Riella ran to the deck, with Shu and Asam following after.
She threw them a glance but said nothing, instead just taking a look around.
The only thing to see ought to have been the clear ocean morning, but instead, Riella was greeted by an entirely unexpected sight.
The Adventure II was still at sea, but it was now completely surrounded by a massive barrier—and instead of the blue sky, there was an artificial ceiling with lights shining down onto the water below. Cranes and massive boom arms could be seen scattered here and there.
“Is this...a dock?” Shu wondered. At a glance, it looked like an indoor dock one might find in any massive harbor.
It was as though the Adventure II had been teleported from its location on the open sea to some man-made place.
No, that’s not really accurate, Shu thought, realizing that their actual location hadn’t changed. The map window said that they were still in the middle of the ocean.
“We stayed right where we were,” Shu said. “Just got surrounded.”
A closer look revealed that the dock was swaying with the movement of the water, just like the ship they were on.
It’s floatin’ on the sea too... Gotta be one of those mega-floats, Shu thought. Mega-floats were a type of VLFS—“Very Large Floating Structures.” Shu had heard that Granvaloa itself and its scattered satellite cities fell into this category of transport as well.
However, this one had appeared in the blink of an eye and instantly surrounded the Adventure II, which could only mean one thing.
It’s an Embryo. And based on the size...there’s no way it ain’t Superior.
Shu instantly realized that this had to have been done by someone on the same level as him.
A Castle... No... It’s either a Fortress or a Labyrinth.
Type Fortress and Type Labyrinth. Both were advanced categories that branched off from Type Castle. The difference between them was that the former had a greater effect on those outside its boundaries, while the latter mostly affected targets already inside it.
However, they shared the same flaw: Once deployed, these Embryos were very difficult to move unless they possessed some special ability that obviated this. Usually, their Master would be forced to return them to their crest to carry them elsewhere, though they often had a certain amount of freedom in where they could deploy the Embryo in their immediate area.
He approached us in a ship with stealth capabilities and put out his Embryo so that it surrounded the Adventure II. That trapped us inside it, Shu concluded.
Other than the Embryo’s enormous size and the fact that it had bypassed the sensors of a cutting-edge Granvaloan ship, the situation was fairly straightforward—not nearly as bizarre as the initial sight suggested.
There was that voice too. This guy must be highly specialized in tech.
Shu had never faced whoever this was before, but he guessed that he must be the same type of person as Mr. Franklin, who hailed from Altar’s archenemy Dryfe.
“...Whoa.”
And then, the situation suddenly changed.
One of the mechanical arms on the dock moved, stopping just above the Adventure II’s deck.
It was holding a massive monitor, which then lit up with the image of a man.
“Do you understand your situation?” the man said. He was wearing a military uniform, but not one from Granvaloa, and not even one from modern-day Earth.
It was something from an entire century ago—the white uniform of the old Japanese Navy.
That just made Shu even more certain whom they were now dealing with.
“Yamamoto! Whaddya want?!” Riella called out in anger, clearly recognizing him.
“Yamamoto? Is he the one we had to watch out fur?” Shu asked Asam.
“Yes. He’s the guy you called a ‘military nerd’... The Superior and King of Building, Satomi Yamamoto. You didn’t recognize him?”
“I’ve never seen his face before.” The clan’s home page only had his name, along with some pics and vids of his creations. There were no pictures of the guy himself, Shu recalled. Satomi was the leader of Granvaloa’s top-ranking clan and undoubtedly one of the country’s most powerful assets, but it seemed that he fed his ego by giving the spotlight not to himself but to the ships he created.
“Though... I can see beary clearly why everyone says he’s a huge geek about the military”
That uniform must have been custom-made, and only someone truly enthusiastic about the topic would wear historical military attire in a fantasy-themed world.
The outfit would’ve certainly made him stand out in real life, and since Dendro’s default clothing fit its fantasy aesthetic, he stood out here as well. However, he didn’t seem to care about that at all.