Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Even without prior experience in underwater swimming and with a not-so-impressive swimming skill, Shard felt pretty good moving through the water, thanks to the protection of "Underwater Breathing".

The passage continued forward without widening or branching off, not giving Shard any chance to swim around underwater. The light of the Silvermoon grew dim in the water, and the murky underwater visibility barely allowed him to make out what was in front of him.

The channel grew narrower and eventually turned into a tight underwater crevice that only just allowed a person to squeeze through.

Just as Shard was starting to worry that the crevice would become narrower and he would have to perform a removal operation, a light surprisingly appeared not too far away.

He swam swiftly towards the light, excited—the light was the exit of the crevice. Emerging from the crevice, weak sunlight filtered down from above through the water's surface.

Striving to swim upwards, it took Shard less than ten seconds for his head to break the surface of the water.

Cancelling the Sorcery, Shard took deep breaths, feeling the raindrops hitting his face. The rumbling sound of the waves echoed in his ears, the rain and wind brushing across his face.

While gasping for air, he looked around. Behind him stood a towering cliff, and the cold, wet passage was clearly beneath the water at the base of the cliff.

Not far in front of him was a black reef protruding above the sea's surface.

"I am certainly not a climber," he said.

Therefore, instead of opting to climb the nearest mountain, he untied the rope from his waist and swam toward the black rock, braving the rain. Soon, he was standing in the rain, free from the sea.

Because he possessed the Arcane Technique "Time Perception," Shard knew that it had taken him approximately 15 minutes from leaving the hidden wall to this moment.

That was because this was the first time he was taking this "route." He was not only unfamiliar with it but also needed to be observant of his surroundings. In the future, once he got used to it, reducing the time to less than 10 minutes should be no problem.

"But where exactly am I? Hopefully not some isolated island in the middle of the ocean," he pondered.

Overhead, the clouds were thick, the raindrops striking his cheeks, the strong wind tousling his hair. The cliff behind him, its steep rock face plummeting straight down, was almost entirely obscured by the rain.

The saline scent of the sea assaulted his nostrils. Squinting towards the sky, he saw a lonely seagull circling above his head in the rain before flying off toward some distant place.

Further out was the deep and frightening ocean, where beside a few nearby rocks, the roiling sea almost swallowed everything in sight. At the horizon, the dark clouds merged with the ocean, and the twisted and strange shapes of the clouds left a chilling feeling in Shard.

"Why is it raining in Tobesk, and still raining here?" he muttered.

Drenched from head to toe, Shard endured the sticky feeling and continued to look around. Aside from the huge black reef under his feet, a series of rocks jutting out of the water lined the bottom of the cliff, seemingly having broken off from the cliff face at some point in the past.

The waves rolled at his feet, spawning a nauseating series of white foam as if they had been battering the rocks below for thousands of years.

The sound of the water was deafening, the surroundings desolate. Apart from the vast ocean and rocks, there were no trees to be seen, no sandy beaches or islands.

But by just shifting slightly, his line of sight could pass by the towering cliff on the side, revealing what was hidden by the cliff.

Shard's eyes widened as he held his breath—

He saw the port in the rain, the city standing by the sea, and even the vague outlines of giant factory chimneys in the distance. The flames of civilization lit the coast, and the scent of steam spread to the ocean with the wind.

"This is a port city on the west coast of the continent," he concluded.

Not until then did he extinguish the silver glimmer on his fingertips, turning his gaze toward the massive steam cargo ships docked in the harbor, the warships flying the flags of the Draleon Kingdom Navy, and the sprawling urban architecture spread out across the coastal plain.

"I am still in Draleon. The New World doesn't have cities this large, so this must be a port city on the west coast of the Old Continent," he deduced.

Feeling fortunate for his luck, he braved the rain to open the canvas-wrapped suitcase and took out the bag of frog's legs.

After uttering the awkward Spell Words, he tossed the powdered frog legs into the sea. Then he leaped from the wet black reef and jumped onto an adjacent rock in the rain.

With a better view from this position, Shard was now completely certain that the cliff towering beside him was on one side of the harbor city. And from his current location, entering the nearby harbor city no longer required going underwater.

As long as one kept moving over the rocks beneath these cliffs, they would be able to land on the beach's shallows after turning around the side of the cliff. Walking along the shallows, it would take roughly twenty minutes by eye to reach the dock where the large warships were moored.

In other words, Shard actually surfaced near the edge of the city. Once he got used to this route, it would likely take less than half an hour to go from leaving the hidden walls to entering the city.

