Today, they too are going to their deaths.

Rowena peered through the black mirror at the underground city under construction.

The massive tunneling machine continuously unleashed spells, devouring the solid rocks in its path and generating life-filled soil behind it, thus sowing seeds.

The first inhabitants of the underground city followed the excavator to repair the rough ground and install the necessary modules.

The most skilled dwarves are responsible for the most important reinforcement work. With experience and calculation, they erect pillars at key points, place ritual materials, and guide environmental creatures to ensure that their dungeons do not suddenly collapse.

They certainly did a job that justified the high price.

Dwarven technology, steam engine technology, unique creatures, and extraordinary rituals work together in a coordinated way, giving this underground city a new vitality.

Magma drawn up from the depths of the earth is transformed by the rock-eating flowers into clear water that flows along man-made waterways, creating complex rituals with the surrounding environment and continuously generating gases essential for life.

Gold-mining ants continuously transport metal to the furnace through pre-prepared channels; mushroom-growing worms diligently help sun-drenched mushrooms multiply, filling the underground city with light; and annelids, following the song, linger in specific areas, optimizing the soil...

Amidst the roar of engines and the spraying of exhaust fumes from the machines, dwarven craftsmen created new building modules and produced one sturdy and durable tool after another.

Everything seemed to be thriving, but Rowena knew she needed a Child of the Earth to truly bring the entire ecosystem to life.

Only such an environment could allow people to live happily and continuously produce various entertainment works to support her through the upcoming ice age.

Rowena had a vague feeling that this ice age might be exceptionally long, far more than the five hundred years calculated by the Royal Academy of Sciences. She probably wouldn't have more than five years to prepare.

"Heh, sometimes, what those short, stout people say does make a bit of sense. Rather than waiting for the Ice Age to arrive and for the entire civilization to be destroyed in the frost and snow, it's better to go underground from the very beginning and stop caring about everything on the surface."

"We can wait until it's safe to explore the stars and the ground."

"The first priority of intelligent life is to survive."

Rowena had forgotten why she initially wanted to live, but her reasons were clear now.

She wants to live happily, enjoy every day, savor delicious food and fine wine, let people create interesting stories for her, and at the same time gradually study the nature of this world.

Even though life in the underworld is full of restrictions, as long as she can survive, she will always find a way to make things better.

Only fools would focus their attention on the struggle on the ground.

Rowena couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the dying people howling when the sun disappeared and frost and snow fell.

Although she was not a high-ranking official in the kingdom, she learned through her own channels about some of the preparations the royal family had made for the Ice Age.

Whether it's a fanatical believer who thinks the royal family has a real pact with the sun and whose mind is filled with mythology, a scientist who tries to use mechanical power to fight disasters and light up an artificial sun, or an adventurer who wants to explore the sky and the deep sea and find solutions in the unknown places of mankind... in her eyes, they are all complete madmen.

But she can't laugh yet. She only knows where the Child of the Earth will go after that. She hasn't made any plans for kidnapping or abduction yet. It's not too late for her to laugh after she has thought it through more carefully and had a deeper conversation with her cousin.

……

Deep in the ocean, in a place where even light cannot penetrate, a fleet emitting a ghostly blue glow is slowly moving forward.

On the bridge, the crew, far removed from human beings, were busy adjusting the ship's spells in preparation for the next deep dive.

Some crew members' skin became shriveled, their muscles disappeared, and they looked like skeletons wrapped in skin, with only a few strands of hair barely clinging to their scalps, stubbornly refusing to leave.

Another group of crew members completely lost their physical bodies, leaving only illusory forms made of eerie green flames, and even their consciousness became rigid and stagnant.

Some crew members chose to abandon their human identity, growing webbed hands, feet, and gills, becoming like natives from the deep sea.

To dive into the deep sea, one needs more than just courage, technology, and a powerful magic ship. One also needs to completely transform the crew to withstand the extremely harsh environment. Even though they have undergone extremely complex curses and magical modifications to themselves, they still suffer devastating losses time and time again.

Of the original exploration fleet, only one ship remains today.

Even so, they still find ways to have fun while working hard.

