End of the Magic Era

Just one Nautical Chart indicating one of the safest areas would lead to wealth comparable to four or five times what they could obtain in the Raging Flame Plane!

Just how shocking was that…

Now, all that wealth was beckoning to Lin Yun.

Lin Yun was in a great mood after collecting the largest Nautical Chart, he even let out a rare chuckle.

He then left that room.

Soon after, he found a large study, filled with dust. Books were stacked on bookshelves, but Lin Yun could only sigh in regret.

After releasing a small amount of mana to create a breeze, the books ended up reduced to dust.

The average paper had no defensive magic. Had it been outside, with a favorable conservation method, they might have remained in decent state, but this was the Intrepid, the passage of time had already corroded those books until they turned to ashes.

This was the Intrepid after all, and this was the room of Red Beard’s First Mate, the books within were inevitably valuable. Unfortunately, they were completely destroyed.

After using a Gale, the dust was sent out of the window. But suddenly, something caught Lin Yun’s attention and he immediately rushed to a bookshelf.

That bookshelf originally had seven to eight hundred books, now reduced to dust, but on an ordinary corner of the second shelf, a book with a leather cover was still intact!

Lin Yun slightly frowned and cast a probing spell, and the result of the scouting revealed no anomaly.

This was an ordinary book.

He picked the book up and discovered a very thin secret compartment. After cracking that simple mechanism, he discovered a necklace.

A seemingly ordinary necklace forged out of mithril with an embedded ruby.

Lin Yun’s expression instantly changed when he touched that red jewel.

A formidable Ultimate Spell!

That ruby contained a kind of spell that made even Lin Yun fearful!

But the probing spell couldn’t detect it!

After checking it closer, he found out that the spell within the ruby was very stable, and there was some sort of obstruction. Let alone extracting, he couldn’t even come in contact with it.

Looking at it for a while, Lin Yun frowned and put the necklace down before picking up the leather book. The book’s appearance looked very simple, but also very refined. It was thirty centimeters long, and only a simple rune could be seen on its surface. Lin Yun also didn’t understand the meaning of that rune.

After opening the first page, a surprised expression appeared on Lin Yun’s face.

This was a diary!

“13th day of the Cold Month – I became a sailor today, I don’t need to sleep in that dirty slave hold anymore. I also saw the captain…”

Lin Yun flipped a dozen pages recording the trifling life of the diary owner as a sailor.

Lin Yun finally stopped on the 25th page.

“28th day of the Blaze Month – It was originally a good day today, after a month, we finally killed that crafty Heaven Rank sea beast, but who would have thought that something terrifying would appear when that Heaven Rank sea beast died. A huge whirlpool appeared on the surface of the sea. That whirlpool was frightening, we couldn’t see its limits. It was as if the entire sea had turned into a whirlpool. It was the first time I saw that. The captain, who had remained calm and composed while dealing with the Heaven Rank sea beast, had become alarmed, ordering us to immediately escape that huge whirlpool.”

“We didn’t even have time to finish putting the sea beast’s corpse on the ship that the captain unhesitantly threw it away. With one look, everyone could see that the captain was utterly terrified. Officer John fell from the boat, and I watched as that terrifying whirlpool swallowed him whole…”

Lin Yun looked at this diary and could feel from the sloppy handwriting how frightened the owner had been, his hand must have been shivering as he wrote.

Huge whirlpool…

Lin Yun immediately recalled the biggest danger mark drawn on that huge Nautical Chart. It was also the symbol of a whirlpool, marked down with a shivering hand. On the precise and detailed Nautical Chart, this mark stuck out like a sore thumb, from this it could be seen that the person must have been extremely frightened when noting it down.

To the point that there was even a huge red “X” on that whirlpool, marking a place even the Intrepid couldn’t approach.

After pondering for a short moment, Lin Yun flipped the page.

“29th day of the Blaze Month – Today, I heard that kitchen George died. Looks like he choked on a piece of bread. Serves him right, that damn scoundrel was eating while we were working hard…”

Another page was flipped.

