Treasure Hunting System： The Ocean Conquerer

They landed from the port, and, with the mirror surface in front of their eyes, they instantly spotted a large building on the far coast, looking like a warehouse.

"That must be the shipyard, right?"

Buildings like a shipyard are usually pretty obvious; of course, it's possible it really is just a warehouse.

Chadite turned and nodded, "That should be it. Let's go have a look."

The port where they landed hadn't a single ship left, not even a small boat in sight.

And likewise, no skeletons seen anywhere along the way.

After all, when the magic power outburst happened, all the residents here evacuated in time. No casualties, plus this place is on the outer edge.

Accordingly, it's hard to find anything valuable in a place like this. People took their things with them when they left.

At best, there's a chance to earn some hard money, picking up big items people didn't have time to take in their rush to escape.

This is the usual way ordinary folks surviving in the Realm of Pitch Darkness make money.

Anyone with a bit more skill, or larger teams, would generally go exploring deeper inside.

After all these years, most of the outer islands have already been picked clean.

Thinking of this, Alka slapped his forehead and turned his head to ask, "This island is on the outskirts—would there really still be usable ships left in the shipyard?"

Hearing this, Chadite froze, and Pororo next to them also scratched his head, looking confused.

Right.

They had overlooked a pretty serious problem.

Chadite frowned, thinking, as if recalling something.

"No, there should still be some abandoned ships. I heard from Grandpa Hibroke that when their ancestors left, their family's earliest spell ship prototype was left on the island, hidden away by them."

"And he also said, there were just too many leftover ships here. On the island, you either have shipwrights and designers, or workers and their families."

Hearing Chadite say this, Alka nodded. That does make sense, and besides, they have nowhere else left to search. Looking for a chance on an island with the most ships is way better than anywhere else.

"If it really comes to it, we'll try to find that ship Grandpa Hibroke's ancestors hid. It should still be here, no one else found it.

If they did, it'd be impossible for them not to know."

"After all these years, didn't they ever think of coming back for it?" Alka asked curiously.

Normally, people would want to recover their ancestors' treasures—doesn't have to be for wealth alone.

And it's their own family; ancestors would definitely have left clues.

Chadite shook her head, "They never came to search. The outskirts of the Realm of Pitch Darkness are only safe now because, over the last decades, the outer dark forces started to recede."

"And with the Church's help, they've been able to make perfect spell ships for over 200 years now. The stored knowledge is outdated for them and meaningless."

Hearing this, Alka nodded.

It's not that they didn't want to, but wasting that energy would be pointless. Just a waste of time.

Chatting, the two of them and Pororo arrived at the shipyard not far from the port.

Both Alka and Chadite had dark vision.

Alka had also prepared a dark vision card for Pororo, but he said he didn't need it—maybe it's a racial thing, since no one's heard of the Sang Kaka people having dark vision before.

Using dark vision, they got a clear view of the inside of the shipyard.

Many of the original tools, made of metal, had already rotted and snapped, and the huge iron suspension arms were also long broken.

The broken piece had crashed down into the half-finished ship below, smashing the already rotten keel in two.

The timber for shipbuilding—even though it had been treated—hadn't gotten through the final step, and now was all rotted and piled everywhere.

No matter how good your preservation techniques are, you can't fight time itself.

Chadite shook her head regretfully, "There's nothing here."

The group had no choice but to leave the shipyard.

"Let's walk once around the island and see if there are any ships left behind."

Hearing Alka's suggestion, Chadite nodded.

After thinking a moment, Alka added, "While you're looking for ships, pay attention to the terrain here and draw a simple map later.

I'll need the map to analyze and make our final fallback plan."

Hearing Alka, Chadite turned her head, and though she didn't really know what he was planning, she nodded anyway.

It wasn't any trouble for her.

"No problem."

With that, circles of silvery waves rippled out under Chadite's feet, spreading along the ground in all directions.

Soon, they burrowed into the earth and disappeared from sight.

This was Chadite's scanning ability, which let her rapidly memorize the surrounding terrain in her mind.

This gave her clear mental data for more accurate map-making later.

The scanning waves Chadite used were different from ordinary spells.

They came from a more advanced use of spells; Alka knew only a little about it. This kind was something Chadite had comprehended herself when she became a Toucher.

[Wave Light]—for this spell, Alka only knew the name; Chadite had never explained the details.

Since it was self-comprehended from the source, there were naturally no records of this spell.

After walking for a while along the coast, Alka finally understood why this island had become a specialized shipbuilding island.

