One day later, Angor stood on the front of the deck and looked around, only to see nothing but fog and haze.
Small problem, she said? We can hardly see a hundred meters away. Is it okay for the ship to advance like this?
Helen answered him with a smile, “Don’t worry, sir. We use this route most of the time when traveling to Ferran Land. So far, there wasn’t any danger. The fog does nothing more than obstructing our view.”
Angor spread his spirit feelers and ascertained that the fog was only an ordinary condition made of suspending water droplets. And since an experienced sailor also reassured him, he returned to his cabin without minding it.
Since Roman was dead, he could begin practicing illusions on the ship now.
But he wasn’t going to do that today. Instead, he took his personal notebook and recorded the monster incident carefully.
On that day when they escaped from Leviathan’s territory, Angor asked Toby to observe the island from the sky, while he also used a sight-enhancing cantrip to look from afar.
Neither of them discovered anything special on the island.
This had left a big question in Angor’s mind. Why would a Leviathan stay around the island in the first place?
He wrote several possible ideas in his notebook such as protecting treasures, following an unknown power, hunting, or giving birth. But he currently had nothing to prove any of them.
He thought about practicing on a Truth Manipulation cantrip next, but then, he changed his mind and began drawing something on paper.
When Roman left the ship, the man used a pair of boots, which grew a pair of white wings to fly, and Angor found it to be interesting.
“Those shoes are his flying vehicle? That’s creative.”
Using something so small as a vehicle had many drawbacks compared to using a “proper vehicle”. But it would be convenient to use during battles, when bigger items would end up as burdens.
Since Angor was studying weaving right now, he decided to try crafting a pair of shoes enchanted with Rune of Float. Or if he failed to make shoes, a coat or robe would do.
He spent three days in his work, during which The Limpet sailed across the thick fog safe and sound. As Helen said, there was not much danger hidden in the fog. They did run into a level-2 apprentice-level sea monster once, which was easily taken care of by Toby.
One night, Toby suddenly landed on Angor’s draft paper and dragged him onto the balcony.
“What? Is there something you can’t deal with?”
Toby pointed a wing toward the northwest direction.
Angor frowned when he noticed a faint shadow behind the grayish curtain of fog.
The shadow looked like a ship that was at least ten times bigger than The Limpet. It was still some distance away.
“What the heck?” Angor frowned. He didn’t remember Helen mentioning other ships that took this route recently. Besides, The Limpet was already a large-sized cargo ship that didn’t have many competitors in the harbor. The shadow appeared as if it was used by giants, not humans.
It was made more strange when the flags on the ship were flying against the wind.
Also, Angor heard completely no noise from it.
He looked at Helen, who was ordering a group of sailors to move several barrels around.
“Officer Helen, whose ship is that?”
Helen turned around and was a little startled to see Angor, who somehow appeared right behind her.
“Oh, telling from its shape, it’s another ship of While Clam Association. But what you see is not a real ship. It’s a phantom.”
“Phantom?”
“The route we’re currently on directly connects to Gearwheel Grave. I mentioned that area before, that ships tend to go missing a lot in there, right? That phantom is left behind by a missing ship, like a mirage of the past. We often saw these shadows when traveling through here. Shadows of ships from different times.
“I think this one is one of the missing ships in recent years. It’s supposed to be an airship too, which is why it’s so big.” Helen sighed. “There were many people traveling on it back then. Maybe they were all dead.”
“I see...”
Angor noticed that none of the sailors paid the shadow extra attention, which meant that these men were used to it.
“Devil’s Water offers many strange sights apart from bad weather and monsters,” Helen continued, “such as this. Most of them are deadly to travelers. The association exists to discover relatively safe travel routes.”
Angor understood those words and nodded. Without guides who sacrificed their lives, people would never find any way to get past these parts.
He was a bit interested in the ship phantom, which might be a special type of illusion, but he wasn’t going to go after it. It would be disastrous if he lost his way in the fog.
He stood on the deck and sensed the energy signature contained in the wind. At the same time, he felt something familiar coming from the phantom.
“It feels like the mirage created by Erdus...” He muttered to himself, “Don’t tell me there’s another really giant sea clam around here?”
He poked his head away from the railings and gazed at the water below.
He couldn’t see anything but darkness. But he did feel an unknown fear creeping in his mind.
According to Helen, their current position was still far from Gearwheel Grave. Something that brought its illusions so far suggested that it was very powerful.
A moment later, when the giant phantom disappeared in the fog, Angor returned to his room while feeling a bit disappointed.
Two days later, Toby interrupted his work again by pulling him to the balcony.
“Another?” Angor looked at the faint shadow in the distance and sighed. He had somewhat lost interest in these ghost ships that he had no chance of examining, and he would like to focus on designing his “flying boots”. He planned to discuss with Nano tonight and attempt it later. But since Toby told him to check out the shadow, he decided to take a moment of rest.
This one looked similar in size as The Limpet.
He wanted to tell Toby to leave him be for today and return to his work, but he frowned as he noticed something wrong.
The shadow wasn’t moving.
Precisely speaking, since The Limpet was sailing at a steady pace, the shadow was following them, unlike the last one that remained still in the same spot.
Angor felt a bit excited since he might have a chance to observe the shadow up close.
He then heard a ruckus among the sailors on the deck, who were yelling at the shadow for some reason.
Erwin spoke through his speaker, “Stay on alert. A ship is approaching us.”
“Huh? It’s not a phantom but a real ship?” Angor frowned.
Still, an unknown ship meant potential danger. He removed his glove and unleashed a large-scale nightmare illusion that covered The Limpet up.
No matter what the ship meant to them, staying safe was their number one priority.
Slowly, The Limpet was close to the ship enough for everyone to look at it fully.
“That’s... a ship from the Age of Gold,” Helen suddenly called out. “That was three thousand years ago!”