System's POV
chapter-266

After everyone decided that they would follow Thirteen back to the Second Island, they headed toward a cliff where a Ship was docked.

He had asked Rocky to go ahead of them so that he could unload the Trolls and the Ogres on the ship without arousing any suspicion from the Wanderers.

After everyone arrived at their destination, the ten-year-old asked them to do something, which made their faces turn pale.

"You want us to jump?" Phoebe asked anxiously. "Are you sure we need to jump down to the ship?"

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Don't worry. Just do what I do."

Thirteen didn't hesitate to jump down on the ship, which was right below the cliff. A second later, his descent slowed down until both of his feet landed safely on the ship's deck.

"See?" Thirteen said. "Just trust me and do it. It's perfectly safe."

Seeing that none of the Wanderers was willing to go first, Herman gritted his teeth before jumping off the cliff.

Similar to what happened to the younger boy earlier, his descent slowed down until he landed safely on the deck of the ship.

Then, it finally hit him.

There were three Trolls standing on the ship, holding staves, and they were looking up at the cliff as if waiting to see if there would be other teenagers that were going to jump off it.

They were the Alpha Troll Shamans, the rare kind of Troll that could use spells.

Seeing that Herman was safe and sound, Phoebe gathered her courage and jumped as well.

When she, too, landed safely on the deck of the ship. The Wanderers were finally assured that they had nothing to worry about.

The Wanderers jumped one by one, and each time they did, the fear on the hearts of the ones who were still on the cliff lessened.

A few minutes later, all the Wanderers were standing at the deck of the ship, feeling relieved that their little test of courage was finally over.

"Set sail," Thirteen ordered, and the Trolls and Ogres stepped into action.

They unfurled the sail, and the three Troll Shamans summoned a gust of wind to push the ship back to the Second Island, where Shasha was waiting for her brother's return.

The Second Island was also the biggest island of the Arcadia Archipelago. Fortunately, Shasha's base was near the beach, so it didn't take long for them to reach their destination.

But the ship couldn't be moved to shallow waters, so they had to use the smaller boats that Thirteen took out from his Storage Ring.

The Ring of the Apocalypse had a storage space of two-hundred square meters, so he could store a few things inside of it without worry.

Since the wooden boats had a simple identical design, Thirteen had stacked them on top of each other, saving a lot of space.

All in all, he had six of these small wooden boats, which could hold all of the members of his crew.

Since they would be ferrying the Wanderers, each ship was manned by two Trolls, accompanied by six Wanderers.

Although he could fit one or two more Wanderers to make it efficient, he decided that it would be safer for them if they just stuck to six Wanderers per wooden boat.

Herman and Phoebe volunteered to be left behind, allowing their people to go to the shore first.

While waiting for the boats to return, the two of them talked to Thirteen and asked him a few questions about the hierarchy of the Wanderers on the second Island.

"Similar to what you proposed, there are two leaders on the Second Island," Thirteen stated. "One of them is my sister, Shasha, and the other is Kane Stallard. Kane has more Wanderers under his command, and he is acting as their leader even now."

Since Thirteen planned to treat Kane, Phoebe, and Herman as Team Leaders of their respective Teams, he decided to answer all of their questions to the best of his abilities.

"So, what do you really plan to do after gathering all the Wanderers from the First and Fourth Islands?" Herman inquired. "Will we all attack one of the Rank 8 Sovereigns in order to investigate the Pyramid?"

"I didn't think that you'd have suicidal tendencies," Thirteen replied in a teasing tone. "Do you really think that ordinary teenage boys and girls, numbering in the hundreds, would have a chance of defeating a Rank 8 Sovereign? In their eyes, we're just bugs that they can pinch to oblivion."

"But, depending on the bug, they can be deadly as well," Phoebe countered. "Also, you have experience facing off against a Majin Prince. Compared to that Powerhouse, Rank 8 Monsters are easier to fight, right?"

Thirteen shook his head firmly. "This and that are completely different. Although a Rank 8 Sovereign is weaker than a Majin Prince, it doesn't change the fact that it is still a very strong monster."

The younger boy didn't want to elaborate that he only managed to win because he had several weeks to prepare an ideal battlefield, as well as the perfect counter to Arundel, which would allow him to have a shot at victory.

Their current circumstances were different.

He didn't have the resources of thousands of Beast Cores in his disposal, which would've allowed him to create a Rune Formation that could trap the Unicorn or the Beholder.

He was only able to lure Arundel to the center of the formation because he taunted him by using the Majin Prince's greatest shame of pleading with his life.

That was something that the Majin Prince didn't want anyone to know about, even if it were his subordinates who hadn't been there when it happened.

"For the time being, your mission is to absorb as many Cores as possible, which will allow all of you to breakthrough to the Rookie Rank," Thirteen explained. "I will investigate the Pyramids on my own because it will be easier that way."

Thirteen had already thought of a few ways he could infiltrate the two Pyramids with a high chance of success.

For now, he just wanted all the Wanderers to gather on the Second Island so that when he finally understood how to make the Gate of the Moonlight appear, all the Wanderers would have a chance to return to Pangea.

He wasn't really doing this for any noble reason.

He simply refused to turn a blind eye to those he could have helped if he was able to.

Thirteen didn't want to have any regrets in this lifetime. Since it was also his last mission before returning to Pangea, he also wanted the teenagers, who had been spirited away from their families and friends, to have a second chance at life.