Author Notes:
This new OBOM chapter is brought to you by our loyal Discord supporters, and Patron, Uni and Nicolae. Without them, I wouldn't be able to work out the future of OBOM, and I mean that literally. Their inputs are valuable in helping me build the foundation of power for our MCs. Do give them their thanks~!
Now, if you want to join us on paving the path forward, won't you consider visiting my Patreon page and Discord server? I promise, it will be worthwhile. Below are the links to my Patreon with benefits page, Discord, and my other stories. Be seeing you there, dear readers~!
https://www.patreon.com/Heartbreak117
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Heartbreak117
https://discord.gg/cVZxJ29ruh
https://www.webnovel.com/book/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich_23809095505377305
https://www.webnovel.com/book/in-the-grimdark-sector-with-a-system_31596105108346205
https://www.webnovel.com/book/my-soul.-occupied-body---please-the-other-me...!_35377211308783905
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2271569/reich-marshal-of-the-belkan-reich/
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Bringing my fingers up, I flick Sapientia's forehead in a chiding manner, bringing low the Ember Goddess as she holds her superficial wound with crocodile tears in her eyes.
"Honestly, the one thing you could do is send us a warning or a sign before becoming unreachable. That monster whale or something could have broken us all down into biosmass by now." I say with a sigh and a shake of my head before readjusting the winter wear I am wearing.
The closer we are to the Southern cold region, the colder it is gonna be. Already, the chill is comparable to one of Russia's milder winter seasons, hence the need to affix winter attire over Reizen's and mine bodysuits and under our usual camouflage coats. As I move to remove the barrel on the M2HB that Reizen used to beat back the whale from before, Sapientia jumps back onto her feet before putting her hands together in an apologetic manner.
"Sorry! Sorry!" The Ember Goddess says, as I bring the barrel down gently onto the floor to perform a maintenance check on it and the rest of the machine gun's parts.
"I really didn't think you all would run into trouble right when I was occupied with my usual Divine duties. Mother Arcadia was overlooking you two in my stead, but she couldn't easily move overtly like I am. She did notify me, but by the time I was available, Reizen and you got it in the bag, already." Sapientia adds with a strained smile. "Still, I believe I owe you two some explanations, at least."
I reply. "Honestly, that's more than we could have asked for. It's not like we are in any position to make any demand for compensation, right?"
"I guess so?" Sapientia scratches her cheek in an unsure manner as I start to disassemble the rest of the mounted machine gun. "Honestly, let's decide on any of that after Reizen, and you hear the full story."
"In that case," I look over to the front of the boat, saying. "Reizen should be done reloading the big turret, by now. Let's wait for her to get over here... Really, if not for us getting some System resupply every few days, I would have started fearing for our future already."
"Look on the bright side, you won't encounter something as bad as that Tide Mauler on the remaining stretch." Sapientia winks, casually name-dropping the monster whale's, well, name.
"So that thing is called Tide Mauler? Let me guess, something something about it attacking in either low or high tide?" I say, a bit interested in the origin of the name as I start servicing the M2 machine gun.
Coincidentally, the gun hasn't really needed maintenance. Although some minor wear exists in the barrel after expending some hundreds of rounds, this M2HB is nevertheless perfectly capable of dishing out our entire ammo inventory and not running into any significant hiccup. The maintenance procedure started because I wanted to take the moment at anchor to ensure everything is in peak condition, including the White Pearl itself.
It's only because we have been so thorough that our previous flight-and-fight response was so smooth.
"The latter is apt, yes." Sapientia nods twice before adding. "The Tide Mauler, more than a veritable seafaring hazard, is a long-distance predator. You will be surprised at how often it uses the high tide to go near coastal harbors and beaches to prey on unsuspecting fishermen and wildlife. The Mauler part actually comes from its shredder-like set of teeth."
I shudder, and I can feel Aurea doing the same in our mental space as we are reminded of the countless teeth in that dark pit of the Mauler. "Yeah... I can understand why the name is so literal."
"It's effective in making the threat not to be taken lightly." Sapientia adds.
