Chapter 46
The airship slowed down and lowered is altitude till it landed on the water like a regular ship. As the rescue team only has the last distress signal from the prince’s airship as clue, they could only searched using the most straightforward method: Using their senses to search for any signs of life in the area.
Fortunately, they have the sorceress with them whose ability to detect life force and presence was second to none. Although it won’t be enough to find the prince and his crew’s whereabouts in one fell swoop, it would still greatly aid them in their search.
“Such thick fogs… No wonder the place was called the Dark Sea – you could barely see anything with all of these fogs,” Miranda commented as she looks at her surroundings.
“Right… in this kind of place, our eyes are almost useless since all we could see were fogs and darkness.” Pina nodded in agreement while looking around warily. “What do you think, Rennel?”
Rennel turned towards Pina and smiled, “It’s alright… If we can’t use our eyes then we could use our mana to see.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that? Seeing using our mana?” Pina asked in confusion.
“Rennel you could also see in this darkness?” Miranda asked in amazement after hearing what the girl had said.
“Yes, I could but not in a normal sense. If I spread my mana in a wide area, I could see the life force of the nearby creatures in a certain range.” Rennel explained.
“Wow! That’s the same as teacher!” Pina exclaimed excitedly.
Rennel shook her head, “It’s kinda similar but also different. Moreover, my ability should be inferior to that of Lady Cassandra. If Lady Cassandra’s ability was inborn mine was forcefully learned due to a certain event in the past,” she explained.
“No, even if it’s not on the level of teacher, it’s still a very amazing thing,” Miranda praises. “But you seemed to have mentioned that we could also see if we use our mana?” She asked with curiosity. "Is it possible that we could learn it too?"
“That’s right. if you spread your mana as far as possible, and then connect your senses to it then you might be able to see as far as your mana could reach.” Rennel explained succinctly.
Miranda and Pina turned towards each other and nodded almost at the same time. “Please teach us!” They beg.
“Sure. No problem!”
While the three girls are busy with their own things, Sorceress Cassandra who was seated at the chair in the middle of the sky deck was focusing all of her attention into detecting the aura of the missing prince and his crews.
Her method of doing so was unique. Unlike Rennel’s Detection that uses her arch-mage level mana to detect life force and aura in the surroundings; Sorceress Cassandra uses her “All Seeing Eyes” to see everything not just the aura of the all living life forms.
If Rennel’s detection allow her to see everything within the range of several kilometers by spreading her mana, Sorceress Cassandra was like being everywhere all at the same time. What’s more she could see much clearly compared to Rennel who could only detect life force and aura.
But no matter how overpowered the sorceress ability was it still have its limits. For example, just like Rennel’s Detection, her All Seeing Eyes have limited range. That said her range was thrice of that of Rennel. Another weakness of the All Seeing Eyes was the fact that using the ability has some toll on the sorceress’ body and mind.
But that’s expected as the sorceress, no matter how talented is only human. Like all human she needed to eat, rest, and sleep. If she overuse her ability then it might backfire on her – possibly harming her body in the process.
Therefore, Sorceress Cassandra could only use her ability a few times a day between rest which was very limiting especially if one is searching an area the size of a mega continent. And in all honesty, none of the gnomes have any expectation of finding the prince and his crew in a single day.
What’s more there’s also the possibility that the prince and his crew were no longer alive. Although the gnomes were unwilling to believe that the prince might no longer be alive, they could only accept it if they still failed to find him after a certain time frame.
“Lady Cassandra seemed to have reached her limit,” Rennel murmured after looking at the sorceress.
“It can’t be help. It’s already been an hour.” Miranda sighed helplessly. “Teacher’s All Seeing Eyes is very powerful but it’s very exhausting to use. So using it for a very long time is not possible.”
“That’s right. I remembered teacher saying that using her All Seeing Eyes put a lot of stress on her mind and body.” Pina commented as she looked at her teacher worriedly.
Miranda, Pina, and Rennel watches as the sorceress finally opened her eyes. There was a deep frown on her face and she was sweating a lot – an indication that she had reached her limit.
“My apologies but I need to rest,” Sorceress Cassandra said to Lucata after walking towards her.
