Chương 468: B7—Chapter 48: The Great River Debate on Questionable Engineering

On our second day of sailing, Mahya was at the helm, tapping her fingers to the music coming from my gizmo. Al and Rue sat on the back deck, playing chess. Al held his usual dignified pose, while Rue tapped a paw near his pieces and growled softly every time Al took one. It was one of the few games he didn't win right away because of his Luck, and he didn't like it. I worked in the galley, slicing the black potatoes we'd picked on our travels and letting the thin slices drop into the oil with a soft hiss.

Warm, salty waves of scent drifted up as I kept at it. We planned to watch a movie later, and potato chips were the perfect accompaniment.

"John, come here for a minute!" Mahya called over her shoulder.

"Can it wait? I'm in the middle of something," I called back, trying not to burn the next batch.

"It's kind of urgent." The tone did it. I sighed, switched off the gas burner, and stepped back as the oil settled. After casting Clean on my hands, I headed toward her.

"What's the problem?" She kept her eyes on the river but shifted her weight, uneasy.

"I'm not sure. It's something with the core. I feel that something is wrong, but I can't understand what." I stared at her with raised eyebrows.

"Your core is sick? Seriously?" She made a face at me.

"Of course not. It can't get sick. But something is off. Your mana sense is better; maybe you can figure it out." I planted my palms on the rail beside her and let my mana sense expand outward, slipping across the deck, down the stairs, through the cabin, and out to wrap around the hull. At first, nothing stood out. It was a boat. Sure, it had a core acting as the fuel, but everything else was just… a boat. Wood, metal, rope, all were where they were supposed to be.

Still, I held the sense stretched, breathing slowly. A few long minutes passed before I caught it—something barely there. A gradient so mild it almost felt imaginary. In certain spots along the hull, my mana sense thinned by the tiniest increments, like someone had taken an eraser and brushed those areas once, very lightly, with a feather.

"There," I murmured, squinting at the water.

"Something's eating into the mana around the hull." Mahya leaned over the rail, trying to spot whatever I sensed.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure yet." I tightened my grip on the rail and focused. I connected to the water and "looked" through it. Several things clung to the boat's hull. I didn't actually see them; it was more of a sensing, but different from mana sense. More substantial. Using the water, I tried to lift one of them, but it held tight, so I increased the suction until it finally peeled off and drifted into my hand, enclosed in a water bubble.

What I got was a round, green thing that looked like a coffee bean, complete with the line down the middle. It didn't have eyes, a mouth, legs, or anything else. Just a green coffee bean the size of a doughnut. The minute it touched my hand, I felt my mana flowing into it. It was sucking it straight out of me. The sensation was familiar. Once, back in the swamp in Lumis, we were attacked by leeches that drained our mana. This thing did something similar, only slower and in a far less noticeable way.

In Lumis, we felt it immediately. Now, I wouldn't have noticed it at all, even with my enhanced senses, if I hadn't been entirely focused on the thing. I let it keep siphoning, watching the way my mana flowed as it worked. Yes, me and my cursed curiosity. But what could I say—it was interesting. Mahya nudged my shoulder, her eyes flicking between my face and the green thing on my palm.

"And…?"

"I'm researching." I kept my gaze on the creature, trying to understand the exact mechanism pulling the mana out of me. There was a soft pop, almost like a bubble bursting, and a spray of green gunk hit me square in the face and across my clothes. Mahya jerked back with wide eyes.

"What the fuck?" I wiped the goo off my face with a slow, resigned swipe.

"Not again." I shook my head.

"At least it's not a goat." Mahya stared at me like she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly.

"Did you just blow it up?"

"No! It blew itself up. I didn't do anything. I swear." I held both hands up, still dripping green sludge. She burst out laughing, doubling over. Al and Rue hurried over.

"Why are you laughing?" Al asked. She waved toward me, still laughing.

"John blew up a green something."

"I didn't. It sucked my mana out until it exploded." Mana: 14, 732/15, 200 Using the water again, I detached another green doughnut from the hull. The moment it touched my palm, it started pulling at my mana just like the first one. I kept my Personal Information open and watched the numbers drop. Mana: 14, 592/15, 200 Mana: 14, 331/15, 200 Mana: 14, 112/15, 200 And pop, followed by a fresh, wet splash of green goo across my face and chest.

