Your eyes were strained from staring at the monitor for too long. And in the dark no less. The only sounds that could be heard were the whirring of your CPU fans and the occasional clacking of a mechanical keyboard (despite being so very tired, you couldn’t help yourself from calling random users “faggots” on pain of them continuing to shit up the board).

As you type the final words to a particularly long and spiteful post, you skim through it, rather pleased that you managed to show not only that OP had the reading comprehension of a toddler, but also that he was an EPI pedophile troon in denial. “Mmmhmmm,” went you, agreeing with yourself, as you filled in the captcha.

You clicked ‘post,’ and next thing you know it, your vision faded to black.

When you regained consciousness, the musty leather of your old, stinky gaming chair was replaced with a soft, silken fabric; and in place of the yellowed walls of your room was tiled stone.

“Motherfucker, I’ve been isekaied,” you cursed under your breath.

And in true isekai fashion, an attractive elven woman had been standing by your side while you came to grips with your new reality.

“Milord, the siege isn’t over. What shall we do?”

“What’s our status?”

The elf hands you a crystal orb, in which you have a birdseye view of the facility you’re currently in. It’s a…small stone building of medieval build, no bigger than a gas station; with some reluctance, you could even consider it a castle. There was a translucent dome covering the entire structure, lined with multiple cracks (most likely some sort of magic barrier). But what you couldn’t believe was that it was flying through the skies, high above a sea of ivory clouds! Your awe is cut short by the sight of four other similar castles having encircled you.

“Shall we consult the Clovered Tome?”

No fucking way… A book materialised between the elf’s palms before gently falling on your lap. There was a four-leaf clover on the cover, embroidered in bright green stitching. You flipped to the first page, only to find…

>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [0]

>Detonate all non-essential flugelcore modules to send out a devastating shockwave. [0]

>>6274652 (OP)
>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [0]

>>6274652 (OP)
>>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [0]
Modules sound significantly harder to replace than mana. Though falling to our deaths is rather unnapealin, we should manage if we don't need to upkeep the shield as well. Also, the enemy can't know where we're going if we don't know where we're going!
Unless this is the kind of teleport where an observer can trace the trajectory if they see you jump...
Oh well, I vote in favor of not blowing ourselves up!

>>6274652 (OP)

>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [0]

If I don’t understand what it means then clearly the enemy won’t either

>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [0]

>>6274654
>>6274666
>>6274678
>>6274681

A moment later, more writing appeared on the page:

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
>Use whatever mana remains in the flugelcore to emergency teleport. [4]

[Modules sound significantly harder to replace than mana. Though falling to our deaths is rather unnapealin, we should manage if we don't need to upkeep the shield as well. Also, the enemy can't know where we're going if we don't know where we're going!
Unless this is the kind of teleport where an observer can trace the trajectory if they see you jump...
Oh well, I vote in favor of not blowing ourselves up!]

[If I don’t understand what it means then clearly the enemy won’t either]
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Time was of the essence. You carefully considered the two options but were ultimately swayed by whoever wrote the first message.

“Prepare for an emergency teleport,” you said with some reluctance.

“Understood,” the elf promptly acknowledged.

The billowy sleeves of her white garb fluttered as a mist-like substance began flowing from her fingers. She initiated a series of handsigns: it looked like something straight out of a generic fantasy anime. At the same time, you heard what you could only describe as a mounting roar from outside. The four castles were preparing for another attack.

She threw you a final glance as a white light rapidly consumed everything. “Brace!”

Your eyes were fixed on the orb before your vision was completely enveloped. The last thing you saw was four fire balls hurtling toward your castle.

They never connected.

*****

Evidently, you didn’t have time to react. Because when you came to your senses for the second time today, you found yourself hurled to the floor with the entire right side of your body bruised and aching. The elf was sitting on the floor, winded, hand clutching her chest.

“Milord…” She huffed and puffed. “Are you hurt?”

“I should be asking you,” you reply, waiting for her to recover. “What’s your name?”

“Ere— Erethyl, milord.”

“Drop the ‘milord.’ It’s weird. You can just call me—”

No matter how you tried to recall your name, your mind came up empty. “It’s one of those, eh?” you thought.

“Just call me Anon.”

“If that is what you wish, Anon.” She picked herself up from the floor and dusted herself off. “More importantly, the fortress must have sustained heavy damage.”

>>6274715
Fortunately, the orb was unharmed in the chaos. A series of images flickered by as the elf gazed into it.

“Most of the flugelcore modules are broken beyond repair; the barrier has been completely shattered; our cannons are also in horrible shape…” She murmured, listing the damages one by one. “No…” She gasped.

“What?”

“The wing module is out of commission.” Her face was pale. “We’re at the total mercy of the nimbus winds.”

“That means…we can’t navigate?”

“No, we can’t. For now, we can only hope the winds send us somewhere favourable.”

That sounded like a pain in the ass. You might have just arrived in this world, but the exhaustion from twelve hours of defending board culture, and whatever just transpired, took their toll on you. What you desired most at this moment was to go to bed. Whatever needed your attention could get it after you woke up. But first…

“Do you know where we are?”

