A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World
Chapter 221

The group successfully sailed around the floating water - whatever it was, it didn’t trouble them. Unfortunately, the next day, the group found a new anomaly - and this one was far more mobile.

Alice was the first to see it, due to how much mana it radiated. At first, Alice didn’t even think that she was looking at a physical object - she thought it was just a cloud of mana. It was when she notified Ethan that a strange cloud of mana was drifting towards the boat that she realized the cloud of mana was even more bizarre than she had thought. This was because, when Ethan reported the cloud to Myra, Ethan’s mother, she also saw the glowing cloud in the distance - and Myra’s ability to detect mana was utterly different from how proper Mages perceived mana. When Ethan started questioning the other people on the boat, Alice realized that the cloud of mana was truly unusual - because it let people without the relevant Perks see mana. In other words, even the [Sailors] could see the glowing cloud drifting towards the boat.

Myra, Ethan’s mother, had the ship turn to avoid the glowing cloud of mist. None of them knew what it was, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Who knew if the cloud of visible mana would force people into a mana baptism, or dissolve their flesh? It was better to avoid any and all anomalies as they sailed towards the System.

It was too late.

The glowing cloud of mist slowly may not have seemed like it was moving very fast when it was still far away - but as the boat swung further to the south to avoid it, the [Sailors] started to realize that the glowing cloud was far faster than their boat could hope to outrun. Even more concerning was the fact that the fog seemed to be tracking them. If the boat changed course, the cloud immediately changed direction in order to intercept them. No matter how Myra tried to redirect the boat to shake the cloud off, the cloud continued to follow them.

“Allira, can you send a few shadows into the glowing cloud? Let us know what happens to them,” said Myra, as the [Sailors] labored to outrun the glowing cloud. “If the shadows aren’t harmed, see if you can figure out what the cloud is, and if there’s some way to throw it off or slow it down.”

“Got it,” said Allira. She started humming, and a few moments later, several shadows detached themselves from the mast of the ship and darted into the waves. Alice saw dark, murky shapes swim towards the cloud, before vanishing into the glowing mist.

“Do you see anything?” asked Myra.

“It’s odd,” said Allira, as she squinted at the cloud. “My shadows are still alive, but they don’t seem to be in a cloud at all. In fact, they don’t even seem like they’re in the ocean anymore. It almost looks like they teleported somewhere else.”

“Teleported?” asked Ethan. “I don’t see any dimensional mana in the cloud.”

Alice also squinted at the cloud, before she frowned. Ethan was right. There was no dimensional mana in the cloud at all. How could it teleport something?

“That’s the strangest part. It doesn’t seem like they were teleported at all,” said Allira. “It’s more like the interior of the glowing fog is totally different from the exterior. Usually with portals, there is an obvious distortion in the air, where two different locations are connected in a way that they normally shouldn’t be. There was nothing like that in the fog - it just looked like my shadows stepped into some glowing fog, before they stumbled across a city. The city itself is also unusual. At first glance, it looks kind of normal. The types of buildings all line up - there are [Blacksmith] shops, tailoring shops, and so on. However, the shops distribution is total nonsense. There is a [Blacksmith] shop surrounded by a few farm plots, with bits of road that lead from nowhere to nowhere. There are staircases that lead to sudden drops in midair, and staircases that aren’t even linked to the ground. There are a few waterfalls in the city that look like water is flowing up the waterfall, instead of down. The city looks like something out of a dream instead of a real city.

“Also, the city is three-dimensional. There are a lot of shops that are built into crazy towers, with houses and sometimes even farms built right on top of each other in a jumbled mess. It looks like someone took several different cities and then… folded them together somehow,” said Allira. She sounded deeply unnerved.

Alice shivered. The idea Allira’s words inspired was of a deeply unnatural, unsettling vortex of different shapes and setups for the city. She wondered what set of beliefs had inspired this particular bout of madness - Alice didn’t doubt for a second that this was some kind of belief-inspired creation.

The group spent a few minutes discussing what Allira’s shadows had found in the fog, before Ethan’s gaze snapped back to the fog. “I just realized something - the fog cloud looks like it slowed down. It’s readjusting its movements, so that it will still intercept us - but it isn’t moving as fast as it was before.”

“Did it slow down right after Allira’s shadows entered, or did something else cause it to slow down?” asked Alice, as she also glanced at the cloud. It was hard to tell, since the distance between the ship and the cloud was still quite large - but she did think that maybe Ethan was right. Alice definitely didn’t want to wander around a bizarre dreamland city, so if the group could avoid entering the city, she would be happy to do so.

“Try adding more shadows to the cloud,” said Ethan. “Maybe the shadows have some kind of property that slows the fog down, and the more shadows we add, the slower it will get?”

