Just when I thought the ship was close to completion, I realized that I had forgotten the armaments which could be said to be indispensable in this world.
「The main point is that these aquatic monsters are strong at Water magic, right? Undine launched a Sea Dragon out of the water and Sylph finished it off some time ago though.」
「True, but the Fire attribute is unreasonable at sea and Earth attribute would also be difficult. Many of the aquatic monsters are weak to the Lightning attribute, but in any case, there are few magic effective against underwater monsters.」
Undine also thought that it was difficult.
「Wouldn’t it better to strengthen our defenses rather than offense like this?」
「Through barriers?」
I nodded to Laeva’s question.
「A device that forms a barrier in an emergency might be essential.」
If we’re talking about an underwater attack, then a torpedo? It’s risky to limit the attacks to only be underwater though. Then again, currently the chances of anti-surface battles are low, or rather the possibility has eternally been zero. After all, there shouldn’t be any battleships that exist, aside from the one I’m building.
「……if it’s Dark attribute magic then the water’s influence would be minute.」
The Great Dark Spirit Nyx informed me in a whisper.
「I see, Dark attribute magic might be possible.」
「Also, while its power lowers a little, the influence of water is less on attributeless magic.」
Undine informed me that attributeless magic isn’t affected by water very much. Though when she mentioned attributeless magic, I’ve only ever used it for Shield and the like so I didn’t know how I would go about it.
The result of the discussion was that we basically focused on defense and would try various of armaments. The first equipment is the 【Dark Cannon】, a cannon-shaped magic device that shoots an enhanced Dark Lance, installed on the deck of the ship. We similarly installed an attributeless 【Mana Cannon】 on the bow.
I installed a device that would generate a barrier that focuses on the bilge, but Golan-san is confident with the strength of the ship’s hull and said “it could stop even a Sea Dragon’s attack”.
「「Full speed ahead!」」
「「Full speed ahead nya!」」
In the pilothouse, the Catkin siblings Wappa and Sara threw their right hand out and shouted. The Cat Sith sisters Miri and Lala similarly exclaimed. Additionally, the Human sisters Shirona and Colette, Elves Melty and her daughters’ eyes were sparkled at the exciting scenery on the bridge.
The Magic Turbine which receives power from a gigantic magic crystal began running.
This ship uses several enormous magic crystals. These 1 meter magic crystals were something I synthesized with alchemy. Two to power the Magic Turbine, one for the armaments, one for the barrier, and one for the facilities. To synthesize a total of five magic crystals, our entire party went hunting in the small monster nests surrounding the Sanctuary solely to gather magic stones.
In the port built with Gnome’s help, the moored largest ship in this world had set sail.
Reaching the open ocean, the ship gradually increased its speed as it headed south.
「Umu, even with the waves of the open ocean, the swaying is practically suppressed. It’s well done.」
「Yeah. Even if a storm comes, the surrounding waves will be negated by the barrier.」
On the bridge with his thick arms folded, a satisfied smile appeared on Golan-san’s face. As one of the people in charge of this ship’s construction, he said that it was his duty to accompany the ship on its maiden voyage.
「Takumi, let’s increase the speed and check the power consumption.」
「Roger.」
I increased the output of the Magic Turbine, raising the speed.
Passing 10 knots (approx. 18.5km/h), 20 knots (approx 37.0km/h), 30 knots (approx. 55.6km/h), the ship cruised at speeds close to 40 knots (approx. 74.1km/h). As I praised myself internally for this gigantic ship being able to cruise at 40 knots, I examined the power consumption.
「The amount consumed by 40 knots is a lot. Decreasing to 30 knots. At a cruising speed of 30 knots, the magic power consumed and the magic power saved by the Magic Collector are equal.」
「Fumu, we need to verify whether the Magic Turbine’s consumption is good, or if the Magic Collector’s performance is good.」
Although the magic power from the enormous magic crystals powers everything in the ship, we introduced a system that replenishes the power of the magic crystal by collecting the mana in the atmosphere. It looks like the power absorption and consumption of 30 knot cruising speeds balance out. 30 knots on water is quite fast.
It can’t drive automatically, so Golan-san and I alternate taking the wheel as we head south of the continent. Really, it would be great if it had an autonomous thought computer like the ship that a certain space pirate rode in. Well, that one was more like a 【Friend】, though.
Still, it’s not like there’s absolutely no way to do it. Titan is a special existence, so something of that extent is impossible, but with the use of a golem core, a ship capable of listening to simple commands might be possible.
「I wonder if it would be okay if we make improvements on the ship, as well as the equipment, bit by bit.」
「Yeah, a ship of this sort is a first for me too. We’ll have to make improvements as well as fix problems.」
I was worried about monsters, but when a giant shark-like monster hurled itself at the ship and bit at it, it didn’t amount to anything against the barrier and the ship was undisturbed.
The ship cut through the waves, continuing in the dark waters once the sun had set.
Maybe from too much excitement, the kids were tired and already sleeping. Fluna-san accompanied us as the Mermaids’ negotiator, but she’s swimming in the large public bath right now. I imagine our members are relaxing on the sofa in the captain’s cabin at the stern tower. The only ones in the pilothouse on the bridge were Golan-san, Sophia, and me.
But this was too boring. I need to implement automatic driving as soon as possible.
***