Chapter 366 - The Dragon Capital

After arguing with the captain of the ship for a bit the trade ship eventually began heading towards the dragon gate, the black screen seemed to encompass everything if one looked at it for too long, it seemed to have a faint effect of despair on the crew, some were trembling faintly, though Mercury and the dragon spirit Qutil were trembling of excitement, soon the ship seemed to reach the event horizon and then it passed into it, the dragon gate seemed like a sticky mirror as it absorbed the ship ever so slowly, soon the entire ship had passed through, as soon as it did the dragon gate closed and fell silent again…

The small trade ship currently found itself in a tunnel of sorts, the walls seemed to be made of pure darkness while actually giving off light, the ship was sailing in the water of course but below that seemed to be more of the light-giving darkness, though that was about 100 meters down, Mercury looked around for a bit before he looked ahead and saw the same darkness with stars they had just passed through, he figured that this was some sort of intermediate in between the dragon capital and the outside world, his guess proved to be right as Qutil's voice echoed around them

[We're almost there, captain straight ahead! Soon we'll pass through dragon  gate #001 on the other side and then we'll be there!]

Mercury nodded and caught sight of Amanda that stood with her mouth wide open as she gazed around and chuckled a bit, after sailing through the tunnel for a bit they reached the dragon gate on the other side and passed through… On the other side was blinding light which Mercury took a few seconds to adjust to when he looked around he was stunned, for a moment he thought he had passed back to his old world, as for why? That was because of the swarm of small and large drones that flew freely through the air over to the gate next to the one that they had just passed through, there a large automated cargo ship was passing through, the drones repaired some minor damage on the ship before they began unloading cargo boxes the size of houses from the cargo ship, some passed over the small trade ship and flew towards another cargo ship in the distance while others flew towards the landmass in the distance, Mercury snapped out of his daze and quickly asked Qutil

"I thought you said that the dragon island was deserted?"

[The island of Toime is indeed deserted, that's the automated, self-sustaining cargo ships, Rhincodon's that are bringing in goods to sustain Toime, it should be deserted as I was the last living thing on the island before I ascended into spirit from]

"...I sure hope you're right"

Mercury looked towards the landmass in the distance, over the next few hours the landmass grew closer and closer, as it did a port came into view which was guarded by two giant statues of dragons in human form holding spears, the statues were covered in moss and seemed quite ancient, Qutil quickly sounded off about the statues

[That's the guardians of the automated shipyard, they are golems and will attack anything that passes into the shipyard without identifying itself first, the comical dock should be on the north side of the island, past the drone assembly over there!]

The small trade ship set course for the port and soon they neared what seemed like a not so normal port, it was more of a solid concrete wall reaching about 20 meters up with places to secure the ship where the ship docked before Mercury nodded and turned to Qutil and asked

"What now?"

[Now we wait for our turn in the carousel! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! IDENTIFICATION CODE: QUTIL!]

As soon as Qutil yelled the identification code the ship shook slightly as something clamped onto it below the water, the concrete walls rose around the ship before the water was drained, then with a loud clang sound the whole ship rocked before it began moving downwards in an elevator, after passing a few seconds in increasing darkness a light suddenly shone as the elevator reached a large open space, no large was an understatement, it was a huge underground space that seemed to be a half-sphere, the elevator went down the side of the sphere while the middle was filled with ancient ships of all sizes and sorts

[The central intelligence has found a space for us, after that, an elevator will be sent for us… Mercury let's look around a bit! I'll show you the greatest and meanest ships in the dragon fleet!]

Qutil flew off, Mercury showed a smile and walked back a few steps from the edge of the railing before he spoke to the girls

"I'll be off a bit!"

Then he kicked off the ground and jumped and flew through the air for a few moments before he landed on a large ship, Quill appeared next to him and spoke

[This is one of the 9999 corvettes in the dragon Alfan navy, as the ship is entirely modular it can be equipped with torpedoes, cruise missiles, railguns, and cannons, there are also mine layers and clearers! The model's name is Qelleon! It's one of my first designs!]

"Wait so you designed this?"

"EHEM YOU CAN PRAISE ME MORE!]

"WHY ARE YOU YELLING AGAIN?"

[AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Over there in the middle of the dry dock is the pride of all dragons that have lived on this land, the Azaroth! It's a colony ship made to explore outer space!]

Mercury looked in the center of the underground drydock and saw the giant spaceship, for a few moments he felt like he had truly returned to his homeworld, but then he shook his head and noticed a few key differences in the design between this spaceship and the Earth federations ships form his past life, Mercury showed a smile before he asked Qutil

"That means you have colonies around the solar system?"

[All the colonies were quickly abandoned because of the lack of mana on other planets… Mana is essential for dragons to live you see!]

"I see… Didn't you think of making a mana generator of some sort?"

[The central intelligence should still be running calculations on that to this day…]

"Ah… I see"

[Yes, it should be done soon-ish though, let's head back to the boat!]

Mercury and Qutil returned to the trade ship that soon found a place in the underground drydock, after a bit of discussion it was decided that a large part of the crew would stay with the ship and only Mercury, Qutil, Julia, Marie, Asma, Naila, and Amanda would leave the boat, soon an elevator arrived and the group walked into it before the door closed and the soon they arrived on the surface, highrises were all around them as they seemed to have arrived in a high-density residential area, Mercury looked around, he was already wearing his aluminum gauntlets, all the girls were equipped well, Amanda was holding her quarterstaff which was made of an adamantite alloy, she currently had it swung over her shoulders, frankly with her grey skin Mercury thought she looked a little like a hooligan, though he didn't mention it, Mercury asked Qutil that had changed from to that of a large smoke dragon

"Qutil, why was it we needed to be equipped for combat again?"

[Well… I kind of left the central intelligence alone for a long while, the chances of it having developed… Strange subroutines are high]

"I other words it might have gone insane from loneliness?"

[Might is a strong word Mercury, I would say there's about… 0.5% chance that it's unrecoverable]

"...And what about the other 99.5%?"

[That's that it is pissed the fuck off of course!]

"Oh… Great…"

Mercury looked to the side as his ears twitched, then he quickly spoke

"Qutil guard the girls!"

[On it!]

Mercury leaned back slightly as something tore the space where his head was a few seconds before, the next second Qutil covered the others and high-speed metal slugs impacted Qutil's body and luckily was stopped, Mercury yelled

"Back down the elevator girls, this is no fight you can participate in!"

[The A.I. has locked the elevator!]

Mercury sighed before he muttered

"Of course it has…"

Then he looked around before he yelled

"Don't you know that it's rude to fire upon guests!?"

His voice echoed around the empty highrises for a bit before a burst of mechanical laughter sounded out in the streets

"AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! IT'S TIMEEEEEE TO PLLLLLAY QUTIL!"

"Yep, that definitely sounds insane… Reminds me of when we first meet Qutil"

[HOW RUDE, I AM NOT… Wait, I am clearly insane, so maybe you're right?]

"At least you're self-aware"

Mercury looked down the road, rows of and rows of golems were lined up in a firing line with what looked like modern firearms as the mechanical voice sounded out again

"WEEEEEEEEEELLCOME HHHHHOOOOME QUUTIL!"