The Limits of the Sky

"An island?"

Hearing that the next sea region was actually like this, even the ambitious Brent felt somewhat discouraged. He was beginning to understand why Beckford had changed so drastically.

"Is there nothing like Central Island?"

"There is." Blade finally offered some relatively good news. "As long as we break through the Stormy Seas along this route, we’ll reach the only Unsinkable Island in the Sea of Miracles before long."

According to Blade, once they crossed the stormy region on their current route, they only needed to adjust their course toward the front right to reach that island.

Yinsen sketched it out in his mind and realized that Stat Island in the Sea of Tranquility, Central Island in this sea region, and the Miracle Island Blade had described happened to lie in a straight line. No matter how he looked at it, it could not be a coincidence.

There was no point thinking about that now. They did not need to consider the next sea region yet. The problem they needed to solve was the land beneath their feet.

The three fell silent for a while, turning their thoughts to the trouble before them. Brent no longer dwelled on there being no hope. He wanted more to know what Beckford was actually trying to do.

"Yinsen, you said Beckford had been turning people into Undead Creatures?"

"Yes."

Yinsen briefly described how he had encountered Wilson in the Sea of Tranquility, then explained Christina’s situation. Both of Beckford’s subordinates had already been transformed into Undead Creatures. They retained their original memories and intelligence, while also possessing considerable Combat Power.

Yinsen did not know Beckford’s exact condition. However, seeing how easily he could use undead as avatars, Beckford’s control over Death Energy was surely no small matter. The only question was whether he was like some necromancers Yinsen knew of, merely affected by Death Energy and made somewhat more "ugly" than ordinary people, or whether he had completely become an Undead Creature.

"If he turns everyone into Undead Creatures, what exactly is he trying to do?"

Yinsen crossed his arms and pondered the question as well. He had previously thought Undead Creatures were simply easier to control, but now it seemed things were not that simple.

"Undead Creatures don’t need food or water, and they don’t need air either."

After thinking it over, those two points seemed to be the key. Blade and Brent were, after all, outstanding adventurers, and they immediately understood what that meant.

"In other words, if Beckford succeeds, his dependence on resources will be greatly reduced. He might even be able to completely abandon the need for ordinary food… Is that why he said he was saving the people here?"

Brent still found the idea far too insane. Turning people into undead monsters might eliminate the consumption of food and fresh water, but were they still human? How was that any different from killing them all?

"That’s why he said only the strong have the right to survive. Under such a transformation, those who aren’t strong enough will completely lose themselves. Only the strong can retain their self-awareness."

Blade understood Beckford’s thinking as well. Though he felt it made a certain amount of sense, he still found it crazy and utterly unacceptable. No normal person would accept becoming an undead monster unless they were about to die and had no choice but to prolong their life that way.

The two of them were limited by their experience and had not considered anything deeper.

Yinsen was different. Even setting aside the countless planes he had traveled through and the vast knowledge he had absorbed, merely relying on his memories from his previous life was enough for him to know that Beckford’s ambitions could not be so simple.

Undead Creatures did not need food, water, or air. They could enter the seabed and explore the vast Undersea World, retrieving its resources for Beckford to use.

More importantly, without needing to worry about food or air, advancing into space no longer seemed impossible.

"Has he already set his sights on the boundless cosmos?"

It was only a guess, but Yinsen would have made the same choice. After hearing Blade’s description of the Sea of Miracles, he had already revised his former plans.

Prinz Eugen would be his last surface warship. He would not have Tony Stark build him a Bismarck Class vessel. He would set his sights directly on space. His new ship should be a space battleship.

At that thought, Yinsen suddenly looked toward the sky. If the Sea of Miracles was like this, then he could simply charge into space directly.

"What is it?"

"I was wondering what it’s like up there."

"Up there?" Blade found Yinsen’s question strange and did not understand what he was thinking. He answered casually, "The Sky Wall, of course. What else could there be?"

"The Sky Wall?"

Yinsen had been wondering before this how no one could have researched the ability to fly using magic stones, objects that possessed all kinds of abilities and contained immense energy. Had no one ever considered crossing the Stormy Seas from above the clouds?

As long as someone had done so, more adventurers would surely have turned their eyes toward the sky. Then the possibility of advancing into space should not have been unthinkable.

