Chapter. 15. Can someone who has seen the end of the world plant an apple tree? (31)
****
Talking to someone.
“Bubuuuggeuk! Dallabbubbung!!! Bub bub bub!”
“Boobboobboob bull!” Torchbubbbbbung!”
It is commonly known that the main organ in human speech is the tongue, but to be precise, the tongue is only an organ that corrects pronunciation, and the sound chambers that produce sound are the lungs and abdominal cavity.
The principle is to make sound by exhaling the air you inhale and vibrating the vocal cords, but because of this, a person facing a strong wind from the front cannot speak as usual…
“- is a sound. “How were some of the questions resolved?”
“Hmm….”
Crunch, crunch, crunch –
the Dry Oasis crashing. Inside the professor’s room.
In contrast to the circumstances outside, Otman’s voice was extremely calm, and Idrasil, who was equally calm, nodded.
“okay. “So that means the people up there aren’t crazy.”
“That’s right. Notum and Idrasil were worried that our friends out there were going crazy… We are falling and the crew is feeling the strong wind on the falling ship.”
“Bbbbbbbbbb-! Bhavbabbatzubvvbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb!”
“Jugbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb!”
“Bwaaaaaaabbbb!”
“It’s inevitable that words will come out like that.”
“hmm. indeed.”
Crossroads-
while Idrasil admires and records new knowledge.
Rattling!
Craddangtangtang!
“Oh my!”
The boat, which had been falling endlessly, felt like it was rocking and coming to a shaky halt, as if caught by something.
While everything that could be rolled around in the ship’s warehouse below was falling down and creating chaos, Otman made his way out of the cabin, wading through the vines created by Notum and Idrasil.
“It has slowed down a bit, but it is still falling at a fast rate, so don’t lift the spell. “Even a small impact can be fatal to an injured person.”
“Geuuu. I get it.”
“Are you going out, Ottoman? “I understand that you are not in very good shape either.”
“Well, the wizard who used up all his mana is just a grumpy old man. But I… I guess I should go out too.”
“If that’s the case. “Please take care of yourself.”
With Idrasil seeing off, Otman came out, wading through the dense vines that had grown all over their cabin.
In the darkness where he couldn’t see anything, something that looked like a rope or an unknown rolling wooden barrel caught his foot, and as he barely fumbled along the wall and climbed the stairs to the deck, a faint flickering light illuminated his feet.
Rattling!
Otman climbed up with difficulty pushing the closed deck cover.
The first thing I noticed was the torches lined up on the ship’s railing.
About twenty torches burning precariously, leaving long tails above.
With the entire area immersed in pitch black darkness, the ecstatic faces of the sailors sitting on the deck were dimly lit by the flickering light of the torches.
“It’s still a little dangerous, so why don’t you stay inside?”
Otman stuttered toward the familiar voice that came from among those shadowy faces.
“My heart is pounding, so I have to be able to stay inside…”
“Do you feel the same way? “Me too.”
Ouch-!
The professor was finally able to catch his breath as he pulled the ropes tied randomly around the ship to see if they were properly connected to the large sail bulging upwards.
“It was quite helpful in remembering the ride on the borrowed ride at Wuthering Heights.”
“Well… the shape is similar, isn’t it?”
“yes. All that is needed to float upwards is the wind balloons. A desert ship is also a ship that rides on the wind. Even though the sandy sea is soft enough to float a boat, it does not have strong currents like the ocean. So, unlike regular ships, which have sails about 30% larger than regular sailing ships and a rudder attached to the bottom of the ship, sand ships steer with large steering wings.”
“A ship is a ship, but isn’t it also thanks to the crew members who did their part? We, who had gone through all kinds of hardships before birth, were so shocked, but people who had been on boats all their lives were doing their part in this situation. “For us, the sand sea strengthened us and made us stronger.”
“Yeah, well. “If they hadn’t played their role, wouldn’t we have been in the same situation by now?”
The professor agreed with Ottman’s words and turned his eyes to the dark space next to the ship.
Under the flickering light of the torch, an endless waterfall of sand came into view.
Quaaaaaa –
thousands of tons of sand pouring down right next to me. If I strained my eyes a little, I could see things briefly appearing and then disappearing.
These are numerous military ships that crashed along with the Dry Oasis.
Unlike their small ship, which struggled to avoid touching the sand waterfall by somehow holding the helm and riding the rising air current with its steering wings, the large military ship was unable to perform such feats, and the moment it touched the sand waterfall, the military ship was instantly destroyed by the force of the pouring down. got sucked into it.
