NOVEL NEXT Chapter 115 Tracking
Lucilia's body gradually appeared, materializing in front of Chadite. Suspended in mid-air, she lifted the hem of her skirt and curtsied.
"Hello, Chadite. I'm Alka's friend. You can call me Lucilia."
Chadite looked at the ghost-like girl before her, who appeared as real as a living person. Her face was delicate, and her emerald-green hair and long, pointed ears clearly distinguished her from ordinary people. Chadite glanced at Alka beside her. Seeing Alka nod, she came to her senses and also curtsied.
"She's an ancient soul I found residing in a Magic Mirror on Meister Island. For certain reasons, she must accompany me," Alka explained.
Chadite looked at Lucilia, then couldn't help but ask Alka, "Is that why you often talk to yourself?"
"Talk to myself?" Alka repeated, puzzled.
Chadite nodded. "Liboka told us. She said she always saw you on the way to the library, and inside it, talking to yourself as if you were speaking to someone."
Hearing this, Alka awkwardly scratched his cheek. So that's how others saw him. Sometimes, when people on the ship were far away or not paying close attention, he would quietly respond to Lucilia's questions. Unless absolutely necessary, Alka rarely acted as if he were ignoring Lucilia, even though doing so was often essential.
Then he turned back to Lucilia. "Why did you suddenly decide to show yourself?" he asked. This puzzled Alka; he had spoken to Lucilia about it before, but she hadn't been ready.
"Don't let yourself regret it," Lucilia said. "I had only just prepared myself, figuring out how I would make friends with the people on the ship through Alka's introduction. But then... sometimes opportunities don't wait."
Hearing this, Alka fell silent. Indeed...
"Let's get back to business," Alka said, turning to Lucilia. "When I encountered my father earlier, did you notice anything unusual about me?"
Lucilia then added, "Generally, methods that track someone by bloodline give the tracked person some awareness. There's no perfect method, unless a Treasure is used."
Hearing Lucilia, Alka frowned in thought and extended his left arm. He raised it in front of them. "Just a few minutes before the Pirate Gang appeared, my arm was hot," he said. "Moreover, this chain tattoo on my forearm wasn't something I got. It appeared on its own after I became a Toucher."
Hearing Alka, Chadite and Lucilia tilted their heads, closely inspecting the chain tattoo on his arm. It looked no different from a regular chain, except that the section near his wrist was broken, showing a very distinct gap.
Lucilia shook her head. "I don't know what this chain tattoo represents or its significance, but your arm heating up could very well be related to him tracking you. There are two possibilities for the heat: one, he's tracking you via bloodline; two, he has completed a tracking ritual, and your arm heats up when he gets close to you."
Alka began to think rapidly. My arm heated up, and not long after, the enemy appeared. That clearly indicates the heating wasn't the tracking process itself, but a proximity alert. In other words, my arm heating up suggests Father isn't far away. Based on the distance we estimated when we saw the Pirate Ship, the arm heating might signify he's within a three to five-kilometer radius. That's far from a safe distance, especially considering Father's unknown strength and the fact he possesses a Treasure. I have no idea how strong someone with a Treasure is; I've never seen one in action, and neither has anyone else on the ship. There's no reference point.
He voiced his thoughts. Both Lucilia and Chadite nodded in agreement; his reasoning seemed sound.
Chadite looked around. "Our most urgent task now should be finding a way to set sail," she said. They were still being chased, and without a ship, they were trapped on this island, just waiting for the enemy to arrive and capture them alive.
Alka nodded. "Right. We need to see if this island offers any means of escape."
As Alka and Chadite began discussing their plans, Lucilia slipped back into the Magic Mirror in Alka's chest. Chadite watched this, a slightly strange feeling washing over her, and she couldn't help but shake her head.
"Let's go," Alka said. "First, let's see where we've washed ashore." He controlled the Magic Lantern, making it float ahead to illuminate their path.
Judging by the beach they had washed onto, the island didn't seem large. Just a typical deserted island, Alka thought.
Alka looked at the rows of coconut trees lining the edge of the beach, scattered haphazardly. He reached out and tapped one of the trunks. Two coconuts fell. Alka caught them deftly and handed one to Chadite. He then pried open his coconut and began to rehydrate. Still, neither of them stopped walking.
"The current Sang Kaka created to carry us away—do you think he intentionally controlled its direction, or was it random?" Alka asked.
Hearing his question, Chadite shook her head. She didn't know either.
Besides exploring the small island, they also needed to determine their current location to get their bearings. After all, they still had the detailed map of the Realm of Pitch Darkness, which would be their most crucial tool right now.
