‘’You fight like a dirty pirate!’’
‘’You got your ass kicked by a dirty pirate. Three times.’’
Michelle gritted her teeth and sped up to keep up with Ethan as they were walking in a crowded street. ‘’I was so close the third time. Who would even use the reflection on their blade to distract the opponent?! Was that even a thing?’’
‘’Back on Earth, it wasn’t,’’ he replied, smiling all this time. ‘’But now that we’re pretty much superhumans, many tricks have entered the play. I got a fuckload of INT stats, making my calculating abilities faster than you. Hell, I’m not even giving this enough importance, I bet there are many more things I could do.’’
‘’You mean mana by INT stats, right?’’
‘’Seriously… You guys were all VR players. How is it that no one uses stats to see how much they progressed?’’
‘’They do. You’re not the first one I heard it from, but you’re the only one who insists that everyone should at least know what are you talking about.’’
‘’I mean… It’s not rocket science.’’ Seeing Michelle's glare sharpening, he raised his hands in surrender. ‘’Okay, okay. I’ll start speaking with cultivation jargon from now on, junior sister.’’
‘’I’m the senior, you bastard. There are at least five years between us.’’
‘’Pretty sure that’s not how it works.’’
Bickering all the way, they arrived at the blacksmith guild. Ethan was planning to find a smith to fix the armor Travis ruined and maybe buy a flying boat. He thought it’d be best to see the products of Mirasatra before buying the spatial cabin he yearned for, but a flying boat was kind of a necessity, after all, a long journey was waiting for him, and he could always sell it if he found something better later on.
Naturally, the first place they visited was the secret shop of the sage.
They found the sage at the back, passed out while hugging a big anvil with his face pressed on top of it and salivating profusely, but still clutching the empty bottle in his hand.
Ethan made a fist and coughed on it.
The sage woke up with a start. He looked at him and Michelle for a few seconds in a daze before giving a long sigh. ‘’So it’s you, dimwit… I need you to repeat after me. Okay?
Ethan nodded.
‘’This,’’ the sage said, looking at him gently and expectantly.
‘’This.’’
‘’Is.’’
‘’Is.’’
‘’Not.’’
‘’Not.’’
‘’A fucking shop!’’
‘’A fucking shop!’’
After a few seconds of silence, Ethan raised an eyebrow. ‘’So, you got any flying boats?’’
‘’Motherfu-’’ The sage stopped himself halfway through throwing his bottle and took a deep breath. He stared at Ethan, irritated, and sighed once again. ‘’Go to the second floor and find Orfil. Tell him that Ricky sent you. If he doesn’t believe you, tell him these two words: red panties.’’
Ethan bowed immediately, excited. ‘’Thank you, sir!’’
He grabbed Michelle who had a weird look on her face and left the shop hastily. After asking around on the second floor, they quickly found the shop of Orfil. It was a big store, but not one of the popular ones. There were no customers inside, only three young workers and the owner of the place, a middle-aged elf with long white hair and fashionable clothes.
Ethan ignored the workers and directly went for him. ‘’I’m here to buy a flying boat. Ricky sent me.’’
Orfil looked up from his book, above his glasses. ‘’Which Ricky?’’
‘’The son of the guild leader.’’
Orfil gave an amused snort and returned to his book. ‘’Yeah, right.’’
Ethan leaned closer to his desk, looking at the elf. ‘’Red panties.’’
Orfil’s hand shook a little along with the book he was holding. He slowly closed it and put it on the table before looking at Ethan with a serious expression. Warily, he got up and whispered, ‘’Follow me.’’
Ethan and Michelle looked at each other and followed the anxious elf. He went to the workshop behind the store and removed a carpet from the ground which revealed a wooden door. Opening the door with one hand, he stood before the stairs and turned back to urge them, ‘’Come on. Hurry up.’’
As the trio started going down the stairs, Orfil took out an artifact to illuminate the place. Turned out it was a wine cellar with all the walls covered with shelves and bottles. Orfil went for the wooden barrel and turned its tap in different ways like opening a safe. What opened wasn’t a safe but the wall itself. The wall, along with the shelves on it, started expanding from the middle while its edges folded on themselves, revealing a huge room behind with countless items.
Ethan watched in amazement and immediately went toward the ships. There were about 10 of them, all had a special feature that distinguished them from the others, all examples of pinnacle craftsmanship.
‘’Did he say anything else?’’ Orfil asked.
‘’Nope,’’ Ethan replied without turning back.
‘’What does it mean? Why now? Why?’’ Orfil murmured to himself, looking at the floor, deep in thought.
