Deep Sea Embers

The White Oak was still moving forward in the mist, and the surging power output by the steam core drove its huge and efficient propulsion system, allowing it to quickly pass through the mist-covered sea area.

The sky turned darker at some point, and the cold wind on the sea made people feel even more uncomfortable. Lawrence tightened his coat, feeling that he had spent enough time blowing the wind on the deck today, so he turned and returned to the bridge.

A young priest wearing a blue-striped robe with black background and silver border was praying beside the machine, and slightly shaking the incense burner in his hand, causing the smoke to linger on several consoles. After seeing the captain, he stopped and politely said Lawrence nodded.

He is Jason, the priest on board the voyage, and Lawrence is not familiar with this young priest—in fact, most of the captains who undertake the task of transporting "abnormal items" often face strange priests. The priest on board is directly appointed by the city-state church and changes frequently. A priest on board usually only completes two or three sailing missions with the ship, and this replacement system is of course also for safety reasons.

After all, ships that transport dangerous goods will inevitably be affected by supernatural power, and as the "supernatural barrier" of the entire ship, the priest on board will bear almost all the pressure brought about by supernatural interference, including carrying items on board. The pollution that comes, as well as the mental stress of the crew members during the voyage—even the real impact of each crew member’s dream at night, will be reflected in the priest’s daily prayers and ceremonies.

Ship priests are also mortals, and they will inevitably be assimilated and influenced after long-term pressure under specific supernatural influences. After several ocean voyages, they will lose their sensitivity to supernatural pollution, and may even become warheads of subspace invasion. rift, so usually the priests who travel with the ship have to return to shore after a period of time for a period of cleansing and spiritual reformation in specific churches, after which most of them can recover and are placed in other The ship continued to serve as the priest on the ship, and some of them had left spiritual hidden dangers, so they could only stay away from the sea, and continued to serve the church as priests on land for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, in a sense, these venerable priests... are also consumables in navigation.

But then again... Who is not a consumable in sailing?

"Mr. Johnson, how is the machine?" Lawrence nodded to the young pastor in front of him and asked with concern.

"It's working fine, Mr. Captain," said the young priest, with a very calm voice. "I just went to the machinery compartment on the lower floor. The entire power system and steam pipes are normal."

Lawrence nodded in satisfaction, chatted casually with the young pastor, and then came to the wide window in front of the bridge, looking at the scene outside.

The deck is gray and the sky outside is a little dark. The sky is covered with chaotic cloud clusters. The diffuse light floats among the clouds and falls weakly to the sea surface—the sky is not very good, but the frost here is not far away. , should not be trapped by bad conditions such as storms before reaching the city-state.

Lawrence frowned suddenly, and looked at the crew sitting in front of a console not far away: "Has Frost still not responded to our signal?"

"No," the crew member in charge of monitoring the telegraph system shook his head. He wore earphones on his head, held a pencil in one hand, and a small machine in front of him was lit with an orange light. Feedback—but from the location, we are already at a distance where we can directly communicate with Frost Harbor."

"...something is not right," the old captain finally felt a trace of uneasiness, and he looked up into the distance again, his expression gradually becoming serious, "At this time, at this location, we should be able to see the frosty coastline..."

He suddenly turned his head and looked at his first officer: "Has the route been confirmed?"

"Just confirmed, our location is correct."

Lawrence frowned, and after a while, he suddenly took a deep breath: "I'll go check it out myself and prepare the stargazing room."

Hearing what the captain said, the first mate obviously hesitated, but before he could speak, the young ship priest Jason came over and said to Lawrence: "Captain, your age is not suitable for entering the stargazing room. It's..."

Lawrence turned his head and glanced at the young pastor, but did not speak.

He knew what the other party meant—to enter the stargazing room, one needs to endure certain pollution. The light and shadow from the deep and the interlayer of the spirit world will put pressure on people's minds. His mind is no longer as normal and complete as it was when he was young, and he is likely to lose himself in the process of observing the stars.

But in many cases, only the elderly captains have enough experience to see the clues of the ship's yaw from the subtle changes in starlight-this is something that young navigators with strong minds cannot do.

