Just a little further, as soon as that beast senses the ship, I’ll ditch it and run! And the nightmare stone is all mine!
Roman’s expression twisted in delight as he saw his “bright future” across a bloody curtain made from the sacrifice of the innocent.
This was the second time he did something like this. Years ago, he used the same trick to lure the Golden Road cargo ship here and claimed its nightmare stone, after which the inspectors from Floating Mech City never found him out.
That one stone sold for 8,000 crystals. If he could sell another one even at a lower price, he would get enough money to buy a bottle of White Night Potion.
The user of this potion had a chance of reaching the next level straight away. However, the potion also came with a side-effect that prevented its user from gaining any level in the future. But Roman didn’t care, as he only needed to level up to extend his life. As long as he was alive, he could always find other means of improvement.
This mighty Leviathan is more than enough to tear the bloody ship to shreds. I will not fail!
As the others on the ship welcomed the Silver Palm Isle, Roman grasped the stolen nightmare stone, thrilled.
“A Leviathan is able to sense approaching enemies within ten kilometers. Just one kilo to go, and my work’s done…” Roman muttered.
The book he read explained the weakness of the monster in detail, but he still felt stressed for going so close to it.
When most of the sailors cheered and danced to their songs, several more perceptive ones finally noticed something strange on the sea.
“Officer Helen, is the water around the isle darker than usual? Did you see anything up there?” A sailor carrying a scope called to Helen.
Roman narrowed his eyes and also looked at the observation platform where Helen stood. He already prepared the model of a Silence Ward in his mindspace. As soon as he saw Helen giving the wrong answer, he would throw the cantrip at her.
Helen managed to maintain her calm look, even though her legs were trembling badly. Thankfully, the wooden bars around the platform conveniently blocked them from people’s views.
Of course she saw the shadow of a monstrosity just ahead of them, as Angor predicted. At this moment, she had fully trusted Angor’s words, and that Roman had led them into a death trap.
She didn’t know how to answer her men. Should she tell them that a monster was waiting ahead and that Mister Padt could help them?
No. Apart from arousing panic, it would cause Roman to get suspicious.
More importantly, Helen already saw Roman’s cold gaze directed at her, and she recognized that look—Roman was threatening her.
The sailor called again, which attracted the attention of people nearby.
Helen knew she couldn’t stay silent here. But the more she tried to think of an answer, the more she felt her brain going blank.
A lazy voice suddenly came from below Roman’s position:
“Dark? What dark? I don’t see anything.”
“Mister Wizard, it’s somewhere behind the island,” the sailor with the scope explained. “Look at the water, the shade ain’t right.”
“Maybe you’re seeing things. Perhaps it’s just a shadow of the mountain on the island, or a cloud,” said Angor.
“I… see. Pardon me, sir.” The sailor checked the cloudy weather and stood down.
The sailors continued celebrating as Captain Erwin prepared to command his men to disembark.
Roman saw Angor’s careless reaction, but he suddenly sensed something was off instead of feeling relieved.
It’s just right that mortals mistook the shadow for something else… but there’s no way that Padt man didn’t recognize what that shadow was. So he knew what would happen? But why isn’t he stopping the ship?
Wait, that Helen woman didn’t seem right either.
Roman thought about how Helen and Angor had a “private talk” the other day.
Did they exchange information and expose my secret that day? But why didn’t they change course?
Roman felt as if there was a loose end in his grand plan, and it made him extremely anxious.
“Only several hundred meters to go. The monster will come shortly. There’s nothing to worry about. They knew, so what? I can use my nightmare stone to escape, while they’ll get killed.”
Roman looked at the glowing stone in his hand and felt his anxiety gone.
Angor suddenly spoke to everyone, “Don’t worry, you all. Should we run into some monster I can’t fight against, we have the… strange gem, to protect us!”
Roman froze.
He was sure those words were meant to the sailors below. But when he checked, he saw Angor smiling at him.
