The Dao of Magic

60 - Commence

The boat is finally fucking done! It looks really nice, in my opinion. It is sleeker than those fat trading galleons from the middle ages, more a rowing galley with some hints of modern fibreglass sailboats. I had my students stuff some common goods in crates and loaded up the hold. It is filled with a nice variety of metals, weapons and trinkets. I pulled all the qi from the wood for those crates, no need to let qi fall into the wrong hands. Even passive qi can still cause trouble if one tries to mess with it hard enough.

Two masts stick up from the deck but I decided that sails will be too much of a bother. I created a simple and sturdy rowing mechanism that is able to extend and retract the oars at will. The oars are stuck on a ball swivel that has an invisible qi formation around it. I can steer the entire ship from the steering wheel, small unnoticeable buttons are used to control the various functions onboard.

I had to shrink the belowdecks by a bit, making the walls of the ship extra thick to allow for the storage of the foldable oars. A rudder is not necessary because I can control the rowing speeds on both sides independently, but I added it anyway. The captain's quarters are in the aft, a small room on top of the deck making a raised position from which to steer the ship. There is room in the belowdecks for planned experiments. I want to do some tests on the nature of mana in this world, I can't really do those in my Tree dimension, the qi will get in the way.

I strengthened the entire ship with some additional passive qi, the hull is able to withstand a cannonball from short range. We also had some fun throwing dirt around, it somehow turned into a high-speed dirt-throwing fight. This was to make the ship look aged and worn, not because I wanted to employ some guerilla tactics to beat up my students, of course. Lola was declared the winner somehow, her powerful feet producing shotgun blasts of soil that stung even my body.

I loudly protested and showed them the statistics that I had on the fight, but nobody paid my rock solid proof any mind. The smug bunny is now sitting on my shoulder again. I decided to make people focus on her, being known as the 'bunny pirate' has a certain ring to it.

"So, you all ready to move out?"

I get a variety of nods in return. We are all standing in front of the Tree, sitting on our mounts and all dressed up as mercenary traders again. I pat my big blue bear on the back. It is even now breathing in big gulps of qi loaded air. The density in the atmosphere has decreased a bit, the small amount present thinned through being absorbed by me, my students, the small animals and birds. Then the qi is further thinned by the large amount of newly acquired earth getting saturated.

I look back and see Angeta sitting on her capybara, whose face and feet now have constant flickering flames dancing around them. Bord's armor plated bull is still as imposing as ever, Ket looks fabulous on his shiny metal horse and Vox sways gently side to side on his fur covered snake's back. Tess is sitting on her black feathered cat, both shuffling about uncomfortably now that they are not skulking through the shadows. Selis is sitting proudly on her massive, black... alright, that's enough. I cast another glance her way and see that she is even slightly bobbing up and down with a smile on her face, goddammit.

"Don't let your mounts run wild, they absorbed some of the qi in the air and have become at least twice as strong now. It might sound stupid, but no need to attract too much attention, okay?"

They all give me odd glances again. I know that I have not been the picture of stealth and subterfuge since I arrived on this world, but I'm trying, okay? I see Vox cast a longing glance to the Tree who is busily using its qi tendrils to make the newly gained surface area bloom into life. A small fraction of the seeds and saplings I gave it are now growing in the garden, Tree can plant them in the wild when they start producing seeds or are big enough to take cuttings from. The big piece of jade I gave Vox contains a massive library of chemistry and alchemy learning materials, both the original books and my analysis of them. Also some basic chemistry, no need to give him the knowledge to produce hyper-toxins or nerve gas just yet.