The elf held out the orb towards you, from which a blue light was projected on the empty space above it. A vast spiral manifested itself. And on one of its outer arms shone a bright mote of crimson light.

“It seems we’re on the very outskirts of the Vorble.”

“The Vorble?”

“That is the name of our world.” With a wave of her hand, the entire spiral began to glow silver. “Everything within the domain of the clouds—we call the Vorble.”

“Are we in a safe location?”

“Yes; but…we’ve been sent very far away.”

A yellow dot appeared on one of the opposing arms of the spiral, but closer to the centre.

“That’s where we were besieged. It’ll take a while for us to make back the lost distance…”

“Hold on. Why do we need—”

Before you could finish she fell to her knees, panting and barely holding on to consciousness. You rushed to her side and put the orb to the side before helping her up. With what was left of her energy, she guided you to her quarters, where you left her to recuperate.

You too eventually stumbled upon what you presumed was your own room, furnished with a bed, a desk, and a half-filled bookshelf. Somehow, the Clovered Tome found its way there. You cracked it open to find another series of writings mysteriously printed on the page, in a format once again all too familiar to you:

>Get the wing module up and running. [0]

>Repair the barrier. [0]

>Take care of the damaged cannons. [0]

>>6274716
>>Repair the barrier. [0]
let's not die because a bird collided with the pile of rock we call "fort"

>>6274716
>Repair the barrier. [0]

>>6274716
>Get the wing module up and running. [0]

>>6274716
>Get the wing module up and running. [0]

Guns and shields are nice but we'd all be dead either way if the wind slams us into a nearby mountainside. We need to regain meaningful control over this airship(?) first before we can plan our next steps of action.

Also... picrel?

>>6274716
>Repair the barrier. [0]
Defense pls

>>6274716
>Get the wing module up and running.
Rather have the ability to navigate away from danger since we are in no position to take on so much as an angry seagull right now.

>>6274716
>Get the wing module up and running. [0]
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. We're in a (somewhat) safe region so guns or shields shouldn't be that necessary right now, but with whatever that "nimbus wind" thing going on I'm not trusting the wind to not slam us into a nearby mountain - if not simply into the ground or whatever inhospitable conditions below the clouds here.

>>6274716

>Get the wing module up and running. [0]

>>6274716
>Repair the barrier. [0]
Str vs Dex

>>6274799
Shouldn't the barrier be Con instead? The cannons should be Str.

>>6274799
Shouldn't the barrier be Con instead? Str sounds more applicable to the cannons than the energy shield.
But yeah, from what we've seen Con = Str > Dex by a wide margin as far as fortress-to-fortresss combat is concerned, given we are literally a flying brickhouse and so are whichever flying fortresses we're coming up against. The problem is that our current Dex is too low for us to even "walk" (so to speek) and we aren't looking for a fight in this place, so... personally I'm prioritizing Wings -> Barriers -> Cannons -> everything else.

>>6274652 (OP)
Hey, I've read this WN. Cool.

>>6274716
>Get the wing module up and running. [0]
Being able to determine a destination is paramount, no mobile entity can function long if its course is left entirely to nature.

>>6274841
Which WN? Or it's meant to be a joke.

You scrutinised the tome one last time. Were these simply suggestions? Missions? Or something else entirely? Following the instructions from the tome got you out of hot water just now; but from the clover, you had a good idea where these “messages” (or rather “posts,” you should say) were coming from. And you weren't sure if you wanted to place your fate in their hands. Regardless, it was off to bed for you.

*****

The next day you wake up feeling way more refreshed. The sky was a shade of light orange, which also coloured the peaks of the clouds below. You flip open the book to find the words now spilling over to the next page:

(The board thinks my post is spam and won't let me post the fucking line break for the tome)
>Get the wing module up and running. [5]

[Rather have the ability to navigate away from danger since we are in no position to take on so much as an angry seagull right now.]

[Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. We're in a (somewhat) safe region so guns or shields shouldn't be that necessary right now, but with whatever that "nimbus wind" thing going on I'm not trusting the wind to not slam us into a nearby mountain - if not simply into the ground or whatever inhospitable conditions below the clouds here.]

[Being able to determine a destination is paramount, no mobile entity can function long if its course is left entirely to nature.]

>Repair the barrier. [4]

[let's not die because a bird collided with the pile of rock we call "fort"]

[Defense pls]

[Str vs Dex]

>Take care of the damaged cannons. [0]

(insert line break)

[Shouldn't the barrier be Con instead? Str sounds more applicable to the cannons than the energy shield.
But yeah, from what we've seen Con = Str > Dex by a wide margin as far as fortress-to-fortress combat is concerned, given we are literally a flying brickhouse and so are whichever flying fortresses we're coming up against. The problem is that our current Dex is too low for us to even "walk" (so to speek) and we aren't looking for a fight in this place, so... personally I'm prioritizing Wings -> Barriers -> Cannons -> everything else.]