Something in Roman’s mind broke as he completely lost his cool.
He said “strange gem”, but not the nightmare stone!
“What are you talking about?! What did you find out?!” he yelled.
Angor feigned a confused look. “What’s the problem, Mister Roman? I don’t get you.”
Angor glanced at the island and noticed that they only had several seconds for the monster to detect them.
Which means I have to add some more fuel to the fire.
“Don’t fu*king give me that! You know something!” Roman yelled again.
The loud ruckus drew everyone’s attention, but none of the sailors was brave enough to directly look at the mighty wizards. They only listened quietly while looking elsewhere.
“But I really don’t know what you’re referring to, Mister Roman.” Angor smiled. “Or are you perhaps talking about the nightmare stone, which you just stole?”
Roman’s pupils shrank as he stepped back. “You!”
Angor continued speaking in a louder voice, “You used something cheap to replace the previous nightmare stone protecting the ship. You know, Mister Roman, but the ship is—”
“You shut up!”
“—the ship is an alchemy miracle sturdy enough to sail across Devil’s Water, which means it holds more value than what you took.” Angor finished without minding Roman’s interruption.
Angor didn’t mention anything about the monster. By this, he meant to reveal the fact that Roman was planning to do a poor trade, which was to sacrifice The Limpet in exchange for a nightmare stone.
The sailors gasped in horror, while Erwin gave Roman a surprised look. He wouldn’t have taken those words so seriously if it were Helen who told them so. But there was no way the “second wizard” lied to them like that.
“YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!” Roman bellowed. “You lucky, good-for-nothing b*stard! I have to grasp all chances to reach the wizard level. A damn ship means nothing!”
Angor snickered and slowly grasped his right wrist using his left hand.
“You can all go to hell! Tremble before the absolute horror of a Leviathan and enjoy your last breath!”
Previously, Roman planned to wait until the ship fully ran into the monster before leaving. But since his trick was exposed earlier, he no longer had a reason to remain. He had to get away as fast as possible so that the strange seabird couldn’t catch him.
With this in mind, Roman left several maniacal laughs. “Farewell, losers. We won’t see each other again!”
He then activated the nightmare stone, which released abundant illusion energy that covered his form.
Next, he leaped into the air using the levitation effect on his boots. Hidden in the illusion, he dashed straight ahead toward the Silver Palm Isle because that direction would get him out of Devil’s Water quicker.
But he didn’t get to move too far before he noticed that the illusion around him was wavering.
He was terrified to see the illusion energy from the nightmare stone leaving toward another direction. Following it, Roman saw Angor somehow absorbing the energy using his right hand, which looked strangely bigger than his left hand.
Without Angor’s glove, Roman also noticed some green symbols floating around the strange hand.
Slowly but surely, Roman’s body was fully exposed.
At the same time, he heard the sound of disrupted current behind him, which was followed by a mighty aura that locked him in one place.
He didn’t even have enough time to express his fear because everything changed so fast.
While his expression remained to be an excited smile for successfully carrying out his plan, his eyes gave out his true emotion, which was despair.
In the last second, he screamed at Angor madly, “Fine! We’re gonna die together, and we’ll settle this in hell!!”
Hearing those words, Angor waved a hand at Roman to say goodbye.
Under Roman’s frightened gaze, Angor placed his enlarged right hand against the ship’s deck, and the ship slowly faded out from Roman’s view.
“An illusion?!” Roman realized what just happened to The Limpet.
Now, it was clear to him that Angor used his own plot against him.
Angor provoked him in the end just to force him to leave The Limpet so that he was the only one who was going to face Leviathan.
Everything still went according to his plan, just with the participants swapping places.
Roman used all his strength to turn his head, and he saw a single eyeball of Leviathan, which was much much bigger than his body.
He couldn’t even tell how the monster killed him. A crimson eye that showed nothing other than hunger and bloodthirst was all there was in the last moment of his existence.
