Chapter 707
Chapter 707
Davey returned to Earth, bringing along Aeria and Perserque. And since he couldn't have the golems manage the massive airship by themselves, he also brought others to help operate it. As a result, Tiara, who had inadvertently become the ship's captain, and technical advisor Edison took command. The dwarves from the Yellowstone tribe, who had constructed the ship, were also aboard. There were ten of them, which was sufficient for the expedition’s needs.
It so happened that they returned to Earth at a bad time. The airship hovered high above Hyun-Ah’s house, providing a broad view of the city below. As they activated the airship's magic detection artifact for an initial test run, it detected a large wave of mana, which Davey believed to be similar to when Meses had appeared.
"Tiara, can you enlarge that?" Davey asked.
She then puffed out her chest with confidence and started the equipment that printed out the wavelengths like a 3D printer. Shortly after, a mountain-shaped pattern appeared, showing something moving quickly within it.
“There are monsters,” Tiara said.
“Monsters, huh?” Davey muttered.
Perserque, who was next to him, frowned. “Why did monsters appear in this peaceful place?”
“Peace is an illusion. The humans here are monsters,” Davey replied, noting that Earth, much like Tionis, wasn't free from threats.Either way, that didn’t change the fact that there were monsters on Earth.
“Isn’t this a serious situation? It’s definitely coming this way. And we’re right over the city!” Oxygen exclaimed urgently.
Davey turned to Tiara. “The thing I tested before, do we still have it?”
“I’ve equipped it after reinforcing it. Would you like to test it?” Tiara replied as she swept her red hair back and smiled charmingly.
“Let’s do it. Lower the altitude,” Davey instructed.
Tiara’s eyes gleamed with excitement as she pulled the lever next to her. “It might get a bit shaky!”
Thud, thud, thud!!
The massive airship began to descend, turning roughly. It wasn’t moving as fast as one would think, but it was still quite fast for an airship. Aeria instinctively grabbed onto Davey’s arm, seemingly afraid of the airship that had begun to move violently.
Davey found her fluttering ears to be so endearing that he couldn't help but pat her head, and his gesture seemed to surprise and comfort her at the same time.
“Okay, then,” Davey murmured as they approached their target.
Once Tiara had lowered the airship to a position where the monsters were within their range, she pressed the button.
Clank!
A deafening noise filled the air as an enormous energy beam shot out from the airship, targeting the monsters below.
The sudden appearance of an unknown airship was a shock to the humans, but for the monsters, it was the beginning of a disaster.
***
Chaos erupted across Korea. The appearance of a massive, mysterious airship caused widespread panic. It looked like something straight out of a movie or a novel, given its design, which was anything but modern.
On top of that, it had appeared out of the blue!
Knowing that crises like this involved monsters, the president worried that the airship might be the hostile forces’ new means of airstrike. While the monsters themselves might not be intelligent beings, the Malicious Spirit commanding them was. In other words, humans weren’t hunting down monsters—they were at war with them.
The president was tensed up all this time for what was going to happen. But then, the airship launched a beam of light at the monsters, and since they didn’t have the resistance to modern firearms, they all evaporated and disintegrated into nothing in an instant.
As an engineering school graduate, the president couldn’t understand what just happened. He knew that beams of light could be created by irradiating high-heat energy, but generating such an immense mass and impact seemed virtually impossible, given the current technology. But this random airship had done it and had even devastated the terrain as well.
With a nervous mind, the president had given orders to his airmen to be ready for combat in case the monsters weren’t the airship’s only targets. He prayed that they wouldn’t have to engage in combat and also reminded the pilots not to make the same mistake.
Thankfully, things worked out the way he had envisioned. The airship avoided the jets and went on its way, seemingly uninterested in taking them down. It then headed toward Sokcho City, where Davey O’Rowane, the Saint of Tionis, had left the Black Dragon. It was only then that the president realized who was in charge of the airship.
“I must get to them!”
It was only natural to think this way. The president wanted to know about the technology they possessed. He knew that if he got his hands on it or even learned a little bit about it, Korea would become more stable than ever before. Korea could then take back all of its former territory. But at the same time, the president couldn’t think of a way to obtain such technology or the knowledge about it.
“Do I have to set up a date and treat them to some expensive liquor to make a country-to-country trade offer? I can offer them our electronic technology, which they can use for their airship technology.”
Davey hadn't invented the mana beam as a weapon, but the president deemed it the best technology in Tionis. He was already counting his chickens before they even hatched.
***
Asgard's trial run was a complete success. Davey had fixed the energy atomic overload device that had broken after one run with his information injection. So now, the mana beams could be fired more quickly and effectively. It would be difficult for anyone to get their hands on something like this, and Davey was well aware of this. The mana beam was state-of-the-art technology far exceeding current capabilities.
