Deep Sea Embers

The muster bell rang, and the rapid ringing was followed by the hurried footsteps of the sailors. Lawrence stayed in the cab with the second mate and the pastor who was still out of breath.

The old captain looked out the window at the sea. At this moment, the White Oak was still in the depths of the spiritual world. There was mist on the sea outside the ship's side, and the water was still as dark as ink. But the storm had subsided, and the terrible Homeless Ship was also gone. It has disappeared - this can't help but give people the illusion that the previous storms and even the collapsed borders of reality were caused by that ghost ship, and now all the disasters have happened with the departure of that ship. Away from the White Oak.

Lawrence thought of the terrible legends about the Lost Home and Captain Duncan Abnomar, the fleet that was swallowed up by the frontier of reality more than a century ago, and the ships that sank into the deep sea during the encounter with the Lost Home. Ship after ship, suddenly felt that this was not impossible.

But no matter what, now that the Lost Home has left, the surrounding seas have temporarily returned to calm. Although they are still in the dangerous depths of the spiritual world, at least he and his crew have a chance to breathe.

Next, Lawrence must determine what exactly the Lost Home took from the White Oak — or what it left behind.

And it must be determined as soon as possible.

Without ruling out all hidden dangers, he did not dare to let the ship float to the real world rashly, because some things brought from the spiritual world would cause terrible pollution in the real world. However, if he stayed in the depths of the spiritual world for too long, he and his crew would They will still be affected irreversibly.

Listening to the noise coming from the deck, Lawrence suddenly raised his head from his thoughts. He looked at the priest who was sitting in front of the incense burner and his face had improved a little. His expression was very serious: "Mr. Ron, our current How’s the stability?”

The priest coughed twice, and then took out a small and exquisite compass from his arms, with many marine symbols and sacred symbols engraved on its surface. After opening the metal cover with a snap, the pointer on the compass immediately started to spin rapidly, and finally stabilized. The ground stopped at a certain location.

"We stay on the surface of the spiritual world, slightly closer to the real world. The influence from the deep depths... is very weak." The priest looked at the state of the compass pointer, his expression suddenly a little confused, "Strange... we are completely stable here. When the sacred object is closed, there is almost no sinking...ahem..."

"Perhaps the 'collision' of the Homeless Ship knocked us onto a safe route." Lawrence smiled bitterly and shook his head, trying to liven up the atmosphere with a cold joke, "I heard that there are some subtleties in the spiritual world. A balance point that frees things in the real world from deeper 'pulls'..."

"Mr. Captain, this joke is too cold," the pastor said, coughing twice more. Although he had recovered his breath, his condition was not good at all. "Ahem, no matter what, what happened today is... It must be reported to the church... The appearance of the Lost Home is by no means a trivial matter. In the past few decades, there have always been reports of encounters with the Lost Home, but they were later confirmed to be just the crew's nonsense or group hallucinations caused by out-of-control visions. , but we did witness it today... Goddess, you'd better be mentally prepared that you won't be able to sail again in the near future."

"I understand - neither the church nor the city-state authorities will allow a ship that has just suffered a vision disaster to return to the sea. This is for the safety of everyone, and I want to report it to more than just the church. City-state, Explorers Association...Oh, and my terrible wife..." Captain Lawrence pressed his forehead hard, let out a long sigh and waved his hands, "Stop talking about this, you need to rest now, until you return to port, this Every ship needs the blessing of the goddess."

The priest nodded slightly, and soon, the first officer, who had just left not long ago, returned to the cab.

“There are not a few people on board, and there are not many people on board,” the first mate reported immediately upon meeting us without waiting for the captain to ask questions. “I personally checked the sailors gathered on the deck, and also went to the boiler room to check the sailors left there. Mechanics, they can accurately pronounce the names of the gods they believe in, and they are indeed living people. "

"No one is missing?" Lawrence's eyes widened. This should have been good news, but he couldn't believe what the first mate reported. "Where is the Holy Emblem Beacon?"

"The sacred object is normal," the first mate nodded immediately. "The navigator is preparing incense and essential oils, waiting for your order to restart the sacred object."