Allira shrugged. “I can try it,” she said. “The shadows aren’t exactly expensive to create or maintain.” Allira started humming again, and soon, a swarm of shadows leapt off the side of the ship and charged the glowing fog. A few moments later, the group confirmed that the fog was slowing down. Every single shadow that leapt into the fog caused the fog to slow down even more. Finally, once the fog was filled with nearly a hundred shadows, the fog came to a complete standstill, allowing the ship to skirt past the intersection point and start leaving the fog behind them. 

Several of the [Sailors] cheered as the fog started to disappear into the distance, and Alice felt a twinge of relief. The group continued sailing, as the group got further and further away from the glowing fog bank… until the fog bank started to creep closer to the group again.

Ethan shot Allira an inquisitive glare. Allira frowned.

“My shadows are starting to die,” she said. “I didn’t notice at first, but it feels almost like something is snipping away the connection between me and my shadows. It’s not very fast - it happens once every minute or two. But as more shadows die, the fog seems to pick up speed again. Distance is also starting to be a problem. As we get further away from the fog bank, it gets harder to maintain my shadows.”

Ethan started to look worried. “What could cut off the connection between you and your shadows?” Alice also frowned. Her particular brand of magic could mess up Perks and System abilities - but the fog didn’t seem to have any of the mana types she associated with that set of abilities. Furthermore, Allira was an Immortal - trying to cut off any of her Perks or System abilities should be ridiculously expensive. The fog didn’t seem to be shrinking or losing mana, though.

“That’s the thing - I can’t even tell what’s killing them,” said Allira. “I can’t even tell if the shadows are getting killed, or I’m actually losing my connection to them. Every so often, one of the shadows just vanishes without a trace, and I feel a sense of loss. As we get further away, the rate at which the shadows die seems to speed up.”

Ethan and Myra both frowned at Allira’s words.

“Is it a monster?” Ethan asked. “Perhaps it’s killing off your shadows in a way they can’t respond to?”

“I’m not sure. No matter what I see from my shadow’s perspective, I just feel a prickling sense of danger. Then it dies,” said Allira.

Myra sighed, and rubbed her forehead in frustration.

“I’ll see if we can speed up. In the meantime, could all of you keep an eye out for monsters or animals in the area? I want to see if the fog also slows down if it runs over a school of fish or something. If it does, we could just run it into some animals and leave while it’s doing… whatever it is the fog is doing. Either way, I would prefer to make the fog a problem for someone or something else.”

Ethan, Alice and Allira all nodded before they moved to the sides of the ship to start checking for animals or monsters. Myra started barking orders at the [Sailors] again, and soon, the ship sped up. Perks, mana, and wind whistled through the air as the ship sped along the coast, with the sun glittering off the waves and the strange, glowing fog radiating danger in the distance.

Unfortunately, nobody could find any traces of other monsters or animals in the area. Alice had already thought that the ocean was eerily silent when they first entered the ocean - and now, that sense of unease was being reinforced in the most frustrating way possible.

Even more disturbing was the fact that the fog kept following them. Alice had been hoping that the fog would go bother something else once the group got far enough away, since Allira could slow the fog down quite substantially by feeding it more shadows. However, every time Allira’s shadows were dealt with, the fog would start chasing them again. Allira kept sending shadows back to ‘feed’ the fog, and while she seemed increasingly confused about how and why her shadows were dying, there was no point in time where she actually discovered what was happening. As far as Allira had reported to the others, they were simply vanishing into thin air.

As the group continued to sail onwards, more problems started to appear. Allira’s shadows were starting to get out of range. Allira’s shadows could roam around quite far away from her - but they still had a finite range to them. The further the shadows got from Allira, the more focus she needed to maintain them. 

Soon, the number of shadows Allira could maintain at a time dropped below 100. Allira had to go below decks to take a break and a powernap. Two hours later, Alice felt the urge to start cursing. The fog was still following them. It was quite far away - but even though the fog had temporarily dropped out of sight, it hadn’t given up on chasing them. They still had almost no intelligence about the fog, and the group couldn’t just rely on Allira to keep the fog occupied.

“Does it not spend anything to kill Allira’s shadows?” Alice muttered.

“It might not,” said Cecilia. “For all we know, it could be a monster in disguise. It could even be feeding on Allira’s shadows like some kind of energy source - in which case it would be even more dangerous for the fog to catch up to us. It’s hard to say whether it can do the same with humans, after all.”

“I don’t see any of the telltale signs of it being a monster, though,” said Alice. “Monsters are what I think of when I think of a creature stripping energy out of the air or other life in mere seconds and putting that energy to use. The fog looks more like some kind of altered terrain, like the swamp we encountered while we were travelling to Morendia. I don’t even think the fog is actually alive. How could it be powering itself and moving like this?”

“I don’t have the same vision types as you, but I suspect the fog might be controlled by monsters,” said Ethan. “Its movements are too precise to be random. Since monsters have started working together after the collapse of the System, maybe the fog is created by a bunch of monsters working to create some kind of giant vehicle. Just like our ship, but made entirely out of magic.”

