Chapter 81: Power in poor hands

Grasping the intricately designed dislocator and teleport to the best library I've found so far. Admiring the blurry shift in scenery for the split-second during transit; before sucking in a shallow breath to suppress slight nausea the device brings on.

I've since gotten used to the jarring feeling of faster than light travel, although nausea is still a prevalent symptom. Worsened by my religious use of the useful teleportation tool; shaking my head in self-deprecating for my foolishness.

Thankfully it no longer impedes my ability to complete tasks, being relatively mild and lasting mere moments. It makes sense, traveling such long distances; your body is unlikely to be designed for such forms of traveling.

Pushing aside my mental musings as I come to the large wooden doors. Enjoying the oak, birch walls, and stained-glass windows. Similar to a church in feel but this building worships books.

Walking through the well-maintained hallway, not a squeak to be heard; I step into the large room hosting the books. Finding a middle-aged woman manning the desk I give a polite nod before settling into my book searching rhythm. I spot out the corner of my eye she responds with a nod.

Looking over the extreme;y detailed signage hanging from the ceiling. Hosting in big and bold, the type of book: history, geography, science, artifice… that sounds pretty cool. Under said major type, smaller details are included: Geography, mountains, deserts, people; those kinds of details.

Finding the second lane of history I spot, “historical failings and errors of ancestry” – bingo.

Looking from one of the largest subsections within the library, carefully suppressing the urge to open half the books. It doesn’t help the names are comedic as they are true; “The Death, Resurrection, and death again of the worst Jester.” Reading the blurb of the silly-sounding book I note a surprisingly detailed historical retelling of a jester so bad he was executed, resurrected, and then killed again.

Searching for a long while I narrow down a few books likely to host the information I need. One which is most likely to have the information I need; “The last blimp.” A small book detailing the failings and eventual collapse of a business using blimps for air travel.

Settling down to read the book, enjoying the soft velvet sofas before opening the dusty document. Within was a dryly written report on the failings of the business and the end of the blimp’s empire. Finding it amazing how the person who wrote this made an interesting story… “hard to read!”

The business, “The flying cloud;” was quickly growing, finding great success with a lightning-fast blimp. Sadly, a combination of issues led to bankruptcy and the eventual death of the owner and his wife.

The first issue, air combat; the things didn’t have any means for defense and were about as durable as a balloon. Quick as a bolt of lightning but also just a lightning bolt away from being destroyed. He used investors' money to rush out the product extremely quickly; but once the durability was put under fire and a stress test revealed the fragility of the structure’s investors started backing out quickly.

He managed to keep a couple which saved his business then and there but it was only the first of many. Having clawed himself back up with sheer effort and willpower with a dash of love he managed to slowly grow his business, more and more people enjoying the shortened journeys. To avoid destruction the journeys were short and quick, meaning the risks were minimized; an intelligent choice.

Sadly, a dragon outbreak occurred resulting in a high loss rate for ships, hurting his wallet immensely. This I found immensely interesting, hosting a large amount of information about dragons, mating, and behavior; something to prepare for.

People started to lose trust in his business, slowing sales and shrinking his business rapidly; resulting in only a few vessels remaining, ran by a close nit group of staff.

Eventually, his business slowly started increasing but out of spite one of his former employees, for being fired for redundancy sabotaged and destroyed a couple vessels. The owner getting desperate started doing shows and attempting dangerous stunts to drum up attraction before one fateful day.

Flying by a mountain known for its history with draconic activity he found out the hard way an elder fire dragon was living within. A blue fireball incinerated the vessel, killing him instantly. The business without a leader, his wife took the reins attempting to hold the rapidly failing business only to be found hanging by her throat within her home.

Some evidence suggests foul play but it's few and far between, resulting in the consensus of suicide due to stress. It actually drew a lot of news because women rarely commit suicide in comparison to men who tend to get the short end of the stick at work.

And that was the rise and fall of one of the most recent and prominent attempts at producing an aerial travel business.

“Cough.” Looking around, who was that?

“Hello, over here?” I hear, turning to my side to spot a ghostly blond-haired man.

“Felix, what are you doing here!”

“Shoo, keep your voice down, it’s a library toy twat.” Covering his mouth with a finger.

“Okay, what you here for, and why the… ghostly body?” I say in a hushed tone.

“This? Thought you would appreciate not being startled by surprise telepathy. And why I’m here? I was just curious about why you're trying to open an air travel business?” He says while moving his arms to his voice vigorously.

“Just thought it might be worthwhile to use my gifts to help the world,” I say in honesty.

His reply? Falling on his ass in laughter, “You can't be serious! That… has got to be… the most stereotypical protagonist shit you have ever said.” Gasping between bouts of laughter.

