Age of Exploration Arc

The **Age of Exploration Arc** is the eighth arc of *Dr. Stone* as well as the first arc of the Source of the Petrification Saga.

With the Stone Wars over, the members of the ex-Tsukasa Empire unite with the Kingdom of Science to build a ship capable of voyaging the world in the hopes of solving the mystery of the Petrification. Missing key resources, the group explore, invent, and collect what they'll need for the journey.

## Summary

Tsukasa agrees to get killed and frozen by Senku, since it's only fair after he killed Senku months ago. Senku builds a Tsukasa-sized refrigerator, and Mirai says goodbye to her brother.

Senku gathers all the Kingdom of Science with the new people from the Tsukasa Empire, and tells them they'll be heading to the other side of the world: the source of the petrification. To do so, they'll need a boat, and have a boat-designing competition. Magma is revealed to no longer care about usurping Senku, unless things get boring. He still wants to be Village Chief, however. Senku ends up winning the boat-designing competition, and they begin contruction.

Needing a captain, Senku asks Minami to find him one, and they revive Ryusui. Full of desire but seemingly a very good captain, Ryusui barters with Senku, telling him he'll captain as long as Ryusui gets the oil field they'll need to find for fuelling the ship. Senku agrees.

A scounting team is formed to find the oil but they immediately encounter problems, as the terrain has shifted too much in 3,700 years thanks to Mt. Fuji erupting. Ryusui invents Dragos, a form of currency to pay workers harvesting hemp for fabric sails. They make cloth to build a hot air balloon in order to survey the land, and use the excess for clothing to sell.

The completed hot air balloon seats three, so Gen devises a plan to get Ryusui to pay them for the privilege of flying. Senku, Chrome and Ryusui take the maiden voyage, but run into a storm. They eventually land safely in Ishigami Village. Using the hot air balloon and their scouts, the make a map of surrounding area and discover new resources.

Requiring food for the long boat journey, they choose to make bread as it keeps well, however none of them are good cooks and the resulting food is inedible. They revive Francois, Ryusui's butler, for this task. Collecting a few more ingredients, Francois exceeds expectations with their bread.

Having given up her Revival Fluid, Minami demands something in return, and Senku makes her a camera. She takes the first picture, Senku posed like Albert Einstein, then Ryusui and the others begin taking land images to find the oil field.

Looking for more food to satisfy their hungry workforce, Francois requests the help of Suika and Chalk to find truffles. At the same time, Kohaku is scanning their images for any signs of truffles or the oil field. She finds oil, but they can't tell where it is. They then use Sagara, one of the boars, to find the oil as the boar was rolling around in it before. They refine it and create a motorboat.

Senku's group proceed to test their motorboat, soon after the "crazy-strong" radio tower is turned on for the first time. They message that saturated the radio frequency the Kingdom was using consisted of one word being repeated over and over in Morse code: "WHY".

The mysterious call shocks the members on the boat, as Chrome demands they stop while Senku responds to the person via their radio by calling them out as the source of the petrification. The signal immediately stops, leaving the group to speculate on who or what the signal came from.

Returning to Japan, the group inform their allies of the news. Concerns are raised about the mysterious transmissions. Indeed, in the headquarters on Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, a meeting is held by the Five Wise Commanders about this new entity, dubbed Why-man by Ryusui. All members come up with a theory. The group chose to assume Why-man is an enemy, as the worst that can happen is they over-prepare for someone who is in fact an ally.

They build a radar, and Chrome repurposes it to look for iron since their river is running low. They make a mine along with minecarts. Roads are also created, and transport routes are formed, however there's a problem: the ship is proving impossible to build. They're forced to downgrade to a smaller ship design, which Ryusui designs as a model to help the builders. A year passes while the ship is built, and on September 10th, the Perseus is completed. The crew list is drawn up, and the group set off to the island that the ISS astronauts were stranded on.

## Story Impact

* The Kingdom of Science prepare to travel to find the truth behind the petrifaction.
* Ryusui and Francois are revived.
* Agriculture and trade routes are established around Japan.
* The Sagara oil field is found, and gasoline is made.
* A mysterious message is heard across the radio waves.
* The Perseus is completed.

## Characters Introduced

* Ryusui Nanami
* Francois
* Sagara
* Why-man

## Inventions in Order of Acquisition

*For a complete list of inventions in more detail, see Inventions and Discoveries.*

* Dragos (Currency)
* Loom
* Hemp Clothing
* Hot Air Balloon
* Wheat
* Mirror
* Camera
* Oil
* Signal Tower
* Paved Roads
* Motor Boat
* GPS
* Radar
* Sonar
* The Perseus

## References

1. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 83
2. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 84
3. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 85
4. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 86
5. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 87
6. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 88
7. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 89
8. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 90
9. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 91
10. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 92
11. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 93
12. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 94
13. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 95
14. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 96
15. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 97
16. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 98
17. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 99
18. ↑ Dr. Stone Manga: Chapter 100