Chapter 362: Chess Match

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

The battle wasn’t going well for the humans. Not a single person was optimistic.

The main strategic objective was once again the former docks of Kagersi, which was currently submerged under more than ten meters of water. The Sea Tribe called this place the “Land of the Dragon’s Death” as the SemiGod Hydra’s blood had once flowed here and Hydras were considered a species of Dragon. The remnants of the Hydra’s blood would be toxic to any ordinary lifeform, but sea beasts would find it incredibly alluring. This was why large numbers of huge sea beasts gathered here.

More than ten nearby former Kagersi street districts of Sea Tribe members would have to be killed off to reach this location. And the Sea Tribe’s backup would arrive once the fighting reached a stalemate.

This was why Darsos and his advisers made plenty of preparations for this battle. In the previous sixty-seven waves of attacks, they had chosen to attack this area more than ten times. It was not just to gather information for their true full-force attack or to eliminate any high-priority threats—the main reason was to make the enemy numb to the sight.

“The Land of the Dragon’s Death is under attack again? Who knows what those crazy humans are thinking, loving to attack this place so many times? Who cares? Just leave the defense up to those sea beasts.”

Actually, the current Sea Tribe’s top-priority locations to defend were their royal palace and divine temples. Second priority landed on their entertainment facilities. As for this former dock district where all the sea beasts gathered… did the Sea Tribe need boats? They simply left this place to the sea beasts.

Auland had chosen this location twice out of their five most recent attacks. Although the Sea Tribe still sent their forces to defend this location each time, the warriors on the frontlines with their heightened senses honed through so much combat had long discovered that the Sea Tribe members’ reactions were becoming dulled. In fact, backup would always arrive thirty minutes later than in other areas, and the number of reinforcements would also be less than half compared to other locations!

Since the Sea Tribe members were already numb to such attacks, it was now the perfect opportunity for Auland to launch their first real full-force attack, disguised as a regular guerilla strike. This sixty-eighth wave of attacks, code named “Dawn,” was about to begin.

Slightly over an hour remained before the warm sun was to rise and illuminate the world. The great majority of the Sea Tribe were still in a deep sleep—they’d only wake up after nine o’clock.

Unlike in the darkest depths of the deep sea, here they could experience the warmth of the sun during the day. The Sea Tribe here hence started imitating the biological clocks of other species and resting at night. It was very possible they believed that victory was in their hands because of Rain City’s forbidden spell—they had arrogantly given up on being proactive in battle. It was only a matter of time for them to meet their doom after making such a decision.

As the main instigators of this particular battle, the people of Auland resolutely stood at the very forefront. Their main aquatic fleet had been seriously damaged in the battle where they lost Kagersi—all three of their major fleets had been destroyed. But in this attack to recapture Kagersi, the surviving ships and newly constructed warships banded together. Auland still possessed more than thirty heavy-class warships and over a hundred medium-class warships.

This was the foundation of a mega empire. Once a mega empire like Auland entered war, a large amount of civilian and merchant enterprises would transform themselves to work on military products. Unless one was able to crush them in a single blow, Auland’s incredibly developed business industry would drag any opponent into a long and hellish war of attrition.

Obviously, Auland’s original warships weren’t suitable for combat in this environment. The water here was far too shallow, and the depths were overly complex. Even in areas that appeared to have deep water, the sharp pointed roof of some house that was now submerged might act like hidden coral—fatal for any ship. Yet it would be impossible to fight the Sea Tribe without a ship in the deep waters.

The people of Auland had been stuck between a rock and a hard place. But they finally had a solution when they obtained the floating airship technology from the Northlands, which was now in the hands of every single ship building factory in Auland. None of the shipwrights and ship designers had seen a single day of rest. The people of Auland had put their all into modifying their original ships.

Complete flotation was still impossible. That would require dragon bones as the base material as well as a redesign from the base up. The right materials would have to be chosen, enchanted, and put all together. However, the people of Auland were capable of simply installing flotation engines capable of lowering the ship’s overall weight to reduce the ship’s draft.

Perhaps this seemed rather meaningless, but it opened up the possibility of making the entire hull the ship metallic.

