The Celestina Empire, Mechania Heavy Machinery, Production Facility, 29th January 1524 / 225

After the Liberation of Selarong, Myrus and Lassan disembark at Mechania before regrouping with diplomat officials at Mechania Heavy Machinery. They gathered before they depart to the Royal Capital of Regnieburg. The Mechania guide took them into the Mechania Heavy Machinery Production facility. They can see the production of heavy arsenals that are working together between technology and magic.

“This is the main production of all technology arsenals: Firearms, equipment, even parts of the vessel such as starships are being made here.”

Myrus, Lassan, and other officials are just silent as they look at the robot and engineers working along, and it seems they are doing their jobs in unison. Their accuracy was accurate, and it seems they enjoy the job the most.

“Is the materials arrived from the processing facility?”

“It’s on its way! ETA 10 minutes!”

“Prepare the sorting facility!”

The workers are preparing to welcome the materials gathered by the adventurers. Myrus and Lassan are curious as they want to know how adventurers were able to make their earnings.

“How did they were able to make their earnings from the adventure?”

“Dungeons in our country are constantly growing and expanding. So we regularly do a subjugation. There are thousands of dungeons inside the Celestina Empire, from a simple one to a formidable dungeon that requires a raid party to conquer it. The deeper and the higher the dungeon threat is, the better the rewards will be. We put our lives on the line to obtain that material, and we give them the payment based on the quantity and quality of the materials.

Death is a thing that we always face day to day without breaks. It becomes our routine when we go into the dungeon. That is why the quest on the Adventurer’s Guild request board are endless.”

It seems even the worker from this facility goes into the dungeon to earn more money by risking their lives to earn more materials by subjugating the monsters.

They saw several containers arrive from the production facility, and once the contents inside are being poured out into a sorting area for production. Some went to the bullet production, some went to the equipment production, and some went to weapons and armor production.

The factory scale is already beyond Mu’s expectations, let alone that because of the Dimensional Disruption Technology made by the combination of magic and technology, they can increase their space up to five times its size. The production facility is also one of the main points where Mu finds that the Celestina Empire makes a balanced production between guided weaponry and direct weaponry. Myrus was curious as she wants to know further about the other facility at the Celestina Empire.

“Is it possible that we can go to the Celestina Drydock tomorrow? We want to see their strongest warship on the sea.”

“Of course. I will arrange it with the crew of Scharlwarltz right away.”

With the arrangement set, they set out for the Royal Capital of Regnieburg to visit the drydock that houses Celestina’s warship that was being branded as the strongest warship on the sea, Scharlwarltz.

The Celestina Empire, Royal Capital Regnieburg, Drydock Luarca 1, Scharlwarltz-class Superheavy Battleship, 30th January 1524 / 225

“I can’t believe this…”

What lies in front of Myrus and Lassan is the warship that becomes a pinnacle of the warship. They look at the ship's record, and Mu saw the battleship itself was famous as “The Interstellar Battleship” due to surviving four Interstellar Wars. On Earth, Scharlwarltz-class becomes a symbol of despair for Earth citizens following their crushing defeat in the Fourth Interstellar War.

During Fourth Interstellar War, one Scharlwarltz-class Battleship marks the official rebirth of the Battleship era as the main projection power of the Navy following its crushing victory at Corvo by destroying five Carrier Strike Group deployed by the UN single-handedly with no damage received. The Scharlwarltz-class Superheavy Battleship becomes a symbol of despair for Earth citizens following the UN’s complete defeat in the Battle of Corvo.

The Third Interstellar War was already the beginning of the decline of the Aircraft Carrier era as the main projection power of the Navy following the destruction of five carrier strike groups with their own missiles as Scrin Navy send their fleet. The fleet consisting of three Battleships, four Cruisers, three Destroyers, and two Aircraft Carrier continues to sail until the Battleship successfully ravages UN Headquarters in New York along with the city without opposition. Scrin also mocks them as Earth will have no chance of defeating them as they do not possess a Battleship, further stating that their fire and forget arsenals cannot harm them in any way.

