Warlock Apprentice

Angor gazed at the clear blue sky through the window.

“Is this really Devil’s Water? Well, Lucas’ diary said something like the God of Ocean blessed him with everlasting peaceful weather. Was he talking about here?”

Normally, this was a crazy idea in these parts, but Angor was not so sure about it when The Limpet had enjoyed calm waters for an entire week after leaving the foggy area.

Still, he didn’t believe that this place was “peaceful”. They never ran into any sea monsters these days, which might not be a good thing.

Without work to do, Toby lay sprawled out on the balcony enjoying the sunlight.

Angor yawned and also walked under the light to get rid of the humidness in the room.

“Wherever this place is, it’s good to have the warm sun on the winter sea.”

When he decided to return inside to keep up his crafting research, he suddenly noticed that the deck area below was awfully quiet today. Usually, there would be sailors yelling at each other. But now, he only saw one single sailor leaning against a pole mast with a pale face.

He then thought about his works in the previous week, during which he never heard too much noise out there.

“Weird. The sun is strong. It’s not like sailors need hibernation…”

He looked at the lone sailor again and wondered if everyone else was like this.

He spread his spirit feelers to check. It would be problematic if too many sailors on the ship fell ill.

Hurried footsteps came to his door and interrupted his attempt.

It was Helen. It had been a week since they last talked. And Helen looked to be in no better condition compared to the sailor outside. She looked a little skinny for some reason, and her lips were chapped and had blood scabs.

“What’s the matter, Officer Helen?” Angor took a seat and crossed his arms.

Helen took several deep breaths.

“Mister Padt, we need your help.”

…

A moment later, Angor watched as a group of cheering sailors carried two hundred water barrels away with a strange look.

He thought some kind of disease was spreading on the ship, but it turned out that everyone was fine, except that they were low on water for quite a while. But this was quite expected since they failed to fetch water from Silver Palm Isle and that they never had any rains since they left the foggy zone.

However, Angor was confused to see that Helen only asked for help when the water shortage had been troubling them for half a month.

“I-I don’t wish to bother you,” said Helen, embarrassed.

“Ugh. I told you that your job is to get the ship to Ferran Land safe and sound. If anything prevents that from happening, come and talk to me. If anyone died because of dehydration or some other problems, our plan will be affected. I don’t want to see that.”

“I understand, sir.” Helen nodded.

“So the water problem is solved. What about food?”

“It’s fine, sir. We have dried vegetables, dried meat, and canned stuff fully stashed. And our fishers are doing a pretty good job.”

Angor frowned. He was thinking about practicing his Mana Bread again using this chance, but it seemed there was no need.

“Er Mister Padt, there’s another matter I need to talk to you, about which course we should choose next.”

Angor quickly felt a headache upon hearing this question. He had zero nautical experience, so he’d entrust such decisions to Helen and Erwin, but now, the two captains insisted on asking him every time.

It was something like, “the decision-making must involve a supernatural individual, according to the regulations of the association”.

“Alright. Tell me the choices.” Angor sighed.

Helen would tell him the pros and cons of each route afterward. He simply had to follow them.

She took out her sea chart and pointed to a red cross on the map. “At our current speed, we’ll arrive here tomorrow morning, the Death Loop.”

To shorten Helen’s unnecessarily complicated explanation, the Death Loop was an important waymark connected to only three available routes, which was a lot fewer compared to the other road points.

“They are the Windless Sea, the Summerdew Ridge, and the Wintertide. They all have an incident rate of below 5%.

“The Windless Sea is also sometimes called the road of solitary. Our ship will go a lot slower since there is almost no wind current over there. The ship does have a powered-up boost system, but it will draw the attention of large sea monsters. Each time we use this route, we always do it slowly.”

Hearing about the speed, Angor already crossed that choice off his mental list.

“The Wintertide, as the name suggests, is cold. There are few monster encounters, but we’ll be running into floating ice blocks. We can definitely go there though. The Limpet is equipped with an icebreaker.

“As for the Summerdew Ridge…” Helen frowned. “It used to be the best choice for us, but I suggest that we don’t take this one this time.”

“Why?” Angor noticed that there were many small islands scattered around the said area, which meant it was good for sailing.

“The name ‘Summerdew Ridge’ was made because of a witch who lives in those parts. According to Mister Roman, she was Summerdew. Ships from Floating Mech City need to inform her beforehand to sail across there. Those uninvited will be regarded as intruders and get attacked.

“It used to be Mister Roman who handled the communication, but you know, he can no longer do that. I heard that Miss Summerdew isn’t the tolerant kind. She allowed our ships to go through her territory because the association once made a promise to her.”

“Summerdew?” Angor searched his memory and failed to recall anyone by that name. But he believed that the witch must be pretty strong since she lived at Devil’s Water and had the association paying her visit.

And yes, they should not enter her territory carelessly.

“What’s your suggestion among the remaining two routes?” he asked.

“Windless Sea if you want to be absolutely safe. There are also islands there to help us replenish resources, but this will probably take us a month. Otherwise, we can use Wintertide. The weather there is way more dreadful. We always had a man or two frozen to death each time we went through there.”

It was obvious that Helen preferred to take the safer route, but Angor would like to save time as much as he could right now.

“Go for Wintertide. As for the cold, I’ll do something about it.”

Worst case, I’ll just draw a Preserve Heat rune on the ship, which will only take a day, he thought.

Helen nodded. She knew Angor wasn’t someone to make empty promises.

“I’ll tell the decision to Captain Erwin now.” Helen picked up her chart and prepared to leave.

Angor glanced at the map again and noticed another straight course in the middle of the mentioned three, but it was marked by a skull.

“What is this?” he asked.

Helen looked and widened her eyes. “Sir, this is an extremely hazardous area that even wizards from the association would not enter unprepared. Mister Roman once told us that this is called the Specter Basin, haunted by countless ghosts. Any ship that wanders inside will end up as a ghost ship and never to get out.”

“Specter Basin? I see…”

Angor waited for Helen to fold the map before he asked the question he had been wondering today, “Hey Helen, is this area always sunny like this every time you came?”