Ke De, with two dark circles under his eyes, shook his head vigorously. "No, they are all dead islands. My people suffered heavy losses. What about you?"
Charles raised his empty left sleeve, "Neither is the island I explored."
Annoyed, Kede cast his eyes back to the sea chart on the table. "These are the only ones left. There must be a ladder to the Land of Light, or an island where the "king" can replenish his supplies."
Lily jumped onto the map and stepped on the farthest island chain. "Mr. Charles, do you think it's possible that they have really big ships that can go directly to those islands without any supplies?"
Kede pushed Lily away angrily. "What do you know? This is impossible. Look at the distance between here and here. No steamship of any type in the Earth Sea can make such a long voyage. Even the Royal Giant cannot. They must have a supply point."
Charles comforted the angry Lily and handed her the pen. "Stop talking about this, let's choose an island again. As usual, you go first."
Ke De first drew two crosses on the two circled islands, then re-drew two other islands, and then returned the pen to Charles.
"What about this island?" Charles pointed at the island he drew last time.
"That island is not right. My ship hasn't come back yet. Let's ignore these difficult ones and explore other easy islands first."
Charles thought about it and drew another circle on the island without a cross.
Ke De was stunned. He didn't expect the other party to choose this island. Then, a smile appeared on his wrinkled face. "Okay, I admire Captain Charles' courage."
"Danger and benefit are relative. Dangerous places are most likely to contain clues."
"That's it, leave as soon as possible and don't die again."
But just as De was about to leave, he was stopped by Charles. This time it was Richard who took action. "Wait, old man, do you have any relics in your hand? Give me some."
The islands will only become more and more dangerous. The stronger his crew is, the higher the survival rate on the island will be. With such a sheep next to him, it would be a waste not to shear its wool.
"No, my crew also needed relics. I gave those to you. What did they use?"
"Then do you, the believers of the God of Light, have any way to improve your strength besides getting rid of the relics?" Richard didn't care, as long as it could improve his strength, anything would be fine.
When Ke De heard this, his expression was a little hesitant, as if he was considering something.
Richard came over with a playful smile and put his right hand on his shoulder.
"No way~ You're still hiding something at this time? Don't forget, we are all in the same boat now. My increased strength will benefit everyone~"
Ke De shook his head. "That's not the reason. The Church of Light does have a way to make an ordinary person stronger, but there is a prerequisite. You must be a believer of the God of Light. If you are not a believer of the God of Light, you will be devoured by the holy fire if you accept the ceremony."
Richard still had some hope, "Is there really no other way?"
Ke De thought silently for a while, then said, "Your crew members are all ordinary people. They probably haven't used anything else to improve their strength, right?"
"No."
"Okay, I remember I have a bunch of stuff that you might be able to use. I'll get it for you."
Richard showed a smug smile on his face, and said to Charles in his mind: "What do you think? Brother, I am good at taking advantage of others. If you don't take advantage of the opportunity, you are a bastard~"
"This batch of stuff was bought from the auction in Sodom by my sect. Ordinary people can improve their physical fitness by eating it. I lied and said that the cargo ship was missing and concealed this batch of goods. I originally planned to sell it to provide supplies for the future exploration. Now it's yours."
"There are no side effects, right?" Charles was a little wary.
"It's not a relic, so how can there be any side effects? If you don't believe me, I can ask others. There are many people who have eaten this kind of thing at sea."
Charles immediately asked the mice to call back all the crew members for such a good thing. More than a dozen people ate all of them, and even Lily's mouse got some.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" With an excited look on his face, Dipp raised his fists and waved them in the air, causing a slight strong wind.
The crew members nearby were also testing their strengthened bodies.
After trying it a few times, Krona looked up at Charles with some surprise and said, "Captain, this thing really works! You should try it too."
Charles clenched his fist and punched the air, "Bang!" The sound he made was different from that of other crew members. When he swung his fist, there was even a trace of afterimage. Charles felt the front of his fist slightly hot.
With the physical enhancement of 096 and the enhancement of Kede's things, his strength has reached a new level.
"It's okay, barely level three." Ke De judged from the side.
"What determines the combatant rating of a warship?"
"It's not determined by anything. This is just a rough standard among the members of the Earth Sea warships. If you want to improve your rank, the fastest way is to kill guys of a higher rank than you."
"How strong is the "king" of Sodom?" Charles immediately thought of the fat man covered in fat. He was the most powerful enemy he had ever faced.
Ke De shook his head. "It's hard to say. Generally speaking, his strength is at the fourth level. He became the "king" because of other things."
Other things? Are you talking about that little girl or that ability that makes her invincible? The physical strength of the "king" is level 4, so just because I defeated him, doesn't that mean my strength is level 4
Thinking of this, Charles became interested. He only cared about the exploration ship before and didn't really care about the warship system of the Earth Sea.
"Who is the most powerful person at sea right now?"
"Julio, the governor of Cat Island in the East Sea, has a strength of level 15. I heard that he alone can defeat a fleet of thousands of people."
Hearing this, Charles had a question in his mind, "He is so powerful, why doesn't he explore the island?"
Ke De looked at Charles with a strange look, "Why explore? Julio already owns the largest island in the Earth Sea, why would he want to die? Besides, he may not be able to compare with you and me when it comes to exploring unknown islands."
Charles' mind quickly flashed through the several islands he had explored and he found that it was indeed the case. Being strong was only relative to other humans. Being strong did not necessarily mean one could gain much advantage against the various strange creatures in the sea.
"Don't pay attention to those guys. They are all ignorant mortals. No matter how powerful they are, they are just low-level animals driven by desire. Only by finding the land of light and entering the kingdom of the God of Light can we humans obtain eternal happiness and peace."
(End of this chapter)