That way she won't worry about me and she can even spend some time with Bella. If the two of them are going to have a proper relationship, then they need to put time into it. Besides, Lin has a lot to learn about being in a relationship with another woman.
That is something that I can't help her with, I know nothing at all about it. At least nothing that didn't come from a certain type of movie and that won't help Lin at all. As far as that stuff goes, I am sure that Bella will be a much better teacher for her.
I need to stop thinking in that direction, otherwise I will get too distracted and make mistakes. I do my best to wipe such thoughts from my mind and focus on my work. As the beam grows longer I keep raising supports as needed to support it.
Eventually, after more hours have passed, the beam finally reaches the opposite shore. After anchoring it properly, I fly off to the side to take a look at how it turned out. However, what I see is not an arc or flat, it looks more like a weak set of waves.
Obviously I have made several mistakes that I now have to go back and fix. Luckily, magic allows me to reshape the alloy without having to break it down and redo it. Of course, I also need to change the heights of the supports as I fix the beam.
I frequently take breaks to fly off to the side and check my progress in fixing it. It is a good thing that I do, because I make some mistakes as I am fixing things. Stopping and checking my work ends up saving me lots of time, but it is a little frustrating.
Eventually, I manage to get it all fixed and into the shape that I want it to be. After that, I raise the rest of the supports to match the beam and then check the remaining materials. I have to stop and think about how many ingots I used, but I think I have enough for another beam.
I hope that I do, I will feel a lot better about the bridge's stability with a second beam. Since there is only one way to find out, I check my mana and then begin making the second beam. If it turns out that I don't have enough alloy, I will just have to go buy more.
In fact, I am pretty sure that I am going to need to, because I have a plan. Once the beams are done, I want to link them to the supports by sinking alloy spikes into them. Then as I wrap the stone around the beams, I will fuse it to the supports as well.
That should keep the bridge intact even if there is an earthquake or tsunami. At least, that is what I am hoping, but only if it can stand under its own weight. Or I guess I should say that that is the goal rather than my hope.
Whether or not I will actually be able to do it remains to be seen. I manage to complete about half of the second beam before I run out of mana. Once my mana is empty, I head back to the castle, but when I enter I find the kids are asleep.
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Not wanting to disturb them, I quietly head upstairs expecting to find Lin there. However, I find our bed empty, Lin must be somewhere doing something. I am not worried about it, so I eat a pizza and then go to sleep for a few hours.
When I wake up, Lin still isn't back, so I head downstairs to take a bath. I don't have the mana to work on my core, but I can still enjoy a nice relaxing bath. As I am soaking, I have a sudden thought and realize that I have been an idiot.
I climb out of the bath, leave the castle, and fly up to the platform where the crystals are. I haven't checked on them in a while, but they are still absorbing and storing pure mana. They are not all equal, so I pick the fullest one and carefully withdraw some mana.
Filling my mana pool to the top doesn't even make a noticeable difference in the crystal. With my mana filled up, I fly back to the bridge and get back to work on the second beam. A few hours later, when the second beam is almost done, I run out of alloy.
Having been expecting it for a while, I just calmly fly back to the port and use the platform there. I gate to Demon Hunter City and immediately go looking for Zachariah. I took all the materials he had last time I left, but I am hoping that he has restocked by now.
It turns out that he has and he also gets more of what I need from other merchants. It doesn't even cost me any gold, I just have to enchant some more weapons for him. This gives me the chance to practice enchanting with Divided Mind.
Since I am using the same enchantments, it is fairly easy to do two weapons at the same time. It only takes me a couple of hours to enchant all the weapons Zachariah has available. In return, I get more metal than I was able to buy in the southern empire.
*DING*
Congratulations! Skill Divided Mind has progressed to level 2!
Divided Mind
Level 2
Allows you to split your mind into 2 parts.
Each part can focus on a separate task.
It feels good to be able to have a skill level up again, but I don't let myself get distracted. I have a meal with Zachariah and then immediately gate back to the island. I make a quick stop by the floating platform to refill my mana and then get back to work on the bridge.
First, I convert all of the new metals into alloy ingots, then I continue work on the beam. At that point, it only takes me about an hour to finish the second beam. Then I take the rest of the alloy and start putting spikes into the supports.
Once the spikes are in the supports, I fuse them into the beams to make them all one piece. When all the supports are connected, I go back and start reinforcing all of the alloy. The earth elemental form helps, but it still takes a lot of mana to do.
I end up having to make several trips back to the floating platform to refill my mana. Once all of the alloy is reinforced, I begin the final part of the process. Bringing up more stone and forming the top part of the bridge around the beams.
The bridge itself is going to be wide enough for two wagons to pass at once. Plus a little extra space on either side so I can add railings for safety's sake. Not to mention that since I can shape them anyway I want, they should look pretty good.
For a minute, the thought of putting gargoyles to defend the bridge crosses my mind. However, that would take a lot more time and I don't have much left to spare. If I don't get back to the mountain soon, Myria is going to give me a hard time.