Chapter 48 - Setting Sail

The little oni was now a part of Mei's legendary item and could use it in the same manner as Mei.

When they weren't experimenting with different passive effects, they were working on determining which chants produced the best results for their spells and skills.

Soon enough, a week came and went.

Ymir arrived at the training grounds on the final day, just as they were finishing their practice and preparing to head to the weightlifting facility with Granessa to end the day.

“Your ship awaits at the harbor,” he said.

“Are we leaving now?” Adam asked.

“Up to you.”

“Let's go!” Mei cheered, immediately urging Adam forward.

“Sure…” he sighed.

Glancing up at the afternoon sun overhead, Adam couldn't help but imagine the comfortable, orc king-sized bed waiting for him back at their guest home.

Then again, maybe the ship they were traveling on would be something luxurious. Perhaps it would be like the cruise ships old people enjoyed back on Earth. He could relax on the deck, enjoy the ocean breeze, and finally get a proper night's sleep.

That was probably too much to hope for.

After leaving the training grounds, Mei happily trotted ahead, singing a tune to herself as she made her way toward the harbor and their long-awaited sea vessel.

Adam and Granessa followed a few steps behind. They weren't nearly as enthusiastic as Mei, but they were still looking forward to the next part of their journey.

“How's your training been going?” Adam asked Granessa.

While he and Mei had spent their time training magic under Ymir, Granessa had been focused on adapting to her immortal body. She had spent the past week carefully learning its limits through intensive combat training.

The orc woman released a heavy sigh of defeat.

“Nothing can kill me.”

Adam stared at her in confusion as she began counting off each method she had attempted.

“Decapitation doesn't work. My head can just be reattched. Burning doesn't work either. I experience the nonstop pain of my body melting, but I simply heal immediately afterwards. Acid was similar, except it reached my bones before I recovered. I can even eat the deadliest poison that should melt me from the inside out.”

She paused.

“Gave me really, really bad diarrhea.”

Adam stared at her with a horrified expression.

“Even combining all of those methods at the same time didn't work. Not to mention the various ways I had my subordinates hack me into pieces.”

Adam remained silent.

He regretted ever asking.

“Ah, but I'm not invincible,” Granessa continued, seemingly ignoring his reaction. “Every time I experience a ‘death,’ my body shuts down for an entire twenty-four hours. I can't move at all afterward. And no magic, not even Gramps', can restore me during that time.”

“I'm… sorry to hear that.”

Granessa nodded solemnly.

“It is what it is. Hopefully, the humans or one of the other races have a way to remove curses.”

“Ymir can't?”

Based on his limited knowledge of games and fantasy stories, Adam had always assumed shamans were usually experts when it came to curses.

“He can.”

Adam blinked.

“He can? Then why didn't he remove it…?”

“Gramps said it's a trial from the War Goddess and that I should learn something from it.”

“That's a classic trope,” Mei said, turning around to join their conversation.

She was still trotting ahead, only now she was moving backward while facing them.

Adam watched her for a moment.

It was surprisingly impressive that she could hop and skip backward without tripping, though knowing Mei, he probably shouldn't have been surprised.

Actually, Adam wouldn't doubt that Mei could perform an entire gymnastics routine in reverse through the streets while blindfolded, despite never having trained in gymnastics before.

That might have been a bit of a stretch, but regardless, Mei was simply that impressive. The idea didn't even sound impossible when it came to her.

The only things Adam had ever seen Mei fail at, aside from her disastrous attempts at cooking, were controlling her emotions when she learned her parents might have died during a dungeon outbreak.

Back then, she wasn't nearly as overpowered as she was now, but she was still incredibly impressive. After all, she had never lost at anything.

Martial arts?

She held multiple world records across every major martial arts discipline and countless minor ones.

Shooting competitions?

She had an astounding 99.99% accuracy rating, along with undefeated records for most shots on target and the longest officially recorded bullseye streak. She would have achieved a perfect 100% accuracy rating if a bird hadn't flown in front of one of her targets.

She intentionally missed to avoid killing it.

Video game tournaments?

She had never actually entered any official competitions, but there were countless rumors online about a player known as “Mei-u-Rest-in-Peace” who was undefeated in every game they had ever played. Their mechanical skill was supposedly beyond even the greatest players in history.

Better even than “Pretender.”

