In fact, Xia De had not originally planned to reach the island in the middle of the lake so soon. His plan was to investigate the situation and find out the situation in the safest way. But since he had the help of "Miss Pharmacist", it was not unacceptable to reach the island in advance.
For the operation of landing on the island, Shad actually didn't need to prepare anything. After leaving Natalie's mother-in-law, he sneaked into the underground warehouse behind the hotel and returned home. Because Mia was taken away by Dorothy, Shad also went to Quill Pen Street and invited Miss Writer to have lunch together.
Dorothy also informed Shad that Resia had informed Miss Carina that he needed help. The Duchess had booked a table at the restaurant on Silver Cross Avenue tonight, and they would talk over dinner after Shad returned from Green Lake.
After lunch, Dorothy returned home with Mia and Shad. Shad sent Miss Danister an invitation to meet through the manuscript paper, then said goodbye to the writer who was looking for information in the study and returned to Green Lake City.
When Shad opened the door of Green Lake Hotel again, Helen Green behind the counter was gone, and her twin brother, Soren Green, was in charge of the afternoon shift. As for the young and beautiful "pharmacist lady", I don't know if she had never left, she was still sitting in the place where she met Shad in the morning, reading a novel written in Kasenrik, "Silent Forest".
Shade walked over and sat down across the table. The sorceress looked at him and pursed her lips without speaking first, so Shade started the conversation with a boring topic:
"This hotel is really interesting. Most of the paintings on the walls of the upstairs corridor are realistic portraits of animals. Rabbits, birds, elks, owls, etc. If you get close, you can even see the details of the animal hair. I don't quite understand why the hotel has such paintings. Shouldn't they usually be landscape paintings?"
“Maybe it’s the owner’s unique aesthetic style.”
The sorceress said, and after putting away the book, she asked Xia De:
"Can we set off now?"
"We can go now, but I have a date with a beautiful lady this evening, so our island exploration won't take too long, right?"
"No, two or three hours will be enough. But you have to remember the two requirements I mentioned. This is the basis of our cooperation."
The distance from the city to the Green Lake was not short, and Shade originally thought that he would have to take a horse-drawn carriage, but the "pharmacist lady" had already prepared it. She took Shade out of the hotel and moved along the street toward the east of the city.
Ten minutes later, they passed through the foggy city and came to the banks of the Duin River, which runs north and south through the Green Lake area. A small ferry was already waiting for them there.
It was a steamboat equipped with a small compressed steam engine, and its hull, including decks and cabins, was much more luxurious than any old wooden ship that Shad could summon.
There was no boatman here. After Shad and the pharmacist lady boarded the boat, the sorceress lifted up her black low-heeled leather shoes under her skirt and stomped on the deck twice, and the boat started by itself.
"Is this... a mechanical construct?"
Amid the sound of the steam engine, Shade asked the sorceress in surprise:
“It’s really amazing.”
“This technology is nothing special.”
The pharmacist lady said calmly.
"No, no, I'm not complimenting you on your skills. What I mean is that it's amazing that you were able to get this thing into the city without the church finding out. I know I shouldn't ask about your true identity casually, but I think that as an ordinary person, you must have a very high status in the local area."
The pharmacist ignored him.
The Duin River is directly connected to Green Lake. Now that spring has arrived, the steamboat carries the two people from the upper reaches of the river unimpeded, all the way to the south. The boat is very fast, and after leaving the city, it is the countryside. But because the city is not very far from Green Lake, Shade did not have to look at the endless fields and the small villages located on the roadside of the fields for long before the boat officially entered Green Lake.
Although he had known that the lake was very large, Xia De was still surprised when he actually saw it.
"Green Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in the central part of the Old World."
The pharmacist explained to Shade, cast a Silencing Charm, and then stretched out her finger and lightly drew a line in the air. The sound of the ship and the ship itself disappeared into the air:
"After that incident, the church did not allow anyone to go to the island to prevent the thick fog from spreading to the lake and even affecting the surrounding cities due to rash actions. If you want to go to the island by yourself in the future, remember not to be too conspicuous."
Winter has just passed, and it is not yet the traditional fishing season in the Green Lake area. Therefore, there are not many fishing boats on the huge Green Lake. Instead, inland ships transporting goods are more common.
Although the island in the middle of the lake shrouded in thick fog is in the center of the lake, the fog itself will affect ordinary people's sense of direction, making it difficult for normal ships to sail to the island without guidance. Therefore, there is no need to worry about ordinary people rashly landing on the island.