The destruction of New York is an alarming tragedy after the entire fire and forget weaponry did not deal any damage to the Scrin Fleet. Scrin gives them five years to construct a Battleship to defeat them, but not before Celestina moves to intercept their fleet on the way back to the Pacific Sea and suffers their first defeat. The UN grows desperate after the destruction of New York. They choose to hire the Celestina Empire to assist them in repelling the Scrin Army that invades Earth to harvest Earth’s mineral and magnet power following Celestina’s successful effort to repel Scrin Navy at the Pacific Seas.

The Scrin has special equipment called ALRS (Automatic Launch Reversal System), the most dangerous technology for fire and forget arsenals by the entire military on Earth. An anti-ship missile launched by aircraft will target friendlies instead of the enemy. An anti-ship missile launched by the ship will target the ship that launches it or a nearby friendly ship after a kilometer away. The same thing works for the submarine as well as it works the same thing as how anti-ship behaves. Ground launch missiles will target any military assets owned by Earth, or worse, military installations. Ballistic missiles were also affected, as every coordinate installed inside the system was instantly revised when the operator turned the key to launch. ALRS hacks every military system, modifies its information, and coordinates a split second before it launches, earning the technology a title of “Return to Sender” for any arsenals that uses fire and forget methods, mainly missile, and torpedoes. Once the military system was infected, it spreads rapidly in a second, allowing Scrin to receive absolute protection from any fire and forget attacks, making all non-manual guided weaponry obsolete.

ALRS technology intrusion will remain in effect until the source of the technology was destroyed or disabled. Initially, it has a range of 1,000km, but once it infects the satellite, it spreads globally, and the ownership of ALRS can switch around with unique code. IT Engineers call the ALRS technology a “Program Assassin” designed to strike whenever they want to launch any fire and forget weaponry to Scrin Navy. Both Black and White Hatters cannot hack it since the program was only active when someone is about to launch the Fire and Forget weaponry. Countermeasures are not effective, as they cannot figure out how the system works. The fall of the UN Headquarters at New York by a small fleet is clear evidence that the military cannot deny. Submarines also can’t use their weapons, as submerged submarines will only throw their bullets back to them, and their crews cannot risk using the manual-guided torpedoes.

However, the ALRS system implement by Scrin cannot affect manual guided arsenals, such as missiles operating by a laser designator or LOSBR restricted to SACLOS. Guided shells are also not affected, as it takes the primary role of the artillery. Celestina is the first to notice the flaw of ALRS when fighting a Scrin Navy without firing missiles that have automatic features. To prove it, they launch a guided missile with a Prowler using the SACLOS method, where the Prowler will mark the target for a kill once the missile is in range. It was an effective way to destroy Scrin Navy as Scrin does not have adequate defenses to deal with manual-guided weapons and direct combat.

Looking at the Third Interstellar Battle record, the lead class of the Scharlwarltz-class, CIS Scharlwarltz, is nearly destroyed after forcing several Scrin Cruiser Starship to go down from the orbit to face it directly during Defense of St. Celestina. Scrin was forced to use their weapon when engaging CIS Natunia, a Scharlwarltz-class Battleship during Invasion on Earth at Third Interstellar War right before five years of lull. Their usual method that destroys Earth’s Carrier Strike Group did not work against Celestina. The United Nations militaries were full of debates to revive the Battleship after CIS Natunia repelled Scrin Navy during five years of rest. However, most of the military brass debunk and reject it as Battleship remains obsolete in their view. They stay opting in using carrier and fire and forget arsenals to project their power as a main naval force. However, following the tragedy in New York and how ineffective their weapons were against Scrin, the UN military decides to build a new Battleship to combat Scrin Navy. They plan to scrap the battleship once the Third Interstellar War is over. This decision, however, brings them to the defeat in the Fourth Interstellar War, where the battleship once again takes the throne for the Naval Power as the Battleship from Third Interstellar War was already scrapped when Celestina invades.

