Chapter 19: Enemies on a Narrow Road
After docking the boat, Ethan wandered around the beach. Initially, he wanted to set up his camp on the beach, but after observing for a while, he found it was too close to the sea.
It might be submerged by the tide, ruining the shelter he had painstakingly built, so he had to move further inland.
"This looks good."
He looked back; this spot was a small slope, a good distance from the forest, preventing anything from suddenly jumping out of the woods and catching him off guard.
The slightly higher ground also avoided the seawater that might spread up during high tide.
"Next, I need to build a shelter."
Ethan looked up at the sky. The clear sky had somehow become overcast, and it seemed like it would rain at any moment.
If he couldn't build a place to shelter from the wind and rain in the shortest time, he would have to go back to the boat to rest.
After drifting at sea for so long, he really wanted to sleep soundly on land.
Even exploring the island had to be put aside for the time being.
"Fortunately, I learned how to make tents using simple materials in the Diablo world."
With Ethan's current strength, he couldn't easily cut down large trees, then use dazzling sword techniques to chop the wood into the materials he needed, and then build a perfect wooden house with amazing craftsmanship.
His current strength only allowed him to collect and carry some relatively sturdy branches; anything thicker than a wrist was the limit.
For the roof of the shelter, he found some relatively wide and thick leaves, then peeled the bark off the branches and twisted it into ropes. Combining these random things, he made a simple tent.
Ethan went back and forth reinforcing it, finally looking at the oddly shaped tent before him, and could only give a helpless bitter smile: "At least it can block the wind and rain."
He casually patted it. Although the tent wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, it was quite sturdy. It probably wouldn't be blown away by the wind... right...
Crawling into the tent, Ethan lay on the 'bed' made of large leaves and stretched lazily, while calculating where to start exploring the small island tomorrow.
"First, let's circle the island and see."
If possible, Ethan wanted to explore every inch of the island, circling the island and then moving closer to the center in layers, thus ensuring he covered every part of the entire island and increasing his chances of finding magic stones.
But he also knew this method was not feasible because it wasted too much time.
When many adventurers found an island, their first choice was always to explore the central area. It seemed that having the most valuable things in the center of the island had become a universal rule.
"That must be wrong, otherwise the information that almost all islands have magic stones, which that person told me, would be common knowledge known to everyone."
But the reality was that even old sailors like Wood, who had been at sea for several years, didn't necessarily know this.
"I'll still look slowly. First, I'll circle it, choose a few standard reference points in different directions, and then pick one direction to explore inland."
Eliminating directions one by one, although slightly less efficient than circling towards the center, was the most practical method at the moment.
"It's a bit troublesome to do this alone. It would be great if I had some help."
Humans are always social creatures. When he first went to sea, Ethan had just left the village after living with many people for several years. Everything was new when he first went to sea, and he didn't feel much about it.
Later, there was the pressure of survival, and discovering that the sea was not calm, he also had an urgent need to improve his strength, so he didn't have the energy to think about these things for a while.
Now that his strength had increased, his safety had a certain guarantee, and the pressure of survival had suddenly decreased significantly. Coupled with the time he had spent adventuring with Isendra and Zul, he had become accustomed to having teammates. Suddenly being alone again, he inevitably felt a bit lonely.
"Given my situation, it's hard to find teammates."
Tossing and turning, Ethan drifted into sleep amidst the gradually increasing sound of raindrops. In his dream, he had many teammates and a very, very large ship. A group of companions lived happily on the ship, and after one adventure after another, they finally found the legendary endless land...
When Ethan opened his eyes, the sun had already risen, and the warm sunlight had made his simple tent warm. The rainwater left from last night had also disappeared without a trace.
Stepping out of the tent, he washed up with the rainwater he had deliberately stored last night. Ethan remembered the dream he had earlier.
"Why were all the people on my ship in the dream men? Did I not even manage to trick one girl? What kind of good ship is that!"
Angrily throwing the leaves in his hand to the ground, Ethan put on the armor Kassia had given him.
He had only worn this set of armor for half a day when he first returned to the Sea of Tranquility, and hadn't worn it since, only taking it out every day to wipe and maintain it.
