Most attempts to swim around the fleet were less exciting than the first one. There were still occasional attacks by sea beasts, but they tended to be by the local strongest… alone. Many such beasts had never been challenged in their own domain, or at least not in a long time. Attacking a fleet of human ships was just instinct for them… and usually resulted in their demise. Unless they quickly retreated.

If they were wise enough to retreat they would be more cautious about ships in the future, which was good in case the continental forces actually returned to the region. It would be nice if, should they find any islands, they could reach a peaceful trade agreement. Ultimately, they wanted to avoid trouble with the final cardinal direction but that might be unlikely.

Once or twice, John felt a vague sensation of something beneath them. Powerful somethings in the deep that could easily be compared to the leviathan, though nothing had quite the same sort of energy signature. They might even be stronger, though as far as John was aware there was nothing that surpassed the Ascending Soul Phase. That was what they had to be truly cautious about, though it would be troublesome if a powerful beast seriously damaged or destroyed some of their ships.

A fleet searching randomly for islands might find it rather difficult, especially since the various records were less than precise about where they might be looking. As it turned out, oceans were big. However, they had several advantages. They could afford to sweep about looking for islands. They had people who could fly to get a bird's eye view. And perhaps one of the most important, they had the aid of spiritual energy… and most islands would concentrate spiritual energy in some form.

They almost missed their first chance- or perhaps they had already bypassed a number of islands. However, John happened to be up and gazing at the stars when he sensed something off in the distance. Rather than immediately alert anyone, he sought out a better angle, flying a bit closer. After all, he wasn't entirely certain if what he was sensing was anything at all.

That was how darkness element tended to work, and the island was infused with it. Even once he could see it… he couldn't really see it, except for a vague shape. Tempted as he was to land alone and explore, that would be a bit rude to everyone else who came along on the expedition. Thus he redirected the fleets towards what he had spotted. It was a bit more troublesome in the middle of the night as some crew had to be woken up, but it was no good to wait until morning and be a dozen kilometers further away. Ships didn't stop just because most of their crew were sleeping.

An expedition group was swiftly put together to explore the island. That of course included John, as he would be capable of acting efficiently no matter what they found. If John was going, Astrid would as well- even if it was a bit difficult for her to operate in a dark element zone. The most notable addition beyond that was Tenzing of the Gloom Desolation. The total makeup of their squad was a dozen individuals all at least at the Consolidated Soul Phase.

Even with his darkness enhanced sight, John couldn't make out anything about the island from a distance aside from its size and general shape. Not until they were actually about to step foot on the island, passing through some sort of barrier, could they make anything out.

Strangely, the sky went from dark night and sparkling stars to a pleasant blue. Or perhaps not, because everywhere John looked was tinted by that same blue.

"Curious," he commented. "This feels like…"

"Swimming underwater?" Astrid suggested.

John nodded. "Indeed." He didn't feel wet, but he did feel somewhat heavy. His movements were slower, and sounds were distorted. It was certainly something close to being underwater except clearly not that.

Tenzing frowned. "A strange island. I sense very little water element, for all that it has such properties."

John took a few moments to carefully consider the surrounding spiritual energy. "It's not particularly lower than the surrounding seas. It's simply the vastly more plentiful darkness that makes it seem that way."

Several members of the squad were Shimmering Island cultivators, as they were quite common among the fleet. They look quite relieved to still have access to their primary element, though if they had to convert darkness it wouldn't be so bad. It was still an allied element, after all.

In addition to the strange watery filter, the island itself contributed to the feeling. John was reminded of a kelp forest with the way the trees stood tall and proud, reaching high into the sky. It was as if they had suddenly descended to the depths of the sea. The shoreline had a number of barnacles and similar creatures on the rocks, though that wasn't particularly unexpected.

John kept his senses alert as he walked along hand in hand with Astrid. He diverted the surrounding darkness element towards himself so she wouldn't have to constantly wrestle with it. Darkness was more easily drawn inward, and he was able to constantly make use of costly sensory techniques, sweeping his senses far and wide.

They walked further into what appeared to be the forest, soon finding a pool teeming with small fish There were also some large anemones and sea urchins, as well as crabs and other creatures. He swept up a bit of water, tasting it. "Salty," he commented. "Like a tide pool, but it's a bit far from shore."

Astrid nodded. "The island slopes upwards towards the center, from what I can tell. Perhaps the tides rise a few meters beyond what is typical."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Tenzing was prodding one of the thin trees. "These trees are strange. They have little in the way of branches and simply grow leaves all along their length."

"I've certainly never seen anything quite like them," John commented. "We should take some samples. We'll have to break it down to allow it to fit anywhere, however."

