The Only Enhancer - Chapter 181

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 181
181 – Reinforce Guild Deep-sea Fishing Vessel (2)
0.
Gangneung Port, located in Gangneung—a place that might one day become a cherished memory for Min-jun.
Members of the Reinforce Guild began gathering there in droves. As they arrived one by one, each caught sight of the massive cargo ship docked at Gangneung Port and gasped in wonder. And well they might, for they would soon be boarding that colossal vessel.
A cargo ship capable of carrying several thousand tons was a rare sight in these days since the monsters emerged.
Yet they had no choice but to board such a vessel. Everyone could only swallow hard.
“Wow, it really is huge.”
“I heard the guild master renovated the interior like a luxury cruise ship, so there are amenities inside!”
“Wow, it’s just like a cruise vacation!”
“Kyaa! I can’t resist a cruise! But will we have time to enjoy it while training?”
“…W-well, it’s still better than being cooped up in the mountains, right?”
“That’s true too.”
Everyone felt a bit gloomy thinking they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the cargo ship even with its luxurious interior. Still, it had to be better than conducting expeditions in the mountains.
It was unavoidable, but the Reinforce Guild members were at least trying to maintain a positive outlook.
Min-jun smiled as he gazed at the docked cargo ship.
Acquiring a cargo ship of that size capable of departing immediately was no easy task.
Well, tripling the cargo ship’s price certainly made it easier than expected.
Though the ship could depart at any moment, it still fell short of Min-jun’s standards.
Should I reinforce it using magic circles so it can defend itself adequately?
While thinking such thoughts and loading the Reinforce Guild members’ supplies, Min-jun took flight and began inspecting the docked cargo ship from every angle.
As expected of such a massive cargo ship, its durability was decent, but anyone could see it would be half-destroyed if even a Disaster Level 4—or rather, Disaster Level 3—monster came along and gave it a light tap.
‘I’ll be conducting raids from this ship, so it can’t be fragile.’
With that natural thought, Min-jun swiftly deployed magic circles. He could have used skills, but that wouldn’t allow him to achieve the durability level he desired.
The first magic circle Min-jun deployed was one that increased the cargo ship’s overall durability.
You might call it a spell that reinforces metal. As he deployed the magic circle and poured mana into it, the metal’s durability increased by more than tenfold.
Seeing the magic circles appear in an instant, the Reinforce Guild members expressed amazement at Min-jun’s abilities rather than confusion.
The cargo ship itself was impressive, but Min-jun casually reinforcing such a massive vessel was even more so.
“What are those magic circles? Wait, I heard our guild master learned magic, but when did he become such a great mage?”
“The sheer number of magic circles is insane. Crazy.”
“Evan! You’re a mage too, right? Is that possible?”
“I-I can’t even keep up. My head would literally split trying to handle that many magic circles. O-only because you’re the guild master is it possible.”
“Wow, this is insane. What kind of magic is that?”
“A-ah, it seems to be reinforcing metal, b-but it’s amazing.”
Several guild members who didn’t understand magic asked Evan, but unfortunately, even he couldn’t identify all of it. It was an exceptionally complex spell.
The foundation of the magic circles Min-jun was currently using was mana created from Ma Hyun-seok’s characteristic mana—Steel Mana.
It was the process of increasing the durability of the entire metal structure and layering mana over the steel to maximize its resilience. Of course, this alone wouldn’t suffice.
After reinforcing the metal, Min-jun paused, wondering if it was enough.
He thought that even a Disaster Level 8 monster shouldn’t easily destroy it with physical impact, but one could never be too careful.
Besides, the Deep-Sea Monsters were all exceptionally skilled shamans or mages.
After all, I need countermeasures against mana as well.
‘I should form magic circles similar to a mana barrier. If I block out all the miscellaneous things, air and seawater won’t penetrate either, so I need to go with a method that blocks all mana-based attacks.’
With that thought, Min-jun deployed new magic circles to create a defensive barrier that clung tightly to the entire cargo vessel. The form of the barrier mimicked the defensive barrier of a monster—a format I was all too familiar with.
It was one of the simplest methods while maintaining a form that clung snugly to the body.
So Min-jun deployed the magic circles once more.
The characteristic mana I would use this time was Gwen’s characteristic mana—Transmutation.
The outer shell of the cargo vessel, so to speak—I performed transmutation to semi-fuse that exterior with the mana-formed defensive barrier, then poured in an enormous amount of mana.
With this much mana, it was at a level where even a creature exceeding Disaster Level 8 would be safe.
Going further, after installing circuits capable of automatic repair and even mounting mana stones, it had essentially become a combat weapon no different from an aircraft carrier.
“Insane….”
“The amount of mana felt from there is more than most monsters?”
“Is, is that actually normal?”
“Wow, you really are amazing. You just whipped that up.”
“With this much, there shouldn’t be any stability issues.”
“Huh? What? Stability issues?”
Someone asked in confusion at the mention of safety, and the other guild members turned their heads at the sight of that guild member, as if questioning what was wrong.
As if asking what problem there could be.
And that guild member, receiving such gazes, swallowed hard and spoke.
