Chapter 258 – A Platinum World!
The day after Kamyu and the others returned.
I was digging away in the Sheorl underground.
The digging had continued even while I was resting, or while I was at Langs.
And so there were now quite a few tunnels that I didn’t know.
Of course, it wasn’t as if they had dug without any planning.
We were digging in the direction that Shiel predicted the teleportation gate would be.
“…I’m sorry. We wanted to find it while you were away, Lord Heal. But the terrain has changed a lot compared to the past.”
Shiel spoke to me while using a translation device.
“Don’t worry about it. If anything, I’m glad to have something to do.”
I said as I swung my pickaxe down.
The rocky wall crumbled away, and then an open area, too wide for being a tunnel, appeared in front of me.
“You can dig out so much more compared to the last time I saw you…”
“Now that you mention it…it has increased. I suppose it’s because I was digging so much in Sylpheum and Langs as well.”
“Hehe. If you continue like this, eventually, there will be no places left in this world for you to dig.”
“I don’t think that will be a… No, now I’m getting a little worried.”
And started swinging a little more carefully.
Shiel saw this and laughed.
“By the way, Lord Heal. About the teleportation gate, I have narrowed down the general direction of the place that connects to it.”
“Oh, great. So?”
“Out of the teleportation gates we discovered up until now, the gates of Sylpheum and Langs were gates that took you to the east side. And I believe that Arancia is far to the west of Sheorl. Many of the buried gates connect to the west and east. And so many of the remaining ones should connect to the north or south.”
“I see. As for where we are digging now, do you know if it will be the south or north?”
“North. There are two up ahead, and both of them will connect to the north.”
“If it’s a northern gate, then it is likely to connect to the Barleon continent. No, I suppose the Elto continent is also possible… If it was the south, then it could be the earth dragon settlement that Roydon talked about.”
“Or even somewhere under the sea… In any case, the world has changed much over the years…so I may not be of much help. I am sorry.”
Shiel said apologetically.
“It’s nothing to worry about. Besides, it would be interesting if it was connected to the sea…”
“In fact, I think there are a few teleportation gates under the Sheorl seas. So perhaps they are connected to other seas as well.”
“It is possible… Oh.”
I stopped swinging my pickaxe.
Because there was no place that I could hit. In other words, if I kept digging, it could cause the place to collapse.
“So there is water on the other side. But since this is the right direction, we must go around.”
“Judging by the height, we may not be able to reach it by going around either… As I said before, it could be inside of the water.”
“I see… So we must go diving then.”
“Indeed. However, how did they build one so deep in… Ah!”
Shiel suddenly turned around.
Mappa was standing there with folded arms.
It was as if he was waiting for it to be his turn.
“You look very confident… So you have something? Something we can use?”
Mappa nodded and started to walk away.
Shiel and I followed after him, and then we used the railway to return to the surface.
Mappa then took us to one of the piers in the port district.
Here, there was something that looked like a giant metal fish that was floating in the water.
The glimmering, platinum body must be mithril then. And the parts that were the eyes seemed to be made of glass.
It was large like a whale, and it looked like over ten people would be able to fit inside.
“So you made a Mado Armor in the shape of a fish.”
At this point, I was no longer surprised.
There had been a Mado Armor that looked like a bird, as well as a doll that looked like a fish.
However, Mappa noticed that my reaction was weak this time, and so he pointed at a certain part of the pier.
There, Mappa’s goblin and dwarf apprentices were doing their best to dismantle something.
I looked closer and saw some battered plates of mithril.
And so I asked one of the goblins.
“Was it hit with a hammer?”
“Ah, Lord Heal. No, these are the remains of a Mado Armor that dove deep into the sea.”
“Into the sea? Was it attacked by sea monsters?”
“We do not understand it completely. But it seems like the deeper you go, the more pressure is applied. And the Mado Armor becomes flat.”
Shiel said,
“It is water pressure. The deeper you are in the water, the stronger the power that is applied to things and people. Many fish cannot survive down there.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that. So that’s why ordinary Mado Armor cannot go down very deep.”
Mappa nodded at this and then turned back to the fish-shaped Mado Armor.
“And so with all of that considered, you came up with this one.”
“Ah, Lord Heal. Master says the official name is Mappa Go! Go! Go!”
Said one of the goblins.
“That’s too long, so we can just call it Mappa Go… Well, if he is going to name it after himself, he must be very confident in it.”
Mappa nodded deeply and then he took some kind of device out and started to control it.
After a moment, a part of the side opened up, and a bridge came out and connected to the pier.
Apparently, that was how you climbed aboard.
Inside, there was a simple pilot seat, and benches for passengers to sit on. Also, there were windows in the walls, floor and ceiling.
Once Mappa saw that Shiel and I were inside, he sat down in the control seat.
Eventually, the door closed, and the Mappa Go started to sink into the water.
“Oh. We’re going into the sea.”
Now that I thought about it, aside from the beach that we made, I had never really swam in the Sheorl sea.
The water was a beautiful, clear blue, and the sunlight shone deep down.
Aside from the ones that we ate regularly, I saw many other unfamiliar fish.
