Chapter 131. Legacy (2)

Duke Bukrum.

Among dwarves, he was known as the ‘Unfortunate Meister’.

I had heard the touching story of William and Duke Meister before, prior to going to negotiate with the Vampire Duke.

The Duke had taken in and raised the orphaned William in the City-State Alliance.

A relationship of uncle and nephew.

Though not related by blood, their bond was strong.

Looking back now, they might have subconsciously felt a sense of camaraderie in their shared misfortune.

After all, the orphan boy who couldn't even remember his parents' faces and the master craftsman who was framed and cast out by his own kind shared the common denominator of being abandoned.

Perhaps that was why.

The Legacy left by a master craftsman who would go down in history for his one and only family was truly extraordinary.

“An aerial… battleship?”

William said, as if savoring the words.

He gently stroked the joint of the smooth metal armor.

“Yes.”

Honestly, I hadn't known.

No, I should say I had anticipated it but hadn't expected it.

In fact, Duke Bukrum had appeared occasionally even before World Scenario 4.0.

Not as a living hero, but as one who was already dead, and whose real name was never revealed.

Appearing under the alias ‘Nameless Exile’, he was described in the lore as the very person who developed the dwarves' ‘Final Weapon’.

For reference, the ‘Final Weapon’ is a kind of wild card that every faction possesses, becoming a key strategic asset in the later stages.

A prime example was the ‘Improved Necro Core’ that the second Vampire Duke, Tribus, was making, and now could never complete.

Anyway, five of the dwarves' final weapons appeared in version 3.0, and one of them was the Aerial Battleship.

‘Huh? What, how did you know it was an aerial battleship just by looking at this? Are you a regressor? A visionary?’

‘Calm down. You can feel it too, can't you? Whose spiritual essence the master’s resembles.’

‘…That’s true.’

It seemed like some meaningful whispering was going on in the subspace.

Well, I could ask about that later.

For now, the important thing was the Legacy before me.

The Aerial Battleship was the most highly regarded among the dwarven final weapons.

Literally a jackpot.

It would be great to use it as it was, and if I could research the technology to mass-produce it, it could be a game-changer.

The problem was….

‘I've never used it as an Imperial Hero.’

It was a unique dwarven technology, after all.

In the game, using it was simple.

If you played as the dwarven race, met the prerequisites, and cleared a few quests, an event window would pop up.

From there, one of the five final weapons would be randomly selected, and after a few choices, you would acquire it.

The difference between reality and the game, I suppose.

Just like how managing a domain was a few clicks in the game, but in reality, it meant being buried in paperwork and working overtime as if it were a meal.

Of course, I didn't come here without a plan.

Fortunately, I had a capable person to entrust this thing to.

None other than my domain's best gunpowder expert and technician, Artillery Commander William, who received one-on-one coaching from the legendary dwarven master craftsman….

“So how do I use this?”

“…Weren't you the one who knew?”

“Me? How?”

“……”

It was a Legacy left for you in the first place.

* * *

Two hours had passed since we discovered Duke Bukrum's Legacy.

William and I were fumbling around like blind men who had lost their canes.

We were looking for an entrance.

The entrance to the Aerial Battleship.

“…Not on top.”

At first, we scanned the upper part.

Thinking there must be an entrance.

When we couldn't find one at all, I tried digging up the ground with magic.

After chugging mana potions like water and casting spells like a shovel, the magnificent form of a sizable aerial battleship was half-revealed before us.

“Whoa……”

Well, the admiration was brief.

There was no entrance here either.

Next, we looked for buttons or levers.

The entrance might be hidden for security and defense purposes.

I even tried calling out passwords.

From Duke Bukrum's birthday and the names of past Kings of Kings to ancient dwarven words used as passwords in the game.

“My lord, you can speak ancient dwarven?”

Thanks to that, another misunderstanding was piled on.

Anyway, the results were all failures.

No matter what we did, the entrance wouldn't appear.

I tried to use Eyeball to teleport inside, but it said it was only possible to places I could visually observe.

Meaning, I had to secure a line of sight with at least a clone or [Battlefield-Overlooking Gaze].

‘Teleporting an enemy doesn’t require a line of sight. I could bury them alive in the ground, or drown them in water. A power lost because of that stupid rat-head.’

Well, even if I had it, it was a useless ability in this situation.

What would I do, hand this treasure over to the enemy?

Having cast spells without rest, I was on the verge of mana exhaustion, so I sat down for a short break.

William was over there, clutching his head.

He must not understand.

He was the one who inherited the legacy, yet he didn't know how to use it.

Even if the Duke hadn't told him what the Legacy was, he could have at least left instructions on how to use it.

Or at least a hint.

“Ah!”

William, who had suddenly lifted his head, opened his mouth.

“Remember something?”

“Come to think of it, my uncle said this shortly before he passed away.”

“What was it?”

“He told me to be patient even if the dwarves were harsh to me. That they are naive in strange ways, but not bad-hearted.”

“……”

“And that there will definitely come a time when I will need their abilities….”

Damn it.

So, in the end, we need the dwarves.

This was, in fact, the standard way.

It was a secret to outsiders, but the dwarves possessed several primitive aerial weapons.

Those were also made by Duke Meister, just like this Aerial Battleship, but anyway, it was true that there were those who knew how to handle aerial weapons.

That must be why there were no problems operating the Aerial Battleship when playing as a dwarf.

It seemed Duke Meister believed that his name would be cleared someday.

Even if not, hatred tends to weaken over time, and he must have thought that the dwarves would accept his disciple who had inherited his skills.

