Early morning.

Dawn Beacon. Land of Harmony.

 

Wagons and carriages originated from Teroku made a beeline into the Land. As they reached Dawn Beacon, the drivers pulled a stop in the vicinity of the town. The last supply was 2 days ago. This is too early for another delivery and usually they don’t bring this many people here so carriages are a strange sight.

 

“Hey, lads.” A brown-beard dwarf waved at the leading carriage.

 

The coachman hurriedly opened the door. Two gentlemen in military uniform from the carriage offered their greeting.

“Are you shipmaster Borag? My name is Paul Max.”

“And I am John Doe Smith. You can call me John. We are communication officers for this mission.”

 

These men have been informed of their new colleagues by the ambassadors of the Land. Short in stature but sturdy in build, a dwarf is as strong as any man twice their height. Most of them lives a healthy life up to 200 years and even in their twilight, a dwarf is still an active architect, builder and craftsman working diligently to hone their skills.

 

Although the ambassadors assured them there is nothing to worry when working with the dwarves, their impression of Borag was still that of a fat and brute chief of barbarians just as any dwarven chief would be in folktales of their old world. The dwarves in their world are people of the underground, of dark caves and hollow mountain. Living in the same places that house the world’s most vile creatures such as big spiders, old demons, large serpents, dragons, and evil spirits, the dwarves adapted a brutish style of living. Their stout body is not filled with fat, those are very large muscles. Just think of them as if all the muscles in a bodybuilder being crammed inside a body half that tall. Most, if not all of them, are harden warriors carrying heavy weapons. With most of their entire civilization having to deal with irrational creatures that hunt their kind for flesh, the dwarves did not evolve a very mannerly demeanor.

 

Efforts to reach out to them were made. To the very first human kingdoms that invited the dwarves to their banquet and discuss diplomatic relation, their manners were not a spectacular sight. This further lowered the view of man upon the dwarves. Then there is their devotion to the art of crafting. Their passion elevated their technology too far above common sense that once they were labeled heretics and evil worshippers. Long story short, the human initiated a crusade against dwarven kind. This long and brutal war forever severs the two races’ relation. Even now when humans came back with gifts and apologies, the only reply they got was minimal enthusiasm from the mountain hall. Trades did slowly open up but the dwarves would always open their eyes wide. Carved words on stone take time to faded. The dwarves remember their wound well. Just as the creatures that prey upon them, human is also considered as vile.

 

The knowledge of their past world doesn’t apply here because Borag certainly doesn’t give off the vibe. Borag’s attire was as Paul and John would note in their mind, plain but neat. It is definitely different from the extravagant outfit that is filled with jewels and precious metals of the dwarven chief. His manner and appearance were also… civilized.

 

“Glad to see you this early, lads. Paul and John.” He took a quick glance at the wagons line. “Let’s go, shall we? There are a lot of work today.”

 

As the movement resumed, Paul asked nervously.

“Shipmaster Borag. If I may ask, where is shipmaster Dimithil?”

 

Several weeks ago, seeing the impossibility of an immediate marine fleet, Teroku arranged a contract with the Land. Teroku wanted to scout the eastern sea as the water of the east is the nearest to its capital. They want to know what are there that could be a problem to its security. The state, in fact, wanted to explore all directions but there are limited operational ships in the Land so for the time being they were satisfied with just the eastern expedition. The two shipmasters in charge of this operation were Borag and Dimithil, an elf.

 

Elf is another extraordinary race. Based on John and Paul’s previous encounter during their foreign training, they are a race full of mystics. Being born in the cradle of their forest, elves have close connection to forest lives. They can hear and speak to the mind of beasts. Most will allow them safe passing in exchange for a later favor. While not completely immune to death, they are ageless, the stuff of envy for mortal race. To protect themselves from the malice of other races they live secluded from the rest of the world. A prideful race as others thought but the truth doesn’t fall far either, for they do think other mortal kinds are beneath them. They see them the same as they see the beasts that wander their forest which they offer a promise to feign off their hunger.

 

The only exception are the fairies, spirits of the forest that hold great magical power. Every elf at the very young age has to make friend with at least one fairy which will accompany the said elf till either of them was claimed by death. The elf’s nigh infinite lifeforce fed the fairies and in return the fairies allow the elf to use magic effortlessly. To elven kind, their eternal friendship with the fairies is all that’s needed for their timeless life. Thus, they have even less incentive to conduct business with the outside world. This is the very reason John and Paul are even more wary of the elves than the dwarves. However, no matter how anxious they are the ambassadors’ answer was indifferent. They were literally told to treat both kinds the same as how they would treat other officers in their past foreign trips.