“There’s no need to apologize, sorceress. We are aware of the toll of the All Seeing Eyes to your body. Please rest and take as much time as needed to fully restore your strength.”
Sorceress Cassandra nodded before closing her eyes once again as she meditates.
****
“Sigh… It’s a lot harder than I thought,” Pina complained after trying hours of trying to learn Detection from Rennel.
“I’m sorry… It seemed that I’m not good at teaching,” answered Rennel apologetically.
“Don’t worry too much about it. It’s Pina’s fault that she’s a slow learner,” Miranda teases.
“Hey! Could you really say that when your progress in learning Detection’s no better than mine?” Pina replied while rolling her eyes at Miranda.
“But she’s right about one thing though… it’s not your fault that we couldn’t learn that skill. Although it seemed simple, controlling the mana, and assimilating it with one’s senses is actually very complicated and requires a lot of finesse. I’m actually surprise that you could do it so easily.”
“Agreed.” Miranda echoed.
“Really?” asked Rennel while tilting her head.
“Yup!”
Miranda explained that the skill needed to use Detection was absurd, and that only advance level magicians could pull it off but even then they were not as good as Rennel.
“That’s strange… My teacher said that my control over my mana was horrible… Are you sure you’re not mistaken?” Rennel asked in confusion.
Miranda and Pina stared at each other before looking at Rennel with pity. Although they only meet the silver-haired girl’s teacher once, they could tell from their short conversation with the mysterious Chaos that he’s standard for his students is as high as the sky.
“Rennel, I think you shouldn’t take it too seriously when your teacher scolds you for being slow or something. In all honesty, the standard of your teacher was really high,” Miranda said after shaking her head back and forth.
“Uh…” Rennel was a little speechless by the fact that the two girls easily recognized that her teacher was someone really difficult to please. In reality she’s actually aware that her talent in magic might not be as bad as her teacher make it out to be. At the very least she’s not less talented than the two girls in front of her.
Rennel opened her mouth but as she was about to speak she stopped and quickly run towards the railings of the sky deck which confuses the two girls who quickly followed her.
“What’s wrong, Rennel? Why did you run?” Pina asked while looking at her friend with worry.
“Something is coming from below…,” the silver haired-girl answered. “Not good! We must increase our altitude!” Rennel screamed in alarm.
Everyone who heard Rennel’s scream was startled. Fortunately, the female envoy Lucata was quick to act and run towards one of the communication pipes on the entrance of the airship.
“Captain, please increase the altitude of the airship. Fly as high as possible!” The envoy yelled at the communication pipe.
“What? Why? What’s wrong? Did something happen out there?!” The captain asked in confusion.
“No time to explain! Please just raise the damn altitude!” Lucata cursed with irritation which made the captain jumped in shock.
“Alright, alright… no need to curse at this old man… Seriously, young people are so easily irritated these days.”
Although the old captain was grumbling he still did what he was told and skillfully maneuvers the airship thus allowing it to increase its altitude. It was also in that same moment that ship shook as if it was hit by something.
No it was not as if it was hit by something but something did actually hit the airship!
Pshew! Pshew! Pshew!
Everyone heard several things whistling pass the airship. But as it was really dark so no one except for two people and (one mysterious creature) saw what it was. As the airship climbed in altitude the mysterious sound vanishes.
“What… just what the hell was that?” One of the gnomes asked.
“I don’t know…,” replied another gnome.
Since no one could explain what had happened, everyone could only turn at the silver-haired girl that gave the warning. Yes, with so many people on the sky deck, on the girl was able to sense that something was approaching the airship from below. Even the sorceress was unable to do so. No, the sorceress couldn’t be blamed as she had exhausted herself while searching for the prince and his crew.
“Rennel, what just happened? What did you discovered?” Pina finally asked.
As the person with the closest relationship with the silver-haired, Rennel, no one was more suited to speak to the girl.
“Monsters. I sensed several dozen monsters approaching us from below,” Rennel explained. “Um… since were on the Dark Sea then sea monsters should be a more fitting name?” She asked.
Sea monsters!
Of course everyone on board the airship knows what a sea monster was. In reality, encountering them was part of rescuers’ calculations. It’s just that they didn’t expect that they’d be so unlucky to encounter dozens of them a few hours after mooring on the water.
