It didn't take long for Billy to reach the coast and find some fishermen's villages. All of the inhabitants had left the villages and moved away from the sea since the waters were pretty rough… it was like the waves one could see on the day of a storm, except that the sky was blue as it could be with no clouds in sight. Even though some ropes were keeping the boats in place, it was hard to imagine them staying there for long… even the piers were being damaged by those rough waters. Although they lived in that area for their whole life, even the inhabitants looked worried.
Billy flew around the area for a while, but he didn't find anything aside from the rough ocean. Considering that many states fell the tremor, Billy thought that the epicenter was right in the middle of the continent. Still, it seemed that wasn't the case…
"Just what the hell was that…" Billy thought. "In any case, I was planning to summon some aquatic monsters to check the waters beyond the coast, since fishing is a thing around here, then the number of monsters should be small…"
Billy also had his Underwater Breathing, but he didn't feel like investigating the deep sea so soon, even less so when something weird just happened. Billy decided to at least fly over the sea and check if he could feel something with Mana Dominion… he frowned when he did that and felt quite a lot of mana in the ocean.
"No presences… but I didn't think the ocean was supposed to have this much mana," Billy thought while frowning.
Billy felt some mana on his home and around. Still, he thought that it was due to his Edish trees… he checked other areas on the land and noticed that even plants and the ground had a low level of mana. He never noticed that before, but he could do it now, thanks to Mana Dominion.
"I guess it is obvious than the environment would have mana, I just didn't sense before because I didn't use its raw shape around me before," Billy thought. "Still, I don't know if this level of energy is high or not… Even if the ocean is supposed to be filled with life, the land should have more mana."
In any case, after he moved away from land, Billy decided to summon some sharks to do his bidding underwater. Even if a world of magic, those creatures still are pretty strong, and Billy made sure to give them some spells that would come in handy.
"I should wait at least one hour before checking with the others," Billy thought while he was waiting around.
When the hour passed, Billy tried to summon back the sharks, but none of them returned… He didn't receive any experience, so it seemed that they had been taken out without much of a fight.
"They were at level one, but… Even so…" Billy furrowed his eyebrows. "I will send some spies to keep an eye on the coast."
Billy's new garden was almost complete, and he could always make monsters do the maintenance there for him. The best idea was to use the spies back home on that task… In any case, the ocean still hadn't calmed down, and Billy could feel the level of mana rising, so it was clear that something had happened there.
Billy sent Blitz back to the dungeon while he used Flash to approach the places his friends were. While they didn't notice anything unusual aside from the rough ocean, they still kept their guard up and didn't leave the place.
"It is barely noticeable, but the mana in the ocean is increasing," Kate said.
"When did you become good at this kind of stuff?" Billy asked.
"I asked Sarah for a few tips," Kate replied. "I am not at her level, though."
"So, something happened to the ocean?" Alexander asked. "I never heard of something like that happening and it is something related to magic?"
"Seems like it…" Billy said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "We should stay here and watch things for a while until someone take our places, by tomorrow, Jean should realize that we are taking our time for a reason and then he will make his move. In the meantime, you should introduce yourselves to the people of the nearby villages. We might need to work with them in case something happens, so some level of trust and cooperation will be necessary."
The others nodded, and then they returned to their posts. Billy did the same and then headed to the nearby villages. Most of the people there were rather young kids or men and women over fifty. It seemed that young people disliked that line of business… Nevertheless, it was getting late, and the people couldn't just sleep under nearby trees or return to their homes. The ocean had yet to calm down… So, Billy asked them to get their things, and he made some houses with Earth magic. The number of people in those villages was small, after all, so he didn't have to use a lot of mana.
"Maybe tomorrow I should make some sort of capsule to explore underwater with my mana… It should be able to last for a while even if I don't make it too thick," Billy thought. "I will be able to control it with my thoughts, so mobility won't be a problem."
Billy was on guard duty even after night fell, so he had a lot of time to think. He also bought his magic hammer, so he wondered if he could make something with the materials around… Something that would help him with the task ahead. Using Mana Constructs was quite expensive in terms of mana consumption.
It would be nice if he could make a real submarine, but he couldn't make that with wood and stones. While he could make metal, it would consume a lot of mana anyway.
