Puffing out a plume of sand I can feel Aikoki getting off me while I still sit there. “Excellent!” he proclaims, “you did really well there!”
“Well? I’ve never won against you and that Power of yours is crazy, ”
“Yea, obviously. You're trying to incapacitate me and not hurt me right? If this was a real fight you would be causing real damage. That fire didn’t even singe my hair”
“I mean, true but I’d prefer to not kill anyone you know.”
Being silent for a second Aikoki starts to say something but I cut him off “Before you say anything, I’m not naive enough to know that I won’t kill anyone. Sometime, which I hope is a long long time from now, I might kill someone. Either through an accident or purposely, when I do I will have to face that.”
“I’m glad to hear that” replied Aikoki, followed by me giving him a questioning look, “I’ve had people in my past think that, that they would never kill anyone. Only for them to do exactly that. If it happens, you can always talk with me, even if it's over letter”
“Thank you, I'll do just that.” Lets not pry further into his past much more. “Come on Michael, let's try this again.”
And so we train some more, and more and more.
A few days later Dr Rath has all the gear ready at his place and it's time to ask my Questions, I need to travel via ship to the continent but it's only an hour away. I'll be meeting Knowledge first, ask my questions/requests and go from there.
Bidding farewell to the Coans I head off with Abceir and Dr Rath, with Malter and Aikoki staying behind as they have enough to work on at the moment.
“Will you be coming back?” Asks Coan, we’ve been quite friendly with each other to the point he feels like a younger brother (My brother back on Earth might feel a bit miffed by that lol). “Of course I’m coming back, I should be back either late today or tomorrow, just got to ask the gods a few things.”
“Alright” Rubbing his head and messing with his hair much to his annoyance I turn toward Malter and Epego, “Guess I’ll see you guys soon, gotta be honest I’m kinda nervous.” Epego and Malter scoop me up into a hug with Coan seeing this and hugging my side.
“You’ll be fine” says Epego, “Just come back to us, if you disappear you’ll miss Coans birthday in a few months!”
“Well there goes my plans then” I say jokingly, breaking off the hug I say a quick goodbye and head out on the same wagon we used to travel to see the Head though not as far. Not 20 minutes down the road, a port is present which is what Abcier and Dr Rath have been using to visit us.
The ship we are using is the Farmers Rest Island ferry called “Mki Yyigdepe” which roughly translates as “good hunting for fish”? The boat has a pretty standard design just without sails or outboard motor and is large enough to have an enclosed cabin.
Boarding from the bow we enter into the large cabin with several others heading for the continent, mostly other farmers and families it looks like, I can see from the window that there is a large amount of fish and other products being loaded onboard.
The cabin is basically just rows of padded, soft seats with the cabin walls covered in windows looking out into the sea, kinda like a large ferry.
Soon enough the captain spins the ship around on the spot somehow and we are underway, turning to Abcier I ask a quick question “How does this ship move about? I can’t see any motors or sails, I cannot even hear anything other than a low hum.”
“The ship's hull is specially made so that it cuts through the water, it also pulls and pushes the water while doing so, propelling us forward or in any other direction if we need to turn. The hum your hearing is the mana storage below deck powering the Powered Hull.”
Huh, I saw a few ships during my time training along the beach but those had sails, guess both are popular out here? And how the Powered Hull can move water like that explains how our ship could 180.
After under an hour we have arrived on the continent, the docks are massive and I can see towers up ahead though it does not seem to have any skyscrapers, or really anything over ten stories or any flying transports so far.
Disembarking we walk down the street which has large warehouses along the entire stretch of docks, cranes above the docks ready to bring items off ship, wagons and wagons of items moving about pulled by the same large bison-like animal without the large horns and with very large legs.
As we start to exit the docks I ask “Isn’t these docks kinda big? Does Farmers Rest Island really ship that much stuff here?”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Goodness no” replies Abcier, “these are also used for trade up and down the cost, though you are somewhat right, the majority of shipping this time of year comes from Farmers Rest.”
This time of year is harvesting season at the moment, I was helping with planting soon after I had arrived and then moved onto harvesting. The Coans should have it well in hand.
Travelling further down, I notice the roads are like a bitchumen road back home but even then it has the same pot-holes or cracks in its surface, looks like local councils even in another world don’t repair roads as quick either. Even with magic.
Walking down there are many large houses two and three stories tall with some more closer to the city centre being taller and taller. Market stalls are popped up all along the road and many people are moving dressed in all manner of clothing but mostly garments of loose fitting variety.
Most of the people here would not look out of place in the 1700s just with the added twist of magic involved, Powers such as keeping mud off shoes and images moving on the dresses or jackets make for an interesting walk.
“Why, why are there no other races here? Looks mostly human?”
Dr Rath answers “There are some in Oghqoa, but this is mostly a human populated city. When you start your adventuring you’ll undoubtedly run into many, the capitol is massive and quite diverse, this is just a smaller town despite how large it looks.”
We take a slight detour to visit Dr Rath’s home that doubles as a doctors office, the first floor being the office with the second floor and back yard being his home. Entering and passing a few patients we are about to move into the back when a man appears from a side room.
“Ah, Trla! Thank goodness you're here, would you be able to take Mrs Backermann from me. She hurt her leg again and doesn't seem to like me very much.” Only then noticing myself and Abcier. “Hi, how are you?”
Dr Trla Rath sighs and says “I'll be with you in a moment Iki, just need to show my guests upstairs, send her to my office please.”
As we walk up the stairs Rath says “You’ll have to excuse me soon, Mrs Backermann can be quite demanding, understandable why Iki wants me to take over. Anyway here we are!”
Opening a door to a room we enter to find a small box and two backpacks bursting at the seams.
“The bags hold all the gear I could fit into it and this box has the Food generator and waste recycler, this should handle things well for you.”
“Recycler?” I ask “Yes it comes with the Food generator, any kind of waste put into it will be turned into energy and then can be added to the generator to make food. It's completely food safe but it's not that commonly used.”
I can kinda see why, no one wants to see, let alone eat food that at one point might have been poop. And for some reason I’m curious about the sewer system now. I pick up the box and try to feel it, it's surprisingly not too heavy though the bags are!
“Does that generator and recycler come with instructions?” I ask, “They do but it's not in English, but your reading ability is increasing!”
“Don’t worry about that Michael, we’ll sort out some English instructions for you at Knowledges temple.” adds Abcier.
Easy then “Thank you Dr Rath, this means a lot to me! I’ll send you through money as soon as I can to pay you back.” “Oh don’t be in such a rush, I am one of a few higher ranked doctors here. I can make this back in a week or less.”
With a smile I pick up the box and try to push it into my Inventory, i’ve been practising with smaller stuff but this might be complex enough to eat my mana up.
Adaptive Matter-Energy Storage - Inventory: 5kg, 10kg, 25kg, 50kg, 100kg, 500kg+
Amount of storage increases with total MP, matter transferred into energy cannot be used to increase total MP. Initial large cost of MP when adding new objects, objects you have added previously or have an understanding of have a lesser MP cost for conversion.
MP: 587 points HP: 649 points
Do you wish to add this Item (Food Generator + Recycler) to Inventory?
Y/N
---
Item added to Inventory successfully, open Inventory menu to see item in window
Storage Used: 26.74 kg
MP Used: 432 points
---
MP: 155 points HP: 649 points
Do you wish to add this Item (Hiking Pack x1) to Inventory?
Y/N
---
Item added to Inventory successfully, open Inventory menu to see item in window
Storage Used: 48.96 / 50 kg
MP Used: 152 points
---
MP: 3 points HP: 649 points