CHAPTER 380: CHAPTER 210: THE PERSON FROZEN IN TRAGEDY

When they heard that the headband in Alka’s hand—originally somewhat black and not very special even after being cleaned—turned out to be a Treasure, their fatigue vanished instantly. They all stood up from their resting spots on the scattered stones and gathered around Alka, looking at the unremarkable headband with curious eyes.

"To be honest, this appearance is quite ordinary," Jason said, looking at the headband in Alka’s hand. "If this were thrown on the ground, no one would think it was a Treasure."

When a Treasure is not activated, it remains subdued, revealing no special characteristics, unless its appearance is inherently unique and beautiful.

Like Alka’s [Mirror Surface]—just looking at it tells you it’s a valuable item. Then there are types like [Frost Nova] and [Dream Catcher]. Even if you don’t think they are Treasures, you would assume they are rather nice pieces of Spell Equipment.

"My banner is also quite ordinary," Lucilia said, waving her arm, which had a red armband on it.

"Yours is too ordinary. If this headband were mine, I’d at least pick it up. But if your banner were on the ground, I’d just kick it away," Jason said, waving his hand dismissively. "This headband might be ordinary, but it’s nowhere near as plain as your banner."

"Is this the time to argue about this?" Chadite said, a bit speechless. Why are they acting like children?

Julia stepped forward, looked at Alka, and asked, "What abilities does this Treasure have?"

Hearing this, Alka shook his head. "No idea. I only know this Treasure is called the [Ring of Light], and it’s a Holy Grail Level Treasure. As for its abilities... well, my [Dream Catcher] somewhat repels it."

"Whoever controls it will know. But now isn’t the time; let’s explore that steel ship first."

Everyone nodded in agreement at Alka’s words and withdrew their gazes.

Since the Treasure couldn’t be put into a Pocket Ring, Alka had to carry it in his hand. After all, the [Dream Catcher] only repelled it without attacking, and it was a one-sided repulsion.

Pororo looked at the steel ship ahead, then turned and asked, "Shouldn’t we rest a bit?"

After all, they had just gone through an intense battle, and none of them were in perfect condition.

"No need. Just stay vigilant; there aren’t many enemies left inside that ship," Alka said, giving everyone a reassuring look.

Only two white and one blue light spots remained on the map. The two white spots were the Treasure Vaults of the two ships. The Difficulty of the blue and white light spots on the steel ship was Three Spirals and Four Spirals, respectively.

This was enough to indicate that the enemies on the steel ship weren’t very strong now. Furthermore, the commotion just now had been loud enough that any slightly more formidable enemies would have already seized the opportunity to surround them.

It was understandable. In the battles more than a decade ago, the steel ship’s crew had gained the upper hand. This likely caused most of its members to invade this wooden ship, which was why there had seemed to be an excessive number of enemies on the wooden ship back then.

Moreover, the remnants of clothing on the walking corpses in the wooden ship clearly showed they belonged to two distinct groups.

Hearing Alka’s words, everyone nodded. No longer hesitating, they reformed their ranks and filed towards the steel ship, entering directly through a break in its middle.

The steel ship was fairly intact. Its greatest damage was a crack that had split it in two when it fell. From this, it was evident that the ship had two decks and a hold, a seemingly basic design for ships over 40 meters long.

However, due to the ship’s height, the internal space seemed larger, allowing Pororo to move inside by merely ducking his head a bit, as long as it wasn’t in a compressed section.

The entire hold was empty. Aside from some supplies that had completely decayed, there were no walking corpses.

They ascended the relatively intact stairs.

On the second floor, they saw a... corpse.

"There’s actually a normal corpse here?" Jason said with some surprise, looking at the body not far away.

The corpse’s flesh had long rotted away, leaving only yellowish-black bones. Judging by the skeleton, the person’s entire left arm was gone, their left leg and right hand had varying degrees of fractures, and three ribs were broken.

But compared to the scattered bones they had seen before, this skeleton was relatively complete.

"So why didn’t such a complete body turn into a walking corpse?" Chadite asked, somewhat puzzled. They hadn’t seen a single normal corpse on their entire journey; all of them had been walking corpses.

This was the first time they had seen a normal corpse on this island, one that hadn’t turned into an undead.

Looking at the corpse, Alka thought for a moment, then approached the skeleton for a careful inspection. Within a minute, he formed a possible explanation based on its condition.

Those left on the ship might have been like Simon, immobilized by special Spells due to their injuries. Since their living teammates, and even their commander, had perished along with the enemy due to the enemy’s tactics, these individuals, who were in a state of Stagnation and severely injured, naturally died from lack of treatment.