Chapter 715 Seated in the Cloud Conch <TOC> Chapter 717 The Vanishing Ship
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Translator: SumTLMan
A day later, Angel stood on the deck, staring at the thick fog surrounding them.
Was this the small problem Alvin and Helen mentioned? With the naked eye, the visibility seemed to be less than a hundred meters. Was it really okay in such a situation? Wouldn’t they lose their way?
In response to Angel’s doubts, Helen smiled and replied, “Please rest assured, sir. Almost every time we go to the Feran Continent, we take this route. The Cloud Conch has never encountered any danger here. This fog is just ordinary sea fog and will not affect our direction.”
Angel also sensed the fog around him, which was indeed just an ordinary condensation of water vapor. He found no anomalies. With the professionals’ resolute assurance, Angel didn’t delve further and returned to the cabin.
After Roman’s death, the biggest advantage was that Angel could study illusions without any worries.
However, he didn’t study illusions today. Instead, he took out his notes and recorded everything about the Leviathan in detail. On the day they left Silver Palm Island, Angel had Toby fly into the air to observe the situation on the island, while he himself used a vision-enhancing trick to look towards Silver Palm Island.
But from the outside, there was nothing strange about Silver Palm Island, and the information Toby obtained was the same.
It was quite strange; why would the Leviathan linger there for so long?
Angel wrote down several guesses in his notes, such as guarding treasures, seeking opportunities, hunting prey, recuperating and accumulating strength, and even reproducing. Angel listed all of these possibilities.
However, which one it was or whether it was among the ones Angel listed, he couldn’t know.
After recording the Leviathan’s affairs, Angel intended to take out the “True Illusion School” tricks to practice, but hesitated for a while, stopped, and began to write and draw on a blank piece of paper.
The boots Roman wore when he left that day caught Angel’s attention.
The black leather boots had grown white wings on both sides, allowing him to fly.
“I didn’t expect his shoes to be flying items; that’s quite interesting.”
Angel thought that using shoes as a flying item wouldn’t be as fast as a professional one, but it could save a lot of trouble, and if encountered in battle, there would be more tactical possibilities.
He was already learning tailoring, and, delighted by the idea, decided to design a pair of shoes capable of carrying floating magic runes with the available materials.
—If the shoes were too small, clothes would also be an option.
Immersed in this, three days passed.
During these three days, the Cloud Conch continued to sail through the thick fog. As Helen said, the dangers in this sea fog were minimal, and the journey was smooth for the three days. They didn’t even encounter any bad weather, just a few apprentice-level sea beasts. Angel left these sea beasts to Toby to handle while he continued designing his own blueprint.
It wasn’t until dusk that Angel was still immersed in his own world when Toby suddenly flew into the room. Squawking, he dragged Angel onto the balcony.
“What’s wrong? Did you encounter another unstoppable sea beast?” Angel asked Toby with a puzzled look.
Toby didn’t answer but instead waved his wings in the direction of the northwest.
Following Toby’s direction, Angel looked and frowned.
In the midst of the gray-white mist, the shadow of a ship faintly appeared.
Judging by the shadow, the ship was probably still some distance away from their own vessel, the Cloud Conch. Nevertheless, Angel could see its immense size. He estimated that it was at least ten times larger than the Cloud Conch.
“What kind of ship is that?” Angel looked on with confusion. Could there be another ship on this route? But this ship was enormous. The Cloud Conch was already considered a large cargo ship, a rare sight in any harbor. This ship, however, was many times larger, as if it were a vessel built for giants.
The enormous ship had faintly visible flags fluttering on it.
But the more he looked, the more he felt something was off. The direction of the wind and the fluttering flags were obviously different.
Aside from that, there were other questions, such as: Why was such a large ship so quiet?
At that moment, Angel saw Helen on the deck below, directing the sailors to move wooden barrels filled with rainwater into the cabin.
“Deputy Captain Helen, do you know which company that ship over there belongs to?”
Helen turned around and saw that the lazy wizard had suddenly appeared beside her, looking curiously at the shadowy ship in the fog.
Helen also looked over and, upon seeing the huge ship’s shadow, suddenly laughed, “My lord, judging by the shape of the ship, it’s actually one of our White Shell Shipping’s vessels, but… it’s just a spatial-temporal illusion, not a real ship.”
Angel was puzzled, “A spatial-temporal illusion? What do you mean?”
