Chapter 329 - Warrig (1/2)

The days on the ship passed quickly, Mercury was mostly working on his plan to destroy the weapon that had been based in Ode, but he found time to flirt with Julia and Marie too, soon they arrived at their midpoint destination the War-rig, Mercury looked up from the deck of the ship at the massive rig that could best be described as an oilrig repurposed to be mobile sea fort, it was one of five that had been towed into position to blockade the sea routes to Ode while staying outside the range of the ancient superweapon, the entire rig was more than 3 kilometers across and featured well over a hundred magic powered cannons, these so-called War-rig's were not only mobile forts but also featured a standing marine army of about 2 thousand men per rig, these War-rig's were a true testament to the naval power of Juliantia, that said, they weren't normally in these waters and were taken from the border of Jliantia to blockade Ode and as time passed they bordering countries would enviably notice that there were a few War-rig's missing on the border

”...And then they might do an attack of opportunity huh…”

”Exactly, so having them here is only a temporary solution”

Mercury nodded, then he patted Ben on the shoulder, he had explained the situation about the War-rig's to Mercury

”Well then, let's get aboard…”

Ben nodded before he asked Mercury

”Are you really planning to do… 'That' to infiltrate Ode?”

Ben had been helping Mercury over the last couple of weeks with his hashing out his crazy infiltration plan so he was the most familiar with the plan besides Mercury himself, as for the girls he had not told them yet, Mercury nodded

”Yeah, it's the best plan I currently have”

Ben sighed before he complained

”You are one crazy bastard…”

”I'll take that as a compliment”

Soon the group boarded the War-rig named Samantha and was met with a middle-aged man with tanned skin that wore a sleeveless jacket that exposed his bulging arm muscles that were covered in scars

”Hello and welcome aboard Samantha, I am the Rig master, my name is Andreas”

Mercury shook hands with Andreas before he spoke

”This is an impressive War-rig… I'm told you have a forge here?”

Andreas nodded before he gestured for the group to follow after him, as they walked he spoke to Julia with respect and greeted the others as well, the War-rig was like a small town that even had an inn, Mercury asked Andreas about this and apparently, it was for merchants entering the waters of Julinatia that would have their ships checked for weres to calculate a toll while they stayed the night on the rig as well as for crews of ships needing repair that could be performed after the ships had docked on the rig, soon the group reached the maintenance district where the forges were located, the maintenance district took up about half of the limited space on the War-rig, but this space was also calculated with the homes of the workes in mind, for reference the parting of the space on the War-rig Samantha was a quarter for military training, a quarter for the standing marine army's housing and the last half for maintenance facilities as well as housing for the workes

”Here we are, you are free to use this workshop as per orders of the king, the assault on Ode will begin in five days so whatever plan you have you better get working on it quickly”

”Yeah, I'll begin at once”

”Okay, I'll show the rest of the group to their quarters then”

Mercury was soon left in the workshop along with Marie who would be assisting him in the forging, she looked at him with slight suspension in her eyes and asked

”So are you finally telling what we're going to be making?”

Mercury nodded and spoke straightforwardly

”Well, a rather large mana-powered cannon… And a custom shell designed to open up mid-air, at around 200 meters of altitude where it will deliver a payload”

”And what's the payload?”

Mercury looked to the side slightly

”Well… Me...”

Marie looked blankly at Mercury before she picked up a nearby hammer and spoke with a wide smile and cold looking eyes

”If you want to cripple yourself further I can do it for you, you know?”