As he thought, his name was cleared.

William became a hero to the dwarves.

The problem would be solved if we received pilot support from the Dwarf King.

However, there was a reason for my hesitation.

‘It's too much of a waste.’

Honestly, if it had been a simple bunker or a bipedal guardian, I would have informed the king immediately.

If it were a mana reactor or a lava eruptor, I would have smacked my lips a bit, but the conclusion would have been the same.

But the Aerial Battleship was different.

Unlike the other four final weapons, the possibility of successfully mass-producing this one was extremely low.

Even in the game, the probability was less than 10 percent.

Perhaps the Legacy before my eyes was the first and last Aerial Battleship.

No matter how much of an ally they were, it was a waste to give this up.

But if there was no other way, rather than just leaving it here….

[Master, I think I can pilot this.]

‘Huh?’

[I've ridden it from time to time. When the dwarves went over to the Theocracy, or when the Ratmen destroyed the dwarves and got their hands on their technology and artifacts.]

I opened the subspace.

Kkumteuli was confidently crossing its tentacles as if they were arms.

[We carefully reviewed whether this violates our contract. The conclusion was ‘no’. Teaching the Viscount how to pilot it is a violation, but it doesn't matter if we pilot it ourselves.]

‘Really?’

[How about it? For this, you ought to give me a whole bag of Karen's new special recipe cookies, right?]

If that was true, then I would have to.

I asked for William’s understanding.

Although he looked like he didn't get it, my loyal artillery commander tilted his head but went back first.

After confirming that William had completely disappeared from the map in my head, I took Kkumteuli out of the subspace and stood in front of the Aerial Battleship.

[Over there. No, a little more to the right. That's it.]

Following its words, I approached the side of the battleship.

The side, like the other parts, was covered in hard metal armor plates.

There didn't seem to be anything unusual.

A rectangular metal plate bent into a curved surface.

Traces of delicate welding and finishing, with no gaps to be seen.

[Now, lift me up.]

Kkumteuli extended a tentacle and tapped the armor plate.

Then, with a clanking sound, the armor plate opened outwards like an airplane door, and a staircase descended.

“……”

It was absurd, but let's move on.

As I went inside, the distinct salty smell of metal hit my nose.

I summoned another Halo of Light to illuminate the dark interior.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all metal plates.

It seemed they hadn't been painted or wallpapered.

I walked down a monochromatic corridor, with the kind of bland, somewhat sharp feeling unique to ships seen in movies.

[Heave-ho.]

Kkumteuli leaped from my hand.

It waddled ahead down the corridor, where the chill of the underground had condensed, waving its tentacles.

I followed slowly.

Before long, it entered a large room.

The wide-open door had a structure that was manually turned to open and close, like a bunker door, and seeing that its thickness exceeded several tens of centimeters, it seemed it was originally supposed to be firmly shut.

Inside the room were many desks and chairs.

Also, numerous screens that looked like monitors.

Seeing the countless measuring devices that looked like barometers, and the push-pull levers, buttons, and pedals, it wasn't hard to guess what this place was.

The place where this Aerial Battleship was controlled.

The bridge.

Kkumteuli stopped in the middle of the bridge.

From the open subspace, the other statues also crawled out one by one.

Tick-Tocky, in the form of a goddess holding two spears.

Starfish, shaped like a starfish with over ten arms.

Eyeball, in the form of a pitch-black eyeball filled with many white pupils.

[Ahem, I will now assign missions.]

In front of them, the strangely shaped statue, Kkumteuli, a smooth regular octahedron with fluttering tentacles attached, waved a thin tentacle in the air once.

It spoke.

[Tick-Tocky, check and activate the fuel supply and power unit.]

[Tick-tock!]

[Eyeball, you check the weapon status. You haven't forgotten the list of mounted weapons, have you?]

[These two eyes… no, this one eye never forgets what it has seen clearly.]

[Starfish, you stay with me on the bridge. Act as an observer and vice-captain.]

[Kkiiing…!]

The statues hopped and scattered.

Before long, the loud vibration of an engine was felt, and power slowly began to be supplied to the ship.

It was mana.

My enhanced senses detected an enormous amount of mana moving through the mana circuits installed throughout the ship.

Flick!

The lights on the bridge came on.

Crackle. Crackle…!

Red, yellow, and green lights alternately flickered on the sensors and buttons, and the needles of the long-stationary measuring devices began to move rapidly and fluctuate.

[Ah, can you hear me?]

[I hear you well, Eyeball.]

The communication device connected to each part of the ship activated.

[I'm checking them one by one. Confirmed operational are two main cannons, fourteen secondary cannons, two are broken… the anti-air network seems to be fully operational. I'll check the ammunition storage.]

[It's coming up on the screen. Thank you.]

The pitch-black screen, as if a TV was turned on, lit up white, and countless numbers and figures, including the ship's blueprint, dizzily filled my vision.

In the center of the screen, the outside scenery was reflected.

It was the passage leading to the entrance of the cave, next to the underground lake where William and I had entered.

[How about it, easy, isn't it?]

“In the army, I only fired cannons; I've never flown a jet or a helicopter.”

[Hmm? Jet? Helicopter? What are those?]

“There are such things.”

Even as we chatted, the engine's vibration grew stronger.

A vibration that, like a plane just before takeoff, gave even those who didn't know a sense of excitement and tension that something big was about to happen.

Just then, Tick-Tocky flicked its tentacle.

Starfish, having received the command, vigorously pushed a lever with four of its arms.

And.

Guuuuuung……!!

Float.

I felt the sensation of the ship rising.