Fully Armed

"Blessing?"

Brent and Blade had no idea what Yinsen was up to, but considering the strength Yinsen had displayed, as well as how reliable his suggestions had been throughout the journey, they voiced no objections and even took the initiative to gather everyone together.

Once everyone had assembled, Yinsen held the Holy Light Cross he had secretly removed earlier while no one was paying attention. He was about to use the power within it to cast a large-scale Blessing Spell, only to discover awkwardly that using its energy over such a wide area required some sort of special "ritual."

After glancing at the crowd, Yinsen finally chose a spot facing the sea. He knelt on one knee, held his upper body straight, clasped the cross tightly in both hands, and kept it before his chest.

No one understood what Yinsen was doing, but before long, a golden glow began to radiate from his body. As time passed, the glow steadily grew brighter.

Miraculously, the light was not dazzling at all. Instead, everyone felt as though they were basking in warm sunlight.

This was especially true for the adventurers whose bodies had been eroded by Negative Energy and were already showing obvious symptoms. Under the glow, they felt as though their conditions were improving. Their limbs, which had been cold and gradually losing sensation, began to regain feeling.

The sensation was so miraculous that many suspected it was merely an illusion. But when they looked at the people beside them, they found that their companions, whose faces had been just as dark and sickly before, had also visibly improved.

"Your complexion looks much better."

"Yours too. You were so blue-black earlier that I was afraid you’d suddenly rush over and bite me."

"You think I wasn’t worried about that too?"

"Ah, I can feel my hands again."

"My body doesn’t feel freezing cold anymore…"

"…"

The crowd’s discussion grew loud. The situation was simply too miraculous. As Yinsen prayed for longer, the golden energy around him slowly spread and drifted into the air, becoming like a golden cloud. Once it had enveloped everyone beneath it, it began to rain golden light, bathing the adventurers in the Sacred Light Rain.

It did not take long, less than ten minutes in total. When Yinsen stood up again and turned around, he found that all the earlier noise had vanished. The adventurers were looking at him with extremely strange expressions.

Even Brent and Blade were looking at him oddly. For some reason, he suddenly thought of religious fanatics.

Did I accidentally turn them all into believers? This move doesn’t have that function.

He truly had not intended to do that. There were two reasons he had cast the blessing on these people. One was to eliminate any future worries.

These people would not be joining them deeper into the island. They would remain on the ships by the shore and watch over everyone’s vessels. If they were in poor condition and got attacked without any elite fighters around, they might be wiped out completely. Being wiped out would be one thing, but if the ships were destroyed as well, Yinsen would have a real headache.

He also had some ulterior motives. Although he had not yet completely mastered this Holy Light Energy, using it for so long had given him some experience and allowed him to pick up a few tricks. If these people sailed off with the ships while Yinsen was away, he could use the lingering traces of Holy Light on them to find them.

In other words, he had left an undetectable mark on them.

Whatever the reason, he had never planned to recruit believers for the Holy Light. That had never been part of his considerations. Even if these people suddenly knelt before him, worshipped him as a god, and offered him their faith, Yinsen, who was firmly walking the path of a mage cultivating and strengthening himself, would decisively refuse.

If he developed believers and became a god through faith, wouldn’t all his previous hard work have been for nothing?

"Ahem!"

With a light cough, Yinsen discreetly drew Brent’s attention, then began discussing the next stage of their plan as though nothing had happened.

"The crew’s condition is now sufficient to ensure both their own safety and the safety of our ships. Next, we should make preparations and head deeper into the island."

Business came first. Although Brent had many questions, this was clearly not the time to discuss them. Who knew whether that technique had involved one of Yinsen’s secrets? Seeing that Yinsen did not want to talk about it, Brent decisively shifted the topic to what they needed to do next.

"This time, we won’t need many people. Judging from what happened earlier, I may be the only suitable one on my side."

Brent had plenty of crew members, and their Combat Power was not weak. They were all excellent sailors. But on this island, what mattered was pure individual strength. He had several capable men aboard his ship, but they were clearly still some distance behind their captain.

