CH186 Merumeru flies toy airships
Merumeru POV.
A certain slime girl decided to do her part in playing the role of Pestilence, horseman of the apocalypse. Professor Copperpot, Aqua and some of the gnomes lent her one of the toy airships that had some float stone built into it to give it some more range. The gnomes at the sky island improved upon the design to make it go a few knots faster.
“My cousins said that some of the islands off the coast have marshes and pigs.” Aqua explained to Merumeru. “You’ve done some two day trips before but going over the Jass kingdom might be dangerous. Are you sure about this?”
Merumeru, confident as ever agreed. “I can do it! We’ve already got all the swamps around the Jass kingdom that we know if and with the increased speed we can make it to the ocean without the sun setting. The gnomes said so.”
“What did she say?” Professor Copperpot asked the Nereid.
“She’s going to try to make it to the islands, stay the night then come back when the sun is up.” Aqua looked at the gnome. “There is another airship, you are small enough want to try it out?”
“I…uh…I’ll pass.” The gnome stammered. “I’m sure some of my kin have more appropriate classes for going exploring like this.”
“Suit yourself.” Aqua winked. “I’m sure they’ll come back with exciting tales like Merumeru will if she keeps doing this.”
“Stay safe Merumeru.” Professor Copperpot waved. “Avoid anything bigger than you and you should be fine.”
Merumeru smiled and waved to the pair.
She left the swamp grotto aboard the toy airship at dawn and headed southwest. The ticking of the clockwork mechanisms would give her away to any of the high level demons that were still setting up but she knew where the holdouts were and could avoid them by not going too far inland. With most of the kingdom of Jass being uninhabited and the roads not being used much for a kingdom of its size it wasn’t hard to navigate away from areas where the fire clan had set up shop. By twilight, Merumeru found the sea and used a map to find a big island that she could see from the sky. She didn’t want to risk going out on open water so Aqua and the Nereids picked this place because it was swampy and had pigs living on it.
The winds blew her off course because she approached with a side breeze. She had to circle back around and fly straight into the wind to get to a good spot to dump the cargo of mosquitoes. The hatch opened and dropped the payload into the muddy dirt.
*Squeeee* squealed a terrifying pig off in the distance. The beast charged at the low hovering toy airship.
Merumeru pulled the stick up to gain altitude and pressed the valve that would charge the pneumatics that closed the bombing door. Her ship ascended and the scary creature passed under her, squealing angrily.
“Boars are big and scary.” Merumeru said to no one. “The professor was right, better find a place they can’t get, hopefully they don’t come out at night.”
The night was spent on a rock surrounded by sea. Merumeru guessed correctly that the pigs were not wanting to swim out to get her. The next day she checked the airship, lit the candle, ascended to the sky and headed back towards the mainland by winding up the clockwork mechanisms and letting them whirl.
The darkness was complete and the sounds of waves lapping against the rock was all that Merumeru could hear. She didn’t sleep well and was happy to get up and move when the sun started to rise above the horizon. The airship lifted off the rock, and ticked away heading back to the northeast to where she started her journey from. After a day’s air travel Merumeru landed back in the swamp she started from the previous day, around the time to see the sunset. She vented the bags, slowly landed and popped out of the toy airship, her little stompy boots making a *thwomp* on the wet ground.
Even if the boar was scary, the brave slime girl still completed the mission successfully.
Aqua the nereid and Professor Copperpot waited at the landing site, expecting her to arrive.
“How was your trip?” Aqua helped Merumeru out of the airship on to the ground.
“It was fine.” Merumeru puffed up her little chest. “There was a big boar but I didn’t let it scare me!”
Aqua gave her a look that showed she wasn’t fooled.
“You are not even a combat class.” Aqua tapped her foot. “You don’t have to do dangerous things to level. As a plumber you can just make pipes or something.”
“Danger is the best place.” Merumeru defended. “I got lots of ideas for improvements for the pipes in the airship now. They need to be quicker!”
“She spread the virus far to the southwest.” Professor Copperpot used a skill that made a semi transparent map, it was tan with some red flashing areas. “There is another potential vector of transmission there. It is going to be all over the Jass kingdom when summer comes I predict and if we can get some more to the south, there too.”
“Where is the next good spot?” Merumeru asked. “I got some ideas for using compressed air to make take off and landing a little quicker.”
“What did she say?” Professor Copperpot didn’t speak elemental and had to ask Aqua to translate. Which she did.
“Going further south would be the next logical spot.” The gnome stated. “There is a chain of islands that goes into the ocean that the mountain made for the invasion when the demons first came here. The bugs can follow that back to the mainland where the demon queen’s portal is. I don’t know if there will be pigs that whole way but any other way involves days of going out over open ocean with no land in sight.”
After another night to rest and a day to make sure the airship was checked for being flight ready Merumeru took off for an even further away island with a fresh batch of insects in the bombing compartment. She modified the compressed air to come out at a few different places to help it turn, take off and land a little better. Using some iron and dissolving it and placing it in some places was all it took. Aqua and Professor Copperpot had a map that showed the coast and some promising places to find a swampy island with pigs.
After eating breakfast and finding out that Alex would still be gone for at least a week, Merumeru headed out, flying the same path but not landing at the same island for the night. She found a rock not too far off the southern kingdom’s coast. She then waited out the night and headed another day further south. She found one a bit closer to the kingdom’s borders but was the most promising one. At one time there must have been a fishing camp here because there were some ruins but nature had claimed everything. She bombed the swampy area with bugs and landed on the ruins of a stone house near the water to wait out the night. In the dark she heard some squeals but luckily her spot was hard enough to get to so that no swine could get to her.
The trip back took a day and another night of camping but she made it back to the swampy grotto without any trouble. Aqua and her odd gnome greeted her, but Alex still wasn’t back yet.