Shrouded Seascape

In the end, Anna and Charles' argument ended with neither side convincing the other. Strictly speaking, Anna had come from Charles' consciousness, but she was still her own individual, which meant that arguments were inevitable.

Charles thought hard and long about it, and he eventually decided to send a telegram to Anna, telling her to prepare Newbound City in advance, not for his sake but for humanity's sake.

If the plan to find and retrieve the darkness truly failed, then Newbound City could become humanity's final safe haven.

Charles didn't think too much about it, as he knew that Anna was good at handling such things. Moreover, he had something more important to do at the moment.

Outside the outpost, radiant white electric arcs zigzagged across the ground as they followed the trajectory of Charles' tentacles. With just a will from Charles, more than a dozen intertwined tentacles emerged from the ground and slammed hard.

A thunderous boom echoed, and a charred line at least ten meters long was left on the ground.

Lily's golden fur stood on end as the radiant white electric arcs dissipated.

Charles' earlier assumption was right. His lightning ability had also been enhanced along with his tentacle ability. The lightning that he could wield wasn't coming from him, but he could still control them quite easily.

Charles took his sweet time checking his special abilities and discovered that his bat form had gone through a change that he couldn't quite describe.

Black fur sprouted all over Charles as he morphed into a monster. This time, however, his bat monster form had become extremely deformed, looking quite bizarre.

A chicken claw-like wing was drooping on the left side of his torso in addition to his fleshy wings. There was a fissure on his terrifying visage, and the fissure was so huge that it almost split Charles' face into two. To make matters worse, two huge cysts were growing on the fissure.

Charles' back was bent into an L-shape, forcing him to hunch over, which made him look even uglier and terrifying. Fortunately, the changes didn't affect Charles' flight ability, and in fact, he had become even stronger after these changes.

The most noticeable change was his size. Despite his hunched back, he towered roughly six meters, and it was a height capable of instilling fear in just about anyone, especially when coupled with his appearance.

Just then, Charles opened his ulcerated, bleeding mouth. An extremely powerful sonic wave burst out of his mouth. The semi-desert around him cracked instantly beneath the attack.

Seeing that, Charles realized that he had underestimated his own strength. If he were to measure his strength using the power level rankings of the Subterranean, he'd say that he was a Level 13 explorer.

As Charles shrank and returned to his human form, Lily ran over from the side and exclaimed, "Mr. Charles! Mr. Bandages told me to tell you that everything is ready, and we can immediately set sail."

Charles lifted Lily and used his fingers to part her golden fur, examining her flesh underneath. Lily's wounds had completely healed, and not even a single scar was left behind.

"Let's go; we're heading back," Charles said and started walking toward the outpost with Lily in his palm. The outpost had been significantly expanded, and a towering telegraph tower was built in the middle of the outpost.

Charles walked past the telegraph tower and arrived next to the Explorers Association's building to find it crowded with people.

The explorers were gathered around the bulletin board, staring at the information posted on it. Gasps and murmurs were everywhere, and the voices of the crowd entered Charles' ears.

"My goddess, Hope Island actually has the technology to fuse relics into themselves and make use of those relics' special abilities. No wonder they developed so quickly."

"Yeah, yeah, this must be the reason behind the good things on Hope Island."

"Look here. Apparently, we can fuse with a relic for free starting at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. However, we will be entirely responsible for the risk, and despite continuous research and improvements, the mortality rate is still seven percent.

"They really are something… to think they'd keep the good stuff until the end."

"Do you really think that they're being nice to you by offering this good stuff for free? The higher-ups are just going to use you as cannon fodder. The sky above the darkness must be an extremely dangerous place."

"What do you mean 'cannon fodder'? Governor Charles will join the exploration as well. He was the one who found the darkness, and he's the Overlord of the Northern Seas, which means that he has enough contribution and status not to participate, but he's decided to join us, anyway.

"Are you saying that he's going to use himself as cannon fodder, too?"

Charles walked past the Explorers Association's building while listening to the hubbub. Once again, he saw another long line, and the line led to the territory of the Haikors within this outpost.

A bloated dog curled up like an old man hovered in mid-air, and a constantly pulsating fleshy sucker was sticking out of its mouth. The sucker was sucking on a squirming lump of flesh in a glass vial before pressing itself against an explorer's forehead.

It seemed that Paiper and the Haikors had decided to personally handle the injections, eliminating any possibility of thief. Charles had no idea why they were so wary when the injection would only enhance an explorer's ability—nothing more, nothing less.

The biggest boost to the explorers' strength was all thanks to Hope Island's relic fusion technology and the Sea of Mist's method of enhancing one's strength after fusing with relics.

It was unfortunate, but the contributions of the others couldn't be put to use. It was impossible to replicate Julio's strength, while Charles and the others didn't even publicly disclose the arcane spells of the Western Seas.

After all, magic was forbidden on the surface world, and it was an iron-clad rule that no one could violate.

However, the mages were busy as well. Charles learned through telegrams that Julio had taken his invincible fleet with him, along with the magic-powered ships of the Western Seas, to attack the Fhtagn Covenant.

This wasn't the best time to wage war, as it would make life even more difficult for the denizens down below, but for some reason, Julio had decided to do it anyway.

Of course, Charles was convinced that Julio's decision wasn't made lightly. They had decided to use war to distract the islanders, and this could only mean one thing—the Subterranean Sea was in an extremely bad situation—bad enough to warrant such a move from Julio.

The outpost wasn't that huge, so Charles soon found the Narwhale among a group of airships. Two massive dark-brown gas bags were suspended above the Narwhale, and the ship's propellers had been lengthened to provide enough thrust.

The Narwhale's animated ropes wrapped around Charles' waist and lifted him onto the deck.

"The crew... is assembled... The test flight is complete... The ship is functioning normally... I've been... keeping an eye on it while it was being retrofitted," Bandages said.

Charles patted Bandages on the shoulder and replied, "Great job. Where are the things that Paiper must have sent here? They can apparently isolate us from the radiation effect of relicfication, so I want to take a look at it."

The ship's cabin had become quite lively with more greenery. Charles saw green vines running along the corners of the walls, and there were more ivies than usual as well.

"My ability... can now… detect..." Bandages muttered. It seemed that Bandages' special ability had also been enhanced by Paiper and the others.

Bandages led to the turbine room, and Charles saw something attached to the hot outer wall of the turbine. Upon closer inspection, It looked like a clump of rotten flesh with a huge orange-colored blister growing in the middle of it.

When Charles got close enough to it, eight eyestalks sprouted from the blister, and they seemed to be staring intently at Charles. Clearly, the clump of rotten flesh was alive, and it was intelligent, to boot.

"Did they say anything about how to use this thing?" Charles asked, touching the basin-sized blister in the middle of the clump of rotten flesh.

"It's activated… right now… And it survives on heat..."

"It looks strange, but as long as it works. Anyway, tell Audric to keep a close eye on this thing. This can't go berserk in the middle of our exploration," Charles remarked.

"Captain... I contacted… my mother… via telegram."

"Oh, how are your family at home? Are they doing all right?"

"The doctor's grave... has been submerged..."

Charles' heart trembled slightly at the remark. He fell silent and stayed silent for a long time. Finally, he turned around and left the turbine room with a determined gaze. "Let's go. Let's set sail."