It was a wooden ship, or what remained of a wooden ship.
Angor didn’t know much about the designs of ships, but he would agree with Helen that it did look pretty ancient.
The figurehead of the ship was a half-sphere, which consisted of several peacock feather-like components that still had paint on it. If what Helen said was true, that the ship came from three thousand years ago, then this decorative shape must have looked quite beautiful.
But other than that, the ship was just... broken. Old and battered.
“How could that thing stay afloat?”
While wondering, he heard several sailors talking about the ship with trembling voices.
“A ghost ship?”
He looked again and realized that the ship did look like those ghost ships mentioned in stories.
As the sailors slowly lost their cool and started panicking, Angor frowned and jumped onto the deck below, which silenced everyone.
He walked to Helen and asked, “Do you know this ship?”
“No, sir. But I’m sure only designers from the Age of Gold could make something like this one.”
“To be precise, it’s an expedition ship from the Age of Gold,” Erwin said to Angor politely as he joined them.
According to Erwin, this ship was used by people from Ferran Land three thousand years ago, when the land was just obliterated by warfare and deprivation. To look for resources beyond the boundaries, people started building ships to explore overseas.
Erwin inspected the wooden ship, which was still getting close. “This is a typical three-masted brig. But... the structural keel of it has completely cracked. Is it really a ghost ship?”
“I can check it out.”
Helen and Erwin jumped upon hearing Angor’s words. “Sir, you must know that Devil’s Water hides more hazards than people can imagine. Something that looks peaceful might be deadly on the inside!”
“I don’t sense any energy signature from it...”
“If you must go, sir, you can use a scout puppet,” Helen said as she pointed to the storage. “We have such a puppet stored there, but only a wizard can control it.”
Angor already scanned the “ghost ship” using his spirit feelers without finding anything special, thus his decision. But since Helen offered a useful tool, he decided to accept it.
A scout puppet was a low-level alchemy item. Angor could also make one if he wished to.
It looked like a sphere, and it could function as a “remote eye” for its controller.
It was pretty useful to apprentices who had yet to study the Wizard Eye cantrip. But the problem was, unlike Wizard Eye, a scout puppet couldn’t leave its controller too far.
Upon receiving Angor’s energy, the sphere grew a pair of white wings and slowly flew toward the ghost ship.
Using the puppet, Angor didn’t find much on the ship apart from what he already saw with his spirit feelers.
He controlled the puppet to jump into a giant hole in the ship’s deck and moved into the lower cabins.
There was a light source affixed on the puppet, so Angor could see the interiors just fine.
Helen and Erwin, who carefully watched Angor’s actions, saw Angor frowning, and they felt their hearts skipping a beat.
Is there a monster or something hiding there?
Helen used her eyes to tell the sailors to get into positions. As soon as they heard a warning, they would escape from here immediately.
“Weird. Why is the cabin area so wet?” said Angor.
Helen released a sigh of relief. “Sir, the ship has been lurking in this fog for God-know-how-long. It should be wet.”
“I’m not so sure about that... Trust me, I can tell if the water is caused by fog or other elements. As far as I can see, this is seawater. Besides, the puppet has not entered the bottom level yet.”
When Angor saw Helen and Erwin still puzzled, he snapped a finger and created a small illusion around him, which showed what he saw in the ghost ship.
“Such a fascinating spell... and you’re right, sir!” Helen exclaimed. “The cabin is submerged recently. Telling from the watermarks on the wall... was it suddenly pulled out of the water? But it can’t be!”
Angor also looked at the walls.
“I agree, Officer Helen. Was the ship underwater as it should be, and something dragged it out? I think everything is possible in Devil’s Water. But let’s suppose the ship was flooded recently, there should be dirt or other sediments in the water. However, I don’t see any.”
He ordered the puppet to keep some water so that he could check it later. He then moved on.
Every cabin looked similar to each other, with the same traces of water in them. Apart from this, the rooms were rather tidy, which was strange.
The rooms even had daily necessities in them as if people were living on the ship just several days ago. Yet Angor did not discover any human traces. Not even corpses or skeletons.
The puppet finally reached the bottom level of the ship, where Angor saw a giant hole in the floor, across which he saw flowing seawater below.
“Why isn’t the water entering the ship?” Helen frowned while looking at Angor’s “display”. “That thing’s big enough to sink the entire vessel.”
“Look more closely,” said Angor as he moved the puppet closer to the hole.
Helen and Erwin complied, and they then realized something before they rushed to the edge of The Limpet to observe the “ghost ship” from the outside again.
“It’s... not touching the water. It’s floating!”
“Sir? Are you going to examine it more?” Erwin asked.
The strange fact they just discovered only suggested mysteries that were likely dangerous.
But Angor felt his curiosity prevent him from quitting.
“I’ll check the captain’s room.” He showed a determined look to Helen and Erwin. He had removed his glove and was using his right hand to sustain the nightmare illusion protecting The Limpet. However, he wasn’t sure if this was enough to keep them safe should a real danger approach.
He controlled the puppet to move upstairs, and as expected, the captain room was on the top level.
A thick layer of dust welcomed his view when the puppet opened the door to the room.
“This means the room is dry,” said Helen.
Erwin inspected Angor’s illusion, which showed the interior of the captain’s room.
Rotten furniture, golden trinkets that looked undamaged...
“Yes, these originated from the Age of Gold as well.” Erwin pointed at the items and said, “Also, this ship probably belonged to royalty.”
The puppet reached a writing desk in the room. Beside the desk lay a single human skeleton, which was probably the only skeleton they could find.
“The ship’s captain, I think?” said Helen. “His clothes were torn, but they must have looked very fine before. But... where is his head?”
As they could see, the skeleton didn’t have a skull but was otherwise intact.
Angor still found no danger on the strange ship and decided to spend some more time going over his next plan.
Helen suddenly called and interrupted his thoughts, “Sir! The ship! It’s disappearing!”
Angor looked around and noticed that the bottom of the “ghost ship” was slowly fading away, as if devoured by an invisible portal from below.
The “portal” had reached the deck level. Angor frowned and ordered the scout puppet to quickly snatch a leather book on the captain’s desk, which was the only item of interest, then leave the ship from the room’s window.
When the puppet arrived The Limpet, the ghost ship had completely vanished. There was only empty fog again.
They would have believed that everything was a dream if not for the book held by the puppet which proved otherwise.
“What-whatever just happened?” Helen stumbled.
“I don’t know... perhaps we just went too close to the entrance of another dimension?” Angor shook his head and looked at the book he salvaged.