 

As written in their schedule, they were supposed to meet both shipmasters in Dawn Beacon before moving to where the ships are docking. Borag’s friendliness settled their uneasiness about the dwarves but the absence of Dimithil alerted them that may be something was not right.

 

“Dimithil…” Borag looked troubled as he tried to find the appropriate words. “There is no problem actually. Their ship seems to have some businesses so he would meet us at the shore.”

“It’s good to know. Thank you, sir.”

“So tell me. Is this the first time you serve on a warship?”

“Not really sir. We have our fair share on foreign fleet during our training.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“Though it will be our first to be on magnificent ships such as yours, sir.”

“Oh ha ha ha.”

“We are wondering what kind of ships they are.”

“You’ll see. It’s not easy to describe them on paper without causing confusion so I refrained from doing so but you’ll see them soon enough.” Borag knew his Teroku’s friends were troubled about something so he tried to open up the conversation but thing went awkward for both sides.

 

“Just a little tip. I don’t know how you imagined but he is not the stereotype.” Borag guessed that John and Paul were concerned about Dimithil so he gave a hint not knowing that they were on edge about meeting the entire crews. To John and Paul, not the stereotype must mean the shipmaster is not the kind of stuck-up elf they used to have to suck up to. Their face brightened up visibly.

 

“Thank you, shipmaster.”

 

That was easy. Borag thought. He knew Dimithil for a long time. One hell of an elf if Borag has to say without reserve. While being a gifted individual, his mindset and behaviors are less elf and more something else that they deemed “vulgar and problematic”. The elven high command and the central council have already decided that Dimithil is too good to cast away so they will bite their lips and get him acquainted with national duty one way or another. In another way of saying, he got the power so destiny has something in store for him and it falls to us to make him walk the “right path”. He didn’t know how Teroku knew about “the walking migraine instill” Dimithil but convince himself that may be Ren or Mikai, the ambassadors, mentioned him during the information section.

 

After 2 hours on the carriage, the ships are finally within sight. The Land of Harmony does not have a port to dock coming ships and they also does not have the permission from the sea folks that live in the surrounding water to build such facility. Ships must anchor in the bay and send smaller boats to bring people or stuffs into the Land. Among the many ships, two clearly massive ships can be seen. The complete details were not available but general description was sent to give Teroku a rough idea.

 

The dwarven ship

Ship Category: Runeship

Displacement: 41 000 / 50 000 tonnes

Crew sizes: 270 (current)

Length: 178 m

Beam: 25 m

Operating Range: Provision dependence

Average speed: 20 knots

Armaments:

• TC-G8 (Thunderclap 8^th generation) 300 system
• TC-G8 50 system x2
• 40 cm DD-G5 (direct delivery) system
• 25 cm DD-G16 system x2
• 50 cm ID-G9 (indirect delivery) system
• 30 cm ID-G4 system x5
• 24 mm RF (Rapid-fire) gun x6
• Sea Chaser pods x4
• Other undisclosed weapons

 

The elven ship

Ship Category: Groveship

Displacement: 28 000 / 33 000 tonnes

Crew sizes: 260 (current)

Length: 191 m

Beam: 23 m

Operating Range: Provision dependence

Average speed: 24 knots

Armaments:

• Thermal Lance magic x1~10
• Audrey seeders x2
• Barrier magic x1~4
• Camouflage magic
• Other undisclosed magic and installations

 

Upon reading these specifications the first time, Teroku’s government believed these ships to be some kind of sail ships since their operating range is only limited by how much food the ship can carry and how the crews rations their supply. However, the size and displacement made them reread the stats at least twice. The more advanced turbine ships of the great powers can achieve this number but such ships are heavy because they used fuel to power their ship (burning fuel for the mechanical ships and mana-storage battery for the magic ships) as a result they need to use stronger and heavier materials to build a larger ship to store the required fuel. Why would a sail ship need to be this heavy? They can’t be using oars, no oar ship can be this heavy. The numbers just don’t add up since sail ship even those that use magic boost can’t move at that speed when they are this heavy. That’s why the sail ships in their world are smaller. Sail ships at 18 000 and 21 000 tonnes can’t move at 24 and 20 knots. Saying that but they know their partners came from an extraordinary world so perhaps there are ways to make this work.

 

Another thing they can’t get their head around is the ship category. It doesn’t look like they use ship type such as battleship, carrier or cruiser as their world’s navy. They can know the runeship because the speed sustaining enchantment was explained to be made using the runic-alphabet so runeship should be a ship that are enchanted by rune enchantments. Then there is this groveship. They decided they could never understand until they got an officer on board so it was left at that.

