Versatile: Alternate World

The first step to our trip to the Kingdom of the Deep Sea is to create a boat. As much as I want to use Leona as our ferry to the Kingdom of the Deep Sea, according to Sera and Li, the Kingdom of the Deep Sea's entrance can only be accessed using a boat and a teleport portal since other methods of reaching the place would only result to failure spotting the said entrance. Since the latter option is out of the question especially since it's been so long for the two siblings when they were in the kingdom and the rest of the crew has not yet stepped into the location at all, the only method viable is the boat.

With the skills of Lina and everyone's help to procure planks and wood that is possible to use to make a boat, our boat was made after a few hours of work. Lina's construction skills are much better than I expected and if it leveled a lot more in the future, she might be able to create more complicated things. After all, construction skills are not just limited to wooden structures.

The boat that Lina made is big enough that you can say it is more like a miniature ship rather than a boat. It was a boat big enough even for Atlas to ride it. If it was just a simple boat, it will be done in just a few minutes for Lina. But since she is making a bigger one, it took us a few hours before we managed to finish it. After the boat is done, time to do the floating test. After all, a boat that sinks in the water is not a good boat and anyone knows that.

"One, two, and three! Heave!"

The boat now shook a little bit on the water as it makes a bit of a splash as it landed on the water. It was a quick shove. We stare as the boat floated a bit. Of course, we waited a bit before it is stable enough. It floats indeed but is it enough for us to board it?

"Atlas, can you try to board it for us?" Lina asked. It seems Lina is indeed thinking about how to fit Atlas to fit in too.

Atlas nodded and boarded the boat. Compared to my expectation of an unstable boat, it was very stable as it didn't even rock the boat the moment Atlas gets into it. He managed to be on the boat without any hard time or any signs that the boat will sink due to the size and weight of his armor.

"Alright! Project is done and the boat is finally done!"

"Impressive! I have not seen quite a sturdy boat before! It's not even a ship and yet it can carry Atlas just fine!" Lucia complimented Lina's craft.

"Hey, I am not that heavy, Lucia-sama! I am only heavy because of my armor but without it, I barely have any weight!"

"But I never said anything you are heavy, did I?" Lucia grinned.

"..." Atlas is speechless.

...

With the boat done, we are now ready to depart. Li and Sera are now in their human forms. Even if they are merfolk, the ability to transform their tails into legs is not impossible for them or even a pipe dream. It is one of their normal abilities. That means Andersen's Little Mermaid is just something that would be a joke to the merfolk as they can just use their powers rather than go ask a witch to gain legs.

"Well, we have a boat but I don't know how to steer a ship at all," I scratch my head.

"I may be called Versatile Battle Maid and can almost do anything but sailing with a boat is not my expertise. Maybe if this was a boat that works in paddling, maybe it will work but..." Lina blushed.

"This isn't part of my specialty either! I barely have any experience riding a ship or a boat so of course, I also don't have the experience!" Lucia quickly stated her reason when we looked at her.

Atlas scratched his helmet, scratching a nonexistent itch on his helmet, and sighed before he declared, "Fine, I will do the job."

"Oh? Do you have skills in seafaring? I didn't expect that!" Lucia looked at Atlas with curiosity in her eyes.

"Yeah, I have experience in sailing a ship. I may be one of the minibosses before inside a dungeon but back when I was just a wee bit of an adventurer, I have my fair share of seafaring before so yeah. I know how to do it."

"Well, that is good to know, Atlas. Alright, you will be the captain!" I appointed.

"I apologize about that Master, but leadership is my worst attribute and I can barely give out commands to others. I can be a helmsman but becoming the captain is out of the question."

"Master, why would you appoint someone else as a captain? Aren't you the more fitting person to be the one handling the job?" Lucia tilted her head as she looks at me.

"Yes, I agree on this part. As you are the acting leader of this group, you should also be the one who should be the captain even though you aren't capable of handling the ship. It's not usually your job anyway since a captain's job is to command the crew of the ship, not to sail them," Tina explained without being bias on what my role should be.

As much as I don't want to be the captain and just wanted to be some sort of just the shipmate, escaping to the possibility is hard. In the end, I am indeed the captain and I have no other choice but to accept the role.

"Well then, since we have to go to the entrance of the Kingdom of the Deep Sea, we will be the acting navigator on this one! Despite the years passing by, the sea has barely changed. You don't need to worry about us getting lost as we can easily reach the place. However, we still needed to be careful. After all, the place is pretty treacherous when it comes to sea monsters. But still, since they aren't as dangerous compared to the Ice Monster of the Ice Hell, they shouldn't pose much of a threat to you guys so I have high faith that this trip will be an easy-flowing one!" Sera declared while Li is nodding profusely.

"That would be great, thanks. No one from here knows how to properly access the place without being called a threat or trespassers."

"True. Our people are quite paranoid about that stuff and they are always kind of annoying at times. It isn't a wonder why there are many of the folks in the Kingdom migrate to human cities rather than stay in the kingdom due to these strict rules. Anyways, there is nothing we can do about it. We can only have to try and see how these guys are nowadays," Li answered. "There might be some changes but I doubt it's a big change. The Kingdom is pretty slow in the uptakes at some times anyways."

After our final preparation, we bid farewell to the hut that Lina made. She also said that this should help in case some adventurer got lost in this place and just stumble into the hut. It might not be a healing spot but it should be a good place to camp out for a bit compared to camping outside. She even left a small note about the hut before we left.

Then, we started sailing with Atlas driving the mini ship.

...

...

...

"Urgh... I hate to admit it but I didn't think I am someone who would suffer from seasickness. Urp..." Lucia groaned as she held on to the edge of the mini-ship while Lina is helping her rub her stomach.

"You should rest for a bit Lucia. Having seasickness is quite troublesome in many ways. It would just feel a lot more horrible if you keep struggling on it." I advised. If only we have the medicine to at least mitigate the seasickness, it wouldn't be this bad.

"Everyone, prepare for combat, I am seeing a few Sword Barracudas coming our way. Attacking them while they are still underwater would allow us to easily kill them," Li said.

Since Lucia and Lina are occupied and Tina doesn't have any sort of ability to fight using long-range attacks except a few skills that have high cooldown rates, I decided to be the one attacking.

"Is it also possible to use long-range weapons instead of magic to kill them?" I asked the two merfolk doing the recon team.

"Yeah. Bows, guns, and spears are able to handle this way. However, it's much more efficient in using the magic skills to easily dispose of them, though it's your call.. Defeating the enemy right before us will be less trouble."