CHAPTER 371: CHAPTER 207: SAILBOAT RUINS

[Light Buried in Dirt]

[Difficulty: Holy Light Squad (Six Spirals)]

[Fame: 3,659]

[Treasure Information: The Holy Grail Level Treasure [Ring of Light], while under the control of its previous owner, Holy Machine Church’s Wisdom Walker - Leibihorn, was involved in a battle with the Heretic. Leibihorn was killed during the enemy’s desperate final counterattack. Ultimately, they perished together, and this Treasure remained on his corpse.]

Very well. The Treasure Information was now fully displayed.

So, this Treasure was called the Ring of Light, and its Level was Holy Grail.

According to the Treasure Information, this Treasure didn’t belong to the Heretic, as Alka had previously guessed, but to Simon’s former captain.

As the information stated, the Treasure had appeared in the ruins of the enemy’s ship. This was likely because Leibihorn had gained the upper hand in the battle, pushed into the enemy’s lair, and clearly achieved victory in the end.

However, the Heretic, who also controlled a Treasure, was clearly formidable. They used their final means to take Leibihorn, the Wisdom Walker of the Holy Machine Church, down with them. This was the so-called ’mutual destruction.’

Considering the state of the island and Simon’s current condition, it seemed likely that not only the two leaders had perished, but everyone else as well.

So, was it area-of-effect damage? Alka wasn’t sure.

But if that were the case, two Treasures should have been left behind, yet there was only one point of light.

Why did this situation occur? Alka squinted his eyes and pondered.

Alka first considered the means of mutual destruction. Perhaps the Heretic had used some method to activate their Treasure right before dying, leading to them perishing together. This was similar to the Realm of Pitch Darkness. Its creation had also involved a Treasure being destroyed through some ritual—another method of taking an enemy down with oneself. The only difference was that a Scepter Level Treasure had been destroyed in that instance.

So, was this possibility high? After all, it was a Treasure, even if it was just Holy Grail Level. If it was destroyed due to this, would the island’s condition be reasonable? That’s unreasonable.

The only explanation and evidence for this possibility were those undead corpses. The metal growing out of their bodies, and the nature of the constructs themselves, seemed highly related to the Heretic’s Treasure. But the affected range was too small, which didn’t align with normal circumstances.

Still, this couldn’t be completely ruled out. After all, Alka had only witnessed one instance of a Treasure being destroyed. Perhaps some Treasures’ post-destruction effects are indeed low.

Another possibility was that someone had survived the battle and left with the Heretic’s Treasure. The Treasure Information had already established that the Heretic died in the mutual destruction, so it was impossible for the Heretic himself to have left with the Treasure. Alka had never known Treasure Information to be incorrect.

Perhaps the circumstances at the time had forced this survivor to leave in a rush, without fully dealing with the situation on the island. This possibility is somewhat higher, Alka thought.

Of course, there’s another possibility: Simon is lying. He can act and is in control of that Treasure. If a Treasure has an owner, it isn’t shown on the map. But this would only be the case if he hadn’t been unconscious from the very beginning. If so, his initial inquiry about the ship’s status wouldn’t have been met with ’I don’t know.’ So this possibility also has flaws; it isn’t perfect.

Besides these scenarios, he really couldn’t think of any other reason why only one Treasure was gleaming with golden light. Regardless, he had to be cautious in his future actions, wary of a hidden enemy controlling a Treasure.

Afterward, he clicked on the other points of light. Their Treasure Information also expanded, with two even reaching ’perfect’ clarity. All of this corroborated Simon’s words. Simon hadn’t lied when answering Alka’s questions.

So Simon really didn’t know... There was too little information; he was completely in the dark as to why there was only one golden point of light.

Then Alka began some simple planning, preparing for the exploration that was about to commence.

「The sky grew increasingly bright, darkness retreating.」

Various footsteps echoed throughout the ship, indicating that people were gradually waking up. This continued until the sound of a bell ringing echoed from the first-floor restaurant. Everyone then gathered in the restaurant.

Alka took a bite of the bread in his hand and told everyone about what he did last night, "Last night, I entered that person’s Dream Realm again and confirmed that person is indeed on this island and in an immobile state."

Upon hearing Alka’s words, the others, who had been chatting idly, immediately focused their attention on him.

"I chatted with him for a bit," Alka went on, "and managed to extract some information from his words that might be accurate."

Speaking, Alka stuffed the remaining bread into his mouth, then gulped down the nearby juice. After wiping his mouth, he continued, "Firstly, there is likely a Treasure on this island. Secondly, the wrecks of those two ships aren’t safe. They’re quite dangerous, so we must make thorough preparations for battle."

Upon hearing that a Treasure might exist, everyone looked astounded.