On the other hand, Davey deemed Asgard inefficient from the start. With the technological advancements from the Yurgian Continent, where his alchemist teacher Eva resided, creating something even greater wouldn't be difficult. But that wasn't the point of his hobby. He wasn't doing this to create weapons. He was simply enjoying his personal passion.
After swiftly eliminating the monsters, Davey ordered the ship to turn around, ignoring the fighter jets that had launched belatedly. He had no intention to stay in the city with this airship. So they headed to Sokcho City instead, which had been occupied by monsters but had become safe again because of Megalodria.
Most of the airship's operations relied on magic rather than electronic communication equipment, and so any electronic communication was meaningless. For immediate combat situations, Davey had implemented a third function in the airship—concealment, which he thought would be troublesome to be without. The mechanism behind such a function was simple: create a battery by charging it for a day and use its energy to deploy a massive light-reflecting curtain over the entire ship.
Though Davey knew that they would get caught easily through heat detection, he figured he could just step up at that point. Even though it wasn’t perfect, he believed it would do its job of hiding the airship from enemies in urgent situations.
[Contractor, what is that can of yours?]
‘Well, to be precise, it’s an airship that is made of metal and wood,’ Davey answered in his thoughts.
He then explained, "I felt sorry for riding you all the time, so I tried making something new.”
His explanation caused Megalodria to grumble.
[Ha! Do whatever you want!]
Davey couldn’t figure out why Megalodria was upset. But he let it slide and looked for a place to land the airship in the city where the Black Dragon was resting in peace after conquering it.
Then, as if Megalodria had noticed what he was trying to do, it woke up and took a deep breath.
Kwaaa!!!
It unleashed its breath, obliterating a part of the city and leaving no trace of it behind.
“That tackle-first idiot,” Davey muttered.
[Hmph, land there or do whatever you want!]
Megalodria huffed. It was evidently upset, and Davey was unable to figure out why.
But thanks to its breath, Tiara successfully secured flat land for the airship to land on. So with a confident look on her face, she brought the airship down.
"By the way, this place is such a mess. How can people live in a place like this?" Tiara asked, bewildered.
“Monsters attacked this place, and that’s why the place ended up like this,” Davey explained.
“Well, that explains all of this a little bit… But I see some cultural differences from the remains. How amazing," she said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
But Davey sighed at her eager expression. “Take note of it, but don’t try to learn it.”
Every world was developing in their own way, and the developments of every world had no limits. Earth went for science, while Tionis went for magic. This was why Tionis had almost no gunpowder weapons, even after thousands of years, while Earth dismissed magic as just fantasy. Humans on Earth could have indulged themselves in magic, but their instincts had refrained them from doing so.
“Is that so,” Tiara replied, looking a bit disappointed.
Leaving her behind, Davey went up to the deck of the airship and called out to Megalodria.
The dragon then looked at him and asked,
[What’s the matter, contractor?]
Davey then pointed to Oxygen, Hydro, Cat Tower, and Maga. “Let’s go, taxi driver.”
Even with an airship, Megalodria was always going to be a riding pet for Davey.
***
Countries around the globe turned their attention to the recent events in Korea. The Saint of Tionis had suddenly appeared, and the remarkable feats he showed captured global interest. While most of the Awakened couldn't fully utilize their abilities from the game, the Saint of Tionis was different.
He had single-handedly defeated several high-ranking monsters that had devastated American military units, emerging unscathed every time. And so, the world leaders labeled him as a dangerous individual. But at the same time, they believed they could become a leading force in future international affairs if they could cooperate with Davey.
In other words, they knew that forging close ties with him was necessary. While the U.S. Department of Defense adamantly opposed this, others had different views. Many of them even requested that they send people to meet Davey. Along with the United States government, Japan, China, Russia, the UK, France, and numerous other countries agreed on this sentiment.
At the same time, other entities also began to take notice. It was the Malicious Spirits that had established themselves on Earth. Although all the high-ranking Malicious Spirits hadn't come to Earth yet, the lower-ranking ones who had arrived first were nervous, which was only natural. After all, Meses, who had toyed with humans, had disappeared without even properly showing its full power. This instilled a deep fear of the danger Davey possessed, prompting the lower-ranked Malicious Spirits to move more cautiously.
Meanwhile, Davey threw the rag he obtained from Meses to Cat Tower and Maga while smiling brightly. “This is a part of the Malicious Spirit. You two are both Awakened too, right? I heard that those who have awakened production abilities are capable of using most of their abilities. So make something with this.”
“How?” Cat Tower asked, puzzled.
“Well, that’s something for you guys to figure out from now on,” Davey replied, making the technicians work for him again. But this time, it obviously would not be as simple as before.
Davey’s interests were no longer centered on how the international world viewed him or on the promises he made to the President of Korea. Instead, his focus was on more intriguing matters: the box with the question mark that he could now open fifty times after taking down all those monsters, the piece of rag from Meses, and the red marble.