Chapter 86: Let's Continue (Patreon)

In the initial days following Lis's departure, Mahya and I felt sad and down at the hotel. To process my emotions, I played my guitar but didn't sing or learn new songs. He was my first real friend ever, and I had no experience with saying goodbye to friends. My wife's death broke me, and this goodbye brought up some painful memories. Our relationship was different, with a deep friendship instead of romance, but there was a close connection, and I had trouble processing the goodbye.

He's not dead; He's just visiting some dragons. I told myself again and again.

Every morning, I looked for a message from Lis, but there wasn't anything. Recently, I stopped checking every day for a message from Lyura and only checked once a week, but now I was back to checking daily.

After three days, I got worried and asked Mahya, "Don't you think it's taking too long for Lis to send us a message?"

"Don't forget about the time skips," answered Mahya.

"Do you know how long the time skip is?" I asked her.

"How should I know?" She replied.

Mahya approached me after five days and suggested, "Let's keep going. We have a lot of Gates to check and still have shopping to do; we need the retail therapy."

I laughed and agreed; retail therapy sounded nice.

We flew to Yichang instead of taking a train journey lasting over 15 hours, and Alfonsen did not raise any objections. It was considerate of our mental state, and I gave him a mental thumbs up.

When I first saw the Yangtze River, I was in awe; it was huge. I had seen big rivers before, but something about its size touched me, and I just stood there and looked at it, mesmerized and awed. Somehow, its beauty and immense size filled a small part of the hole I felt in my heart. It reminded me I was a Traveler; I would see many things and meet many people on my road, and I would have to say goodbye to some of them. Lis was right; we went where the road took us. It made me feel better and less hollowed out.

Yichang had a big marina with many sailboats, fishing boats, and river cruisers, and I decided it was a great place to shop for a sailboat. I spent three days exploring the marina until I stumbled upon a sailboat, specifically the HARMONY 47 model by PONCIN YACHTS. Although it had some visible wear and tear, it caught my attention.

I checked online and saw that the asking prices for the same model were between ninety and a hundred and ten thousand dollars; the asking price for this one was eighty-five. I checked its specifications and saw that it had four cabins with private showers, a captain's cabin, an enormous kitchen or galley or whatever, a big living room, and an enormous deck partially covered with an option to enclose some of it entirely. Externally, the boat appeared to have some dents and bends, and the decks looked broken and torn.

I asked the marina manager to contact the owners on my behalf, and one of them eventually arrived after I waited for an hour. Two English people were the boat owners, and one of them, Albert, who preferred to be called Brett, offered to show me the inside of the boat.

When I inspected the boat's interior, I found it had suffered extensive damage. The flooring had many broken areas; the furniture looked threadbare; and a thick layer of limescale covered all the showers. The broken door hinges contributed to the worn-out appearance of the mistreated cabinets. The kitchen appeared as if an army had rampaged through it, while the living room resembled a frat party gone bad; in short, the sailboat was in terrible shape.

I asked him, "Why is the boat in such terrible condition?"

"We have been operating a private cruise business on the Yangtze River for six years using this boat . However, some individuals lack basic care and consideration for the property of others."

"What's the mechanical condition?"

"She can sail, but she needs work."

"I'm interested, but the price sounds too high, considering her condition."

"How are you paying?"

"Cash."

"Let me check with my partner, and I'll get back to you."

"No problem; I must also check with my partner."

While I was waiting for an answer from Brett, I checked the prices of gold online. I didn't have enough cash to pay for the boat, but I could take money from Mahya, pay her back in gold, or sell gold coins. I realized I had underpaid Alfonsen for the gold I bought from him. The coins he gave me weighed 32 grams each, and according to the internet, each coin was worth 2,144 euros. I did the math and discovered that I had given him six gold coins worth of euros.

I went looking for him, and I found him in his room. "Alfonsen, I paid you too little for your gold. What do you prefer—one hundred and four coins back or one hundred coins back and another 8,500 euros?"

"I'd rather have more local money—even more than 8,500. Mahya took me shopping for the last two days to replenish her stock of fabrics, and I bought a lot, too. That reminds me; she told me you rent a warehouse to receive the deliveries?"

