Ep. 891 Upgrading the Ship Part 5 (Patreon)

Lin says "I can watch the kids if you want to take a nap. It will probably take a while for the elves to set up camp on the beach."

"That's true and once this metal is refined there isn't much I can do until the ship is empty. Maybe I should take a nap while I can. Mulan and Mushu have already been fed."

Lin says "Alright. Would you like some breakfast before your nap?"

"Yes, thank you."

First, I finish refining all of the metals and put them away in my pouch. By then Nala and Albion have woken up and we all have breakfast together. After eating, Nala and Albion leave to go join the teams exploring the beach.

They will also take part in exploring the island so that they can get some more experience. Brightfire and Silverstream will be in charge of the exploration and hunting teams. Stillwater is in charge of the camp and anything that comes up so that all I have to do is work on the ship.

Leaving Lin to take care of the babies, I go in and lay down on the bed for a nap. I am still in my human form because I wanted to try out the bed, but there is a problem. The sheets all smell of Lin and I find it very hard to fall asleep with that scent all around me.

Eventually, I do fall asleep for a few hours, but my dreams are anything but restful. When I wake up I find myself alone, there is no one else in the cabin. When I send my mana out to scan the ship I find that it is completely empty.

I head out on deck and see a large camp on the beach with a lot of elves moving around. From the position of the sun I was only asleep for about three hours. It is surprising that the elves were able to set up camp and get everyone moved in such a short time.

However, that means that I can get to work on the ship right away, which is good. First, I head down to the lower deck and take out all of the floating metal from my pouch. I carefully spread it out so that the weight of the ship is distributed fairly evenly.

By the time I am done, the ship is floating a couple of feet above the surface of the water. The bow is leaning downwards slightly because of the anchor, but it balances once I let out some slack. When I return to the deck I see most of the elves lining the beach staring at the ship.

That is not surprising since most of them don't know what is going on and are seeing the ship floating. It is a relief to me that the floating metal I have is enough to lift the ship, even if it isn't very far. I should be able to add an enchantment to lower the ship's weight easily enough.

That is a concern for phase two, so I forget about it for now and head to the bridge. Then I start manipulating the wood and raise supports and put a roof over the bridge. Next I put in the frames to completely surround the bridge with large windows.

I want to keep the weather out, but without limiting the bridge crew's visibility. The windows will be as big as the ones in my cabin, but there are a lot more. I plan to use diamonds for the windows so that they are nice and clear.

Next I add a big table for the charts and navigation equipment with some chairs around it. Then I add a small pillar right next to the wheel, this will be for the ship's core. That way the bridge crew will be able to control the ship's enchantments without leaving the bridge.

Of course, only certain people will have the ability to do so, for security reasons. It will mainly be Stillwater and the other officers amongst the elves that I trust. Even they won't have full control of the enchantments, only I will have that.

That is assuming that I am even able to make a core for the ship's enchantments. Right now, it is just a theory and I will have to just wait and see how it goes. Before I play with all of that, I need to finish the modifications to the bridge.

Or more accurately, to the roof of the bridge, it would be a waste to leave it empty. So, I first put in access to the roof both inside the bridge and outside from the stairs. Then I put a lookout tower on the back of the roof and two ballista positions on either side.

I can't create the ballista myself, but I will ask the elven crafters to make more later. While I am at it I add some archer platforms as well, but that is all I can think of. With that done I go back down into the bridge and take out the Star Diamond.

This is going to be the heart of the core, but that isn't all that I plan to use. I also take out all of the mana crystals that I have and some of the mana rich silver. If the Star Diamond was bigger I wouldn't use anything else, but I am worried it won't be enough.

Not only do I need to add more enchantments now, but phase two will require even more. The Star Diamond is a top grade material, but it doesn't have a huge mana capacity. That is why I am going to try to fuse additional materials to make the core.

Of course, I have no idea if it is going to work, but it should be an interesting experiment. So, first I take all of the mana crystals and convert them into a liquid state. Once they are all liquid, I put the Star Diamond in the center and shape the liquid into a sphere.

When the sphere is shaped to my satisfaction I let it revert into crystal. The sphere is about the size of a soccer ball, but I am not done yet, I still have the silver. Next I carve out channels leading to the Star Diamond and then grooves in the surface of the sphere.

Once the channels and grooves are done I liquify the silver and pour it into them. After making sure the channels and grooves are completely full I let the silver revert to a solid state. Then I have to rest for a bit and recover my mana, changing something's state uses up a lot.

However, when I am done resting and scan the core I am amazed at how well it worked. Without me doing anything else, the massive amount of the mana in the materials has merged. This has caused the materials to become inseparable, meaning the core is complete.

The mana capacity of the new core is hundreds of times what mine currently is. Before I can move on to the next thing, I need to put some enchantments into the core. These are the spells that Lin has taught me and will form the magical heart of the ship's enchantments.

Even though making the core went better than I expected, I am still not sure this will work. After all, it needs to be a lot more complicated than the cores that the humans use. Luckily, pure mana follows my intent, so I am hoping that will make up for any errors.