The speed at which space-time energy was collected gradually increased. Especially after entering the air route, although there wasn't much energy in each location, it was particularly easy to find. Ethan could continuously gather energy from one point to the next without stopping.
However, once the collection reached a certain threshold, he no longer continued, instead steering the Goddess of Dawn back onto the scheduled route and pushing forward steadily.
"Aren't you going to activate that magic of yours? Let's head to another world and relax for a bit?"
Life at sea was dull and repetitive, and each voyage took a considerable amount of time. Ethan had already spent a significant chunk of it just collecting energy.
During that time, he had received a message from Brent, who had already formed a temporary fleet with several captains who had agreed to join this "expedition." They were currently heading along this route.
Because it was a joint operation involving multiple warships, and since the sailing speeds varied, they had to maintain a relatively low pace. As such, it would still be quite a while before Brent and his group arrived.
Ethan intended to use this time to see how the sea had changed.
"If we can get close, we'll participate in this operation. After confirming that, I'll activate the teleportation magic and head to a new world to search for things."
If the Goddess of Dawn couldn't withstand the conditions in that sea, he wouldn't force it, and would withdraw immediately, then inform Brent that he couldn't proceed.
In that case, it wouldn't matter when he activated the teleportation spell.
As the Goddess of Dawn advanced deeper, the sea conditions indeed worsened earlier than expected.
Compared to the same point on the previous route, they should have just reached the middle section. Yet the natural elements—waves, currents, and so on—were already far worse. The Goddess of Dawn even collided with a piece of floating ice.
Fortunately, due to heavy snowfall and low visibility, their speed had been very slow. The ice floe itself was fragile and caused no damage to the ship.
Even so, everyone aboard broke into a cold sweat. Even Loki, who always maintained an elegant demeanor, was briefly stunned. Then he said to Ethan with absolute seriousness, "If this happens again, I'd rather you just toss me into some other world."
As the dignified second prince of Asgard, it would be too humiliating to sink in a shipwreck caused by ice.
"Be careful. That shouldn't happen again."
At that moment, Ethan was especially grateful he hadn't named the ship Titanic. Otherwise, who knew what would have happened.
After inspecting every cabin below deck, Ethan even stood on the water to examine the outside of the ship thoroughly. Thankfully, there was no damage, and they continued sailing.
He couldn't help being cautious. The sea conditions were worsening, the waves rising higher. When they first entered the route, they had been able to sail relatively smoothly. Now, even with the balance system activated, the swaying and bobbing were so intense that even those who didn't normally get seasick felt dizzy.
"I strongly recommend that we go to another world and rest now."
After enduring for a while, Loki finally couldn't take it. Thinking of his status as the prince of Asgard—how had he ended up in this situation? Even when defeated and imprisoned, he had been treated to fine food and drink. While he wasn't technically a prisoner aboard Ethan's ship, life here was worse than captivity.
"While I'd like to say I can still endure, for the sake of maintaining the crew's combat readiness, I agree with Loki's suggestion."
Selene said nothing. Even though her already pale complexion looked worse now, she remained silent. Laura had stopped playing video games altogether, hugging Auriel, whose eyes had turned into spirals, and begging Ethan to take her somewhere fun instead of riding this "pirate ship" all day.
"If you hadn't brought it up… I was about to say I can't take it anymore either."
Taking advantage of a brief spell of calmer weather, Ethan told everyone to pack up and prepare to travel to another world to rest. He wasn't expecting to gain anything from this trip—he just wanted to unwind.
If they kept pressing on in their current state, they'd reach the destination too exhausted to fight, which was not a good sign.
At this point, Ethan was nearly certain. Even if the Goddess of Dawn could hold out under normal conditions, the crew definitely could not.
No wonder Brent had to switch to an ironclad ship. Besides its metal armor, it likely had stronger balance and stabilizer systems to help it stay steady in such rough seas.
"Ready?"
