I climbed up the rope and got inside the airship — well, it was more like I tumbled weakly as I barely managed to get inside with what little juice I had left.

“What the fuck happened just now…?!” I forced that out of my lungs amidst the puffing and huffing, yet to be completely conscious.

Feeling the pain in my left shoulder, I checked the wound. Fortunately, the bite wasn’t that deep and was held back by the multiple layers of clothes that I wore, but I might get infected if I didn’t treat this quickly.

“That’s on you for being reckless. Hurry and tend your wound in the medical bay.” A hologram projection of Lunaria soon appeared before me.

“Alright, Mom.” I laughed, halfway to forgetting that my shoulder was injured.

“Who’s your mom?”

“Okay, Granma, then.”

“Just stop it…”

While bantering a lighthearted joke, I got back on my feet and dragged myself toward the ship’s medical bay. To tell the truth, there was always something peculiar about this part of the ship, not because of the devices within, which appeared deceptively ordinary, but rather an underlying sense that there was more to it than met the eye.

This feeling had lingered with me since a long time ago.

As I sat down in the medical bay, the spherical drone that Lunaria controlled helped me by offering me the much-needed disinfectant as well as the bandage. Because the cut wasn’t that deep, it rendered the need for stitches.

Applying the disinfectant carefully, I felt a slight sting that quickly subsided, and I proceeded to wrap the bandage around the wound, securing it snugly but allowing for proper airflow to aid in healing.

“You rest for now. I’ll take care of the navigation in the meantime.”

“Man, it’s good to have a reliable A… digitized mind to help with that.” Oops, almost said the wrong word there…

“Mhm. Good that you understand my importance.” Her hologram made a slightly smug face with her hands on her hips.

Once treated, I walked to my room while inspecting the crystal-like quartz that I found when escaping. Through [Inspection], I could also not only check living beings but also objects.

Source crystal (First Order)

A culmination of source energy inside a mutated being. The energy contained inside this stone is not something to scoff at.

“Ooh. So it’s akin to an energy source, then… I wonder if it has any other usage.” I muttered, pocketing the source crystal.

I could ask Lunaria, but exhaustion won over me, and I decided to make my way to the sanctuary of my room, which coincidentally doubled as the captain's quarters. The room welcomed me with its spaciousness, featuring a large and inviting bed as the centerpiece — it had all the trappings of a typical room. However, among the furnishings, there was a tube television that wouldn’t work no matter what I did anyway.

As the fatigue was so heavy, I launched myself into the comfy bed. I would have slept at that moment if not for the sudden mission notification.

Mission Accomplished!

Congratulations on passing the mission. You have done well to escape from the clutch of the insectoid monsters.

The reward has been issued.

In that case, the reward had been safely kept inside my backpack. I hoped the next mission would be easier and smooth sailing, void of any risk that could put us in danger.

I wished that was the case…

***

Danger!

A terrifying, evil entity has set its sight upon you.

“What?!”

I was jolted awake the moment that notification came.

The danger notification had never appeared before, even when I was fighting for my life against the insectoid monsters. Logically speaking, whatever that sight its eyes on me would be a serious life-threatening situation.

I quickly got out of bed, even while still not getting enough sleep, and ran to the bridge to check what was going on.

The hologram at the center of the room transformed into Lunaria’s figure. “You awake? It’s only been two hours.”

“Lunaria, what’s the situation of the ship?” I took a seat in the captain’s chair.

“We are going westward and halfway from getting through the path. The energy reserve has dropped considerably from 57 percent to 31 percent, but it’s more than enough to last us till the destination.”

“Is that it? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“This ship’s sensors didn’t detect anything, yes.”

“Hmm…” I held my chin in deep contemplation.

That was weird.

Never once had my Vocation betrayed me before — a special ability that the inhabitants of this world liked to call a “miracle.” Was it just a fluke, then?

Wait, it’s only set its sight on me… the ship. But it never said that it would attack, did it?

While thinking about what I should do to anticipate the worst-case scenario, Lunaria reassured me, “Relax. There’s nothing to fear with me here, you know.”

Although Lunaria knew who I was on the inside, she didn’t know about my Vocation in detail, particularly the [Danger Notice], as I never divulged it to her before.

“Guess you’re right,” I replied, contemplating the situation.

Indeed. Whatever might come our way, we were practically in the same boat, navigating the same uncertain path, and I trusted that Lunaria wouldn't intentionally deceive me. At least, that was the assumption I held, until a series of events swiftly shifted my focus elsewhere, pushing the thought of her honesty to the recesses of my mind.

“Oh no.”

“What? What is it? What the heck is that?!”

Emerging from the red fog a few kilometers below, several colossal tentacles, a twisted blend of red and black, surged into the sky. They stretched hundreds of meters in girth and extended for several kilometers in length, instilling a deep sense of dread within me.

