After spending a week preparing in the rainy fall weather, Alex and Fufi set sail down the river, heading south along the waterway. After about thirty minutes Alex was drenched.

 

“Ugh, I really didn’t think this through.” Alex said, wringing out her long black hair.

 

“Can you put the carriage on the boat and control it from inside?  That outfit doesn’t look cute when you are all wet.” Fufi commented about the soaked state of Alex’s apparel.

 

Alex shook her head. “No, this boat isn’t big enough to float the carriage it would sink.”

 

“Why didn’t you build it enclosed like the carriage then?” Fufi wondered aloud.

 

“Two reasons, first this water isn’t very deep.  What’s the word… draft?  How deep the boat sits in the water. The draft on this is about a foot.  If we pull the daggerboard and rudder out it would be even less but we’d have to use it like a rowboat.  The bigger a boat is the deeper the water needs to be.  The second reason is that making an enclosed place can turn into a death trap. If this thing gets capsized then we’ll just be thrown out.  If it has a cabin…I think that is the right word… then whoever is in it could be trapped.  I guess a distant third reason would be the boom.” Alex gestured to the board that was hinged to the mast with the sail attached to it. “The boom is low enough that to sail this we have to sit down.  It is important to not make it top heavy.  That is why I tried to stick with a design from my world.  I’m not an engineer so making big changes to a design seemed like a recipe for disaster.”

 

“I suppose that makes sense, but sacrificing cuteness remains a bad idea for any magical girl.” Fufi stated flatly.

 

After making some effort tacking the ship back upstream, they came to the dock.  Other small sailing ships were out in the rain.  Burly men seemed to not be troubled by the rain or getting wet.  One tribesman seemed to not get how tacking worked and just gave up, using the oars to get back upstream.  Alex boggled at how the man seemed to have super human strength and endurance to row the boat against the current and make brisk progress.  The whole reason for putting sails on them was to avoid having to do that.  Alex couldn’t make much progress rowing against the current with her meager strength stat but others could.

 

Pulling into the dock, they tied the boat off and disembarked the small boat. After some awkward greetings with tribespeople who didn’t expect to see them back so soon, the magical girl pulled out her card and summoned the carriage on a flat spot out of the way. They pulled out the magic kettle and got some tea steeping. Alex, wanting to see the damage, checked her stats on her phone.

 

Name: Alex Parker

Class: Magical Girl

Sex: Female

Race: Human

Strength: 11

Constitution: 9

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 7

Cuteness: 14 (-2 from wet, disheveled clothes)

Skills:

Cleaning: 2

Cooking: 1

Dancing: 2

Tailoring: 4

Toymaking: 2

Feats: Empower Doll

Spells: Animate Doll

Lesser Grow Plants

Traits: Mental Resistance: 3

 

The magical girl grumbled, “My cuteness went down by two after being out in the rain for an hour.  This is frustrating. We went to the temple of purity and the snow storms were much worse.”

 

“Well, you were dressed for the part on that excursion.” The pink bird annoyingly added.

 

“Am I supposed to just put on a hat and become a seaman…er… seawoman… sea person? Whatever.”  Alex stomped a bare foot on the floor.

 

Alex frowned in frustration, mostly because Fufi was probably right. “Fine, maybe we might have overlooked making a new outfit for maritime travel.”

 

“Let's get to it. I’m sure Charlotte has some bolts of cloth we could use to make an outfit.  What kind of flourishes should it have?” Fufi sounded excited.

 

Alex pulled out the feather duster and dusted the wet clothing.  The water evaporated in a couple puffs of steam, leaving the clothing dry. “Huh, I’m sorta surprised that worked. Anyway, there are a couple types of clothing if my memory serves me.”

 

The magical girl pulled out a piece of paper and a quill.  “The first more modern kind is very practical.  It has a shirt, pants, a white hat and a kerchief that wraps around the neck and hangs down over the back. I think they have a thick wool coat called a peacoat as well though that might just be for cold weather.  The other stuff, it is just stuff from fiction though based in reality.  There is a bicorn hat and a tricorn hat.”  Alex drew a picture of Napoleon wearing his iconic bicorn hat.  It wasn’t great but got the picture across. “Then there is the tricorn hat.” Alex just drew the hat this time, showing it folded back in three places. “I don’t like the term, but I think sailors from olden days called the outfits they wore slops for some reason. They’d wear some poofy pants that went down to just below the knee where they tighten it with a belt or cloth or something. Then they’d wear a loose shirt with short sleeves.  Fancy people would wear a vest and a big coat.  There was this one pirate that lost his hand to an alligator and had a big coat with an elaborate gold trimmed coat.  Also, said pirate had a wide brimmed hat with something like a feather boa hanging off of it.”

 

“I think the one with all the feathers is best.” Fufi pointed with her wing feathers.

 

Of course a flamingo would like the outfit with the most feathers. Alex gave the bird a look. “How about we make out all of them and see which one gives the best bonus?  I’m a lot better at making patterns for clothes than trying to draw outfits for some reason.”

 

“That is just because you are using a tailoring skill and not a drawing one.” Fufi unhelpfully explained.

 

Alex rolled up the drawings, hopped on the driving bench of the carriage and after giving the key a good wind drove it back into town.  When they arrived at the entrance to town no guards were standing watch.  Some sunflowers were growing around the ruins of the walls.  Strangely they had big smiley faces on them. Can plants be gate guards?

