Captain Sebastian Bluerose strode the deck, as he made his last speech before they would enter the Mist Sea for real. He still had his black eye, as Hank seldom used his healing magic if the injury was caused by stupidity.

“Dear crew,” he said as he opened his arms, welcoming each and everyone with this gesture: “Welcome to the Mist Sea. These are dangerous waters that remain largely uncharted, but that's why we are here. Once before, I traveled here and we only were able to get a small peek. Now we take another one, but before we can do that, I want to tell you what you need to know when traversing these waters. I've told several of you a lot already, but some repetition won't hurt, forgetting much more.

“The Mist Sea is a herd of volcanic activities and strong icy cold currents. The temperature can change immensely, from a steam sauna to a misty snowstorm, which is why having a jacket nearby is so important. Some people will get sick because of these temperature differences, but when a sudden change happen, remember to use Body Enhancement if you're on deck. Those who don't know it yet, get under deck, adapt, come again. Scarlet adjusted the shift schedule to accommodate for the numbers of those who hadn't inscribed that spell.

“Within the senior crew, we have several people capable of dealing with the loss of sight in one way or another, that's also why we have some Air Control and Water Control on deck at every time, to push back the Mist if needed.

“Starting now, we also won't sail at night and we will look for good places to anchor. As there are many shelves within this sea, we will have plenty of places where we can stop, but we don't want to run onto ground. That's also why we will sail slowly.

“There is the constant danger of monsters attacking the ship or treacherous traps of nature. We are facing the unknown, to make it known, and then to spread the word. Keep your blades and wits keen and never forget: Even if you die a horrific death, at least it wasn't boring.” With these words, the captain turned around and points to the wall of mist in front of the Reverence, which looked thick enough to be cut with a knife: “Let's challenge this beast! Scarlet, take command!”

“Wha-” The red-haired woman was still baffled, as the captain jumped from the ship, deployed his floating skates and went ahead. He was able to hear her swears even after a minute of skating away.

Skates weren't fit for long travels, as it took much effort to keep the body tense enough to stand upright, they were very susceptible for the currents and waves and there was no propulsion built into them.

That's why Captain Sebastian Bluerose used his immense magical talent to create an advanced blended spell, that was simply called Skater. While a basic spell used a broad concept and was very versatile, an advanced spell specialized to create an even stronger effect. A blended spell mixed multiple inscribed spells together, which was why only three-star magic-users and above were able to use them.

Skater used Body Enhancement and Air Control for body tension and propulsion. While it took a great deal of stamina to keep it up, it allowed the captain to traverse the ocean to scout ahead of the ship, and look at whatever he needed to at sea.

Of course, the captain only inscribed that spell after he started seafaring, as he used to be a land-based explorer before. Now he had to use spells that were applicable at sea, but also for land exploration, so that he would be able to survive adventures on the unknown islands.

While he wasn't able to see what was underwater, he could feel every shelf he skated over from under his soles, as the currents felt different above them. He made sure to circumvent them to show the Reverence the way, and just before he entered the misty wall, he stopped entirely. He wouldn't enter it alone...

Well, not for real. He stuck out his hand and put it into the mist, which felt comfortably warm, which made him think about how close the next volcano might be and if he should take a dive later.

The Reverence followed quickly, as the number of shelves were still low, compared to what she was designed for, and with Ocher on deck, it would be easy to find them, as she had the Earth Detection spell.

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With a high jump, Captain Sebastian Bluerose landed on the deck again, his first mate obviously pissed, but as he was the captain, she reigned in her anger for a minute, and the explorer wondered if he would get it later in private: “Are you happy now, Captain?”

“Yes!” he answers in glee, but now also controls the bursting feelings of excitement to make some announcements: “Mist is lukewarm, be ready to take off your jackets. We will enter that point. I detected some Amballoons as well.”

“Amballoons?”

“You know, the yellow puffball monsters that rides the warm updraft here. We saw them last time as well.”

“Didn't you name them Hotpuffers before?”

“I did, and when I went through editing, I decided that Amballoon was more striking. You should really read my finished books!”

“You forced me to read your shitty draft already!”

“And you did a splendid job! Now onto the Mist Sea! Take in all but the steering sails! Turquoise on wind, Indigo on the currents!” The two mages instruct the magic-users who had Water or Air Control to support their efforts.

The mist engulfed the Reverence. While it would have been possible to blow some away or to create an air bubble around the ship, it would have been too much effort to continue for hours, so all of the sailors better got used to only seeing one or two steps ahead at the time.

“Ocher, on helm!” Her Earth Detection was now more valuable than ever, and she and Maroon were the main helmswomen during the blind travel, while the captain would keep an eye on monsters with his Lifeform Radar.

This would be the easiest part of the expedition though, as the crew won't have fits of madness for being inside the mist for so long. Yet. This was the start, after all, but the senior crew remembered what happened on their prior journey, and therefore relaxed while they still could.

Not only the mist was thick enough to cut with a knife, also the tension of the crew. Many of them were never on sea in the first place, and most were inside the Mist Sea for the first time. By now, they heard some of the stories and it was guaranteed that a few of them would have turned back already, if they weren't on a ship in midst of the ocean.

“HARD LEFT!” Indigo screamed into the silent tenseness, Ocher quickly worked the helm, but this comment also meant, that crew and mages had to work. Noticing that one of the sails were loose, probably because one of the sailors lost the rope in panic, Captain Sebastian Bluerose himself hurried to the sail, jumped at the rope and brought everything under control, as one of Turquoise magic-users blasted a gust into it.

A quick dropping sound, then a boiling, finally a water fountain that shot through the mist, almost hitting the Reverence. An underwater geyser!

Indigo already lifted her arms, weaving water to act as an umbrella over the ship, as boiling hot drops of water were about to rain down on it. “Great work, Indigo.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Yes, catching so many of these ash-gray eels within your water!” These were shot out of the geyser as well, though only the captain noticed them.

“Wha-”

“Oh, they are becoming red-hot now. If this continue, they will probably boil away your water, land on the sails and deck and create some fires in time. Support Indigo, you only need to endure it until the boiling rain lets up, I think.” Then Indigo could throw these eels away together with her water-umbrella.

While the magic-users were bringing more water in the air, a flaw of the plan became apparent, as these eels had their own idea. Living inside caves, they heat up the water constantly, creating great pressure in their caves, which will cause an eruption much like a geyser. They used this to kill schools of fish for eating or to propel themselves through these trickery currents whenever needed. Which meant, that in both cases, they would just continue to swim, which would also heat themselves up more, which would scare off predators and would also break some smaller currents.

As Indigo's spell wasn't meant to keep anything inside, it was just a sheet to protect from the rain, the eels started to swim out of it, unknowing that they would fall.

Captain Sebastian Bluerose used the Jumpman spell and propelled himself through the air, right at the sheet, deploying his blades and skates. “Smash the eels off deck!” He used Air Control to gust the eels away that were close to him during the jump and then cut through several more that were still in the umbrella, skating upside down.

The crew took their clubs and hit the eels from the air or on the deck, trying their best to get them off the ship before anything would catch fire, which might have been hard inside the mist, but burning marks appeared anyway.

This was just a taste of the dangers of the Mist Sea.