Great Technical Skill
One end of the floating ship tilted sharply, and the whole vessel lost its balance, swaying in a perilous wobble.
It was a magnificent ship that radiated sheer majesty just to look at, its hundreds of gun barrels capable of grinding a mountain to dust. Beyond that, it housed countless functions, technologies, and systems I knew nothing about—and yet…
"Woooaaah!!"
—Stop! Stop this instant! What do you think you're doing?!
Truly, the flashier something is, the emptier it turns out to be underneath.
Leo, having seized a corner of the great ship's edge, was staring it down with gleaming eyes. Five ships, already bent to her will, orbited the vessel, each one wreathed in a different element.
Then Leo abandoned all five of them in a single breath and plunged straight into the great ship itself.
Rrrumble…!!
The moment she breached it, a surge of green wind rolled through the hull, and the tilt grew even worse. In an instant, the blue metal that had made up most of the floating ship turned green, slipping into Leo's domain.
That was the floating ship's greatest flaw.
"Wh-what…?"
"Its very foundation is built on absorption. It can't help but be vulnerable to intrusion."
"Wh-what?"
Golem Lover, utterly at a loss, turned to look at me, his face unable to grasp even the shape of what was happening.
I drew over one of the small ships drifting through the sky far away, then peeled back a sliver of its hull. Embedded within was a formula I knew well.
"Earlier, when Miss Leo was inspecting the ship, she shared its structure with me—and it turns out a rather special spell had been woven into it."
"…Oh."
"It's called the Adsorption Formula. What it does, in short, is absorb specific objects or forces."
Floating ships weren't manufactured through any advanced engineering—they were, quite literally, born of summoning magic. That was how the Magic Engineering Guild had been able to churn out so many ships in so little time, and it came with one enormous flaw.
Tap.
"It makes them incredibly easy for outside forces to erode."
As a single drop of divinity fell from my fingertip, the blue small ship transformed in an instant, blazing forth with pure white light. A ship that looked divine simply to behold.
"Of course, a ship growing stronger as it absorbs power is a good thing. Even a small ship becomes several times mightier than an ordinary one."
Just as Leo had once crafted a fast ship with the Wind Spirit King's power and blazed across an entire kingdom, this vessel, anointed with a single drop of my divinity, could outperform any ordinary small ship. Unlike a gun, there was no need to worry about durability, either—this floating ship carried no special restrictions, so it could unleash its full power freely. If anything, its durability would only climb higher.
"But if that applies to everyone, the story changes. Easy absorption means easy theft."
"…I get it, so stop that—"
"A floating ship doesn't choose whose power to accept and whose to refuse. It does have elemental resistance, mind you, but that's resistance to 'damage,' plain and simple."
Swoosh.
"If you 'transfer' power into it, anyone can hijack it with ease."
The great ship hung there, on the verge of plummeting.
"Ooh? The big one has a different structure from the small ones!"
—Stop this…
A third of the great ship had already been dyed green.
"Just like Miss Leo over there."
"I get it, s—"
"I get it already!"
Thud!
Something came charging through the air. Twin tails whipping at breakneck speed, the woman I'd seen earlier landed in front of me. Both hands were fitted with something like gauntlets, and a blade of blue mana rose from their upper surfaces.
"Please stop that right now! What do you think you're doing, Lily?!"
"That's right. Have you declared war on the Magic Engineering Guild?"
"You'll regret this."
Two more elders arrived behind her. One man, one woman. Their outfits were similar, but their weapons were entirely different.
"Where's Gunner?"
"Gunner is offli— Eek! Answer my questions or else!"
Ino-o, one of the elders, thrust the blue blade at me and glared, growling like a feisty puppy. Even in this moment, the great ship's altitude was sinking by degrees, and attacks seemed to be directed at Leo as well—but none of it amounted to much.
"You said you'd help us, and this is how you do it? Just because you're famous and a little strong, you think this is acceptable?"
"I never said I'd help you."
"Then what do you call what you're doing right now?"
At the sharpened question, I gestured to the pristine white small ship floating beside us.
"Floating ships have countless strengths, but their weakness is so enormous it swallows all of them."
"And?"
"I'll help you."
"?"
Absorption was the root of every floating ship. Because every part of them was produced through the Adsorption Formula, altering their form or structure was impossible unless you rebuilt them from scratch.