This time, Ethan turned back with a gleam in his eyes. ‘’How much are these?’’
‘’Huh? Oh, how much you got?’’
‘’50 mana stones.’’
‘’Pick whatever you want, except these three,’’ Orfil answered casually and pointed at the last three and the biggest ships.
Ethan wanted to cry. He didn’t want those anyway, they were unnecessarily big. His favorites were all in the other seven. Kind-hearted sage, I owe you yet again.
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After inspecting all of them and having many debates with himself, he decided on a rather plain-looking one. Its color was glossy silver, and the size of the deck was only enough for 4-5 people, but what he loved was its cabin. This simple-looking boat had a giant cabin with spatial enchantments. From a sofa bed with a super king size, to a dinner table for 10 people, anything he could think of for a long journey was available inside. It blocked the [Mana Sense]s from the outside, but using [Mana Sense] from the inside was possible. There was also an option to show the outside on a screen. He could’ve just sat on his sofa and enjoyed himself while driving.
The only problem he could think of was the space it’d occupy inside his ring. Even though it was one of the smallest ones, it was still half of his ring’s space.
‘’Orfil, can I put this into a spatial bag before storing it in my ring?’’
‘’There is no need. These all came with their original spatial rings. It’s only for the boat, though. You can’t use it for anything else.’’
‘’Perfect,’’ he said with a smile. ‘’I’m buying this one. Would fifty be enough?’’
‘’Fifty is barely the cost of materials and the runes,’’ Orfil said, waving his hand dismissively. ‘’Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it with Ricky.’’
Ethan left Orfil’s shop happily with a new silver ring on his finger, leaving the guy holding his chin and gazing blankly. After giving his armor to the place he bought for the repair, they went outside to try the boat.
Michelle turned to look at the building of the blacksmith's guild with a suspicious look. ‘’There is something weird going on in this place.’’
Ethan nodded. ‘’It’s a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons.’’
‘’I was thinking about perverted cults,’’ Michelle murmured.
Ethan didn’t even answer as he was summoning his ship with stars in his eyes. ‘’C’mon! Let’s try this baby!’’
They both got onboard and Ethan sent his mana to the core panel of the ship, just as Orfil explained to him. Once his mana pool was connected to it, he was able to feel every single rune on it. The most important one was the replica of [Mana Flight]. Thanks to this rune, the ship was able to float in the sky easily, and its control was linked to its user’s will, just like the skill.
Ethan slowly made the ship rise into the air and joined the other flying artifacts in the sky. According to the rules of the city, they were able to fly closely above the buildings, but no more than 100 yards away. Because the airspace up there was for the people at tier-5 and more. The speed of the high tiers was much faster, so this rule was to not irritate them with giant flying ships blocking their way.
‘’This is amazing,’’ Michelle said, looking down from the deck.
Ethan was next to her with a big smile. ‘’Yeah. The mana consumption isn’t bad either. I can go for hours at this speed.’’
‘’Can’t you use mana stones as fuel?’’
‘’I can, but even I’m not that rich. Orfil said just a few mana stones is enough for a trip of a day, but that means a journey to Mirasatra would empty my pockets. It’s best to use my own mana and take breaks to fill my reserves once in a while.’’
They kept flying above the city, watching everything with interest. When Ethan noticed the place where he first found Michelle, his eyes went wide. ‘’Oh! What happened to that dude, fickle Neil?’’
‘’He was found guilty. The guy had two more shops in the city, one of them went to his partner Mayer as compensation, while the other one would probably be taken by the council as a punishment. That’s always the sentence for the rich guys,’’ Michelle said, pursing her lips. ‘’As for Mami and her crew, there weren’t even any charges, looks like those guys know some big shots. Maybe even work for one directly.’’
Ethan chuckled. ‘’For a second, I thought you were talking about the old times of Earth. It’s really amazing how much this place is similar to there.’’
‘’People will be people wherever,’’ Michelle commented before frowning. ‘’What’s unreasonable is the other similarities. The measurements of time, weight, or distance. The talks about dao, enlightenment, or cultivation. Hell, I even saw a description of a chimera in a book the other day. It was exactly like how it’s pictured in Earth's fictions. It’s really hard to not believe the guys that keep talking about how this might be a simulation of Ani.’’
Ethan sat on a side seat and sighed. ‘’There is a good explanation I found for that, but as I told you before, it’d be best if I tell you when your ascension is coming close. For now, just trust my word, this is all real. Probably. Most likely.’’
Michelle burst out a laugh. ‘’That was as good as saying nothing. In the end, you even made yourself more confused.’’
