Chapter 50 - Discovering a New Continent

Chapter 50 – Discovering a New Continent

Author's Note: This isn't happening in Glass' World, this is happening during the time where Satoshi is in Glass' World. This is written from Satoshi's viewpoint after hearing Speedy's story after he returned from Glass' World.

Crowds of people gathered around the port city of Seehafen, where the old wooden warships and merchant ships were being outfitted with new innovative technology. The steel battleships and monitors were still heavily under retrofitting, but three merchant ships had been completed, with many more to be completing in the coming days and weeks. The only modifications they got were a few machine guns and a rocket system or two for basic defense against pirates, slightly modified sails, BioPlant wood reinforcement and a magic/steam hybrid engine that I mostly designed for maximum distance and efficiency, with other magical engineers pitching in their own improvements to my designs.

Prime Minister Adria poured a bottle of wine over the ship's bow.

"I hereby christen thee ARS Discovery!"

Adria walked over to the two other ships and also poured bottles of wine over them.

"I christen thee ARS Voyager and ARS Journeyman!"

The crews of the ships were also being celebrated, standing next to the dock and waving their shirts around.

"Captain Speedy of Cal Mira," Adria announced. "The most experienced mariner in the entire world, shall be the leader of this expedition to the west, in search of new trade routes for our great Confederation!"

"I am very grateful to President Sera for this opportunity." Speedy spoke. "The beloved president had saved my homeland of Cal Mira from the waves, something that I am forever indebted to him for doing. This retired Melromarc Admiral just wanted to spend his days in peace, but I must do this in order to return the favor."

The ships were loaded up with the necessary supplies and charcoal, as well as some of the most powerful fire and water mages to power parts of the engines. Arcian flags were fluttering above them, and the ecstatic audience were fervently waving their own flags in patriotic glory.

Captain Speedy stood near the bow of the ship, saluting all of the cheering Arcians. He gave the command for the anchor to be lifted.

TOOT!

The ships horns blew as they set sail into the sunset, women and children wiping their tears as they watched the ships leave. The three ships, with crews of 30 something each, would go on to make the most important discovery in the history of mankind.

The ships kept sailing to the west, where it was theorized that the world ended. No ship had ever gone past this point because of the rough seas and insufficient power.

"Push harder!" Speedy commanded. "Full sail and steam ahead!"

Wind mages were blasting wind spells into the sails, causing the ships to push against the scouring winds, while the fire and water mages operated the engines to the best of their abilities.

"Discovery to Voyager! How are you doing? Over!" Speedy messaged over a magical wireless telegram, developed from the fixed version the one the guild used.

"We're doing fine! The engines are pushing us ahead! Over!" The captain of the ARS Voyager replied.

This was by far the roughest part of the sea. Who knows how many other ships had sank here before? If it wasn't for the new engines that no ship had used before and the strengthening of the hull, these ships would have never made it.

The ships kept pushing on. They had sailed for a few short days, until they finally spotted something in the distance.

"Land Ho! Land Ho!" A sailor shouted.

The three ships quickly headed to where the sailor indicated. They found a small island, which they named Speedy Island. The sailors swarmed onto the island, where they harvested supplies of fresh fruit and surprisingly enough, sugar. Speedy let his men rest for the day.

"Men, we must keep travelling west. We must find a way to Siltvelt."

Speedy kept heading west with his three ships, encountering even more peril and strange creatures that had almost sank the Voyager. If it wasn't for the missiles dispatching the beasts, the expedition would have ended right there. The machine guns took care of the smaller creatures.

After a while much less time than it took to travel from Seehafen to Speedy Island, Speedy spotted something in the distance with his spyglass.

"Land Ho! Land Ho!"

The sailors, exhausted from the long travel, set the ship's engines to full steam ahead. The wind mages desperately blasted the sails with all the power they could. Soon enough, they reached a large estuary of sorts, where they sailed even further along the calm coast to find a long island, where they sailed even further along until they found a large and wide river that met the ocean. They decided to land right there and set up a small fort which they named New Messeblick.

The sailors frantically searched along the island and the landmass, where they found exotic things they had never seen before. There was practically fruit everywhere, and boundless land in all directions.

"This must be a new continent." Speedy reasoned. "But no new continents have ever been discovered before. What should we call this place?"

