Chapter 12.

 

    It was four days of smooth sailing. Sasha and I had taken the extra sailcloth I had purchased and had made a jib sail and gennaker sail. The triangle sail on the bow and the big billowy sail on the front. We stitched together the cloth from the two previous sails and used some of the remaining bolts to finishes the mainsail. Once I used the inspect ability on the cloth, I was loathed to use it like a sail, but I had already done so, so I might as well have one sail on the Ever Grove made from the rare material.

 

     [ Cloud wool cloth: Quality: well, made. Scarcity level: Rare. Made from the wool of the Theera, this material has the magical property of reducing weight by 80 percent. It is also extremely soft.]

   

   [ Cloud wool sail: Quality: well, made. Scarcity level: Extremely uncommon. This sail has been made of cloud wool, when flown by a ship, ships weight is reduced by eight eighty percent while keeping the same mass.]  

    

    Sasha was once again amazed at the fact I had enough of the extremely rare cloth to make a full Maine sail and even more leftover. She explained to me throughout the process that the material was some of the most sought-after fabric, and she could not even price how much of it we had just used. The Theera was hard to catch, as once one was killed, the magical properties of the wool began to fade.

 

    I found myself quite surprised at how little trouble we found making our way down the river. We would pass fishing vessels, trading barges, galleons, and pleasure barges as we continued our voyage towards the capital. At least once a day, we would pass ships that were clearly full of guards. They had splendid color sails in black and red, the color of the Empire. Every time we passed one of the guard’s ships, we were able to see rugged-looking men, both human and Demi-human going about tasks on the deck of their ships.

 

    “Sasha, do you see that up ahead?” I asked as we came around a bend in the river, a long straight stretch.

 

    “What was that, Eric?” Sasha said as she stood and looked out to the front of the boat. “Is that… I think that’s… Yeap, that looks like two of the giant river Unagi attacking a guard vessel.”

 

    “Well shit, I suppose we should go see if we can help them.”

 

    “Seriously, Eric, that’s the guard, the imperial guard; it is their job to deal with this stuff on the rivers.”

 

    “We’re going that way anyway and will just get close enough to see if they need help; if not, will steer clear of the entire mess.”

 

    “I guess we can do that. I suggest we put our armor on, though.”

 

    “Good idea; it’s never a bad idea to be careful,” I said as we both got up and went below decks to equip our armor. Though my steel mesh onesie was strong armor, it was not a strong as the professionally crafted items I had gotten. Donning the armor, I strapped the sword I had purchased to my waist in order to keep up appearances. 

 

[ feather steel Chainmail leather armor set: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: common. Well-made medium armor. Leather with chainmail, this armor provides excellent protection from slashing.] 

 

[ feather steel long sword. Quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. An enchanted long sword made from feather steel. This sword possesses the three most common enchantments durability, clean, and sharpen.]  

 

 

    Sasha went into the Captain’s quarter and quickly came back out in the full leather armor I had purchased for her. She also had the short bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her hip. The short bow had an amazing piece of enchantment on it that, with only a little trickle of mana from the archer, the draw weight of the bow was reduced, but the power was increased. I had looked at it a few times, trying to figure out how it worked but couldn’t, and was still mulling over in my own head how I could make the same kind of enchantment.

 

    [ Midnight leather armor: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. Quality leather armor treated in the tanning process with shadow veil oil dying the leather completely black all the way through. The leather can be used as a source of shadows for shadow magic.]

 

   [ Enchanted Short bow: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. Short bow with the improved distance enchantment.]

 

   [ Short swords: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: common. Sturdy curved steel short swords.]

 

   [ Throwing knifes: quality: Well, made. Scarcity level: common. Steel throwing knifes.] 

 

 

    We made our way back to the deck, and I sat down in the Captain’s chair. The halyard lines were within easy reach from there; rolling up the jib and lowering the mainsail took only a few seconds. As I did this, I gently pushed the engine controls forward and stop them at one half of full.

