The first shipment from the Dark Fortress had arrived. To preserve the meat during the trip it was encased in ice blocks. The spiders hauled large cubical parcels inside the cold underground storage. The meat will mostly be consumed by local Lamia and their young, but also some of it will be shipped to the Aurelian Kingdom.
The icy blocks weren’t the only things the spiders had brought. There were also bones, leather, barrels of plankton, and something round and very precious.
“Finally, I have my balls.” The Spider King looked with excitement at two large spheres. “That should give me the strength I need.”
He injected a small amount of mana into IceShard Bird Core and the large sphere floated up hovering just above the ground. He did much the same to the other one. The otherwise heavy cores now felt weightless, and he pushed the two of them effortlessly to the workshop.
The two joined a third, a much larger core.
“Three is a lucky number. That should do the trick.” He declared without any evidence to support that statement. He had to go on this arbitrary number because this was just an experiment.
“Okay spiders, let's get this done!” He encouraged the nearby spider crafters.
“Crafting!” The spiders chirped in giddy excitement.
Huge logs of IronOak were dragged into the workshop. The IronOak was notoriously hard to work with and it was only possible with the tools made from Glem. The metal of the tools was black and the tool itself often had oddly scary or otherwise menacing shape. It was of no surprise because they were made by Drow, just like spiders they had their own sense of aesthetics. The tools might have looked like torture implements but they were made to cut and shape the wood. Actually, it was surprising how well the tools worked since the Drow used to be Elves, Elves who would never harm a tree… In the end, the IronOak logs were cut and processed into thick planks.
On the side, mages worked on a Corrundum framework. The metal was bent and shaped to web around inside the IronOak frame. It had to be done so that the magic could flow freely. The structure was beginning to shape up. Two cores were nested at the back and the Supermassive core at the front. There at the back, in a cabin-like room, everything was connected to a control table. The large structure was further divided into rooms of various sizes.
So, what was this structure? It didn’t have masts for sails, but still, it was a ship.
“Or is this a plane?” The Spider King wondered for a moment. “No.” He ruled that option out. “Sky Ship.” This was a flying ship, but the name sounded boring. “Hmm… Sky Whale.” He shook his head again. “Galleon Whale. Yeah, that will do.”
And so, the flying ship was named Galleon Whale. Since it had no mast for sails or even wings, the name seemed fitting. The ship was roughly 200 feet long (60 metres), bigger than your average IceShard Bird but smaller than its supermassive variant. So in other words, it was rather massive.
The name was made, but there was another important thing to do. “A maiden voyage! Everyone aboard the ship.”
The spider crafters and the spider mages climbed aboard. The King put his hand on the control table and poured the mana in. The ship floated off the ground. It didn’t wobble or turn upside down; everything was good and stable.
“Ups, I’ve almost forgotten.” Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to build something like that indoors, but it was a bit late for such realisations. “Open the roof!” At least, they did plan this out to some extent.
A bunch of spiders jumped out to use a nearby crank lever to shift the roof canvas open. The ship floated up towards the ceiling hole and the spiders jumped back on the slowly floating ship from the ceiling. Everyone was back aboard, good!
“Up, up we go.” He directed the ship higher. “Ok, now’s the real challenge. Straight.” He pushed his mana into a different panel of the control table.
Galleon Whale began inching slowly forward.
“Faster!” He poured more mana in. “More! More!”
From up high it was hard to tell the real speed, and he had no devices to measure it. It was somewhat faster than a sprinting Centauri.
“I demand MORE!” He forced more mana in.
The ship flew faster, but it was no race boat. “I guess this is the limit.” But even then, something like 40 miles an hour was a decent speed. And now that it was at maximum velocity the mana consumption was negligible.
While the reckless King was enjoying himself a nearby spider was taking notes and doing calculations.
“King. We need to test. The manoeuvrability.”
“Ah, yes. I’m enjoying myself too much. There is it.” He looked at the control table.
The ship had no wings or rudder, and no moving parts, the movement was controlled by the three cores. And the cores were controlled with mana injections. So the table had different areas to push the mana in. The design allowed movements in all three directions (x, y, z). It was rather simple. He put his palm on a button-like surface and the ship began to turn. Much like IceShard Bird it wasn’t too nimble in the sky, but even if slow the movements were smooth.
He also needed to test the ‘pitch’ and ‘roll’ functionality. Those proved to be more challenging; at least for him. He turned the ship upside down, and the spiders being spiders managed to stick to the floor without falling off, but he had to hold tight on the table so as not to tumble down on the ceiling.
