Treasure Hunting System： The Ocean Conquerer

At this moment, the Ice wrapping around them was constantly freezing the seawater it had absorbed, and the area covered by the ice sphere grew larger and larger, until it exceeded the bounds of the expanded space.

Seizing this chance, the Sound of Dawn surged forward at full speed, racing off into the distance.

”Bang!”

A thunderous boom rang out.

A gigantic ice sphere, about ten meters in diameter, smashed into the sea right beside them.

Making an already chaotic sea even more vicious.

Everyone looked up.

In the sky, hailstones like meteorites began to pour down.

”Sound of Dawn!”

Responding to Alka’s shout, a faint pink mist appeared at the bow of the Sound of Dawn, then space began to ripple, and the whole ship turned ghostly and insubstantial.

Immediately after, the entire ship’s speed suddenly surged. The phantasmal hull drove straight ahead, waves passing directly through the ship without having any effect on it.

One of those meteor-like ice spheres even slammed straight into the bow, yet passed through the vessel and plunged into the water.

...

”This is really fucked up, what the hell is going on with this place?” The rain cleared and the sky brightened.

Alka leaned against the mast, panting heavily.

It wasn’t just him; the rest of the people around were all more or less out of sorts. The entire deck was soaked, and the Sound of Dawn was controlling its branches to absorb all this runoff.

What had started as just rough seas had somehow escalated into an absurdly exaggerated bout of extreme weather. All sorts of space rifts and hailstorms made no sense at all.

By the end, the lightning that had been striking straight down from above began flashing wildly from every direction.

That meant space had already become completely chaotic.

After resting a while, Chadite said, ”It’s because we’re about to reach the World Scar—only a few days out now.”

Hearing this, everyone nodded in sudden understanding.

They had already learned through various channels what to watch out for on the way to the World Scar, and the biggest concern was the high chance of running into disasters on the sea surface.

So most merchant ships and supply vessels that wanted to enter the World Scar had to be Guided in by Church ships or specialized navigation vessels.

And they also had to wait for the right window.

But that was only for those relatively weak, ordinary ships and merchantmen without many powerful fighters.

For Alka and the others, there was no need for all that hassle.

They could just punch straight through.

”Dong, dong, dong!”

However, just as everyone was chatting and resting, a clanging sound suddenly came from up above.

That meant the lookout had spotted something.

As soon as Alka heard the sound, he sprang to his feet and scanned the surroundings, and quickly found the source of the problem.

Two wavering red dots were rushing toward them from afar.

Alka’s eyes changed as he stared in that direction.

They were two ships that were impossible to describe—or perhaps it wasn’t even correct to call them ships. They looked more like iron constructs floating on the sea.

They were structures forged from steel and molten fire, steel plates overlapping and merging like armor. You could even see molten, reddish magma flowing along the joints.

To call them Ironclad Ships was close, but they looked more like war wagons or slabs randomly pieced together out of steel.

On the vessels you could see a giant skull and all sorts of decorations cobbled together from bones.

The entire ship lacked both masts and sails; the only thing visible was the Iron Armor prow covered with all kinds of spiked plating.

There were also muzzle-like openings around it that looked like Cannons.

”Demons?” Alka couldn’t help saying as he looked at the creatures on the Ironclad Ships.

He could see all sorts of Demons on board, with blood-red or dark-hued skin, hopping about and howling.

The only thing standing tall on the ship was a single flagpole. The flag itself looked somewhat tattered, a red background with black markings.

The black emblem resembled a Demon’s claw gripping some unknown object.

”Prepare to engage!”

After a brief observation, Akka turned his head without hesitation and spoke.

The others immediately split up to take their positions, the Puppet Girls each moving to their assigned spots.

As the two sides drew closer, they were finally able to observe each other in more detail.

”Haha, a human ship—kill them!”

The Demons’ roars carried over, and on the Ironclad Ships a grating creak-crew-crew sounded as an enormous, wild-looking Cannon swung around to aim at Alka and the others.

But before that massive Cannon could fire, a blinding beam of light blasted straight over.

It struck the gun emplacement dead-on. With a violent explosion, a huge gap opened there, Demons blown in all directions.

The spot that took the direct hit was burned through into a massive hole.

Only scattered fragments of the gun platform remained.

The one returning fire was Simon, who had already piloted his Mecha into artillery mode and was bracing his new weapon.

At this moment, his entire Mecha had transformed into something like a turret; its chest and both arms were acting as the support frame for the huge barrel in front.

The whole Mecha was blazing with intense blue light, ravenously drawing in Magic Power from the surroundings.

”Bang!”

Another massive beam of light lanced out.

It punched another gigantic hole in that Ironclad Ship, molten, lava-like material spilling out and shrouding the area around the vessel in thick steam.

The enemy ships opened fire.

Shell after shell of molten, liquid-like rounds streaked toward them.

But compared to their own attacks, these shells were clearly a bit too slow.