"Yes, I'll find something for us. I also need to find a place to sell some coins, as I'm running low on cash."

I checked and discovered that the coins I received from Lis weighed 40 grams each, Alfonsen's coins weighed 32 grams each, and I also had a collection of different coins from Shimoor in various weights, from 27 grams to 46 grams. To avoid any unnecessary complications, I opted to sell a combined total of 600 coins. These coins consisted of 500 coins I received from Lis and an additional 100 coins from Alfonsen. After a short online search, I found the Gold Trading Service and contacted a representative.

When the Gold Trading Service representative heard I wanted to sell gold coins worth more than one and a half million euros, he inquired about ownership documents and invited me to dinner. I refused dinner, not wanting to make up lies about where the gold came from, but I assured him I had all the ownership documents.

Two representatives arrived at the hotel with an armored truck and a big, armed guard, like in the movies!

"Hěn gāo xìng néng gēn nín jiàn miàn" (Nice to meet you), they said in unison.

"Hello, gentlemen. Unfortunately, I don't speak Chinese. Please sit down."

I showed them all the relevant (conjured) documents for the gold sale, handed them a briefcase with the gold coins, each in its own plastic sheath that took me hours to arrange—and made Mahya laugh at the "artistic presentation"—and received 1,687,530 dollars. We wrapped up our business, and I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or another action-packed film with all the fanfare. It made me laugh and improved my mood further.

John, you need to learn to appreciate the little things, or in this case, the big truck and guard.

Brett contacted me to meet to discuss the boat's sale, and I asked Mahya to come with me. As we pulled into the marina and Mahya saw the exterior condition of the sailboat, she asked me, "Are you sure about this? It looks pretty damaged."

"I've got the Restore spell; it shouldn't be a problem. But could you check the engine and see if you can convert it to run on mana, or even better, on mana and traditional fuel?"

"You don't want it to run on fuel. Only a few places in the universe rely on fossil fuels. It would be better to switch to mana or just use sails."

"You know better. Look at it and tell me if it's possible."

After taking a tour of the boat and quietly laughing at Mahya's expression when she saw its condition, I told Brett, "This is my engineer. I need her to look at the engines."

After Mahya finished inspecting it, she telepathically sent me a message: "I can convert it, but it will work best with a dungeon core."

Giving her a discreet nod, I shifted my attention to Brett and suggested, "Shall we discuss the financial aspect? Remember, I'm paying cash."

After a short negotiation, I bought the sailboat for seventy thousand dollars, and Brett reminded us we needed a boating license to sail it. I assured him it was all fine, and we concluded the deal.

Following the sale, I discovered the IYT Try Sailing Course, a four-hour course about sailing basics. The three of us attended the course, but unfortunately, we did not gain any sailing skills. So, I found the International Bareboat Skipper (IYT) Course, which takes five days. We attended it and got the sailing skill at last.

We moved to the boat, and Rue didn't voice any complaints. I started the restoration process by working on the cabins, starting from their cabins. We requested delivery of all our shopping items to the marina and the boat, which proved to be an effective solution.

I went over my list of the things I wanted to buy, deleted all the stuff I bought already, and made a new, shorter list:

1.      Copper coins

2.      Tools

3.      DIY equipment

4.      Medical supplies

5.      Custom Jewelry

6.      Spare furniture

7.      Games for adults

The three of us went shopping. I bought all the stuff on my list and gave a copy of the original list to Alfonsen, after Mahya told him it was a fantastic list.

In the evenings, we began to learn the various box games I had purchased, and everyone, including Rue, fell in love with the concept. We played every evening, and Rue won more than half the games. We suspected he cheated with telekinesis when no one was looking, but no matter how we tried to catch him in the act, we didn't succeed. This dog is too sneaky.

We completed all the shopping in the city; I bought another 100 gold coins from Alfonsen, this time for 214,400 dollars; they bought their own copies of all the boxes and grownups' games; and we decided to sail to the next Gate near the Wu Gorge.

The time here was good for us. Mahya and I started laughing again, and the empty, Lis-shaped hole in my heart began to heal. It was time to continue our adventure.