Chapter 92: Boat Overhaul (Patreon)

Authors note

I uploaded two picture collections to the Traveler's Photo Album collection and even figured out how to do it without spamming your e-mail.

So, if you like the scrap-book, head over there to see.

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Startled, I woke up to Rue's voice shouting in my mind, "No! Bad! Mahya! Bad!"

I groaned, rolled out of bed, and went to investigate the crisis. I found Mahya and Rue in the saloon, and Rue had his head hung low with his tail between his legs.

"What happened?"

"Rue found out that after the boat's renovation, we won't be able to use phones and computers on board."

"We won't?"

"No, the mana will fry them."

"Won't it affect the boats next to us? I don't want to damage other boats."

"No, Lis taught me how to build a containment field, so the effect will only be on our boat, but on the whole boat."

"Movies! Movies!" Rue shouted. God, he was loud, especially first thing in the morning.

I scratched his ears and said, "Relax, buddy. It will take us some time to finish the project, so you can watch movies in the meantime. We will travel by land to reach the next Gates, allowing you to watch movies on the train. Once we're away from others on our sailing trip, I'll bring my house out and activate the dead zone in the spell room so that you can watch movies there."

He started wagging his tail and shouted, "John! Friend! Mahya! Bad!"

Mahya lifted her hands in dismay, shook her head, and said, "Whatever! John, I have a shopping list for you."

She handed me a page, and I asked, "2,000 meters of copper wire? Isn't that too much? Three meters of gold wire? Why gold?"

"We don't need all the copper wire for the boat, but I'll need it for other things, so you might as well buy it in one place. The gold I need for the boat is for specific parts that need better conductivity."

"Does it have to be those diameters?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Rue, do you want to go with me?"

"Movie!"

Mahya took the list from my hand, wrote something, and returned it.

"Portable generator?"

"When I remove the engine, we won't have electricity."

"Do I need to buy diesel for it?"

"No, I store the diesel from the fuel tank; we're good."

The 9.266mm copper wire was easy to find, but the 1mm gold wire was more complicated and expensive! Especially considering her requirement of at least 18k.

I called Mahya and asked, "There is 18k gold-plated semi-hard copper wire, 1 mm in diameter. Can we use that?"

"The pure gold is still necessary for the mana relay, but try to get as much plated wire as possible. It'll replace some copper to improve performance, and I can use it for other projects."

Oh, well, I'm glad I sold the coins.

I didn't need to buy nuts, bolts, and all the small fasteners—I had an ample supply. It was quite a hassle to find the non-powered engraver. Mahya wanted nibs of various thicknesses, but the pens with interchangeable nibs were either powered or had only two or three options. I purchased five different pens, and to be safe, I bought twenty of each.

When I returned to the boat, Mahya told me, "Start channeling Restore, specifically to the engine area, and when you're out of mana, regenerate some and start learning runes."

"Yes, boss," I said with a salute.

After storing all the electrical appliances and emptying my mana pool into the engine area, I took the rune book and started learning runes. My ability improved! In the past, my limit was three runes before a headache; now it was five.

I asked Mahya if she needed help, and she handed me an enormous bunch of twisted metal things with the instruction, "Clean those and fix any issue you see."

Once inside, I started casting Clean on each component and then used my regeneration to channel Restore. By the time I finished, it was dusk. I waited patiently until my mana reached 500, studied five more runes, felt a slight headache, and then called it a day.

The next day was identical, with a slight unexpected twist. While channeling Restore, I examined it and made an interesting discovery about its spell structure—or lack thereof. Surprisingly, I discovered the spell contained only concepts, with no shell or structure to connect or hold them together. I stopped channeling from the shock. The book about mana constructs for spells emphasized that every spell needs a construct to hold it together. I channeled my heat spell and made the same discovery: there was no mana shell. Upon inspection, I found that the light bulb indeed had a shell. Hmm, curious.

I went back to the restoration and studying runes; it was not the right time to experiment with mana. Rue shouted in my mind, "John! Fix!" So I went to see what was happening now.

The computer was dead. Oops! Fortunately, the portable generator still worked.

"Don't worry. I have more computers, and the movie is on the disc, so nothing has happened to it, but we need to move to a hotel. Otherwise, the computers will continue dying."

"Movie!"

"Yes, at the hotel, you'll continue watching the movie," I told him, scratching his ears. He sighed dramatically and pushed his head into my hand for more scratches. When he finally had enough scratches, I went looking for Mahya.

"We need to move to a hotel. I killed another computer."

"And the last light is in the engine area," she told me. "I had to buy the light ball spell."

"It is a useful spell."

She gave me a look and said, "I know that. That's why I bought it."

"I'll take Rue, get us rooms, and send you and Alfonsen the information. After I rest, I'll continue the restoration at night. I'm worried people will notice too much change. Leave the parts you need me to work on in the saloon."

"I've finished the parts we need. The rest we can either sell or throw away."

"Instead of getting rid of them, let's keep them as metal scraps; we'll find a use for them, eventually."

