We then rest for an hour so that I can regain enough mana to enhance her spell. This time I don't plan to go too overboard, just enough to get the eyes off of us for a few minutes. That should be long enough for us to gate back to the ship without being noticed.

Once I have enough mana I give Lin the signal and she starts casting her spell. Then I use all the mana I have regained to enhance the effects of the spell. When she unleashes it there are no visible effects, but I can feel a wave of force spreading out.

After the wave passes, the feeling of being watched disappears so I nod to Lin. Lin closes her eyes and begins to cast the spell, but finding the ship is the hard part. Luckily, in the ten minutes that it takes her, the feeling of being watched does not come back.

The problem is that when Lin opens the gate, it is only sized for a human. So, I shapeshift into human form so that I can fit through it, when Lin realizes the problem she blushes. I give her a light laugh as I walk through the small gate and return to the ship.

Lin says "I'm sorry, I didn't think about that."

"It's fine. You did great for your first time."

Lin says "Thank you."

Seronia says "Ash! What did you do?!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Lin says "Maybe she is talking about the spell we used to destroy the pirate base?"

"It shouldn't be. It may have been a powerful spell, but it wouldn't have reached the peninsula."

Seronia says "I am talking about why the divine realm is echoing with screams of agony!!"

"What?!"

Seronia says "From the sounds of it, dozens of deities are screaming in pain. Are you saying you had nothing to do with it?"

"Um, maybe?"

Seronia says "What do you mean maybe? Did you do something or not?"

Under Seronia's prodding I quickly tell her of the events around the attack on the pirate base. Then I tell her about the conversation with the Fire God and being spied on by lots of others. Finally, I tell her about us using a spell to hide the use of the gate from those watchers.

Seronia says "Tell me more about this spell."

Lin says "It was just a basic counter-scrying spell. Mages use them all the time."

Seronia says "Does it just block the other side's sight?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Lin says "No. Mages are not so forgiving to those who try to spy on them."

Seronia says "What does it do to them?"

Lin says "The normal spell on gives them the equivalent of a light slap."

Seronia says "And then Ash enhanced the spell, right?"

Lin says "Yeah, he did."

Seronia says "Ash, did you enhance the penalty of the spell?"

"I didn't know there was a penalty. I just enhanced the whole spell."

Seronia sighs and says "How much did you enhance it?"

"I was kind of rushed and didn't really measure. I just dumped all the mana I had into it."

Seronia says "Ash!"

"What? You and your sister are the only ones that are allowed to spy on me! Those other deities got what they deserved."

Seronia says "Deities are not known to be forgiving, especially of mortals. You just made a bunch of enemies!"

"They were already our enemies, they just didn't know it yet. I couldn't take the chance of them learning how to create a gate and teaching their followers."

Seronia says "I can't argue that, but you could have thought of a different way. Now you have pissed off all of the pantheons at once! They will be hunting you once they recover!"

"Uh, thanks for the warning. How hard is it for deities to locate me?"

Seronia says "Unfortunately, because you are so unique, it is very easy. Now that they have seen you, it would only take a few minutes to find you again."

"Well, crap! Alright, we will need to think of a plan."

Seronia says "Alright, let me know if you need my help. And Ash, please try not to make things worse."

"Lin, I need you to teach me that spell."

Lin says "Didn't Seronia say not to make things worse?"

"I'm not. I won't use the spell as it is. I just need the base spell so I can modify it. I will add it to the ship as an enchantment to block scrying."

Lin says "What about when we leave the ship?"

"I will make some items to hide us later. Right now I need to get the enchantment in place before the deities recover and start looking for us."

Lin says "Alright."

After a few minutes Lin has taught me the spell and I head up to the bridge. By the time I reach the core I have already figured out the enchantment I want to use. I am only taking part of the spell Lin taught me, it will cloak the ship from scrying.

It will simply hide us from any scrying attempts, whether from mortals or immortals. There will be no striking back against anyone who tries to scry us, just concealment. The base spell alone isn't enough to stop a deity from scrying, so I have enhanced it.

When I go to add the enchantment to the ship, it is a lot easier than I was expecting it to be. That is because the spirit in the core is helping me, she is growing more intelligent. At this rate, she should soon be able to start talking, which will be interesting.

Due to the enhancement of the enchantment, it takes up a lot of the available mana. It is using as much as three major enchantments, but it is necessary right now. It just means I will need to increase the ship's mana more for phase two.

Right now, making sure that none of the deities can find the ship is the most important thing. My only other option would be for me and Lin to leave the ship and act as decoys. While I am confident I could deal with one or two avatars, more than that would probably kill me.

Not to mention that the deities have plenty of followers who they could send after us. All in all, it would be a major hassle we don't need with no benefits to be had. Well, other than the possibility of getting more evolution points, but it isn't worth it.

Besides, I am still not sure if the evolution points are a good thing or not. The chances of them turning me into something I don't want to be seem rather high. So, I am not going to worry too much about collecting them, if I get some so be it.

By the time I finish the enchantment and return to the cabin it is almost morning. Despite my hopes, it looks like I am going to have to wait another day at least. Maybe more since today should be the start of the holiday that Lin mentioned, or maybe it is tomorrow.