Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Ah... So Much to Do.
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Balak's screams, unfortunately, did not reach Beren.
Beren was soaring freely through the skies of the mini-dungeon, reveling in the romance of the open heavens.
Just as the dwarves had told him, he followed the shadow stretching from the highest sky island.
Upon reaching the sea, he pressed onward, enjoying the cool ocean breeze.
How long had he flown like that?
Far off in the distance, he spotted countless figures doing something along the island's coastline.
Moments later, Beren arrived at the island teeming with various races and made his way to the shore.
In his eyes, everyone on the beach was pressing square wooden cubes against other objects.
Click!
"This thing... what's the principle behind it?"
"These wooden pieces stick together perfectly, and there's no gap at the joint."
"And you can even cut them and attach them to something else in the exact same shape..."
Right now, whether it was square wooden cubes or rock cubes, they all fused into one when pressed together!
Beren was amazed by the sweet safety feature that prevented them from sticking if something got in between, and he observed what the races were doing.
"Like this with this one, and that one..."
"Shall we try this device this time?"
"Ooh!! Is that a new device discovered on the island?!"
"Hey~ Check this out!"
"You madman! Don't waste materials on that, human!"
"What's the big deal~ Anyway, the square wood on this island regrows in just a few minutes after you cut it."
"Hehehe... The spirits were cute today too."
Soon after, he saw the dwarves conducting research to uncover the island's mysteries.
Humans playing around by creating monstrosities using the island's mysteries.
And finally, elves grinning pervertedly.
Beren chuckled at the beach, which was a cauldron of chaos, and looked around for a moment.
Then, his companions arrived one by one.
"Eren! There you are!"
"Wow~ To think we could swim through the skies like this! Wasn't it amazing?!"
"Hahaha, you're telling me. Have the dwarves arrived too?"
"Over there, talking with the other dwarves."
Having reunited with the adventurers he was traveling with, he headed toward the dwarves.
And there...
Bang!!
"Damn it! You can't verify it with this either?!"
"What did the magic tools ever do to you, smashing them like that?"
"Yeah, calm down before you break them."
"This place is perfect for a walk anyway, so maybe take a stroll and come back."
The figure who seemed to be the dwarves' leader couldn't contain his anger.
Approaching the dwarves in this situation would be incredibly awkward, so Beren's group decided to step away for a bit.
But the dwarves they had just met spotted Beren's group and came over.
"Tch... Sorry about this. I didn't expect you'd see us like this."
"What just happened to make him so angry?"
"We were trying to figure out this place's mysteries and technologies with the devices we brought. But..."
"It failed."
Seeing the dwarves shrug, Beren asked why it had failed.
"First off, we've concluded that a powerful grand magic made with unique techniques and mana covers this island. But there are too many technologies we don't know about mixed in, so we can't verify it."
"In short, we just wasted time and came here for nothing."
"But you all don't seem that disappointed?"
"The sky islands already flopped."
"Ah... So you had no expectations from the start."
The dwarves knew all too well that no expectations meant no disappointment.
"Anyway, we're going to use this magic to build a boat. Want to join us in exploring this sea?"
"Eh? Not just Eren, but all of us too?"
"We're short on hands. The others don't want to explore that sea and risk dying pointlessly."
"Building a big ship will take forever, and exploration will take ages too. What about food and supplies?"
"Eren, think about the magic covering this island. And the islands you saw flying here."
Soon, Beren recalled the small islands around when he flew to this one.
And the fact that this island had such magic!
"You're saying to use this island's magic to build the boat!"
"And you'll be even more surprised by this."
One dwarf brought over a small device and attached it to a small wooden cube.
He tossed it into the sea and infused it with mana.
The wooden cube let out a roar as it raced across the ocean.
Vroooom!
"""Whoa."""
"What's the principle behind that?"
"If we knew, do you think we'd be standing here like this?"
"My god, at that speed, we could traverse the sea so quickly."
"Tch, then we should've flown to another island earlier."
"I hear you can't even go from the sky in the first place."
"Pardon?"
"The wind spirits forcibly steered us here."
"""Ah..."""
That was how Beren's group witnessed the result of Balak and the dungeon bosses blocking exploits.
Afterward, Beren and the adventurers began messing around making monstrosities like the other humans while the dwarves diligently built the boat.
"Eren! How's this?!"
"Pffft!!!"
"Ahahahaha! What is that!!"
The humans, who had been watching each other make monstrosities, decided to hold the island's First Monstrosity-Making Contest right then and there.
Shortly after, as the monstrosity-making contest ended on one side of the island, the dwarves succeeded in quickly building a practical boat for exploration.
When the dwarves went to find Beren's group among the humans to reunite for the trip, they burst out laughing at the award-winning entries they were admiring.
"Kukukuku!!"
"Hahaha!"