Since the ship was lighter, there was more power of flotation. Didn’t that mean it was possible to equip the ship with heavier armor? And so, countless blacksmiths worked to add thick layers of armor to the hull of their ships. In order to ensure that the hull wouldn’t be damaged by coral or any other water obstacles, the people of Auland were crazy enough to utilize precious magical metals. Magical metals were precious enough that no ordinary adventurer would be willing to use them to craft weapons.

After the war was over and Auland calculated the war expenses, the magical metals used for these ships’ hull armor alone cost one-fifth of Auland’s entire national treasury, which would have been more than enough to reconstruct an entire new Kagersi from scratch.

Although metallic armored ship technology was still in its infancy and engine technology was still under development, Auland’s shipwrights had successfully managed to use flotation technology to lighten their ships’ weight and create half-metallic armored ships with armor only on the hull. I found this truly amazing.

Unlike the wars fought in my original world of Earth, the metallic warships in this world weren’t focused on defending against cannon fire. Instead, this armor was targeted specifically to defend against underwater attackers wanting to sink the ship along with coral and other underwater obstacles.

Once engine technology was improved even further, true, fully armored heavy warships were sure to arrive as well. But right now, these makeshift half-metallic armored warships would be sufficient.

Compared to Auland’s original ships, these possessed far superior defenses. Due to the high number of anti-gravity engines installed on each ship, they possessed the ability to float in the air for short periods of time, making them capable of traversing even land. To quote Darsos: “The flotation power is insufficient? Then add more anti-gravity engines and keep lots of backup engines on board to replace any that overload and explode. Outfit every single ship with plenty of workers to run things and mages to provide mana. We have plenty of humans. We also have plenty of money! I’ll spend money however I want!”

The humans in this world were just as intelligent as the humans from my original world. Whenever an intelligent species was forced to the brink, all sorts of miracle inventions would start appearing as war was forever the foremost reason for innovation. Miracle inventions were capable of astonishing feats no conventional military of the time could accomplish.

Of course, if it weren’t for the fact that the Auland Empire was already at the top in the field in metallurgy and metalworking, then they wouldn’t have been able to actualize all this even if they wanted. Fine then, the most critical part was that they were sufficiently rich. War would always be a contest between two factions’ overall power levels. Since Auland was really, really, rich, they could afford to invest so many resources in war.

In order to disguise the regular, weak wooden portions at the top half of their ships and to make better camouflage for night attacks, Auland painted their battleships a pitch black. Later in the future, this black battlefleet that always brought an end to their enemies would be known as the “Fleet of Death.”

Without a doubt, this would become one of Auland’s aces. No matter how dangerous the war became or how many Auland warriors died in Kagersi’s waters to become food for the Sea Tribe, Auland continued to spend resources on constantly improving these battleships to be used in actual combat.

“These modified battleships need to obtain miraculous results on their very first surprise appearance… Otherwise, how can it be called an ace if it can’t enter battle at a critical moment and play the most important role in securing our strategic objective?”

As an emperor, Darsos was quite competent in the area of viciousness. All the sacrifices he had to make elsewhere had paid off. This ace he had been hiding for so long achieved astonishing results.

When the pitch-black fleet appeared in the dark hours before dawn, not a single Sea Tribe member was able to stop them. These gigantic ships were surprisingly dexterous at maneuvering despite their size. Any time they ran aground on coral, buildings, or other obstacles, the fact that they would fly up into midair for a short period of time seemed inconceivable.

Every area of water that these heavy battleships passed over was flattened of all coral, other obstacles, or even any large Sea Tribe members or beasts. Those gigantic, solid metal bodies were capable of smashing everything in their path.

When the Sea Tribe sounded the alarm and entered the battlefield, they found that they were helpless against such battleships.

Swim over and sink the ships by drilling a hole in the hull? The armor consisted of an alloy between magical metal and a thick layer of iron, which would be more than sufficient to defend against even cannon fire. Although a Sea Giant managed to pierce the outer layer of armor using an anchor, the anchor actually got stuck into the inner layer and the Sea Giant was dragged to its death.

Send up huge waves to capsize the ships? These ships were far too steady and were capable of flying up to dodge the waves. No ordinary water mage found it possible to capsize these giant metallic hulks. Only a forbidden spell would be able to accomplish such a feat.

