With every mile we travelled, the density of monsters was increasing.

At first we were dealing with minor nuisances, like krakens and sharks. Then we started dealing with major nuisances, like running out of fuel and having to bunch up by Fairy for a few times.

‘Ping…’

“Oh man, here we go again…”

‘Ping…’

“Is that what I think it is?” Patricia put the sonar’s headphone to her ear.

‘Ping’

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s get ready then.” (P)

‘Ping’

“All ships, launch torpedoes at my 11 o’clock.”

[“Orders confirmed.”]

‘Ping’

“Fire depth charges.”

‘Ping’

Pom Pom

‘Ping-Ping-Ping’

A sea dragon had no choice but to surface after deafening rain of depth charges.

An overbuffed late-game squadron can’t have any issues with a mid-game boss.

‘RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!’

The depth charges did barely any damage, aside from angering the monster.

While the sea dragon was charging at us in fury, I calmly observed the wristwatch.

“10 seconds…”

“3…”

“Now.”

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

“I guess full torpedo salvo from 4 ships was an overkill. Let’s move on.”

[I find it funny that I was almost torn apart and burnt to death when I met such a thing for the first time. Well, I could barely fight a merchant ship at that time.]

I remembered my initial struggles with a nostalgic smile. Not that I wish to return to that state. No, thank you.

Afterwards we were attacked by several schools of sea wyverns, a kraken, and a few more weird monsters.

---

By the end of the day I started feeling bored by my OPness. Like, I can actually one salvo anything here. There are no worthy opponents for me at this stage.

I was so confident in my invulnerability, that I went to sleep and let the ship sail on autopilot.

Dear me, how stupid I was.

‘BOM’

‘SCREECH’

I was woken up by me flying off the bed into a wall.

The ship came to a sudden stop.

[Stats! Stats! STATS!]

‘Ding’

‘Warning! Multiple compartments breached!’

‘Warning! Hull breaches below the waterline!’

‘Warning! Ship ran aground!’

‘KNOCK-KNOCK’

“Who’s there…?”

“COME OUT, YOU IDIOT! I ALMOST FLEW OVERBOARD! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?!” Patricia started pounding the door.

“One moment…!” I quickly searched for a ventilation to squeeze into.

There were no options to hide, so I had to face the death head on.

“He-he… Sorry…?”

“Sorry~? Sorry she says~?” I used all of the evasion and buffs I had to squeeze past the enraged girl, whose fingers were creeping towards my neck.

When I escaped to the deck, I saw that the ship was driven ashore and the bow managed to burrow into an island’s sand.

The squadron’s ships were sailing around in circles. The stupid AI had no idea where to sail, since I’m not moving.

Meanwhile, Fairy set up the mobile base.

“Can I have some help…?”

[“I am surprised it took you just ten minutes to start acting. I was betting on one hour.”]

“I am in a desperate situation, so let’s start working.”

[“Sail here and pick up the towing cables. I don’t plan on stranding myself by approaching.”]

Just like that, we remained in place for another day. All because I was overconfident, and forgot that no matter how scarce land is here, it does exist.

---

It took us some more time and monster fighting to encounter something truly bizarre.

One morning I woke up after a short nap, and was on my way to the bridge with a cup of coffee in hand.

When I entered the bridge, I glanced through the windows, only to see that they all are fogged up.

“We have an emergency! All personnel, gather up at the bridge! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!”

Everybody clumped up in a minute. The girls were all at different stages of preparedness. All the way from soap on the face to bed hair. All except for Yuri, who was carrying a bleeding body of a seagull.

“First, let us mourn another loss among our ranks. Second, we are in the middle of a fog. We may be super close to the Demon king’s castle!”

“That’s great but how are we supposed to see it through this?” Patricia pointed at the windows.

The visibility was so good that I won’t be able to even see the bow through the windows. It’s like we are a submarine in a sea of milk.

I started racking my brain on what to do, until my eyes caught the fluttering corpse of the seagull.

“Hey, girls… What do you think about using the seagulls? Will it work out?”

“They were made to control the weather, and fog is weather condition too. It is worth giving it a try.” With Yuriko’s uncertain affirmation I went to the deck.

‘Whistle’

“Hey, you little bastards! Come here! I need you to do something for me!” I shouted to the seagulls that nested in the least reachable places of the ship. Maybe because they are being hunted.

‘Ca-ca-ca!’

The seagulls grumbled at me. Then I revealed my trump card.

“If you ain’t gonna help me, then I might let this huge school of fish, that is swimming right below us, to go away… All that tasty fresh fish will swim away, without being eaten…”

‘Ca-ca-ca!’

The cawing of discontent immediately was replaced with cheerful and friendly cawing.

[You wait, little bastards…! If you won’t do you job well, I will actually set up a barbecue zone for that fox!]