But judging from Blade’s reaction, it seemed no one had ever considered that, at least until Yinsen heard the term Sky Wall from him.

"What is that?"

Blade looked at Yinsen and realized that this powerful young captain truly did not know, so he gave him a simple explanation.

Only then did Yinsen learn that at roughly the same altitude as the clouds, there was an invisible wall in the sky. It prevented adventurers from trying to bypass the Stormy Seas from above. In the eyes of the people of this world, the sky had always been like that. Their understanding seemed to be that the limit of the sky was this invisible yet tangible wall. Thus, they had no idea what outer space was. In their understanding, the world consisted only of the sea and the space beneath the Sky Wall.

Of course, this was all Yinsen’s own conclusion from Blade’s description. Judging from Brent’s reaction, his judgment was probably correct.

"So that’s how it is."

The sky had limits, and staying airborne required a constant, sustained expenditure of energy. They could not avoid harsh weather such as violent winds and heavy rain, and encountering such terrible weather was even more dangerous in the sky than at sea. No wonder no one had thought of developing toward the "sky."

"But the sky actually has a lid. That’s a problem."

If there was a barrier in the sky, then were there barriers around the world as well? Blade had no answer to that, because no one would test what lay beyond the edge of the ocean. Releasing a few flying animals to probe it was practically the limit. No one would personally explore that region, much less travel farther just to find out whether a barrier existed.

Without realizing it, the topic seemed to have drifted off again. Yinsen and the others refocused their attention on Beckford. They now roughly understood why Beckford was doing this, so following that line of reasoning, why had he suddenly created such a strange island?

"Though I don’t know how he did it, it was probably to block the route to the Sea of Miracles."

By isolating the Sea of Miracles from the previous two sea regions, Beckford could rely on his powerful strength to slowly deal with the adventurers in this region while building up his own power. Once he became strong enough, he could turn around and deal with the even stronger adventurers in the Sea of Miracles.

It was a very reasonable guess, and Yinsen felt it was highly likely.

Blade stroked his chin in thought for a while, then looked into the distance. Finally, he lowered his voice and spoke to Yinsen and Brent. "I think I know what Beckford used to create this island. If we want to destroy it, we’ll need Captain Ethan’s pet to help."

"Little Ou?" Yinsen suddenly understood. "You mean this island was created using that special kind of magic stone?"

"Special magic stone?" Blade paused before realizing what Yinsen meant. "You mean Magic Heart, right? It’s a special magic stone that can restore its own energy."

Yinsen finally learned what that type of magic stone was called. Its full name was Heart of Magic Stone, shortened to Magic Heart. This type of Magic Heart was a higher-tier energy source than ordinary magic stones. According to Blade, a high-grade Magic Heart was indispensable for living well in the Sea of Miracles.

In the Sea of Miracles, while extreme weather did not change within a single day as it did along these two routes, it was not a tranquil and safe sea region like the Sea of Tranquility either. Life would be extremely difficult relying only on sail power, so propulsion systems were essential.

But that would consume enormous quantities of magic stones. Only obtaining a high-grade Magic Heart could completely solve that problem.

"More importantly, only with a Magic Heart can you build an Ironclad Warship of your own. That’s far safer and more reliable than a wooden sailing ship."

Blade also explained why he had come here from the Sea of Miracles. His original goal had been to find a creature like Little Ou.

Magic Hearts were so important that countless adventurers exhausted every means to obtain them, but they were not easy to find.

There was, however, one method of finding Magic Hearts easily: certain special creatures that fed specifically on magic stones. Such creatures possessed a special talent that allowed them to easily locate magic stones and even Magic Hearts.

Blade had specifically come here from the Sea of Miracles this time to find one of those creatures.

"Why not look in the Sea of Miracles?"

Were there no such creatures in the Sea of Miracles?

"These creatures aren’t hard to find, but they aren’t easy to catch."

Creatures of that kind in the Sea of Miracles often evolved to become incredibly powerful. Forget catching one as a pet; if you encountered one carelessly and managed to keep your life, that alone counted as good luck.

"Of course, you don’t necessarily have to keep one as a pet. These creatures have a crystal-like organ inside their bodies that can be used to make a device specifically for locating Magic Hearts."

Whether it was an illusion or not, Blade suddenly felt a chill envelop him.