He looked upwards. How high did they go? A hundred meters? He approximated that with his spiritual energy, and thought it might be even a bit higher than that. Perhaps they had to compete for sunlight during the day. It was rather surprising that they would be so tall, but in a world of spiritual energy it wasn't impossible.

So far, the only native beasts outside of the tidal pools appeared to be some seabirds high in the leaves. They were infused with the darkness element that permeated the whole island, but he at least noticed some of them when he was poking around in the area.

"Look here," Astrid commented. "Fish."

John was expecting another tide pool, but instead they were just laying on the ground, dead. It shouldn't have been that long, since they didn't smell that bad yet, but John noticed some of the tree's roots wrapping around them. "How high are we now?" he looked back. He couldn't see the ocean line, and the ships were barely a vague feeling he could have been making up. "The darkness element here sure makes it difficult to be certain of your senses."

Astrid concurred, and no doubt it was especially tough for her. Unless she wanted to actively use her light element, of course, but that would wear her out quickly. For the moment, she was conserving most of her energy. John was converting through earth into fire, allowing part of that cycle to bleed off into her to replace what she used while he retained the majority for his own usage. He could keep up such a pace all day. Or night, as it turned out.

"It's strangely light," Astrid commented as they picked their way along. "Not exactly bright, but I can see somewhat better than under the night sky."

"Is it?" John asked. "It's difficult for me to compare since my night vision is excellent." His eyes made sparkling stars extremely interesting to look at, seemingly far brighter. "I find the watery distortions here a bit harder to see through."

"It's like being underwater in the daylight," Astrid suggested. "More than being out in the night."

"As a darkness cultivator without specially enhanced eyes, I concur," Tenzing said. "I don't have to actively look through to get a decent picture. Though I can still only see so far."

They took samples of various plants as they continued along, including chopping a few trees into manageable bits. There were also some darkness infused plants that seemed like they might be valuable. However, they didn't pull up whole patches. They still didn't know if anyone lived on this island, and even if there were no human inhabitants it was best to not disturb things too much. After all, they wanted any valuable resources to replicate themselves for when they came back later. It was stupid to take everything at once without giving it a chance to make the next generation. Especially for cultivators, who would live a long time.

A surprising lack of dangerous beasts made John confused. Surely something had to have grown more than anything else, with the quantity of spiritual energy on display. Maybe the birds were hiding something.

They came upon another tide pool… if it could be called that when it was more like a lake. However, it was similarly filled with salt water and what would be considered sea life.

"Did we head downhill?" John asked.

Astrid shook her head. "I'm beginning to think that all the water here is like this. At some point this lake was populated and then…" she shrugged. Then she looked up. "The weird thing is that the birds aren't trying to eat any of this stuff."

"Maybe they're too small," John suggested. However, he knew that was a rather weak thought. There was no reason they wouldn't just eat several times as many of the easy pickings. It was possible the creatures simply bred fast enough to survive. "The problem is that it's pretty shallow."

It was strange to look into water when everything already looked watery. He didn't get the expected distortion, allowing him to see the bottom easily enough. There was nowhere for fish to hide, which was different from a proper lake where they could at least dive down to avoid predators.

Everyone found the island quite strange. Astrid also noticed something interesting. "The trees are all the same height. No, they all reach the same height. But some start further down."

Once it had been pointed out, it was impossible to ignore. An even line where they all ended became quite obvious. It was like they were attached to something.

"I need to check this out," John said. Was there a hidden roof of some sort? A glass ceiling, or perhaps even solid rock that was disguised by the darkness element. "I'll need both hands to climb."

He could fly, of course, but that might disturb the local wildlife. He wasn't interested in attracting the attention of some sort of king of beasts… or a swarm of birds. Both were equally undesirable. He couldn't sense anything problematically strong, but assuming that on a dark element island was a bit foolish.

Astrid let go of his hand and let him climb. John found that the leaves couldn't really support him, but he was able to climb by bracing his feet against the trunk and pulling with his arms behind it. It was like climbing up bamboo, and while he didn't do that often he could. He wasn't really worried about falling for any number of reasons.

He thought there might be an interesting view, but he couldn't see terribly far given the local darkness element. Because it wasn't normal darkness, his eyes didn't really help. If he focused on his eyes… he was still blocked by the physical reality of the numerous trees. They were all the same type, but that wasn't a surprise for an isolated island.

Reaching the top of one tree that didn't have any residents, John saw quite a few birds. There was no solid roof or anything particularly different at the top. Just confirmation that the tops all hit a level plane, more or less.

He spotted a glisten out of the corner of his eye and tuned to pick up the small object atop the wide leaves. He found a small crystal. Investigating with his earth element made him lick it. A chunk of salt. Strange. Everything was strange.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.