It made for a strange sight. A rowboat, sitting in the middle of a pier, surrounded by tools and scraps of wood. A woman, a boy, and a dog moved around the boat, taking care of various tasks in preparation of a remodel. None of them had done something like this before, and it wasn’t going well.
“Thanks for the jug of paint, Snozzy, but we won’t be painting Robert until after we cut him up and put him back together.” The dog whined a little, but dutifully returned the paint to where he had found it.
“Gah! That’s another one ruined!” Jim cursed, as he threw the offending piece of wood across the canal, where it bounced against the building before it splashed into the murky water.
“How many more do you need?” Themis asked curiously.
“I’ve done two, so two more. But I only have three blocks left of the right size, so if I mess up too many more times I’ll have to take a break to go scavenging.” Jim answered. “I really wanted to get this done today, so we could go spying tonight.”
“It happens when it happens.” Themis offered her own wisdom. “I can’t believe you found this many oars just lying around though!”
“They used to be twice the length, but all of them broke closer to the handle. And that one you’re holding now had cracks running all the way through the blade. The only reason it’ll hold up under heavy use is the glue Robert gave me to cover it with.”
“Honestly, of all the things that Robert can do, it’s the glue that impresses me the most. Sure, he’s definitely strange and unique in other ways, but I haven’t heard of anything like what he has going on with those barnacles.”
“And it’s not a skill that he can teach to other people, otherwise we’d have captains lining up from here to Lord’s Square.”
“Not just sailors, I can think of more than a few craftsmen who would love easy access to something like that glue. Pine glue or horse glue really look weak when you compare them to this substance.” Themis said, her voice coming from right next to me as she extracted another portion of barnacle cement to use as an adhesive.
Fortunately for my sanity, the only thing we were working on today was new additions. Jim had talked about changing out my hull for something larger, but as it stood we didn’t have the necessary wood to make that a reality. Instead, Jim and Themis were taking scraps and turning them into useful upgrades for me.
Themis was working on installing another pair of benches. It drastically reduced the amount of legroom available, but the extra seating would be handy for carrying everyone around. The boards also served another purpose, providing additional support for any passengers that might be inside me if I was upside down. The new benches were close enough together that it was possible to lie across them without sagging or putting too much weight in a single place. Getting underneath the benches might prove to be a little bit tricky, but an empty space at the back made it possible.
Jim, meanwhile, was working on carving and positioning additional oar locks. Given my ability to independently move my oars, we hoped that I would be able to do something similar with any other oars that might be added to the boat. If not right away, then I could always prevail on Wiz to help tweak the spell work to make such a thing possible. But simply having more oars would allow me to move around more quickly and more precisely than I would be able to otherwise. Furthermore, I didn’t rely on any pulling force to move my oars. I didn’t need to have handles that extended into the boat for Jim or another human to hold and move. I simply moved the oars, and was thus able to take advantage of a set of much shorter oars, ones that barely attached to the oarlocks before coming to an end.
Jim finished carving the fourth oar lock and put them into place, two on each side, ahead and behind my original set of oars. They were far enough apart that I didn’t have to worry too much about fouling my oars with each stroke, but not so far forwards or backwards that I would need to worry about the curvature of the boat. One after another the new oars were slotted into place, with thicker sections around the end preventing them from sliding out completely while still providing a full range of movement. Jim wiggled each one in turn to confirm that it was in its proper place, before he stepped back. Themis whistled, calling Snozzy over to her and getting him out of range of my upcoming tests. While we hoped this worked as we thought it should, it didn’t hurt to take some basic precautions to keep my friends safe.
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The first moments of attempting to move the new oars proved to be useless. This boat was my body, and I had gotten used to it over the last few months. There were still times that I missed my human body, and occasionally I had phantom sensations from body parts that no longer existed, but overall I felt like I did a remarkable job of coming to terms with my new situation.
The problem was that my body had just been suddenly changed on me. The sense of proprioception that made me feel as if the boat was my body allowed me to feel it when Jim had tested out the range of motion for each oar, but even though I knew I could feel these new oars, I couldn’t find the appropriate mental muscles needed to control them.
“Jim.” I called out. “I need you to come back here and move these oars around for me. I’m close, but I’m not quite there yet.”
“Somewhat cautiously Jim approached, moving up along my left side and grabbing the front oar there. With him constantly moving it around it was easy to feel in my senses, and I was able to focus all my attention on trying to trigger the oar to move. It took me a couple minutes before I realized one obvious strategy that I had overlooked.
“Jim, thanks for your help, but go ahead and back up again. I have another idea I want to try.”
“Just don’t do anything stupid.” Jim fired back at me as he walked back to his original position. With him safely out of the way, I spoke up once more. “Take me to Shellpin Bay.” I had no intention of actually heading there, but the verbal command was exactly what I needed to activate the automation enchantment in its original form. I could feel it as my oars began to move, first the original two, as they scrabbled uselessly against the cobblestones, but then the other four, as I felt the enchantments in place and stretched them to cover the new oars. I winced as I felt it take up more of my stream of mana, once again putting me close to my limits, but it was worth it. With all six oars swinging, I went tumbling into the canal like some sort of oversized wooden bug. The oars continued to row, but once I was in the water I reached out with my will and brought them to a halt. One after another I moved the oars, marvelling at the strangeness of it all. I still thought of the oars as my arms, and unfortunately it meant that I had difficulty controlling more than one on a side at a time, but after a little practice I was able to synchronize each side so that they all carried out the same motion when I gave the command. I wouldn’t trust it for any sort of precision movement, but I had just tripled my available power. I could practice until I had my original level of control back, or until I surpassed it.
“Whoo!” Jim cheered, sharing a couple of loud high fives with Themis.” He sobered up quickly, though. “I suppose that means it’s my turn to get ready for everything.”
I couldn’t see what was happening, and had to patiently wait while Jim silently maneuvered through his personal System screen. Each second felt like minutes, until finally Jim spoke up again.
“Being a level ten oarsman feels good.” His voice was filled with wonder. I heard him walking, then running around the dock, enjoying his newfound power. Snozzy seemed more than willing to party with the boy, and the two of them roughhoused for a miniature or two as Jim adjusted to everything that had changed.
“That was what, half you experience? What are you going to do with the other half?” Themis asked curiously once the pair's play had slowed to a stop.
Jim thought it over for a bit, before answering. “Gonna save some of it in case I need to level up again, but that still leaves ten thousand or so experience points that I can spend on Skills. Any suggestions?”
“Swimming.” was Themis’ immediate answer. “You’ll be spending a lot of time out on the water, and it’s a cheap skill that’s always good to have in your repertoire. Other than that, I’d probably suggest holding onto most of it till we can talk it over with the others. They might have some useful skills to teach you, or they might have a better idea of what would help everything go smoothly.
“I’ll ask Stella tonight then. Robert can practice through the afternoon, but once it’s dark out we’re in a perfect position to figure out what exactly we’re up against.