I tried to cheat with Mana Shield this time, but the shield covered my hand and the green thing along with it. That meant the explosion happened inside the shield, and I got a concentrated dose of goo for my trouble. Al and Rue also lost it. Rue rolled onto his side with a wheezing sound, and Al tried to hide his laughter behind his hand. I gave them both a withering glare, cast Clean on myself, and searched for another doughnut.

"Why are you continuing?" Al asked once he composed himself.

"I'm trying to understand how they do it. My Mana Siphon ability is stuck at Novice since the day I got it. If I can figure out how they do it and copy the method, it might finally progress." Al nodded once, the amusement fading into genuine approval.

"Smart." Rue offered a snort of agreement. I peeled another creature off the hull and studied the exact way it pulled mana out of me. It popped, and a fresh spray of green gunk splattered across the deck and the helm, with a few drops landing on Mahya's sleeve. She stared at the stain, then at me.

"John."

"Yeah?" I tried for innocent.

"Why do you keep exploding things on my boat?" She shook her arm in disgust.

"This is vile. If you get one more drop of this stuff on my deck, I will make you clean every plank with a toothbrush. On your knees. For a week."

"It's not my fault they explode," I said, holding up my hands. She took a step toward me, eyes narrowed.

"Off. The. Boat."

"Come on, I can—""Off," she repeated, pointing firmly at the river.

"You want to play with green mana-leeches, you do it out there. And if you slime my helm again, you will be scrubbing it by hand." I raised my hands in surrender.

"All right, all right. Moving." After casting Clean on the helm and clearing the mess, I hopped over the side, hardened the water beneath me, sat cross-legged on it, and continued my examination at a safer distance from Mahya. Mahya dropped the anchor somewhere behind me and joined Al and Rue on the deck for their chess tournament. Rue whined that Al was cheating. Al insisted that it was impossible to cheat at chess. Standard background noise.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I focused on the creature in my hand. It clung gently at first, then pulled, drawing my mana out through tiny pulses. I narrowed my eyes and let my senses sink into it. The structure inside it wasn't complicated. Three small round pockets pressed against my skin, each one tugging at my mana with a faint magical suction. They weren't exactly leeches. They were more like mana vacuum cups stuck to the palm of my hand.

Nature's version of a bad idea.

"What kind of creature evolves like this?" I murmured, turning the thing slowly.

"You drain mana, and then explode? That's stupid." As if to make a point, the creature puffed up, tightened, and then popped again, coating my chest in a fresh layer of green sludge. I sighed, cast Clean, and continued. By the seventh one, I could at least control how fast each creature drained me. If I tightened my mana pathways, the pull slowed to a trickle. If I relaxed them, it sped up. And if I really focused, I could shut the flow off entirely, like turning off a faucet. What I couldn't do was reverse it.

No matter how I pushed, the mana refused to go back inside me. Sadly, I ran out of creatures after that seventh explosion. My mana sat at 9, 107/15, 200, so I regenerated to full and then went looking for more. I walked along the hardened water toward the riverbank, letting my senses drift. The reeds rustled softly, and something faint tugged at the edge of my mana sense, thinner and sharper than before. There you are. Half a dozen more doughnuts clung to the submerged roots, clustered together.

The moment I pulled the first one off, the suction hit me hard. Much harder than before. My mana dropped immediately, a sharp downward pull that made my channels throb. So that was it. The earlier ones had probably been feeding off the boat core for a while before I even noticed them. These were fresh and hungry. I held the creature in my palm, narrowed my focus to the suction pockets, and let it pull. I wanted to know exactly how. The pulses were faster now. Stronger.

Each one drained my mana like a baby sucking a bottle. I matched the rhythm. Then I slowed it. Then I pulled back, closing the flow. The creature shuddered.

"Oh. You don't like that," I said quietly. I kept adjusting the pressure, shifting the mana flow between us. Slowly, the pull reversed. Not fully, but enough to make a bit of its mana leak toward me instead of away. Progress. The creature puffed up again, but I cut the flow before it burst. This time I pulled. Mana trickled out of it in tiny threads, like drawing water through a narrow straw. It wasn't fast, but it worked. After a few minutes, its surface wrinkled.