The secret lies in Celestina’s method of using manual designator targets to prevent their warship from being backtracked and disable the fire-and-forget feature. CIS Natunia defeated the Scrin Fleet with a few damages, except for air targets that must be handle with a series of dogfights. The guided missiles were launched from the warship into a designated coordinate with laser guidance. The Celestina Navy deploys several spotters to mark and guide the missile to the target. It was a very risky tactic, but it clearly shows the results that the stratagem is worth to be used. Because the entire crew of the ship is Valkyries, they can mark the target in mid-air due to their natural ability to fly.

“So, how did this warship received damage to the point where the invasion fleet almost destroyed it during the Third Interstellar War?”

Myrus asked the Valkyrie crew, who guide them, makes an answer.

“They choose to take us head-on, which was our defense measures are lacking or not sufficient to take them head-on. Although we have superior firepower, our defensive capability for manual-guided weapons is limited. That is how their attacks almost destroyed our warship during the Third Interstellar War.”

“So you mean, they need a spotter or have to be manually controlled to make sure it hit the ship?”

“Yes. We have the technology to detect an incoming target. We can intercept some, but not the entire attack, for a manually controlled warhead since a manual-operated control can act unexpectedly. If they lock us on using guided missiles with Fire and Forget concepts, our defense measure will immediately track and destroy it before reaching visual range. Since we know the nature of the guided missile, it’s easy to counter it compared to manual-controlled missiles.”

The Scharlwarltz-class Superheavy Battleship was loaded with:

Arsenals:

2 x Twin 250mm Navy MAC Onager Mark IV 2 x Triple barreled 460mm Naval Cosmo Matrix Hybrid Cannon SSM GEN IV 2 x Twin 40cm Plasma Cannon HD-1 SSM GEN II 6 x Twin Bofors 50mm 10 Point Defense Gun 25mm RAS-54 8 x 8 SDAPM-2 DLS 12 Flak 88R MACA 4 x Quadruple Assault Torpedo Bay 240 VLS Hybrid AAPM-1

Defenses:

8 Ultrawave Undersea Crusher UOI S-12 36 Stanchion Barret 6.0mm NSA UHS-22 24 Pulse Laser Defense MHM-2 5x Field Dispersal Generator MiA-SSM Grade 1 GEN VII 2x Heavy Astral Shield GE Grade 1 GEN VIII Titanium Nanolaminate Sage S-Class JTM-7 Hybrid FSA SSM ALRS GEN V Electromagnetic Defenses Sea Tractor Beams

Engine:

4 x 6 Side Booster Navy Repulsor Engine (2 Primary, 4 Secondary) LMI-12 Propeller (Three bows and five rear, Tertiary) WET Detrium Fusion Reactor GEN V S-7 (At least 20 Terawatt)

Equipment, Sensors, and communications:

Holographic Sensor LMI-2 Aurora UOI-5 Sonar FSA WV-2 Wavecom Datalinks (18 Channels) FSA RDS-6 “Radar Drone Sensors” FSA-8 Hyperscanner KI HijTec Mark-IV Dimension Disruptor Underwater entrance for Undines Bubble Wrap (For Underwater Travel)

Complement:

1,200 Crew (Officers) 2 Combat Battalion up to 600 personnel + 18 pilots. 5 Starfighter + 2 ID-22 TC

Size:

379.2 meters (Length), 45,2 meters (width), 15,4 meter (draft), 98,2 meter (height), 56,5 meter (Surface deck wide)

275.000 tons (displacement)

Manufacturer:

Scharlwarltz Sage Manufacturer

Speed:

Repulsor Engine: 240km/h (Surface), 200km/h (Submerged under Emelone’s ability), 120km/h (Without Emelone’s ability)

Propeller: 85km/h (Surface), 80km/h (Submerged under Emelone’s ability), 60km/h (Without Emelone’s ability)

Ship Constructed:

24 (All in service)

The more Myrus, Lassan, and the Military Officers look at it, the more sweat they made. Not only that, this ship has the best record in the entire warship history, where it remains undefeated for centuries. One of the most memorable moments listed on the Battleship’s record is when fighting Scrin Navy Battleship, the Annihilator-class Battleship, exclusively designed to combat Scharlwarltz-class Superheavy Battleship. One note makes Myrus curious as she wonders what the meaning of twenty-four Captains and Executive Officer is. She wondered how those twenty-four Captains and XO possess the abilities that can enhance this battleship to become stronger than without it.

