Core Upgrade Progress: 100%!

Core Upgrade Completed!

Core Rank 2: +400 HP +200 MP!

Even though I was trying to be careful and go slowly, I managed to upgrade to rank two in about an hour. The entire process went smoothly, which is a little surprising since I was expecting something to go wrong. It is a pleasant surprise though and I am tempted to keep working on my core.

However, that would be pretty reckless, so instead I do an in depth study of my body. Even after spending another hour checking every inch of my body I don't find anything wrong. It looks like I was right, my body is mature enough to handle improvements to my core.

However, I still plan to be cautious and take my time, so I go to sleep until morning. Or at least that was the plan, but I've only been asleep for about an hour when I am woken up. What wakes me up is the alarm going off, so I quickly rush up to the bridge to see what is going on.

However, before I make it far I can already see what is causing the alarm. The ship is under attack by a type of creature that I wasn't expecting to see outside of a computer screen. In WoW they were called nagas, their upper body is humanoid and their lower body is snake-like.

They are intelligent, they use both magic and weapons, and they outnumber the elves by quite a bit. This area had markings on the charts, but before seeing the nagas I didn't know what they meant. Now I am guessing that those markings mean 'danger beasts live here'.

With a quick mana scan I am able to detect over a hundred nagas, both on the ship and in the water. Luckily, a lot of the elves we freed in the last city were warriors so the elves aren't too badly outnumbered. However, the naga aren't just attacking the elves on deck, they are also attacking the ship itself.

They probably want to sink her and then loot her when she is on the ocean floor. No way am I about to allow that to happen, not after all the effort I put into this ship. Instead of attacking the nagas directly, I take a support role and start using my mana.

With my mana I start by reinforcing both the protective and repair enchantments. At the same time, using my divine power, I start healing any elves who get wounded. This way the elves won't die and they will get the experience from killing the nagas.

The elves main disadvantage at this point is that they don't have any magic users. So I also have to pay attention and counter the spells cast by the naga magic users. Brightfire and Silverstream are in command of the elven warriors and are doing a good job so far.

This kind of surprise attack is a real challenge for them as leaders and I am glad to see them doing so well. Silverleaf is also currently fighting, but she is not acting as a leader, just a warrior. Even the sailors have taken up bows and are in the rigging providing support fire.

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From how things are going I would say that the elves would win even without my support. However, they would take casualties which is what I am trying to avoid. Although, if I am going to keep letting them fight their own battles I should come up with a way for them to counter magic.

They will have their own mages once we get back and Core has a chance to train them. So, all I really need to do is come up with something temporary until then. Taking an idea from D&D, my best bet would be to make some wands for them.

Not only would that solve the problem for now, but the only resource needed is some wood. Each wand only needs to hold a single spell, just with multiple charges. Other than wood, it will just take some time, but there isn't much point to going back to sleep.

The nagas aren't stupid, once they lose about a quarter of their troops they retreat. Since they haven't been able to gain any ground on the deck of the ship they change tactics. As the elves are celebrating, the naga all focus on trying to sink the ship.

However, with me boosting the enchantments they aren't able to do any real damage. What little damage they do manage to do quickly repairs itself, they have no chance of sinking my ship. As soon as the naga realize that, they swim back down into the depths.

Once the naga retreat, I leave the elves to clean up and head back to the cabin. Nala and Albion also joined in the battle, so the cabin is empty when I enter. There are still some small branches from the tree left, so I use them and start experimenting.

It doesn't take me long to figure out how to put spells with charges into the wands. The hard part is figuring out how to set a command word for the spell to be released. It is something I have done before, but it needs to be targeted when released which is the tricky part.

After a bit of playing around I think I have it figured out, so I head up on deck. As I look around I am looking for someone to be my guinea pig for the wands. After all, if I test them my mana will make sure it works exactly how I want.

The aftermath of the battle has already been cleaned up and there is only the normal shift on deck. When I look up at the bridge I find that Brightfire is currently the one in charge. She will work, so I walk up to the bridge, smiling at her as I approach.

Brightfire says "What's with that look?! What do you want?"

"I need you to test something out for me."

Brightfire says "It's not something weird is it?!"

"No! What are you even thinking about?"

Brightfire blushes and says "Then what do you want me to test?"

Ignoring her weird response I explain the wands to her and how to use them. Then I have her test the three wand types by firing them into the ocean. The three types are a firebolt, a lightning bolt, and an ice lance, and all three work, mostly.

There are a few improvements I can make just from watching Brightfire test them out. Other than that they work pretty well, but I should probably also come up with some defensive wands. I don't even have to ask Brightfire to keep testing them, she quickly uses all the charges while giggling.

Brightfire says "These are amazing! Can I have more?"

"Not if you are going to waste them the second I give them to you!"

Brightfire says "I won't! I promise!"

"Alright then. I plan to make several sets. This is so that the elves can fight against magic users."

Brightfire says "I noticed during the battle earlier so I get what you mean. By the way, thank you for saving so many lives today! It would seem that we aren't ready to stand on our own yet."