บท 971: Chapter 971. Encounter With Star Beasts.
Tatyana spoke to them with crossed arms and a smile. "So, how is it going? Is the vacuum of space making you two feel welcomed and at home?"
Kali rolled her eyes and looked around. "This is very unsettling. The lack of… everything. It makes you feel like you are naked in front of an infinite span of danger. Not to mention…" Kali looked toward the Sun, protecting her eyes with energy, and snorted without a sound. "The Sun is annoying. I didn't know how much the atmosphere of the planet really protects us from it."
Yasenia blinked and commented. "Really? I feel quite comfy now. Even more than when I was down there."
Tatyana tilted her head. "Really? I mean, having the sun attribute should not affect the way you feel when the actual source of life hits you. The energy released by a Star is incredibly high, even for most Transcendence Realm cultivators."
Kali hummed. "Source of life?"
Tatyana smiled. "Of course. Without the Sun, life can't have that initial spark. The most basic life needs light to exist. Of course, things can then evolve to work in its absence. However, I don't think that life has ever developed in a place without a Sun."
Kali didn't have real arguments against that. Yasenia asked while looking at the Sun. "Mom, how do you navigate space? I mean, you can have the Sun as the anchor of your point of view, but…" The dragoness looked back and commented. "Celestial objects move relative to the Sun, not to us."
Kali looked back and exclaimed. "Wow! That's… fantastical."
Behind them, Distancia was slowly moving away. Thanks to the [Profound Skeletal World Jumping Warship]'s anti-gravity field, Distancia was moving away at its traveling speed instead of dragging them with it. The speed was incredibly fast, but not faster than the speed their warship could move at.
Speaking of antigravity, the sun's effect on them was still affecting them. If not, it would be quite bothersome to pursue it. The way the ship managed to distinguish which gravitational bending to ignore was through complex Gravity Intent Domain effects that were added to the ship.
Yasenia looked at Tatyana, waiting for the answer. The Death Empress answered. "Well, the way you navigate space is quite simple, really. In the vastness of space, the only places with energy are those that would be interesting. Therefore, we send out a pulse from time to time, and each time an energy source is detected, we will receive information on its location."
Interested, Kali looked at the place Tatyana was pointing at. "This is similar to the echolocation some animals have. Fascinating."
Tatyana nodded. "Anyway, let's get our coordinates for the nearest planet. Do we go toward the Sun or away from it first?"
The dragoness asked. "Which one is easier?"
Tatyana muttered. "Going closer is harder. There are many more complications."
Yasenia smiled. "Let's go closer then. If I were that merchant, I would try to hide myself in a location that is harder to find, right?"
Tatyana shrugged. "It depends. Some people actually think that hiding in plain sight is more effective. So, they might've gone to the outer worlds."
"Hm…"
"What's wrong, Kali?"
The fox woman spoke. "Can't we use this echolocation formation to follow his tracks? I don't think that he has a stronger flying treasure than ours. So, he might still be in space, right?"
Tatyana chuckled and activated the formation. An invisible pulse scattered outward with exponential speed, surpassing the speed of light several times by using the sub-spatial dimension to travel.
After three minutes, an image appeared around them. Kali's face crumpled as millions of different dots with different sizes appeared one after another. Tatyana laughed. "So, which one do you think is our man?"
The dragoness chuckled and ordered. "Alaia, speed toward the planet closest to the Sun!"
"Understood, Young Miss."
The Warship's aura deepened, and then, it silently blasted forward. Alaia spoke. "Ten minutes to reach it, Young Miss."
Yasenia blinked, stunned. "Ten minutes? What's our current speed?"
Alaia answered. "Our current speed is nearly 600,000 kilometers per second."
The dragoness was stunned. "That fast? If this thing's top speed is that much, no wonder we could move around Distancia in just a few seconds."
Kali muttered. "Isn't the speed of light around 300,000 kilometers per second? How can we be going twice as fast?"
Alaia laughed softly. "While those kinds of limits are difficult to overcome, energy shields us from most things that would seem impossible otherwise. For example, have you ever been fighting, and suddenly, you make an abrupt 100 to 0 stop, only hurting your muscles and such? Energy is an infinitely profound concept that is filled with wonders."
Tatyana leaned on the side and laughed. "Not to mention, that's not the top speed. This ship specializes in making world-to-world jumps, hence its name. However, it can also help with interstellar travel."
Yasenia hummed. "Quite a big present, no?"
Tatyana laughed. "Well, it doesn't really increase your personal strength, so gifting it to you had minimal Fate variances. It was completely safe to give."
The dragoness smiled. "I see." Yasenia looked at the [Five Realm Spatial Ring], and sighed. "I've really been pampered, haven't I? I just didn't notice."
Flora smiled. "What's wrong with Lady Tatyana pampering her baby daughter? Will you stop pampering the Little Misses, Young Miss?"
"Touché."
The dragoness laughed. Then, she swished her tail, pensive. "So, when you say hard, you didn't really mean it, no? We'll take just ten minutes, after all."
Tatyana beckoned both of them and pointed out. "Do you see those streaks of light going around us from time to time? Those are asteroids. Imagine if we crashed frontally with one of those. Or, imagine if one of those was a [Star Beast]. You can die even before you realize if you don't pay enough attention. Your maids are heavily trained, so there is no need to worry, though."