[Hey, I've read this WN. Cool.]

[Which WN? Or it's meant to be a joke.]
(so you guys just have to deal with this.)

You scrutinised the tome one last time:

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
>Get the wing module up and running. [0]

>Repair the barrier. [0]

>Take care of the damaged cannons. [0]
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Were these simply suggestions? Missions? Or something else entirely? Following the instructions from the tome got you out of hot water just now; but from the clover, you had a good idea where these “messages” (or rather “posts,” you should say) were coming from. And you weren't sure if you wanted to place your fate in their hands. Regardless, it was off to bed for you.

*****

The next day you wake up feeling way more refreshed. The sky was a shade of light orange, which also coloured the peaks of the clouds below. You flip open the book to find the words now spilling over to the next page:

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
>Get the wing module up and running. [5]

[Rather have the ability to navigate away from danger since we are in no position to take on so much as an angry seagull right now.]

[Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. We're in a (somewhat) safe region so guns or shields shouldn't be that necessary right now, but with whatever that "nimbus wind" thing going on I'm not trusting the wind to not slam us into a nearby mountain - if not simply into the ground or whatever inhospitable conditions below the clouds here.]

[Being able to determine a destination is paramount, no mobile entity can function long if its course is left entirely to nature.]

>Repair the barrier. [4]

[let's not die because a bird collided with the pile of rock we call "fort"]

[Defense pls]

[Str vs Dex]

>Take care of the damaged cannons. [0]

~~~~~

[Shouldn't the barrier be Con instead? Str sounds more applicable to the cannons than the energy shield.
But yeah, from what we've seen Con = Str > Dex by a wide margin as far as fortress-to-fortress combat is concerned, given we are literally a flying brickhouse and so are whichever flying fortresses we're coming up against. The problem is that our current Dex is too low for us to even "walk" (so to speek) and we aren't looking for a fight in this place, so... personally I'm prioritizing Wings -> Barriers -> Cannons -> everything else.]

[Hey, I've read this WN. Cool.]

[Which WN? Or it's meant to be a joke.]
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

>>6274982
“The fuck?” You sure hoped you weren’t thrown into some trashy webnovel universe. That would be extremely ironic since you could never bring yourself to get through Korean slop, let alone their English copycat counterparts.

These people were discussing your current predicament like it was some sort of RPG. And it seemed, you conjectured, like they were voting to reach a consensus. Were they watching you? If so, how? Question after question flitted through your mind like a flock of criss-crossing starlings. “But at least,” you thought to yourself, “they seem to be on my side.”

You recognised the importance of the barrier. As one of the posters (yes, that was what you decided to call them from now on) said, you didn’t want a bird (more specifically, a ferocious magical beast) to wreck your entire fortress, if one came flying towards you. However, not being able to navigate had more immediate problems: you, and the posters it seemed, knew little of those “nimbus winds” Erethyl mentioned.

In any case, you put the tome away and went to check on Erethyl.

*****

She had not woken up, and you decided it was best for you to let her continue sleeping. You had plenty of things to ask her once she woke up.

Back at the main hall, where your throne was located, you picked up the orb and began fiddling with it. To your delight, it was intuitive to use. In a few minutes, you were operating it like it was your phone, only that rather than scrolling or tapping with your finger, it was simply enough to project your intent into the orb. The “home screen” even presented you with a list of “applications” to run, such as giving you a view of the outside, which you had used previously.

Accessing the “Flugelcore Modules” panel, a garbled mess of gibberish clutters the orb: most of the modules had been so badly damaged that they didn’t even register properly. Luckily, the wing module wasn’t among them. You brought up its status, which showed you that it was composed of three components: the nimbus sail, nimbus drive, and nimbus thrusters. All three had their own problems to be dealt with, not that you could understand most of the error warnings anyway.

>Explore the fortress. [0]

>Go through the books on your bookshelf. [0]

>[WRITE IN]

>>6274984
>>Explore the fortress.
With our first mate(?) / chief engineer(?) incapacitated it falls to us to perform an inspection and do an inventory of our "ship" - extent of damage, status of other crew members (if existent), food, water, fuel (or the magical equivalent thereof), ammunition (or the magical equivalent thereof if our guns do not use physical projectile), etc.

>>6274984
>>Explore the fortress. [0]
Get through our stockpiles and assert our dear MC local environment. We wish you the best, Anon!

>>6274984
>Explore the fortress. [0]

>>6274984
>>Explore the fortress. [0]
I think anon needs to man up and stop being such a whiny wimp. We're telling him what to do, taking the time out of our day to help him out, and this is the thanks we get? Anon is living in an isekai story, he needs to be figuring out how to game the system already instead of listening to what a bunch of retards on a Tannu Tuvan cave diving forum have to say.

>>6274984
As far as flying fortresses go... picrel?

>>6274984
>Go through the books on your bookshelf. [0]
There must be a handbook somewhere

>>6275405
i like the pic.

>>6274984
>Explore the fortress. [0]

Dead Fortress Quest

>>6277915
Crashed Fortress Quest