We reached the exit of the Mirror Labyrinth and exited onto the small island. The five women headed around to the back of the island, where another dock I hadn’t noticed the first time sat. This one had a boat docked. This must be where the Ost Republic landed separately from Aberis.
“The ferry only comes a few times a day. It will be a few hours before they come back.” I admitted.
It had only been two hours since they left us here, so I knew that their last trip was still a few hours from now. Had we missed it, I had the intention of using Portal to return, but it didn’t seem necessary now. However, once the women left, I didn’t really want to wait, so I’d probably use Portal anyway.
Although Alysia’s face was still a bit red, she turned to me. “It isn’t safe to stay on this island with all of the sea creatures. Some of them may come to the surface looking for a snack if you linger too long. How about you come with us?”
“Ah… but…”
“I will drop you off on the Aberis side! It’s not like we’d kidnap you!” Alysia cried out.
The boat was actually a bit larger than our own ferry. It would be able to fit nearly twenty people. Well, that was normal size people. Since these women were quite a bit bigger, the room was a little tighter than that, but it was enough for us. The ferryman had said that he wouldn’t travel with much more than the six of us at a time. The largest group I had seen there was also six people. Was it safe for a group of eleven to be on a boat together, or would that attract the fish?
These were experienced dungeon divers, and they didn’t seem to be all that worried about inviting us. Perhaps they were more knowledgeable about the river than the ferryman. It could be that he was just overly cautious because there was only one of him. It was a little risky, but in the end, I decided to trust these women. We weren’t in a dungeon, so it wasn’t like I was putting our lives on the line.
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“Celeste…” I whispered to her and then gave the rest of the commands using Slave Communication.
She nodded and then shrunk down to her smallest fairy form. It was about the size you’d expect to see a fairy, the so-called Tinkerbell size. Usually, she remained a bit larger than that, about 12-18 inches. That was her preferred size when she didn’t assume a human size. In towns and villages, she usually maintained her human size and hid her wings so as not to draw interest. In the dungeons, however, she usually remained at her fairy size.
Here, I had her shrink down to her small size to reduce her presence the most. With luck, any predators would only see us as ten people, not eleven. I didn’t stop there. Celeste had control of the wind, so she made sure to lock our presence within the boat. I didn’t know how the animals of the deep detected us, but Celeste could block smells, noises, and the like. I gave an order to Miki too, and she locked our spirits and kept us from being seen with spiritual perception.
As the giant women set on embarking the boat, they saw the girl’s spells and nodded approvingly. Alysia assessed me one more time and seemed to find me acceptable. She had crossed her arms under her large chest and nodded approvingly.
“When you reach our stage, you can conceal your aura. Other than Susan here, we can travel without being seen by the terrors of the deep. Although you’re not at our level, I’m pleased to see you have concocted similar measures, as expected of a Dungeon Diver.”
It turned out that they were at almost no risk from the get-go. Rather, our presence increased their risk since we couldn’t conceal our auras perfectly. I wondered what level Aura Conceal appeared. I wanted to ask, but it didn’t feel appropriate. When I got back to a library, I’d definitely look for that information. Scouts probably got it quickly, but Dungeon Divers should get it too eventually. With the sun still up and the murky dark blue water under us, we set off down the river.