Alaia spoke aloud. "Lady Tatyana, Star Beast Herd ahead, orders?"
Tatyana asked. "Strength?"
"Between Four to Seven Level Legendary Beast Core Realm strength."
Tatyana asked again. "Numbers?"
Alaia commented. "Between five to twenty."
Yasenia commented to Kali. "Those are not very accurate numbers."
Kali chuckled, and Valeria appeared by their side, explaining. "That's the main risk of space exploration. You can never know for sure. You might think there is a source of harmless energy in one place, but when you approach, it turns out to be a slumbering giant beast that eats you with just a single bite."
Both girls nodded, understanding. They heard Tatyana say. "Let's approach. It feels like a good herd to show Little Treasure and Kali about them."
Kali coughed. "Don't we have more pressing matters?"
Tatyana smiled. "Don't worry. It won't take longer than a few minutes."
Kali sighed. "Sure, sure. I don't think anyone is more worried than you, so if you feel it is right, let's do the stop."
Alaia slowed down the ship, and after one more minute, the speed lowered to the point that the asteroids and everything else didn't appear like streaks of light.
Once they arrived before the herd, they spotted a group of 11 creatures floating through space quite swiftly. They were a mix of fish and land animals, combining an elephant with a tortoise.
The dragoness asked. "Weren't [Star Beasts] supposed to be huge? They don't look too big, no?"
Alaia smiled. "Young Miss, we are far away. The smallest of those Star Beasts, that small one over there, is nearly 40 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide and tall. Young Miss would look like a small little fish they can eat in one bite.
Kali was stunned. Yasenia was one of the biggest beasts she had ever seen level-wise, but these star beasts were enormous on a completely different scale.
Yasenia hummed. "I see. No wonder they are so strong. With such massive bodies, their natural defense must be incredibly high. Right?"
Valeria chuckled. "That's right. Their size is both their biggest advantage and weakness. Because of their size, not many people dare to hunt them. On the other hand, because they are so big, living on planets where gravity would almost crush them is not very fun.
"Right…" Yasenia smiled. "If I were that big, don't speak about flying; walking in my dragon form would be difficult."
Tatyana rubbed her chin and commented. "Do we hunt them? Their carapaces seem like quite nice materials. Star Beast flesh is very insipid, though, so I don't know about cooking it."
Yasenia grinned. "Is that a challenge? Hehe~." She paused and asked. "What about their intelligence? Are they considered sapient or sentient?"
The Death Empress shrugged. "Some are more intelligent than a human. Others are stupider than the asteroids they eat." Looking over, she said, confused. "These ones… They look as dumb as bricks, to be honest. Like, look at those faces, don't you have an urge to punch it? However, who knows?"
Everyone looked at Tatyana with a deadpan, making her ask. "What? Don't tell me that you didn't think that their face was stupid. Look! Even their eyes are not looking straight! I mean, there is probably an evolutionary reason for that, but if looking like my left eye is admiring the sky while the other one is admiring the worms in the earth is the result, I don't want it, thanks."
Valeria burst into laughter. "I mean, those poor darlings look quite silly, indeed.
Tatyana asked. "So, what do we do? Do we take a trophy back home, or do we spare them from their ugly existence?"
Kali coughed. "How about we give them a chance, and we ask them?"
Tatyana stepped aside and pointed at the beasts. "They are all yours."
Kali blinked and looked over. "They are so far away. How can I communicate?"
The Death Empress blinked. "Spiritual sense?"
Kali was speechless. "That's at least 10,000 kilometers. I don't have such a monstrous Spiritual Sense, mother-in-law."
Tatyana smirked. "Try it."
Kali rolled her eyes and expanded her Spiritual sense outward as much as she could. However, the second she did so, her eyes widened. "W-What is happening!?"
Her spiritual sense expanded from one hundred kilometers to one thousand. Then, it continued going outward, reaching five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand kilometers!
Kali felt like she could go on effortlessly, which baffled her. Tatyana explained, "When you are in a World, your Spiritual Sense is limited by everything around you: the air, the earth, plants, insects, birds, people, other spiritual senses, and the world's energies. It doesn't have all the small things to look out for here. Therefore, it can go outward very easily. "
Tatyana pointed at them and smiled. "Now, try to communicate."
Kali coughed and sent a pulse of energy. "Um. Hello."
The Star Beasts stopped munching on the asteroids and looked over, their stupid faces looking even funnier when they were directed at them. Kali almost broke out into laughter. 'They are so cute.'
"So, can you understand me?"
Sadly, Kali didn't receive an answer. Instead, one of the largest ones opened its mouth and roared, creating an actual shockwave of pure energy that impacted them, pushing the warship several hundred meters back.
Yasenia whistled without making a sound. "That's a powerful roar. So, the poor bastards are as stupid as their faces make them out to be. What do we do?"
Kali realized that everyone was looking at her, making her shift a bit. "U-Um, why are you looking at me?"
The dragoness smiled softly. "You seem to have taken a bit of fondness towards them, so… Well, what do you think?"
Kali looked at the group of Star Beasts and struggled. "Um… Let's let them be. It's not like we won't find another Star Beast herd, right?"
Yasenia kissed her temple and laughed. "Sure. Let's continue toward the closest planet!"
"Understood, Young Miss."
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