“If, if it’s that safe, I don’t think we’ll be here for just two months.”
“…What?”
“Huh?”
“Wait, wait? Is this right?”
“Ah, I heard that while conquering the Pacific, it would be good to search for traces of the Deep-Sea Monsters’ bases….”
“Ah, aha, ahahaha. Grab notebooks! Right now!”
“More, more notebooks! Grab the navigation logs!”
At one person’s words, everyone fell into a panic, each scrambling to gather notebooks in complete chaos.
Natalia and Evan had also heard something and found it somewhat frightening, but since they had already gathered enough notebooks, they remained quiet.
Hong Myeong, standing beside the two of them, sighed and shook his head.
Still, I had abandoned the naive thought that we would contribute less because our levels were lower.
Min-jun would find a way to utilize us regardless.
Do you still believe that Min-jun’s training is the same as ordinary people’s training?
Not a single guild member thought that way.
As everyone busily prepared for departure, Min-jun also came down to the port looking satisfied that preparations were complete, and spoke while watching most of the guild members preparing.
“We will set sail as soon as preparations are finished.”
At those words, some openly considered packing slowly, but not knowing what situation might arise, they reluctantly completed the departure preparations quickly.
And once all preparations were complete, the sound of a ship’s horn rang out as the vessel departed powerfully.
1.
As soon as we set out to sea, several problems arose.
Though I had hired a navigator and someone to operate the passenger ship to use the shipping lanes, monsters still appeared in considerable numbers.
Seeing that, the Reinforce Guild members stepped forward. They were merely Disaster Level 4 sea monsters, yet defeating them was not easy.
Of course, I did manage to kill it in one blow, but there were quite a few problems along the way.
“Even with underwater breathing, moving through the water is far more difficult than I expected?”
“It would be better to just bombard it from a distance, but from Disaster Level 5 onwards, bombardment alone isn’t enough to take them down, right?”
“How many of our executives came? Without them, it seems like taking them down with bombardment would be tough?”
“Actually, isn’t it the kind of thing they’d tell us to handle with bombardment alone?”
“Ah, right… well, let’s just try to adapt for now.”
With such discussions, everyone threw themselves into their research.
How to hunt efficiently and what methods to employ.
Moving underwater simply wasn’t easy.
Even with underwater breathing possible, the buoyancy and pressure were far beyond imagination.
Because of this, the guild members found their training exponentially harder than what they did on land.
Movement was one thing, but in the sea, the water’s density being higher than air made it difficult to wield mana like an extension of their limbs.
They couldn’t even understand if it was possible in the first place.
However, watching Evan and Natalia, they came to realize it was indeed possible.
‘It’s not that it’s impossible—we just can’t do it yet.’
‘If we learn, could we do it too?’
‘Should I ask the guild master?’
‘That’s a bit scary, so let me ask Natalia instead.’
‘Actually, Evan would explain it better.’
Exploring every possible method, they all moved as one.
Hearing that moving underwater was difficult, Min-jun dove in himself to test if it was really so, releasing his mana to see—but there wasn’t much difference.
The density was certainly different, and using skills or mana did feel very, very slightly different from air, but this degree of difference was easily adaptable, so I said nothing.
Besides, they hadn’t given up; rather, they were asking Evan and Natalia, who could actually do it.
As Min-jun left them be, Gwen spoke with a hint of envy watching them.
“Hunting in the sea looks rather fun.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. But I still have research to finish, so I’ll need to complete that and join you all. It’s in the final stages anyway—I just need to compile the data and send it to Andrew. I left Bella behind just in case.”
“Then it won’t be long.”
At Min-jun’s words, Gwen nodded.
Finally, I’d be able to mass-produce liquid metal golems.
Once that was done, all of Gwen’s important research would be complete.
Gwen stretched and spoke.
“Then I’ll work hard and get back!”
“Yes, since it’s in the final stages, take your time.”
“Okay.”
With that, Gwen entered the research laboratory Min-jun had prepared, and Min-jun let out a quiet laugh.
Building a research facility on the cargo ship just because she wanted to stay together.
She didn’t seem to be in her right mind.
Still, I thought it was the right call.
We’d be on this cargo ship for quite a long time anyway.
Min-jun conducted a deep search of the surrounding area as he did so.
Though he hadn’t ventured far from the East Sea yet, one could never be too careful.
His mana control and effective range had reached an unparalleled level, allowing him to probe even into these abyssal depths.
He checked whether anything obscured his perception, but found nothing of note.
As Min-jun’s brow furrowed slightly at this, Morgana spoke up.
-Ehehe, even with such a thorough search, I’m certain you’ll discover my hidden sister soon enough. That’s what I believe, anyway. Ehehehe!
Hearing Morgana’s frivolous words, Min-jun exhaled softly.
He briefly wondered if he should have brought Bayana Uldin from Andrew instead, but he couldn’t leave Morgana, a creature of the Deep Sea, behind.
With that thought, Min-jun resolved to finally tackle something he’d been postponing.
‘I need to reach Level 8 now.’
If he’d hit the limits of Level 7, then advancing was the only answer.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————