Compared to the hidden wall at home, this spot was evidently safer, and overly so:

"Why can't the exit be in some basement in the city, or in the sewers?"

This was Shard's complaint as he hopped from rock to rock in the rain.

His boots stepped into the seawater on the shallows, leaving footprints on the beach while pressing small seashells into the sand. However, as the boots lifted, the incoming seawater smoothed out the sand's surface, erasing any evidence of human passage.

Shard landed stealthily on the shallows, before crouching down and sneaking towards the shore. Fortunately, in such rainy weather, no one would come to the beach, so his caution went unnoticed.

This was a beach near the docks, where the wind and tides had left some debris on the soft sand. As Shard moved forward in the rain, he noticed a wet newspaper lying not too far away.

After quickly approaching and picking it up to check, most of the newspaper's contents were blurred. The only things that could be made out were the name of the newspaper, the date, and part of the content on the left column.

The date was from yesterday, and the content was "Princess Lecia ends her visit to Carsonrick and returns to the Coldwater Port City for a week of repairs" (Note), while the headline was "Coldwater Port Evening News."

"The most important port city on the Western Coast of the Draleon Kingdom, and a major trading hub with the New World, Coldwater Port City?"

He looked up at the city skyline under the dark clouds but still couldn't understand why he had come all this way.

"Princess Lecia?"

He looked back again at the abnormally large warship out at sea, a steam-powered vessel. Aside from supernatural power, a battleship of this size could almost be considered the most potent weapon a person could possess in this era.

Indeed, there were stations of the Kingdom Navy and Royal Army in Coldwater Port City, but warships should not be at a civilian dock, so this ship was likely used to transport important figures.

"Is the princess on board, or in accommodations arranged in Coldwater Port City? Moreover, what's the use of me looking for Princess Lecia? She doesn't know me, and I don't want to involve her in the matter of the 'Whispering Verses.'"

Shard hesitated in the rain, deciding to take a stroll in the seaport city first. Since he had gone through the trouble of coming so far, it was natural for an outlander to want to experience the culture and customs of different cities.

Because of the heavy rain outside, when Shard, thoroughly soaked, burst into the "Golden Rose Inn" on "Hoglenz Avenue" in the Dock Area of Coldwater Port City, no one suspected that the young man had emerged from the sea. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

Inns in the Dock Area were accustomed to welcoming visitors from all over the world who came by boat, so Shard didn't stand out as an oddity.

Upon registering, he gave the false name "John Watson" and spent 3 shillings (including lunch and dinner) to rent the cheapest room in the inn. After bathing and changing into clean, dry clothes, he didn't rush to leave the inn. Instead, he returned to the counter and borrowed some newspapers from the past few days from the plump woman knitting wool, before retreating back to his room.

In the moist room that smelled slightly of mildew, he lit the gas lamp that seemed as though it hadn't been cleaned in decades. Of course, the first thing was to check the whereabouts of Princess Lecia.

The good news was that Miss Luisa's royal friend wasn't staying on the hard-to-reach warship. The bad news was that her temporary residence at Sophia's Mansion was not a place where ordinary people could casually approach.

That was a mansion in the most affluent southern district of Coldwater Port City, part of the royal family's vast wealth. Most members of the royal family stayed there when visiting Coldwater Port.

The Coldwater Port Evening News devoted a large space to describing the local police and city hall's extraordinary efforts to protect the princess's safety.

In other words, Shard had no chance of meeting with Princess Lecia Cavendish.

He then flipped through other sections of the newspaper to check whether any suspicious events had occurred locally.

But just like the newspapers in Tobesk City, various real and fake pieces of news across different categories were displayed, such as fishermen bringing back oddly shaped stone statues, couples who met secretly on the beach at night witnessing ghost ships on the sea, islands of treasure appearing on the high seas... and so on and so forth.

Each city has its own local rumors; Tobesk City's mostly related to the nightlife of a big city, while Coldwater Port City's are mostly related to the sea. Trying to find valuable clues among these pieces of information, Shard might as well hope for a Silver-Eyed One to drop dead while out buying groceries.

"However, someone of a Silver-Eyed One's status probably wouldn't go out to buy groceries themselves," he thought to himself, spending the remaining hour of the morning reading the newspapers. He had lunch at the inn at noon and even took out the Pirate's Blood Coin, but nothing happened.

So in the afternoon, he borrowed an umbrella from the inn and ventured out, as he had nothing to do for the moment, he planned to take care of Mrs. Lemer's task. Her friend, who was holding onto Mr. Lemer's will, was in this very place.