Chapter 97: Perfect Baby (Patreon)

We were on the other side of the Gate for eight days, and ten days passed on Earth—the skip wasn't bad.

When I presented Alfonsen with the plants I had collected, his eyes widened in awe. "Where did you find these magnificent specimens?" He asked, his voice full of admiration.

"Beyond the Gate. Can you use them?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! They are amazing."

"I'm glad. Enjoy."

Mahya proposed a detour to Shanghai to finish the boat before our journey to Tibet, and I agreed. She was right; if the Traveler en route to Earth were to contact us, we might need to leave fast. We boarded a train to Shanghai, and during the journey, I checked for messages from Lis, Lyura, or the Traveler. The Archive held no comments from them, but a new post from Mahya caught my attention.

___________

Tr. MLL

"Versailles, Clueless, Hungry, Inventor"

Hi Lis, hope you're still enjoying the Dragon Plane.

We are okay and continuing to travel between the Gates. Recently, we fought giant rats, and John did a fantastic job. Your training paid off.

I have a question:

In the books you gave John, is there anything about translocation, teleportation, or something similar?

Continue to have fun and keep in touch.

Mahya, aka Versailles

__________

I asked Mahya, "Are you planning to build a teleporter?"

She looked at me with a furrowed brow and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You asked Lis for books on teleportation."

"It's not for me, it's for you."

I looked at her with a question mark on my face. "Huh?"

"You didn't even realize what you did, didn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"My parents are veteran Travelers who visited even very-high mana worlds. I traveled with two of their friends to two high mana worlds and spent nearly fifteen years in their company. Lis is an even more seasoned Traveler than my parents. And none of these people can store something without touching it. My parents trained me for years before I set out, and I have a mana sense of almost three meters, but I can't store anything within my sense without touching it. I've never heard of anyone who can store things across a barrier. You didn't drag the rats out of the ground through a tunnel you created; you stored them directly into your Storage. This isn't a regular storing function; it's teleportation or translocation."

It surprised me. "I didn't even know it wasn't possible."

"That's exactly my point. When you're not aware of the obstacles, you do amazing things. That's why I said you're scary."

During the rest of the journey to Shanghai, I was deep in thought.

In Shanghai, we checked how our boat was doing, and it was fine. Mahya returned to tinkering with the engine. She gave me eight pieces of the thick copper cable, with instructions, "Engrave the rune 'Transfer' here and here, here in the middle the rune 'Balance,' and here the rune 'Connection.'"

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

After I engraved all the runes, I returned the cables to her and was her assistant while she tightened, connected, fastened, and moved all kinds of things in the engine area.

"You're not doing stuff with the engine?"

"There's no need; the engine is perfect. The surrounding parts need work because they feed power to the engine."

"You know better."

We worked for three days, with Mahya occasionally giving me things to engrave, and then I helped her put them in place and connect them to the rest of the system. When we finished, she told me to start the boat.

When I turned the key in the switch, I was amazed. Before, the engine was noisy. After the overhaul, it was quieter, but I still heard it. Now I heard nothing. I felt the vibration that indicated the engine was running, but it was utterly silent. The vibration also felt stronger, like the engine had more power.

I turned off the engine and asked Mahya, "Do you know you're an artist?"

She laughed, "Thank you."

"Is everything working okay?"

"We'll see. If there's a problem, I can take care of it on the way. We also have over forty spare crystals, so depending on how she behaves during the voyage, I can see what else I can improve."

"Excellent! Now, let's go back to the hotel, and tomorrow, we'll sail up the river to a quiet spot to store the boat."

Everyone wanted to do some last shopping the following day before traveling to Tibet. Alfonsen wanted to buy beakers, small glass bottles to experiment with the plants I brought him, and large wooden barrels to soak the valerian plants we bought. Apparently, you need to soak them before you can make a sleeping potion from them. Mahya wanted to buy glass-blowing equipment. Rue wanted to visit a DVD store and look at the pictures on the covers. That's how he chose the next movies to buy from iTunes or watch from my collection. I wanted to visit the markets to buy more interesting ingredients and prepared food.

We spent the entire day shopping, and in the afternoon, we passed by a street stall that sold baseball caps with the text "I got Shanghai'd in Shanghai." Mahya and I loved the hats and bought two each. Rue wanted one, too, but when I put my hat on him, he realized it wouldn't work and gave up on it. Alfonsen unequivocally declined, "There are certain depths I refuse to sink to."

Mahya pulled my arm. "Let's find a quiet corner for a moment."

