While I may not have actual bombs, dropping boulders from high enough will work just fine. It would be especially effective against fixed positions, like defensive walls and castles. However, that will have to wait, phase two won't be for a while at least.

It takes me quite a while to get the pontoons shaped the way I want them. Luckily, I planned out the supports ahead of time and what I came up with works. My main worry is if the supports will hold up if we go through another huge storm.

Unfortunately, there is no way I can test that other than putting the ship through a storm. Once I have the pontoons the way I want them, I disconnect from the ship. Then I fly back over to the camp because the sun is coming up and I promised to return.

Besides, I want some breakfast and I have some more questions for Lin. Mainly about something I saw in my pouch that I had completely forgotten about. Thanks to it I am having all sorts of new ideas for the ship and I want to find out if they will work.

Surprisingly, when I enter the tent everyone is there, including Brightfire. Even though the sun is just barely up, everyone is awake and looking excited. As soon as I enter Lin starts taking out a massive amount of dishes and everyone digs in.

"Lin, how much do you know about golems?"

Lin says "I know some. I haven't studied it or anything."

"Do you know enough to be able to make one?"

Lin says "No. I don't know the spells to make the golem's core."

"What if you already had a core?"

Lin says "In that case, maybe. It would depend on how complicated of a golem you want and the core you have."

"The idea I had was to build a figurehead for the ship that is a golem. That way it can be activated in battle."

Lin says "That sounds fairly complicated. I know the spells, but I don't have the skill to make the actual golem."

"That's fine. Can you teach me the spells and how they connect to the core? If so, I will see about making it myself."

Lin says "Yes, that I can do."

"Alright. We will work on that once the ship is back underway. I will just leave a space for the figurehead."

Lin says "Keep in mind, you will have to make joints that can move. So don't try to make it too complicated. I know how much you like dragons, but that would be extremely hard to make."

"No, I was thinking of making something humanoid. I wouldn't try to make a dragon for my first attempt."

Lin says "Okay, good. Can I have the core? I want to study it."

"Sure, no problem."

Lin says "This core is amazing! Where did you get something this advanced?"

"There was something like a mage guild in one of the cities I attacked. This was the guardian of their library."

Lin says "Library? Did you take any of the books?!"

"Yes, I took all of them."

Lin says "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Honestly, I had forgotten about them."

Lin says "Well give them to me! There should be books about golems among them."

With a laugh I reach into my pouch and start pulling out books and piling them on the floor. Lin's eyes sparkle when she sees the massive amount of books I take out. She stops eating and ignores the rest of us as she starts looking through the book titles.

It would seem that Lin is going to give Yui a run for her money when it comes to their thirst for knowledge. I am fairly confident that the two of them are going to become great friends. Lin will also probably get along really well with Core, or at least I hope so.

Lin should be a really good influence on the two of them, not to mention a good role model for Rat. Although, Lin probably has a better chance of becoming the archmage than Rat does. At least currently, who knows what Rat will be like when she grows up.

Although, having Lin become the archmage and then setting up Rat to succeed her would work. I will have to keep that in mind for later, for now I need to get back to work. I finish my food, give the kids some affection, kiss Lin and Brightfire, and then fly back to the ship.

The next order of business is attaching some metal plates to the bow of the ship and the pontoons. I am hoping that this will allow the ship to survive if it crashes into some ice. If it works well we might even be able to break through ice if we have to.

While I am at it I shape the metal plates so that they meet and form a blade. This should allow the ship to cut through the water better and face less resistance. If it works out the way I am imagining it, then it should help improve the ship's speed.

Again, I won't really know until the ship is done and underway to see the effects. It does add some extra weight to the ship, but so did adding the new woods. Originally the ship was floating about three feet above the waves, but that has been cut in half.

I should still collect some more floating metal if I can find any, but if I can't I can make it work. The main thing is to counter most of the ship's weight, making it easier to lift. I will worry more about that when it is time for me to plan out phase two.

Once the metal is in place and how I want it I head back into the ship's lower deck. After moving some things around to make some room I wall off the area. This is going to be the engine room, for lack of a better term, and needs to be secure.

With the room done the next thing I do is make a wooden pipe that goes up to the bridge. I end up having to remove it and redo it from the top because I want it to connect to the pillar. That way I can run a cable straight from the core to the engine to control it.

For the cable, I modify the structures of some of the gems to make them flexible. I am not entirely sure how it works, but my intent makes it happen which is all that matters. The engine itself is just the mana producing rock, which will power the propellers.

The propellers are easy enough to make, but I do run into a problem with them. I need to create something to keep the water out but will still allow the propellers to spin. After some experimenting I come up with using a pipe that is slightly larger than the propeller shaft.

The spell that Lin told me about to only allow water to flow one way goes on the end of the pipe. Then, after some more experimenting, I come up with an enchantment to remove friction. This way the shaft won't rub against the pipe, once I figure out how to make it spin.