, let them handle it themselves."

In such a treacherous area, Charles didn't want to interact with a ship of unknown origin. Who knew if the other ship had been compromised and had been taken over by some strange and unidentified entity?

"Hmm… it seems like they have a freshwater problem. Their water supply is apparently undrinkable. It's not a straightforward issue that can be signaled via flag semaphore. We'd need to talk to them face-to-face to understand their full situation," Nico replied.

Charles pondered for a moment as he watched the ship gradually closing the distance between them. Eventually, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his future-predicting diary. He quickly flipped to the latest entry.

Seeing that there was no mention of any imminent danger, Charles then instructed the Narwhale to approach the other ship slowly.

The diary proved its worthiness in crucial times, especially one like their current situation.

"No big deal; they are just regular explorers. Let's move closer and have a look," Charles remarked.

Nico glanced at Charles' diary, a trace of envy surfacing on his countenance. "Captain, why didn't you use that handy relic earlier?"

"Because of its unpredictability. I don't know if the diary predicts the future or creates it. And its side effects haven't been fully analyzed, so I don't trust it completely."

Soon, the exploration ship that was slightly larger than the Narwhale halted nearby. Due to the short distance, Charles could finally make out the crew members on board.

To his surprise, he saw two towering Haikors standing on the deck. Their pale lips were a clear indication of dehydration.

"What happened to your water tanks?! What did you encounter?!" Charles hollered over to the other ship.

A booming voice from one of the Haikors echoed. "We found a white sphere dotted with many holes! The moment we steered our ship into one of its holes, our freshwater was contaminated! Captain, we don't need much water, just enough for the return trip!"

A white sphere with holes? Charles scanned the imagery of the map in his mind, but he couldn't record any relevant markings.

After pondering for a short moment, he turned to Dipp and passed him instructions. Soon enough, the sailors of the Narwhale began hauling barrels of fresh water onto the deck.

Charles didn't want to have any direct contact with them; after all, it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble. As such, he commanded the strong Norton to toss the barrels over to the other ship.

The barrels of fresh water were opened up. However, despite being parched and desperate, the Haikors didn't drink the water and had called out to someone inside their cabins.

A few moments later, two creatures that looked like lizards with disjointed limbs emerged from the cabins. They shoved their trumpet-like mouths into the barrels and drank greedily.

"Why did those big guys bring those creatures out too on an exploration mission?" Dipp scratched the scales on his neck in confusion.

Charles eyed the bizarre form of the Apostles and answered, "They probably serve a purpose, though I have no idea what it is. Don't dwell too much on it. Norton, throw a few more barrels over, and then we're leaving."

Click, click, click!

Norton parted his menacing jaws and his teeth clattered in understanding before he effortlessly heaved several more barrels of water across the gap to the other ship.

After a brief exchange with the Haikors, the Narwhale continued her way. When the other ship eventually faded into the darkness, Charles felt a strange sense of astonishment. Truth be told, it had been a long time since they had encountered something that wasn't a direct threat.

Back at the bridge, Charles picked up the map and compared it against the Haikors' description of the white sphere's location. However, there was no marking of any objects on those coordinates.

"Did the Foundation forget to mark it, or did this white sphere drift here afterward?" Charles muttered to himself.

He contemplated for a moment before turning to instruct Dipp at the helm, "Let's head over and take a look from a distance. If it seems safe, we'll mark it as a new coordinate."

In this vast emptiness of the sky, it was better to have as many reference points as possible to avoid getting lost.

Days flew past, and finally, Charles saw the so-called white sphere.

It seemed to resemble a skull, but not exactly. After all, no skull would glow with a gentle moonlight radiance.

Seeing the sphere from a distance, it appeared no larger than a ping pong ball. However, when Bandages measured it with a ruler and scaled it accordingly, he reported to Charles that the sphere was actually as large as an island.

Charles pulled out a pen and after carefully measuring and comparing, he marked a dot on the map and indicated the location of the sphere.

"Let's move on," Charles instructed.

"Mr. Charles, are we not going up there?" Lily asked as she stood on Charles' shoulder, her voice laced with curiosity.

"What for? We're not here to explore islands. Even if we need to secure it as a waypoint, that's a job for other explorers. Don't be in a daze. Let's keep advancing. We're almost reaching the furthest end the Foundation had explored. Our mission now is to find the boundary of the darkness as soon as we can."

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the white sphere gradually disappeared into the darkness. Charles thought for a moment before pulling out his diary.

He wanted to know the identity of that white sphere. However, much to his surprise, there was nothing about it written in the diary.

It seemed that his relicfied diary had its limitations. Still, the fact that the diary couldn't detect the sphere or figure out its true identity suggested that it was not an entity to be trifled with. The diary's anomaly instilled a sense of unease in Charles. After remaining on high alert for several days and yet not running into any danger, however, he finally began to relax.