"Hey, what do you think would have happened if we hadn't come to explore the deep sea and had instead gone to explore underground?"

"Underground? Hmm, perhaps there are construction crews right now, searching along the volcano for a place with abundant heat, preparing to build an underground city. Gas lamps... Oh, will there still be gas by then? Maybe lava lamps. In any case, lights will replace the sun, illuminating the entire city."

"I think the underground people would definitely use glowing mushrooms as a light source; I often see scenes like that in novels!"

"Novels are all fake! At most, they're just glowing mushrooms; mushrooms that can illuminate an entire space like lights simply don't exist!"

"Speaking of which, it seems logical that crew members like us shouldn't exist. By that logic, could glowing mushrooms really exist?"

"What utterly stupid logic, sailor! You're as dumb as a dog's head sandwiched between two slices of meat! I could also say that the low-probability event of 'I slept with your mother' exists!"

"Old man, you've lost your memory again! I really am your son!"

Captain Clarence looked down at his somewhat frantic crew and remained silent for a long time.

The depths of the ocean are teeming with terrifying monsters.

Those twisted creatures that dwell in dark corners and refuse sunlight always treat intruders with the most ferocious attitude, making them the biggest challenge in their exploration of the deep sea. But this does not mean that the strange environment and the small fish are not dangerous.

A shape-shifting monster that infuses a mind with mesmerizing sounds, directly stealing one's consciousness; a transparent, colorless, small-sized wrasse that can be inhaled into the airway if one is not careful; a grotesque, ferocious-looking ugly venomous fish that sprays venom indiscriminately...

There are too many monsters that appear in the shallow waters, forcing them to come up with their own names, and they have taken the lives of many crew members.

Although they would soon be torn to shreds and made into dried fish by the enraged crew, the crew, now having undergone multiple rounds of selection, were no longer afraid of those weak creatures.

To some extent, they may indeed be like the native inhabitants of the deep sea, adapted to fighting with their own kind, but there is one thing they will never be able to adapt to as long as they are still human.

Even the world's best sailors, the most outstanding explorers, and the most fearless men find it difficult to overcome loneliness, solitude, and boredom.

Fortunately, they had each other for company, which reduced the problem to just one.

The maddening boredom needs jokes, games, stories, and sex to dispel it, but there are no sheep, no women, and even few people with intact reproductive abilities left on the ship. Even as they keep exchanging stories, they begin to repeat themselves, and all sorts of card games are lost in the battle.

But they are a great group of people who began to create their own story amidst this unbearable torment.

They made chess pieces from fish bones, played heroes in a fantasy world, and transformed all their pain and frustration into poetry and adventure, imagining the world in their hearts.

Even so, their humanity continued to slip away, and their memories slipped through their fingers like quicksand.

Underground, mushrooms—Captain Clarence vaguely remembered seeing such a scene before, but he couldn't recall exactly what they looked like.

But he knew one thing: "According to the research of the Royal Academy of Sciences, our world has experienced many ice ages, but no one has ever seen a creature that survived the last ice age, except for the Sun King in mythology who is said to have made a pact with the sun."

"Underground is clearly not a good direction."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the first mate's voice rang out: "Did you hear that? The captain said there's no hope of escaping underground. We must continue our noble bloodline to save our civilization. Let us once again sing the hymn of praise to the Queen and our esteemed captain, to ourselves, to us, the saviors!"

Captain Clarence frowned, wanting to remind the first mate that he meant all choices could ultimately lead to meaningless despair, but the thought had barely crossed his mind when he realized why the first mate was deliberately distorting his meaning.

Yes, they must persevere and continue searching for that land of no death; they must not give up their last hope.

He's the captain, he has to be strong, but how could he have forgotten that just now?

This thing is more important than his name!

Captain Clarence abruptly turned his head, gazing into the darkness unlit by the warship.

He saw a giant, black whale silently watching him and them.

Its size was so enormous, and it was hidden in the darkness, that Captain Clarence could not tell exactly how big it was. He could only roughly guess that its length might exceed several thousand meters, as big as a living mountain in the sea.

And on this living mountain, there are countless corpses.