“I’m sorry if I have to ask, but… Why there are only twenty-four Captains and Executive Officer, who are they, and why no one can replace them?”

“Nine of them are the Main Councils member, and you can see one of the twenty-four lists is Queen of Embellia, Emelone. The rest of the fourteen are currently classified as they are the ones who were selected by the founder of the ship’s class to become Captain and XO of the ship. This ship itself possesses abilities when commanded by a certain Captain and or XO. When it was operated by a Captain and XO that was not on the twenty-four Commanders' list, it will not have an ability.

We do not make additional ships since the Main Advisor decided to do so.”

Compared to Mu’s battleship La Kasami, this is clear that their ship was far behind the Celestina Empire’s warship. The Valkyrie smiles as they become more nervous. To think that La Kasami must land all a direct salvo hit on Scharlwarltz, but they doubt that even with numbers of the battleship Mu possesses, they can’t take that battleship down. The entire navy may not be able to sink this ship, let alone suppress it.

“Right now, we will take you to one of the shipyards. Please bring the new crew and the fresh recruits since we estimate that this ship’s construction will complete in two years, and we will give it to Mu to study.”

“Eh? What?”

Myrus, Lassan, and the military officers went to another shipyard where they find the battleship is currently under construction.

“What is this… what do you want to build?”

“One of the battleships that were more suitable for you to study than our current battleship. We will call this based on your nation, Mu, and it will be a lead class of Mu-class Battleship.”

“W-What?!”

Celestina already prepares to give Mu a more advanced battleship than their own. If Mu can own this, perhaps they can learn everything from these technologies.

“A-are you sure that the Celestina Empire is going to give us a battleship?”

“Certainly. We also take your aircraft La Chaos for upgrading. Feel free to tear it apart for study when you reach back home.”

“!”

To think that the Celestina Empire wants to give Mu a battleship and upgrading Mu’s engines. Myrus continues to ask for more information about the Battleship they will receive.

“S-so, how will this ship fare against Grade Atlastar?”

“Toe-to-toe if you got a well-trained crew. The best is you can send it to us as soon as possible for training since operating this battleship will not be easy as you can think of. If your crews are veterans, it has more advantage than Grade Atlastar.”

“O-of course! I will arrange it once I get back to Mu!”

“Good. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Valkyrie guide guides the Mu Officials into one of the Strongest Battle Group Headquarters on the Celestina Empire, Battle Group Scharlwarltz. Inside this base itself, the Valkyries are training themselves to the limits. Mu military officials and diplomats can’t make a single comment to witness how fierce the training is.

The Valkyries train themselves at every inch of the aspects of combat, indicating their awareness and seriousness. Sword, spear, axes are clashing against each other. They also train themselves to deflect and dodge the bullets while some Valkyries are practicing their magic strength. They are the primary strength of the Celestina Air Force. Despite there is snow around the ground, and it was the end of the winter, the training remains intense.

The Mu officials are astonished to see the entire personnel on this Battle Group are all females as there are no males around the Valkyrie ranks.

“D-do they enlist females into the battlefield?”

“We do. Sasha Sylwinder, the adjutant of Freya Luminaire, is also a female. She holds the current title of the Strongest Kick of the Empire. We put them in an equal league with males, to be exact. Because on Battle Group Scharlwarltz, only a very few people can be selected by Main Advisor and us, and it’s also a handpicked one. Also, the ones who can authorize the mobilization of this group are not the Main Council or even the leader of nations itself.”

“Who has the authority to deploy it?”

“The Main Advisor, the Commander in Chief of the Zealot Strike Force, and the Great Emperor’s father.”

“Why the Main Council and the Emperor are not authorized to deploy it?”

