With all the fears those islanders ama.s.sed through the history of their tribes, I was quite surprised when the men I bought didn"t hesitate at all when I ordered them to push the boat from the sh.o.r.e inside the warm waters of the sea. Recalling a graphic that showcased the difference between the boss and the leader I once found in one of the meme sharing websites, I was actually pulling the boat in the least comfortable position, turning my entire self from the chest down, wet.`
As soon as the boat started floating on top of the water without the support of the ground below, slowly inspected all of its insides first, making sure that there were no leaks, followed by the thorough inspection of the outside in looks for any sorts of air bubbles.
Somehow, despite it being both mine and theirs first attempt at making a simple boat, it turned out to be quite successful, with only two major flaws forcing us to pull it back on the sh.o.r.e and fix with small bits of wood nailed on top of the hole.
The second attempt resulted in our entire group boarding the boat, with it turning around as quickly as I turned happy seeing all four of us inside. Looking at the hasty movements of the men, I could see how much did they hate being in the water, making their moves far too volatile to keep the stability of the boat.
After a long few minutes that seemed to be an eternity, I finally managed to convince them to do everything calmly and just when I hoped I could finally start moving towards my island, the boat started s.h.i.+fting around only to capsize once again, with those d.a.m.ned islanders unable to keep the balance on it!
Only after forcefully stabilising it by adding more energy to my body as I moved to counter their wobbly actions, did we finally reached the point when we could swim forward.
Already knowledgable about the strong currents circulating half of the island, I intentionally entered the same one that almost made me unable to land on it before. It was also when I understood how grateful I was for all the accidents happening back, near the sh.o.r.e. If any of the men started acting out of his place as we suddenly speed up, I could only ditch the boat and them alike, before making my way with shockwaves back to the island!
"Okay guys, I won"t be able to do it alone now! Grab the planks and start rowing, or we will be lost at sea!"
Since we were already set on travelling through the waters, I could use some stick instead of relying only on the carrot. With their fear of the sea, I knew I could expect some good moves when escaping the influence of the current!
What I didn"t expect though, was both their desperation and how hard it was to paddle with just a simple plank!
Only after I took a quick break to carve proper handles in the planks we were using as paddles with a thin strand of the entropy did we manage to gain enough side momentum to break free from the sea movement, putting us on the route circulating the island before we could even direct ourselves to our new home!
Paddling our way forward, the city that Laicar mentioned finally came into our view.
To be honest, I expected it to be some kind of port city, stretching through the entire visible sh.o.r.e and as far into the land as an eye could see, but despite the fair distance that separated us from the beach, I could clearly see the ending line of the buildings!
While I called the stuff in the city "buildings" but it would be fairer to call them permanent tents!
Outside of a few exceptions, most of the structures used stable materials only as a base, with the walls made with just a fleeting piece of cloth of some kind!
Even the port itself was just a single catwalk leading about forty meters into the sea!
At this very moment, I suddenly felt ashamed.
Here I was, worrying about the untimely arrival of the overlord, while this entire place screamed poverty! Even with how rich this island was with energy, if someone had no access to various craftsmen and alchemists, not to speak about fellow cultivators, there was no way he could grow a formidable, personal strength!
Even if this overlord was stronger than anyone else on the island, that didn"t mean he was a threat to me!
With how small this settlement was, moving past it took us only a while. It could be caused by a sudden increase in the speed of the paddling by the men as well, which could serve as a good point of reference for me. If they were still scared of the overlord despite being at the open sea and after being subjected to my rule, I could use this fear as the leverage when I come back to this island!
As the ideas of changing my appearance and hiding my power to play around the local population popped in my mind, we finally moved past the part of the island that obstructed my home from the view.
Worried about the different currents that I didn"t encounter yet, I instantly paddled on my right, turning the front of the bout around, pus.h.i.+ng our future road almost into the sh.o.r.e of the island!
At first, there was no problems at all, but as we finally left the local"s island behind and took course directly at the now barren island of mine, I could feel something changing behind my back.
Turning my head around, I saw the faces of the men already turned white, as they stared at our destination.
"Is something wrong?"
"Eee… Ah, since you are not from this place, you might not know… But the island in front of us is called a "G.o.ds Grace" as the changes occurring on it tend to reflect what will soon happen to our home as well! From what the overlord told us, it"s the same for all the tribes of all the nearby islands! This place is also the reason why everyone hates travelling through the water in our place. As the island closest to our, many people tried to reach it, but after hundreds of brave people being eaten alive by the leviathan that guards the domain of the G.o.ds… Trying to reach this place turned into a taboo!"
That was an interesting piece of news! But as much as it piqued my curiosity, I couldn"t help but worry about a single part of the information.
"You said something about the changes, would you like to elaborate a bit?"
If something was periodically happening on this island, I had to know this in advance to prepare myself for potential trouble! The eruption of a volcano? Flood? Ma.s.sive beast extinction? Or maybe people with the system were appearing in this place every once in a while, always teleporting to this island and using parasitic seed to conquer its energy?
Just a simple question, but it proved once again that this world was far more complicated than I expected!