Is that a Wisp?
chapter-971

With the rope being inclined downward, Krune did not hasten his travel at all, proceeding at a slow pace. The rope had a length of 50 meters he had to traverse. Even though the distance between the walls and the rock pillar was 40 meters, since the rope was declined, he had to travel a longer distance.

It took him more than ten minutes before he managed to land in the cave, patting the bone tree the rope was coiled around. As the bone tree had a near smooth surface, he was assured the rope wouldn't be damaged by wear and tear every time he used it to cross.

He then exited the cave and traversed across the walls, using its slope to his advantage as he climbed faster. It wasn't a vertical wall but had a small slope. Because of that, his time was a lot easier as he could simply rely on the extraordinary grip his Monster Gecko skin armor provided, quickly scaling up the place.

After spending half an hour, Krune reached the topmost cave in the wall. It was positioned the closest to the top, only three meters away from the water surface. The cave had a length of five meters and a width of three meters.

It was a fairly decent cave as he immediately began to dig into it using the shovel. The cave contained a lot of mud that made his life easier. Spending almost half a day, he managed to dig a pit of three meters deep, spanning the width of the cave.

While doing so, he was relying on the healing effect in his Ocean Heart to alleviate his exhaustion, continuing to work nonstop. With that, he created a dam of sorts, heaving a sigh of relief. As for whether or not it was sturdy enough for their needs, Krune wasn't the one taking care of that.

The Seamstress would continue from that point onward. After finishing his task, Krune slowly returned to his cave, suddenly noticing something amiss as he looked at the figure of the Seamstress.

At present, she was clutching her ticket, staring at it in shock. Upon seeing him, she said in a solemn tone, "I can feel this ticket losing power."

"What?" Krune was shocked as he quickly took his ticket out, soon able to feel something amiss about it as well. "Just…what is happening?"

"The Checkpoint Turtle is the source of the ticket's power," the Seamstress said. "And now that the ticket is losing power, it means something has happened to it."

She had just said it when the ticket snapped, crumbling into dust immediately. Krune's and Solare's tickets were no different. The fact that the tickets disappeared meant that the respective Checkpoint Turtle had died.

The Seamstress summoned her tablet as she gazed at the two rows of words that contained news about Gehen. After seeing it, realization hit the Seamstress as she muttered, "I see, we were played right into his hands. That damn fox."

Upon noticing that Krune hadn't figured it out completely yet, she sighed, explaining, "I had been suspicious when the pirate ship continued to change directions constantly. But I just thought they were looking for people to loot and didn't wish to miss even a single one of them. But now, it seemed they were targeting us to follow them and ensured that we were the closest to a certain Checkpoint Turtle."

"And..." She grunted. "It seemed that they had been aiming to a weak Checkpoint Turtle, judging by how they managed to kill one. So, they managed to kill it, obtaining incomparable benefits while causing us to remain stranded here. Now, without our tickets, we can't return to the Checkpoint Turtle anymore since it's already dead."

"In short, we won't be recalled even after a year has passed. And if we wish to leave this place, we have to manually exit it and hope we stumble upon a Checkpoint Turtle." Krune nodded. "I must say, they got us good."

"You're not concerned?" The Seamstress glared at him, almost shouting.

"Nope." Krune laughed. "Instead, I would like to thank them."

As her expression morphed into that of anger, Krune smiled. "It means we have a longer time to stabilize ourselves in this place. If I didn't have to leave the previous Primary Landmass, I would have created a steady supply of Godly Points myself. And now, we have the option to do that."

"Besides." He chuckled. "Don't forget that we still have the four Mutated Motor Fishes. So, no matter the distance, once we're ready, we would be able to find a Checkpoint Turtle. Let's obtain enough Godly Points to leave Layer 3 by then."

"Fine." The Seamstress let out an exhausted sigh, looking at Krune. "I'm just afraid that we would have to spend the rest of our lives in this place. We're just mortals now. And every day, we are aging further and further."

"Uh…huh…" Krune nodded awkwardly, mentally sighing as he thought, 'I already have a wife.'

He could figure out the intention of the Seamstress. She meant that if they would be stuck in this place for the rest of their lives, they might as well start a family. As mortals, they needed hope to press forth in their lives.

