Departure

I logged in. At long last, today was the day we had been waiting for: the day we set sail. I finished work as quickly as possible, so I was able to log in much earlier than our meeting time. Thank goodness I wasn't late!

"Hmm? Izam. You're earlier than usual."

When I entered the ship's lounge, Genzuro was the only one inside. It seemed I was the second to arrive. Since I had logged in earlier than usual, Genzuro looked a little surprised.

"Ah, I was looking forward to our departure, so I hurried a little."

"Ho ho ho, so was I. Look, it seems everyone else is the same."

It seemed I wasn't the only one looking forward to the new lands we had yet to see. One after another, my companions came to the lounge after me. In less than ten minutes, everyone except Shichiko had gathered.

"Oh!? Everyone's here already! Sorry to keep y'all waiting!"

"Looks like we're all here. Izam, why don't you say a few words before we leave?"

"What?!"

Shichiko logged in a few minutes later, so now everyone was present. For the sake of his honor, I should point out that Shichiko wasn't late. The rest of us had simply arrived far too early.

Genzuro had been chatting with everyone until just now, but he suddenly said that to me. What? I hadn't prepared anything to say... Was this what they called putting someone on the spot?

By the time I tried to say, "Give me a break," it was already too late. Before I knew it, the sound of conversation had died away, and everyone was looking at me. This was clearly one of those situations where I had to say something.

"Ah... First of all, thank you all for gathering without anyone being late. Today, we're taking this battleship into the skies, but before that, we have two things to celebrate. Mikelo, Nenashi, come over here."

"Yes, understood."

"Me as well?"

The first thing we had to celebrate before setting out was our two new members. Everyone had already met them, but I had always intended to formally introduce them. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

"Then I'll go first. As you all know, my name is Nenashi. My Race evolved from Mimic Monstivorous Vine into Mimic Monstivorous Thorn the other day. I look forward to working with you all."

Nenashi was the first plant-type monster we had encountered. He had evolved after surpassing level 50 while clearing the 'Black Death Ice Forest' and overcoming Langhort-sama's trial.

His overall silhouette had not changed, but evolution had covered his vines in dense clusters of thin, sharp thorns. This allowed him to damage enemies simply by binding them with his vines. Apparently, the thorns could also secrete a paralytic poison, so his main fighting style was to bind, paralyze, and swallow his prey whole—a truly monster-like way to fight.

Despite all that, Nenashi usually disguised himself as a bird. He bundled leaves like a sensitive plant into wings, used flytrap-like parts for feet, and shaped pitcher-plant-like parts into a beak. He could even change his surface coloring, so with those features Nenashi looked almost comically like a pelican.

They don't call it 'Mimic' for nothing. He would let his opponents' guard down by pretending to be a silly pelican, then reveal his true nature and turn the tables on them. When we encountered him, he had already shown us his true form, so he said he hadn't bothered to mimic anything.

In fact, it seemed to be an effective tactic against the beasts of the 'Black Death Ice Forest' after he joined us. Using himself as bait, Nenashi would launch ambushes alongside his companions, who waited hidden nearby. This made for remarkably efficient hunting. He might become a specialist in ambush attacks.

"Next is me, then. Allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Mikelo. I am a reincarnated former Human, and I am now a Floating Evil Eye High Priest. My appearance is a little unsettling, but I look forward to working with you all."

Mikelo brought his introduction to a close, shut his many eyes, and bowed silently. His Race, Floating Evil Eye High Priest, is a monster called a Floating Evil Eye who has taken the Job of High Priest.

A Floating Evil Eye is a monster resembling a giant eyeball like one belonging to a Human, floating in midair. It is about one meter in diameter and covered in thick skin. Ten tentacles grow from that skin, which serves as both its outer surface and eyelids, and six of them have eyeballs with subtly different appearances at their tips.

Those six eyeballs are quite unique. One is completely black, one is colorless and transparent like a glass marble, one has a long, narrow pupil like a snake's, one has a horizontally elongated pupil like a goat's, one closely resembles an insect's compound eye, and one contains multiple pupils in a single eyeball.