“30th day of the Blaze Month – That foolish Byron, mister ‘I’m the nimblest thief’ fell to his death from the second floor…”

Lin Yun continued and found a similar story on every single page. Someone would die everyday, and after flipping over twenty pages…

“23th day of the Monsoon Month – Hell, another dead. This is too horrible. A rumor spread through the ship that killing the Heaven Rank sea beast angered a terrifying existence and something evil came aboard. A slave or a lowly sailor would die everyday, but today, an Officer died…”

Lin Yun frowned and quickly flipped the pages, he flipped a good dozen pages containing the same kind of information. The writer transformed from not giving a care at all, to becoming more and more frightened, even discontinuously writing the dates.

Suddenly, Lin Yun stopped, a serious expression on his face as he attentively read this new page. The handwriting on that page was also sloven due to the writer being even more scared.

“18th day of the Frost Month – Everyone is resting. I am going to tidy up the hold… Met something terrifying, with one glance, I couldn’t move. It asked me if I wanted to become this ship’s most powerful man. How could I believe it, the most powerful man is Captain Red Beard. Then it asked me if I wanted to become the most powerful man under Captain Red Beard…”

“Such a joke, I’m only an ordinary sailor. I was too afraid, so I agreed. I don’t want to die, I really don’t want to die. It said that it could help me, but the price would be to help it do something later. I could only agree. That damned Officer, had it not been for him making me clean the hold at night, I wouldn’t have encountered that thing. That terrifying thing is surely the culprit behind all these deaths. Damn Officer, he definitely wants to harm me, I must kill him…”

Lin Yun didn’t find anything interesting in the next few pages, but after flipping eight pages…

“30th day of the Frost Month – Today was the duelling day. I challenged that Officer, and regretted it immediately…”

“I thought I was done for, but I didn’t expect to actually kill the Officer. I defeated him and took his position as the new Officer…”

Lin Yun recalled that undying monster as he read to that part.

There was nothing unusual in the next few pages, the owner of that diary started rising up, whether it was in power or in status. The speed at which he was promoted was very fast, it could even be said that Lady Luck was watching over him. If he was overwhelmed during a fight, he would suddenly make a breakthrough.

On the 2nd to last page, the owner of the diary had risen to a high position and had gained Red Beard’s trust.

‘Could he be a legendary main character?’ Lin Yun was stupefied as he saw this. The owner of that diary had the potential of a main character, he could be said to have heaven defying luck, his rise was incredible, as if everything had been laid down for him, just waiting for him to claim that position.

But, when Lin Yun opened that last page, he immediately changed his opinion…

There was only one sentence on that last page, “It came looking for me, it wants me to betray the Captain…”

The rest of the pages remained incomplete, only badly damaged characters could be seen on them.

“I don’t want to betray the Captain. I also don’t dare to go against it. No good. No good. I have to find a way to handle it. I can’t become a puppet. I heard…”

“Eh?” After deciphering these characters, Lin Yun suddenly discovered that a part of the diary seemed to be missing, and it looked like that part have been torn by someone…

‘Hold on, what is that…’ While putting the diary down, Lin Yun’s eyes stopped on a small red mark on the last page.

Lin Yun carefully extended his hand, trying to erase that small red mark, but just as he did that, he knew that something was wrong. This wasn’t a small red mark, this was a red hair!

That’s right a red hair!

‘The remaining part of the diary must have been taken away by Red Beard!’

‘That must be it…’

Lin Yun thought about what had been written on the blueprint, “If I die, take the things in my room and give it to the captain…” He could be certain that the First Mate had discovered something related to the monster, and the clues should have been put in the other half of the diary.

Just that Red Beard had taken that part away…

‘It looks like we have to visit the Captain’s Cabin…’

Lin Yun slowly closed the diary. Just as he was about to leave that study, he noticed Xiuban coming over.

“Xiuban, did you find anything useful?”

Xiuban scratched his head, cautiously answering, “Sir Merlin, I didn’t find anything, everything was in ruins…”

Lin Yun shook his head, “Forget it, if you haven’t found anything, let’s leave this place.”

Hearing Lin Yun’s words, Xiuban looked curious and asked, “Sir Merlin, have you found anything useful?”

Lin Yun looked at the diary in his hand and casually answered, “I found something.”