Chapter seven B.

As I tied the halyard lines to the steel cleats, the wind caught the sails, and The Ever Grove was off. The light billowing white cloth-making for an iconic sailing image if someone could see me from the shore.

There was a gentle breeze that blew from the stern, and the speed went from 5 knots to easily 10. I shaped some comfortable benches in the back near the tiller and sat and began to guide the boat down the river.

After testing the sails and stability of the boat, I was pleased with the easy and smooth ride. "Now I'm just going to have to make some defenses, so no tentacle things jump out of the water to snatch me." I said.

This left me with the problem of enchanting. I still had the knowledge of how to create enchantments; they were relatively simple. The problem came in powering them. Creating enchantments that ran off the ambient mana was possible though the mana density could fluctuate wildly. The problem with this was if the enchantment did not get the constant amount of power it needed, it would destabilize. Even if the enchantment was carved into an object. The activation mana would destabilize, and the effect would go dormant until activated again; this could happen as many as thirty to forty times a day, I theorized. What I needed was a mana crystal of some type, but unfortunately, I was unable to pull any from the earth. I thought they were there; I could feel pockets of concentrated mana, but I was unable to collect it with the spell I had. This left me with little choice, and I would just have to make do for now.

I did make one enchantment that I would be able to power directly with my mana. In order to make the enchantments, I had to know a few basic things about enchanting. Luckily while mainlining knowledge directly from the sea of chaos, enchanting was a process that came along with Arcane mana manipulation.

Enchantments were insubstantial magical constructs that were embedded in, cloaked over, or attached to things. They differed from spells in that the effects they were intended to have lasted much longer. Enchantments were not required to be carved or etched into an object but doing so provided more permanence to the intended enchantment. Much like railway tracks guided trains, carved enchantments provided a guide for mana.

The basic rules of creating these magical railway lines were numerous but could be summed up. The symbols, glyphs, sigils, and language of the carvings, etchings, or casting had to mean something to the enchanter. The system had to recognize the validity of the meaning and the enchantment's viability. Much like with the naming of my ship, once I knew the name, the system stepped in and made it so anyone who analyzed the ship would see the chosen name. Much the same thing happened with an enchantment. Those personalized meanings became more widespread over time, as with a master teaching an apprentice. The apprentice will learn the master's symbols, and their meanings will become his overtime. The system will then recognize those symbols. However, personal runes and other symbols may be used and recognized by the system, even effects that have other symbols attached to them. The other crucial detail is all the scripting, and every part of the enchantment must be connected to an inlet and outlet for the mana. Without these, the enchantment can never be started, and the effect cannot be projected. The last thing was every enchantment had a certain amount of mana needed to activate it and then to keep it running. While a lack of mana will shut an enchantment off, overloading an enchantment might make an overpowered effect in the short term, but the enchantment will burn out quickly.

I chose a few basic symbols and decided if I needed scripting, I would just use cursive. Who said learning it would be a waste of time, now it was the foundation of my magical enchanting? The mana inlet looked like multiple lines running into a larger line. The effect I wanted was simple; I sensed the water on each side of the boat until land was sensed, then kept the boat equal distance from the detected land. This had the effect of keeping the ship in the center of the river. The symbols I chose were the earth alchemy symbol for water and earth; then the scripting in cursive was added to create the effect using the center of the ship as the mid-point and defining the horizontal as the X-axis, as one does in math. The outlet of the enchantment looked like a half circle or sloppy crescent moon.

I carved the enchantment onto the tiller, and when I added a flow of my mana to it, I received a notification.

[ You have learned the skill: Enchanting: Novice, create basic enchantments, initial cost and sustaining cost greatly increased.]

[ You have created an Enchantment: Center of the waterway: 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.]

As the sailboat quickly moved down the river, I let the enchantment pull on my mana. The ship veered slightly, then, after a few moments, corrected itself. I was heading down the center of the massive river. I decided it was time to do a little interior decorating. I was also going to have to create some necessities to provide a little comfort.

The first thing I did was create a brass door that snugly fit into the opening that led down into the cabin of the boat. The cabin was just taller than my head at about 6 foot six, (2 meters). I began to work the interior with wood and metal, creating a table and benches along the port side. Towards the bow of the boat, I created a sectioned-off bathroom with a toilet and sink. Behind the benches along the port side, I created a small galley. Along the starboard side of the boat, I created a wooden bed frame where I laid out the hide from the steel bear. It was not the most comfortable mattress, but surprisingly the toughness of the steel fur provided a good amount of spring on the leather side of the hide.

In the brass door, I created a circular port window and covered the inside of it with thick crystal creating a window. I created four such port portholes along each side of the boat. This allowed for some much-needed sunlight into the cabin. It had less of a cave feel; it now had more of a cozy log cabin feel; I then went back to the stern of the boat and lounged in the bench next to the tiller.

As I relaxed in my now comfortable onesie, I watched the scenery pass by. Trees and inlets on the far shores became a calming blue.

I spent the rest of the day creating as much gold and silver as I could. As the metals formed, I would drop them one at a time into my bag. I figured that when I finally did get to civilization, I would be able to exchange the metals for standard currency. I was able to collect twenty-five pounds (11.3kg) of silver and ten pounds (4.5kg) of gold as I sailed. I tried to shape it like I think nuggets looked like, so hopefully, I could trade it.

I collect rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds as well. The gems, however, did not turn into a liquid and flow to me like the metals. It was more like they were wrenched in their entirety from their location. Each stone depending on its size, to a single sizable chunk of mana. I was surprised that I could find all four of the stones in the river bottom, but my collecting spell had a spherical area of a mile (1.6Km). That meant I could reach a depth of 2600 feet (795M), and the water was only a few hundred feet deep. I was essentially dredging the bottom of the river for gold, silver, and precious stones. I only found three rubies, two emeralds, four sapphires, and 130 diamonds; diamonds are one of the most common gems.

As night fell, I figured I had enough precious metals and stones. I then took down the sails allowing for the current of the river to carry me along. I was surprised I had not seen another ship yet.

During the day, I had also finished distributing all the points I had received from leveling. Well, the attribute points, at least, I still was going to have to wait and see about buying abilities, skills, and spells.