 

    We approach the battle at about the same speed we had been sailing at, but I had far more control of the vessel under the power of the engines. The giant Unagi was clinging against the sides of the large guard ship. It looked as if they had attached themselves on either side of the vessel. The guards were trying to shoot scorpion ballista from the front of the ship at the eels, and archers were taking shots as well. The heads of the beasts would dart out across the deck. The poor souls who were not fast enough to get out of the way found themselves with gouged chunks bitten out of them. 

 

    It was apparent as we got closer that the guards were not doing well in their fight against the giant Unagi. I brought the vessel alongside one of the eels just outside of its flailing range and set the engine to keep us in place.

 

    “Okay, Sasha, what I want you to do, is start firing arrow after arrow at it. If it starts to target us or do anything weird, I’m going to kill it. But I want you to try to get as much experience from this as possible.” I said as I politely indicated with my hand to the giant thrashing beast.

 

    Sasha gulped and nodded; she drew an arrow knocked it. She let the arrow fly, and it became almost immediately apparent her arrows were going to have far more of an impact than any of the guards. I saw the shaft sink deeply into the back of the giant eel. “Okay, Eric, I don’t know if I like this, but I’m going to give it a try.”

 

    Sasha began to fire arrow after arrow, and I used the analyze ability on the beast. 

 

     Gymnothorax. Unagi, Beast. Level 35. Weaknesses: unknown. Health 85 percent. Potential Experience gains: forty thousand. Zero of forty thousand gained. Guard 1 100xp, guard two 55xp…etc. Sasha XP 3565. 

 

    Holy cow, that’s a lot of information; weaknesses were unknown, but even the amount of experience it gives overall and how much each of these individuals is gaining. It is going down far too slow, I thought to myself as I watch the giant eel rip the front mast off of the boat it was attacking. Time to end this.

 

    I put my left hand on Sasha’s shoulder and indicated for her to stop firing. In my right hand, I focused and activated the spell [fire whip].  I envisioned the whip of fire flicking out at massive speeds to lash across the back of the beast, the flame I envisioned burning white-hot and not the much colder red flame. The three hundred feet to the Unagi took 30 mana instantly. The Unagi let out a roar of pain that sounded like a high-pitched garbled squeal as the white molten hot lash of the flame whip ripped its flesh. With another light flick of my wrist, I sent the whip-cracking at the speed of sound to wrap around the creature’s neck. With a tug, the whip constricted and decapitated one of the Unagi. The time it took was eight seconds, and the total spell cost me 280 mana. As my flame whip dissipated, I staggered for a second, this was the first time I had used so much mana, and it sent me to my knees.  

 

 

    [Congratulations you have gained seventeen thousand experience] The soft voice informed me in the back of my mind.

 

    With a loud gulping sound, I turned to look at Sasha’s eyes were wide, and her mouth was hanging open. “by Sippsie’s asshole, what was that.” Sasha barely got out.

 

    “Well, that is a fire whip….” I trailed off as I checked my individual analysis sheet, smirking triumphantly.

 

    She helped me get to my feet and back into the Captain’s chair. With one of the beasts dead, the guards were able to deal with the second creature in another few seconds. By the time I had steered the ship around the other side of the guard vessel and my mana had recharged, the Unagi was dead. 

 

    As we came around the side, I saw what was clearly an officer standing on the deck, and I waved to him. I indicated the giant eel, and then myself and I saw him politely bowed at the waist, indicating his thanks for our assistance.

 

    All told, I was quite impressed with this being overpowered thing. Though life and death struggles have their own merit and give a certain flavor and spice to life, it’s on occasion absolutely wonderful to just utterly and completely dominate the field of battle. I was pretty sure this overpowered ability was the only way I was truly going to be able to cope with this world and was in some way maintaining my sanity.

 

    I noticed that as soon as the monster was dead, the guards had switched out the bolts on the scorpions on the front of their ships and had attached harpoons. And in quick succession, they had fired half a dozen harpoons into the body and head of the giant eel so they could keep them from sinking beneath the water.