Besides the huge port up ahead, it was because most areas here were perfect natural harbors.

Too bad these harbors were still flawed; the island's location wasn't exactly on a safe sea route.

If conditions allowed, you could probably turn the whole coastline of this island into one long port without any issues at all.

As they walked, they saw piles upon piles of every kind of shipbuilding timber and tools.

They even spotted more than one shipyard.

But inside them were mostly unfinished ships, rotted away by time.

"There, look—is that a complete ship over there?"

Pororo suddenly looked toward a pile of rubble in the distance, where the stern of a ship stuck out.

The group hurried over.

And the closer they got, the more excited they became.

The entire ship came into view before them.

It was a three-masted ship, but only about twenty meters long—a small vessel.

Still, even managing this size would be tough for just the two of them.

Luckily, they were Touchers, so at least they had decent strength. They could try it.

Judging by where it was, the ship must have been prepared to launch. There was another shipyard nearby, and tools for towing a ship beside it.

The tools were scattered all around, letting them piece together what had happened here.

When the darkness erupted, this ship was just about to be launched. As danger struck, everyone working here must've bolted.

"Let's not get excited just yet. I have to check if this ship is still usable after all these years."

As Chadite spoke, she walked over to the ship.

The group circled around the bottom of the hull.

They didn't find any obvious damaged or weak spots,

The three climbed onto the deck and entered the cabin.

The cabin was split into two by a deck, empty inside, with barely anything stored.

After looking it over for a while, they reached the hold.

"Sigh."

As soon as she entered, Chadite immediately saw something wrong and couldn't help but sigh.

She went over and touched it, and even Alka—not a shipbuilder by any means—could spot the problem: a huge crack ran through the ship's keel.

Which meant the whole ship could split at sea at any time, with other cracks inside as well.

Even if it had been new at the time, left for centuries with no maintenance, time alone had caused all sorts of issues.

"There are issues with this ship, but we should still be able to try a sea test. We really don't have a better choice."

Chadite said.

Though she said that, this ship truly wasn't much good for escaping.

But they had no other choice right now.

"Let's look around the island a bit more. If there's really no better solution, we'll use this one."

Faced with Alka's proposal, Chadite nodded without any objection.

"If it's just about escaping a pursuit, I can carry you two myself, no problem," Pororo said beside them.

It sounded like the two were worried about the ship falling apart, but with him, even if the ship sank, it wouldn't be a huge deal.

No worse than their last few days of sea travel—it'd just be rougher for a bit.

That was a bit more reassuring.

The group continued wandering around the island. Though it was a designated shipbuilding island, it wasn't very big.

After spending the better part of half a day, they'd searched the island top to bottom, and really hadn't found anything useful.

They found quite a few ships, but all even more battered than that one—usually with holes in the keel or hull, plus they only had two people.

Ship repair just wasn't one of their skills, and they didn't have intact materials here either.

Once again, the group returned to the port, and Chadite said, "Looks like we'll have to try that ship after all."

Just then, Alka rubbed his chin and said, "How about you draw a map of this island first?"

Didn't Chadite mention, when they landed, that this island had an experimental spell ship hidden away by Hibroke's ancestor?

Maybe it was just an old man's childhood story to make Chadite happy—

But it's worth a try now.

If there really is a spell ship, it might have survived hundreds of years.

And they'd also have a better shot at escaping his father on the sea.

After all, as a Prayer for the Dead with a treasure, he also had a spell ship.

And spell ships totally outclass ordinary ones—let alone with just Alka and Chadite, and maybe Pororo, to run a normal ship.

Plus the huge risk of disaster, it could fall apart at any moment.

But seeing Pororo, he obviously hadn't ridden in human ships much—his help would be very limited.

Hearing Alka, Chadite had no choice but to duck into a half-collapsed hut nearby, squat beside a flat stone, and pull out some simple drawing tools—she always kept them in her ring.

"Why are you so set on maps, anyway?" she grumbled, but her hands never stopped moving.

"A rough one is enough?"

Hearing Chadite's question, Alka nodded.

"A rough one's fine, just mark the locations, doesn't have to be super detailed. Of course, if you can be more detailed and it's not too much trouble, that's great too."

Chadite didn't say anything else at that and began drawing in earnest.

Alka sat quietly by the side, waiting.

Peeking at Chadite's map now and then, he blinked his eyes.

He wanted to see what stage a map had to reach before it could count as a map and be useful to him.