Floor 31: The Whale Hunt (1)

The message from the Tower had said mountain, but the scenery stretched before me came far closer to a colossal mountain range.

From the far edge of my left vision to the far edge of my right, sheer, carved peaks rose in an unbroken line, one after another, without end.

The Tower would hardly have misnamed it — which meant the people of this world called this enormous mountain range simply a mountain.

Between the peaks, thin wisps of cloud like pale mist drifted by at a rapid pace.

I recalled the Tower's message once more.

As always, my trial was different from everyone else's. It didn't match what Ha Heijeong had told me.

The words airship and Sky Whale were unfamiliar ones.

What would they look like?

I'd tried to shrug it off — well, it was the Tower of Trials, after all — but a flicker of curiosity stirred in me all the same.

Well, I'd find out soon enough.

Then again — drive out the whales, as commander of the hunting unit?

It wasn't a strange phrase, exactly, but something about it nagged at me.

As I understood it, subjugation meant capturing something and destroying it.

Yet the message that followed hadn't told me to subjugate the whales. It had told me to drive them out.

Which meant, in other words, that two choices existed.

I could simply kill the Sky Whales and be done with it — or spare them and send them somewhere else.

Naturally, the hunting unit would want to kill the Sky Whales.

If I had to guess, driving the whales out alive was probably the hidden mission.

The problem was that the Tower had dropped a hint obvious enough for anyone to think of it.

Which meant that driving them out alive had to be that much harder…

This was a trial with a whole week allotted to it — an unusually long window to catch my breath.

Somehow, I doubted it would come easy.

Well — I still didn't know the details of the trial, so speculating ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠further was pointless.

The rest I'd have to ask the hunting unit themselves.

There was a small makeshift camp halfway up the mountainside. Hunting unit members bustled about all around it.

Every one of them carried a personal weapon, and slung over their shoulders was some kind of strange contraption — odd-looking things.

Near the camp, I could also see machines that resembled automobiles.

Some kind of steampunk world?

Though if so, it struck me as strange that they hauled cold weapons around too…

Just as I was about to grab someone and ask about the current situation, a hunting unit member came sprinting from the far end, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Commander! Commander!"

He'd run so frantically that when he skidded to a stop in front of me, he had to stop and catch his breath, hard.

An incident already, the moment I'd been summoned. I needed to focus.

"What is it?"

"We lost a scout squad! Those damned whale protectors! The elf bastards ambushed them!"

Whale protectors? Elves?

Another thread of the 31st floor was unraveling right before my eyes.

Elves attacking the hunting unit. I had a feeling the true enemy of the 31st floor would be the elves, not the whales.

I couldn't just stand around, so I hurriedly grabbed my axe.

"Where?"

"Toward the twelfth peak… but we're already too late. Their return was so overdue we sent out an advance party — all they found were the bodies."

"Have the elves already fled?"

"Yes. As always, they carved the sigil of the Sky Sea into the foreheads of the dead and left it at that."

"The sigil of the Sky Sea?"

"The symbol of the god they worship, Commander. The sigil of the Swimming Sky Sea."

The man looked up at me with a puzzled expression — one that plainly read, Is this guy insane? Why is he suddenly asking such an obvious question?

God, this unhelpful Tower.

It stuck me with the role of unit commander and then left so much unexplained. I quickly changed the subject.

"What's being done with the bodies?"

"The men are handling them now. Funeral arrangements are underway as well."

"Good work."

"This makes how many now? The men's morale is hanging by a thread. What are your orders?"

The hunting unit member asked, probing me.

He held command authority, yet looked to me for judgment — he was clearly no ordinary soldier.

Then again, what should I do?

I knew nothing of the situation here, so I turned the problem over for a moment. Scout squads had already been wiped out more than once…

"Hmm. For now, let's double the size of the scout squads."

"That'll mean cutting into the men's rest hours… but there's no help for it. It will be done."

"Vice Commander! Funeral preparations are finished! They just need your confirmation."