Extremely frustrated and angry at his response. “What would you have me do you prick, you had me make a chicken with a pack mentality.”

Pulling himself together huffing the occasional bit of air, “First, I wouldn’t have you improve this world; do something interesting like start a war.” He facepalms, “Like god damn, I had hoped you would keep me entertained without being bombarded with quests but you're out here trying to improve the world.” He says while sarcastically bending his fingers forward. He finally settles into a more comfortable tone, “Look, I can't control what you do while alive; but once you got this business finished I am giving you one hell of a quest or 10. We will see, depends on how bored this whole thing makes me.”

Man… he really doesn’t give a crap about this world, it's his tv rather than a creation.

“Fine, be like that; if you weren’t threatening me I would ignore your damned quests.” Shaking my head in frustration.

Suddenly taking on one of his light and kind tones, “Don’t be like that... I cared for you, rescued you from the abyss. You're my pet after all.”

“Wow, so reassuring,” I say extremely sarcastically.

He just chuckles in response, before he speaks, I quickly interject. “I have been meaning to ask, how is this world alive? Like, it has enough world-ending items and reasons to end the world it shouldn’t be functional.”

His smile fading quickly, “The world is split into segments, anything world ending that passes those walls dividing them activates an automatic suppression system. Containing the super explosion, lethal pathogen of blood-crazed mutated ants.” He pauses for a moment in contemplation. “It… It’s not perfect and I've had to personally fix a few messes but generally, it gets suppressed like a sprinkler system. Whether that’s an angelic intervention of cutting off part of the world and sticking it in the void.”

“Thanks, I was very curious.”

“That doesn’t mean you can let loose and do something stupid, if I have to personally fix a worlding ending mess, I will end you. I have enough ticking time bombs to watch without adding your crap to the list.”

He says before promptly disappearing while huffing and puffing. All I can do is murmur “Emotionally unstable twat.” I didn’t get a psychic “Heard that,” so he's likely busy at the moment.

Leaving the library with mixed emotions; not understanding what level that god functions at. He makes jokes and almost always has a smile on his face but as far as I can tell he's got absolutely no care for the inhabitants of this world. I suppose this is the only… real case of the world revolving around someone. It was created for him and only him; I'm just that protagonist who makes his own plot armor.

Pushing away the shadows lurking under the gears of this world, I do hope it doesn’t just end because Felix wants something new.

Well, I've got a low-cost passenger ship to make, best get to it. Teleporting to and then leaving my town; finding a neat little spot to start the construction. Deciding to steal some ideas from the old world, let's make a plane. Building a log skeleton in the general shape of a large plane. 4 wings, 2 large in front and 2 smaller in back.

Filling out the wings with balloons before encasing them within planks and turning towards the main body of the ship. First, filling out the frame with more oak logs, broken up by stone to reduce fire spread risk. I create a floor leveling the circular body with balloons before topping them with wooden planks to hide them. All balloons were divided into segments with crawl spaces between to reduce the fire risk as best as possible.

At the front, I create large clear glass windows to make up the pilot's control area. Placing the helm and some chairs to sit on along with some storage. Also adding the addon that allows for height, speed and all that to be measured. Just behind the piloting area is a small area for food, storage, and a bathroom. Along with seats for onboard staff and small desks to actually do things on.

Along the main body of the craft, I prepare rows upon rows of seats with 2 paths to walk up and down. 4 emergency exits were included and a bathroom at the back of the vessel. The front few rows were made with more luxurious seats and had side desks. If I could be bothered, making a holographic map for the vessel would be wise; maybe another day.

They're actually rather easy to make, just taking iron, diamond, and a bit of time to map the area. Recalling the one I made, it was very cool; although annoying.

Stepping back… well flying back I look over the bare-bones vessel. It took a surprisingly long time but it doesn’t feel like it did look at the monstrosity. The monotonous brown of oak broken up by boringly placed windows and weirdly shaped wings. All things together, it's impressively similar to most planes I am accustomed to but it's… poor.

“I can't do it, I need to make it look better.” Pulling out my carpenter's gear and adding triangles to make the wings straighter, the body rounder, and shape the structure better. I break up the color with other varieties of wood. Taking a bunch of paint, I go over the whole craft; painting it in shades of blue with hints of lighter colors like white, yellow, and orange.

Finally, on the side, I use large amounts of pain to paint a sunset. Having spent far too long on this vessel; looking at the sun and wincing at the orange glow.

The final step was to go inside and tweak everything I could until it was a whole lot better, adding overhead storage, a cavity at the bottom back for heavy storage and luggage.

Finally done, sending some mail to the mayor to check it out. Having created a fence around it to stop people messing with it. Having built it in the air… I'm not too concerned but better safe than sorry.

So, do I have time to prepare the battleship?