 

    I guided the boat closer and into speaking distance with the officer I could see on a deck. Putting the ship in an idol next to the other vessel, I heard the officer speak, “Good day, most Exalted Lord, my name is Captain Trim’a’ford; I most sincerely and gratefully thank you for your assistance this day. I do not know how many of us would have survived this beast encounter, as we are a quick patrol and do not carry any mages aboard.”

 

    “It is excellent to meet you, Captain Trim’a’ford; your respect and gratitude are most certainly noted,” I said in my most ostentatious affectation of noble soliloquy.

 

    “May I have your name, my Lord.”

 

    “I am exalted lord Eric Grayson.”

 

    “Very well exalted lord Grayson, will you desire any of the body of the giant Unagi today? Quite strange to find an Alpha and matron breeding pair in the river?” the Captain said, trailing off as a side note sounded more meant for his logs than to inform me.

 

    I turned to Sasha and asked, “do you know any recipes for unagi?”

 

    “I think I can whip something up, master Grayson, and it would be a delight to prepare it for you,” Sasha said for the benefit of the Captain on deck.

 

    With the pleasantries exchanged and my requirement only being a half-dozen finely cut unagi steaks, I set the engines to three-quarters and began to make our way back down the river once more.

 

    Now it was time to discuss with Sasha how we should proceed with leveling. I knew from experience the massive amount of levels she just received would probably kill her if she allocated all of her points at once.

 

    As the steaks sizzled on the stove in the galley and I sat at the bar watching the beautiful kitsune work, I asked, “so how many levels did you just get. With my inspect, I was able to see that you got close to 8000 experience.”

 

    “Well, that’s why I am so happy right now. I’m level twenty-one and have a thousand points left to level again.” She said with an almost orgasmic smile on her face.

 

    “That’s excellent.”

 

    “And you’re really not going to kill me to reset my level?” she said confidently but more to put her mind at peace.

 

    “Never, fuck no. I want you strong if you’re going to travel with me. But I do have to warn you, don’t use all of your attribute points at once. I tried doing that, and it almost killed me.”

 

    “You tried to do a power leveling. Almost no one ever lives through that. That’s like one of the first things taught to young children when they start leveling, only distribute one or two points every hour or two, and if you’re tired or hungry to stop.”

 

    “I should’ve realized that a native of this world would most definitely have already known that,” I said.

 

Chapter twelve B.

 

 

    Sasha’s soft chuckling filled the galley as she shook her head at me and continued to cook the eel. She reached into one of the chests that I had built along the counter, pulling out spices and other ingredients, and skillfully began to make a delicious-looking second lunch.

 

    With Sasha’s and mines current massive level increase, we had a host of attribute points, skill points, and spell points we could distribute. As we ate the wonderfully prepared eel, we discussed the best ways in which to level.

 

    “If you focus more on long-range, I think that might be what your best at. You have taken quite nicely to the bow, and I suspect your short swords are coming along nicely also.”

 

    “Yes, I did find the bow a more comforting weapon. I don’t think I will ever like being in close during a fight.” Sasha said, taking another bite.

    

    “Do you know what the average levels are in the empire are?”

 

    “Not really. I know most slaves stay below level ten, except for those in the military or special roles. After level thirty, though, I know it’s much harder to level. To get to the level of the eels we fought, you would have to kill like twenty of them. So, it’s best to decide now what you want to focus on.”

    

    “I had guessed as much; well, my magic is super powerful. But that leaves me with the options of making it more powerful, or do I focus on physical attacks and just slightly increase my magical ability.” I said, sipping some wine.

    

    “I don’t really know, Master Grayson; I think it might be a good idea to wait. I’m sure we can find out more information in the capital or in the eastern dusk city. I wanted to tell you anyway; I think you need to get more slaves before we get to the capital. It would be very weird for you to not have a retinue when you arrive. It would look poorly on you.” Sasha said, adding a bit of formality to her words, so I knew she was talking more of appearances than anything else. 