Everything Mei did, she did perfectly.

However, saying it that simply would undermine all the effort she had put in to reach that point.

Perfection hadn't come naturally.

Years of brutal practice and relentless determination were what led to her achievements.

Her father had taught her martial arts through training sessions that even most grown men would have struggled to survive. He had also taught her weapons training, ensuring that she would always have the ability to protect herself.

Though…

Video games were a different story.

Those were simply a natural talent.

All that being said, Adam had never seen Mei cry the way she did when she learned about the dungeon break that swept through all of Japan and led to her parents' almost certain demise.

Seven dungeons had broken out that day.

One of them had appeared directly above her parents' home beneath Mt. Fuji. The entire city had been declared lost, with only those living on the outskirts managing to escape.

Adam sighed, lost in thought, until they finally reached the harbor.

The walls surrounding the orc city suddenly opened, revealing a long stretch of beautiful blue ocean dotted with small fishing boats.

Large orc fishermen moved between them, effortlessly hauling up nets overflowing with fish that looked like they weighed several hundred pounds. Each fisherman handled the massive catches alone, as if they were nothing more than ordinary bags.

Adam glanced around at the ships docked along the harbor.

They came in all shapes and sizes.

There were small rowboats meant for a single orc, as well as massive galleons that looked like they had been pulled straight from the set of a History Channel documentary.

The sight was completely different from anything Adam had expected.

“Wow!” Mei exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she looked around. “Are we taking one of those big ones?!”

“Hm?”

Granessa glanced toward the galleons Mei was referring to and shook her head.

“No.”

“Oh…” Mei sighed. “Then one of the smaller ones?”

Granessa shook her head again.

“Nope. We're taking that one.”

She pointed beyond the fishing boats scattered across the horizon, deep into the open sea.

Far away, a massive black shape blotted out the sunlight over a large stretch of ocean.

Adam and Mei both stared in that direction, but they couldn't make out anything clearly. The reflection of the sun across the waves distorted their vision, making the distant object appear like nothing more than a strange shadow.

“Coat your eyes in mana,” Granessa explained.

“Oh.”

They both nodded and followed her instructions.

As mana covered their eyes, the blinding reflections faded away. Their vision sharpened, stretching farther than it should have been possible, almost like they were looking through a pair of binoculars.

What they saw beyond the horizon was something neither of them could have imagined, even in their wildest dreams.

A colossal ship floated upon the waves, anchored in place by four enormous chains that disappeared deep into the ocean below.

At its bow sat the skull of some unidentified sea creature, a beast that must have rivaled or even dwarfed a leviathan when it was alive. The rest of its skeletal structure formed the foundation of the impossibly large vessel, with massive wooden panels filling the gaps between the bones.

The wood itself wasn't made from ordinary planks.

Each section appeared to be carved from entire logs of ancient trees.

The sails stretched so wide that they blocked out the sunlight across several miles around the vessel, making it appear as though the ship sailed within an endless night.

As if darkness itself followed wherever it traveled.

“Titan's Grave,” Granessa introduced.

Her voice carried a hint of pride.

“It's our largest war vessel, created from the remains of a Mythic Sea Titan personally slain by Gramps. After fifteen years of construction, it was finally completed this morning.”

Adam's jaw dropped.

The ship was so massive that it looked less like a vessel and more like a floating city. It was large enough to house an entire metropolitan population.

“That's the ship we're taking?!”

Even Mei looked genuinely stunned.

“What’s the crew size?” she asked. “Tens of thousands?”

“No. Our main navy already set sail for the human kingdom last month, so it's only being operated by a skeleton crew of around five thousand men.”

“Five thousand is the skeleton crew?!” Adam shouted.

He stared at the enormous ship in disbelief.

“Even Earth's aircraft carriers only hold around that many people!”

“Technically, I think some aircraft carriers can house closer to ten thousand people,” Mei corrected. “Though maybe a little less depending on the ship. Cruise ships can probably hold even more.”

Granessa nodded.

“The maximum crew capacity of Titan's Grave is fifty thousand.”

Neither Adam nor Mei knew how to respond.

The number was beyond staggering.

Fifty thousand people.

On a single ship.

Adam had seen fantasy worlds with ridiculous things before, but this was on an entirely different level. This wasn't just a ship. It was a moving fortress that happened to float across ocean waves.