Thanks to this, the fragments of the military ships that had fallen overhead like a meteor shower had almost all disappeared, but the figureheads that appeared and disappeared like ghosts through the sand, and the corpses that had half of the mast melted, made me imagine that they could have gotten in there.
———
– Heungan Dumpling: The funny thing is, those sailors are talking to each other, but they can all communicate?
– Jokass: I could roughly understand the situation and tone of voice. If someone wears a Santa suit in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas and says ‘Ahhhh’, you probably understand what they’re saying. The sailor tied himself to the watchtower! Bwak! By waving his right hand while flying, the navigator holding the helm avoids debris falling on the starboard side. Then, when the navigator makes another noise and shakes his hands and feet, the sailors waiting at the stern use a long pole to untangle a rope that is tangled around the steering wing at the back of the ship.
– takealook: By the way…. What crime did those sailors commit to go through all this trouble?
– Noru Drug: Why. You were in the same boat as so-and-so. It seems like Otman’s nerves are frayed and he’s on the verge of failure.
– Heungan Mandu: Of course, you have to be selective with people. If those sailors die, it’s entirely your fault, Professor Park.
– professor: I know, dude. So you saved them all.
———
To be honest, I also felt a bit unfair.
When I was on a ship that was being sucked in without an answer, I thought, ‘If I just jump in, won’t this end?’ Although I thought about it.
What if this doesn’t end? I somehow survived being fried or boiled in the sandy sea, but the Dry Oasis, which crashed without any response, sank along with the crew and all of our group.
Above all, that strangely capable and quick-witted pig destroyed the Dry Oasis in an instant and ran away.
‘As a great shaman and a native of the desert, he must have known well the extent of the danger among the people involved. If a guy like that was seriously injured and in the midst of his busy schedule had given a separate order and released the group on his ship separately, there would be a high possibility that our group and crew would have been targeted by this disaster.’
So I had no choice but to fall with the boat. If everyone has to get sucked in anyway, the one who stays together has a much better chance of surviving.
“Hey, that thing over there….”
“Ugh.”
“…Let’s go to work. Let’s go to work. “If you don’t want to end up like that.”
While the professor was staring blankly at the torch on the falling ship, the sailors began to shudder and return to their original positions, as if they had seen ghost-like things rising from the sand waterfall outside.
The ship sank into an endless black hole.
****
How far did it come down?
In the sand waterfall illuminated by the torch, the fragments of the military ship are transformed into charred old desert ships, and the fragments with the wooden tips turned into circles and traces of the past remind the sailors of where we came from.
Woo Woong-
Hwa Hwa Hwa!
‘It’s a cold wind.’
The cold wind blowing in the steamy cavity surrounded by the hot sand waterfall made everyone on the boat wake up.
The sailors’ eyes, which had become relaxed and drowsy, became animated, and the ship, which had been quiet for a while, began to make a commotion again.
The watchtower sailor with good eyes noticed that lights other than the orange light of the torches lit around the ship were mixed in.
“Rain is light.”
Clink ding ding ding ding!
“It’s light! I see light! “I can see the light from below!”
“Exit!”
A small light flickers faintly at the end of a void without any light, as if to announce that we have finally reached the end.
The hands of the anxious sailors became busy as they watched the light gradually increase in size.
The same was true for the professor, who was reviewing the information so far on the deck, and Ottman, who was holding his pounding heart as if he had an arrhythmia.
“Isn’t this… fishy? is not it? “It’s a little different, isn’t it?”
“….It’s very different from the smell of the sea I used to know, but it’s certain. “This is the feeling of the sea.”
‘Salty wind. The smell of the sea…is it? It must have been a while since I’ve been near the sea.’
Mixed in with the wind was a smell he had never smelled before, but that unfamiliar sensation was alleviating the professor’s anxiety.
Right now, I’ve been smelling Mute’s blood up there to the point that my nose is paralyzed, and the fact that the wind blowing from below is unfamiliar means that at least it’s not a limb full of Mute down there.
‘First of all, it means that the worst case scenario has been avoided.’
Of course, this means that the situation under your feet is like that right now. As of now, it is unknown how large the sunken sea is and what kind of environment it is in, so no matter how cautious we are, we cannot be overly cautious.
At the end, the light that looked like a small dot gradually expanded in size into a hole the size of a fingernail.
.
.
.
.
Whoa!
Fuuuuuu-!
The short but long fall finally came to an end as the Dry Oasis fell at high speed and touched the sea surface.
A young sailor wiped his sweat as he saw the water rippling on the falling ship and said, ‘It’s an oasis!’
The old sailor heaved a sigh of relief because he had somehow survived.
