Chapter 326
Chapter 326
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 326
Chapter Title: Can the One Who Has Seen the End of the World Plant an Apple Tree? (31)
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Having a conversation with someone.
“Brbbrgrk! Dalrabbb!!! Bububub!”
“Bububub, fire! Torchbububub!”
People commonly believe the tongue is the key organ for speech, but to be precise, the tongue merely refines pronunciation—the real resonator for sound is the lungs and abdominal cavity.
The principle is vibrating the vocal cords by exhaling inhaled air to produce sound, which is why someone facing a fierce headwind can’t speak normally....
“—that’s the sound. How’s that—any doubts cleared up?”
“Hmm....”
Scribble, scribble-scribble—
The plummeting Dry Oasis. Inside Professor’s group’s cabin.
In stark contrast to the chaos outside, Ottman’s voice was utterly serene, and Yggdrasil—equally serene—nodded her head.
“I see. So you’re saying the people up there aren’t gripped by madness.”
“Exactly. Notum and Yggdrasil, you two were worried our friends outside had lost their minds.... We’re falling, and the crew are facing that fierce wind on the falling ship.”
“Brbbrbbrbub—! Babababatbububub!”
“Jugbrbub, grk, ubbebebep!”
“Brwaaaabub!”
“That’s why their words come out like that.”
“Hm. Indeed.”
Scribble-scribble, scribble—
While Yggdrasil marveled at the new knowledge and jotted it down.
Clunk!
Crash-clatter!
“Whoa!”
The endlessly falling ship shuddered violently, feeling as if it had snagged on something and abruptly halted.
Amid the chaos in the hold below where every loose item tumbled in a frenzy, Ottman pushed through the wooden vines conjured by Notum and Yggdrasil and headed out of the cabin.
“It’s slowed a bit, but we’re still dropping fast, so don’t dispel the spell. Even a small jolt could be fatal to the injured.”
“Grrr. Got it.”
“You’re heading out, Ottman? I hear your condition isn’t great either.”
“A mana-drained mage is just a cranky old man. But I.... I suppose I have to go out.”
“In that case, take care.”
With Yggdrasil’s send-off, Ottman shoved through the thick vines filling their cabin and stepped outside.
In pitch darkness where nothing was visible, he tripped over ropes, unidentifiable lumps, and rolling barrels, groping along the wall to climb the stairs to the deck, where a faint flickering light illuminated his feet.
Clunk!
Ottman strained to push open the closed deck cover and climbed up.
The first thing to catch his eye were the torches lined up along the ship’s railings.
About twenty torches, precariously burning with long tails trailing upward.
In the all-encompassing blackness, the dazed faces of the crew slumped on the deck were faintly illuminated by the torches’ wavering flames.
“It’s still a bit dangerous—why not stay inside?”
Ottman groped toward the familiar voice emerging from those shadowed faces.
“My heart, my heart’s pounding so hard I couldn’t just stay put inside....”
“You too? Same here.”
Creak—!
Professor was tugging on ropes haphazardly tied across the ship, checking if they were securely connected to the massively inflated sail above, finally catching his breath.
“That contraption we borrowed from the Hills of Storm—it helped jog my memory quite a bit.”
“Well.... the shape is similar, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. No wind balloons for lift, but a desert ship’s still a ship that sails on wind. Even if the sand sea’s soft enough to buoy a vessel, it doesn’t have ocean-like strong currents. That’s why desert ships have sails about 30% larger than regular sailing ships, and instead of a rudder on the keel like normal boats, they use those massive steering vanes.”
“But it’s not just the ship—the crew pulled their weight too, right? Even we battle-hardened folks were out of it, yet these lifelong sailors stepped up in this mess. The sand sea toughening them was a stroke of luck for us.”
“Yeah, well. If they hadn’t done their jobs, we’d be in that state by now.”
Professor nodded along with Ottman’s words and turned his eyes to the dark space beside the ship.
In the flickering torchlight, an endless waterfall of sand came into view, pouring down relentlessly.
Rooooar—
Thousands of tons of sand cascading right beside them. Squinting a bit revealed glimpses of things flashing into view and vanishing amid it.
The numerous warships that had plummeted alongside the Dry Oasis.
Unlike their small boats that thrashed with rudders and steering vanes to catch updrafts and avoid the sandfall, the massive warships couldn’t manage such feats. The moment they touched the sand waterfall, they were instantly sucked into it by the pouring force.
Thanks to that, the meteor-shower-like warship debris raining from above had mostly cleared, but the prows, masts, and half-melted corpses ghosting in and out of the sand evoked grim imaginings of how they might have ended up inside there too.
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- Heung An Mandu: Funny thing, the crew babbling among themselves like that, but they’re totally communicating?