Use cannons to attack the weak wooden areas on the upper halves of the ships? The Sea Tribe didn’t possess any cannons. Meanwhile, the Sea Tribe mages lost in battle due to the fact that Auland fielded three times the number of mages by stuffing the ships full of them.

Auland’s advantages due to their outstanding metallurgy and metalsmithing skill were quite obvious. Their patented alloy armor, along with explosive metal alloys and other such technologies, provided the best examples. Their alloy armor on the ships was the product of top-quality Auland metalsmithing. Forget about the Sea Tribe’s metal weapons and bare hands—even ordinary magic spells at five circle and below would be unable to damage this alloy armor.

The two sides had completely different attitudes regarding this war, so naturally the result would be influenced by their attitudes.

But the sad part was that even though humans obtained the advantage of surprise and timing and pressed onward rather successfully, they still weren’t able to obtain much of an advantage after half an hour of fighting. Even though they were making progress, they didn’t obtain the prize they wanted the most: killing off large numbers of the Sea Tribe.

This type of special aquatic battlefield made it impossible for the humans to simply reclaim Kagersi and live there again. In that case, killing off the enemy’s numbers became the number one overall objective. But the result was quite disappointing. The Sea Tribe’s deaths were quite low, and few high-level Sea Tribe members perished.

The reason? It could be repeated an endless number of times but would always be the same: terrain advantage.

That’s right, the Sea Tribe couldn’t deal with the heavy battleships. But it was the same in return, as the heavy battleships were unable to deal with the Sea Tribe!

All the Sea Tribe members had to do was dive into the deep water and escape. What could these heavy battleships that could only remain on the water’s surface do to them? These heavy hunks of metal were quite slow.

Use cannons to fire into the deep sea? Even the stupidest of commanders wouldn’t choose such an action.

Magic attacks? Mages’ mana was a precious resource to begin with. Wouldn’t the sea water block off most of their attacks?

Shoot gigantic harpoons using huge repeating crossbows? This was actually an effective type of attack, but Sea Tribe members were intelligent and wouldn’t simply stand there gawking while humans shot at them. As long as the Sea Tribe kept their distance, this type of attack would be similarly useless.

Send humans underwater to attack the Sea Tribe? A wonderful idea… for the Sea Tribe! This type of absolutely idiotic idea could be considered treachery if anyone dared to mention it. It would be no different from sending free meals to the Sea Tribe as that was what the Sea Tribe would want the most—to have the humans go underwater to them!

Darsos was secretly feeling anxious inside as he stood on the Auland fleet’s flagship, the “Shark.” He had previously extrapolated many possible combat situations. Yet the Sea Tribe’s losses were still fewer than he had anticipated. It seemed that it would be impossible to achieve the primary overall objective of killing as many Sea Tribe as possible. In that case, even if Auland conquered the docks district, the Sea Tribe was certain to counterattack with incredible force.

Also, these modified battleships weren’t undefeatable. As time passed, the Sea Tribe would be certain to discover their weaknesses.

Meanwhile, on the floating airships in the sky, Reyne and the others were also watching the current battle in astonishment.

Perhaps her continuous victories had made her overconfident. Reyne had been looking down upon the people of Auland that had lost to Roland so many times. But today, after seeing this sudden pitch-black fleet’s arrival, only now did she truly understand the meaning of the term mega empire.

East Mist was currently constructing aquatic ships as well. Just from technology alone, East Mist was even superior to Auland. But there wasn’t a single respectable shipbuilding factory in the entirety of East Mist. Not only that, East Mist’s metallurgy and metalsmithing was behind the times. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been forced to use undead magic to construct my second aerial battleship, the Mizar.

Any large ship’s required resources and funding would be astronomical. Nor would the maintenance and repair fees after one large ship’s construction be cheap. The Borealis was the only exception as it was a living ship—Envy was capable of devouring in order to recover his injuries. That was the only reason why the Borealis hadn’t bankrupted East Mist. As for the other large aerial battleships, I didn’t even consider having East Mist build them and tossed the duty directly over to the Xiluo Empire.

For a technology to go from blueprint to actual product would require countless processes, materials, artisanry, human resources, and so on. Only since I obtained an almost complete ship, experienced engineers, designers, materials—fine, basically an entire production chain from Auland—I was able to completely utilize this top-level technology. This was also the reason why, even now, East Mist was the only country in the world which possessed a form of fully matured floating airship technology.