 

Skimming through the ship armaments there is not much they can comprehend. There are rapid-fire guns back in their old world so the 24 mm gun should be a similar projectile-based weapon but what is this Thunderclap? Also, what are these indirect and direct delivery systems? They probably deliver the payload but why indirect and direct? What is the difference? Would they be the same as the cannons? Why didn’t they call it cannon or gun? That’s for the runeship. Thing got weirder for the groveship though.

 

They get it that the ship uses magic as primary weapons but what are these denotations? Weapon number is usually put as ‘x1’, ‘x2’ or ‘x10’ as the runeship listed but ‘x1~10’? What does that mean? They got 1 up to 10 solar lances? Why do the numbers fluctuate? Some of the equipment are self-explaining like barrier and camouflage with Audrey seeders being the exception.

 

It was a fascinating and brain-puzzling read but for Teroku the only thing they should focus are the displacement, ship dimensions and crew sizes since they had to decide how many people to send to each ship, what kind of weapons they can bring along and how much food can be stored.

 

On the sandy beach, two distinct crews can be spotted on from far away, the elven in green uniform and the dwarven in navy blue. They have been standing in lines even before the first carriage got in view. As the carriages and wagons stopped, soldiers rushed out and quickly assembled their formation. The well-disciplined aura of the dwarven and elven crews seemed to have sparked a silent war.

 

Borag brought John and Paul to meet up with the respective commanding men.

“These two are communication officers from Teroku. John Doe Smith and Paul Max. This giant of a dwarf here is my deputy.” While Borag and just about every other dwarf are just 20 to 30 cm more than a meter, this dwarf is at least a head taller than his countrymen. His beautiful beard gracefully tied above his belly.

 

“Deckmaster Beherzt Mitoconrad. At your service.” Beherzt took John’s hand, gave it a nice grip. He did the same to Paul. His openness surprised them to the point of dumbstruck. It took them a few seconds to finally respond to him.

 

“And this excellent officer is the second-in-command of shipmaster Dimithil.” The elf noticed Borag’s agitated expression and he knew why.

 

“Saleh Luminar, Chief of Staff.” Saleh lowered his head while slightly moved his shoulder forward. Despite knowing elven greeting, the two men never expected an elf to put his head this low even if that is out of politeness. They frantically bended their body even lower than Saleh.

 

While Beherzt introduced John, Paul and Teroku soldiers with the rest of the elves and dwarves on shore. Borag took Saleh away from the crowd. He whispered.

 

“Where is that idiot? I called you that we will be here two hours ago.”

 

“I am sorry, master Borag. Since he didn’t expect them to show up till afternoon, the shipmaster has already gone hunting early this morning. I did telepath to him about your arrive but the last message I got said he would be here soon.”

 

“Not your fault.”

 

Just as Borag left out a heavy sigh, a large eel popped up from the water right behind them. Feeling a large mana signature, Borag turned his head. He walked toward the eel as Saleh looked. A black-hair elf emerged under the eel’s lifeless head.

 

“Oh, you came back. See what I caught.” The strapping young elf smiled proudly.

 

“Are you wind-born or water-born, dipshit?” His whisper was mad. Apparently elven kinds from the old world of the Land are descendants of the fairies which themselves are born from spirits of the wind. They do not want to have anything to do with aquatic environment unless absolutely have to. “Stop causing trouble for Saleh!”

 

Borag was brought up from a well-educated background. To Borag’s dismay, his friendship with Dimithil is the sole reason swear words entered his vocabulary. To the bright side, Dimithil is probably the only target out of everyone and everything in the universe that Borag will ever curse at.

“Relax. I did not go out there just to have fun you know.”

 

As others saw Dimithil, he waved at them while smiling. A group of sea folks that followed Dimithil pulled many nets full of fishes to the shore as Borag and Saleh told others to give a hand. Dimithil did go out for a hunt this morning. He met and helped the sea folks on their fishing so they decided to split the fishes. After waving goodbye to the sea folks, Borag pushed Dimithil in front of the Teroku’s soldiers and officers.

 

“Sorry for being late. I was trying to get something to celebrate our new sailors. Turn out it took longer than expected. I am Dimithil Albidon, shipmaster of the groveship Emerllia. Good to have you here.”

 

John and Paul finally realized Borag was referring to Dimithil when he was talking about the stereotype thing. It was the first time they have ever seen a high-ranking elven officer half-naked going fishing with another race while on duty then apologizing like an irresponsible teenager. Dimithil certainly does whatever he wants and the high command can only give him a stern (and useless) talk.

 

============================================

Main deck, Groveship.

 

The many vines around the groveship’s port-side hull sprang to life as they entangled the small boat and pull them up to the main deck. The elven crews on board greeted their returning comrades. Saleh and the other elves gave their human friends a hand bringing them into the ship. Still stunned by the previous magical display, John can only utter a “thanks” as he watched the ship in awe.