It's at this moment that Reizen walks over to us from the foreend of the White Pearl. On both hands, Reizen carries a crate of maintenance supplies and a can of ammo for the Millennium turret. Seeing Sapientia and me engaging in some conversation, the blue-haired girl asks calmly.
"Did I miss anything?"
"The name of the monster whale is Tide Mauler." I reply as I am this close to polishing every bit of the machine gun shiny.
"Huh." Reizen says as she places down the stuff before kneeling on one knee to spectate me cleaning the gun. "I can see why it got its name."
I giggle. "You said the same thing as me just now. By the way, how's the damage?"
Reizen replies, looking at the supplies on the floor.
"There's not much for me to do for the gun and the turret itself, other than oiling some machine parts." Reizen then gestures her head to the green can containing the 35 mm shells. "Didn't even use up the entire can of shells. You went soft on the trigger back then, so we managed to conserve more munitions than I expected."
"Glad to hear that." I sigh in relief, before blanching. "Still hurt about those depth charges and mines, though. The System counts those things as Base of Operations items, so no regular System Resupply on that front."
Sapientia chimes in from the side. "Given that whatever you used had bailed you out of trouble, I consider it a worthy investment."
Reizen nods. "That is indeed the case." The blue-haired girl then turns to Sapientia. "But, it shouldn't have been needed in the first place, am I right?"
Sapientia slumps at the pointed question from an externally calm, but internally annoyed Reizen. "Well, yeah... I guess you could say that. Allow me to explain the whole process now that we're all here."
I shrug before pointing at the spot next to me. "Go ahead. Sit down and walk us through what happened."
Sapientia happily plopped herself down before saying. "Alrighty then, here goes..."
Sapientia extends her hand, with the palm facing upward. From there, she projects a visual presentation to accompany her retelling.
"This here," The Ember Goddess starts by showing Reizen and me a deserted island with a wind-swept peak and long shoreline. "Looks like any normal deserted island. Would make for a nice tourist spot if not for what roams the oceanic caverns beneath it."
The projection then fizzles out, changing into what seems to be a vision of an underwater tunnel system, gigantic enough to fit the very thing we were running away from back then.
"Holy shit..." I exclaim, seeing a veritable underwater nest containing not one, not two, but a dozen Tide Maulers of varying sizes.
Even Reizen finds herself paling slightly at the potential prospect of facing all of those Tide Maulers with nothing but our little White Pearls.
I chuckle wryly with a drop of cold sweat. "Indeed, all fears come from insufficient firepower."
Sapientia shares my wry smile as well, but for a different reason. "The vision you are seeing right now isn't the true scale of the Tide Mauler colony. There were more of them out hunting before returning to the nest for brief hibernation. But, fortunately, or not, depending on the angle you're looking at it, that one Tide Mauler you encountered should be the last one you will see for the foreseeable future."
Reizen and I share a slightly confused and more concerned look. "Ok... Anything else we need to know?"
Sapientia coughs into her hand lightly. "Ok, don't freak out. The reason why you shouldn't have to worry about the Tide Maulers is due to this..."
Suddenly, the vision of the Tide Mauler colony abruptly shifted to the very seawater being boiled by electricity as if someone had just thrown a high-voltage power line directly into the ocean. No, it's as if...
Reizen interjects with a frown. "Something is discharging a lot of electricity into the sea from above."
Sapientia nods. "Good catch, Reizen. That something is this."
Sapientia then changes the projection to show us a staggering image of a giant black dragon of sorts. Metallic in look, with bright red eyes that look like they can burn into your retinas if you look at them for long. That thing is discharging what seems to be pure lightning from its open jaws.
"Oh, that's some serious firepower..." I comment aloud with a twitching eyebrow.
Seriously, fire-breathing dragon, I get it, but lightning-breathing dragon? How the fuck can you counter something that can fire lightspeed attacks? And is that...?
"Wait, I am not seeing this wrong, am I?" Reizen interjects with the best possible expression of being stunned we have ever seen so far. "That dragon doesn't have normal wings to fly."