The green started to fade, the suction pockets collapsed, and the creature shriveled into a fat raisin.

"Finally," I breathed. The next one went faster. The flow responded better. Another raisin. By the third, it clicked. My mana senses wrapped around the suction pockets and pulled hard. The creature dried up in under a minute. I checked my profile: Mana Siphon [Apprentice] I grinned and flicked the last raisin into the water.

"About damn time." Clean and in a good mood, I climbed back onto the boat and headed toward the gang huddled around the chessboard.

"What's the score?" I asked. Al lifted a dignified finger.

"Four victories for me." Mahya raised her hand.

"One for me." Rue sat hunched over the chessboard with his ears flat, growling at the pieces like they'd betrayed him.

"Zero," Mahya added helpfully, pointing at him.

"Al cheat," he complained, tapping a paw against a knight.

"I did not cheat," Al said.

"One cannot cheat at chess. It is a game of logic."

"Mahya cheat too," Rue added, pointing his nose accusingly at her. Mahya leaned back on her hands and snorted.

"Buddy, your Luck is the one cheating in every other game we play. You can handle losing at chess." Rue let out a dramatic groan and collapsed sideways.

"Children, calm down," I said, heading to the galley to check on the chips.

"I'll finish the batch, and then we'll watch a movie." That worked immediately. Mahya perked up, Al straightened, and Rue's tail thumped twice against the deck. Peace restored. In the early hours of the morning, Mahya and I sat on the back deck drinking coffee. Al and Rue were still asleep. The boat stayed at anchor, about three kilometers up the river from the spot with the green doughnuts. A clanking sound echoed from up the river, growing every second. We exchanged glances and relocated to the helm.

The noise kept rising, joined by whistling and explosions. By this point, I didn't need to guess. I knew what was coming and looked up. Nothing. No flying monstrosity anywhere. I flew up. A short distance beyond the next bend, an odd ship crawled its way forward. Calling it a ship felt generous. It reminded me of an old riverboat with the big wheel at the back, but the resemblance ended there. This thing looked like someone had tried to build a house, a factory, and a carnival ride all at once.

It had three or maybe four floors. Hard to tell from above. Metal pipes protruded in every direction, running up and down between the floors in zigzags and wavy patterns, even weaving in and out of windows. Several chimneys stuck out at odd angles, coughing out smoke and steam. Another explosion rang out. A puff of smoke shot from the back of the ship, and the whole thing lurched forward in a jump, just like the flying nightmare from earlier. It actually moved faster for a few minutes.

Steam blasted from the chimneys, accompanied by whistling that sounded like a boiling kettle. The entire construction reminded me of the houses in the first city we visited, where metal pieces stuck out everywhere with no logic. The ship followed the same philosophy, only louder and with more things that looked ready to fall off at any moment. On top of everything sat a tiny sail. Not a regular small sail. This one was so tiny I wasn't sure it could push a fishing boat on a calm lake. That didn't stop the gnomes.

Two of them tugged on ropes with absolute determination, bracing their feet and leaning back with all their strength, turning the sail this way and that as if the fate of the entire monstrosity depended on it. The sail flapped helplessly, more decorative than helpful, but they handled it like it was steering a battleship.

"You have to see this," I sent to Mahya below. She rose toward me on her sword. The moment she got a clear view, she let out a sharp bark of laughter and almost toppled off. The ship wheezed, popped, and released a long, tired whistle, which only made her laugh harder. We landed back on our deck and waited for the visitors. By this point, Al emerged from below, still looking half asleep, hair sticking in odd directions.

"What is the source of the commotion?" he asked, blinking at the noise upstream.

"You'll see," Mahya said, already fighting another laugh. Feeling bad for the rude wake-up call, I poured him coffee. He accepted it with a grateful nod and joined us at the railing. A moment later, Rue trotted up, yawning loudly, and sat beside us. All of us settled in to wait for the ship to arrive, listening to the constant bangs, whistles, and rattling echoing down the river. Half an hour passed before the ship finally crawled halfway around the bend. It appeared in a cloud of steam, chugging along.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Another explosion went off, and the entire structure jumped forward. Its nose slammed straight into the riverbank with a hollow thud. The gnomes erupted into chaos. They sprinted across the deck like headless chickens, waving their arms and shouting. More whistling followed. Steam blasted out of the chimneys, and the ship lurched backward and sideways in a confused wobble. Another explosion fired from the rear. The ship shot forward again and hit the bank even harder.