Everyone was carrying bags big and small, filled with clean water, dry rations, and essential weapons and ammo. Only Loki carried his scepter. Ethan knew this guy's "personal space" or illusions could handle clothing, and as for food and supplies, he'd just shamelessly rely on Ethan.
Once everyone was set, Ethan activated the shuttle circle.
With a burst of blue light, and perhaps still reeling from the previous few days, even Ethan felt the teleportation was a little shaky. Everyone experienced a moment of dizziness.
Fortunately, it passed quickly. Once they came to, they felt solid ground beneath their feet.
"Finally, not at sea anymore."
It didn't matter where they were. As long as they were on land, that was enough. Ethan looked around and found they were standing in a forest.
Towering trees surrounded them. The canopy was so dense that barely any sunlight reached the ground.
Looking up, they could see beams of bright sunlight filtering through the leaves. Even that was enough to light the forest well.
"Where are we?"
"No idea."
Ethan couldn't tell where they were. All he saw was forest—he couldn't make any specific judgment. At the very least, they needed to encounter someone.
"What do we do now?"
"Pick a direction and see if we can find people… or other creatures."
The first half sounded normal. The second half made Logan and Selene realize that they had truly come to another world—not necessarily Earth.
Logan had followed Ethan through several worlds before and had only encountered humans. They were basically different versions of Earth, with the occasional alien or a being like Loki who looked human.
For Selene, this was her first time visiting another world. During their time at sea and shopping on the central island, everyone she saw had been human. She had never imagined this was even a possibility.
"Can't you tell just by looking at the plants? Do they look the same as on Earth?"
Logan reached for a branch to examine it, but quickly pulled back. Since they didn't know where they were, who could say if the plant was harmful?
"From what I can see, these plants are basically the same as those on Earth. Nothing stands out."
That was also why Ethan couldn't make a judgment. In order to learn potion-making, he had studied most of Earth's herbology and even observed many plant types in detail. That allowed him to guess which world he was in, given similar flora.
To him, the plants they were seeing now looked just like Earth's. The odds of still being on Earth were actually quite high.
After wandering the forest for a while, Ethan figured they probably wouldn't make it out today. They had just picked a random direction and kept moving forward.
"Meow!"
Auriel, who had been resting quietly on Laura's shoulder, suddenly stood upright, arched her back, and raised her tail. It looked like she had detected danger and was alerting the group.
"Hmm?"
Auriel could use a mental-link ability to let everyone understand her meaning, so even without seeing her stance, they knew an enemy was approaching.
That wasn't surprising. What shocked Ethan and Logan was that several people in the group had detection abilities—like Logan's beast-like perception—yet Auriel had sensed the enemy first? Even Ethan was taken aback.
"Was her perception always this strong?"
Putting that thought aside, Ethan had already drawn his Battle Cross. Since his staff was damaged and he hadn't made a new one yet, the Battle Cross was now his main weapon.
The weapon hadn't been upgraded. While it could release an energy blade with Holy Light attributes, it was a pseudo-Holy Light he had crafted earlier. Its purity was nowhere near the level of the Holy Light from his chest or what the Cross of Light implied.
Still, as a longsword, its sharpness rivaled that of high-end crafted weapons. So when a gray wolf suddenly rushed out and charged at Ethan, he sliced it cleanly in two with one strike.
But that wasn't the end of the attack. Ethan didn't lower his guard just because he'd killed a single gray wolf. More soon emerged from the woods.
"Are there this many wolves?"
Looking out into the distance, more wolves appeared behind the ones already surrounding them. Before long, they were encircled, three layers deep.
"Tsk."
Ethan casually sheathed the Battle Cross. With this many wolves, cutting them down one by one would take forever.
Just as Logan thought Ethan was about to unleash some big spell, he saw his captain take a step back, position himself behind Loki, and pat him on the back.
"It's time to show your training achievements."
(To be continued.)
***
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