    

    “I was wondering that myself, do you know of a good place to purchase more? We are passing a lot of towns along the river.” In fact, I had noticed that along the river, there were great lengths that seemed to be uninhabited, but wherever there were people, there were towns or small cities, all had walls. I never saw anything I would consider a village.

    

    “None of these small places will have a large slave trade area. I think eastern Dusk city is our best option.”

    

    “Why is it called Eastern dusk city?” I asked.

 

    “Well, because it’s on the sunset river and it’s at the bottom, where the sunsets. So, dusk.” Sasha said as if it made perfect sense.

 

    I pulled out the empire map I had acquired and found Eastern dusk city on it. It was a large port city as all those along the river were. This one was situated at the end of the sunset river, where the mile-wide river joined the massive southern sea. I began measuring the distance and found that from the city of Laga’vast to Eastern dusk city was close to the same distance as Eastern dusk was to the capital. It would take us another four days of travel along the river to reach the port city. From there to the capital, it would be an additional nine days of travel, plus or minus a day. 

 

Individual Statistical Analyses 

 

Name: Sasha whitetail, slave.

Race: Kitsune

Level: Level 21, experience to next level, 1085/2000.

 

Health: 100 percent.

Mana Capacity: 150

Mana regeneration: 1.16 mana per minute. 

 

Attributes: 4 per level. 64/64

Strength: 10.

Body: 15.

Speed: 15.

Dexterity: 15.

Mana capacity: 15.

Mana regeneration:10.

Charisma: 10.

 

Affinities:

Mana manipulation: 6 percent.

Earth: 1 percent.

Fire: 3 percent

Air: 15 percent.

Water: 10 percent.

Life: 3 percent

Death: 1 percent.

Light: 1 percent.

Shadow: 15 percent.

Space-time: 1 percent.

Summoning: 1 percent.

 

Abilities: 1 per level. 21/21

1.  Graceful dodge: 1 out of 10. Passive. Increase balance, dodge chance, area awareness and all movement actions.Precise strike: 1 out of 10. Passive. Accuracy of any weapon strike, throw or shot is increase. Hand-eye targeting improved.

 

Skills: 1 per level. 18/21

1.  Tailoring: Journeymen. Create clothing, armor and useful items from cloth. Items have improved durability and become less dirty. Work speed is enhanced. Can create a mana needle. 
2. Cooking: Journeymen. Understand the fundamentals of cook enough to improvise meals. The flavor palate is balanced. Mana is automatically used to enhances food both for effect and flavor. Can create mana kitchen cooking utensils of varying size.
3. Short blades: Journeymen. The fundamentals of short blades are understood. Fighting styles of various blades condensed. Movements have only slight waist to them. A small amount of mana is naturally infused in the blade to improve strength and sharpness.
4. BowAccuracy: Journeymen. Flight speed, angles, wind speed are all better understood to improve accuracy. Hand in more stable and eyes better focused. A small amount of mana in automatically infused with bow and bowstring to improve tension and spring recoil. 

 

 

Spells: 1 per level. 16/21 

Earth:

1.  Clean: Base cost: 10 mana per square foot. Level 5.

 

Fire:

1.  Flame: Base cost: 9.7 mana initial cast, 4.85 mana per 30 seconds channeled. Level 5.

 

Air:

1.  Air blade: Base cost: 42.5 mana initial cast, 20 mana per minute if channeled. Level 1.

 

Shadow:

1.  Hid: Base cost: 42.5 mana initial cast, 20 mana per minute while holding still in shadows. Level 8.
2. Shadow Tendril: Base cost: 25.5 initial cast, 12 mana per second while channeling. 

 

 

Enchanted Storage Ring: Finally crafted. 1 mana to store or retrieve item. Auto object tracking. 100 feet (30.5m) cubed. Bindable. Listed price: 2 platinum pennies

 

Midnight leather armor: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. Quality leather armor treated in the tanning process with shadow veil oil dying the leather completely black all the way through. The leather can be used as a source of shadows for shadow magic.