"Pfft, humans sure have creativity!"
Passing by truly avant-garde works, the dwarves spotted Beren and the adventurers gathered around one piece.
Curious about what it was, they approached, and that work...
Was an absolute monstrosity that left even the dwarves speechless.
Afterward, one side of the island grew too noisy because of the grand prize work from the monstrosity-making contest, drawing other dwarves and elves on the island.
The other dwarves burst out laughing at the grand prize, but...
The elves intervened, insisting it had to be destroyed before low-grade spirits saw such a monstrosity, and the grand prize sadly burned away.
Moreover, the elves, now extremely violent, were horrified by the other avant-garde works and smashed them all to pieces.
So, what was the reaction of the humans whose works were being destroyed?
"Nooo!! My Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon!!!"
"That's just pornography!!"
"If you made it, clean it up yourselves!"
"R-Right, we still need to explore more of the island..."
"Ah, the dwarves asked us to move some stuff!"
They were humans who had enjoyed pleasure without any responsibility.
************
Beren, who placed 22nd in this contest after being outdone by other youngsters, inspected the boat the dwarves had built without a hint of regret.
"Wow... It's completely different from regular boats?"
"Since using the device lets it propel forward with just mana, we don't need masts. That's why we could make it this compact."
"And being smaller means it'll be incredibly fast, perfect for exploration!"
"But what's this metal?"
"It's definitely an alloy, but we don't know the ratio or what metals were combined."
The boat the dwarves had built resembled a motor yacht from the information age.
Soon, they mounted magic stone cubes, evaluated as fuel for the device.
With all preparations complete, Beren's group began pondering how to proceed with the exploration.
"Even if we run out of magic stones, we can power the devices ourselves, so no big deal."
"It's efficient anyway, and we brought plenty as spares, so we'll head back when half are used. No worries."
"Then the exploration crew—"
"Five from us and three from you. And enough food for eight people for several days."
Having checked everything step by step, they nodded.
With everyone's cheers from the island, they set off across the sea.
Vroom...
Splashhhh!
"Ooo! Hardly any noise?"
"Kukuku, we thought of that too."
"It's been a while for us. To think we could freely make something this fun."
As the motor yacht smoothly cut through the waves, a cool sea breeze brushed Beren's face as he gazed at the horizon from the deck.
Salty sea air mingled with spray from the waves lightly wetting his skin.
Gazing at the open horizon, he raced across the sea, forgetting all worries for a moment.
"Man... I never thought I'd explore the sea like this."
"You're telling me. And with the boat moving so fast, no time to get bored. Hmm... Eren, want to try steering?"
"Eh?! Is that okay?!"
"No telling what might happen here, so everyone needs to know how to operate it. Come on over."
"Yes!"
Starting with Beren, the adventurers and dwarves all took turns steering the yacht as they sailed toward the open sea.
In the midst of it, an adventurer spotted something on the sea and shouted.
"Over there!! Looks like a square wooden box or something!"
"Is that true?!"
"Let's head there quick!"
Having snagged a box from the sea, they immediately cracked it open.
Inside was a dagger.
"Th-This has pretty good quality?"
"Really?!"
"But the balance is off. Still, quality is quality, so we can recycle the blade and get a decent price outside."
"Wow..."
"But why is this here?"
Why were boxes containing valuable items floating in the sea?
But as the vanguard, it was their job to find out.
Afterward, joyfully collecting various boxes while roaming the sea, Beren's group was in high spirits.
"How much will we get if we sell all this?"
"Even split eight ways, we could live comfortably in the city for days!"
"Hahaha! It's like a gold mine!"
After farming boxes from the sea, they moved to shallow waters for a break and went fishing.
During this, the dwarves pulled out strange devices from the island and what looked like flippers.
"What's this?"
"Didn't we say there's a device from the sky islands for exploring underwater? This is it."
"Like this...!"
Plop!
A transparent bubble larger than a person's head popped out from the device like a balloon.
The dwarf donned the flippers, flipped the bubble over his head, and dove into the sea.
"This way, you can breathe underwater too. Come on!"
"""Oh."""
Beren's group entered the sea and experienced scuba diving for the first time in their lives.
Before their eyes, vibrant coral reefs formed a garden beneath their feet.
Colorful fish swam among the corals.
Sunlight above shattered on the waves, dancing around them like golden shards—a truly fairy-tale scene.
They played with the fish among the corals until the bubbles fully shrank, then returned to the boat. Beren could only utter one thing.
"Ah... There's still so much to do in this dungeon."
"Well, hot dungeons are like that, right?"
It was a mini-dungeon overflowing with things to do.
***************
Having played enough, Beren's group prepared to return to the first island.
"I thought we brought plenty of magic stones, but we used this much without even reaching other islands..."