Furthermore, considering the safety of their retreat route, he could not take all his strongest fighters with him. After thinking it over, it seemed that going alone was the most suitable option.

Blade had the same idea, though he differed somewhat from Brent. Brent was already fully armed, but Blade still had trump cards he had not brought out. He needed to return to his ship and change some equipment.

"So you’ll need to wait for me a little while."

"No problem. Go ahead."

Yinsen looked over his own side. Both Logan and Selene were formidable, and there was no need to even mention Loki. On Yinsen’s ship, Loki was unquestionably the strongest, even surpassing Yinsen himself as captain.

Although everyone was quite strong, considering that their ships would remain by the shore, it seemed they should leave some people behind to guard them.

But Yinsen did not intend to leave anyone here. He planned to keep all his companions at his side and advance together into the depths of the island.

"I’ll have to trouble you to look after my ship as well."

Brent was surprised that Yinsen was taking everyone with him. He could understand the others, but Laura looked quite young. Was she going into such a dangerous place too?

What he did not know was that Yinsen’s side was the truly safe place, far safer than this one.

There was still the possibility of being attacked if they stayed here. Even retreating onto the sea would not guarantee safety. They had been attacked by Undead Sharks on the way here, which showed that the waters around this island were unsafe as well.

Retreating farther away would be safer, but then those remaining on the island would effectively lose their route of escape. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, the warships would stay near the island, at the very least where they could observe the shore.

Their range of activity was restricted, they could be attacked at any time, and their top combatants were already leaving. No matter how he looked at it, this was not a particularly safe place.

If something went wrong while they were with Yinsen, he could immediately take his people across the planes to Other Worlds to take refuge. He could even slowly work out a suitable solution in another world before returning to resolve the problem.

His crew all understood this, so when Yinsen proposed it, Logan and the others thought it was best. Only Brent, who did not know the full situation, could not understand it.

"They’re all excellent helpers. If there are only three of us, we’ll be too short-handed. If we run into an endless Undead Army, we may not be able to handle it."

Hearing this explanation, Brent felt that it made sense. With only three captains, if they encountered trouble, then no matter how powerful Yinsen’s attacks were, he would not have enough openings or time to use them.

"You’re right." Brent turned and called out to two more people. "Perrin, George, get ready and come with me."

"Captain, you’ve made a very wise choice."

One of the men Brent had called seemed delighted to have been chosen by his captain. He immediately began happily rearranging his equipment.

Since they were heading deeper into the island this time, everyone had to prepare enough fresh water, even items like purification magic stones, given the environment. They also had to bring sufficient food. One only needed to think with their knees to know that nothing found on this island could be eaten. And since they did not know how long they would remain on the island, food was essential.

Yinsen’s group made some replenishments as well. Logan had used up some ammunition in the earlier melee, so after returning to the ship to fully restock, he distributed water flasks freshly filled with clean water to everyone.

Once they had finished these preparations, Blade appeared again.

This time, Blade was no longer wearing armor similar to Brent’s. His gear was closer to the set Yinsen had seized before.

However, compared with the extremely form-fitting design of Yinsen’s set, Blade’s equipment seemed to offer stronger defense.

It still resembled armor overall, but it had a more modern feel. Parts like the breastplate and armguards did not appear to be made of pure metal, looking more like some kind of composite material.

That was not all. Blade also wore something on his head that was hard to call either an ornament or a helmet. It had Goggles attached, and Yinsen did not think they were merely decorative.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It’s fine. We made some preparations ourselves, so your timing was perfect."

Blade looked at the packs on everyone’s backs and knew they were not merely being polite. They had indeed spent some time organizing their equipment and supplies.

"This is my assistant, Liz."

Only then did Yinsen notice that a woman dressed similarly to Blade was standing beside him. Her equipment was slimmer and more streamlined than Blade’s, closer to the set Yinsen had acquired earlier.

"She’ll be entering the depths of the island with us as well."