Hovering on her black feather wings, Swan watched The Limpet leaving her view and dived back into the clouds.
“Wintertide, I see... Good choice. Summerdew Ridge won’t be so safe with our visitor there.”
She let out a sigh of relief, but she was soon bothered by another question.
While she was glad to see Helen escaping from Specter Basin safe and well, she couldn’t understand how it was possible.
There was one time she accompanied her master and went to Specter Basin to search for research materials. While carrying the corpses of several giants, she witnessed how horrific the place was.
Countless undead souls that came at her like an unending nightmare... She was sure she’d have died there if she moved just a bit slower.
Even her master suffered from some nasty wounds and would not go there ever since, which only deepened her fear against it.
So how did a ship full of mortals make it out?
While it was her job to patrol the Death Loop today, she also planned to move around the edge of Specter Basin and see whether she could assist Helen in any way. But it seemed The Limpet didn’t need her help—it even spent an entire night in there and survived.
Sure, the sailors looked spent and glum, but this was completely expected—being inside the deathly energy that was the local product of Specter Basin was enough to make people ill.
Other than that, everyone seemed fine and alive.
“Perhaps ‘he’ scared off the monsters so that The Limpet caught a chance to get past them? Wait... does the undead know what ‘scare’ is at all?”
She suddenly heard the depressed sailors plucking up and cheering loudly, which drew her attention as she looked at the ship again.
There, she saw a strange beast land on the deck of the ship.
Before she could figure out what this “lion-eagle” thing was, it shrank smaller and jumped onto someone’s hand, who was probably the protector of The Limpet.
“An alchemy puppet capable of shapeshifting...?” Swan took a guess when she assumed that the ship’s protector was sent by the Floating Mech City. “Are they so happy because their guardian returned to them? Is he the one who escorted the ship out of Specter Basin?”
Beneath her, the middle-aged “guardian” with a lazy look had returned to his room, preventing Swan from further observing him.
As she recalled, the previous guardian of The Limpet was a wizard called Roman, who had almost reached the end of his lifespan. She assumed that Roman already died of old age and was replaced.
In the end, she chose to believe that the ship was safe because they were lucky to stumble into Specter Basin when the undead souls were in their dormancy.
“Guess I should ask Lady Paye later and learn about their cycles...” She thought and followed behind The Limpet while hiding inside the clouds.
Death Loop was more turbulent than usual because of a certain visitor from the Valley of Hurricane. She thought about watching over The Limpet for the moment until it reached Wintertide.
About an hour later, the ship successfully reached several floating glaciers, which meant it almost reached Wintertide.
The ship’s guardian suddenly left his room and entered Swan’s view again.
“Out for fresh air?” she thought.
However, for a brief second, she saw the man looking directly her way.
Out of instinct, she moved further into the sky.
He saw me?
This was the first time she found herself detected by an apprentice while using her “Shadow Swan Form”.
That man must have really sharp senses... She gave him one last meaningful glance and left the area. Was that an elite student sent by the floating city then?
Swiftly, she returned to Summerdew Ridge and talked to Lady Paye about her concerns.
“Undead tide?” Lady Paye put down the tea grinder she was using. “Yes, they should be in dormancy around these days. However, I got a message from the master this morning, that an incident came about at Specter Basin. All three near-wizard level puppets she sent as scouts were destroyed by something, and the alert level of that place has been raised to ‘very high’. I suggest that you do not approach there.”
High alert? Swan frowned. Then however did The Limpet make it out in one piece? All thanks to that illusionist?
Lady Paye suddenly looked up and glared at her. “Why are you interested in the undead tide? Did you perhaps go there despite our rules?”
“Of course not.” Swan shook her head quickly. “I’m just curious.”
She thought about telling Lady Paye about The Limpet but then decided not to. Someone like Paye would definitely go and imprison everyone on the ship and interrogate them about what was going on at Specter Basin. And a wizard interrogating mortals would only end up with people losing their lives.
I’ll just pretend that I didn’t see The Limpet today...
“You’re lying.” Paye startled her by showing a sly smile.
Swan trembled a bit and began sweating on her back.
Lady Paye picked up her teacup, which was releasing a strange aroma, and took a sip.
“I’m not interested in what’s going on inside your head, but make sure you don’t hide your new discoveries from the master.”
Swan knelt on the floor and kissed Paye’s toes.
“Of course, ma’am. I will never tell lies or betray the master.”
“Humph. You missed an announcement while you’re away, I guess I should tell you now. There’s another important matter besides staying away from Specter Basin. People from Song of the Deep are onto something these days. They’re looking for a man named Lucas. According to a clue our master heard, this Lucas man has something to do with the mysterious dimension. Make sure you send someone and look into the matter.”
“Acknowledged. I’ll do it right away.” Swan nodded.
“Also, that visitor will soon leave, after which people from the Goman Kingdom will learn about the information and come as well. Be absolutely sure that your men do not tell anyone about our visitor. Otherwise...” Paye put on her cup’s lid and gave Swan another cold glance. “The master is in need of extra test subjects in the labs.”
“I-I understand.” Swan flinched.
When Swan left her room, Lady Paye glanced at a portrait on her desk, which showed a man with bright red hair.
...
Angor spent half a day applying Preserve Heat rune onto The Limpet and returned to his room to work on the flying boots.
Two days later, the pair of boots was finalized under his hands. He named it “Night Skipper”.
The boots didn’t look very outstanding as far as their outer design was considered. They basically appeared as cheap, everyday black boots sold in ordinary shops. But the flickering runes on them did give them an indescribably peculiar fashion.
Apart from this, Angor was very satisfied with the final effect achieved on the boots.
He intentionally restricted the item level just below mid-tier, which prevented an alchemy omen from occurring.
He didn’t dare to create a mid-tier item right at Devil’s Water since the omen might show up as something he couldn’t manage.
Of course, the effect available to such a level was weaker compared to real mid-tier items. But he was glad he was skilled enough to control the outcome of his crafting attempts so precisely.
At night, he tried flying around the ship using his new boots. As expected, they could not help him move very fast like how Gondola did. Yet they offered greater stealth and mobility.
Previously, he had to drag his body using the sequence of gravity or ask Toby’s help if he wished to eject his soul. Now with the flying boots, he could fight enemies in midair with more options.