He stopped when he was about a hundred meters above the light source.
He was looking at a flickering, umbrella-like object that was releasing a swirling torrent from its center, which then went all the way toward the surface.
“So that’s the culprit. But... whatever is that?”
He already sensed dreadful power coming from it without getting too close, and it wasn’t friendly. In fact, he was almost sure the power was attempting to invade his body at this moment.
He couldn’t make sure whether that thing was alive. It could also be a very deadly monster.
He decided to return to the ship for now instead of recklessly approaching the unknown presence.
“Sir, what is down there?” Erwin saw Angor coming back and quickly asked.
“There is something... strange. But I don’t know what it is yet.”
Helen grew anxious when she saw Angor looking so serious for the first time. “I’m just glad you’re safe, sir. If there’s danger, shall we leave and find another path?”
“No.” Angor shook his head. “Whatever it is, I think it means to keep an eye on us. This meant constant trouble no matter where we go.”
He knew he could leave this place on his Gondola. But they HAD to do something about that strange thing underwater if they wanted to get The Limpet out.
“Can we help you in any way?” asked Erwin.
“Ready the scout puppet. Let’s ascertain what exactly it is first.”
The sailors tossed the puppet into the water as Angor asked, after which he controlled it to move closer to the “glowing umbrella”.
Meanwhile, he used an illusion to show everyone what he saw through the puppet. Perhaps a seasoned sailor could recognize the unknown monster.
“Do any of you know what this is?” Angor asked when the puppet successfully detected the umbrella.
The sailors took a moment to wake up from their astonishment at seeing an amazing illusion. They then shook their heads.
“It looks soft and is flapping... maybe it’s a jellyfish?” A sailor took a guess.
Helen nodded to agree. “It sure looks like one. But can a jellyfish create whirlpools?”
“It’s completely possible,” said Erwin, “this is Devil’s Water after all.”
While the others discussed, Angor kept moving the puppet deeper until he suddenly saw the “vision” of the puppet going blurry.
“Oof.”
He gasped and quickly “disconnected” from the puppet, causing the illusion to vanish as well.
“What’s the matter, sir?” Helen was startled a bit upon seeing Angor’s grim look.
“Not sure. I think something stung my spirit power by going for the puppet. But I pulled back in time. Sorry, Captain Erwin. I don’t think that puppet is coming back.”
“We can always report such unavoidable loss to the association, sir.” Erwin shook his head. “Don’t worry, that item is intended to get spent in such situations.”
He ordered several sailors to carry a large iron chest to them, inside which a dozen more scout puppets were stuffed.
“We have not used the puppets for quite a while, and we have the allowance to apply for new ones each year. We have these saved up.”
“Woah. Talking about the wealth of Floating Mech City...” Angor commented.
Since he had the right tools now, he decided to explore underwater again. He still wished to find out what attacked the puppet just now.
When the “umbrella” was in view again, a sailor suddenly spoke, “Hey, is that thing bigger than before?”
“Really? Isn’t that because Mister Padt moved the scout faster this time?”
Angor didn’t hear their conversation because he was too focused on controlling the puppet and maintaining the display illusion at the same time. In order not to overlook potential danger, he kept his best attention.
The same feeling soon hit him again. He felt dazed for a brief second, after which his connection with the puppet was cut off.
“It... feels like some kind of frequency, and it affects my spirit power.”
He had read about certain monsters who used strange abilities to disrupt the minds of their enemies. He wondered if this “jellyfish-like thing” was one such monster.
He decided to throw a third puppet in the water to prove his theory, but as soon as he did, a sailor called out, “Wait, I can see it already.”
“I was right. It is getting bigger. I mean, it’s getting closer to us!”
Angor saw it too. He didn’t have to move the puppet too much to see the glowing umbrella this time. It surely was floating up.
“It grew tired of using traps and decided to attack us upfront?” he mumbled.
Obviously, it wasn’t wise to confront the monster when they didn’t know anything about it yet.
He quickly told Erwin to move the ship away, then he removed his right glove and applied an enhanced nightmare illusion around The Limpet to cover it up.
As the ship gained more distance from the approaching monster, Angor used the scout puppet to observe it once again.
And the situation didn’t look good.
That thing was only about 500 meters from reaching the surface now, which allowed Angor to have a better look at it. Yes, it was a jellyfish. An exceptionally large and strange-looking one.
The creature itself wasn’t glowing. There were countless shiny dots gathered around its form that made it bright.
The puppet was too far for them to figure out what the tiny dots were. Even so, they still felt sudden goosebumps when the trypophobia in their instinct was triggered.
By moving the puppet slightly closer, Angor finally managed to see the dots being undead souls captured on the jellyfish’s skin, including their twisted expressions and their outstretched claws.
The sight reminded him of what he saw in Dark Castle when people from the castle collected human blood and produced many suffering souls. Back then, he was disgusted by the barbaric deeds done by the castle. But what he saw on the jellyfish was different—this creature and all the souls crawling all over it made every nerve in his body uncomfortable.
Soon, the sailors all saw what was going on in the illusion. Many of them couldn’t take it anymore and started vomiting.
Angor canceled his illusion and looked at Helen, who looked terrified but was trying her best to remain calm. “Have you heard of this monster before?”
“No-no, sir.” Helen covered her mouth. “Is that a sea monster at all?”
Angor didn’t reply since he wasn’t sure about this. But he was sure that the undead tended to be extremely hostile against all other creatures, which was strange, since the jellyfish seemed to be co-existing with the souls pretty well.
The undead did not possess any intelligence. The only thing they knew was to maim the living ones due to their primal instinct that was tainted by negative energy. There was no way they could learn about complicated relationships such as mutualism.
Or perhaps the jellyfish knows how to control them? he wondered.
Again, he felt his spirit connection being disrupted before he lost the scout puppet.
The puppet did not dive deeper into the water yet, which meant the jellyfish was the true culprit that bothered him.
The creature was almost going to emerge on the surface. Meanwhile, everyone on The Limpet showed terrible symptoms such as nausea and trance. Someone even went out cold on the deck straight away.
Apparently, the “strange frequency” used by the creature was affecting the mortals on the ship.
Angor didn’t feel anything since his spirit was fortified. As long as he didn’t extend a portion of his spirit power like how he did on the puppets, the strange frequency wouldn’t get inside his mind.
When most of the sailors fell, The Limpet slowed down to a halt.
Following a large water splash, the gigantic jellyfish rose from the surface and allowed Angor to look at it directly.
At the same time, he felt a familiar sense from the creature.