"Monster, I'm in. What do I do next?"
Erin's voice rang inside my mind as I steered a small-sized Space Vessel just enough to be detected by the perimeter created by the Space Vessel Fleet surrounding the lone Mortal World.
They're too close to each other that I could see some of them creating bridges, connecting one Space Vessel to another.
From afar, I could see smaller Space Vessels that's similar to the disposable ones I stored. It's a little different from what I was using at the moment.
Those kinds of small Space Vessels had lower fuel storage but their speed made up for it. Let's just call it a Scout Vessel. It's often used for patrolling for a certain distance before returning to the bigger Space Vessel that was close in size or even bigger than the Kingfisher.
In general, the size of a Space Vessel was split into five easily remembered categories.
Small, Medium, Large for regular terms. On a side note, Kingfisher is at least a medium-sized Space Vessel and what I spied also fell into that category. Moreover, there's only one large-sized Space Vessel among the fleet and it's probably the Central Command, a Fleet Commander or something of a similar rank in a military sense.
And then there are two other terms called a Flagship and Mothership.
The first three explained themselves while the other two had different purposes.
A Flagship-type Space Vessel could only be found on a Sage World or above. Well, I have no limited information about Divine Worlds so let's stick to Sage Worlds.
A Sage World can freely move between World Zones and their speed of traveling through the Chaotic Energy-filled Space is quicker than any Transcendent Worlds. They can even pull along their Subordinate Worlds or those connected to them. But more often than not, they'd anchor themselves at a higher Zone Density, Density-3 to be exact. Density-2 and above was something even the strongest Sage World wouldn't dare venture to.
And that's where a Flagship-type Space Vessels comes in. If one thinks that Sage Worlds were peaceful, that's where everyone was wrong. It's more chaotic up there. Wars raged even between Natural Sage Worlds. And for their reason in doing so, it could just be a born feud or resources. With Sages existing in their worlds, it's fairly easy for them to be acquainted with each other or even make the chaotic space a place to spar.
That's why Flagship-type Space Vessels were like the official representative of a Sage World. They're big enough to house a Transcendent or Mortal World's population. And the ones operating and residing inside those Flagship-type Space Vessels were Transcendents and above.
If a war broke out between two different Sage Worlds, the chaotic space would be their battlefield.
As for the Mothership-type Space Vessels, they're even bigger than Flagship-types. More often, it was hidden inside a Sage World, close to Source Energy Core. If they're losing a war or they are facing a natural catastrophe, Mothership-type Space Vessels would be used to migrate their population along with the Source Energy Core. Sages could create worlds, rebuilding their world was possible as long as they kept their Source Energy Core intact.
Earth back then lost everything, down to the last Transcendent. That's why the World's Will had to steer the world instead of just using a Mothership.
Anyway, that was just general knowledge. At the moment, medium-sized Space Vessels have begun landing on the surface of that Mortal World. Although there's the protection of its World's Will, that was proven not enough to prevent them from doing so.
In hindsight, the fleet could destroy that World if they wished even without surfacing on it but that's possibly not their intention.
Perhaps, by now, the Mortal World's inhabitants started being terrorized by those Space Vessels landing in their world.
Do they really want to assimilate it? We still lack the necessary information. And that's the reason why I chose to investigate first after all.
"Standby for now. Don't let yourself get detected. I'm coming to you." I replied to Erin. By now she's already inside one of those interconnected medium-sized Space Vessels that's making a perimeter around the Mortal World.
With her mastery in anything 'shadow'-related and the support of one of my repressed skills, Void Concealment, I had her sneak in by hitchhiking or rather hijacking one of these patrolling Scout Vessels.
Earlier, I thought of doing this alone. But as you would have guessed, my Companions all rejected that idea.
In the end, Erin was voted to be the one to accompany me on this trip because of her specialty.
Jayna came in a close second because of her disguising ability but since it's only a scouting trip, I had her stay and just disguise us before we left.
Pale skin and long-eared. Something close to an elf, really.
That disguise was the cinch why she could hijack that Scout Vessel. It was copied to the patrols they encountered during their turn to act like passing Transcendents to observe the fleet. And with that in mind, we specifically waited for that one particular Transcendent for her to replace.
For the record, that Transcendent's cold body lies beneath this Space Vessel I was piloting.
Like Erin, I was also waiting for the particular Transcendent where my current disguise was copied from.
Either way, we're still going to drop the disguise as soon as we both arrive inside.
Just hoping that Erin wouldn't be caught before I could reach her side.
"Monster, do you think we can fight against all of these Transcendents?"
"Are you scared?"
"No. I'm just concerned."
"About what?"
"You, of course!"
"Oh... That's new. I like my Erin like this. When we returned to the Kingfisher, let me in your room."
"This guy. Be serious."
"I am... But don't worry. We don't necessarily have to fight all of them. Remember, we're only going to investigate their fleet and find out their true objective."
"Alright. Hurry up..."
"I miss you too."
"I didn't say anything!" Erin clicked her tongue and annoyedly shouted. Nonetheless, even though I couldn't see her, I could imagine her turning red from her neck up.
Ah... I can't wait to hold her and spoil her for a whole night. Anyway, I better get serious.
A while later, the Scout Vessel finally reached my position. And as expected, it's the one I copied the appearance from.
As soon as he reached my range, I cast Void Concealment on me and opened the hatch of my Space Vessel.
Following that, I swam through the chaotic space to reach the Scout Vessel.
At this point, he's now shouting for whoever's piloting my Space Vessel to open the communication channel or he would shoot.
Too bad for him, I broke open his hatch and stepped inside. Even before he could react to his hatch opening without warning, his neck soon followed its fate.
After bringing the corpse back to the Space Vessel and putting it on autopilot to go in a different direction, I returned to the Scout Vessel and sent a message to Erin.
"Erin, I'm on the way."
"Great! Hurry up, monster. By the way, I found out something... That Mortal World's name. It's called World of Tree Spirits."
Tree Spirits? Will it be a Spirit or Elemental World?
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