As for the ring wizard, as long as he knew the existence of the island, he would not have to worry about being confused by the white fog. Therefore, the steamboat carrying the two of them headed straight for the center of the lake. As the hull left ripples on the silky lake surface in the spring afternoon, Shade stood on the deck and looked below the lake, still thinking about helping Mr. Edmund catch the rotten-tail fish.
Soon, the two of them observed the thick fog in the center of the lake in the distance. As they continued to move forward, the fog around them became thicker and thicker until their vision was limited to within five or six meters.
"The white fog only exists within a hundred meters around the island, and has never shown any signs of expansion in the past hundred years."
The pharmacist said this in a cold tone, while Xia De frowned and looked around:
"Feel anything?"
The space in the fog is unstable. If you rashly use the "Space Stabilization Aura" in such an area, it will create a lot of noise. The fog is indeed poisonous, but it will have little effect on you, so don't worry about it.
"How big of a noise can it make?"
She chuckled and said:
You can give it a try.
The pharmacist was obviously familiar with this area of water. Even though the view was blocked, the steamer still purposefully carried the two of them to the dock on the island. Before he noticed the ship slowing down, Shade didn't even realize there was a dock here.
"We're here."
The boat just touched the dock and stopped, the ripples slowly disappeared in the mist, the sorceress took out a small gray satchel from the cabin and hung it on her waist, which made her look like a girl who went out to pick herbs. She made a big circle to avoid Shade on the deck and walked down first, and Shade followed closely and left the deck.
The diffused fog on the island became thicker and thicker. Apart from the spaces left by the ancient gods, even the fog in the "narrow gap between life and death" in Midhill Castle was not so exaggerated.
"Items like compasses are useless on the island. Spatial perception techniques will be confused. Only some relics at the Keeper level or above can correctly guide the direction."
Although she was still very cold to Shade, the pharmacist played her role as a "guide" faithfully. Like Shade, she didn't care about the poison in the fog. But when walking along the pier towards the island, she specifically told Shade:
"Remember, you can't get within 1 meter of me, but don't get too far away either. Follow me closely. Once you get separated in the fog, it will be difficult to reunite."
Xia De then took two steps forward. If it weren't for the fact that the badge hanging around his neck still showed no signs of heating up, he would have really suspected that he had encountered the Great Witch again:
"But alchemical items are not omnipotent. What if the other party has targeted magic... But if she is a witch, there is no reason for her to treat me like this. She should want to test me... What a strange lady."
After leaving the pier, the pharmacist did not immediately take Shade deeper into the island, but took him to the right along the shore. Soon, they saw a beach piled with various garbage and bones. Of course, when Shade noticed these things, he was almost about to step on them.
"The water of Green Lake will periodically push some things from the lake here. I heard from Grandma Natalie that you want to buy the skeletons of rotten fish. This should be what you want. This island may not be visited once every few months, and no one will come here specifically to look for garbage."
The lady with short brown hair said. Xia De looked at her with some surprise. He didn't expect that she brought him here for this:
"Thanks."
The sorceress pursed her lips and did not reply, signaling Shade to act quickly.
As a species of alien creature with extraordinary power, the corpse of the "rotten tail fish" must also be attached with elements. Although the white fog on the island will seriously disrupt Shade's perception, it does not hinder his ability to perceive elements at close range.
Although the area of the garbage-covered beach was not large, after a careful search, Xia De found eight rotten and smelly fish in just over ten minutes.
He arranged the fish on the beach for easy counting, then walked around the beach again before giving up the search. If he looked carefully, there must be fish bones of rotten fish, but he didn't come to the island for this, so he couldn't waste too much time here. Natalie's mother-in-law said that the local black market could buy 5 fish, so there were still 7 fish to 20. He could come here again or go down to the lake to try his luck.
As for the stinking dead fish, Shade originally planned to wrap them up in cloth and store them in the cabin. But the sorceress who was watching him "picking up garbage" couldn't bear to watch it, so she stopped him:
"It seems that you have no detailed knowledge of the treatment of skeletal materials."
She said helplessly, and her cold tone had some emotion. What she said was true. Most of the skeletal materials of Shade were purchased from Mr. Kopps in Tobesk, and she rarely collected them herself.
The sorceress was rummaging through the cloth bag she was carrying across her body, and Shade saw that the bag was divided into many small bags, each of which contained a reagent bottle.
The pharmacist threw a brown potion bottle to Shade and asked him to pour the potion on the dead fish. Then, she asked him to separate the fish and wrap them in different cloths, and fill the gaps between the cloth bags with some wormwood.
After finishing all this, they returned to the dock and put the materials into the cabin, and then officially began their exploration of the island.