We went around the corner, and her eyes lost focus. She looked at the hat, looked up again with unfocused eyes, and asked, "You're kidding me, aren't you?" She waved her hat and asked in an incredulous tone, "This pushed me over the threshold? This?"

"What happened?" I asked.

"Look!" And popped her screen.

________________

In the last year, you have bought and sold goods for sizeable sums of money.

New Sub-Profession unlocked: [Merchant]

Would you like to take the Merchant Sub-Profession?

Note: Taking this Sub-Profession will allow you to use the banked advancement.

Cost: 3 Ability Points

Y/N

________________

"Ha! You'll be a merchant like me."

"Many Travelers have this class because they buy and sell many goods," Alfonsen said. "My family warned me not to take this class."

"Why not?" I asked.

"This is a class for commoners. We are royalty, not merchants."

"But you're also Travelers. Why not take a class that can help you earn a lot of money?"

"It is lacking in dignity."

I shook my head in bewilderment and turned to Mahya. "Are you going to take this class?"

"I don't know yet. In any case, there's no way I'll take it for points. I'll decide when the Guidance offers it for free."

After finishing all our shopping in Shanghai, we sailed down the Huangpu River in search of a quiet place to store the boat. With my mana control, I sat in the front and controlled the helm and sails.

The good life, no need to get up.

I went to the saloon to check how Rue was doing without television and found him napping on the couch. Alfonsen was reading one of his romances beside him, and I saw Mahya on the back deck. When I approached, she was patting the deck and cooing to the boat. "You are such a beautiful baby. Yes, you are. There is no other in this world like you. You are perfect."

When she saw me, she jumped and looked embarrassed.

"There's no need to be embarrassed. I call her 'good girl'."

She nodded, and we continued to sail in silence.

We sailed for half a day and didn't find a suitable spot. Most of the way, there were settlements along the river. And in areas without settlements, there were boats and ships. We reached a river connected to the Huangpu River, called the Dazhi River, and turned into it, hoping to find a quiet place without people. Only in the evening, when it got dark, we found a place with a lot of trees around a bend that hid us from most directions.

I took out my biggest inflatable dinghy and told Rue, "I know you don't like small boats, but we have to store the big boat. Cope with the small boat for a few minutes, and then we'll use the E-foils to get to the nearest settlement."

He sighed audibly and mentally, but nodded.

After everyone was in the dinghy, I took my binoculars, ensured we were alone, and stored the boat. We took out the E-foils and surfed to Luhui Town. And after spending the night in Luhui Town, took a bus to Shanghai the next day. We missed that day's train, so after buying tickets for the following day, we spent the rest of the day touring Shanghai.

The next morning, I was in the middle of an argument with Rue, that no, he can't have chocolate cake with strawberry and coconut ice cream for breakfast. Breakfast should contain protein, not sweets. I thought I heard a knock on the door, but I wasn't sure.

"Rue, be quiet for a second."

He continued to bark and shout in my mind, “John no friend! No love Rue!”

“Shut up, Rue!”

I was sure it was somebody from the hotel to complain about the barking, but it was Mahya. “I think we need to give up on the Tibet idea.”

“Why?”

The Traveler that was headed to Earth arrived; check the Archive.”

_____________

Tr. SS

Greetings, John Rue. This is Sonak Susil. I have arrived to the world Gaia. Right now, I am located in the country of Germany. I do not wish to use the flying apparatuses. Please instruct me on how to get where I need to go to help my friend and how to get there.

_____________

I did an internet search on my computer and wrote him a reply.

_____________

Tr. JR

Hello Sonak, and welcome.

I didn’t find ships from Germany to the United States. You need to travel to England. There are trains from Germany to the city of Paris in France, and from there, a train to England. In England take a train to the city of Southampton. There is a cruise from Southampton to the city of New York in the United States in twenty-three days from now.

From New York, you need to travel to the state of Nevada to the city of Las Vegas. We will be sailing from China, but it might take us forty to fifty days to get there. If you arrive before us, please let us know where you are staying. If we arrive first, we will let you know.

____________

After writing the reply, I told Mahya, “His timing is shit. Two days earlier, and we wouldn’t have stored the boat.”

“Yeah, but at least he caught us before leaving for Tibet.”

“Did you tell Alfonsen?”

“Not yet, I’ll do it now.”

Well, it looked like our Chinese trip had come to an end. At least this unexpected turn of events stopped Rue’s tantrum about the cake. He was happily eating chicken breasts and liver with mushrooms.