Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Batman and Shiller entered the lowermost level of the cabin, which had nearly no light. However, there seemed to be no Deep Divers, so Shiller confidently turned on his flashlight.

With the illumination from the flashlight, they realized the ship was built by humans but appeared to have sunk to the seabed many years ago. The wooden structure was severely decayed, barely holding together, likely preserved by some mysterious power.

The bottom of the ship stored cargo, with corroded and broken crates revealing their contents: spices in one part and ores in the other.

Batman picked up some ore powder and said, "This must be a cargo ship from the era of great voyages, possibly from the Royal Spanish Fleet. It's hard to determine the exact period."

Shiller agreed with him. Judging by the appearance of these few ships, it was clear they were not modern. Considering the corrosion and damage to the hull, they also had some age.

What puzzled Shiller was that if the Deep Divers wanted to go ashore, there was no need to take a ship, making the presence of these three ships particularly strange.

Though the ships and Deep Divers arrived at the same time, they might not share the same purpose. If the Deep Divers were a creation of Old Sirteck's conspiracy combined with Joker's designs, could these three ships be related to the Church?

If the Church had somehow summoned these three sunken cargo ships, why would they do that? What secrets did the ships hold?

Shiller shared his speculations with Batman, who said, "Old Sirteck thinks he can manipulate the Church, but perhaps he's just a pawn of the Church himself. We have to hurry; we might be running out of time."

At that moment, Shiller suddenly heard a clear sound from the other end of the cabin.

He instantly turned off his flashlight and hid behind several wooden barrels with Batman.

The footsteps that followed confirmed that there were other invaders on the ship, distinct from the Deep Divers.

The two exchanged looks, understanding each other's thoughts. They pressed their bodies lower, reducing their breathing rate as much as possible. Shiller silently put on his night vision goggles.

From their spot at the very front of the cabin, Shiller could vaguely see a corner of the staircase leading upstairs. Through the night vision goggles, a human figure flashed by and quickly ascended the stairs.

After this person left, Shiller and Batman quickly moved to the spot he had walked on.

Due to severe decay, the surface being loose and some slippery algae, it was easy to leave footprints.

Batman activated his investigation skill—dexterity 20＞15, check successful—and shared his findings.

"A male human, approximately 1.75 meters tall, not very muscular but with a balanced physique and good stability."

"Do you think outsiders have come to the village?" Shiller asked.

"It's hard to say right now. Maybe there has been someone hiding in the village all along and they've only just shown themselves," Batman's eyes glinted with a hint of coldness. "He's probably not a good person. Whatever he's planning, we can't let him succeed."

"I'll lead the way," Shiller said, taking his pistol in hand and wearing his night vision goggles, without much further ado, he and Batman proceeded up the stairs, one following the other.

"Aren't you going to listen to my assessment?" Batman inquired.

Shiller looked back at him, only then remembering that he still had vision enhancement active, but he replied, "I thought your assessment was when you said he wasn't a good person."

"You are underestimating yourself," Batman said after a brief pause.

"What do you suggest?"

"The individual is completely unfazed," Batman said. "This not only suggests that he might have night vision equipment, like you, and is well-prepared, but also that he anticipated the situation here."

"What are you implying? The Deep Divers?"

"More likely the situation inside the ship," Batman touched a panel on the stairwell and continued. "From his trajectory, it's clear he came through a different door and went straight for the stairs. He's very familiar with the layout here, probably not his first visit."

Shiller frowned. Since the three ships had been here for some time, if someone had prepared in advance, they would have come up immediately, not waiting until now.

"If someone is invading now, that means he could have been in and out multiple times," Shiller asked. "What do you think he's here for?"

Batman remained silent longer this time, seemingly trying to comprehend what he saw in his vision before responding, "He's searching for something. He didn't find it before and has come again."

"Alright, assuming what you say is true, why couldn't he find it?"

Shiller wasn't testing Batman; he just found it intriguing watching him sift through illusions for useful information, like gold panning in mud.

"The ship is large and the layout complicated; it's normal not to find it," Batman said. "This place is not meant for extended stays. If he doesn't find it on one attempt, he naturally has to try several times."

They ascended the stairs and soon spotted more footprints at the stairway entrance, somewhat disordered as if the person had lingered before departing.

Shiller had also found footprints of a Deep Diver nearby, which meant the other party might have been waiting for the Deep Diver to leave.