The moment the boat sank, no words could come out of my mouth.
It was quite a cultural shock to those who had lived in the desert their whole lives and had never seen an oasis large enough to feed a large village, and who thought it was a treasure trove of water.
“Deckmaster? “I never thought I’d be asking for something like this, but… wouldn’t you please give me a slap in the face?”
“Oh, I won’t treat you like a lowlife, so it would be nice if you hit me…”
“This… is strange… It must have fallen into the quicksand and started spinning around like crazy, with Saladin spreading his sails upwards… .. Uh… I kept falling….”
What unfolded before the mesmerized sailors was something they had never seen before. Perhaps no one else living in this world has seen it.
Beneath the desert, where not a single ray of sunlight shines, there was a sunken sea that radiated a soft blue light.
The ceiling of the sandy sea not far away, amidst the faint ripples in the wake of the crashed ship, seemed to indicate that they had not been transported to some unknown place, but had come down through the sand. It may be scary because it is an unknown space in the sand that is blocked on all sides. They can just marvel,
“Is that… that I know, uh… that’s him?”
“maybe? As far as I know… I guess that’s right?”
This may be due to the presence of light that softly illuminates the underground sea, where there is not a single ray of light.
Under the desert sand sea. A sea overflowing with mysterious blue light.
“okay. “Now I feel like the story is progressing a bit.”
The moon and sea lost by the desert.
The mysteries of an ancient and lost world lay spread out beneath their feet.
****
Tap, tap, tap!
thud! Ouch!
“there! Tie it to the coral there! Something bigger than that! A bigger one! “Come out, you bastard!”
“Cactus liquor… Twenty cans of cactus liquor were left behind, and nine of them fell and broke. Five small sacks of sand shark cannon….”
“Captain. Have you ever seen a fish like this?”
“Hmm… I don’t know. “It looks completely different from the fish that lived in the oasis…”
“First, scoop it up and pickle it in strong alcohol. “I’ll have to test it separately later.”
Sigh!
For a moment, I was intoxicated by the mystery unfolding before my eyes.
At the command of the captain who came to his senses, the crew anchored the ship, organized the remaining supplies, and began preparing for the task ahead.
Finding a place to park the boat wasn’t that difficult. The hole they fell into. The water was exposed in the aftermath of the pouring sand around it, but as soon as you looked away from there, there were floating islands that were far from the beautiful sea.
“Oh, that flag. “I know that boat.”
“What, deck captain, are there any of your acquaintances who have been consumed by taboo?”
“Acquaintance… not so much. The ‘Maegal Lizard’ was a merchant ship that regularly visited the oasis where I lived as a child. At some point, the news stopped. “After ten years, I see you again under this taboo.”
“So… are you saying that everything here is a ship that was eaten by Taboo?”
“Otherwise, where would all the ships that were swallowed up by the sand waterfall I saw on the way down have gone? “It must have fallen here along with the sand.”
At the place the deck captain pointed to, there were Kauladi’s military ships pouring in with the quicksand holes gradually getting smaller, perhaps at the end of a sandfall. Ships, houses, and other items that have been eaten by quicksand over hundreds of years have piled up to form a sedimentary layer on the surface of the sunken sea.
“Uh… just wait. You said it was a boat you saw a dozen years ago, but then it’s a piece of wood floating in the water that hasn’t been used for more than ten years? Is that possible?”
“Aren’t you guys? In the first place, it is abnormal for there to be such a pool of water under this desert. Isn’t it abnormal that this isn’t mixed with sand and only water remains? “Well, there must have been a force as mysterious and strange as this sea.”
The deckmaster had already given up thinking from the moment he turned the bow under the quicksand.
Fortunately, their doubts were completely dispelled by the voices of sailors heading for another shipwreck.
“It’s gold! “It’s gold jewelry!”
“Deck Captain! “There’s a locked box here too!”
Sailors wave yellow, shiny things on a half-tilted shipwreck with excited voices.
“A box… a box with a lock on a sunken merchant ship! hey! Stay there and wait! “Someone go get something to break!”
“Don’t come and search there too! “There is more than one thing here that can make money!”
“There is also the flag of the Beulak tribe, which disappeared 15 years ago! “My surviving daughter announced that she was marrying someone who could wear anklets for tribal succession!”
“Captain Seo! “Bring the captain!”
The sailors, who were intoxicated by the beauty of the sea, were intoxicated by a more realistic beauty, jumping over the debris of victims all around them.
with a splash!
“Fuuuu! “Wow, I think I’m going to live!”
