Chapter 438 Northern Exploration Team 2

Chapter 438 Northern Exploration Team 2
When leaving, Stanford arranged for two members of the exploration team who were proficient in linguistics to stay by themselves, their task was to learn the local language and become translators to prepare for further exchanges in the future.

Then the whole fleet continued to sail north, in the subsequent land exploration, the fleet encountered many indigenous tribes, among them there were orc tribes that could communicate and trade, and there were also human tribes that tried to attack them to loot their belongings as soon as they came up, which slightly slowed down the bad impression of the foreigners that the members of the exploration team had.

Continuing further north (technically their heading was northwest), the temperatures began to get colder, both geographically and seasonally, and if their records were correct, it should be well into winter by now.

Finally, the exploration team encountered what many members of the team would call a horror – the days became shorter and shorter, and eventually reached the point where twenty-four hours were all dark.

“O Father in heaven, may your majesty protect us sinners!”

The crew was on tenterhooks, and every now and then someone knelt on the deck and began to pray to God.

Faced with the panic in the ranks, Commander Stanford had to call everyone together to do some “science”.

“In our northwest bay, the year is divided into four seasons, summer day and night, winter night and day is common knowledge, in recent years there must be many of you follow the fleet to the south trade, you must be able to experience, the further south you go, the less obvious this difference, a clear example is located in the south of Aldo’s Horn Bay, where there is almost no change in the length of day and night throughout the year, on the contrary, the further north, the less obvious the difference. change, on the contrary, the further north you go the more extreme the change in length between day and night should be, and therefore I presume that this twenty-four hours of darkness is a natural phenomenon.”

Hearing the commander say this, some of the older sailors, who were accustomed to traveling far and wide, began to settle down, and, combining their own personal experience, they felt that Stanford’s statement was very plausible.

Although there were still quite a few half-hearted people, the fleet finally stabilized.

After nearly a week of groping in the darkness of the night, they saw a magnificent sight that they had never seen since they were born – a huge curtain of light that seemed to be as substantial enveloped the fleet, it was made of intertwined colors such as green, purple, and blue, and it resembled cotton wool and a light veil, adorning the entire night sky with a magnificent beauty, and the vastness of the countless bright spots formed a sea of stars spanning across it. The sea of stars stretched across it, indicating the splendor of the universe and the supreme power of the Creator.

“Father in heaven!”

Commander Stanford, who had previously been “popularizing” the subject for the crew, was shocked the moment he stepped out of the cabin, and with a clang of his legs, he knelt down on the deck.

His eyes were moist, and at this moment he was incredibly devout, putting his hands together and praying sincerely.

If it wasn’t for the all-knowing and all-powerful Lord of Light, what power in the world would be able to create such a miracle.

No one laughed at his behavior, because the other members were also as shocked as he was, and the deck was filled with a huge crowd of people kneeling.

A miracle! That’s right, this was a real miracle!
Unfortunately, the miracle lasted only thirty minutes before disappearing, but all of them did not immediately recover from the great sense of shock.

With great solemnity, Stanford wrote in very clear handwriting about the miracle they had encountered in the logbook for that day.

After the miracle had passed, a great deal of talk began to appear in the party calling for a return voyage, many believing that this was a sacred place, and that it would be blasphemous to continue the voyage any longer.

Although he had just been recharged with some piety, Stanford, as commander, was not swayed by these remarks and kept his mission in mind.

Under his command, the fleet sailed on through the Land of Eternal Night – the name the Quest had given to the waters and land.

But misfortune soon struck, and the command ship that Stamford was traveling in turned out to be reefed and sunk.

This blasphemy could no longer be suppressed, and coupled with the bitter cold that made it more and more unbearable, there was a strong call to return to the ship.

“Alas, it would have been better if the bottom holds had been partitioned into smaller compartments, and water in one compartment would not have affected the whole; it must have been a great idea, and I shall go back and mention it to the shipyard.”

As Stanford shifted to the other ship, his mind wasn’t so much on divine punishment or anything, but on how to improve the ship. Unfortunately, a dozen or so members of the exploring party didn’t come up right and were buried in the cold sea.

Under the circumstances, he could no longer ignore everyone’s opinions, not to mention that with the sinking of the command ship, they had lost nearly half of their supplies, so Stamford ordered the exploratory team, which had only two ships left, to turn around and return.

But their bad luck didn’t seem to end there, and it was during the return voyage that sickness crept up on them.

At first it spreads to just one ship, but soon cases begin to appear on another ship as well.

The disease was a sickness in an exploration team that lacked medical care and medicine, and almost every day a sick crew member couldn’t fight it off and returned to the sea.

The crew became more and more convinced that they were cursed for blasphemy.

This puts a strain on Stanford; the misfortunes they encounter are not uncommon on long voyages, but in these strange waters, far from human civilization, the negativity is magnified countless times over, and mysticism reigns supreme.

Finally, the Northern Explorers stumbled and sailed all the way back to the Stag Tribe (a name they didn’t learn until later), the same tribe where they had traded earlier.

The exploring party, which had been three hundred strong at the time of departure, was now left with a mere hundred or so people, much to the shock of the preparatory interpreter, who had stayed behind at the Stag Tribe and was learning the language.

After taking out some of their belongings as payment, the exploration team was allowed to recuperate in the Stag Tribe.

However, when they had enough energy and were ready to set off on their return voyage again, they found that their bad luck was still not over – the natural harbor that was used to temporarily moor the ships had been frozen over overnight.

According to Stanford’s idea, the exploring party would simply spend the winter in the Stag Tribe and sail south again after the next thaw.

But the loss of transportation instead made some of the people miss home more and more.

The miracles they had witnessed earlier, and the subsequent blows of shipwreck, disease, and icy harbors, made them think that they would not be able to survive the blasphemous curse, and that even if they were lucky enough to escape, there would still be plagues waiting for them later.

That being the case, they hoped that in the last moments of their lives, they would fall on land closer to their home in the Northwest Bay.

So this part of the members defied the order and insisted on returning to Aldo by land.

“Well, since you are adamant about it, I will set out with you.” Stanford made this decision.

A long time ago, Stamford used to be an adventurer, well versed in wilderness survival skills, and he felt that his experience could help these minions whose minds were already close to despair.

The Exploration Team had fallen to this state, and he felt that he as the commander was responsible – whether the direct cause was him or not.

After ordering his second-in-command to stay behind and command the fleet, he and thirty other men, leading the ten reindeer exchanged from the tribe, set out on the road back south, carrying food and wrapped in clothing made of thick animal skins.

In their way were endless virgin forests and countless indigenous tribes who did not know whether they were friends or foes.

(End of chapter)