I had once spotted this monstrous entity from far, far away through the ship’s telescope back atop the tallest skyscraper… My scalp always turned cold whenever I remembered it.

In comparison, our ship appeared minuscule, like an insignificant ant in the presence of this behemoth. A single slap from its tentacles would be enough to obliterate us without a trace.

Desperate to gather any information about this enigmatic creature, I creature’s information through [Identification]. But to my dismay, only question marks came out on everything.

“Oh, shit! This is it…” I was sure that we must have passed through its territory without knowing. It was, after all, one of the reasons why we were trapped in that skyscraper for a long time.

Escaping by increasing the altitude wouldn’t do because we always maintained the highest all this time to avoid the fog below.

No! I couldn’t give up here!

“Lunaria, can you increase the speed of the airship further? We have to get away from that thing now!”

“I’ll try, but we can’t go much faster than this.”

As the airship was picking up speed, one of the tentacles reached out to the ship. Because of the immensity of its size as well as its speed, it would be hard for us to dodge even if we noticed it early.

“Dang it.” I swerved the steering wheel to the left, causing the ship itself to tilt 45 degrees.

With such a maneuver, the airship was able to very narrowly dodge. Thanks to the chair being bound to the ship, I wasn’t thrown away.

“I don’t think we’ll be as lucky the second time…” I dejectedly said.

Soon afterward, as opposed to trying to catch us, the tentacles began lashing out violently and faster than ever. To my disbelief, each time the tentacles lashed, it caused the red fog below to disperse — one could only imagine just how powerful its attack was.

“Lunaria, is there any way to increase our speed?” We would be dead if we didn’t do something.

“There is… But it will overload the engine, and the ship might not be able to last!”

With the ship gone, we would be plunged straight into the red fog. That would be the same as shooting ourselves in the foot, but still better than doing nothing at all.

 “Do it.” There was no time for a second thought, so I decided to bite the bullet.

“You sure? Alright…” Lunaria was a bit hesitant, but she must have thought the same.

Progressively, the formerly silent engine roared loudly, and the ship began shaking, even though it was located quite far from the room I was in. Overdriving it seemed to put immense stress on it. Our speed, which was originally capped at two hundred kilometers per hour, was rising to well past three hundred and even reaching four hundred.

This speed was insane for an airship like this, but I doubted it was enough. Hence, I asked Lunaria if we could go any faster.

“We can go faster, but the air resistance is too big for the airship’s balloon. Although there is a system for deploying an air shield, the ship will only last for five minutes…”

“Well then, how about cutting the balloon?” It was an absurd idea, but this airship could probably work just fine with the propellers alone. Maybe.

Then again, her reply told me that it might be otherwise.

“What? Are you insane?!”

“Never mind. That’s stupid of me.” I terminated the idea with a dismissive hand.

The tentacled abomination showed no signs of relenting and kept whipping all its tentacles at us faster than ever. We narrowly evaded each assault by the skin of our teeth, our lives hanging by a thread. However, our luck ran out when the massive appendage grazed the ship, unleashing a jarring impact.

“Ugh!”

The violent tremors reverberated throughout the vessel, rocking all the things inside. The walls groaned and contorted under the immense strain they were forced to withstand.

“Lunaria, activate that air shield! We can think of the ship’s fate when the time comes!” What was the use of preserving energy if we couldn’t get away from this thing?

“Okay, okay.”

With the air resistance gone, the airship reached a new-breaking speed of six hundred kilometers per hour. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it had almost reached the speed of any commercial airplane. Truly a wonderful mix of magic and technology.

In spite of all that, my luck wasn’t great.

All of a sudden, a violent tornado appeared below us and swept the airship into an unstoppable merry-go-round. I held onto my chair as if my life was dependent on it.

It only took a moment for the intense disturbance to turn all the things inside the ship into a flying mess despite the air shield. The glass shattered, and small objects were cycling and cascading all around, and one hit my head—

***

My ears were ringing… The vision was red and hazy alongside the nonstop headache.

I tried to keep my eyes open, but it was as heavy as lifting an elephant… Furthermore, my limbs and body were tightly locked, unable to move… It appeared that I was also stuck beneath some kind of heavy things… Steel wreckage… All strewn around me.

There it was.

From the strangely thin, almost nonexistent red fog, a pale green figure in a hood approached me. I couldn’t tell whether I was hallucinating or not, but he stretched his green hands that only had three fingers at me, and a pitch-black hand came out, slithering in the air toward me, and pulled me out.

“Wha… Wh-Who…?” I was trying to ask, but what came out was gibberish.

Then, I was carried to who knows where by the pitch-black hand. Am I going to be eaten? Is this the end for me? Lunaria… heeellp…

Left under the mercy of this thing, my consciousness floated away into utter darkness yet again.