“Barrel roll. It works.” Spider chirped adding to its notes.
“Okay, let’s not do that again. This thing needs a chair and some safety belts.”
“Understood.”
“What other tests do we need to do?”
“Lift capacity test.”
He directed the ship back to spider warehouses. Regretfully so, the landing was not the smoothest, the ship moved with a lot of inertia, and it was as slow to stop as it was to accelerate. In the end, he smashed the ship into the warehouse building sending pieces of the warehouse wall flying.
“Ups… We’re here.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Aside from the collapsed wall of the warehouse, there were no big issues. The ship was made of IronOak and hence incredibly sturdy. He could probably crash it into the mountain, and it still would be fine.
The spiders loaded the hull of the ship full of TomGrape. No less than 1000 tones. A massive amount.
“I hope this works.” He poured the mana in.
The Galleon Whale moved with grace. It was heavier but not slower at all. The magic laws governing the working principles of the cores were interesting. And it made sense, after all, one of the cores belonged to Supermassive IceShard Bird.
“No surprises there. It could even be heavier.”
“Mana use?” The spider asked.
“Again, surprisingly no changes.” Full or empty the ship consumed the same amount.
“Interesting.” The spider made more notes.
They tested a few other things and landed the ship near the Palace. He was getting better at sailing, wait no, flying, and this time he didn’t crash the ship into the building.
Naturally, the flying object had attracted several curious observers.
“What is this-sss?” The Friendly Lamia asked with awe petting the white hull of a ship as if it was an animal.
“Galleon Whale. It’s a flying ship. We built it with spiders just today.”
“Sss…” She hissed. “Why?”
The question made him pause.
“Why?” He repeated. “Because I could. Didn’t you ever dream of flying?”
“No, sss, that sounds scary. And dangerous.”
The other lamias standing right behind her nodded in approval.
“I guess, flying is not for everyone…”
A spider messenger approached the King. “King, I’ve been running around. Trying to reach you.” It had a rolled and sealed parchment in its spidery hand. “But you were in the sky. This is for you.”
He took the parchment; it was sealed with a royal seal belonging to the Aurelian Kingdom.
“Most likely news about the war.” He guessed breaking the seal and unrolling the parchment.
===
Dear Master, my Monster King,
I, your humble servant lowly Aurelius the Great, extend to you the warmest greetings and heartfelt wishes for your continued dominance over the Monster Realm. As we had agreed the Aurelian Kingdom is now officially a full part of your realm and you, my Master, are its rightful ruler. From now on I will rule the human parts of your realm as your loyal duke.
Hence, it is with great honour and immense pleasure that I write to invite you to a grand feast in celebration of your benevolent rule and my ascension to the status of the duke. The feast will be a magnificent affair, filled with delectable delicacies, enchanting music, and captivating entertainment. It is my sincere hope that you will grace us with your majestic presence, bestowing upon us the honour of your attendance.
The feast not only serves as an opportunity to pay tribute to your wise and just leadership but also as a testament to the unity and strength of the Monster Realm. It will be attended by distinguished guests from all corners of the Aurelian Kingdom, including re-educated lords, reformed merchants, and influential figures from the nearby villages and towns.
During this auspicious event, we shall present you with tokens of our unwavering loyalty and gratitude. These gifts, carefully chosen to reflect the richness of our land and the talents of our artisans, serve as a humble expression of our devotion to your reign.
Moreover, this feast offers a platform for you to address your subjects directly, sharing words of wisdom and inspiration that will resonate throughout the realm. Your presence will undoubtedly uplift the spirits of our citizens and reaffirm their faith in the vision you have set forth for our prosperous future.
To ensure your utmost comfort and security, I request that you bring your spiders with you. We have already prepared to accommodate at least ten thousand of your spiders. If your majesty desires, he can bring even more. Twenty thousand, thirty thousand… you can bring them all.
In anticipation of your gracious presence, I remain, with the utmost respect and admiration,
Yours faithfully,
Your loyal servant Duke Aurelius the Great.
===
“What is this…” He wanted to crumple and throw away the parchment. But then he realised that it was a human custom to do politics like this; in a roundabout and dishonest way. However, Duke Aurelius had a silver tongue and it didn’t look like the Monster King was in any position to refuse the invitation. If he did so, he would betray the expectations of the Aurelian people. Nor did he want to refuse it, just like any other person he liked feasts. Well maybe not in the war-torn countries, but whatever.