Each eyeball possesses the power of a corresponding Evil Eye, allowing it to deal damage or inflict status ailments simply by looking. The remaining four tentacles have Human hands attached to their tips, perhaps a remnant of his former life as a Human. Each hand is equipped with a round shield and a club.

Also, since Mikelo's Job is High Priest, a common cleric-type Job, he can use the ordinary 【Healing Arts】 that I cannot. Furthermore, he worships Ifa-sama, the 'Goddess of Death and Chaos.' That means he can also use 【Soul Arts】, which I can use as well.

His style is to defend himself with two shields, attack with two clubs and his Evil Eyes, and recover from damage with 【Healing Arts】 and 【Soul Arts】. He is an armed cleric who heals himself while beating his enemies down.

Back when the two of them were traveling alone, Nenashi would disguise himself as a pelican, grab hold of the floating Mikelo, and flap his wings. Mikelo could float, but he couldn't move at high speed, while Nenashi could mimic a pelican but was incapable of flight.

However, Nenashi could generate thrust by flapping his wings while holding on to the floating Mikelo. They had managed to travel at a respectable speed that way, but it had also caused them to be swallowed by turbulence and swept into a storm, which carried them all the way to the Floating Island.

That was what the people of Sairu Village had witnessed: the two of them joined together. They had looked like a monster with Nenashi's disguised wings sprouting from Mikelo's round body.

These two are our new members. They're both incredibly distinctive, but there is no doubt that they are reliable companions. I eagerly look forward to their future exploits.

"It's a little late, but let's celebrate gaining two new companions! All right, let's hear some applause!"

"Welcome aboard!"

"I look forward to working with you!"

Jigoro and the others clapped as they offered their own words of welcome. Perhaps they were embarrassed, because the two newcomers scratched their heads with their tentacles and wings respectively.

After a while, as the applause became sporadic, the two returned to their original seats. Now, on to the next matter.

"The other thing we're celebrating, of course, is that Iris and Shiitake's items each won an award. More applause!"

"Ah, thank you very much."

"Yes, yes, do praise me to your heart's content!"

In contrast to the thoroughly embarrassed Iris, Shiitake puffed out her chest and basked in the praise. They were polar opposites, but both were close friends and first-rate crafting players. I hoped they would continue supporting our production efforts.

As a result of the exhibition, Iris placed fourth and Shiitake placed twenty-second. The Titles tied to their rankings are reflected in their Statuses, so the results must be official.

The rankings were wonderful, but what the two of them should be even prouder of was winning the special awards called the 'Highest Price Award' and the 'Idea Award.' Iris's 'Highest Price Award' was a Title granted to the creator of the item that sold for the highest price at auction.

The reason it sold for more than the work that placed first at the exhibition was that it used Dragon materials. The price immediately exceeded what players could afford, and apparently some great noble or member of the royal family eventually won the auction.

Shiitake's 'Idea Award' was given to the most groundbreaking work. Her submission, 'Samukowa-kun,' was an unprecedented item that dealt elemental damage and inflicted a status ailment at the same time. Apparently, it was purchased by a Beastman NPC adventurer famous throughout the continent of Luxresia.

"I'm very happy and proud as their companion that Iris and Shiitake's wonderful items were so highly evaluated. But these are not the limits of what the two of them can create."

Once Iris and the others had taken their seats, I spoke again.

"The continent of Timbrica, our destination, will provide us with even rarer materials, and the two of you will surely use them to create even better items. Countless obstacles are likely to stand in our way, but together, we will overcome them all! This long-winded preamble has gone on long enough... Let's go! To the unknown continent!"

"Yeah!"

◆◇◆◇◆◇

On the bridge of the battleship, Iris, Shiitake, and Towa, the Android, were operating the machinery. The other members watched their work with great interest, looking around and observing every movement they made.

Me? At present, I'm sprawled in the captain's chair. Not that I can't operate the machinery, but compared to those three, I'm much less adept. So I decided to leave it to the people with the right skills. Incidentally, Ruby had insisted on taking the helm.