 

Enchanted Short bow: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. Short bow with the improved distance enchantment.

 

Short swords: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: common. Sturdy curved steel short swords.

 

Throwing knifes: quality: Well, made. Scarcity level: common. Steel throwing knifes.

 

 

Individual Statistical Analyses. 

 

Name: Eric Grayson.

Race: Human.

Level: 25. Experience to next level 400/6000.

 

Health: 100 percent.

Mana capacity: 300.

Mana regeneration: Error…Max [23 mana per second.] 

 

Attributes: 4 points per level. 24/24

Strength: 15.

Body: 21.

Speed: 15.

Dexterity: 15. 

Mana capacity: 30.

Mana regeneration: 20.

Charisma: 30.

 

Affinities:

Arcane mana manipulation: 100 percent.

Earth: 100 percent.

Fire: 100 percent.

Air: 50 percent.

Water: 50 percent.

Life: 85 percent.

Death: 15 percent.

Light: 85 percent.

Shadow: 75 percent.

Space-time: 25 percent.

Summoning: 25 percent.

 

 

Abilities: 1 per level. 25/25.

1.  Graceful dodge: 1 out of 10. Passive. Increase balance, dodge chance, area awareness and all movement actions.
2. Saving heal: 1 out of 10. Passive. If health drops to zero and death is activated instantly heal for 10 percent. Once per day.
3. Resurrection: 1 out of 10. Passive and active. If the ability holder dies automatically resurrect to 60 percent health(secondary), limbs are not regrown. Activate on a corps that had been dead for less than one hour to revive. Revived party has skills returned to novice, spells set to level 1 and Base level set to zero. 
4. Inspect: 1 out of 10. Active. Used to identify objects, people, animals, monsters, beasts and void horrors that have crossed over into the system. Ability level low.
5. Linguist: grants the capability of speaking any langwidge that is heard; langwidge must be within human vocal cord range. Allows for the complete automatic translation of heard languages into one’s native understanding. Allows for reading and wright of foreign languages as long as the wielder of the ability could read and write beforehand. Level 10 out of 10

 

Skills: 1 per level. 25/25.

Enchanting: Novice, create basic enchantments, initial cost and sustaining cost greatly increased.

• Center of the water way: this enchantment when placed on the steering device of a water vessel will keep the vessel equidistant from land. The initial cost of activation is 250 mana, the sustaining cost is 30 mana per minute.
• Hydrostatic Propulsion: This enchantment allows for the use of water to provide high torque thrust when enchantment location is underwater. Mana cost: 1 mana per minute.

 

Tailoring: Novice. Create basic clothing and other items made from cloth.

 

Mapping: novice. Can draw and read maps.

 

Longsword: Journeymen: The fundamentals of long blades are understood. Fighting styles of different types of blades are condensed. A small amount of mana is infused in one’s sword to improve edge quality and durability. 

 

Gardening: Journeymen: Proper gardening techniques are understood. Soil nurturance, acidity, moister level, mana density and plant dispositions are known. Can create gardening tools from mana.  

Herbalism: Journeymen: Wild and cultivated herbs can be gathered and grown. Pastes, poultices, teas, brews, tinctures and essence oils are known. Mana can be used to stabilize the effects of herbs.  

Alchemy: Journeymen: Basics of powders, potions, elixirs and pills are known. Drying, distilling, sublimation, concentrating, condensation, refining, balancing, aging, antimonnation and fulminating are understood. Can use mana to create even heating and cooling, as well standard weights and measures.  

 

 

Junk skills: 

• [Breathing, walking, blinking, hand waving, knot tying, sitting, sleeping, bowels movements, urinating, itch itching.]

 

Spells: 1 per level. 25/25.

