Angor thoroughly wrote down everything he encountered at Specter Basin in his notebook. In order not to miss any detail, he even blended a trace of nightmare illusion between the letters so that he could rewatch the event later.
He learned such a method from Sunders. It both helped him record information better and allowed him to encrypt something he did not wish others to see. It wasn’t complex, but people without the knowledge of nightmare illusions still wouldn’t be able to solve the trick easily.
After he dropped his pen, he was still wondering what the crab monster and the giant jellyfish were.
They looked so alike since they both knew how to command undead souls. And the negative energy that they showed probably meant they were undead souls themselves.
Yet nobody had ever heard of undead creatures displaying such intelligence before. Was this another special element exclusive at Specter Basin?
Also, was it a coincidence that the crab appeared at one of the islands he visited right after he killed the jellyfish? Was it always sleeping under the island? But why didn’t it show up when The Limpet approached there?
And he still had no idea what the jellyfish wanted by stopping their ship from leaving.
“Ughhh. I’ll just forget about these for now.”
He knew he was being way too curious since the mysteries revolving around Specter Basin had been confusing truth-finder wizards for centuries. They probably were not something an apprentice like him was supposed to think about.
Even so, it was very common for wizards and apprentices to be curious about everything. According to Helen, Summerdew lived at the center of Devil’s Water just to observe Specter Basin better.
For now, Angor could only write everything he saw in his notebook and wait until he was good enough to look into these matters.
After putting away the book, he calmed his spirit and planned to keep preparing the hide used for his “flying boots”.
Toby jumped onto the desk and used his wings to motion the shape of a jellyfish.
“You still want it after you saw how horrible that thing looks?” Again, Angor failed to comprehend Toby’s bizarre taste.
“Tweet!” But you promised!
Angor just realized that Toby seemed very eager to get this new suit for some reason. The bird never looked so impatient when requesting the previous costumes.
“What’s so special about the jellyfish?” Angor shook his head and took out some silk and chiffon from his bracelet. While he started working on the design of the jellyfish skirt, Toby explained why he wanted it so much.
“Pfft. You like the glowing effect? But don’t you feel awkward in it?”
Despite his complaint, Angor diligently finished the initial shape of a fantastic-looking bubble skirt on his paper.
“Forget it. As a ‘he-bird’, you already loved princess dresses and felt proud of it. I should have never asked.”
Deep down, he hoped that Toby asked for the new skirt out of random inspiration and would not develop a new habit out of it. He really did not wish to keep making glowing dresses.
The crafting process wasn’t hard. To imitate the “soft and flappy” effect of a jellyfish, he added a small rune onto the skirt, which constantly created a small breeze to help the skirt “float”.
Toby almost screamed to tell Angor to help him put on the skirt. Then the bird flew out of the room and made sure everyone on the ship saw his new getup before he returned to Angor’s bracelet so that he could show off to the Moonlily Fairy as well.
Angor examined the space inside his bracelet and saw the two tiny creatures—one male and one gender-neutral—happily discussing the new skirt Toby received. Toby even removed it and tried it on the fairy to see whether it fitted.
“That’s... even more embarrassing.” Angor face-palmed.
He then moved his spirit feeler away from them and took out Lucas’ logbook.
While working on Toby’s jellyfish skirt, he slowly remembered that he had come across this particular creature in many places, such as the glowing jellyfish at Death Loop, the documentary movies in his tablet, as well as Lucas’ diary.
The stories left behind by Lucas didn’t make much sense before, but now, he wondered if there was anything in there related to the monstrous jellyfish he killed.
Of course, he wouldn’t believe that Lucas was “the most faithful captain” yet. He regarded the stories as fantasy novels and kept reading.
“Island Spirits...?” He frowned when reading about yet another strange name in the logbook.
According to Lucas, he once sailed into sunny waters where a small nation called the “Spirit Land” was located. It consisted of multiple islands, and each island had an island spirit worshiped by everyone.
Apart from a jellyfish spirit, there were also the crab spirit, the starfish spirit, the clam spirit...
The diary didn’t explain what the spirits were exactly. It only described that they were huge and that the residents on the islands respected them greatly.
A new idea just struck Angor’s mind. Maybe the giant jellyfish soul and crab soul he saw were actually the “island spirits”, while the undead souls on their bodies were left behind by the deceased subjects of Spirit Land?
But the gloomy creatures and writhing souls looked so different from the prosperous nation and happy population described in the stories.
However, there was a way to prove the story. Lucas mentioned that the island spirit at the center of Spirit Land, where the capital was located, was a towering giant. If Angor could find this capital island and see this giant... then everything could be explained.
Of course, he wasn’t going to risk running into the depth of Specter Basin.
Still, Lucas’ logs were too strange to believe. Lucas’ stories always differed from what Angor heard in particular ways. For example, Lucas claimed that his tears created a patch of flowers on the sea. But Nayah’s story told by Tulu suggested otherwise.
Similarly, what Lucas said about the land spirits probably wouldn’t reflect the truth.
True or not, Angor was getting more and more interested in this man called Lucas. Perhaps he could look into this name once he arrived at Ferran and learn more.
He put away the logbook and went onto the balcony to look toward Specter Basin, which they just left behind.
He wasn’t going to mind this dangerous place for the moment, but he’d kept his spirit of adventure and constantly be on the ready to explore more mysteries in this world.
After enjoying the refreshing wind outside for a while, he was going to go inside and work on his flying boots again.
But a strange feeling suddenly hit his mind as he looked at the sky.
Nothing. There were only thick clouds above him.
“Huh... was someone watching me?”