Right on cue, another member of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the unit came over and reported.

Vice Commander, huh. So he really wasn't just a rank-and-file soldier after all.

The vice commander nodded.

"Good work. Commander, we'll head over first. Gathering and preparing the bodies will take a while, so come to the central barracks in about thirty minutes."

"Understood. Thank you."

The vice commander saluted and withdrew.

I still hadn't gotten a proper grasp of this world's customs or the present situation.

My first instinct had been to grab any random hunting unit member and start asking questions…

But the look the vice commander had given me earlier kept nagging at me.

He hadn't been obvious about it, but I could feel the distrust radiating off him — aimed squarely at me.

The relationship between the hunting unit and me was apparently not a good one.

Hm. Best if I try to find things out on my own, then.

They'd thrown me here out of nowhere, which meant there could be something waiting for me.

Say, the official subjugation orders, or reports submitted to higher command…

Yes. First, I needed to find the barracks.

If things weren't explained there either, then I could ask the unit members.

It would be a little awkward, sure, but nothing to be done about it.

Thankfully, in the barracks I found the hunting journal kept by the unit commander before me.

The situation as recorded in the journal went like this.

First of all, the unit commander had not originally been the one to lead these hunting unit members.

He was a parachute appointment — a commander installed by the kingdom's regular army, dropped in from above.

Moreover, the hunting unit members had already been stationed here for some time; the commander had arrived quite a while after them.

Which apparently caused a fair bit of friction in running the unit.

Well, sending the men ahead and shipping in the commander afterward had the unmistakable smell of someone being handed an easy chance to pad his service record.

Naturally, the hunting unit members would resent their commander.

And hunting the Sky Whales, it turned out, wasn't especially difficult.

According to the journal, they could be taken down easily enough with a weapon called a harpoon gun.

Yet even though a full week had passed since the commander — since I — arrived here, the whale hunt had crawled along at a snail's pace.

The reason was that the elves, the whale protectors, kept interfering with the subjugation.

From that brief line scribbled in the journal, I learned that this world had at least two gods.

The elves' god was the Sky Sea; the humans' god was the Ceaseless Hearth.

The Ceaseless Hearth, judging by the name, was probably a god of smithing or machinery.

They did have airships, guns, automobiles, after all.

And the Sky Whales were surely sacred animals revered by the Church of the Sky Sea.

Probably something like cows in India, I figured.

Even if I wanted to drive the whales out alive, the elves are the problem…

Dogmatic zealots who wouldn't hear a single word of dialogue.

They were recognized as legitimate inhabitants of this world, but the moment the subject turned to the Sky Whales, their eyes rolled back, apparently.

The moment word spread that a hunting unit had been formed, the elites among the local elves had come swarming to this mountain.

So where do I even start?

I was reluctant to barge in and try to talk with the elves right away.

For one thing, the odds they'd listen to me were slim.

For another, the eyes of unit members who had already lost comrades wouldn't exactly be warm.

And even if the elves did hear me out…

Knowing so little about this world, I had no alternative to offer about where to send the whales.

Worse, the Tower's message had already said the whales were creatures who'd lost their home to overdevelopment.

Shipping them through a portal to some shelter-like world was not something the elves would ever accept.

There are three ways this can go.

First: quietly give up on the hidden mission altogether.

Deal with the elves, then kill the Sky Whales. Simple as that.

Since I couldn't even be sure driving the whales out alive was the hidden mission, this was honestly the easiest path right now.

Second: sneak the Sky Whales through a portal to a shelter, behind the elves' backs.

The message had only said to drive the whales out. As long as I got them off this mountain somehow, the condition was met.

It would be a hassle, sure — but the upside was I might complete a hidden mission I didn't even know existed.

Or, failing that, somehow talk sense into the elves who supposedly won't listen to a word…

I was a little skeptical of that last option.

Well, I wouldn't know until I actually met an elf…

But if this could be resolved with a simple talking-to, it wouldn't be a trial worthy of the 31st floor.