“Oooh. It’s so clear… It’s impossible to explain with crude human language…”
Of course, on one side, there were still people who were mesmerized by the beauty of the sea itself.
It was the water magician Professor and Otman.
“I never thought there would be an ocean like you said.”
“The hint Otman gave was great, right? “I heard that a long time ago, that desert was a sea.”
“But… isn’t that alone enough to prove that the sea sank like this? “Have you really taken a gamble on the faint possibility that you will die anyway?”
“Well… it wasn’t that much of a gamble, but I had some thoughts. “I’m not sure [It will happen this way for such and such a reason!], but I guess I’ve approached it like [If it had happened this way, wouldn’t it make sense now?].”
Ottman’s words, lying down on the water with his mouth open, were followed by an explanation from the professor, who opened his mouth in a similar manner.
“A sea of sand that flows enough for boats to pass through. It’s a terrain that doesn’t make sense in common sense, right? But it makes sense if deep underground there is a mass of water that can cool off the boiling desert heat like where we are now. This is because the cold sand from the cold ocean meets the hot sand from the desert, creating an air layer between them. “This is an environment where a sand layer coarse enough for ships to pass through can be created.”
“Hmm… That makes sense.”
“You yourself proved that Ottman was in strangely good condition.”
“The explanation for the desert’s unique ecosystem also fits roughly well.”
“ecosystem?”
“The creatures in the sand sea are extremely large.”
The professor recalled the creatures summoned by the rockshell, which was about 1.5 meters in size and biting into ships, the sand shark, which was large enough to ram ships and sink them, and the Kauladi, which was so large that it swallowed military ships whole.
“Typically, land creatures are smaller than sea creatures. In order to grow that big, it has to bear a lot of my weight. It is difficult to grow large due to the conditions. However, the creatures here, including sand sharks and rock shells, all boast enormous sizes, and if they have changed like that over generations in a place that was originally a desert, it is inherently difficult for them to change so drastically, right? Well, there may be rare cases, but it is difficult to explain with common sense that they are all so large. But if those who originally lived in the sea adapted to this environment…”
“Hmm… That seems like it. “It seems plausible.”
“Well, I just looked into it like that. ‘It would all make sense if there was a sunken ocean beneath this desert!’ “I thought about it.”
Of course, it makes no sense to start with the ocean where we are floating right now.
The professor just put his head into the water.
The sea spread out before your eyes.
A real sea, not just full of salt water, but full of countless lives and ecosystems.
Under the sediment layer that covered the sea with old ships and shipwrecks, corals of various colors clung to each other, hiding their ugly appearance, and schools of small fish were busy moving about among them.
Sigh!
The professor, submerged in the water, could see something approaching from the sea of sand surrounding this place.
with a splash!
Sigh!
Sand shark. It was attacking a ship in the sandy sea the other day, and as if jumping, it threw itself into the blue sea, quickly caught a large fish in its mouth, bounced up with the force of its tail, and dug into the sandy sea on the ceiling again. Watching it rush around, it seemed like it couldn’t live in the sea at all.
‘Mute’s blood faintly remained in their bodies. It probably entered the stomach during that kind of food hunting process.’
There is definitely a mute somewhere in this sunken sea. It’s just that I can’t find it because it’s much wider than I thought.
A sea that sinks not toward the bottom but toward its center.
‘If that guy Falcatus got information about reality. There is only one thing that can be that window.’
The professor held onto this round sea and turned his head toward the moon, which was shining softly in the sunken depths.
A completely different appearance from the commonly known ‘God’. There is no such thing as a believer. Unlike the five major gods such as light, mercy, and abundance, this god exists in reality as well.
‘It is a different entity from GG’s concept of God. moon. Two gods of creation. If they were brought down by the dragons who control the world of GG itself…’
The professor recalled the image of the World Tree. A huge silver tree that grows endlessly. The figure carrying the world on each branch made of wires and circuits.
What if this ancient god is the same as the World Tree? Did he whisper the truth of the world to Falcatus like he had told him? Therefore, Falcatus was ‘frustrated that knowledge that even his brothers could not understand was only granted to him.’ Did he say that?
….Gurgling.
While his thoughts sink toward the truth, like the sinking body of a professor.
chin.
‘….hmm?’
Something like a hook caught on his clothes, and he was pulled out of the water in an instant.
“Saladin! I called him several times, but he said there was no news! “We thought you drowned!”
“No, how can a water wizard die by drowning?”
“That’s okay, I have to come and take a look first, so come to your senses and come up quickly! “The captain was calling me earlier!”