Even if East Mist sold part of its technology, it would require many years before other countries would be capable of utilizing floating airships in combat. Reyne had always treated this as her ace and was even secretly rather proud about it.

“If our two countries went to war…”

As the leader of a country, making such an assumption would never be unnecessary. After all, there would only be benefits with diplomatic relationships between countries and no absolute friends. It would be quite common in either world that yesterday’s ally would become today’s mortal enemy.

For some reason, Reyne recalled my answer from when she had asked me why it was that I still planned to improve our country’s industries when many citizens were having difficulty making ends meet.

“It’s not that I’m a combat maniac. I’m actually preparing for the inevitable future. War is impossible to avoid. What? You’re saying that we don’t need fully developed industries to win our wars, that the Borealis alone will be sufficient?

“You’re looking down too much on the mega empires. Perhaps not a single one of their ships can match our Borealis, but they can build ten ships for every one of ours. They can afford to take some losses as they can just build more. Same for their warriors, they can just recruit more if some warriors die. But for us? Our foundational strength is just so little, so without industrial strength to back us up, we lack fresh blood. Without complete industries to back us up, it’ll be impossible for us to deal with long-term battles.

“The current East Mist is resting on a volcano. Although things may seem wonderful, we’re actually being baked in the heat without realizing it. Mega empires can afford to lose countless numbers of battles. But a single misstep on our side will send all of us down into an inescapable abyss. I don’t want to risk my country on a gamble.”

It was only now, when faced with the true reality, that Reyne finally understood Roland’s seemingly deep words about the difference between East Mist and the mega empires of Eich. Now, she understood that there was no comparing them at all.

“And Auland is only one of the smaller mega empires among mega empires…”

Reyne was no idiot. Once she noticed the difference, she adjusted her way of thinking. Only then did she discover my true intentions for the Northlands.

“The Mist Alliance?”

That’s right, just East Mist would have never been sufficient. But with Sleuweir and the combined power of the Mist Alliance’s seven Northlands countries, I had always been working to homogenize their economies, politics, and businesses.

“Brother Roland probably doesn’t only want this much. What else does he intend? If it’s the Mist Alliance, the Kasomi Dukedom that’s San Antonio’s subordinate country is too much of an annoying obstacle. But to get rid of this obstacle and make San Antonio retreat from the Northlands will require other mega empires’ support…”

“No wonder Brother Roland not only invited all the major countries to our military parade but even gave them discounts to buy our technology. Oh, not only that, he even personally picked the envoys to each major country and personally read every invitation letter despite how lazy he normally is.”

“Even though the issues regarding the Northlands’ dwarves and elves were quite difficult to deal with, he voluntarily dealt with them. Not only that, when dealing with other Northlands countries, he actually brought up the hugely unpopular plan to cancel all tariffs on other Northlands countries and allow freedom of movement between the their citizens and kept insisting on this despite his lack of support. Also, he always writes letters to Sister Glina so that our two countries will have identical political proclamations. Although this issue isn’t so important, it’s evidence that our two countries are supposed to be allies in everything. There’s also that matter… just how many things has he been doing in secret!?”

I never hid my actions about the Mist Alliance from my allies. But only now was Reyne beginning to understand my overall strategic objective by putting together the individual pieces. She was currently becoming a more mature leader in her own right.

She correctly understood my intentions for East Mist along with East Mist’s current position and tactical worth in the world. This allowed her to realize what it was that she should do.

“Originally, I had intended to watch the battle for as long as possible and only jump in to assist after Auland and the Sea Tribe brought serious injuries to each other. It isn’t much if it’s an individual doing this, but it would be far too unworthy of a country’s leader. Right now, what we need is to directly show the world our power and obtain as much support from others as we can. Auland should owe us so we may receive more future benefits from them in return. Since the battle is currently at a stalemate, this is the perfect time for us to show up and break it.”

There would obviously be a great difference in helping out when Auland was seriously injured versus helping when Auland was locked in a stalemate. Nobody would be fond of or support someone who sat on the fence until the last minute. Since Reyne came to this decision, she didn’t hesitate a moment longer.

“Aurora Knights, Silver Cross squadron, move out! Borealis, toss down our new weapons!”

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