Struggle in the Steam Age

After throwing the murloc bodies that had been checked into the sea, Lawrence took a few people to board the Golden Spring Island in a small boat. There is a two-meter-diameter well in the center of this small island. A well circle is built around the well with coral stones from the surrounding area. The well is covered with a wooden cover for hygiene reasons.

Beside the well is a large stone more than two people tall, on which the statue and holy emblem of the goddess of springs are engraved. Lawrence led the group of men to bow to the statue of the goddess of spring water first, took out a few pieces of bread as sacrifices and placed them in front of the statue, and then began to search around.

Soon, a few of them found evidence that John and the others had been here: somewhere beside the well they found a shoe spike, which shone with metal and looked completely new. On the top of the studs is cast a very simple logo.

"Ha, this is the trademark of Iron Hammer." As Lei Suo, who has been active in the Star Island area recently, he quickly recognized what the small hammer logo on the side of each shoe stud represented. "This is the largest metal processing factory in the New Netherlands and the surrounding sea area. It produces a series of daily-use hardware products. For example, most of the iron nails, shoe spikes, hinges, springs, and iron wires in the surrounding area are from this factory."

"Fishermen don't wear leather shoes with spikes. We often choose to go barefoot on the boat." A sailor who landed with them said that he had been a sailor for a long time before becoming a sailor under Lawrence. The fishermen of time naturally know the habits of fishermen in this area. "The only people who come to this small place to fetch fresh water are fishermen, except for a handful of small offshore cargo ships that veered off course due to the storm."

"No freighter has passed by here these days, and unregistered smugglers will not wear such shoes that are handicapped on board." Lawrence, who has obtained the ship operation data in this area for the past few days, said, and then held That shoe spike said to the people around. "If you look carefully, you will find that this stud belongs to heavy combat boots with armored iron plates. In this era, only those extraordinary people will wear this."

"But why do they need to add fresh water?" The sailor asked a little puzzled, "The New Netherland Islands are not far from here, and the weather around the past few days can be said to be calm. Theoretically speaking, the expedition The team’s boat. There should be no shortage of fresh water. It seems a bit weird to come here to fetch water at this time.”

"I think there are two possibilities." Nora, who had been silent just now, said. "One is that they encountered some unexpected circumstances that caused the loss of a lot of fresh water stored on the ship, even to the point where it had to be replenished. Thinking about the group of murlocs who besieged us just now that shouldn't be here, I suspect that What's going on around there."

"Another possibility is that they discovered something unexpected on the way to the target. Lin temporarily decided that a long-distance voyage was needed, so he came to this island to temporarily replenish some fresh water to maintain a longer voyage."

"The first possibility is unlikely." After hearing what Nora said, Lawrence closed his eyes and thought for dozens of seconds. "Because if you follow John's and their scheduled voyage route, there is a big port one day before the voyage. It is much more convenient and faster to buy directly from the port than to fetch water from this well."

"As for the second possibility." Lawrence frowned and said after taking out the nautical chart from his pocket and looking at it carefully. "That means that many things we guessed before need to be changed. John 1 and the others probably did not follow the original plan to drive in the island-intensive area, but sailed directly to the open sea."

While talking, Lawrence took out the red and blue pencil from his pocket, then crossed out the original circled points and quickly recalculated a series of numbers in his heart, and finally added Two blue circles.

"They deviated very badly this time. If we connect the two traces of the ship we found into a line, we will find that their ship has deviated far from the original target point and sailed to the open sea." Lawrence raised his head and said after the calculation arrive. "Next, we may need to search outside the area given by the church."

"Then let's do this." Lei Suo said after a brief thought. "Anyway, the church will focus their search on the area they have delineated. One more of us is not too many, and one of us is not too many. It would be better for us to go directly to places they have not searched before."

"Then do we need to inform the church of the conjecture we just came up with?" Nora asked curiously. "If the church can send some helpers, I think we—" But she was stopped by Lawrence raising his hand in the middle of her sentence.

"That's unnecessary. After all, the clues we found are just a tin can and a shoe spike. Everything else is concluded through reasoning and prophecy magic." Lawrence shook his head lightly and said, " But my Extraordinary level is not enough to make church members believe in the results of my spellcasting."

"More importantly, we are just putting forward a conjecture anyway. In terms of possibility, John and the others are more likely in the range drawn by the church. If this is the case, they will mainly Putting energy there and splitting up with us is actually the most logical thing to do right now."

After unifying everyone's thinking, Lawrence and the others returned to the Enterprise and set sail again. This time, they made a big turn and headed towards the open sea to the east. However, less than a day after departure, the dark clouds in the sky began to gather slowly, and at the same time, the wind and waves on the sea became bigger and bigger.

Such sudden storms are not uncommon in tropical seas, so after seeing the low-hanging black clouds from a distance, the Enterprise immediately made preparations. Therefore, it passed through this wind and wave area smoothly. However, during the period of passing through the wind and wave area, they lost their original course and needed to reposition.

Unlike the aimless search at the beginning, Lawrence can use Bai Ze's predictive ability to drive Plum Blossom Yishu to further determine the direction of the target after roughly locking the direction of the target. So when repositioning, Lawrence asked the captain for a compass to divination again. In order to avoid some possible interference, he also borrowed part of Nora's power related to the gods through the connection of the soul.

Unexpectedly, after performing a series of magical rituals and letting the last three coins fall to the ground, the pointer on the compass on the ground swung slightly and pointed to a new direction, and this There is an angle of more than ten degrees between the direction and the direction divination before departure.

"John, what the hell are they doing?" Lawrence frowned looking at the direction displayed on the compass and the chart, because this kind of prophecy magic indicated not the current location of the team, but the location of their target . Now it seems that if there is no problem with the divination results, then it means that their target is also moving.

"Could it be that some pirates took what they were looking for, and then John and the others are hunting them down?" Nora raised a possibility after reading the divination results. The nearby waters have been haunted.

But after simple thinking, this conjecture was rejected by Lawrence. Because if it is really related to pirates, John and the others should report the news as soon as possible, and let the church mobilize people to hunt down the pirates, not just rely on their own small boat to hunt down the pirates.

"But you gave me an inspiration." Lawrence turned to Nora and said, "That way the treasure might not be in a fixed position, but be carried by something moving."