Return

Mona had returned to the darkness of the void.

Ever since his last failure, he had rarely ventured back into the outside world.

He had immersed himself in experiments creating living beings and had already made considerable progress.

This time, he had sensed something in the depths of the darkness, prompting his consciousness to return to this world.

He hadn't used the Drawing Board's power.

Instead, he projected his own shadow directly onto the world.

And so, he saw the enormous crab on the surface of the sea.

Mona was quite interested in the so-called monster that had suddenly appeared in the ocean.

After using the Dropper's power to absorb it,

he sensed that the Hermit Crab's colors were exceptionally vivid.

This time, the Dropper's separation process had slowed down as a result.

While he waited, he temporarily redirected the divine power within him back into the Drawing Board.

[You have infused divine power back into the Drawing Board.]

[The Drawing Board has gained divine power.]

[It has once again shown you the world and its information.]

"Ten years? It seems I can't withdraw the Drawing Board's power so casually after all."

Looking at the people on the Drawing Board, Mona sensed something and a trace of ruefulness showed in his eyes.

Ten years had passed since his last act of creating life.

He had temporarily withdrawn some of the divine power in the Drawing Board—the wisdom and consciousness that symbolized a god—to use in constructing life.

He hadn't expected that this would weaken his sense of synchronization with the passage of time in this world.

To him, only a day or two seemed to have passed.

Sure enough, if too much divine power was concentrated within him, he could easily fall out of sync with the world.

"It seems the wisdom and consciousness needed to create life really are immense."

Mona shook his head.

He had been too immersed in creating life.

Now,

ten years had passed.

The Tribe had changed considerably, too.

Once the Drawing Board had been reactivated,

one notification after another appeared.

[Throughout these ten years, the Torch of Faith has continued to burn without pause.]

[The people's faith in you has not diminished.]

[Your followers are building a Wonder for you.]

[Your followers have built a ship to explore the ocean.]

[This is the first time the Tribe has turned its gaze toward the sea.]

[You have obtained: Light of Technology ×20]

Mona began looking over the changes that had taken place in the Tribe over the past ten years.

A new building had appeared among his [Anchor Points], labeled [Wonder Prototype].

[Wonder Prototype]: A Wonder that has yet to be completed, gathering a great deal of people's faith. Once finished, it will unlock [Wonder] under [Faith] for you.

Mona shifted his gaze to the mountain.

He soon spotted the building under construction.

Bare-chested men were hauling stone up the mountain on wooden carts.

The building was still being made from ordinary stone.

Even so, its scale was already apparent.

It was larger than any temple.

"Even unfinished, it's already as strong an Anchor Point as a temple. Once completed, it'll become the most powerful Anchor Point in this world."

Mona quietly sensed its presence.

When he was inside the Wonder, he felt the same pull he felt in a temple, slightly slowing his path to godhood.

An [Anchor Point]'s pull depended on the strength of the faith invested in it.

A person's faith might flow without end,

but its intensity over a short period was limited.

So when many people's faith gathered at a temple or a statue of a god at the same time, those things became stronger Anchor Points.

And so,

if this Wonder held so much faith,

that meant

it deeply attracted the devout.

Or perhaps

most of the people on the island already felt a fervent urge to worship this Wonder, though it was still being built.

Mona knew that once construction was complete, this [Wonder] would likely become his strongest Anchor Point yet.

Then, he would also be able to unlock more advanced technologies in the Tech Tree at this Wonder.

He took one more look at the Artisan, bare-chested and sweating as they hammered away with chisels and mallets, then left.

Mona turned his attention to the [Tech Tree].

Over the past ten years, the Tribe had produced no new Holy Relics, but it had come up with quite a few Inventions.

The [Driftwood Boat] on the shore was one of them.

[Name]: Driftwood Boat

[Type]: Invention · Tool

[Quality]: White

[Required Knowledge]: Construction Art Lv. 1

[Main Material]: White Wood

[Usage Requirement]: Oars

[Effect]: Moves across the sea at an extremely slow and unsteady pace.

[Description]: The Driftwood Boat made by Blair and the Artisans might just manage to sail effectively on the open sea with the help of "Navigation Art Lv. 1" and more advanced technologies.

Looking at the crude dugout canoe, Mona couldn't help shaking his head with a smile.

If people thought they could sail the turbulent sea in such a crude wooden boat, they were far too naive.

Even if he used Light of Technology to have them research [Associated Objects] for the [Driftwood Boat], the improved vessel they came up with would probably still struggle to sail on the sea.

People couldn't research beyond their existing knowledge and material conditions.

But whatever the case, this was a good start.

It meant their dream of exploring the ocean had begun.

It was a dream he had always hoped people would have:

a dream of slowly exploring the world, little by little.

But

this wondrous dream of exploring the ocean had only just begun before it was mercilessly burst like a bubble.

"So why did you have to show up now?"

Mona shifted his gaze to the Dropper, to the culprit that had crushed people's dreams and been dissolved inside it.

At last, the colors inside the Dropper slowly began to clear.

[You have obtained: Hermit Crab Soul Essence ×1]

[You have obtained: Hermit Crab Life Essence ×1]

[You have obtained: Ocean Essence ×5]

Mona touched its Soul Essence separately, gaining some information about the Hermit Crab and searching for clues.

[Giant Monster Lv. 2] Hermit Crab

[Age]: 104 years

[Traits]: "Longevity Lv. 1" "Parasitism Lv. 1" "Spirituality Lv. 1" "Life Energy Lv. 1"

[Temperament]: Savage, irritable

[Sequence]: None

[A giant shrimp that inhabits empty snail shells. As time passes, it gradually absorbs material from the shell as it grows, secreting similar substances that continually cover its original carapace.]

After touching its soul and seeing its entry,

Mona began to understand.

The soul of this ocean monster, which had lived for more than a century, was indeed powerful.

But he still didn't quite understand.

Why had this Giant Monster called a Hermit Crab appeared at this particular moment?

He had seen people depict these enormous Hermit Crab monsters in the Tribe's murals.

But in the more than a hundred years since he had descended into this world, the legendary sea monster had never appeared.

Yet just as people had finally built a boat and were about to set out for the ocean, it had appeared right then.

It didn't seem like a coincidence.

It was as if the creature had been deeply drawn to the scent of that boat.