“This Battle Group was designed by the leaders exclusively for at least the world conflict level. Any local military conflict or even where the Papaldia Empire will wage war on the Celestina Empire, we will not deploy them. A squad from this Battle Group can vanquish the Papaldia Empire because of their combat capabilities, and they are very lethal.

Right now, the Main Council has issued a new order. The Main Advisor also verified the order, so we put heavy restriction equipment on our strength and magic because we are aware of the Ravernal Empire's return.

Scharlwarltz-class Superheavy Battleship and other warship entirely operated by the Valkyries are all officers, and all personnel on the Battle Group Scharlwarltz are officers. The Main Council doesn’t have the authorization to deploy us since they already have their own Battle Group unless the Main Advisor commands the Main Council to deploy us.”

Myrus’s ears went down, realizing the reality of the Celestina Empire’s military strength is beyond her expectations. If they are serious about conquering this world, then perhaps two squads from the Battle Group Scharlwarltz are more than enough to dominate this world. Thankfully, the Celestina Empire know how to behave as a Superpower, let alone that Mu’s decision to admit Celestina as one of the superpowers was the right choice.

However, presenting Mu with a new battleship is definitely going to bring the entire Navy brass into an uproar since they will never expect a gift from the Celestina Empire. She can admire that the Celestina Empire is always preparing their troops for the war, so they were ready when the time comes.

Two Hours Later, Adventurers Guild Royal Capital Headquarters

Around the Headquarters, the Mu Official did not see any vehicle nearby. The only exception they see is the truck used to deliver supplies from and to the Adventurers Guild, the public transportation such as bus, subway, and hover tram, and the ambulances. People with varieties of clothes are often flocking around the guild. Some of them are using mounts such as biological creatures like Mystic Wolves, Pegasus, and mechanical mounts such as Overlord Aegis and June Dreadnought.

Across the guild was the Adventurers Guild Transportation Tower. Public transportations are being directed into the tower for disembarking and embarking adventurers and civilians who work here. The first floor features a station hub and food court. From the second floor onwards, the adventurers that gather for the dungeon exploring, subjugating, and going into other territory’s tower must pay a certain amount of money to the gatekeeper before they are allowed to come in by the gatekeeper.

“It feels like the privilege of being an adventurer in this Empire can make you rich than doing office work all day.”

That was Myrus’s first impression upon witnessing the Celestinian Adventurers' activity going in and out of the Adventurers Guild Transportation Tower. Adventurers from multiple races wearing the equipment they like as it becomes their daily habit. The military personnel is also there since at least a quarter of the Celestinian Adventurers are military personnel, either active or reserve personnel.

The medical area was also bustling with wounded adventurers that require immediate attention. Most of the wounded adventurers receive their wounds due to their own mistakes and go on an adventure without contingency plans. Some of the healers and supports are reprimanding the attacker for going too recklessly. Both support and healers also scold the adventurer who took a tank role due to not giving them proper protection. In some cases, the supports and healers sometimes receive a scolding from tanks and attackers, especially if they often make a blunder on supporting them, such as wrong timing to recast the buff or wrong target on healing.

After the adventure, adventurers who fell ill are immediately escorted by the medical team to the hospital to receive treatment and diagnose the symptoms they receive from the recent adventure. The supply store that sells potions and medicines often running out of supplies due to the high demand from the adventurers. As a result, the quest board often got filled by the potion maker and hospitals' tasks, ranging from S to F Rank. The materials requested by herbalists, alchemists, and hospitals not only doubled but sometimes tripled the initial amount. However, the rewards are also increasing up to four times than before.

Special elixirs, such as Resurrection Potion, Disease Recovery, and Full Restoration Potion, are some of the potions that a certain herbalist and alchemist can only produce. The ingredients alone were worth being classified by the guild at least S Rank. The price ranged between 1 to 10 Platinum Coins or 1 million to 10 Million Ceny, equal to a medium-sized fully furnished house with a garden in the backyard. It was one of the most expensive potions to be made due to the difficulties of obtaining the ingredients, and it requires a Master-class License of potion-making from the Main Council to produce it.

