Angor headed to the ships while wondering if Lucas was referring to these ships by saying “treasure”. This was very likely since there were no other spots on this dead island that could be used for keeping treasures.
He moved closer and realized that there were way more ships than he expected, and they were all in different conditions. Some of them did not have obvious damage at all—they could set sail just fine if not for the fact that they were trapped in the cramped space.
At first, he went to a stranded and somewhat broken ship called “The Winter Hunter”, which could be seen since this name was painted on the side of it. It had a fierce-looking octopus as its figurehead.
He walked on the ship’s deck for a few steps and accidentally created a hole in the floor. He then floated around and failed to find anything on the ship. Not even dead bodies. It was as if the ship was just pulled out of assembly and had yet to experience its first journey.
The next few ships nearby all looked similar. No bodies, no cargo. In fact, Angor could see some traces that suggested someone—probably the crews—moving the goods away for some reason.
Although the exact destination of the goods remained to be found out.
After searching around a dozen more ships to no avail, he managed to find some “leftover” on a ship called The Hosen Blues. It was another logbook.
The author didn’t leave his name on the book, but from the entries, Angor could tell that this one was written by an amateur navigator who newly joined the crew.
The logs described how The Hosen Blues came here in good detail.
[It’s the 2nd day of the Month of Repose, when Hosen Blues successfully reached Gearwheel Grave. My mentor told our captain that it is too dangerous to travel across this place at such a time, but that Baron Parva... that filthy fat a*s! He insisted on taking this path just to reunite with his girl sooner. Oh God blesses us... hope everything will be fine.]
[Emergency! Our ship lost directions in this mist and arrived at... wherever this is! The sea is... is dead! There are so many ships around us! If what I’m guessing is right, this must be the Ship’s Grave, the rumored resting place of all missing vessels. So this is where they have been!]
[The Hosen Blues is completely trapped. The captain told us to get off and look for a chance for survival. Maybe we can find a working ship at the edge of this mess and leave. Parva... that coward! He locked himself inside the storage and took our resources for himself!]
[Blast it. There’s no way out... This place is haunted! We managed to find a small boat, but we couldn’t penetrate the thick mist out there. It always pushes us back to our starting point. I think the mist surrounded this entire island, leaving us nowhere else to go. I... want to go home so much. Mother... are you okay back home?]
[Another deprived day.]
[Our mates returned from the other side. The dead sea and dead ships aren’t the only problems. The whole island is dead... the land is dry, the plants are lifeless. There’s no fresh water for us. We are doomed...]
The navigator stopped for three days before writing the next log.
[Finally, some good news—Baron Parva is dead! Justice serves him right! But we have no idea who killed him. And why did he look so terrified at his last moment?]
[Life must continue. Thankfully, we still have lots of stuff stored on the ship. It seems our Water Soaker trees are growing just fine. They’ll help us stay alive a little longer. Oh God, please take us out of here.]
Again, no more entries until several days.
[The crew is dying one by one. But how? We have food and drink! I wonder if my turn is next...]
This was the last thing in the logbook. It seemed the owner of the book went through despair to hope, then was thrown back to despair again.
The book was left at a random corner on the deck of The Roben Blues. Perhaps its owner lost it there. The dust collected on it told Angor that it had been several dozens of years since those people died off, and the cause of their death remained a mystery.
He sighed and continued to search more ships. He managed to find skeletons scattered around some of them, and these skeletons were dressed in different styles that belonged to different places and ages. Many of the corpses had iron necklaces left on them. By reading the messages as well as several more logbooks he discovered, Angor noticed that almost all the ships had one thing in common, that they were sailing across Gearwheel Grave before showing up here. There were also ships from other routes such as the Storm Sea, the strange places constantly covered by mist and other known places, but they only took a very small part.
Helen once mentioned Gearwheel Grave, during which she also said something about how ships tended to go missing without a reason. However, Gearwheel Grave was an acceptable route because such accidents were relatively rare according to records.
By chance, he discovered a sea chart of Devil’s Water, which was held in the hand of a skeleton. The chart only showed the general area around Gearwheel Grave as well as several routes nearby, such as the Storm Sea and the “Mist Zone”, which... all happened to be where these ships used to be before coming here.
Also, he noticed a familiar name at the center of the map, the Silver Palm Isle, where he saw the Leviathan several months ago.
As far as he knew, the Leviathan showed up around Silver Palm Isle recently, while the oldest ship that disappeared at Gearwheel Grave was from thousands of years ago, so he didn’t think there was a connection between the monster and the “Ship’s Grave”.
But he had enough reasons to assume that there must be some secrets hidden on the isle. However, he wasn’t going to think about it too much. Silver Palm Isle was pretty far. He might as well keep his attention on this mysterious island first.
While flying past the countless ships, he suddenly noticed a familiar shape among them. It was another cargo ship that looked very similar to The Limpet. Upon moving closer, he saw the label of the White Clam Association printed on it.
Since the ships from the White Clam Association all had apprentices or wizards protecting them, he wondered if that “Vile King” was actually a wizard who was also trapped here.
By using water-related spells and Gourmet tricks like the Mana Bread, a wizard or apprentice could definitely survive longer. It was probably an apprentice since most wizards knew how to open up plane passageways and escape from foreign dimensions.
Suppose that an apprentice was living here... then Lucas’ treasures were probably taken away already.
He entered the association’s ship and went for the top floor where the cabin of the guardian was supposed to be. And he was shocked upon seeing what was inside the room.
It was pretty clean, compared to all the other rooms he checked before. Truth was, the association usually granted certain assets to their ship protectors such as a room with auto-cleaning runes, so the tidiness was completely expected.
What surprised him most was the man sitting at the desk. Or it might be a man since he couldn’t see through the hooded robe that completely covered the figure.
He looked more carefully and didn’t sense any trace of life coming from the figure, so he used Hand of Spell to slowly lift the hood, which revealed another pale skeleton hidden beneath.
If this skeleton was the ship’s guardian... then his previous theory should be incorrect.
He checked the robe and made sure it was made in Floating Mech City. The basic runes on the robe were still working after all these years.
There were faint energy residues left on the bones. Added with a one-use space capsule found in the room, Angor was sure that this was an apprentice stationed on the ship.
According to Helen, those selected as guardians should at least know how to use basic survival skills, such as water and food production spells. So how did this apprentice die?
Also, most supernatural individuals could leave their souls behind when their bodies were killed. But there wasn’t a soul to be found around here.
Something suddenly interrupted his thoughts.