Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 19 Set sail
At the bottom of the cliff, most of the white ship's hull was submerged in the water, hidden in the shadow of the cliff and not conspicuous amidst the surging waves.

The next moment, a thin line tore through the rain, instantly striking the top of the Tower of Bones. A high-level light-based attack spell, Sunfire!

Almost simultaneously, the magic circle at the top of the tower activated, a dark protective light curtain unfolded, and a fierce light emanated from the intersection of the two spells, with shockwaves of magic spreading in all directions.

On the warships on the outer edge of the ocean, officers used telescopes to observe this direction, their field of vision almost entirely obscured by the dazzling light of the magical clash.

Unbeknownst to them, the skeletal semi-submersible quietly moved away, circling around to the extension line between the Temple of Light camp and the Bone Tower, in order to mislead the priests of Light about the undead fluctuations and make them mistakenly believe that they all came from the Bone Tower.

If it weren't for the unseen energy fluctuations that were hard to conceal, Su Ming could have already turned the ship into a submarine and quietly left.

On the tower's side, twelve consecutive bursts of Yang Flame were intercepted by the white bones.

The battlefield then fell silent.

After the elemental vibrations subsided, the spellcasters from the temple began using detection magic to investigate. Seven or eight magical fluctuations flashed by, but no abnormalities were found.

Someone at the camp contacted the warship, and after exchanging information, they found nothing else amiss. It seems the sound was likely caused by a cliff collapse due to the heavy rain, with debris falling into the sea.

A few more waves of detection spells flashed by, but the camp priests still found nothing, and everything finally quieted down.

At the top of the Tower of Bones, the skeleton knelt on the ground. She gasped for breath, her hair almost soaked with sweat. She decisively dispersed the light barrier, letting the rain wash over her, using the cold to stimulate herself.

"Miss White Bone, are you alright?" Su Ming established a mental synchronization and clearly sensed the other's dejection.

"It's alright." The skeleton paused for a moment. "It's been too long since I've used this form at full strength, and my stamina has dropped a lot."

It was already difficult to stop the temple priests' blazing sun, and later, when they used the Deception Probe spell, they went all out and dared not be careless in the slightest.

Fortunately, she anticipated this and set up a lot of disguises beforehand, otherwise she would have been exposed long ago.

“They won’t let this go so easily; we can’t keep this up for long,” White Bone said. “The only reason they stopped was…” She paused. “It’s dinner time.”

No matter how high their tactical skills and alertness, they couldn't stop the staff on duty from having a late-night snack. Especially since the food at the Temple of Light was famously good in the Western Continent.

Time was of the essence, and the Bone Tower stood up. She manipulated the outer shell of the Bone Tower to rise, and together they leaped into the sea.

In mid-air, Su Ming took control, shrinking the outer shell of the Bone Tower into a ball, and it fell into the sea from the side of the bone ship.

Underwater, Su Ming completed the assembly of the deck and superstructure, and the hull took shape. As the boilers started at full speed, scorching gases were directly discharged into the ballast tanks, and water inside the skeleton ship gushed out from various outlets, causing the hull to gradually rise.

Driven at full power, the steam engine revved higher and higher, and the propeller began to violently churn the water, creating visible waves. The ship rose higher and higher, pushing aside the surface of the sea, and the Zhiyuan reappeared, as if born from the water and arriving in the darkness.

Since there were no obvious magical fluctuations, the sentries at the Temple of Light camp thought it might be another cliff collapse, and their reaction was slightly slow.

It was the Pearl Kingdom's navy that first discovered the problem. They preheated their searchlights before shining them on the target, and that's when they discovered the disappearance of the Tower of Bones.

Three red signal flares soared from the naval warship, strikingly bright even in the rain, prompting the temple camp on shore to immediately sound the alarm. Bai Gu reached the top of the ship's deck and activated the magic array there. She had drawn this bone plate in the tower that afternoon, and Su Ming had maintained its integrity throughout the assembly process.

The steamship had reached its optimal power and waterline, its speed steadily increasing, and a beautiful trail of spray appeared behind it, spreading out in a V-shape to both sides. Su Ming steered the ship, and the bone ship corrected its course to the left, beginning its charge towards the Pearl Kingdom's fleet.

As they passed the sunken ship, the skeletal figure flicked its hand, and many broken pieces of wood and hull were scooped up.

"Is that enough?" the skeleton asked.

Su Ming glanced at it briefly; it was at least several tens of tons. "That's enough for now."

As planned, the zombies began to move forward, dismantle the ship's hull, drag it into the cabin, crush it, and then send it to the boiler room as fuel.

"It's truly amazing that the burning of grass and wood can unleash such powerful energy," White Bone exclaimed.

"The heat released by burning one kilogram of wood, with an energy efficiency of 10%, is enough to accelerate a 100-ton object from rest to eight knots," Su Ming said. This was a problem he was tired of solving in junior high school physics. "So the key is the technology of conversion and application. My world has no magic, so it is very good at utilizing this kind of energy."

"Terrifying equipment. No wonder the will of the plane is wary of it. We have wronged Him."

Feeling the increasingly strong wind ahead and the raindrops that were starting to sting his face, Bai Gu's expression unconsciously relaxed a little. "It's faster than I thought, Su Ming!"

Su Ming didn't reply; he had also noticed the problem. The speed indicator had long since exceeded 14 knots and was still increasing—he was busy dealing with it.

There are many factors. The salinity of the otherworldly seawater is higher than that of Earth, resulting in a slightly shallower draft for the ship. The jade-like skeleton of the Bone Fortress has lower drag than expected. Especially since this is a new ship, there are no barnacles or similar things attached to the hull, and due to magic, they won't be in the future.

Su Ming had no choice but to activate the bone mark and adjust the bone ship's center of gravity by feel, restoring its stability. He then switched gear ratios, increased the propulsion gear, and simultaneously adjusted the steam engine's valve parameters to match.

Because he also had to look up the instruction manual on his laptop, he was quite flustered for a while.

By the time he finished, the ship was already approaching 16 knots and was heading straight for the nearest warship in the enemy fleet, the first ship of the Pearl Principality Navy!

The first ship chose to evade. Its sails had just been raised, its mooring lines not yet tightened, and its only current propulsion was magic. The slender body and extremely high speed of the bone ship forced it to be wary of the opponent's ramming tactics.

So despite the fact that it was very uneconomical, the commander of the first ship was forced to use the mage's precious magic power to propel the warship from a standstill in order to avoid the impact path of the bone ship.

Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Su Ming immediately steered the servo to the left.

In the glow of the signal flare, the steamship stretched out a beautiful arc, the waves reflecting a faint red hue, like a giant scimitar, revealing to the world the tip of the iceberg of some new power.

At that moment, Su Ming even felt a trace of pleasure on the bone mark.

Is this fulfilling the obsessions of the deceased?

(End of this chapter)