- Jokass: You can tell from context and tone. Like if someone in Santa costume goes ‘eh uiua’ in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas, you’d get the gist. The lookout tied himself up there babbling and waving right arm—helmsman dodges falling debris to starboard. Helmsman babbles waving limbs wildly—stern crew waiting with long poles untangle ropes snagged on the rear steering vane.
- Take a Look: Man.... what did those crew do to deserve this hell.
- Deer Drug Please: Why? Rode with certain folks. Ottman looks enlightened near nirvana.
- Heung An Mandu: Gotta pick your company. Crew dies? Totally on you, Professor Park.
- professor: I know, punk. That’s why I saved ‘em all.
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Honestly, I felt a bit hard done by too.
When we were helplessly sucked in, sure, I thought, “If I just jump alone, doesn’t this end it?”
But what if it didn’t? I’d survive getting sand-blasted or boiled somehow, but the defenselessly falling Dry Oasis would sink with all the crew and our group aboard.
Plus, that freakishly competent, quick-witted pig had ditched the Dry Oasis in a flash.
‘The great shaman and desert native would know exactly the danger radius among the entangled folks. Guy took a mortal wound yet ordered his own crew released amid the frenzy—odds are high our group and the regular crew became that sand wraith’s targets too.’
So I had no choice but to fall with the ship. If we’re all getting sucked in anyway, sticking together massively boosts survival odds.
“Hey, hey, that thing over there....”
“Ugh.”
“....Back to work, work. Fuck if I wanna deal with that.”
While Professor dazedly stared at the torches from the falling ship, the crew—having spotted those ghostly emergences from the outer sandfall—shuddered and returned to their posts.
The ship sank into the truly bottomless black pit.
****
How far had we descended?
As warship debris in the torchlit sandfall turned to charred ancient desert ships, with worn-rounded wood ends and past traces reminding the seafolk exactly where we’d entered.
Whoooosh—
Crackle, crackle-crackle!
‘Cold wind.’
The chill breeze blowing in the steamer-like cavern ringed by hot sandfall snapped everyone aboard to attention.
The crew’s slackened eyes sharpened with life, and commotion stirred anew on the briefly quiet deck.
The sharp-eyed lookout spotted light other than the orange torch glow around the ship.
“L-light.”
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding—!
“Light! Light sighted! Light from below!”
“Eeeeexit!”
A faint glimmer winking at the end of the pitch-black cavern, signaling we’d reached the bottom at last.
As the light swelled in size, the trembling crew’s hands grew frantic.
Professor recapping intel on deck, Ottman clutching his arrhythmia-like pounding heart—same for both.
“Fishy smell, right? Or not? Kinda different though?”
“....Far from the sea scent I knew, but unmistakable. This is the sea’s touch.”
‘Salty breeze. Sea smell.... huh? Been ages since near ocean.’
The scent mingled in the wind was one he’d never smelled before, but that very unfamiliarity eased Professor’s anxiety.
He’d come from nose-numbing mute blood stench above; unfamiliar wind from below meant at least down there wasn’t a mute-packed limb.
‘Dodged the worst case for now.’
Of course, just underfoot for the moment. With the sunken sea’s vast unknown scale and environment, no caution excessive.
Thus, the dot-like light grew to fingernail hole, steadily widening until.
.
.
.
.
Fwoooosh!
Sploooosh—!
The fast-falling Dry Oasis hit the water surface, bringing the brief-yet-eternal plummet to an end.
The young crew wiping sweat at rippling water thinking “Oasis!”
The old crew sighing relief at mere survival.
Not one could utter a word at the sight.
For desert lifelongers who’d deemed a village-feeding oasis a grand water trove, it bordered on cultural shock—what they’d never beheld.
“D-deck boss? Never thought I’d ask, but.... slap me one?”
“N-no offense taken—hit me please....”
“Weiird.... tumbled sand vortex crazy spinning, Saladin unfurled sails up.... th-then.... kept falling....”
Before the soul-lost crew sprawled an unseen sight. Perhaps unseen by any in this world.
Beneath sunless desert sands, a sunken sea self-illuminating with soft blue glow.
Fall’s wake rippled faintly; nearby sand ceiling confirmed they’d pierced sand down, not shifted elsewhere. Enclosed by sand all sides, ripe for dread—yet they could only gape because,
“That.... the one I know, uh.... him?”
“Prob’ly? Far’s I know.... yeah?”
The light softly brightening the abyssal sunless sea.
Beneath desert’s sand sea, mysterious blue sea rippling.
“Yeah. Finally feels like the story’s moving.”
Desert’s lost moon and sea.
Vanished ancient mystery unfurled at their feet.