A loud crack echoed across the river. Mahya was doubled over by that point, clutching her stomach, tears in her eyes, laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Al still tried to maintain his dignity, but it cost him. His entire body shook, and he kept making tiny snorting sounds he pretended weren't happening. Every time one escaped, his shoulders jerked as if someone had poked him with a stick. More running. More shouting. More steam hisses like a furious teapot.

Finally, with a lot of noise and shouting, the gnomes wrangled their creation back into the center of the river. The thing bobbed there proudly, as if it hadn't nearly sunk itself twice in the span of a minute. My sides hurt from laughing, and I had trouble gulping in air. Mahya lay on her back, kicking her legs in the air. Al broke at some point and laughed the loudest. Only Rue kept it together. He kept shaking his head like a disappointed parent and sighing loudly.

It was unclear whether the disappointment was directed at us, the ship, or both. The ship chugged and lurched until it almost reached us. A loud foghorn blasted across the water. It was so loud my ears rang a full second after it stopped. A shrill voice shouted, sounding like it came through a metal tube.

"Everybody come look. Stretchlings and a monster on a useless boat!" Mahya jumped up, planted her hands on her hips, and shouted back, "How dare you? My boat is useless? Look at the abomination you're sailing. At least my boat doesn't try to beach itself around bends." The shouting on the ship rose at once, a chorus of offended gnomes scrambling to the railing. Three popped over the side.

"Our vessel is a marvel of engineering," one of them yelled, his voice cracking halfway through the word marvel.

"A masterpiece," another added, thumping the railing proudly. The railing bent a little. The third gnome jabbed a finger at our boat.

"That thing you're on is barely a raft with aspirations." Mahya let out a scandalized gasp.

"Barely a raft? This is a proper boat, you walnut-brained puffballs."

"We have four floors," the first gnome shouted back.

"Maybe five," the second said.

"Depends on how you count the mezzanine."

"And every single one of them is important," the third added.

"You shouldn't mock superior craftsmanship." Mahya pointed at the chimneys, which were still burping out exhausted puffs of steam.

"Your superior craftsmanship tried to crash into the bank twice."

"That was intentional," the first gnome insisted, immediately looking to the others for confirmation. The second gnome nodded quickly.

"A demonstration of maneuverability."

"Exactly," the third said.

"Only elite ships can perform sideways lunges at that speed." One of the gnomes beside the sail cupped his hands around his mouth.

"And our sail is a state-of-the-art invention." I glanced at the tiny square of cloth wobbling on top.

"State of the art for what, children's toys?" They all gasped loudly.

"That sail is perfectly calibrated for precise adjustments," the same gnome snapped.

"Yeah," said the second, pulling a rope to demonstrate. The sail barely twitched.

"Precision work." The third gnome from below glared at us with all the menace his meter height allowed.

"Your boat doesn't even have a chimney." Mahya leaned forward with a wicked smile.

"Yes, because my boat knows what it is. It doesn't pretend to be three different buildings stacked on a wheel and held together by glue and wishful thinking." The three gnomes shouted over each other in outrage.

"It's not held together by glue and wishful thinking."

"Mostly not."

"Only the top floor!" Rue sat beside me and let out a long, disappointed sigh. Apparently, the gnomes heard that. The first one pointed at him.

"Even your monster thinks our ship is better than yours." Mahya apparently had had enough. She pressed the button to raise the anchor, ignited the engine, muttered, "I wish it were a loud one," and pushed the speed handle forward. Our boat shot ahead, slipping past the strange ship, and glided around the bend at top speed. On the other side, Mahya killed the engine, boarded her sword, and flew off. Al and I followed.

She arced around their ship, swooping low enough to ruffle their hair, and shouted, "And that's how it's done, you stupid drivers of a rust bucket." Back at the ship, I asked, "Feeling better?" She gave me a radiant smile.

"Much better." She patted the control panel.

"Don't listen to those idiots. You're the best boat in existence." All of us laughed, and I went to make breakfast. I was starting to understand why Lis and Malith liked Genomey worlds. Every single gnome was nuts.