 

“Welcome to my grove!” A beautiful figure made of green light appeared before their eyes. “I am the dryad Emerllia. I speak for the groveship.”

 

After lengthy explanation from the Chief (of Staff), John fully understood why Borag didn’t bother with the details. The Groveship is as the name implied, a ship that is a grove. There are many species of plants living dependently to each other on this grove, each serves a function. The vines that pulled the boats up to the main deck are one of them. This entire ship is a community and the dryad Emerllia is in charge of them. The grove and the elves are in a partnership so mutual respect is the most important as Saleh stressed.

 

As John being led to his quarter, he noticed that various structures in the ships are actually parts of trees skillfully bended into shapes from corridor to many rooms and immobile furniture. The elven navy of his old world definitely lack the ability to create such a ship. There are still a lot of questions he craves for answers but he knew the elves have no responsibility to satisfy his demand. He thanked the Chief.

 

It took everyone the entire day to bring the supplies on board. Teroku soldiers were divided 45 - 65. John decided to accompany 45 soldiers on the groveship while Paul would join the dwarven crew. There was a big celebration on the beach that night with everyone eating, drinking and chatting. The next day was spent to double check their equipment and stocks as well as delegating tasks for the crew members. The two ships will start their journey at dawn of the third day.

 

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Paul’s diary

It was the 5^th day on the journey. We traveled east as scheduled at a speed of roughly 20 knots. My colleague, John, on board the Emerllia has informed me of the groveship mean of motility. As John found out, the groveship is a magic ship and there are a wide range of magic and mystic powers that were used to keep the ship afloat and moving at good speed. I have had a little chat with the shipmaster after a couple of drink. The shipmaster was very enthusiastic when I started talking about the dwarven marvelous ship. This runeship is a pseudo magic ship which uses magic to generate power to spin the propellers unlike true magic ship in his world’s categorization which use magic as the mean to move. While he is unsure what powered the groveship, the HMS-Infinity housed a primal reactor in its heart, the peak of dwarven wisdom and craftmanship.

He explained that there are many magic systems in the collective universes/worlds. The same magic system may only work in one world. Several systems somehow worked on many worlds but there are an entire class of magic that is omniversal in the sense that they can be used regardless of where you are. Such magic systems are call primal magics and they may and may not require a magic currency such as ‘mana’ in our magic system to use. The collective wisdom of his world discovered 2 primal magic systems aside from the 3 native magic systems of their world. One of the primal systems required its own magic currency which the dwarves called ‘primal energy’. The dwarven engineers have been able to perfect a reactor that utilize the primal magic to create native magic currency for their magic engines. This effectively allowed them to bypass one of the shortcomings of not having magic currency.

We drink a little bit more before I conveyed our government’s confusion upon reading some of the ship details, namely the ship category. He smiled. Apparently, they don’t know what types the ship actually is either. That’s why the shipmaster gave us the ship category instead. Both the groveship Emerllia and the runeship HMS-Infinity are experimental units to test out a new kind of ships that can operate in magic blackout zone. If he has to assess, his ship will be a Super Cruiser.

For the groveship, thing get more complicated. The elven warships are divided into 3 major types, Attacker, Defender and Carrier. Unlike dwarven ships which can be mechanical ship or magic ship, elven ships are strictly magic ships. Those ships can use a range of magics for both combat and self-reservation. The ship equipment installations, however, play a vital role in deciding how well they can attack or defend. Two elven ship with the same magic reactor can have different attack and defense power because of the equipment. Attacker type are ships that has more firepower output than durability. Defender type are, therefore, the opposite of Attacker. Carrier type are self-explained.

There are variants of Attacker and Defender. Assassin is an attacker that is specialized in stealth that are usually operate within their own stealth battle groups. While Fleet Defender are Defender ship that can expand its shield to cover the entire fleet or reinforce other ships’ personal shield and boosting its allies’ durability or project secondary shield for other ships. Carrier ships are further categorized into subtypes. Aircraft carrier is a moving airbase. Troop carrier transport combatants across the water body. Vessel carrier which doubles as a mobile shipyard.

Shipmaster Borag can’t judge what type of ship it is not only because he lacks information but also because this is an entirely new kind of ship. The HMS-Infinity is just the first primal-powered runeship, there are many other runeships before it. The Emerllia is the first ever groveship. A living ship is the weirdest concept to be presented to their world and by being ‘living’. The ship is capable of ‘growth’ or ‘change’. It may be an Attacker for today but who know if it will turn into something else tomorrow.

I have heard the Land of Harmony is a neutral territory. It never crosses my mind that it is also the place where many people meet. People that represent civilizations beyond our imagination.