“This part of the route is connected to the Gear Abyss. I’ve told you about the peculiarities of the Gear Abyss, where ships often disappear… The ship in the fog is actually just a shadow of those ships. It’s like a mirage, not real. We encounter Ship Shadows eight out of ten times when we pass through this foggy area. They vary in type and size, and we’ve even seen ancient ship designs. That’s why we call them spatial-temporal illusions.”
“From the design, you can see that it’s a White Shell Shipping vessel, probably one that disappeared in the Gear Abyss within the last century. The reason it’s so large is that it’s also a flying vessel.” Helen sighed as she explained, “So many people must have died on such a large ship. What a pity.”
Upon hearing Helen’s explanation, Angel came to a realization.
“So it’s just an illusion.” No wonder Angel had felt something was off.
Angel noticed that indeed, the other sailors around him didn’t seem surprised and barely paid attention to the Ship Shadows in the fog. It was clear they knew what these Ship Shadows were.
Helen: “The Devil’s Sea is not just about the harsh climate; there are many strange phenomena like these. Most of them are not as harmless as these Ship Shadows, and they usually conceal deadly dangers. That’s why our shipping routes exist. We open safer routes based on the experiences of our predecessors.”
Entering unknown areas at random could lead to unforeseen dangers. This was the Devil’s Sea – without a guide, one might be lost forever.
The secrets of the Devil’s Sea were too deep for Angel at his current level, not even qualified to explore them.
Bidding farewell to Helen, Angel was still intrigued by the ship’s spatial-temporal illusion, which could be a kind of spell. However, he dared not get close to investigate; if he lost his direction in the dense fog, it would be disastrous.
So, he could only observe the massive Ship Shadow from afar, feeling the fluctuations in the wind.
While observing the Ship Shadow, Angel faintly felt a sense of familiarity with this kind of illusion.
“It’s somewhat like the mirage created by Eudes,” Angel concluded after careful consideration. Could it be that there was a colossal clam similar to Eudes nearby?
Angel leaned against the railing, lowering his head to look at the sea surface.
It was pitch black, and nothing could be seen. Yet, precisely because of this, Angel felt a chill rising.
If it were a clam similar to Eudes, how big would it be? After all, these illusions were of ships that disappeared into the Gear Abyss, which was far away.
Angel shivered and stopped thinking about it. Sometimes, people’s fear of the unknown comes from baseless imagination.
After some time, the huge Ship Shadow eventually vanished into the fog, and Angel returned to his cabin with regret.
Two days later, Angel was once again pulled away from his design work by Toby.
“Another Ship Shadow?” Angel looked at the vague outline in the sea fog, sighed helplessly, and would have preferred to go back and continue designing the “Flying Boots.” He was close to finishing and had planned to discuss the appearance with Nano and try crafting it in the evening.
Since Toby dragged him out, Angel went along with its intention and observed the shadow that appeared ahead.
Judging from the shadow, the size of the ship was similar to the Cloud Conch, but there was nothing particularly special about it otherwise.
Angel initially wanted to brush it off and return to his room to continue designing the blueprint, but at that moment, his brows furrowed abruptly. He noticed something amiss—the ship seemed to remain stationary, and due to the movement of the Cloud Conch, it appeared to be getting closer instead.
Last time, the colossal shadow of a ship they encountered had maintained a constant distance, showing no signs of getting closer regardless of how the Cloud Conch moved.
“Continuing on this course, we’ll definitely encounter this shadow of a ship,” Angel’s eyes lit up, eager for a closer look at the illusion to determine if it was a mirage.
While Angel casually observed, there was a commotion among the sailors on deck. They all pointed at the ship in the fog, their faces filled with disbelief.
As Angel was puzzled, Alvin suddenly announced from the control room, “There’s a ship ahead, everyone be on alert.”
Angel was taken aback, “Huh, it’s not a ship’s shadow this time, but a real ship?”
As Angel’s doubts grew, the Cloud Conch drew closer to the eerie, motionless ship.
Facing the unknown, Angel maintained a reverent attitude. He removed his right glove and cast a large Nightmare Spell, concealing the Cloud Conch.
No matter what the ship was, taking care of oneself was the top priority.
Finally, the Cloud Conch entered the visible range of the mysterious ship.
Upon seeing the true appearance of the ship, Helen suddenly exclaimed, “This is a ship design from the Shining Gold Era, at least 3,000 years ago!”
Chapter 715 Seated in the Cloud Conch <TOC> Chapter 717 The Vanishing Ship