The Rise of the Black Plain

Over the next few weeks, the group would complete a large part of the route to the Gunaway Refuge, overcoming the most difficult parts of the journey.

The most dangerous part of the sea voyage between Oqia and this island was the middle of the route, where special phenomena occurred even on the safe routes, where there were no areas of extreme conditions like those seen by Minos at the beginning of the voyage.

Occasionally, some phenomena intensify the spatial cracks, temporal whirlpools, and other problem areas of the sea. That was enough to raise the level of these problem areas and close all safe paths in front of you.

In such a situation, such a crew didn't have much of a choice. Either they challenged these phenomena and tried their best to overcome them, or they found a way to wait safely. It wasn't always possible to wait for a problem to resolve itself. Sometimes, these phenomena would appear suddenly and everywhere. In such situations, all you could do was try your best to escape the problem!

The group experienced several such events during their weeks of travel following their encounter with the octopus-shaped monster.

Fortunately, they all survived, although they had to fight, defend themselves, and suffer physical and material damage to their belongings.

Thus, the group entered the final 3 weeks of their journey to the Gunaway Refuge!

...

Today, the surroundings of Cloven's ship were not as dark and stormy as they had been during the last weeks of the journey.

Minos and Ruth were currently on their 10-minute break, which they took to eat something or drink a restorative potion while their companions stood guard.

Meanwhile, two natives of Zocarro, who had traveled with them to this island with the same goal of leaving this planet, talked to them about their destination.

They had become very familiar with everyone on the boat over the past few months, having overcome many things together and developed a very friendly relationship.

"We must be close to the island." Said one of the two Zocarro natives. "As far as we know, the island's surroundings are very stable. So the favorable weather conditions extend much further from this island than from where we left Oqia."

"I hope so. Sigh! I'm really exhausted from not being able to sleep or meditate." Ruth commented to them.

"Us too." Said the other native. "But when we get to the Gunaway Refuge, we'll be able to rest a lot and get back to cultivating.

One of you may be able to level up while waiting for the slot to travel to the Artificial Moon."

"What do you mean?" Minos asked.

Realizing that these two didn't know as much as they did, the native said to the aliens in front of him. "There are many who come and go from the Artificial Moon. But the transportation to this place is limited. The Century Terminal can only transport 10 creatures a day between the Artificial Moon and Gunaway Refuge.

So we'll probably have to wait a few months before we get our chance."

"That..." Ruth had heard that getting transportation from the Gunaway Refuge to the Artificial Moon was difficult, but she and Minos didn't think it would be that difficult.

The other Zocarro native explained. "The Artificial Moon is more than a million kilometers away from where we are. Since this area is too stable for wormholes to form, the only method of transportation is laser transport. But that is very expensive and consumes a lot of energy."

There was a big difference between Armhands' instant transport device and the one at Century Terminal. Armhands' method moved people up to 50 kilometers away. It couldn't compare to Century Terminal's device, which traveled more than a million kilometers!

"In any case, you won't regret staying on this island for a few months. As far as we know, there are plenty of opportunities to learn the languages of other planets.

What's more, the creatures there are very interested in exchanging information or resources for information, as many of them are aliens who have recently arrived in our world.

Not only that, but you can find out what destinations are available through the Century Terminal and prepare for your trip.

As much as we have mastered the technologies necessary to travel the universe, traveling the universe is still very dangerous.

There are space pirates, some space phenomena can appear in the middle of the journey and severely damage the ships, and there are also the dangers of the worlds these ships pass through until they reach their final destination.

In short, space travel is neither fast nor easy. Preparing for a few months can be very interesting for all of us."

"I see," Minos commented, seeing that he had no choice and that it would be better for them to take advantage of this opportunity.

'You and the robot must use these months to become stronger. It should advance in less than a year, and you can advance in another 3 years.' Minos commented to Ruth.

'I will try my best.'

After this conversation, both sides returned to where their groups were supposed to be and watched the boat's surroundings.

Nothing would go wrong that day, and the group would continue on to their destination, getting closer and closer to the safe area where they could finally see the majestic island that served as the entrance for aliens from all over the universe to come to Zocarro.

For the first time in almost 40 years, Minos was about to leave this world!

...

Two weeks later, the group had overcome their final challenges and reached the stable area of the sea, from where they now sailed at full speed.

Having successfully overcome the many dangers of the sea voyage, the group would arrive on the island in the next few days, with everyone using these final days of travel to finally begin to rest.

After months of traveling together, they would soon see the silhouette of the great Runaway Refuge, an island the size of Stone Island, Minos' first allied territory on his spiritual journey.

But unlike Stone Island, which had many rocky areas without much vegetation, this island before them was a magnificent jungle where a gigantic city had been built over much of the territory.

It was one of the largest cities on the planet, with more than 100 million creatures living near one of the only ways to safely leave the planet.

When they got close enough to the island, the entire group would observe the magnificent pillar of colored light that seemed to cut the sky to infinity, the path that the largest local organization used to transport living beings to and from the Artificial Moon.

It wouldn't be long before the group disembarked on the island and got to know this last stop on Zocarro better.