****
Clack-clack!
Thud! Creaaaak!
“There! Tie to that coral! Not that—bigger! Bigger one! Ow, out ya little shit!”
“Cactus booze.... twenty casks left, nine smashed in fall. Sand shark fillets, five small sacks....”
“Captain. Ever seen fish like this?”
“Hmm.... no clue. Nothing like oasis fish....”
“Fillet and pickle in strong booze for now. Test later.”
Sploosh!
Awe at the mystery before their eyes lasted only a moment.
At the recovered captain’s orders, the crew moored the ship, sorted remaining supplies, and prepped for what’s next.
Finding a mooring spot wasn’t hard. Their fall hole had water exposed from pouring sand nearby, but a bit farther, islands of flotsam lay far from the lovely sea.
“Eeeh, that flag. I know that ship.”
“What, deck boss got a taboo-munched pal?”
“Pal.... not quite. ‘Maegal Lizard’—regular visitor to my childhood oasis merchantman. News cut off one day. Seeing it again after a decade-plus at taboo’s depths.”
“So.... all these taboo-munched ships?”
“Where else’d the sandfall-munched ones go? Fell here with sand.”
Where deck boss pointed: sandfall’s tail end? Shrinking sand wraith hole with cascading Kaulradi warships. Centuries of taboo sand-munched ships, homes, etc., piled into a sedimentary layer on the sunken sea’s surface.
“Uh.... hold up. Decade-plus old ship, waterlogged wood floating? Possible?”
“Who knows? Whole water blob under desert abnormal from jump. Not sand-mixed, pure water blob abnormal too. Some sea-mysterious weird power at work.”
Deck boss quit thinking once prow turned under sand wraith.
Fortunately, their questions vanished clean under sailors’ cries at another wreck.
“Gold! Gold trinkets!”
“Deck boss! Locked chest here too!”
Excited voices, sailors on half-keeled wreck shaking yellow-shiny stuff.
“Chest.... locked on sunken merchant! Hey! Freeze! Fetch smash tool!”
“Stay put—ransack that side too! Valuables galore!”
“Beullak tribe flag from 15 years back gone missing! Survivor daughter announced marriage to heirloom anklet finder!”
“C-captain! Fetch captain!”
Sailors drunk on sea beauty now hopped debris of victims, drunk on more tangible beauties.
Splash!
“Phaaa! Aaaah, feels alive!”
“Ooooo. So.... pristine.... crude human tongue can’t capture....”
Of course, some still lost in the sea’s own beauty.
Water mage Professor and Ottman.
“Truly a sea, as you said.”
“Your hint was huge, Ottman. Desert was sea long ago.”
“But.... not proof enough for sunken sea? Desperate all-in on slim odds?”
“Hmm.... not total gamble—had my reasons. Couldn’t be sure [this’ll happen for these reasons!], more like [if this, doesn’t this make sense?] approach.”
Ottman sprawled face-down in water mouth out, Professor same posture continued explaining.
“Navigable flowing sand sea. Topographically absurd, right? But deep abyss with heat-cooling water blob like here—makes sense. Cold sea meets cooled sand and desert hot sand, air layer forms between. Creates loose-enough sand layer for ships.”
“Hmm.... checks out.”
“Your weirdly peak condition proved it firsthand.”
“Desert ecosystem stuff lines up too.”
“Ecosystem?”
“Sand sea beasts, all ginormous.”
Professor recalled 1.5m clams ship-biting, sand sharks ramming sinks, Kaulradi’s ship-swallowing summons.
“Land critters usually tinier than sea kin. Get that big, gotta bear weight. Tough conditions hinder. But here every sand shark, rockshell—not one undersized, all monstrous. Evolved generations from desert origin? Fundamentally hard to bulk that much. Rare outliers ok, but universally huge? Tough to square normally. But sea natives adapting to this....”
“Hmm.... sounds right. Sounds right.”
“Yeah, so roughly checking boxes, ‘sunken sea below and everything fits!’ hit me.”
Though this bobbing sea defies logic itself.
Professor dunked his head in.
The sea before his eyes.
Not mere brine-filled—true sea teeming with life and ecosystems.
Under sediment of old ships and wrecks blanketing sea, colorful corals clung hiding ugliness, small fish schools darting between.
Sploosh!
In submerged Professor’s view, something approached from encircling sand sea.
Splash!
Sploosh!
Sand shark. The one that assaulted ship in sand sea before leaped into blue depths like a jump, snapped a hefty fish in jaws, then with fierce tail thrust rocketed back up piercing sand ceiling. Frantic return suggested couldn’t live in sea proper.
‘Faint mute blood in their guts. Probably ingested that way hunting.’
