Burchard walked through the steel hallway. The exterior and the interior of the ship truly depict a ship that mold only for war. The thickness of the steel would be enough to hold against an all-out attack from a Platinum Rank or even a Diamond Rank.
This meant Aldred couldn't even destroy his own ship even if he tried to.
This wouldn't be possible with steel alone. At the very least, two or three Diamond Rank magicians were enhancing the ship, making it stronger and lighter.
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at some sort of altar.
"Where is the wheelhouse?"
The wheelhouse was the place where the wheel of the ship was located. In the modern world, it was called the bridge or command center.
"Please stand on the altar, Sir."
Aldred and the others stood on the altar. Suddenly, the floor on the edge of the altar moved up, creating some sort of wall around them. Later, the floor floated upward.
"This is an elevator!"
Aldred couldn't believe it. He had seen a lot of weird magical effects, but who would have thought they would make an elevator with magic?
Bartrem and some of his women were surprised as well. Stella, Mary, and Zafrina had seen a magic elevator.
"Its real name is called magical levitation platform, but over time people have called it a magic elevator," Burchard said.
"The first name is too long after all."
The elevator arrived at the top floor and the wall slid down, revealing an expansive wheelhouse. There was a lot of magical apparatus, and for some reason, it looked as complex as modern computers.
They weren't so different after all, huh?
Burchard walked closer to the wheel and pressed a shining orb. A small projection of the mothership appeared, floating in the air. "This will be your main tools to see the condition of your ship, Sir. All you have to do is press it, and it will show the projection of your ship. If your ship is damaged, the projection will indicate a red color to any damaged part, and even show you how badly damaged they are. Here you can see the number of ammunitions we have."
Aldred was surprised when he saw thousands of cannons on the ship. Around 14 of them had the caliber of 780 mm shell… just imagining a shell that large crashing against something made Aldred feel excited.
"Those 14 large cannons you see are our main cannons. They can reach a target at a minimum of 47 kilometers away, and the maximum distance is almost unlimited."
"What do you mean by unlimited?"
"As long as you give it more mana, the cannon can shoot at any distance. Of course, you will have a problem hitting a target that's beyond our horizon. This ship has its own ship finder, but it had a limited distance of around 2,000 kilometers."
"That's good enough."
2,000 kilometers… in the modern world, only an inter-continental missile could reach that distance.
"What else can I see from this thing?"
Burchard hovered his hand around the orb, and the projection showed the entire fleet. "As you can see, you can also see your fleet as a whole. You can see how many ammunitions they have, how many mana crystals they have left, the crew, and another status such as maximum speed, weight, and length."
"This is very useful."
"Also, forgive me for being rude, but I can't help but notice that the other ships have no accommodations at all. Is there a reason for this?"
"That's because I only use golems. I don't plan to hire a lot of sailors to man my ships."
"But you will need hundreds if not thousands of golems to do that, my Lord."
"Tulban haven't told you?"
"Apologies, but he didn't say anything to me except guide you on how to control your fleet."
Aldred laughed. "I will show you later. Now tell me what else can I do?"
Burchard showed Aldred what the orb could do such as activating the defensive apparatus that covered the entire ship or sending out powerful particles to nearby ships to make them stronger and faster.
"This mothership is very unique, so it has advantages other motherships cannot have. Not only does it have powerful firepower, but it can also act as a support vessel by helping other ships. This is all possible because you remove all the accommodations space."
Aldred smiled. "Let me show you my golems."
Aldred waved his hand, and a portal appeared in the sky above one of his ships. Then, golems started pouring out of the portal, filling the ship one by one as Aldred changed the locations of the portal above the ships.
Burchard's eyes widened when he saw more than 15,000 golems pouring out of the portal.
'How could this man control over 15 thousand golems at once?" Burchard glanced at Aldred and saw him in a different light.
"Is this enough to man the ships?" Aldred asked.
"I—it's more than enough, my Lord. But do these golems know how to run a ship?"
"That's where your role comes into play. You and the other sailors will teach my golems how to run the fleet properly. How many sailors do we have?"
"Including me, we have six sailors in total."
"Call them here."
Soon, the five sailors arrived in the command room. Aldred looked at them with both hands behind his back. The sailors' eyes looked bright and they were excited to work. Aldred was glad that Tulban gave him a group of motivated sailors.
Aldred asked for their names and their experiences as a sailor. After talking to them for a few minutes, he gave them their position.
"Burchard, you will be the commodore of this fleet."
"Yes, my lord!"
"Kenway, you will be the 1st captain."
"Wickham, you will be the 2nd captain."
"Claxton…"
"Ewert…"
"And lastly Briggs…"
In total Aldred now had one commodore and five captains. He didn't understand much about their roles, but overall, all they had to do was teach the golems and helped Aldred in controlling the fleet.
"Okay, before we do anything else, we have to test our power."
Aldred crossed his arms as he stared at the ocean through the window. "Commodore! Find us an island, and bombard it with our cannons."
"Yes, my Lord! Captains! All hands on deck, get ready to fire!"
The captains sprinted out of the wheelhouse and went to their designated ships. Each captain had control of around 12 ships consisting of destroyers, cruisers, submarines, and other ships.
They prepared all of the golems on each of those ships and submarines. To their surprise, the golems were so easy to train.
It didn't take long for the golems to learn how to load the shells or torpedos, and when to start cleaning the ships.
This took place while Burchard the fleet slowly sailed towards an island.
"This island will be our target, my Lord. It's a small island, just 200 miles in length, and 93 miles in width. It's also free of people, so no one is going to get hurt."
"Perfect. Start firing when everyone is ready."
"Yes, my Lord!"
