"January 11th, Year 435
"We have finally arrived. May the Mighty One bless us. As long as we retrieve the sacred artifact, I will be able to undergo the initiation ceremony and become the true servant of our holy lord!
This was the last entry in the diary. From the diary it was clear that the captain was a believer of the Fhtagn Church, and it was not difficult to guess that the Fhtagn Church had sent their own believers to the island before Charles to search for the sacred artifact.
After Charles instructed the crew to search the other ships, he found that the situations were similar on all the other vessels -he captains' diaries all recorded their last moments of excitement.
Just as Charles was getting confused about the situation, the chef, Freyr, handed him a diary.
"Captain, take a look at this. It's a bit different from the others," Freyr said.
Charles took the diary and opened it. His pupils immediately shrank to their smallest size as he saw that the mustard-colored diary was filled with jumbled words.
"Be careful! Don't go to the island, our people!! They are not human!! They want to eat us! I don't want to be! I want to go back! Th island! Safe!"
The jumbled phrases with different logics mixed together suggested that the person who wrote the diary had already lost their sanity. It sent a shiver down the spines of everyone who read it, and they all wondered what the captain had gone through.
"Gulp," Deep swallowed hard and cautiously looked around at his companions who he had been living with day in and day out. The diary indicated that the danger was coming from their own people, so did that mean that there were monsters lurking among them right now?
Charles knew what he was thinking and gave him a smack on the head with the diary. "Don't overthink it, we haven't even set foot on the island yet."
"Captain, arearre we still going?" Deep sounded hesitant in his tone.
"Of course we are." Charles' expression suddenly became resolute. No matter what dangers awaited them on that island, he couldn't let anything stand in his way of getting home. Even if it meant dying, he would rather die on the way home.
The Rat slowly approached the beach, and after the rusty anchor hit the water, the black smoke from the chimney slowly dissipated.
A wooden boat was lowered, and everyone headed tomoved towards the island together.
Seeing theAs they approached the increasingly gloomy island was getting closer and closer, Charles opened a wooden box and handed out some flintlock pistols and revolvers. At the bottom were tightly bundled packages of explosives.
He had specifically procuredsecured many things for this mission.
With weapons in hand, everyone became more composed.
Seven sturdy men armed with weapons jumped off the wooden boat and walked across the beach towards the forest in the distance.
While it wasThey called it a forest, but there wasn't a single green tree in sight. The gnarled branches seemed to be covered in a thick layer of rust, and every tree trunk appeared to have a tumor-like growth. Some areas bulged out in large lumps, while others suddenly caved in.
Walking through it gave the sense of walking through the inside of a human body.
The crew knew their mission objective was a golden Fhtagn statue, soand they constantly searched for anything shiny around them in the light of their torches, but they found nothing.
After walking for a while, a scattered set of footprints appeared on the ground. Seeing the footprints, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief. The footprints at least proved that other people had walked this path, making it somewhat safer.
PerhapsNot knowing whether their assumptions were correct or not, the group of seven peopleof them walked for nearly two hours without encountering any dangerany unusual occurrences.
When they gathered a pile of branches to set up and lit a campfire, the tense atmosphere eased slightly.
White bread was roasted over the fire and as the scent of charred bread filled the air, the crew ate it while speculating about what had happened to the missing people.
"Do you think monsters ate them? Like the things in the sea," one of them speculated.
"That's unlikely. Some of the people on those ships were from the Fhtagn Church, as you know. Creatures from the sea rarely attack them. I think there must be some danger on the island," another replied.
Charles did not join the discussion. He guarded and surveyed the surroundings. The strange forest was very peculiar. Aside from the sounds they brought with them, there were no other noises, not even the chirping of insects or the calls of birds.
It was very strange that there was no danger on the island. Charles found it very unusual because he had read many records of explorers, and there was not a single island in the world of Earthsea on land or sea that was safe.
Nowadays, the islands inhabited by humans wereare all occupied after the dangers were eliminated through efforts.
Just like the Coral Islands before, when humans first came into contact with the coral island, they discovered that the island was actually alive. More than twenty exploration ships formed a fleet and engaged in a fierce battle with the giant coral. It wasis said that many people died before they finally managed to kill it by piling things on top of it.
"EnoughEnoguh talk, finish your meal and so we can continue searching. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it becomes," he said.
Upon hearing Charles' words, the crew stopped chatting and began to hasten their eating pace to quickly regain their strength. After a brief break, Charles and his group resumed their journey.
"Captain, is it true that we will be getboarding a large ship when we return?" Deep leaned in and whispered.
"Yes." affirmed Charles
"That's great news! Then I can be like the other ship boatswains and manage a dozen sailors instead of having no sailors under my command like I do now," Deep said excitedly.
Charles glanced at the enthusiastic teenager and smiled. Youth was indeed a wonderful thing, always thinking positively and looking towards the bright side in everything.
However, it was's true that they should replenish their crew when they get back. It was a little unreasonable for the Rat to not even have a single sailor, even though it was's a small shipboat.
Charles and his group continued to move forward along the path, but it seemed endless, spreading out in front of them as if it had no end.
If it weren't for the sporadic footprints on the ground that kept changing, Charles would have thought that they were just walking around in circlesstanding still in one place.
After walking for nearly three hours, and whenwith their feet started to acheing, the forest suddenly cleared in front of them, and a brownish stone building entwined with vines appeared before their eyes.
The building appeared to be somewhat dilapidated from the outside, and it was difficult to tell if it was a temple or a church. The place where a wooden door should have been was now gone, leaving only a dark entrance.
Charles pulled overout Bandage and pointed solemnly at the entrance, asking, "Is that thing inside there?"
Bandage nodded hesitantly and said, "It should be...I'm not too sure...Sorry...my memory is not very good..."
Charles nodded, regardless of whether it was there or not, he decided to go in and take a look. After all, the footprints on the ground led to the entrance, and there were no signs of danger. Besides, he had four men in his group.
He turned to his second engineer and chef and said, "Let's go in, the four of us will go in and and take a look."
James and Freyr nodded in agreement, and followed Charles as he strode into the building.
The light of the torches illuminated the interior of the building. In contrast to the dilapidated exterior, the inside appeared very clean and spacious. The smooth red floor had not a speck of dust on it, but the objects on the walls made those who entered feel uneasy.
The walls were covered in all kinds of bizarre reliefs, with layer upon layer of twisted and intertwined monstrous creatures that were beyond human imagination.
It looked like a cross between a starfish and an octopus, with bizarre bodies intertwined and a single eye set in the center.
As they looked closer, they saw that the figures were in various poses of worship or supplication, with some of them holding offerings or objects that were difficult to identify. They seemed to be worshipping something that was not visible to the human eye.
But these strange reliefs did not catch the attention of the three men too much. Everyone's gaze was focused on the golden statue in the center, a humanoid statue covered in tentacles, which was the god Fhtagn.
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