Chapter 188 – First Chapter at Black Horse Island
Sailing was uneventful.
Liszt still had to maintain the aristocratic routine. However, it was impossible to mingle with the sailors or the knights, so after lunch, he just took a nap. After taking a nap, he continued to practice his qi in the afternoon.
He would practice the whole afternoon.
The Flowers arrived at the location marked on the chart at about 1:30 p.m.. But they found no trace of Black Horse Island and had to continue searching at sea.
It took another three hours for them to find the exact location of Black Horse Island.
“This navigation chart is offset by a full ten kilometers, those rats must have learned navigation from from dogs!” Kosto gritted his teeth and growled angrily.
But they were lucky, they wouldn"t have found the island until midnight.
"Don"t complain. We"re lucky that we even found the island." Liszt opened up, he was feeling the effects of the potion more and more. "Now, are we looking for a place to dock?"
“Yes, my lord, Black Horse Island is an undeveloped wasteland after all, and we need to find the right landing site. The contours of Black Horse Island are much larger than I thought. It may be the same size as Beer Island. This area is full of beaches and it has a difficult sh.o.r.eline. ” He pointed at the island horizon outside the window.
"It"s as big as Beer Island?"
"Just from looking at it, Sir. But I shouldn"t be that far off in estimation."
That a.s.sumption about the island being the same size as Beer Island made Liszt very happy. It was the right size for a fiefdom of a Viscount. Too big to be ignored and too small to be shared with other aristocrats. If it was too small, it"d be bad, but it wasn"t at all.
They half-turned around.
When the sunset had begun to fall towards the horizon, a place suitable for landing was finally found. The Flowers started to draw in close, anchor down and the small boats as well. Some sailors were left behind to man the Flowers while the rest disembarked on the small boats. The sh.o.r.e was full of rocks, like Flower Town.
Looking out, there wasn"t much vegetation on the island, there were only a few trees in the distance.
There were lots of weeds.
There were some deers and donkeys looking at Liszt and his party from a distance, but they were more intent on watching the mighty Tremblingwoods.
From far away, they couldn"t sense that Tremblingwoods was a mid-level magical beast. But from its appearance, it was easy to discern that the beast should not be provoked.
"Mr. Marcus, let us explore along the sh.o.r.eline. We only have an hour before it turns dark. We all should be back before then. We will spend the night on the Flowers."
“Yes!”
Without horses, everyone was walking. Except Liszt because he could ride Tremblingwoods .
Tremblingwoods" body was so big that Liszt was very comfortable riding him.
Many knights, especially powerful ones, were no longer limited to horse riding for their rides have been replaced by powerful dragon beasts and monsters. For example, the holder of the Magic Eye secret skill, Stephen Vulture,rides a dragon-type vulture on his flight to the heavens.
A Sky Knight"s fighting power is greater than a knight"s charge, therefore his mount must highlight his fighting power.
Ordinary knights rely on side-by-side charges to form a strong flood of force. For this riding standard, horses were most suitable.
Of course,Liszt looked conspicuous riding on a dog"s back. But it was so uncommon that even mid-level mages would be envious of such a ride, even the higher cla.s.s of mages.
He would grasp on Tremblingwoods" black fur to keep himself in place.
Liszt was off for a moment and called for the smoke mission to appear.
The smoke condensed and formed the snake text, “Complete the mission and be rewarded Dragon Horses.” There was no doubt that the voyage to the sea has been completed after the Flowers landed on the sh.o.r.e. They need not wait until their return for the mission to be completed.
A moment later.
The smoke changes.
A new task was released.
“Mission: You have set foot on a new land. A lord with a pioneering spirit cannot leave Black Horse Island so deserted and unmanaged. Please establish a temporary stronghold on Black Horse Island and settle in a hundred serfs. Reward: Several decaying bones. “
“Temporary stronghold?”
“How many decaying bones?”
Liszt quickly recalled a smoke mission, the one which involved a ghost and its prize was a broken bone.
It was eventually identified as dragon bone made from the bones of a superior dragon species.
"What would these bones look like?" It was not easy to make a.s.sumptions, and sometimes with these smoke tasks, Liszt would get lazy. Most of the time, whenever the task was done, the rewards would just come as coincidence. "Building a temporary stronghold requires planning. I will have to split my time on these tasks."
The team only walked a few miles.
The rocky coast had disappeared and was replaced with a sandy beach.
"We have probably stopped at the east-west junction. Black Horse Island"s west side is mostly sandy beaches while the west is mostly rocky cliffs." Kosto often goes out to sea and has been to many islands, so he could infer about the island spots from the details.”Look at the central location of the island, there are no more contours, only more gentle slopes."
Kosto narrowed his eyes, and looked carefully into the distance, adding, “Sir, I find Black Horse Island to be perfectly round.”
“Round?”
“Yes, the island"s topography is consistent, at least on this side. We don"t know yet what is on the other side. Maybe we can sail again tomorrow and circle the island to observe the shape of Black Horse Island thoroughly. “
Liszt looked up at the sun that had disappeared from the sky, and said, “We will have to wait till tomorrow, our situation is unknown right now. We have to go back to the Flowers.”
———-
There was not much talk that night, and nothing changed.
Liszt was not used to sleeping on a boat. The sound of waves crashing and the snoring of sailors and knights in the cabin made it difficult for him to fall asleep.
Tremblingwoods stayed outside his door.
Dogs also snored, so it was no surprise that Tremblingwoods snored bubbles.
Liszt himself never snored and liked a very quiet environment when he slept. Unable to sleep, he sat up, pulled out a crystal lamp, and put it on the table.
He had purchased the crystal lamp from Glanny. It was very portable, similar to a flashlight.
With the light, he continued to pull things out of the gem s.p.a.ce to play with — a red sword, a waistcoat he wears during the day and back into the s.p.a.ce at night, bows, arrows, a set of steel knight equipment, three steel lances for emergencies , mithril ore, crystal, jade, all of which neatly stacked.
Also present were black pearls, dragon bones, a drift bottle, a telescope and tobacco.
There was also a whole bunch of food including plenty of milk, eggs, meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and all kinds of condiments. The gemstone s.p.a.ce was static, it doesn"t deteriorate matter and food can stay good as long as you want.
With this supply, even if he was thrown to a deserted island, he wouldn"t have a problem staying alive for a few months. He even put in a few soap bars.
Thirty Flame Mushroom magic potions made by Elkson were also present in the gem s.p.a.ce.
"It wasn"t easy but with a little bit of saving, I have gathered a lot." Satisfied with how he arranged the materials, he closed the gem s.p.a.ce, lay down in bed and started counting sheep.
He didn"t notice how long it took, but when he could not resist the exhaustion anymore, he soon fell asleep.