So I would shore up that weakness for them instead.
"I'll teach you a few magic formulas—countermeasures against erosion and wards against hijacking. The structure itself is excellent, so once we layer them on top, it won't take long at all."
"…You can actually do that?"
"Yes."
It was possible. I hadn't come here in advance to study the ships' structure and manufacturing process for nothing. My research into the formula was already complete, and I'd even run a full integration once—short of someone with magical knowledge on the level of a mid-rank demon, it could never be broken.
'And anyone stronger than that would have no reason to steal one in the first place.'
—Just die already! I said die!
"This really isn't working, we're down to thirty percent…"
—Aaaaagh!!
"…Let's deal with that first."
Leo's playtime ended there.
"Hmph."
Hmph. Hmph. Hmph.
Leo turned her head away, cheeks puffed out in a full sulk. She had managed to claim thirty-six percent of the floating ship, but its sheer size and labyrinthine structure made a complete takeover with her power alone impossible. Still, given the ship's nature, she could have taken the whole thing if only she'd had the time.
"But it was fun, right?"
"…Yeahaa."
"You can go rest now. Apparently you're allowed to ride the small ships some more."
Leo gave a listless nod, clumped her five ships together, and flew off somewhere. Now that she was fully a Nymph, having her favorite game forcibly cut short had left her terribly sulky. She was in a foul mood now, but once she logged out and returned to reality, she'd be kicking her blankets in delight over and over.
'Or maybe she's used to it by now?'
"Phew…"
"Thank you for your hard work…"
"Guildmaster!"
"Are you all right?!"
The great ship, nearly sent plummeting by Leo, had barely recovered its balance five hundred meters above the ground. Having safely anchored the vessel, the Guildmaster finished exchanging words with the elders and made his way over to me.
A man who seemed to have aged ten years in the span of ten minutes. The Guildmaster, Robus Offer, his impressive mustache twitching, studied me for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"…I truly thought we were about to lose the ship."
"Leo was rather excessive, I think. My apologies."
I bowed my head politely. Receiving my apology, Robus's mustache twitched harder still, as if he were swallowing his anger, before he gave up on it and changed the subject. Losing his temper at me would change nothing.
"You say you'll help us with the floating ships."
"As you can see, the ships' flaw is even bigger than you realize. If you take them into battle as they are, they'll fall into the sea before you even get to use their power."
"Our ships are hardly that we—"
"That's exactly the problem. That they're not weak."
If some villain were to hijack one of those ships, the cannons that had ground mountains to dust would turn their muzzles on villages—on the very cities where people lived. And in an even stronger state, at that.
"Defenses against hijacking are essential. A ship that can be stolen by anyone is worthless, wouldn't you agree?"
"…You have a way?"
"We need only add a few formulas. Since I can't work on every ship myself, I'll provide them in scroll form. And you won't need to do anything special to apply them—just keep doing what you've always done."
"As we've always done?"
"Yes. As you've always done."
The same way golems were crafted by simply tossing in a heap of ingredients—throw the scrolls in with the rest, and the enchantment would apply itself.
Robus nodded and rattled off a string of instructions to the elders standing beside him. They were the ones who contributed to building the ships.
"Everyone knows your name, Lil… Lily. I trust you wouldn't pull anything strange."
"Mm."
"Then, before we discuss payment, let's move somewhere more comfortable."
Robus, elders in tow, guided me up to the upper levels of the spire.
I arrived and took my seat at the long banquet table. The elders sat two to a side—minus Gunner—with Robus at the head, and me at the opposite end. It looked like an enormously long table, but whether its length was adjustable or not, the distance between Robus and me was not far at all.
"We've prepared dishes from rare, expensive ingredients, hard to find even in DeoEn. I do hope they please you."
"Thank you for your hospitality."
"Eat up, eat!"
"Thanks for the food~"
"Hey! Give me that one!"
Clink.
A brief meal unfolded, and just as the awkward atmosphere began to thaw—
Click.
Robus set down his fork.
"I suppose it's time we discussed payment."
"Mm."
I set down my utensils as well.
"There was a little friction earlier, but if you help us with the ships' security as you promised, we can supply you floating ships at a very generous price. If you wish, we can offer a discount of up to seventy percent—"
"Ninety-nine."
"I beg your pardon?"
The price of every floating ship.
"Let's lower it by ninety-nine percent."