The paladin's spell had shown to be the main decider in their escape from the monsters, upon seeing it and sensing it, the monsters had seemingly recognised the light has a top priority enemy, despite the fact that they had shown to have some intelligence they had still completely fallen for the spell.
If he was to try and throw that spell again, Vlas would have to find a way to stop him in some way, killing him would bear the risk of competely breaking the expedition since he was the one leading it and breaking it too fast would be unfunny.
As of now, Vlasfimia had time to plan has the forty-first floor was also a large ocean, it had everything the last floor had, the shore, dirty water one couldn't see through, however, it wasn't the same thing at all, the floor was covered in a dense fog, preventing anyone from seeing where the exit was or from seeing anything ahead,one could also make out the shape of islands in the water, they had trees but to get to them in the first place one needed to cross a considerable distance in the water first and lastly, this time around, the shore was not inhabited, a familiar yet unfamiliar monster had made camps using the sand and stones found on the shore, semi-aquatic goblins.
They had some aquatic aspects as well as a pale blue colored skin tone but they clearly weren't fully adapted at life underwater, after testing, Vlas had found out that they could hold they breath for thirty minute, they were all afflicted with the fire so testing that out had been easy and simple for Vlas.
They had some weapons made of wood and stone, the wood had most likely been harvested from nearby islands or given by the dungeon like the goblins on the first floors, even after a few days after the arrival of the expedition, Vlas had seen no sign of any abyssals, he could sense that creatures of a sort of similar build were roaming the waters but seeing their behavior, he had to guess that the monsters from this floor were completely different.
Indeed, he may have been too quick too judge this floor when comparing it to the previous one, the water wasn't dirty like the last one actually, it actually seemed to be under the influence of a spell or skill that prevented people from seeing through it and since Vlas could easily detect those afflicted with the fire, he had a pretty good guess on what was causing this.
When sensing around for afflicted monsters underwater, he could see that the monsters weren't quite as mangled as the ones before with their abstract body shapes and eyes growing wherever they pleased, they were more like beasts one might mix up with basic animals if unobvservant enough.
Clearly, if it wasn't for the affliction, this floor would probably be acting as an actual ecosystem with predators, scavengers and all that comes with it, these monsters weren't likely to attack a ship or a being that appeared to be unusual, however thanks to Vlasfimia's intervention, this floor would prove to be a challenge still, especially when considering the roaming boss.
Once again, the expedition was slowly putting together yet another boat to sail through this floor, it wouldn't be as simple though, this floor actually had wind blowing in random directions, they wouldn't be able to sail in a straight line with wind and island getting in the way.
Vlas was wondering whether or not he should stick onto the boat like he had done last time or if he should do something else, he was fairly certain that he hadn't gone completely unnoticed last time, he wasn't a stealth master by any means and the paladin had on multiple occasions gazed into his direction.
'They had probably ignored my presence has a fight on the boat with an unidentified enemy would have been disadvantageous' he thought as he watchted the expedition nearing the end of building their boat.
Vlas made a decision and walked into the water, walking as if he was wearing some weights to keep him on the ground but he wasn't, he soon started swimming toward an island, the islands were inhabited by more goblins and he was going to make use of them for his new plan.
On his way, he passed by what he had first thought to be abyssals due to their similar builds but in actuality, it was just the monster variations of mersharks, Vlas was no experts in sharks but he guessed that this was a bull shark variant, they really weren't buildt the same at all but they had appeared to be from afar.
After a bit of swimming and a single sighting of any monster during that time, Vlas emerged on an island, each islands were fairly large and seemed to have some animals for the goblins to feed on, however, no one was eating anymore due to the affliction and it didn't seem like anyone suffered from this fact.
Seeing a small island pig with a left eye burning with an orange flame certainly appeared humorous, especially when considering that it seems to handle it better than the minotaurs from the upper floors.
Vlas couldn't give clear orders to the monsters afflicted with the fire, he could only lure them in places using his own fire and since they all wanted to spread the affliction, if they ran into a non-afflicted, they would attack, the best Vlas could do was make them realise that the expedition was going to pass near here and to do so, Vlas decided to try something new.
He raised his right hand in the air, his palm facing the sky or rather ceiling, an orange flame brusted out in his hand and soon took a bizarre shape before going back to a more simple small flame that covered his hand, he grabbed the first goblin at hand, literally and let his fiery hand burn the side of its face, it yelled for a bit and then Vlas removed his hand.
Vlas couldn't see if it had worked just like that but to see if it had, Vlas opened the goblin's skull and ate his brain right there, to check its memories.
Vlas had just tried to impart some knowledge by using the flame, the fire after all could accomplish anything and giving a few information to a fellow bearer of the fire should be possible and it sure was, upon eating its brain, he saw the information concerning the expedition, it hadn't gone through exactly as meant but it was still comprehensible and as such, Vlasfimia proceeded to repeat this action on each goblin he saw on every island he visited, by the end of it the fire seemed to be needing a break.