In Linley's eyes, this island was undoubtedly an ideal place.
Firstly, due to its remote location, away from major shipping lanes, few people would come here, except smugglers, which provided convenience for confidentiality. Moreover, this small island is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Only by guarding the only landing point can enemies be kept away.
Linley felt secure here. Even if other believers couldn't stay here for long, they could find another place. Linley planned to build a temple first, complete the second task, and obtain the reward before making further plans.
There are numerous fishing boats on the island, and fishing alone can sustain life. As for vitamin intake, raw fish and raw meat provide sufficient vitamins. The Eskimos in the Arctic supplement their vitamins by eating raw meat. As long as the seafood is fresh enough, eating it raw is no problem. Although there are parasites, they usually don't infect humans.
There are also goats on the island, but their existence is not significant because they may carry parasites and must be thoroughly cooked before consumption. However, the island lacks fuel, making thorough cooking impossible.
The goat skins could be used to make clothes, and the meat would need to be cut thin and stewed slowly. The taste wouldn't matter, as they are a source of protein.
Another important issue is water source. Without food, a person can survive for more than a week, but without water, they will die in two days. Especially on the sea with intense sunlight, sweat production increases greatly.
"Is there a water source on this island?" Linley asked.
"There should be," Dave replied. "There is plenty of rain here, and there may be water in the crevices. We usually bring enough water with us when we smuggle, so we haven't replenished it on the island."
"Let's find the water source first," Linley said.
The crowd dispersed and slowly searched for water sources in the steep terrain. However, the terrain was really too steep, and the search was slow. Everyone knew that without water, their other advantages would be useless. Therefore, no one complained, they just gritted their teeth and persevered.
Linley also joined the search for water sources. He was light on his feet, and he moved effortlessly through the rocks. Several goats, seeing him approaching, quickly fled. Linley had an idea, watching the goats walk back and forth on the cliffs, observing their behavior.
This stone island has a lot of grass, but the water content in the grass is not enough to sustain the lives of the goats. They must need additional water sources. Soon, Linley noticed that some goats would run to a crevice, stay for a while, and then leave. Perhaps there was a water source there?
He walked closer to the crevice and looked inside, but he didn't see any water. He only saw a few goats licking the rocks. He also tried licking it, and found it was salty. It turned out to be salt ore.
Although salt ore is useful, without a water source, it would still be useless.
After licking the rocks a few times, the goats continued deeper into the crevice. Suddenly, it disappeared from sight. Linley followed closely behind and discovered that there was a cave hidden here. He crawled into the cave, and a large pool of water appeared before him, with a group of goats surrounding the pool and drinking water.
Is this water freshwater or seawater? It would seem the goats are drinking freshwater. Linley bent down and took a sip, and found that the water was neither freshwater nor seawater, but slightly salty water.
Although the taste was not good, this water was drinkable and sufficient for survival. In fact, this water was much better than the water on the ship. The water on the ship would become cloudy and smelly after a few days, even breeding insects, which could cause poisoning if consumed.
In that era, ships on long voyages usually made landfall every few days to replenish their water and food supplies, but on this journey, they were unable to make landfall, and the water quality was getting worse. With no other option, they had to resort to mixing wine and water to drink.
Wine was clean, and alcohol also had a disinfecting effect, so drinking wine was much safer than drinking water. The sailors and pirates in the movies are often depicted as drunk because the water onboard was often contaminated, forcing them to drink wine.
Although the water was a little salty, it could be distilled to get fresh water. There might not have been enough firewood here, so they could only use sunlight to heat the distillation, which was very inefficient.
"Is this fresh water?" Dave followed in.
"It's fresh water." Linley replied.
"It's fresh water!" Dave shouted in excitement.
Those outside, hearing this, rushed into the cave, bent down and drank deeply, then cheered. With fresh water, they could stay here, at least for a few months, and then look for other places.
Linley entered the pool, discovering it wasn't very deep, reaching only two meters at its deepest, barely reaching above his head. The bottom of the pool was sand, and the water became saltier as it went deeper. Obviously, the pool was connected to the sea.
Because the terrain here was higher than sea level, when it rained, the water flowed together to form a pool. At this time, the rainwater was fresh water, and the pool was also fresh water. But after the rain stopped, the fresh water seeped into the sea through the sand, and the seawater flowed back up through capillary action, seeping into the pool, making the water salty.
If it didn't rain for a long time, the water here would become as salty as seawater and eventually evaporate completely. Whether the water here could be drunk depended on when the next rainfall would occur.
Looking at the pool and the surrounding ground, Linley suddenly remembered his grape sapling, so he took the divine grape from his divine realm and planted it next to the pool.
The sapling immediately took root and grew new buds, shining brightly. Linley felt a connection with the sapling and found that he could control it.
He transferred his divine power to the sapling, and it grew rapidly, the buds turning into grape leaves and bearing clusters of green grapes. The grape roots spread out, deeply rooted in the stone, and grew new grape saplings everywhere.
These saplings also grew new buds, leaves, and grapes. Soon, the entire cave was filled with grape saplings, exuding a strong grape aroma, like a mature vineyard.
Everyone, gazing at the grape saplings, burst into cheers: "Praise Dionysus!"
With grapes, they could make wine, which meant they could resume a civilized life. Even if they temporarily lacked food and clothing, it didn't matter, because they were with their god, and they could overcome any difficulties.
"This will be our new base," Linley declared, "I will call this place Dionysus Island, and this cave will be my temple."