“You saved us. In behalf of all the gnomes, I thank you, Miss Rennel.” Lucata said she respectfully bows at the girl followed by the other gnomes.
Such unexpected action from the gnomes surprises the girl – making her blush in embarrassment.
****
“Sahagins? So the monsters were actually sahagins?” Pina asked after questioning Rennel of the appearance of the monsters.
“Yes. Based on their appearance the monsters that attacked us were sahagins,” Rennel replied.
“I see… sahagins huh… Those monsters are not that strong but they always hunt on groups. What’s more they could shoot out pressurized waters jets from their mouth,” Miranda thought out loud after recalling the information about the sahagins.
“Shoot out water jets? Now that you mentioned it… the strange sounds that we heard as we escape must be water jets that had missed the airship,” Lucata murmured after realizing what the sound they heard earlier.
Sorceress Cassandra and the other gnomes listening to the conversation nodded their heads from time to time. After the sorceress came out of her meditation, the group quickly started a meeting to tackle the problem with the sea monsters.
“Monsters huh… I’ve noticed their presence quite far away from us while I was searching for the prince earlier. To think they would be able to find us so quickly after only several hours,” commented the sorceress with a wry smile on her face. “My apologies, I should have warned everyone about the monsters before I entered meditation. I just didn’t think that they would detect our presence despite being tens of kilometers away from us.”
“Please don’t worry about it, sorceress. The search had been very uneventful so far that everyone let down their guards,” Lucata consoled with a smile on her face. “This incident should teach us not to underestimate the Dark Sea no matter how peaceful it might seem.”
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement after hearing the Lucata’s words. It was no exaggeration that all of them let their guards down and did whatever they liked after hours of nothing happening. As the envoy said, this place was the Dark Sea and letting one’s guard down might cause everyone their lives. After all even the lull was nothing but a deceit in this place.
“We should make sure that nothing like this will happen again. There should be a rotating guard so that everyone could rest safely,” said the old captain who was listening quietly to the side spoke. “That said; I would like to ask the help of the sorceress and the girl. Their abilities to detect the presence of the monsters are essential in avoiding surprise attacks. Without their help, we would be as blind as bats.” The captain added.
“I disagree. Sorceress Cassandra is essential in finding the prince and his crew so she needed to be well rested while the girl Rennel was just a guest. She already did us much favor by warning us of the incoming dangers earlier.” Lucata quickly vetoed the old captain’s proposals. Although she understood where the captain was coming from, she couldn’t really force the two women to make sacrifices for them. This was especially true for Rennel who was not even part of the rescue team to begin with.
“I know that but…” The old captain was feeling agitated. He wanted to tell the envoy that everyone should pitch in as all of them were in the same position but upon remembering that the two women have no responsibility to follow their orders, he hesitated.
“I’m fine with it.” Seeing the old captain and Lucata troubled, Rennel finally spoke out. Since she decided to come with them it’s only proper that she helps. Anyway she could just let consider it magic training.
“Since Lady Cassandra needed to be fully rested in order to use her power effectively, I won’t mind using Detection for the duration of the night.” She added.
“No, no… We’re very grateful for your help milady but staying up all night won’t be good for your body if you overuse your ability,” Lucata shook her head and denied Rennel’s proposal to stay watch all night.
“It’s fine. I may not look it but I could stay awake for several days without repercussion. Besides compared to fighting hordes of monsters for days without rest and sleep, staying awake while looking out for sea monsters was like a walk in the park.” Rennel replied with a huge smile on her face. “It’s a lot easier compared to my usual training.”
“Just what kind of hellish training were you doing in the past!?”
Everyone was left speechless after hearing the kind of training the girl did in the past. They got this aching feeling that the girl might not be as delicate as she looks. Even Sorceress Cassandra has a strange look on her face as she glanced at the person responsible for training the girl.
Indeed. If it was Chaos then he would not go easy on the girl. After all, Chaos expected his student to be the best in the world… no maybe even beyond that. Also judging by how Chaos and Rennel remained nonchalant during the entirety of the event proves that the girl and her teacher was a whole different level compared to the rest of them.
****
To be continued
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