After returning in the evening, I continued to restore and learn runes for five days. I tried to understand the aspects of the spell, but I had difficulty deciphering them. The concept of reversing something, which I assumed to be time, seemed peculiar to me. It felt like it didn't exist, but it had movement in it. It thoroughly confused me, and I gave up on understanding it. 

On the sixth night, after three thousand mana, I felt the spell wasn't doing anything anymore. Inspecting the boat's interior with the light spell, I saw it looked new. I verified that the water tanks and the engine area looked new, and they were all perfect. It looked as if someone had built it today. I patted the deck and said, "Good girl."

I spent another two days in the hotel, learning runes and keeping Rue company between learning sessions. Now he was binge-watching the Lethal Weapon movies and scoffing at every other scene.

"Why are you scoffing at the movie?"

"Dog! Cookies! Yuck!"

I laughed, patted him, and said, "Yep, they're definitely not a level fifty mana snake."

"Snake! Yum! Give!"

Finally, I completed my study of the runic language. The language I learned for the ritual I performed with Ru was entirely different from this one. That language had runes for high concepts such as friendship, unity, trust, love, understanding, and all the elements. This language was much more utilitarian, with runes for concepts such as direction, angle, pressure, analysis, circuit, and current, as well as several rune variations for the idea of automating.

Mahya responded, "Get your butt down here, stat," when I called her to let her know I was through.

When I got to the boat, she gave me all the metal pieces I had cleaned previously and said, "Go to the room with the blueprint and start engraving."

"How would I know what to engrave where?"

"The blueprint is obvious. Just follow it."

"Yes, boss."

It was an immense relief to work on the bigger pieces after watching her engrave; it was pretty awful. She used the smallest nib and a magnifying glass to engrave the gold and gold-plated wires, which were 1 mm in diameter. Friends are fantastic, especially when they give you an easy job.

After four or five hours, my red light started blinking.

______________

You have learned the Skill [Engraving]

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I gave the system a thumbs-up and continued engraving. When I saw Mahya stop to regenerate for the second time, I asked her, "Want to learn the Absorb Mana spell to regenerate faster?"

"It helps?"

"Yeah, my regeneration is nine per minute without the spell, but with it, it increases to twelve per minute."

"Dang, your channels must be massive if you regenerate nine per minute. Mine is only three."

"At least something good came out of Tír na nÓg."

"There's nothing good there," she snarled.

We had to wait until she had regenerated at least a thousand mana before we could start, but I managed to teach her in less than half an hour because I was already an expert after all the work with Lis.

She sat down to generate and jumped up after a second, saying, "My channels are itchy."

"Deal with it; that way, they'll expand. If you feel pain, stop the spell."

After five minutes, I asked her, "Did it make a difference?"

"Yes, I'm up to six."

"And your channels?"

"The itching subsided a bit, and they feel fine."

I gave her a thumbs-up and returned to my engraving. After three days, I finished all my parts, and she switched me to the thick copper wire. She tried to give me the thin wires, but I told her to forget about it.

It took us two weeks to finish all the engravings. During all this time, Alfonsen attended workshops, and Rue watched television or movies on the computer at the hotel. I worried about his eyesight, but after diagnosing him, I saw he was fine.

On the last day of the engraving project, my red light started blinking.

___________________

You have shown dedication, determination, and perseverance in performing support tasks under the guidance of a potential Magicaneer.

A new class has been unlocked: [Rune Engraver].

Would you like to take the Rune Engraver Class as a sub-class?

Cost: 5 Ability Points

Y/N

_________________

NO. Thank you, but noooooo.

I didn't tell Mahya about it, but I asked her, "How is your Magicaneer class progressing?"

"I hope that after completing this project, I can get it for free, but even if the Guidance offers it at a reduced cost, I'll know I'm on the right track."

When we finished all the engravings, Mahya shooed me off the boat and told me she needed a few more days. I picked up Rue from the hotel and went to explore Shanghai.

We visited Shanghai's old town, the Yuyuan Garden, and the Bazaar. At first, Rue felt bored and kept yelling in my mind, "Back! Hotel! Movie!" But his interest sparked when he saw children in the garden, and I bought him treats at the bazaar, so he became very interested.

I visited the Bund and People's Square, as well as the Shanghai Museum. This time, I left Rue at the hotel. I wanted him to exercise, but I knew he'd get bored because of our previous museum experience. I also visited the water town of Zhujiajiao alone; there was no point trying to take Rue on a wobbly boat.

After five days of exploring, Mahya told me in the evening, "I'm done, but there are still small things we'll need to handle."

"Like what?"

"Convert the fridge and stove to Magitech. That reminds me: go buy gas burners and gas so you can cook on the boat."

"Why is it so 'I can cook' and not 'we can cook'?" I asked indignantly.

"Because I'm not a liar."

In response to her comment, this time, I stuck out my tongue. Lis was correct; certain gestures are too expressive to avoid.

I purchased gas burners and a substantial gas supply to last me for several years, along with five additional stoves and refrigerators to ensure their survival during the conversion process. And after a month in Shanghai, we were finally done.