Chapter 434： Northern Exploration Team II

When leaving, Stanford arranged for two members of the exploration team who were proficient in linguistics to stay. 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. During the follow-up land exploration, the fleet encountered many indigenous tribes, including orc tribes who could communicate and trade, and human tribes who tried to attack them to plunder their property as soon as they came up. Their bad impression of alien races has eased a little.

Going further north (strictly speaking, their heading is northwest), the temperature began to get colder, due to both geographical and seasonal reasons. If their records are correct, it should have entered winter at this time.

Finally, the expedition encountered what many members of the team could call horror—the hours of the day were getting shorter and shorter, and eventually there was twenty-four hours of total darkness.

"Father in Heaven, may Your power bless us sinners!"

The crew members were in panic all day long, and from time to time someone knelt on the deck and began to pray to the gods.

Facing the panic in the team, Commander Stanford had to gather everyone together to do some "science popularization".

"In our Northwest Gulf, a year is divided into four seasons. It is common sense that summer has long days and short nights, and winter has long and short days. In recent years, many of you must have followed the fleet to trade in the south, and you must be able to experience it. The further south you go, the less obvious this difference is. An obvious example is located in Horn Bay, south of Aldo, where the length of day and night hardly changes throughout the year. On the contrary, the length of day and night changes as you go north. The more extreme, so I speculate that this twenty-four-hour night phenomenon is a natural phenomenon."

Hearing what the commander said, some old sailors who were accustomed to traveling north and south began to settle down. Based on their own personal experience, they felt that Stanford's statement was very reasonable.

Although there are still many dubious people, the fleet has finally stabilized.

After groping in the dark for nearly a week, they saw a magnificent sight they had never seen since their birth—a huge light curtain that seemed to envelope the fleet as if it were substantial, and it was intertwined with green, purple, blue and other colors It is like cotton wool and veil, adorning the entire night sky magnificently, and the vast sea of ​​stars formed by countless bright spots stretches across it, showing the magnificence of the universe and the supreme power of the Creator.

"Father in heaven!"

Commander Stanford, who was still "popularizing science" for the crew before, was shocked the moment he stepped out of the cabin, and kneeled on the deck with a bang of his legs.

His eyes were moist, and at this moment he was extremely devout, and he put his hands together and prayed sincerely.

If it weren't for the omniscient and omnipotent Lord of Light, what power in the world could perform such a miracle.

No one laughed at his behavior, because the other members were too shocked to extricate themselves like him, and a large crowd of people knelt on the deck.

miracle! That's right, this is a real miracle!

It's a pity that the miracle disappeared after only 30 minutes, but none of the people recovered from the huge shock immediately.

Stanford solemnly wrote the miracles they encountered into the logbook of the day in very clear handwriting.

After the miracle, there began to be a lot of comments in the team demanding to return to the voyage. Many people thought that this place was a sacred place, and continuing to sail would be blasphemy.

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

Under his command, the fleet sailed on in the land of eternal night - the name given to this water and land by the exploration party.

But unfortunately things happened soon, and the command ship that Stanford was on hit a rock and sank.

The blasphemy could no longer be suppressed, coupled with the unbearable severe cold, everyone strongly demanded to return.

"Well, it would be great if the cabins at the bottom were divided into small cabins one by one, and the flooding of one cabin would not affect the whole. This must be a great idea. I will mention it to the shipyard when I go back."

When Stanford moved to another ship, he was not thinking about divine punishment or anything, but how to improve the ship.

Unfortunately, more than a dozen members of the exploration team did not come up and were buried in the icy sea.

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

But their bad luck didn't seem to be over yet. During the return flight, the illness quietly entangled them.

At the beginning, it was only transmitted on one ship, and then another ship also began to have cases.

In the expedition team that lacked medical treatment and medicine, the disease was fatal this time. Almost every day, the crew members who were infected could not resist it and returned to the sea.

The team members are increasingly convinced that they are cursed for blasphemy.

This made Stanford feel pressured. In fact, the misfortunes they encountered were not uncommon during long-distance voyages. However, in this strange sea far away from human civilization, negative emotions were magnified countless times, and mysticism prevailed.

Finally, the Northern Exploration Party stumbling all the way back to the Buck Tribe (the name was learned later), the tribe that had previously traded.

There were 300 people in the exploration team when they set off, but there were only a hundred people left at this time, which shocked the preparatory translators who stayed in the Bucks Tribe and were learning the language.

After taking out part of the property as a reward, the exploration team was allowed to recuperate in the Bucks Tribe.

However, when they recovered enough energy and were about to set off for the return voyage again, they found that their bad luck was not over yet—the natural port used to temporarily park ships was frozen overnight According to Stanford's idea , The exploration team simply spent the winter in the Bucks Tribe, and then sailed south after the thaw in the coming year.

But the loss of transportation has made some people feel more homesick.

The miracles they witnessed before and the successive blows such as hitting the rocks, diseases, and freezing of the port made these people think that they, who were cursed with blasphemy, would not be able to pass this level anyway. There is disaster waiting for you.

That being the case, they hope that at the last moment of their lives, they can fall on land closer to the northwest bay of their hometown.

So these members ignored the order and insisted on returning to Aldo by land.

"Well, since you insist on this, then I will go with you." Stanford made such a decision.

A long time ago, Stanford was an adventurer, proficient in the skills of wild survival, and he felt that his experience could help these subordinates whose minds were almost desperate.

He felt that he, as the commander, was responsible for the discovery team's fall to this point—whether the direct cause was him or not.

After ordering his deputy to stay in command of the fleet, he and 30 other subordinates led the ten reindeer exchanged from the tribe, carrying food and clothes made of thick animal skins, and set foot on the journey back to the south. road.

What stood in their way was the endless primeval forest and countless indigenous tribes who knew no friends or enemies.

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