"Connection terminated. Launch-bay lock disengaged."

"All systems green. Shiratsuki, we're ready to go~"

The women had gone ahead and named the battleship themselves. Apparently, when they asked the battleship's AI what to call it, it had replied, 'This vessel has no unique designation,' and they felt sorry for it. Since I had no reason to object, I, the ship's owner, gave my permission, and the naming was complete.

With Iris having released the lock, the walls of the dock began to open. At the same time, the floor beneath our Shiratsuki began to rotate, turning the bow toward the launch bay. A band of light also extended toward the launch bay, presumably serving as a guide beacon. We were meant to follow it outside.

Clear blue sky was visible through the launch bay. Since the dock was underground, we would presumably be leaving through a cliff on the side of the Floating Island. It felt just like a secret base. How cool!

"All right. Then... Floating Battleship Shiratsuki, launch!"

"Launching."

When Shiratsuki's AI repeated my command, the engine output rose, and Shiratsuki finally began to move. It lifted off from the ground, started moving forward slowly, and gradually accelerated.

We felt none of the strain caused by acceleration or the shaking one might experience on a roller coaster. This was one of Shiratsuki's built-in functions, and it also did an excellent job of suppressing impacts from being hit.

However, apparently, if the magical device maintaining this state were destroyed, everything would be transmitted directly to us, so we needed to be careful. It was located fairly close to the engine room, so perhaps we should assume that the ship would crash when it broke.

"Whoa! It really is flying! Amazing, amazing!"

"It really is~"

When Shiratsuki burst out of the launch bay, a clear blue sky stretched out before our eyes. We had taken flight into the vast sky, which seemed to stretch on forever.

Shiratsuki continued straight through the air. The name Floating Battleship was no exaggeration. There seemed to be no danger of an accident such as crashing because of a malfunction.

"Warning. A massive life-form detected at six o'clock."

"What?!"

"Displaying it on the monitor."

"Th-this is...?!"

Right after launching, a warning alarm rang through the ship, as though determined to ruin the start of our maiden voyage. We thought our newly built ship might already be entering its first battle, but the sight displayed by Shiratsuki left us speechless.

"Three pairs of wings... four horns... golden scales and a golden mane... No mistake. That's the Dragon God, Almardelx-sama!"

The image showed exactly the same figure as the relief of Almardelx-sama in the room where we had met him. That relief had been magnificent, but apparently it was far inferior to the real thing. Even through the monitor, the divinity and grandeur radiating from him conveyed a presence worthy of the name Dragon God.

We had already said a brief goodbye to them. Perhaps he had come to see us off? I wanted to believe that was the case, but his presence was so overwhelmingly forceful that I couldn't help worrying he might attack us.

"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!"

Almardelx-sama looked in our direction and roared. The tremendous sound resonated deep in our bellies, and it almost felt as though the battleship itself were creaking from the roar alone.

"Huh? Our speed is increasing!"

"Seriously? But the engine's output is normal, isn't it?"

Despite their surprise at Almardelx-sama's appearance, Iris and Shiitake still checked the instruments on the bridge. They were visibly confused. Our speed had increased immediately after that roar, even though the output had not risen... I see. So that's what was going on.

"Now that's one hell of a send-off. Right, brother?"

"Yeah. It really is."

Looking closely at Shiratsuki's monitor, we could see countless small shadows flying around Almardelx-sama's feet. They had to be the Dragonnewts and Dragon Puppies living in 'Dragon's Clearing.' There was no doubt that they had come to see us off.

And Almardelx-sama's roar must have applied some kind of enhancement to the ship. That would explain everything.

"So it was a surprise, then? Dragon God-sama really does go too far with his pranks."

This flashy spectacle, which we had not been told about beforehand, was clearly meant to surprise us. The one who came up with it was probably Almardelx-sama himself. He looked calm and dignified on the monitor, but I knew him well from spending time with Karu every day. I could see it in his eyes—he was smiling!

As they saw us off in grand fashion, we continued toward our destination. The stage for our next adventure was waiting for us!