"So this is the City of the Ship’s Rudder?"

"Be careful not to be swept away by the crowd." Li Ang held the hands of two people beside him, although he couldn’t clearly see which two they were.

Being squeezed together wasn’t what everyone wanted; people wore pained expressions on their faces. Li Ang used Wind Shield to push others away, preventing the young girls from being scattered. He raised his view to look into the distance and found that the port was different from usual.

Now everyone was on the platform where the port was located. Since this city’s main focus is shipbuilding rather than trade tourism, there shouldn’t have been many visitors. More space was reserved for placing materials for shipbuilding by transport ships.

But perhaps due to the upcoming ceremonial event, there were many visitors today, all crowded together.

After finally leading them to a slightly spacious area, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Li Ang turned around and found his four team members and Meluna glaring fiercely in this direction.

Hmm?

"Let go, it hurts." Meimei said beside him.

His Demon’s Hand had instinctively grabbed Meimei. Although he had gotten somewhat used to the angle and force needed to handle external objects in recent days, its rough surface still caused her pain.

Li Ang slightly loosened his grip, and Meimei immediately pulled her hand away, looking at him angrily. "Hmph, if we weren’t in a crowd, I’d almost have drawn my sword to cut off your Demon’s Hand."

"Sorry." He had tried using gloves or specifically crafting a piece of hand armor, but the demon’s thorns cut through these materials as easily as a curse itself would. The constricting Dimensional Cutting Blade would also slice through anything worn on the arm, so he could only use a drooping wide sleeve as cover.

And who was he holding onto with his right hand?

"Oh dear, wanting to hold hands with your sister?" Farina chuckled softly with one hand on her face.

Luckily, it wasn’t the troublesome Water Dragon beside him. Li Ang released her and pretended not to notice the piercing looks of five pairs of eyes as he pointed to the city’s high point. "This is the City of the Ship’s Rudder."

The young girls looked around, and what attracted the most attention was the rising terrain here.

While in the air, they questioned it—the entire island resembled an upright, floating short spindle. The city’s buildings were constructed on a conical island body, viewed from high above, looking like a metallic mountain of scattered metal fragments.

And at the widest part of the cone in the middle, there was the platform extending outward for use as a port. Standing here and looking up, the entire sky was occupied by interwoven mechanical arms, cableways, and guide rails, which transported large pieces of lumber to various places and dragged giant ships out from buildings.

The City of the Ship’s Rudder itself resembled a shipbuilding factory.

"Quite strange." Andasu pointed to the high point. "Those buildings with hoisting machinery and inclined tracks for transporting logs should be shipyards, which doesn’t make conventional sense."

She was right.

"Typically, the more convenient it is to transport materials and launch ships, the more suitable a location is for a port. But this is the unique wonder of the City of the Ship’s Rudder."

Li Ang looked around and pointed to a cracked brick by the roadside. "Look."

He nudged the rubble with his toe, revealing what lay beneath.

"Is it metal?" Andasu walked over.

"Exactly, the entire city’s bricks and stones and the foundation of new buildings are the remnants of a civilization that once built the city with metal."

Farina added, "Even half of the entire island is a complex metal structure, and many places within the city remain unexplored."

"So, those hoisting machines and guide rails are originally part of this island, no wonder it felt so strange to me."

Andasu looked at the machinery. "Some have been in use for a long time yet remain sturdy and stable, while others look new but already require maintenance."

"Oh, I remember now."

Dorothy suddenly clapped her hands. "When we were in Mistrem, the teacher talked about this city being a typical example of being built on pre-civilization ruins. However, there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what the pre-civilization structures were originally built for. Some speculate that there are hidden things within this Metal Giant Island."

Meimei, who once lived in Thousand Tower City, was puzzled. "You studied in Mistrem; why is your Caster level so poor? The world now doesn’t have wars causing educational disruptions, does it?"

The Golden Canary suddenly stiffened.

After a few seconds of silence, she stammered, "I went to Junior Academy."

"No wonder, usually those of caliber would start at intermediate level. Only those lacking funds would go to the junior level to build a foundation, quickly showing potential. It’s essentially just a preparatory school, not the main campus of Mistrem, right?"

"Don’t talk about this anymore!" Dorothy blushed and shouted.

Li Ang said, "Precisely because the city is filled with massive engineering equipment from pre-civilization, though the people later didn’t know their original purpose, to the people now, aside from housing, the greatest engineering need is building ships, and gradually this place became the City of the Ship’s Rudder."

The Guild office is at the island’s highest point, with shipyards of varying levels descending below.

The higher you go, the better the average level of the shipyards, as more large machinery from pre-civilization is present at higher points on the island, allowing for more precise construction of more complex items.

After introducing the wide-eyed young women, Li Ang also followed the previous list to search for the timber he had delivered. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Meanwhile, Andasu gazed at those machines. Unlike others, these sights captivated her heart, as if they were the wonders of the world.