 

Rolling along, they passed gawkers and arrived back at the warehouse.  The day was dreary.  Alex changed back into the crafting outfit from the dungeon.  Charlotte busily spun thread on one side of the building.  The shelves were even more full of bolts of cloth of various types than they were before.  If some of this stuff didn’t get used for something soon they were going to need a bigger warehouse.

 

Fufi experimented with using her windup clockwork power armor while Alex pulled out the concept drawings and started using them to create patterns to create clothing.  Some of the parts were a bit difficult.  The embroidery on the jacket that went along with the elaborate outfit promised to be a bit of a pain.

 

Cut cut cut.  Sew sew sew.

 

The first sailor outfit came together quite quickly.  It consisted of a white hat, a blue shirt and blue pants.  The only special thing was the kerchief that went along the back.  Alex tried it on and showed her phone to Fufi.

 

“Oh, looks like that one gives +1 to sailing.” The stat screen confirmed that it was on the right track.  The clock function showed that she had completed the outfit in just over an hour once she started cutting and sewing.  The only thing that took up a meaningful amount of time was the flourish on the kerchief.

 

The second outfit took a bit longer.  The poofy pants with just-below-knee belts were a little weird.  Alex thought they looked a little silly and wasn’t really excited about it.  The shirt wasn’t difficult, and the hat took a couple tries.  Alex hadn’t tried making hats much so she really needed to lead in on the skill.  Trying to make the tricorn hat out of any of the bolts of cloth didn’t work too well. It came out…droopy.  Alex had to get help from the nymphs to locate a tribal tanner.  She got several pelts of tanned leather in exchange for a second hat.  The tricorn hat came out okay.  It gave off more of a majestic vibe than cute.  The magical girl created a second hat for the tanner.  The tanner thanked Alex and donned the hat, looking pleased.

 

After the brief exchange, Alex tried on the new outfit and pulled up her phone to look at the results. “This one gives +2 to sailing.”

 

Fufi inspected her from several angles. “Hmm, I think this one is more pomp than cute.  It is better than the first one but I don’t think it suits you.”

 

Half the day had passed by.  They took a break to eat a light lunch with some of the people working in the warehouse or trying their hand on some of the tailoring stations set up there.  

 

The third outfit was silly.  Alex was just doodling something from an old animated movie.  No one other than a cosplayer would wear a wide brimmed hat with a cluster of feathers that went from the side of the hat halfway down their back.  It just wasn’t practical and served no purpose.  ‘Whatever, we’ll just try the best we can and see how it turns out’ Alex thought and got to work.  Alex started with the hat again. She used some purple suede for most of it.  The brim was stiff while the part that one would fit their head in was somewhat softer.  Stitching leather took thicker thread than cloth but with a tailoring skill, Alex was able to figure it out and make a fairly presentable but extremely flamboyant hat.

 

The rest of the outfit had some difficulties but wasn’t too bad.  The below knee pants were not all poofy like the other style.  Alex skipped making the hose because it reminded her that she had yet to meet someone with a cobbler skill.  Having socks might be nice but was also a bitter reminder of the continued lack of footwear selection.  The frock coat was made of red dyed wool with gold-colored trim.

 

Not wearing any hose or shoes, Alex tried on the outfit. “What do you think?” Alex asked the crowd that had formed after stepping out of a change room.

 

“I think there might be a problem.” Fufi carefully intoned.  “Without any socks and bottoms that end just below the knee it gives the impression that you are not wearing anything underneath.”

 

Alex blushed. “I’m not a flasher!” A bare-footed stomp followed.

 

“Maybe try some leggings with that then?  I think your doodle had them.” Fufi tried not to snicker.

 

Alex sighed then got changed.  Making some thin wool leggings wasn’t hard.  It only took a few minutes after finding a bolt of cloth and sketching a pattern.  Wearing the dance shoes because they were the closest thing to the single buckled shoes from the doodle Alex got changed yet again and tapped the status screen app on her phone.  “Looks like this outfit gives +2 sailing and +1 cuteness.”  Alex’s face screwed up at this.  This outfit had the best bonuses but was by far the most flamboyant.  But she agreed to give things a shot so that is what she’d do.

 

Alex’s wardrobe now looked like this:

[Pink robe]

[Crafters outfit +1 toy making]

[Priestess robes]

[Magical girl dress +2 cuteness]

[Fur dress +2 warmth]

[Heart-shaped diamond earrings]

[Wooden sandals]

[Dancers shoes +1 dancing]

[Feather duster +1 cleaning]

[Pink undergarments]

[Pirate outfit +2 sailing +1 cuteness]

 

Alex decided only to keep the best outfit out of the three.  The other two went to the settlement where some people who had a similar build and wanted to get a small edge on operating the new vessels could make use of them.

 

After having dinner with Ki and some of the other nymphs, Alex headed to bed.  She didn’t want to sail at night so trying to head south would have to wait until the next day.  Alex eyed the offending letter for a tea party and dozed off to sleep. 

 

When the sun came up they headed back to the docks via a ticking carriage.  While they said goodbyes to the burly yet fashionably dressed tribes people a small blue slime girl stowed away on the sailboat. 

 

“Well look who decided to join us. It looks like Kaide was able to deliver you a message. We haven’t seen you in over a week, Merumeru.  What trouble have you been up to?”

 

“Meru ru ru ru me.” Merumeru explained her fun time that she had with magical girl Cosmos. Also that they built some cool stuff at her cabin that she wanted to show her when she got a chance.

 

Alex didn’t understand. “Well that’s nice.  Shall we depart?  Let's head south and see if we can’t find the nereids that are keeping watch in the swamp.”