‘’Not my fault. It’s your topic that’s confusing,’’ he said with a wry smile. ‘’Anyway, it doesn’t matter to me. I promised a friend that I’ll act like even the VR simulations are real, and I suggest that you do that as well. According to him, we should never deny the possibility of death and the unknown that comes after. The fact of death makes life more crucial, and more beautiful. If you dismiss that, life becomes blank and tasteless.’’
‘’Sounds like a wise man.’’
Ethan nodded readily. ‘’And mysterious.’’
They flew around for about half an hour, and eventually returned to the mansion. Ethan spent his next 3 days in Niamaris leisurely. He hung out with whomever was available and did whatever he felt like. Yet, he didn’t stop his training either. The shadow of his mother's possibly horrible fate never left his mind, but gradually he learned not to worry about it. What he needed was to progress to become at least capable of helping her, and if there was no one to help anymore, make the ones responsible pay for it. To do that, he needed a clear mind, because the power system itself required it.
To him, killing monsters was never a problem so far, and it likely wouldn’t be in the future, but being stuck in a single tier for decades was a normal occurrence for the many on Elisium. Thanks to his talent, this was his biggest fear.
Every day, he spent an hour pondering about [Blink], [Void Wrap], [Void Mute], and [Shadow Spikes], an hour for [Fabric Tear], and another hour on the mana techniques he recently learned. Until now, he had nothing to show for, save for some eccentric ideas. However, he knew that cultivation wasn’t a sprint but a marathon. He intended to turn these three hours a day effort into a routine. The good thing was, while cultivating with Void Manual was dull, playing with skills was so much fun. The marvels of mana were fascinating, and he didn’t think he’d get bored anytime soon.
When it was late afternoon, Ethan was lying on the ground in Abraham’s lab, throwing a mana stone into the air. The mana stone passed through a [Fabric Tear] before appearing on the first floor. As it started to fall back, another [Fabric Tear] appeared and it emerged right above his hand, dropping into his palm. This continued a few more times with the mana stone traveling even to the roof and coming back until someone knocked on the door.
‘’Is that what they call throwing money away?’’
Ethan gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘’What can I do? I don’t have a ball, but I don’t lack these stones, you know.’’
‘’I don’t, actually,’’ Pete said, walking toward Abraham’s desk with an amused smile. ‘’The guys barely convinced me not to sell Leo’s flying carpet and use it instead. Not all of us lazing around with their latest model flying ships, you know.’’
‘’Hey! If you wanna take it for a spin, just say it,’’ he said, taking out his silver ring.
‘’Oh, keep it. I didn’t come here for that,’’ Pete said. ‘’We’ve finally decided on a plan for Mirasatra.’’
‘’Yeah?’’ He sat straight and turned over to Pete. ‘’What is it?’’
‘’We’ll play it safe by only sending a group with a dozen people to check the situation there. Abraham developed a simple language similar to morse code. Thanks to that, the group will be able to inform us from 10.000 miles away by turning off and on their biochip signals,’’ Pete explained, patting Abraham’s shoulder. ‘’In the meantime, the rest of us will be going to the Wish Well. Three months later, we’ll decide what to do according to the situation.’’
‘’That morse code thing sounds really good. I guess that’s the best we can get for communication,’’ he commented. ‘’The tournament is tomorrow, starting at dawn and ending with the sunset. So, I’ll be leaving the next morning. Do you want me to take your group to Mirasatra?’’
‘’No. You said you’ll be visiting somewhere dangerous and don’t know how long it would take. So, I already arranged a mission for them with the mercenary guild,’’ Pete said. ‘’Another thing is that most of the council members of the free cities will be there tomorrow. Should we avoid being seen with you? You said that Travis guy is a psycho that we should deny everything about knowing you.’’
‘’Definitely. I don't think he'll come after me, but I pissed the guy off too much. I've no idea how far that bastard would go to hurt me indirectly,’’ Ethan said, frowning. ‘’It’s best if I rent a single room, and maybe piss him off even more to make him focus on me. Once I leave the city, he should cool down, but if not, go to the Olsens immediately. Kathrine would love to smack Travis’s face if he was looking roundabout ways to not keep his promise to her.’’
‘’Alright. Make sure to come by tomorrow night and say goodbye. It’s gonna be a long time till we see each other again.’’
‘’Sure thing,’’ Ethan said with a grin before showing his silver ring. ‘’You sure you don’t wanna fly around the neighborhood with my girl? I even got a mix tape from Abraham yesterday.’’
Abraham nodded from his desk. ‘’The song with the elf girl, who chooses a whip as her weapon and discovers her kink, is my favorite.’’