They arrived at a small grove in the middle of the island. Alka used a piece of mirror to create a makeshift searchlight, sweeping its beam across the surroundings.
"This island is tiny; it must be deserted," Alka commented. Judging by the central grove and the surrounding green area, one could roughly estimate that the island was indeed pitifully small.
Chadite nodded. "Let's first look for any abandoned ships or anything else that can help us sail. If we can't find anything, we'll have to make a raft."
They proceeded straight, planning to first cut through the island's center and then circle its perimeter.
"Wait," Alka said suddenly. Chadite immediately tensed, becoming alert.
Alka slowly squatted down, looking at a spot on the side of a nearby tree trunk. He reached out, rubbed it with his fingers, and then sniffed them.
"This is the smell of blood, and it's very fresh," Alka stated.
"Could it be animal blood?" Chadite asked, remaining vigilant, her head not turning as she scanned their surroundings.
"It's possible, but we still need to be cautious," Alka replied. Though, an island this small is unlikely to support large animals; it'd be remarkable if it even had many insects. Not to mention, this is the Realm of Pitch Darkness.
It's strange, though, Alka mused. The closer one gets to the periphery of the Realm, the more normal the plants and environment seem to become. Theoretically, plants shouldn't be able to survive in such a dark region.
Alka expanded the range of the light from the Magic Lantern and took out two white cards. The backs of these cards weren't pure white but had faint black patterns, while the front of each depicted a black eye. Alka handed one to Chadite.
She took it, looked at it with confusion, and asked, "What is this?"
"Let me show you," Alka said. He injected a trace of Magic Power into the card in his hand, and it immediately disintegrated, reforming into a curved, elongated mirror that floated in front of his eyes under his control.
Watching Alka, Chadite imitated his actions. Similarly, a curved mirror emerged and floated before her.
Looking through it, Chadite found the mirror was transparent; it didn't reflect her image. Peering through the mirror, the surrounding darkness was completely dispelled. Although it didn't look like daytime, she could see everything very clearly.
Chadite couldn't resist lifting the mirror away from her eyes. With her naked eye, she saw that the darkness still surrounded them in the distance.
"Dark Vision?" Chadite asked.
Alka nodded. "This card is the product of fusing the Mirror Spell with the Dark Vision Spell."
"If you use Dark Vision directly, it consumes too much Magic Power to maintain constantly. Any mishap could easily put you at a disadvantage," Alka explained. "With this card, the Magic Power consumption is negligible. You just need to expend a tiny amount to control the mirror in front of your eyes."
Although the mirror created through fusion was more cumbersome than directly using the Dark Vision Spell, the mirror manufactured via the card method didn't require one's own Magic Power to maintain. One only needed to use Magic Power for control, greatly reducing consumption and increasing the duration it could be used. The major Magic Power expenditure was in the card's creation, a cost already paid.
This could be considered a perfect fusion, Alka thought.
Hearing his explanation, Chadite nodded. "This is really convenient. It seems the Mirror Spell you comprehended truly has substantial potential."
Like Alka, she too had comprehended an exclusive spell upon her 'contact,' so she quickly surmised this must be Alka's own development of his Mirror Spell.
Thus, they began to observe their surroundings through their [Bright Mirror]s. Alka dimmed the Magic Lantern floating beside them to its lowest setting, just enough to illuminate their immediate vicinity. This was mainly to dispel the immediate darkness, preventing accelerated erosion by the darkness in absolute blackness. Now that they were trapped in the Realm of Pitch Darkness and wouldn't be getting out anytime soon, this was something they had to constantly keep in mind.
They walked through the grove and reached the other side—still a beach. The island was so small that its entire perimeter was beach.
"What's that? A wrecked ship?" Alka exclaimed. He had immediately spotted a wrecked ship on the beach, but from its appearance, it was definitely unusable. It was broken in half; only the bow lay on the beach, with part of it still submerged in the sea. Judging by its condition, the ship must have sunk near this island long ago and been washed ashore by the waves.
They hurried over. Before they reached it, Alka pulled Chadite back a few steps.
"Someone's there!"
Alka had seen fish bones near the broken part of the ship, with some scraps of flesh still clinging to them. Additionally, he'd spotted what looked like footprints in a corner.
Alka drew his Locking Device. Ready to attack at any moment, they slowly moved closer. This time, however, it was Chadite who pulled Alka back.
She lightly tapped the ground with her foot. A faint, colored ripple spread into the earth beneath them. Only then did she nod.
When they reached the wreck, they indeed saw no one, nor any immediate signs of life. But looking inside, they could clearly see evidence that someone had been living there.
Inside the broken hull, a makeshift frame held rows of sliced fish meat, hung up to dry.