The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-403

Chapter 403: The First Step of the Plan

Hao Ren recounted what happened over at Raven12345’s place after arriving back home and started checking on who was going. To be fair, that was a moot question as everyone at home wanted a piece of the action, except for the ones that cannot go, namely Becky and the four vajras. These people coming over from the Plane of Dreams is already a problem in itself, so it’s better if they do not venture anywhere else.

“Now I know how it feels like raising a toddler.” Hao Ren mumbled as he packed his stuff, looking resignedly towards Lil Pea in her aquarium. “I just have to bring her along anyway, it’s just so worrisome.”

Lil Pea was perched on the side of the aquarium as she looked at Hao Ren curiously, as she heard him spoke she happily slapped her tail against the glass. “Wurisum! Wurisum!”

“Well, this time around you could let her out from time to time.” Y’zaks said as he suddenly appeared beside Hao Ren. “She won’t cause a ruckus there if she gets discovered.”

“You have mermaids over at your place?” Hao Ren asked quizzically.

Y’zaks shook his head. “We don’t have mermaids but we dabble in alchemy and chimaeric creations. There’s a lot of weird homonculus and chimaeric beasts. Of course, they are far from being actual living beings, but they did not pop out of thin air. So explaining the little one’s origins would be very simple.”

“Well, one step at a time I guess.” Hao Ren pursed his lips. “If things go awry I’ll have to shove her back into the Dimensional Pocket. This little one… is just so worrisome…”

Lil Pea continued slapping the glass with her tail. “Wurisum! Wurisum!”

Apparently she remembered the words, and it seems like she knew it was referring to her.

After packing up Hao Ren ordered the MDT to activate the portal towards the port where the Petrachelys was docked. He had also informed the station before hand and the navigation path and launch catapult was on standby and they could depart as soon as they get there. That too spared them from Y’zaks frenzied reminders.

As the flash of white light disappeared, the group had arrived in the ever impressive docking bay. The Petrachelys floated silently by the dock, eminating a mysterious silver light as it waited it’s master. Lanina was still deep in though about ‘whether this bunch of loonies are reliable or not’ and it took her a while to realise that she had been transferred from the house to a very wide space, a space even wider than the Goddess’ temple. The suddenness of things had her grappling to find her bearings. Looking about, she asked, “Ugh… We are taking a ship right? Where’s the ship?”

Hao Ren pointed towards the Petrachelys, “That’s the one. We’re talking about a spaceship here. You were thinking about the seaborne one?”

Lanina only then realise that the big monstrosity in front of her was Hao Ren’s ‘personal transport’. It was not like she’d never seen one before, she was knocked over by one before. She just didn’t thought that Hao Ren’s vessel would be such a thing!

“This is bigger than the one that crashed into me!” Lanina was wide-eyed. “Wait a minu…. you’re saying this is yours?!”

“Yep.” Hao Ren nodded. “My official vessel, while in reality it’s a private one. It’s called the Petrachelys. Just knowing the name itself is enough, don’t ask me what it means or who named it.”

Lanina was still too stunned to react. She simply just could not believe that the seemingly unreliable person had managed to conjure a ship of such proportions. Her mind still could not reconcile the fact that Hao Ren’s place looked like it was awaiting demolition and his employer’s place was a wreck against the magnificent dockyard before here. The difference was just too vast a gap. “If you are that capable… why don’t you renovate your place?”

“It serves it’s purpose, so why do I need to renovate it?” Hao Ren did not know why Lanina popped such a question.

Lanina tilted her head and back, and felt that this was probably just culture shock, and that this was how the Goddess had decreed and it was not something she could ever understand, so she just left it at that.

Hao Ren led the group into the ship and the Petrachelys soon were outside Kuiper Station control zone. The ship was fast exiting the Milky Way and the station had turned into a sparkling dot in the blackness of space behind them. After the ship had reached the void, the MDT activated the warp drive.

After the image from the optical sensors had faded to black, Hao Ren could then relax and let go of his captain pose. “Alright, we’ll be reaching the World Gate soon. We’ll just have to wait.”

The MDT was in the control console, and leered at him. “What are you getting to relaxed for? You had simply just pressed the auto-pilot button, and I was controlling the ship all this while.”

Hao Ren did not react to the provocation, and turned to look at the group on the bridge. This was not Lily or Vivian’s first space voyage and they had already went about doing things that interested them. Vivian was making gloves out of Lily’s leftover fur and it doesn’t seem to be enough. She took a deep glance at Lily’s tail from time to time. The husky on the other hand was in that oversized uniform again, and was striking a first mate pose beside Hao Ren. She seemed to be really into the whole first mate shtick. Nangong Wuyue was studying the scale patterns of the mermaid. Lil Pea was the subject.

Y’zaks was seated on the far corner of the bridge with a stony face. Everyone was wise enough to leave him alone. The great demon had finally encountered something that had him in jitters.

Lanina was a ball of curiosity the moment she stepped foot on the ship. Everything was new and interesting to her and most importantly, this was far more advanced that what she had saw in Hao Ren’s place, and she finally had confidence in Hao Ren and the Goddess behind him.

Hao Ren cleared his throat to attract the attention of everyone on the bridge. “I’ve just received the report from the Space Administration… and oh the navigation guide from the World Gate.”

Everyone looked up as they waited for Hao Ren to brief them.

“Based on the records, Good old Y’zaks home is at a very far flung place.” Hao Ren looked at Y’zaks. “As for how far flung it is… lets just put it this way. Remember old Aerym? That place don’t even have any administration centers, and only a World Gate, a few outpost and some automated fortifications. That is almost a village level place, and Y’zaks place is even more far flung that that, your world don’t even have a World Gate! Almost like our place back home…”

Vivian was surprised. “Not even a World Gate? How do we get there then?”

The vampire had joined Hao Ren on a voyage before and had took the effort to learn somewhat about the World Gate, better than Lily at least.

“The World Gate is mainly for ease of civilian transport, and many normal races do not have the capability to cross the void, and they need the Gate to reach another world.” Hao Ren tapped the command console. “Our ship has a void drive in it, and we can go to places that do not have a World Gate. The difference being that one is being automated, and the other requires manual navigation. The Empire had laid claim to Y’zaks place but they only have a soverignity hub there, and even that is hidden in a different dimension. So we are not heading to the hub itself. I had requested the coordinates from Raven12345, we can directly teleport near where Y’zaks was first taken.”

“Serathon’s Demonic Foundry?” Lanina immediately knew where Hao Ren was referring to. “Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Of course, so we will not land there directly.” Hao Ren nodded. “The ship’s AI will compute the safest place to send us in. But then there’s the most important part, how do we disguise ourselves? The first stop is the demonic world, so how should we go about that…”

“No problem for me.” Lanina stroked her long and thin succubus tail, and a faint nostalgic smile appeared on her face. “Succubus are a common sight there, and my looks are rather inconspicuous, just a change of clothes will do. My lord can just be a normal flame demon, or just maintain his current looks…”

Lanina took a look at Y’zaks, “His current form looks like a human that had undergone changes after demon worship. This sort of people are common too.”

Hao Ren took a quiet glance at Y’zaks as he demurred. “So we can just disguise ourselves as demonic followers. We won’t raise any alarms this way right?”

“No,” Lanina smiled. “There are many humans who fell into the demonic grasp in search of power, as long as there is a high level demon acting as your master, most demons won’t even look at you. While the demonic world is chaotic, there are still rules that all will follow. One being that stealing other’s adherents is a strict no-no, as it’s literally pointless.”

The group continued their discussions on how to diguise themselves until the ship arrived at the World Gate.