"I'll finish it as soon as possible," Lawrence finally said after looking at each other for a few seconds, with a serious expression on his face, "I suspect that the ship has gone off course, but there is an inaccuracy in the stargazing room, and I have experience in calibration."

After confirming Lawrence's firm attitude, the priest on board the ship could only sigh and backed away: "...you are the captain, and the captain is the law on board—I will prepare protection for you."

Lawrence nodded, and glanced back in the direction of the bow.

In the direction expected to see the frosty coastline, there is still only the endless sea and the boundless mist.

He retracted his gaze and walked towards the passage leading to the stargazing room.

Leave the bridge, walk through a corridor, and step on a staircase extending to the lower deck of the White Oak. After passing through several connecting cabins and several doors in the middle, you will find the stargazing room.

At the bottom of the cabin.

Lawrence stood in front of the door, and Jason, the ship's priest, began to get busy. The young clergyman added special spices and holy oil to the incense burner, and chanted obscure scriptures while shaking the chain in his hand. , causing the scent of incense to gradually permeate around Lawrence, and then took out a ritual knife depicting many storm runes, and used it to cut across the air in front of Lawrence, symbolizing the protection of the storm goddess Gomona coming here.

The navigator of the White Oak has rushed over after hearing the news. This is a young man with a slightly pale face. He seemed a little uneasy. After seeing that the captain was about to enter the star observation room to confirm the route, he was so nervous that he almost tore off his clothes. buttons.

"Relax," Lawrence noticed the navigator's reaction, a smile appeared on his face, and in turn comforted the young man, "It's not necessarily your fault, the spirit world and the deep world are full of unpredictable changes, and the spirit world lens is not Always reliable, astrological shifts are normal - you're inexperienced, that's normal."

"I... I have repeatedly confirmed that our route is fine," the young navigator said subconsciously, "but..."

Lawrence waved his hand: "I'll figure out what's going on."

"Captain, the blessing has been completed," the voice of the ship's pastor sounded from the side at this moment, "You can enter the stargazing room—but please remember, don't stay too long, don't stare for too long, fifteen minutes Finally, if you haven't come out yet, I'll go in and find you."

"Ten minutes is enough." Lawrence straightened his clothes and said calmly.

Then he breathed a sigh of relief, stepped to the metal door with storm runes and inlaid with holy silver thread, pushed the door and entered.

A dimly lit cabin came into view.

Lawrence closed the metal door behind him casually, and roughly checked the situation in the stargazing room.

There are no windows in this room, and the metal door is the only way to enter and exit. There are no redundant facilities in the entire room. The only furnishings are a cylindrical device with a diameter of about one meter placed in the center of the room.

It looks like an altar, but there are a large number of cranks, connecting rods and mirror devices distributed around its cylindrical pedestal. There is a small platform for people to stand on, which is the place for the navigator. The top of the cylindrical device is a transparent part sunken inwards.

It was a crystal lens supported by a set of very complicated connecting rod brackets. The crystal lens was bowl-shaped, and its interior looked empty—but when the line of sight focused on it, it seemed that there was something in the lens. sparkling.

The waves seemed to fill the sea.

Lawrence stepped onto the small platform next to the cylindrical device, and looked at the lens in front of him.

A ship is sailing on the boundless sea. There are almost no reference items on the sea, and the city-states are isolated islands. Once they pass by the destination, the voyager will get lost in the boundless sea—— Then navigation becomes a very important knowledge.

Anomaly 001-The sun is a very useful marker in the sky. Using the sun to confirm the direction of the ship is of course one of the navigation skills, but the sun cannot always be seen in the sky, and sometimes the sun alone cannot provide sufficient accuracy. When encountering such a situation, how can you accurately judge whether you are sailing on the correct route?

The answer, of course, is - to look at the stars.

Stargazing is an essential skill for modern ocean voyages.

Lawrence lowered his head and slowly lowered his body, submerging his entire face in the concave structure of the large crystal lens.

The stars are deep, deep—and it takes not only good equipment, but a sound mind to see them.