Just then, a hunting unit member opened the barracks door and stepped inside.

"Commander. They say the funeral preparations are complete."

Despite being an entirely different world, the funeral for the fallen scout squad members proceeded in a familiar way.

They'd built a great hearth — the kind you'd expect to find in a blacksmith's forge — and placed the bodies inside it to burn. Not unlike cremation back on Earth.

And just as the bodies blazed in full within the hearth, a long, low cry came rolling in from the distant sky.

"Uuuooooh—"

A majestic, bellowing cry, like something out of a monster movie.

"It's a Sky Whale!"

The hunting unit members leapt from their places in a hurry.

Apparently there was a manual for exactly this kind of situation, because the vice commander issued orders with lightning speed.

"All members, Squads One through Five — grab your harpoon guns!"

"Yes, Vice Commander!"

"Squads Six and Seven, prepare the whale-lure incense! Squads Eight, Nine, and Ten, take positions outside the perimeter! Keep a sharp watch — the elves may be coming!"

At the vice commander's orders, the members moved swiftly.

Hm… it kind of felt like I was being frozen out.

A parachute commander — couldn't be helped, I supposed.

Instead of following the men, I turned my gaze toward the source of the cry.

Seven o'clock. Above the towering peak in that direction, past a thin veil of mist, an enormous shape flickered.

The moment I laid eyes on the Sky Whale's form, my plan to move them through a portal evaporated.

I hadn't thought about the sheer size of these things.

The portal I could create was maybe three meters across.

There was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no way I could make one big enough for a whale the size of a house to pass through.

In the meantime, hunting unit members came swarming over with bizarre iron contraptions.

"Squads Six and Seven! Spread the lure ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠incense into the air! All units, assemble harpoon guns!"

"Assemble harpoon guns!"

That's supposed to be a harpoongun?

The harpoons stacked up by the hundreds were the size of a grown man. Naturally, the parts that fired them were even bigger.

Harpoon cannon would be closer to the truth.

Even as I puzzled over it, the clatter-clatter of metal parts locking together rang out. In under thirty seconds, ten harpoon guns stood arrayed across the ground. They looked like self-propelled artillery with short barrels.

"Power up the harpoon guns!"

"Powering up!"

The call-and-response continued as the unit members cranked the levers beside each harpoon gun for all they were worth.

At once, a clamorous engine roar began to pour from the weapons.

"Uuuuooong—!"

Another cry. Before anyone realized it, the Sky Whale had punched through the mist and revealed itself.

A truly massive body, as if gliding through the open sea, rippled and rolled like a wave.

Before that dreamlike spectacle, what rose in me wasn't wonder so much as awe.

I felt like I finally understood why the elves worshipped the Sky Whale as sacred.

But whatever my feelings, the hunting unit members were all business, their mood taut and grim.

"Projected target coordinates! 783-456-234! Firing in fifteen seconds!"

"783-456-234! Firing in fifteen seconds!"

With a shriek of grinding metal, the harpoon guns swiveled, realigning their aim.

Only seconds remained until firing.

Silence hung among the focused unit members.

I haven't even decided whether to kill the whales or spare them…

The situation was slipping forward without any regard for my intentions, and I felt caught between a rock and a hard place.

Not that I could stop the hunting unit members now.

I was the parachute commander, after all. Never mind whether they'd even obey my orders — if things soured and I ended up at odds with the whole unit, that would be the real problem.

I had no idea how many Sky Whales there were…

And for someone who couldn't fly through the sky, hunting down every last one of those whales without those harpoon guns looked like an impossible ask.

And then, shattering the silence, a gunshot cracked from the far end of the barracks.

"The elves!"

The shout of a hunting unit member, voice raised with everything he had, carried from the edge of the camp.

Every unit member's eyes swung toward the vice commander. He deliberated for a moment, then spat out a curse.

"Damn it! All units, hold fire on the harpoon guns! Grab your personal weapons and sidearms — we're moving to reinforce!"