"Well," A sailor suggested. "Satoshi once told us about an afterlife in the mythology of his world called the Elysian Fields. Since there is boundless land here, why don't we call the whole landmass Elysium, so it sounds like Arcium?"

"I like that name." Speedy said. "Elysium it is."

Speedy sent a few sailors to wander inland. They reported seeing a dragon hourglass nearby, and swarms of powerful looking monsters roaming the interior.

Leaving a couple of men to man the fort, Speedy sailed even further along the coast. After finding so much land, he had no doubts it was a new continent. In accordance with what his men reported, there were fearsome monsters all around, ones that he had never imagined could be possible, and they looked like they were of extremely high levels. Speedy didn't want to mess with them, but he thought it would be a good place to train the Arcian Army and the New Army. Once I returned, I agreed with this viewpoint.

"We are running out of supplies." Speedy announced to his crew. "We should head back to Seehafen at once and report our great discovery to the nation."

"Should we report it to the rest of the world?" A curious sailor asked. "What about finding a trade route to the east?"

"This is much more monumental than purely finding a trade route to the east. This continent is uninhabited, with boundless possibilities!" Speedy shouted. "We should not tell the rest of the world, to avoid any possible attempts of settling Elysium. This continent should be reserved for the Confederation and the Confederation alone."

To be honest, after I heard Speedy talk about this, this wasn't really much of a problem. Even if other countries knew about Elysium, the continent was inaccessible by their primitive boats and no monster could fly across the rough ocean without dying of exhaustion or being struck down by poor weather or perilous obstacles midway.

The sailors loaded up the ship with all sorts of exotic goods and foods, as much as the ships could possibly pack without sinking and began to sail back to Seehafen. They used a different route this time and discovered a few more islands which they named New Cal Mira. After a few days, they had returned to the Main World Continent, and after sailing along the Melromarc coast for a bit they had reached Seehafen in the southwestern part of the Confederation.

"No way! Captain Speedy has returned! And so quickly as well!"

"What did he discover!"

"Should we tell him the president has returned?"

"Captain Speedy!" I waved, sitting on top of Indigo as he swam around the harbor. "What did you discover out there! Is everyone fine?"

The ships eventually docked, and all the sailors triumphantly descended the ships and carried all of their goods onto the dock.

"Satoshi!" Speedy roared as he rattled my shoulders. "You won't believe what I found all there. Did you guys know there's another damn continent out there!"

I looked at all of the stuff that was sitting around in the harbor. I had never seen any of those things, ever.

I led the crew of the ships into a bar, which I reserved for them only to celebrate this momentous occasion.

"Now, Speedy, tell me what happened during your expedition to the west."

"I will." Speedy agreed. "However, we have all taken a vow of silence, to never recount this story to anyone else unless Parliament approves. This is a matter of national security."

"I agree as well. Now, Speedy, can you tell me what happened?"

"It all started from when Prime Minister Adria sent a pigeon to me requesting me to captain some new ships to discover a western trading route. He told me that you wanted me to do it, but I had disappeared earlier and now the Vice President became Acting President."

"Yeah. He became Acting President for the duration of my absence, but he returned the presidency to me after I returned."

"Ahh, I understand. Well, as I was saying, to repay your noble deed of saving Cal Mira, and mostly due to my sheer boredom in my old age, I agreed to do the task. I wanted to make a great discovery that would cement me as a legend, even greater than my reputation as the greatest admiral in Melromarc history. I sailed my ship around Melromarc and arrived in Seehafen very quickly, where I was introduced to the crew. After giving them an awe-inspiring speech, we arrived at the dock where Adria was christening the ships."

You already heard the rest of the story. Arguably the greatest discovery in human and demi-human history.

"Yeah," I reasoned after I heard Speedy's entire detailed story. "We're going to need to send way more ships to Elysium. It's literally free real estate out there. And the military. Send them there at once as soon as the old merchant vessels have been retrofitted. I could not imagine a better training location."

After having a few more drinks with the sailors, myself drinking Serade due to my dislike for alcohol, I left Seehafen and returned to Arcium. The age of exploration has truly begun.

Well, this chapter was somewhat of an intermission to celebrate 50 chapters. However, it's very important. After this, we'll be back to Satoshi in Glass' World, where he had just escaped the labyrinth!