“It seems there is a feast to attend… Spider, draft a letter telling him that we will come.”
But, thirty thousand spiders, where did he even get that number? Anyway, there were some preparations to make.
“Friendly Lamia, can you run up to the Queen and inform her of this.”
“Yes-sss.” She slithered away in an urgent manner followed by other lamias.
“Now, it says the feast is in my honour, so should I bring gifts or not?”
“The King Aurelius. Is becoming Duke Aurelius.”
“Ah, I hear you spider, but that sounds like demotion. It’s not something normally celebrated.” He scratched his chin in thought. “No, it would be rude to come empty-handed. We’ll exchange the gifts.” He thought about what the Duke Aurelius might like. “Scrolls! I’ll gift him a bunch of scrolls.”
Speaking of which, the Darkness Spider, thanks to the Dark Spirit Stones, had reached another breakthrough in making the scrolls stronger. The new Dark Scrolls were on the powerful side, more precisely highly destructive, but since the Aurelian Kingdom was now officially a part of the Monster Realm, entrusting Duke Aurelius with such power seemed appropriate. It would show that he trusted the duke and it would also give the duke power to defend his lands.
“But Aurelian Kingdom… does this mean it becomes Aurelian Duchy? Ah!” He waved a hand dismissively. “The name doesn’t matter.” Humans could name their lands however they wanted.
…
The Lamia Queen insisted on taking all her Lamia subjects to the Aurelian Kingdom. Something must have struck a chord when Duke Aurelius didn’t invite any Lamia, an honest mistake on his part, or she just wanted to show her Lamia off.
“How about the Lamia babies? Their still little.”
“We’ll leave sss-some bugs around, sss, they’ll be fine.”
The Lamia hatchlings were growing at a surprisingly fast speed due to the peculiarity of the magical world or their monster race. Regardless, they were far from adults, not even teens yet.
He had to reason. “They are surprisingly independent. But we should leave at least some spider minders.”
“As long as I get to take, sss, all of my warriors and sss-servants.” She nodded.
Well, that was out of the way.
“If you're taking all the Lamia, it would be rude not to take Centauri.”
“You want to take them, take them.” She shrugged.
It seems that everyone in MegaFarm was going. Obviously, the ship didn’t have that capacity. Not even a hundred ships would. Most of them will be tracking on foot, but with the highway towards Aurelian Kingdom paved and completed that won’t be much of an issue.
“I’ll be flying there, want to join me?” He asked for what must be a fourth time.
“To fly in that thing, sss, no!” She trembled.
Apparently, all Lamia were terrified of flying.
“It's not that scary. And it's safe now, we’ve put seats and safety belts.” He was proud of that improvement.
“I saw you crashing that thing again, sss.” She shivered looking in the vague direction of a meteorite-like crater. “No is no. We’ll meet in the Aurelian Capital.”
This meant that he would arrive way before his wife. But if she was fine with that, so he was.
“Okay then, I’ve finished my preparations, I’ll be leaving now then.”
“Sss-see you there.” She kissed him goodbye.
While on the way to the Galleon Whale, his attention was grabbed by the vigorous trotting. He turned around to see the smiling face of the Centauri Champion.
“My King, I’ve heard someone vacated their seat in your ship.” She said so while prancing in place giddily.
It was obvious what she wanted.
“Yeah, my wife won't be coming. And yes, you can take her seat.”
“Really?!” She was kicking her rear feet now.
“Yeah, why not.”
She launched herself for a hug, but he dodged that feeling threatened by her soft weapons. For some reason, he was now thinking about Cream Cheese.
The Centauri collected herself and didn’t attempt to grab him for a second time.
“Sorry, I’ve got too excited.” She smiled.
He replied with a smile of his own. “I’m glad someone is excited about flying just like me.” The spiders so far were very neutral to the whole affair of flying.
“I’m just happy to fly at your side.”
“Come then, let's get you strapped in.” He led her towards the ship.
A horn was blown signifying the lift off of the Galleon Whale. The ivory-white ship slowly lifted towards the sky. Nearby spiders and lamias were waving their hands seeing the ship off. Even if the Spider King couldn't see it, the Lamia Queen was also waving at the ship.
“Travel sss-safe my brave husband.” She said so with confidence knowing that a piece of her was wrapped around his chest. “My good luck charm will protect you.” She saw the ship disappear in the distance. “Now, we too must leave. To the Centauri Express!” She urged her subjects.