Mutes definitely somewhere in this sunken sea. Just way vaster than thought, unfound.
Not sinking to floor, but toward center.
‘If Palkatus got real-world intel. Only one avenue.’
Professor turned toward the deep, softly glowing moon clutching this round sunken sea.
Unlike pedestrian ‘gods’—none exist. Unlike major five of light, mercy, abundance with no form, this entity plainly exists.
‘Not GG’s god idea. Moon. Genesis twin gods. If world-tuning dragons of GG yanked them down....’
Professor pictured the world tree. Endless-grown silver titan. Branches of circuits and wires shouldering the world.
If this ancient god akin to world tree? Whispered world’s truth to Palkatus like to him? Hence Palkatus’s “frustrating knowledge permitted only to me, beyond even brothers’ grasp”?
....Blub-blub.
As Professor’s body and thoughts sank toward truth.
Tug.
‘....Hm?’
Something hook-like snagged his clothes, yanking him waterside in a flash.
“Saladin! Goddamn called you a ton, no answer—thought you drowned, you water mage!”
“How’s a water mage drown—”
“Zip it, got something you need see—snap out and climb! Captain’s been hollering since!”
Professor hauled up like driftwood, beside equally fished-out Ottman flailing “Put me down! Don’t wanna out! Leave me beeee!!” meekly boarded.
Sailors who’d ecstatically climbed sediment layer earlier returned ashen-faced, one shivering like truly ill.
Captain sat grave before them, brightened at dripping Professor approaching.
“Ah, Saladin. Perfect timing. Gotta see this together.”
“....Enemy? Sea beast?”
Sniff-sniff-sniff.
No mute whiff off sailors.
Asked what seen just in case, but answer pure gibberish.
“Not seen what.... saw nothing....”
“....Huh? Nothing?”
“Yeah, gone! Piles of wrecks, houses, tents stacked....! Even cookfire live traces! Corpses.... no corpses!! No bone scraps, no blood specks! Something dragged people off. People only! Spotless, all gone!”
“....Got it. Rest up inside. Cask cracked below, ladle what you need—”
Grab!
“D-didn’t hear me? We’re in monster jaws! Says so right there! Don’t turn back, me, all us.... uuuugh!”
“You brat! Spoiled rotten, what ya doin’ to captain!”
“Pry off! Ram barrel down throat, brig him!”
In end, panic-thrashing sailor dragged below by others.
Captain straightened clothes, eyed him worriedly, then spoke.
“Ugly display.”
“No sweat. So, what?”
“Just sailor superstition weakness. But.... confirmed not bullshit. Human traces yes, bodies zero. Usually bones linger over time.”
“You wanna show, that?”
“Yeah. Uh.... from box that guy fetched.”
Acts nonchalant, but captain lifts cloth with sword tip reluctant-touch. Few silver coins. Unknown use but desert ship “star guide” observatory tool. And....
“Ship’s log?”
“Likely unravels our questions. Why he freaked so bad.”
Glances sidelong hoping I take lead though said “together.”
Sailors gulped at reveal, stomped in place spitting every which way.
Professor strode up, flipped it right open.
“Heard!”
“Gale went that way after touching—saw it drove him mad!”
“S-Saladin. That.... ain’t scary to you?”
“Hm? Forgot? I’m cleric. Heresy spooks? Join Light Order.~ Evil god-slayer saint personally vouches~”
“Ooooh....”
“Cleric.... yeah, taboo you saw biggest ever....”
“Taboo-munched and lived—maybe that grace out-taboo-strong?”
“....They take navigators?”
Sailors lit up instant; Professor smirked. Competence overboard proven sailor-wise, sea-stage underfoot mandates them. Cowed shrinkage loss too, so mood-loosener.
“Might as well all convert now. Taboo sand wraith bottom already—what’s to balk?”
Professor eyed their un-sailor-like sparkling gazes, turned first page of ancient logbook.
Flip!
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** Year 4 Month ** Day. Between Goladin and Utrim stars, Uro 5° bearing.
New crew made horrific blunder. Oasis blew cash wild, gambled to zero—even got kind helper to stowaway him aboard on “favor.”
Hanged the crew, dragged stowaway to deck....
By the sands! Inland lubber!
Eight crew bolted to lifeboats as he shut eyes praying.
First mate and deck boss scarpered, post “cast off” hail.
Goddamn! We’ve voyage-launched with this prosperity-beggar navigator! No take-backs!
Abandon whole ship—even then, cast-off shouter, Captain me’s bound!
Sands! Taboo! Lizard-shit luck!
Only way now: taboo-breakers’ village!
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“Doesn’t feel like someone else’s tale.”
“Ahem, hem!”
The log chronicled a fairly large desert ship’s captain from long ago.
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