Alice thought about Ethan’s theory. That was an idea she hadn’t thought of before, but it did make some amount of sense. Before the collapse of the System, she would have deemed the idea implausible - but post-collapse, it seemed at least somewhat reasonable to her. She also couldn’t think of any other explanations for this madness - though that may have simply been her limited imagination at work. Ethan’s theory would also explain why the glowing mist kept chasing them. Perhaps the monsters had some way to control where the mist was heading, and that was why the mist kept swinging unerringly towards the ship?

The problem was, Allira’s scouts hadn’t seen any hint of monsters in the mist. This made it far harder to deal with the situation. If Ethan’s theory was correct, the group only needed to find and kill the monsters using magic to create fog - once enough of them died, the rest would hopefully drop into the ocean and lose the ability to pursue them. However, entering the fog sent Allira’s shadows into some kind of crazy dream-city, which made it nearly impossible to strike at the monsters piloting the fog-ship. 

With no way to hit back against the strange phenomenon pursuing them, it became dozens of times harder to manage the situation.

“Is Allira capable of feeding the fog again?” asked Alice.

“I’ll go wake her up,” said Ethan with a sigh. “I just hope she can gather more information this time - if she could find the controllers of the fog, we could get rid of this menace before it becomes a real problem. I hate not being able to deal with enemies by just ripping them to shreds with a projectile storm.”

With that cheery thought, Ethan dashed below deck.

Luckily, Allira was more than capable of resuming her fog-feeding duty after her nap. After a quick meal, she got back to summoning shadows and sending them to their deaths.

Over the next day, the group settled into an unsettling pattern. Allira would take a nap, and as she slept, the fog would start closing in on the boat. Then, Allira would wake up and feed the fog. Then, she would get tired, and go to take a nap. As she slept, the fog would start to close in again, before Allira woke up and fed it.

This cycle continued for another day after that. And another. The group started to grow numb to the sensation of constantly being chased. They had no way to retaliate against the fog, and Allira’s probes hadn’t revealed any weaknesses or ways to escape. They simply sailed, and hoped that this tenuous balance wouldn’t be broken as they continued onward.

The days were long and stressful, and at night, Alice lay awake and wondered what would happen if the glowing fog caught up to them. So far, the group’s response hadn’t inspired much confidence that they could deal with the fog effectively. Allira hadn’t found anything that would let them strike at their pursuers, and they couldn’t see a thing from outside of the fog.

By the fourth day, Alice was starting to get used to the routine. The glowing fog didn’t seem to be chasing them any more quickly or more effectively than the first day. That, at least, was a small relief - the monsters(?) chasing them weren’t growing stronger from eating Allira’s shadows. However, the cycle did mean that the group was devoid of Allira’s scouting abilities, which was a shame. The only upside was the fact that the rest of the sea was eerily devoid of animals or monsters - meaning that Allira’s strength as a scout was unnecessary. The fog seemed to be scaring off any other potential threats in the area.

The fifth day of being chased was when things went wrong.

A few minutes after Allira went to take a nap, Alice saw a tiny row of specks in the distance. At first, she thought they might be animals or monsters, and nearly laughed out loud in joy. If the group could get the fog to focus on something else, they would finally be free to resume a more normal sailing journey. They were nearly a quarter of the way around the Southern Continent, and Alice really wanted to lose the fog before they got anywhere near the mainframe of the System. 

Then, she realized the dots in the distance weren’t monsters or animals. They were ships.

That sent an ominous shiver down her spine.

Were they pirates? Or a long-lost navy from a foreign nation?

It only took a few more minutes of sail for Alice’s worst fears to be confirmed.

The group of ships approaching them weren’t disorganized pirates, nor were they from a different foreign nation that might help them or ignore them.

Flying above the lead ship was the flag of the Sigmusi. The ships started sailing towards them only a few minutes after they saw them. Alice felt a twinge of despair.

Behind them was the glowing fog. It was slowly closing distance with them, and it would catch up if Allira stopped ‘feeding’ the fog new victims.

Ahead of them was the Sigmusi navy. Alice counted twelve ships on the horizon. She knew that [Kinetic Mages] could play a huge role in naval warfare, but this was a fact everyone knew. Since that was the case, there was no way a hostile navy wouldn’t have [Kinetic Mages] on board. Worse, the Sigmusi might also have an Immortal Mage with them. Alice had at least glanced over the descriptions for all of the Sigmusi Immortals, since the group was going to travel through large stretches of Sigmusi waters - and so she knew that the Sigmusi had three Magic-focused Immortals. Two of them would be well-equipped to give Ethan a real fight if they ran into each other - and if both of them were here, the group might really be in trouble.

Even if neither of those Immortals were here, the ships would probably have a good number of regular [Kinetic Mages] on board. Numbers could drag an Immortal down, especially on the ocean where the Sigmusi [Sailors] and [Admirals] would inevitably have higher average levels than the Illvarians. With Allira severely weakened, this was the most vulnerable the group had ever been, and threats from both sides were approaching fast.

The group needed a solution now.

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