"I'll be damned..." I mutter in surprise, guided by Reizen to look at the dragon's wings, which have a four-pronged structure on each. Each wing then glows searing red as it spews crackling energy blasts behind it to keep the dragon afloat midair.
"Is that thing powered by jet propulsion, huh!?" I nearly jump to my feet in exclamation before turning to Sapientia. "One day, you and I will need to sit down to have a discussion on why the biome of Arcadia is so freaking colorful. I can understand why things like the Tide Maulers exist, but what the hell is that dragon!?"
Sapientia chuckles wryly, being put on the spot. "Well... In my defense, that thing is an outlier in its entire species? That dragon is called Voltrak, a mutant dragon that is a pet of my elder sister. Recently, it woke up from its long nap and was hungry, so my elder sister just released it into the wild for it to frolic about..."
Hearing Sapientia speak thus far, I understand the rest of the story instantly. I fix her my best attempt at dead-fish eyes. "So, Voltrak picked the Tide Maulers' nest for a meal. It managed to hunt some, yet left one survivor that ran away, ultimately stumbling upon the White Pearl in the open sea?"
Sapientia stills, before sighing. "Pretty much... Yeah, I need to come up with some good compensation for the whole scare. At the end of the day, it's our side that nearly fucked up, unintentionally or not."
Reizen and I share a look, and after a mental conversation with Aurea, we all decide on the same thing.
"Actually, let's put aside the compensation talk for now, Sapientia. It's not like we actually came out of that hurting much, and it's more of an unintended consequence, right? Pretty much a natural cause of events, even if it started from a goddess thinking it would be ok to let a dragon off the leash. I think it will be presumptuous of us to fault you for that, now that we hear everything."
"Really? You would believe what I say?" Sapientia asks with mild surprise in her tone.
I shrug. "We're pretty much good friends by now, despite the occasional annoyance and pranks, so why shouldn't we believe you? Besides, there are simpler ways for you to eliminate us, instead of this roundabout kind of deal."
"Fair enough." Sapientia sighs in relief when even Reizen gives her a calm nod. "Well then, since I have some free time on my hands, wanna hear the tales about this mutant dragon that caused the whole mess in the first place?"
"I admit, I am curious about the story and the physiology of what makes this dragon jet-powered." Reizen replies before turning to look at me, only to find me staring confusedly out in the open space. "Huh, Umbra?"
In my view, the System just gave me something very interesting, to put it mildly.
[Daily Login Reward received:
- 100x NRS-69 with the associated Autonomous Servicing Station.]
[NRS-69, otherwise known as Nicolae's Roomba System Type -69, is a little tinker project of Nicolae the Shoggoth upon seeing the mortal invention of a Roomba bot. The NRS-69, after many failed predecessors, due to them not being unique enough, is crowned the jewel of the project.
- The NRS-69 Roomba is hover-capable, able to perform limited flight capability, and is rugged and environmentally resistant. However, its Autonomous Servicing Station is somewhat bulky, immobile, and landlocked.
- The NRS-69 is capable. It's armed with a suite of cleaning modules and can clean almost all nooks and crannies in any infrastructure. More surprisingly, the NRS-69 is armed with a small shield projector, a levitation beam to lift objects many times its weight, and a retractable modular weapon station.
- Unfortunately, the weapon station is left empty, with the Shoggoth citing that she doesn't know what to put on the Roomba, leaving plenty of room for weapon customization.
- The Autonomous Servicing Station that comes with each NRS-69 Roomba will automatically perform recharge, repair, and resupply of the linked Roomba, provided both remain in working condition. Additionally, the Autonomous Servicing Station converts dirty matter from the Roomba's storage into the necessary supplies that are then used to repair and rearm the Roomba if need be. When unnecessary, the dirty matter is converted into basic material blocks that can be broken down to be further reconverted into usable material. This requires the usage of a dedicated Mass Converter for the best possible benefits.
- Warning: the Autonomous Servicing Station requires a lot of power in its peak operating stage! Do not employ too many NRS-69 in the Base of Operations unless there's a powerful enough power grid!]
Well... That is indeed something.