Angor already wished to check the figurehead statue on The Limpet. Today, he decided to look up close.
Compared to the “praying lady” on The Redbud, the figurehead of The Limpet looked a bit garish. Evil, even.
“An alluring siren with snake hair... sounds like something preferred by pirates.”
While he looked, Helen was still talking about Nausica with a yearning look. “Is Lord Asbel currently at the Fey Continent, sir?”
“Maybe and maybe not. She said she had something to deal with. I won’t be surprised if she already went to a random place to hide,” Angor replied without looking away from the statue.
“Are you interested in Medusa, sir?”
“Medusa?”
“That’s the name of the sea monster you’re looking at. People say that she lives at Devil’s Water and feeds on humans’ brains. Those who look at her eyes will be turned to stone. Many ships place Medusa’s statue on their prow to scare off other monsters. Personally, I don’t think this helps. The monsters will come nevertheless. No one can prove the existence of Medusa. Not even wizards from the association.”
“If that story earlier is true, then of course no one can live to tell the tale, should they see Medusa for real. And you’re wrong, I’m not interested in the statue.”
Helen kept looking and noticed that Angor was gazing at the statue’s hand, where a sea whelk with a purple gem was held.
As soon as Angor came to the ship, he recognized weak nightmare energy signatures from the whelk, which suggested a nightmare stone. Later, Roman also told him so.
However, something told him that the energy was further decreasing. When standing near the statue, he could barely feel it anymore.
Either someone knew how to hide the energy from detection, which was unlikely on this ship, or the nightmare stone was depleted.
Angor slowly closed his eyes and prepared a cantrip.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw digits and symbols around the statue that were normally invisible to others. Gradually, all the data entered the “server” in his mindspace.
“Are you looking at the nightmare stone, sir?” Helen asked when she saw Angor frowning.
“You know what this is?”
“Yes. They told us to activate this stone if any unconquerable monster shows up. But that doesn’t happen often on the sea. As far as I know, the nightmare stone on The Limpet was only used once around ten years ago, when people saw a giant squid monster coming.”
“So the stone has been left untouched ever since?”
“Should be.”
Angor snickered. “I’m afraid it’ll never work again anyway.”
Helen tilted her head in confusion.
“Untouched, not quite. There must be someone who tampered with it recently.”
“But... I never saw someone doing such a thing.”
“Tell me, apart from me and Roman, are there any other supernatural people who came to The Limpet this month?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Helen shook her head.
“I see.” Angor glanced at the nightmare stone again as well as the faint energy ripples that are almost extinguished by the wind. “Get back to your room. We don’t want our chief officer to catch a cold.”
Then he left the prow of the ship first.
Helen decided not to ask what those words meant since she wasn’t supposed to, and so, she returned to her cabin as well.
As Angor arrived at his room, he heard noises outside his window, which sounded like someone’s clothes flapping in the wind.
He walked to the balcony and saw a man standing at where he and Helen were several minutes ago—Roman.
Roman looked at Angor with a grim expression, while Angor, using the image of a typical middle-aged traveler, waved a hand to say “what’s up”.
Roman used his spirit to confirm that the nightmare stone was unharmed and showed a relieved look.
They spent several more seconds exchanging stares before Roman said something using his lips and returned to his room on the top floor.
Angor tried recreating Roman’s “lip language”.
“Mind your own business? Ha.”
It seemed Roman was both suspicious and overcautious. Or in this case, he was being too mistrustful due to his own guilt.
Just now, Angor’s Narda’s Vision cantrip told him that the gem on the statue was not a nightmare stone, but a “deception stone”, a non-tiered material capable of holding basic illusions.
It was valueless compared to nightmare stones.
According to Helen’s story, the nightmare stone was still fine ten years ago, while the lingering nightmare energy around the deception stone suggested that the real nightmare stone was removed within a month.
Even though Helen said that there was only Roman who boarded the ship as a supernatural in this month, Angor couldn’t be sure that it was Roman who stole the nightmare stone. It was still likely that someone they didn’t know about sneaked onto the ship one night.
But after seeing Roman’s reaction just now...
Angor was almost sure that Roman took the nightmare stone as the guard of the vessel.
As a passenger, Angor didn’t wish to reveal Roman’s trick because it probably wouldn’t help with anything in the middle of nowhere.
But he wondered what Roman’s purpose was. Or how this man was going to explain to his association once the matter was found out.
A nightmare stone was valuable enough to attract attention from the Floating Mech City. What would happen if the city sent someone to go after the lost item?
The future of The Limpet didn’t seem so well.
...
In the next few days, The Limpet came across some minor problems on the sea, but it was never in real danger thanks to Helen and Erwin.
In fact, Angor was a little confused when he realized that the ship was free of monster attacks for so many days.
While the weather seemed as violent as it should be, all the sea monsters usually lurking around Devil’s Water were gone.
“Monster incoming!!!” a sailor suddenly called loudly and interrupted his thoughts.
Angor was communicating with Nano, who was making clothes again inside the space bracelet. Nano might be pretty terrible when it came to styling, but he was still a skilled weaver.
Upon hearing the warning, Angor quickly “disconnected” his spirit feelers and looked outside.
On the horizon, a giant, serpent-like beast was rising and sinking repeatedly on the sea surface while approaching The Limpet quickly.
He couldn’t recognize the monster. But the energy signatures told him that the giant snake was another level-3 apprentice-like presence. A very powerful one.
He simply waited on the balcony since Roman was looking for monster parts so eagerly.
However, Roman never moved when the monster was only several hundred kilometers away.
The mortal workers on the deck were getting more and more panicked.
Officer Helen was also on the ship’s deck, ordering her men to evacuate. From her position, she could see both Angor and Roman.
She was mostly looking at Roman since she knew this man usually acted first when fending off monsters. But her heart sank when Roman only gave her an indifferent grin.
She had no choice but to pray that Angor could do something.
Angor was fully aware of the situation. But he would like to stay put before ascertaining Roman’s attitude.
Don’t tell me he’s still hating me for attacking the fish monster without getting his consent?
The sailors on the deck were already screaming as they watched the serpent opening its fanged maw just a short distance away.
“What’s your plan this time, Mister Roman?” Angor decided to ask.
Roman spoke in a loud voice, which was heard by everyone, “The last monster left several nasty wounds on me. I’m afraid I’m not in the condition to fight this one. Captain, please change course and avoid the monster.”
As expected... Angor grimaced.
Roman might fool mortals with that lie, but in Angor’s view, Roman was in top condition.
There was not a chance for the ship to escape from the serpent monster by changing directions. Did Roman decide to completely abandon the ship? Just because he got his hands on the nightmare stone?
“Alas, it is a little too late to evade now. But rest assured! I’m not the only wizard on the ship, remember?”
Roman gave Angor a side-glance and displayed a cunning smile.