Rimuru's POV
A few days after the party...
I am currently in a carriage making my way towards Dwargon. I brought Valora and Testarossa with me. After Dwargon, Testarossa will be departing to the Western Nations, so it was just a divergence for her.
I really just wanted to teleport there, but Gazel kept on saying that I should make an official visit. I guess it is to strengthen our bonds, now that a turbulent time is approaching. Even though the common people don't know what exactly is going on, there are rumours that something on the level of World Destruction is about to happen. Many speculate it to be the Armageddon. If only they knew.
As we slowly make our way towards the Dwargon, I see the giant gate, again. Everything goes smoothly. I have an official meeting with Gazel in the evening. We have quite a tasty dinner and talk some more over drinks. As we drank into the night, suddenly Gazel spoke up.
"Let's go. You wanted to see why there was an empty space in the mountain, didn't you?"
"Yep. Let's go."
Looks like he was waiting for nightfall before going to reduce prying eyes on us. Both of us go deeper into the castle, which came as a surprise. But now that I think about it, it makes sense. The castle is built into the wall of the mountain, so if there is a secret way to enter the mountain, it must be through the castle, the most heavily protected area in Dwargon.
As we reach the end of an unsuspicious corridor, he puts his hand on the wall and passes his magicules through it. The wall move aside and opens up, as if it was a mechanical door.
As soon as we passed through the door, we entered a different world. The walls were no longer rocks and bricks. It was made of metals, with glowing lines running alone the wall, transferring electricity and light. As we continue to go deeper and deeper into the cave, I started getting more and more sure that this war built using the technology from my past world.
The long corridor finally ended, bringing us into a large room. Large enough for Veldora or me to fly around in our dragon form. But what caught my eye was the large vehicle right in the centre of the room.
A spaceship was just sitting there, in pristine condition. Many small robots, which were called maintenance robots, were moving around, making sure everything was in order. It doesn't seem like there was any precautions against intruders.
"No way! Why is there a spaceship here? Of all places, why here?"
"Spaceship?" Gazel asked.
"Yep. It is a vehicle of sorts. It can take you way beyond the sky and let you leave this planet."
"Leave the planet!?"
"Yes. One minute. Let me check the condition of the ship."
I quickly get to work. The thrusters of the ship were pointed downwards, making it ready to fly off at any moment. Out of the four main cannons, three were aimed at the door through which we entered, while the fourth cannon was aimed straight at the roof of the mountain. I believe this is so that they could blast the roof of the mountain and escape in case of an intruder.
The shield were online and in tip-top condition. A few boulders wouldn't even bother it. I enter the ship and check its inside. The interior was also quite well maintained. It didn't have a lot of accessories, but had the battle minimum. I quickly go to the cockpit and start searching for the black box.
"What are you looking for?" Gazel asked as he entered the cockpit after following me.
"Black box. You remember how I used projections in the festival a few years ago?"
"Yes."
"It is something like that. It has the projection of the crew who were piloting this. We can gain a lot of information from it. Aha! Found it."
I take the Black Box out of the safety panel and set it up atop the table. I quickly press the button on it, fidget with it a bit and turn it on.
Suddenly, a projection appears above the box. A man, roughly around the age of thirty, could be seen. He was wearing clothes native to this world, nothing too flashy, as such, I wasn't able to distinguish which country he was from.
"To anyone who sees this message. We are leaving this hangar. The maintenance robots should keep the ship in good condition, even for centuries to come. We are finally leaving this hangar behind, and cannot take this ship with us. To prevent leaking of classified data, all previous records of the Black Box had already been destroyed. Feel free to use this ship if you want."
With that, the message ended, and the light died down. I have no clue what they were trying to achieve, but to leave this ship is such a waste.
<Master. I assume it most probably had something to do to keep this base alive. If the ship were to be taken away, then any future expeditions would have no way to escape.>
It didn't make a difference, did it? No future expeditions ever arrived, did they?
Oh well. At least it is of use to me. I don't know how strong Ivarage is, but this bad boy packs a lot of power. It should be quite useful. There is only one thing that I am afraid of.
Just as Gazel was about to ask something, I quickly made my way towards the back of the ship. I quickly opened the thatch and was met with disappointment.
"I guess this was expected." I murmured.
"What was expected?" Gazel asked as he finally caught up to me.
"The fuel. This thing is completely useless without any fuel. There is no fuel in there." I say pointing towards the thatch.
"Can't you just give it magicules?" He asked.
"This ship doesn't run on magicules. It runs on dark energy. It is quite an efficient fuel source, of course, not as much as magicules, but the ships use dark energy. Magicules were quite lacking in my old world."
"I see. So we can't use it, can we?" Gazel asked.
I just turn towards Gazel with a smile.
"Who knows? Maybe we can find the fuel in this world as well."
Dark energy is very rare to find and forms naturally. Using magicules is not an option. Ciel might be able to change the engine completely, but that would require a lot of materials and time. So for now, I am deciding not to do so.
After that, I continued to check the ship for some time. Well, I say some time, but nearly two days had passed. Once I came out of the cave and into the castle, Testarossa had already left for Ingrassia. Meanwhile, Valora was busy exploring Dwargon. As it was afternoon, I decided to spend the night in Dwargon and the next day, we made our way back to Tempest.
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I hope you guys like it.