“Huh, they are so colorful…”
“I have never seen that gold one before! And that rainbow one too!”
Shiel and I enjoyed the sights for some time. And then we saw that the sea was starting to get darker.
“The sunlight is weakening…”
“Even the water does not allow all light to get through. That is why. However, if we continue…. Ah.”
Suddenly, the area around the ship was illuminated.
Apparently, the Mappa Go had a light.
“You really thought of everything… Still, it seems like there are fewer fish now.”
“I suppose they could not handle the pressure. It suddenly feels so quiet and still.”
“I have been surprised by many things underground, but the world under the sea is also filled with mystery. Oh, there is the floor.”
Shiel turned to Mappa.
“Mr. Mappa. Do you know the direction?”
Mappy gave her a thumbs up.
Apparently, there was no problem there.
Well, Mappa seemed to always be able to find me. He must have a good sense of direction…
While being careful to not touch the ground, the Mappa Go now moved straight forward.
The floor seemed to be mostly covered in white sand, but there were also strange plants…no, they were coral.
There were few fish here, but the ones I did see were long and pale, and looked rather eerie.
As I watched this mystical sigh, the Mappa Go started to slow down.
“Hmm… Is that…”
A familiar pillar… It was from a teleportation gate.
However…
“It’s broken…”
“Perhaps it could not withstand the water pressure?”
Mappa continued to move the controls busily.
And then tentacle-like arms extended out from the Mappa Go, and it started to gather the fallen fragments on the ground.
Mappa then turned around and made the gesture of beating a hammer.
I suppose he was going to fix it later.
After gathering all of the pieces, the arms retracted, and the Mappa Go started to move again.
Apparently, we were going to look at the other Teleportation gate.
Shiel muttered.
“If this one is broken, then the other one might be broken as well.”
“Indeed… I hope that the pieces are at least still there…”
But even if he could put the pieces back together, there was no guarantee that it would work.
However, since it was made out of mithril, it was possible that it was fine.
I would believe it.
About ten seconds later, the Mappa Go slowed down again.
This was because the other gate had come into view.
I squinted my eyes as we slowly approached it.
“…How is it? Ohh!”
The gate looked like it was fine.
Not just in terms of shape.
I saw fish swimming through from one side, but not coming out again.
In other words, they were moving in and out of the teleportation gate.
“That one looks like it can be used.”
“Indeed. There must be a sea on the other side as well. But I don’t think there was any such place before. So it must have become flooded with water afterwards…”
“In that case, we should tell the others… Mr. Mappa. Wait!”
Shiel said, but the Mappa Go moved towards the teleportation gate anyway.
And a moment later, we were through.
On the other side…it was a similar sea.
Shiel let out a sigh.
“Hmph. Mr. Mappa. We should have sent word to Mr. Baris, just in case something happened.”
“That’s right. Even though I was also curious to see where it would lead…”
Mappa scratched his head with an apologetic expression.
“Well, since we are already here, we might as well take a look around.”
“Yes. We would have to do it soon enough anyway.”
Mappa nodded, and then the Mappa Go began to rise.
However, no matter how long we waited, the sea remained dark.
We should be getting closer to the sun…
“We must be very deep then. Or…”
Shiel began to shudder.
“What is it, Shiel?”
“Nothing. It’s just that I felt my body get a little stiff.”
“Perhaps you should drink some water… Actually, it is rather cold.”
It had been warm a moment ago, but it was getting cold very quickly.
“Mappa, isn’t it cold?”
Mappa shivered but continued to control the Mado Armor.
Eventually, a crashing sound echoed from above the Mappa Go, and the whole vehicle shook.
“Woah!? What?”
Something seemed to have hit the top.
However, it settled down quickly.
And the Mappa Go did not seem to take any damage.
“What the… And where are we…”
The area around us was now shockingly bright.
However, it was not light from the sun.
When I looked around, there were icebergs as far as the eye could see, as well as mountains covered in snow.
“Another incredible place…”
We had discovered a platinum world covered in ice and snow.
Earlier they talked about north and south, so I’m guessing they found the equivalent of the arctic zone. One thing I find a bit weird about the mado armor, being crushed by water pressure… that doesn’t happen unless there’s atmosphere inside (a block of metal won’t get crushed by going deep underwater), and that inside got to be sealed in. For example, some soviet submarines had a somewhat separated top part, which wasn’t sealed. This part had glass windows that didn’t shatter when diving deep simply because water would get inside this part, so the pressure was balanced out. This part was used to navigate through the artic zone.
Well, one other thing that bothered me, MC said the submarine was fish shaped, but that’s bad. The best shape to resist outside pressure is a sphere, or at least cylindrical (that’s why most if not all modern submarines looks like a metal salami). So, why would the fish “armor” resist water pressure if the regular mado armor didn’t. Too bad the author didn’t use the designs from the animated movie Atlantis The Lost Empire.
Thanks for the chapter! Awesome translation as always! May God bless you!
Even when I don’t like Mappa’s role as some sort of ex-machina, I appreciate when he moves the plot forward. I can only imagine how many chapters of conversations about crossing or not the portal were avoided.