Due to its rarity and difficulty, the potions at the S rank are sold exclusive to only S rank and above, except any adventurers that acquired a Master-class License of potion-making from the Main Council. The condition for any adventurer below S-Rank possessing a Master-class License of potion-making to own S Rank potion is to use it exclusively for the party and sold it to the S Rank adventurers above.

“What if they can build the Adventurers guild in our country?”

“That will be excellent.”

Yuuna has just returned from the S Rank subjugation. She looks tired, but Myrus can see the enjoyment on her face.

“What it feels like to be an adventurer, Miss Yuuna?”

“You can take as many jobs as you want. Also, there are many types of a quest, from delivery to subjugation. Please come with me if you want to see how the appraisal will appraise the loot.”

Following Yuuna to the appraisal area, she drops off lots of the materials and ingredients. The appraisal takes a look at it as the staff already know what to do. Myrus saw a lot of materials, such as scales, tusks, skins, herbs, and much more.

“Please give us thirty minutes to appraise all of this.”

“Okay.”

While waiting, Myrus asks several questions to Yuuna about the Celestina Empire’s military.

“I’ve been wondering why the Empire’s active personnel can participate in an adventure?”

“Because aside from the formal training we’ve received. We are also going on an adventure to hone our skills. Fighting with many types of monsters and stuff like that makes you able to adapt quickly to the situation. You can meet unknown monsters outside this world that often make the military panic and send their best guns to beat them. In reality, their best gun was not always the answer. So when there is a new threat coming, we make some assessments before make a quick decision on what to use to beat it.

You know our pride of the sea, Scharlwarltz, right? That battleship was designed like that so only the Fleet Battles can defeat it. I recall the Valkyries already gave all of you a handout about how Scharlwarltz destroy Earth’s Carrier Strike Group single-handedly. In the future, you may need to use a guided missile and fire and forget concept. But further in the future, versatility and adaptation is your only answer.”

“So, that means we need to be prepared for anything, then?”

“Exactly as I said. I’m sorry if my words may offend your higher-ups, but note that if your brass doesn’t want to acknowledge it, then your country is certain to be doomed by an anomaly or opponent that you never face before if you are not prepared for war.”

What Yuuna said was true. If Mu did not prepare their defenses against the Gra Valkas Empire and develop new technology and strategies right now, they would be certain to lose.

“Miss Caskett? The assessment is complete.”

“How is it?”

“You’ve got plenty of high-quality raw materials. You can earn around 4 Platinum Coins, 2 Large Gold Coins, and 5 Medium Gold Coins or equivalent to 4,25 million Ceny.”

“I will take it. Does it already include tax as well?”

“Yes. We already take 750 thousand Ceny as a tax.”

“Thank you. Please process it and put it inside this card.”

Myrus looks at how the appraisal staff processes it while Yuuna gives her adventurer’s card. One of the diplomats asks Yuuna.

“How much the tax you must pay?”

“Fifteen percent of it. The Empire’s primary income is from the adventurers, and fifteen percent was a fixed amount for everyone who goes on an adventure. We also apply a fixed amount of tax for the foreigners or any citizens who use our guild for adventure, fifteen percent. If we open the branch outside the homeland, the government of that country will earn ten percent of it, so we only took five percent tax fees.”

“Where the tax goes if the Empire can collect such an abundant amount of money annually?”

“The government will use tax from the guild to improve the guild further. Rewards, upgrades, salary for the staff, daily guild operational, anything that can improve this guild. We also utilize it to develop our infrastructure further in order to strengthen our economy and military.”

Once the staff returns Yuuna’s card, she looks at Myrus and the diplomats.

“You can send your people here to earn more profits. But I must warn you that it will be their own decision since there are dungeons where we will face the oddity of getting killed by the monsters. That’s why most of our citizens already face what it feels like to be dying once.”

“Thank you. I will remember that.”

“Oh, please make sure all of you attend the Council Meeting a day after tomorrow. Also, don’t be shy to meet with other diplomats.”

“Yes.”

Two days later, Mu will face their first global conference, and it will be their first experience to attend a meeting that was far greater than the conference in the new world they currently reside in.