Armor, even light armor, is not that comfortable to wear.
At the same time, Ethan finally understood why medieval knights wore a surcoat over their armor and also used a cape to cover their entire back.
"I used to think capes were just for decoration, but they're not..."
An unavoidable aspect of metal armor is that it absorbs heat when exposed to direct sunlight. If not covered by a cape and surcoat, it becomes a mobile metal oven in slightly warm weather.
In winter, metal absorbs cold air, and if not wrapped in a thick cloak, it becomes a mobile refrigerator.
The set of armor Kassia gave him did not have accessories like a surcoat and cape, so Ethan couldn't stand being roasted after wearing it for less than half a day and had to take it off.
Ethan put it on this time because he had no idea what dangers existed on this island. To be safe, it was better to wear all his equipment.
Also, apart from circling the island initially, most areas of this island were dense forest, with leaves providing shade to avoid direct sunlight, so Ethan didn't have to worry about his armor becoming an oven.
"Or, I could consider installing a temperature regulating magic circle on the armor."
Persisting in circling the island, Ethan, feeling his armor getting hotter and hotter, had to adjust his route, trying to walk in the shade of the trees.
Fortunately, this island was not particularly large, and with Ethan's current stamina and pace, he quickly circled the island and returned to his campsite.
"The island isn't big. I circled it in just over half a night. While it's not dark yet, I can explore the forest."
He also needed to find some food. Along the way, he had already seen some fruit trees. They were a specialty of this world, and he had obtained this kind of fruit from the guild as part of his supplies.
This fruit was simply called 'fruit'. It was a fruit similar to a coconut, but smaller, with a green skin that was very fragile. A light tap could crack it open. It was hollow inside and stored clear water with a plant aroma.
Besides the fresh water he prepared himself, this fruit was the main source of water in this world, and almost every adventurer's ship would stock as much of this fruit as possible.
Water stored in buckets would spoil and become undrinkable after a long time without a purifying magic stone, but this fruit could be stored for a particularly long time.
In addition, Ethan guessed that the water in this fruit contained enough vitamins, because in this world with scarce resources, many adventurers relied on salted fish jerky and temporarily caught seafood as food, with very little intake of vegetables, yet they did not suffer from the various sailing diseases he knew about. The most likely reason was the existence of these fruits.
Previously, Ethan didn't bring many fruits, relying on his ability to use the Water Creation spell. Now, he unexpectedly found many on this island and could fill one of the warehouses on his ship.
"I wonder if there's anything else?"
In the following days, Ethan's life became very regular again. He would wake up, wash up, eat, and then start exploring the island according to his plan, collecting the food he recognized – for the ones he didn't recognize, he took a sample, planning to take it back to the guild to inquire.
"I miscalculated. I should have bought something like a guide to all known foods."
After all, Ethan didn't have much experience. He was still figuring out many things, and many rules in this world were different from his previous life, so it was normal not to think of everything at once. Fortunately, he always remembered his mistakes to avoid repeating them.
Exploring like this, Ethan slowly approached the central area of the island.
There was nothing strange about the central area of this island; it was just a small hill. Compared to the surrounding greenery, it seemed a bit desolate, without even a blade of grass.
Ethan had been here a few times before, but he never found anything strange.
"Is it underground?"
If so, that would be troublesome. Ethan didn't bring any digging tools. Was he supposed to dig with his long sword? If Kassia knew, would she cross planes to chop him to death with one blow?
Just as Ethan was still hesitating whether to continue exploring other unknown areas or dig here first, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from the forest ahead, followed by several people walking out of the woods.
Ethan looked up and found that there was even an acquaintance among them.
It was Rodney, one of the two people he had rescued earlier. The reason he had left Stat Island early was because he had noticed that Rodney seemed to harbor ill intentions towards him.
As expected, this guy's subsequent actions perfectly confirmed Ethan's judgment.
"Ha, it's you! To run into you here, you're really unlucky!" Rodney seemed surprised to run into Ethan as well, but after two seconds of stunned, his face lit up with excitement. "Captain, it's this kid! He has the combat magic stone he got from Wood!"