"We weren't going in a straight line; we zigzagged for the boxes, so unavoidable."
"Then next time, a bigger boat?"
"We'd need more fuel, so probably. But how do we get back to our island?"
"That's covered too. See this in the cockpit, like a compass? The red part points to the first island—just follow it."
As they discussed improvements from the exploration while heading back.
Beren sensed a sinister aura approaching.
What could this aura be?
Fog suddenly began to roll in around them.
"Hmm?"
"Fog out of nowhere?"
"And it feels kinda creepy..."
Faced with this bizarre situation, Beren's group panicked.
They tried to ramp up the boat's power to escape the fog quickly—but
Screech!
Creaaak...
A sound like from the ocean depths echoed chillingly along the hull.
In the thick sea mist, a blackened mast swayed in the wind.
Thus, Beren's group encountered a massive ghost ship.
"Wh-What's that?"
"There was nothing there a second ago!"
"Damn!! Evade quick!"
"Y-Yes!"
The adventurer followed the dwarf's order and maxed the throttle.
However, portholes began opening one by one along the ghost ship's weathered hull.
With the portholes open, anyone could guess what came next.
Rusty black cannons emerged like eyes opening in the darkness, and the air roared with cannon fire.
Boom!!
Boom!!
"Gasp!"
Ting!
Fortunately, Beren was there and deflected some incoming shells.
But the undeflected shells slammed into the sea, sending pillars of water rocking the yacht.
Salty spray pelted their eyes and skin.
Inside the yacht, items flew wildly.
"Uwaaah! The boxes?!"
"We'll sink! Gotta get out fast!"
"Max output!"
"Eren, hold on tight so you don't fall!"
While Beren deflected shells, the yacht fled the ghost ship at full power.
But the ghost ship pursued like sliding on ice, closing the distance instead.
Once somewhat close, its massive hull swiftly turned on the sea, portholes yawning open again along its side.
Boom!!
Bang!
Bang!!
Shells skimmed the surface, white foam splashing up to their feet.
In the chaos of wind and explosions, the yacht shook as if it would shatter.
"Wh-Why is that thing so fast!"
"Is it magic?!"
"Damn... So that's why there were cannons on the island!"
The yacht was prepared only for exploration, with no weapons like cannons.
Thus facing the vanguard's fate of figuring everything out firsthand, they couldn't shake the ghost ship.
But Beren had one idea.
"The device moving the boat... Output increases with the mana you put in, right!"
"Y-Yes!"
He placed his hand on the yacht without hesitation.
Instantly, intense heat surged from his fingertips to his heart, coursing through his body.
Crackle—!
Vrooooooom!!
"The boat's overheating?!"
"But we're pulling away from that ghost ship!"
"To the island, quick!!!"
"Y-Yes!"
The ghost ship's cannons boomed behind them again.
But this time, the spray didn't even reach before fading into the distance.
Afterward, harsh sea winds slashed their cheeks, and items rattled violently in the yacht.
Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!
Screeech!
"Hang in there, boat! Just a bit more!"
"Uwaaah!!"
Thanks to the rampaging engine, distance grew from the ghost ship. The fierce fog tore apart, blinding sunlight pouring in instantly.
Looking back, they confirmed the deep fog receding before heaving rough breaths.
"Ugh... My head..."
"Hoo... We almost died."
"Hey~ Humans! Everyone okay?"
"Aside from getting hit by the boxes... yeah..."
Afterward, they all thanked Beren for escaping the ghost ship.
But his expression was subtly off.
"Eren? What's wrong?"
"Ah... Well..."
The image lingered vividly: the socket of an eyeless skull on the ghost ship staring at him.
Not just that skull—the auras atop the hull rivaled the imperial guards.
'Why are such powerful undead here...? They seemed just like the undead commanded by the Seekers of Truth.'
Beren thought of the minions of that being worshiped by black mages.
But this was a dungeon ruled by the warrior Balak.
With no connection between them, he pondered as they arrived back at the starting island.
Seeing Beren's expression, one dwarf spoke to him.
"Eren, you're curious too, huh. About who owns this dungeon."
"Hahaha... The one who made a place like this? Yeah, super curious."
"Someone like you will definitely reach this dungeon's master. Plus, even without going that far, you could just ask the werewolf in the middle."
As the dwarf said, just ask directly if curious.
Of course, not having explored the whole place yet, Beren felt a bit regretful.
But he recalled his wife, probably furious at the palace.
He needed to hurry and buy spirit herbs or gifts.
"Ah! And take this."
"This is...?"
"Your sword got damaged blocking those shells. Use this one—I made it myself."
"Ooh!! Thank you so much!"
"No need to thank me; I'm grateful you joined us."
With smiles and farewell waves to everyone.
He took a randomly appearing yellow portal from the island and, before challenging Balak, took a short rest in the city.