Lawrence listened in amazement, and once again couldn't help but whisper softly: "...He really let the ship go?"

"Good luck favors us, Captain," the first mate spread his hands. "We didn't lose anything. Maybe the scary ghost captain just happened to pass by, or maybe he just bumped into it accidentally."

"Do you believe this?" Lawrence immediately glared at his first mate, "If good luck really favors us, we will never encounter..."

Just as he was mid-sentence, a rush of footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door. Then someone pushed open the door of the cab, and a sweaty bosun appeared in front of Lawrence. This tall man His face was full of horror.

"Captain! Anomaly 099 is missing!!"

The cab instantly became quiet, and everyone was looking at each other. However, for some reason, Lawrence suddenly felt relieved amid the brief shock——

Great, after the encounter with the Lost Home, we finally found something wrong on the ship, then this is great!

But then he controlled the expression on his face, and as he walked towards the door, he urgently ordered the first mate to take over the steering wheel, and then ordered the boatswain to lead the way.

Rapid footsteps sounded in the cabin corridor of the White Oak, and soon Lawrence, led by the bosun, reached the deepest part of the steamship.

A special cabin appeared in front of him.

The door of this cabin is engraved with dense occult symbols. The heavy and dark door seems to be cast from a whole piece of black iron. The occult symbols extend from the edge of the door frame to the corridor, vaguely seeming to form some kind of occult symbol. A closed cage to restrain the things stored in the cabin.

Lawrence glanced at the door, confirming that there were no signs of damage to the door or the surrounding symbols, and then looked up at the top - the "sacred object room" where the Holy Emblem beacon was placed was directly above the seal room, and that beacon was to ensure The key to preventing the ship from being affected by the "deep" is also the second insurance to maintain the seal room. Even if it is closed, it should be able to ensure the integrity of the barrier between the seal rooms.

But even with these two barriers intact, the contents of the sealed room, the most critical cargo escorted by the White Oak on this voyage, Anomaly 099 - the human coffin, disappeared.

Lawrence took a deep breath, stepped forward, opened the door to the seal room, and pushed the heavy door open with all his strength.

In the seal room, the lights were bright, and the gas lamps hanging on the four pillars illuminated the center of the room almost everywhere. However, the "cargo" that was supposed to be placed there had disappeared, leaving only a few vertical and horizontal lines in place. Intertwined chains, and some gray-white ash scattered on the surrounding ground.

The boatswain's voice came from behind Lawrence: "According to the seal requirements of Anomaly 099, the lights have been kept in this room, and every two hours a crew member will come in to re-strengthen the chains around the 'coffin' and the floor of the room. The ashes were scattered on the room, but when the...ghost ship appeared, due to the chaos, the sailor who was supposed to be on duty did not enter the room in time. He was almost seven minutes late, and found that Anomaly 099 had disappeared..."

"Being only seven minutes late will not cause the thing to lose control. At most, the seal will weaken and cause abnormal movement. The worst-case scenario is just a coffin running around in this room - there are layers of seals and holy emblems here. The confinement is not a decoration," Lawrence frowned and shook his head, "The current situation is that it has disappeared...the cargo has left the ship, and it has nothing to do with the sailor."

The bosun's expression was a little nervous: "Then what do you mean..."

"It must be the Lost Home," Lawrence said in a deep voice, "The 'captain' took Anomaly 099 away..."

Having said this, he paused and sighed softly: "Perhaps we should feel lucky that the Lost Home only takes away what it wants. The captain came for Anomaly 099, not us. "

The boatswain looked at his captain's face, then at the empty seal room, and then hesitantly asked for a long time: "Then...we have lost such important cargo, how should we report it to the city-state authorities..."

Lawrence glanced at the boatswain and patted him hard on the shoulder.

"The Lost Home is a natural disaster and we have marine insurance."

"...Will the insurance company cover this?"

"They asked the Explorers Association to issue a new bounty on the Homeless Ship without paying compensation..."

"Captain, are you a little anxious..."

"Shut up."