"Even though I already have grandkids in the God Realm, if this is our fate…" The Seamstress slumped on the floor, lacking the strength to speak.

As for Krune, he wasn't any different either. The fact of losing the tickets took a greater toll on their minds than they had expected. Even though he tried to put it off in an optimistic way, he too was plagued by the thought of 'What if?'.

What if even after he accumulated 200 Godly Points, he was unable to find any Checkpoint Turtle? What if the Secondary Landmass was situated in a dangerous ocean area that prevented them from ever leaving it? What if they became too old to even battle by the time they obtained enough Godly Points?

What if he was unable to endure being alone anymore and started a family with the Seamstress? What if he came across Feifei after he had a child with the Seamstress?

Thoughts that he never had as a cultivator swarmed his mind, steeping him in worry. Even though Krune had immense trust in his character and loyalty to his wife, he couldn't guarantee any of that as the current him. Maybe he won't give in for a year or two or three.

But what if a decade had passed? What about two decades later when the signs of aging would become apparent in him? Would he still remain as the same Krune? He wasn't sure. As a mortal, he could be assured in himself.

After all, a mortal's mind was susceptible to the weakness of the passage of time. As a cultivator, even if they were old, they would still maintain the strength dictated by their cultivation base. They wouldn't ever feel weak.

But as a mortal, beyond a point in life, it was only downhill. The body would slowly begin to weaken over the years. And beyond a certain point, they would become too weak to even take care of themselves.

In this dangerous world where they had to constantly fight for survival, even reaching old age wasn't guaranteed. Rather, becoming old was a curse since they would only drag everyone down. That night, they went to bed early.

Krune was woken up quite a few times during the night by Solare, but in the end, he still managed to get enough sleep. When he woke up in the morning, he noticed that the Seamstress was getting dressed. He quickly turned around.

Unlike in the ocean, the gravity was only facing one direction. So, they couldn't use the other side of the boat's surface. Therefore, they slept on the same side. Even though there was around three meters of space between their beds, it was still a bit awkward between them.

Krune began to feed Solare while the Seamstress let out a forced smile, speaking to Krune, "I'll complete the dam first. The Motor Fishes, too, need water urgently."

Saying so, she exited the cave, holding with her a couple of coral tools that she had created. She also held a couple of containers of the Healing Extract, soon leaving the place as she traveled using the rope, soon heading towards the topmost cave in the walls.

She then entered the cave, looking at the tank that Krune had created. It had a depth of a meter. As for the dugout soil, he had flattened them into bricks and lined them in one side. His part of the work was impeccable.

The Seamstress carefully jumped into the tank and placed her hand on the floor, slowly emitting a murky white radiance.

Coral Wave!

The floor was soon layered with a thin layer of coral. It acted as a layer to prevent the water from seeping into the ground. She continued with the process, drinking the Healing Extract from time to time to replenish her stamina.

At the end of the day, she layered the insides of the tank with a centimeter-thick layer of coral. It hadn't ended as there was a lot of work to be done. She was already exhausted.

"Work is slow as a mortal." Sighing, she returned to her cave, plopping to the ground in exhaustion. She then looked around, noticing Krune taking care of the four Mutated Motor Fishes.

He placed two tubs on the ground, filling them with their water reserves, expending more than half the reserves. It wasn't enough for them to live comfortably, but he didn't have many options. It was barely enough to ensure that they wouldn't die.

They were brought with them because Motor Fishes were considered as property. Since they were attached to the boat, they were teleported with the boat. It seemed the teleportation wasn't something that could be selectively executed. It was the advantage they took to bring the Motor Fishes with them.

For the next two days, Krune and the Seamstress hardly conversed, busying themselves with their respective work. At the end of the second day, the Seamstress heaved a sigh of relief in the topmost cave as she muttered to herself, "Finally, it's done."

Before her were coral walls that were a meter high. They were a centimeter thick and had been equipped with a tap mechanism.

"Now, to prepare the pipes and other items." The Seamstress sighed, shaking her head as she continued to work on her next task. "I hope I can leave this place before my death."