Arcane mana manipulation:

1.  Fuse: Base cost: .1 mana per square inch of material to be atomically bodied. Level 1.
2. Butcher: Base cost: initial cast 10 mana 1 mana per pound per second. Level 1.
3. Cut: Base cost: Error… .1 mana per inch cut (2.5cm), area twenty feet, (6m). Level 1.
4. Arcane Shield: Base cost: Error… .1 initial mana, .1 mana per second. Level 1.

 

Fire: 

1.  Candle flame: Base cost: Error… 0.1 mana per, minuet. 
2. Metal shaping: Base cost: Error… 10 mana per second.
3. : Purify: Base cost: 5.1 mana per square inch. Level 1.
4. Campfire: base cost: Error… .1 mana per minute, fire must be in a hearth or pit. Level 1.
5. Fireball: Base cost: Error… .1 mana per casting. Level 1.
6. Flame whip: Base cost: Error… .1 mana per foot of flame whip, .1 mana per second per foot. Level 1.
7. Plasma beam: Base cost: Error… .1 initial mana, 15 mana per second channeled. Level 1

 

 

Earth:

1.  Stone spike: Base cost: Error… .1 mana per inch of spike. Level 1.
2. Collect element: Base cost: N/A. collect desired element from surrounding area one quarter mile spherical, one half mile spherical. Level 1, 2.
3. Fertilize soil: Base cost: .1 mana per cubic foot of fertilized soil. 
4. Clean: Base cost: Error… .1 mana per square inch (2.5cm). Level 1.

 

Air:

1.  Shuriken wrath: Base cost: 42.5 mana. Level 1,2
2. Yarn spinning: Base cost: .1 mana per second of spinning, level 1, 2.
3. Weave: Base cost: 5 mana per 10 seconds of weaving. Level 1, 2.
4. Lightning bolt: Base cost: 75 mana, error… 1 mana per second channeled lightning. Level 1.

 

 

Water:

1.  Nutritious water: Base cost: 5 mana per oz of species-specific nutritious water.
2. Ice spear: Base cost: 35 initial mana, error… .1 mana per 1mile per hour (1.6Km an hour). Level 1.

 

Life: 

1.  Analyze body: base cost: 3 mana a second. Level 1.
2. Focused healing: Base cost: 7.5 mana per second. Level 1.
3. Mass healing: Base cost: 12 mana per second, area a ten-yard radius.
4. Manipulate plant: Base cost: 4.5 mana per second of movement. Level 1, 2.
5. Rapid growth: Base cost: .1> <100 mana per second of growth depending on plant or animal complexity. Level 1, 2.
6. Invigorate: Base cost: 15 mana to boost usable cellular energy in target.
7. Sleep: Base cost: 12.75 mana on willing target, mana amount varies. Level 1.

 

Space-time:

1.  Internal Dimensional Expansion: Base cost: 300 mana per cubic inch of extradimensional storage.

 

 

Soul bound items:

   Imperial Royal Bank identification card: Grants access to your account at any Bank certified shop. May only be used by the soul bonded individual. 

 

Enchanted Storage Ring: Finally crafted. 1 mana to store or retrieve item. Auto object tracking. 100 feet (30.5m) cubed. Bonded. Listed price: 2 platinum pennies

 

Inlaid mithril master-slave band: Exceptionally crafted. Bonded. May hold the contracts of 125 slaves. Slaves cannot be stolen or cross subjugated. Enhances slave bond. Price: 96 platinum coins

 

 

Bound slaves:

   Sasha Whitetail: Kitsune, female. Age 23; revives 7. Level 5.

 

feather steel Chainmail leather armor set: quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: common. Well-made medium armor. Leather with chainmail, this armor provides excellent protection from slashing.  

 

feather steel long sword. Quality: finely crafted. Scarcity level: uncommon. An enchanted long sword made from feather steel. This sword possesses the three most common enchantments durability, clean and sharping. 

 

Cloud wool cloth: Quality: well, made. Scarcity level: Rare. Made from the wool of the Theera, this material has the magical property of reducing weight by 80 percent. It is also extremely soft.