The professor was picked up next to him as if picking up flotsam and said, ‘Put it down! I don’t want to come out! ‘Leave me alone!!’ Seeing Otman struggling, he calmly climbed onto the boat.
The sailors who had earlier climbed onto the drifting ship’s sediment with excited expressions returned meditatively, and one of them was even shaking as if he had a real illness.
The captain, who was sitting in front of the sailors with a serious expression, was pleased to see the professor walking away with water dripping down his face.
“Ah Saladin. Welcome. “I think I should watch it with you.”
“…are you an enemy? Or sea creatures?”
Sniff sniff.
There’s no particular mute smell from the crew.
Out of curiosity, I asked what he had seen, but the answer I got back was something I couldn’t understand.
“I didn’t see anything… I didn’t see anything…” “
… Yes? “You said you didn’t see it?”
“Oh no! There are so many houses and tents piled up on so many shipwrecks…! There are even traces of eating and living! There’s no body… there’s not a single body!! There wasn’t a single bone or trace of blood left! Something must have dragged the person away. Only people! “Everything without leaving even the slightest trace!”
“…Okay. Stop and rest. There is an open barrel underneath, so you can drink as much as you need-”
Wow!
“Didn’t you hear me? Ooh, we’ve entered the jaws of a monster! It definitely said that there! “If you don’t go back right away, me and all of us… Ugh!”
“You bastard! “What are you doing to the captain?”
“Tear it off! Stick a barrel down his throat and lock him in the dock!”
In the end, the sailor who was struggling in fear was dragged below deck by other sailors.
The captain, who was adjusting his clothes while looking at him with concern, opened his mouth.
“You looked ugly.”
“What’s new? But what is it? “That one.”
“As a sailor, I am just weak in superstition. However… at least I confirmed that it wasn’t just nonsense. There are indeed traces of people, but not a single body remains. “Usually, even as time passes, some remains remain.”
“Is that what you want to show me?”
“okay. Um… it was in the box that friend brought.”
I pretended not to, but the captain didn’t seem to want to touch it either, so he lifted the cloth covering it with the tip of his knife and said. A few silver coins. I don’t know how to use it, but it’s an observation tool called a ‘star guide’ on desert ships. And….
“Maybe it’s the navigator’s log?”
“There’s probably a story written there that can answer our questions. “The reason you made that friend so scared.”
As he said that, he started to notice me. I thought we should watch it together, so I called him, but he seemed to want me to watch it.
The sailors gasped at the sight of what was revealed, stamping their feet in place and spitting in all directions.
The professor quickly approached and unfolded it.
“heard!”
“You saw Gail look like that and then touched that thing yourself! “I went crazy when I saw that!”
“Saladin. “Aren’t you… scared of that?”
“hmm? iced coffee. I guess everyone has forgotten, but I am a priest. If you are afraid of heresy, join the Church of Gwangmyeong.~ The saint who defeated the evil spirit personally guarantees it~”
“Oh oh….”
“Clergy…. Actually, I said that the size of the taboo was the biggest I have ever seen in my life….”
“I survived even after being eaten by the taboo, so maybe the protection over there is stronger than the taboo?”
“Do you… do you accept sailors as well?”
The professor burst out laughing at the sight of the sailors turning red in an instant. Their ability as sailors has been proven abundantly, and since the stage unfolding beneath their feet is the sea, they are absolutely needed. If you’re scared and intimidated, it’s just a loss, so I tried to lighten the mood a bit.
“Right now, let’s all convert. “Anyway, what’s there to complain about when we’ve reached the bottom of taboo quicksand?”
The professor turned the first page of an old voyage log, looking at the sailors’ eyes, which were bright and bright, uncharacteristic of a fierce sailor.
Palak!
=========
Mm-day, April, Mm-year. Between the stars of Golladdin and Utrim, 5 degrees to the right.
A new sailor makes a terrible mistake. A guy who had spent all his money on an oasis and even gambled away it all, let him stow away on a ship at the request of a kind person who helped him. The sailors were hung and the stowaways were dragged out onto the deck…
Oh my, the desert! I am a person!
The moment he closed his eyes and recited a prayer, eight sailors rushed toward the lifeboat.
The first mate and the deck captain had run away and had already called for departure.
Damn it! We have started a war with this goddamn riches! There is no turning back now!
Even if I had to abandon the entire ship, I, as the captain of the party who called for departure, was unconditionally entangled!
Desert! Taboo! Such lizard shit!
Now I have no choice but to go to the village of those who break the taboo!
=========
“It doesn’t seem like anyone else.”
“Hmm hmm hmm!”
The log was a record written by a captain who was driving a fairly large desert ship a long time ago.
****