This was actually good news, indicating that the other party did not have the capability to confront the Deep Diver directly. Without superpower, they couldn't be considered dangerous.

This floor seemed to be the sailors' bedroom, where the opponent had only stayed for a very short period before heading up again.

Batman wanted to follow, but Shiller grabbed him and said, "Let's search here."

"What are we looking for?"

"I don't know either," Shiller took a deep breath and said, "My intuition tells me there might be clues here, let's just search."

Batman did not object, so the two of them started searching the area.

This floor was larger than the one below, with the sailors' bedrooms arranged like fishbones, a main road bifurcating into many smaller paths, with the sailors' rooms on both sides of these paths.

The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, started checking from both sides at high speed.

Both of their search speeds were very fast, almost at a glance they could roughly judge which clues were useful. Shiller checked one room after another, most rooms were corroded beyond recognition and empty.

Some bedrooms were slightly better preserved due to their doors being tightly shut; one could roughly make out the shape of the beds.

Upon reaching the eleventh bedroom, Shiller made an astonishing discovery—underneath the bunk bed's plank, Shiller saw a familiar name—"Pick."

The name "Pick" was crudely carved on the plank with a knife, but there was another line above it stating "it has come."

Shiller took out Sailor Pick's diary. Although the carving and the handwriting differed slightly, some of the letters were written in a similar manner, indicating both were likely from the same person, presumably Sailor Pick.

Wait a moment, Shiller quickly flipped to the last few pages of the diary and after comparing the handwriting there, he realized the story's ending documented in the diary was problematic.

Although the handwriting on both looked similar superficially, upon closer observation, Shiller noticed slight differences in the writing habits; the later handwriting seemed to be forged.

Meaning, the safe return documented in the diary might be false.

Moreover, all three ships they were on had sunk; Sailor Pick likely hadn't escaped either.

But if his ship had already sunk, how did his diary end up drifting out?

Just then, Batman entered and Shiller handed over the diary to him, expressing his doubts. After thinking it over, Batman said, "Do you know about salvage companies?"

Shiller looked at him as Batman continued, "There are companies that specialize in salvaging shipwrecks in various seas, salvaging fragments of ship hulls and cargo samples, all of which have some economic value and can be sold to interested private collectors and museums."

"Given the size of the fleets during the Age of Exploration, it's impossible there were only three ships. If an entire fleet was lost, there should be other shipwrecks in the same area."

"Are you suggesting other shipwrecks were salvaged? Then why not these three?"

"Salvage companies are not charities," Batman explained. "They only salvage those goods that are more valuable. The better preserved the goods, the higher their value, such as porcelain, gold, silver, etc., or at the very least, items with textual and historical importance."

"To ensure the salvage they bring up is valuable, they usually conduct exploratory salvaging first to ascertain the value of the goods in a region. If they find the ship's cargo is suitable, they carry out extensive salvage operations; if not, they abandon it."

Shiller was beginning to understand; he said, "Obviously, the cargo on this ship wasn't what they wanted—the spices had long been destroyed, and minerals corroded, so they did not salvage this ship."

"Correct, but this does not mean that ships in the same fleet that carried more valuable goods were not salvaged. The diary might have been found on one of those ships."

Shiller thought it over; what Batman said made sense. The fleets from the Age of Exploration, particularly during Spain's most glorious eras, were large, possibly consisting of dozens of ships. A sailor did not necessarily serve on the same ship until death.

When they docked for supplies, there could be personnel changes, someone might work on one ship one day and transfer to another upon departing. Pick might have died here, but he might not have left his diary here.

If he left his diary on a more valuable ship, it could have been salvaged by a shipwreck salvage company, and thus resurfaced.

Although the Age of Exploration was not particularly long ago by modern standards, such well-preserved texts still hold historical value.

Once the shipwreck company had salvaged them, they might have sold them to someone, and then found by pillagers from England, loaded onto a ship bound for the British Museum.

And Jeff happened to have been a sailor on this ship, and to settle his gambling debts, he stole these valuable texts, thus they ended up in his possession.

Shiller wondered, if Sailor Pick's diary ended up in Jeff's hands this way, what about "The Water God Ketayat"? Could it also have come from that ship?

Shiller thought it was possible, for Pick's fleet had encountered a disaster, likely caused by someone using a spell from "The Water God Ketayat."

Then everything made sense.