Some of them come from the deep sea and have all sorts of strange appearances; others come from the land world, including even humans—including the captain and crew who are looking at the black whale.

Captain Clarence couldn't understand why a corpse that should have been buried tens of thousands of kilometers away had inexplicably appeared here, nor could he understand why the black whale's body was covered with eyes filled with resentment and despair.

It's like he's gone mad!

But he can't go mad; he must keep fighting!

Therefore, he could only guess that this was the gatekeeper of the Land of No Death, the enemy that was hindering his progress.

"Crew members, look! Another monster is courting death!" the captain cried out in a frenzy. His body was filled with a furious anger that was a mixture of obsession and despair, filling the void that had appeared in him because of the anomalies in the deep sea.

The next moment, the seemingly normal warship opened its huge mouth, revealing sharp teeth, and the crew, as if waking from a dream, responded to the captain's call with bloodthirsty expressions.

"Kill it, eat it! Tear off its skin, remove its bones, and use its entrails as our breeding ground!"

……

In the secret chamber, Prince Charlemagne and Princess Valencia sat facing each other, exchanging the intelligence they possessed.

"Two weeks ago, I found the last warship of the Invincible Fleet, as well as the body of the eldest son of the Clarence family. The maritime hegemony of the Kingdom of Albion can be said to have come to a complete end. Our remaining fleet is only enough to maintain ordinary trade routes and can no longer explore the deep sea."

"Of course, the Clarence family remains the most loyal to the Queen, and we must reward them appropriately."

"I hope you can provide one of your outstanding women to marry Mr. Gray."

Valencia chuckled, "Heh, I think you're still got it all, and you could easily marry the eldest daughter of the Clarence family, making it a double blessing."

Prince Charlemagne retorted, displeased, "I'm not joking with you!"

Valencia raised an eyebrow and retorted, "What, do you think I'm a madam who can hire cheap, permanent prostitutes for your men?"

Prince Charlemagne felt his veins throbbing. Suppressing the urge to berate the other man, he changed the subject: "How are things going on your end?"

Valencia proudly announced, "The Sky Expedition has brought more good news. They have determined the outline of the door using astrology, and with just a breaching tool, they are confident they can open it. I have already handed this task over to the Royal Academy of Sciences."

Charlemagne tapped the table lightly and asked, "A breaching device? How long will it take, and how many resources will it require?"

Valencia said quickly, "Three weeks. I don't need any additional resources from you. Gottlieb will design and build it for me personally. But unfortunately, it seems some people don't want me to succeed, so I hope you can send your friend to protect the Dean."

Charlemagne pondered for a moment, then reluctantly agreed: "I'll ask him. He seems to want to go to the Royal Academy of Sciences for a while, but I can't guarantee I can persuade him. You should know that powerful people at that level always have their own agendas."

"Ha, as long as his mind isn't on the throne, I don't think we can't satisfy his appetite." Valencia gave Charlemagne a somewhat wicked smile. "My dear brother, I hope you understand that the kingdom will no longer accept outsiders."

Charlemagne, no longer caring about hiding his thoughts from his sister, roared, "Even if the price is the demise of civilization, you still insist on fighting for power and profit?!"

Valencia shook her head: "The succession to the throne may not be valid. The one who truly walks towards death may not be our great Queen, but the Kingdom of Albion. The friend you brought might also be crushed by that weight."

"To believe in myths is simply the most foolish thing in the world!"

"Also, thanks for your unbridled temper in front of me. I've finally confirmed the outsider's purpose in your plan."

Charlemagne growled, "Aren't you just indulging in mythology too! Where is the end of the sky? How can there be any doors or boundaries?"

Valencia stated frankly, "It doesn't matter. I'm not like you, still focusing on power at a time like this. This isn't the only plan I'm pushing forward."

"To survive, we must rack our brains and move in every possible direction."

"Finally, here's a piece of advice: your new friend will one day become your enemy, unless you're prepared to abandon the royal kingdom."

"Of course, I wouldn't mind giving up a few hundred shares of profit and a little bit of empty fame for his power."

"Know that only wisdom can illuminate humanity's path forward!"