Chương 64: Chapter 63 - Mines Mines Mines.

One drift fin with gaping holes, another torn down the middle, the sail torn in two, multiple holes in the stern. The Sea Empress had met its match and left with scars.

"Those disgusting slimeballs wrecked my ship" Nythera said.

"Yes, they pursued us for miles after, until Mistvale was in sight" Rowen sighed. A sailor shoveled green muck off the deck and into the abyss beneath them.

"Rowen, we are going kill that bastard, rip it off the wall, and go down the wakepath" she grit her teeth. The Sea Empress drifted into port slowly, powered by minimal jet force. Lines were tossed and soon a crew was onboard, patching what damage they could. Nythera was brought off the ship carefully, guided down the gangplank. The dockyard lay quiet, the sun had long since sunk beneath the horizon and most workers had already gone home.

Next time I come back to Grandport, it will be with that thing's corpse dragging behind my ship. What was it called? Obros-Ka.

"Milord, how was your voyage?" Lawrence asked, eyeing the ship "I take it you ran into complications…?" he said with exasperation, eyes showing a heaviness to them.

"Get Lance, now" Nythera grumbled, leaning against a crate.

"Nythera, you should go to the Temple to get healed, you do not have enough Constitution to do anything but sleep" Rowen asserted "If you pass out, I will take charge". Her wound had gotten better, but pain remained and it periodically discharged rock fragments.

"I sent a runner, Lance will meet you in the morning at Edwin's, go get some rest, milady" Lawrence bowed awkwardly.

"Cut the shit, I am sleeping in the forge by my workshop, that bed should still be there" Nythera hobbled forth, a sailor lifted her arm and put it around his shoulder, doubling her speed. Within the hour Nythera was lying down on the dusty cloth. Her forge, long since abandoned by her, waited for the ringing of the hammer to bring life back. This is tomorrow's problem, anything that flayed my ship is going to get a reckoning. I swear I'll…

Lulled by the lure of a million ways to butcher the beast, Nythera drifted off. …

"Alright Miss, what happened and why am I here at the crack of dawn?" Lance leaned against the door frame, eyes flicking over the dust-ridden work place. Leaning up, she rubbed her eyes, stretched back, and yawned.

"Because we are going to kill a monster and I am going to turn its flesh and bones into tools for the farmers" she said.

"And how are you going to do it? I heard directly from Rowen" Lance sighed "Look, taking down a mountainsized flux-spawn that can toss boulders the size of buildings a dozen miles across the sea with an army of flesh-eating green blobs is not something Grandport, or for that matter Myrraval, is equipped to handle". She stood up, the pain reduced to naught but a dull ache.

"I am going to fill that thing with a hundred anti-life shells from twenty miles away, it won't even know what it hit it, but I am going to need more ships."

"More ships? We only just rebuilt our fleet, by Kronan, we do not even have enough ships to get the fish markets back up again. And now you want to run off to kill some abyssal monster?" Lance spat at the floor.

"Why?"

"Because behind it is the path to another world. Remember how we found Vathrial a few days ago?" Nythera's eyes scanned her workspace.

"Yes, are you saying the path… goes to another place like Vathrial?" Lance stood up, getting off the door frame.

"Yes, I believe so. We also have reason to believe that civilization on the other side exists and is relatively safe" she added hastily.

"Hmmm""We can-" Lance held up his finger, shushing her.

"I can give you Borris for a day or two, we can fix your ship up, but the rest is on you. And just in case you're thinking about it, no you cannot have the other ship back" Lance chucked.

"Leo already came back with two dozen migrants, they are registered and well on their way to working, you will face a revolt if you try to take back that ship."

"Fine" Nythera pouted. I can work with that, just me and my ship. Which means I am going to need to throw some explosives together, a lot of them. I wonder… YES! THAT COULD BE THE SOLUTION. Hands clasped together, a smile came to her face.

"I'll have some metal brought in quick, we got more iron from Rustreach since Aldric took charge. Though that damn bastard charges a level for it" Lance muttered, waving as he went out the door. Nythera had parchment out on the workbench moments later, brushing off melted metal scrap.

"Alright, I am going to need several things to kill it, bigger shells, more range, a lot more range, the only reason I hit it from so far is because it's so damn big, but what about trying to get something to fall directly into its mouth? Sea-mines could work here? Could I kill the spawn with mines?" she muttered on and on to herself. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Knock Knock Rowen wrapped his knuckles on the wooden frame.

"What do you require? I will endeavour to source what I can for your quest, but I encourage you to reconsider the value in eliminating the beast" Rowen bowed slightly.

"Rowen, speaking all fancy is not going to get me to reconsider. That fucking monster wrecked my ship and nearly killed me. Worse, it is sitting on a path to lands yet unexplored" Nythera did not look away from her crudely drawn diagrams. He sighed.

"I really need to get you in for etiquette lessons. Ok here is the deal, I'll get you what you need, after we kill it, you come to Stormbridge for lessons" Rowen held out his hand. Lessons in history and etiquette, in exchange he's my errand boy for a week and helps me kill this beast? I really would rather not, but there is no one else I can trust with this mission. Besides Dominic and his crew… I should ask them.

"Fine, you have a deal" Nythera shook his hand, flinching in anticipation of her hand getting crushed. Rowen shook his head and frowned "We seriously need to get you in etiquette lessons before you embarrass us all".

"Alright now I need you to get me as much blasting powder as we have, several tons of metal, a few metalworkers, and whatever Edwin has that can kill something" Nythera rattled off, flipping over a diagram. He cocked an eyebrow "Fine". Even if we lay sea mines and get lucky enough to get them in the maw, maybe we bait some creature into its mouth? What about those spawn? I can't bring any other ships with us, all it'd take is one swing of those arms and they'd be naught but splintered wood.

So we build sea mines, more shells, I'll see if I can get some muscle to load shells for me, and some way to stop rock fragments from blowing holes in my boat again. Proximity?

"Ey Milord, we 'eard yah got some work for us, the metal is 'ere""Set it down in that corner" Nytherea commanded, reviewing her documentation one last time. As the last of the scrap was heaved into a corner, the labor came to circle around her work bench. She pivoted on one foot, looking straight at the leading man.

"I need you to melt that metal down, clean it up, and get it ready for Borris to work. When he gets here, he will be in charge of you. Are we clear?"

"Aye, understood milord" they got to work. Hours later. Barrel after barrel was cautiously stacked in one corner of her rapidly filling workshop.

"I got what I could from Edwin, but be warned, he said many of these alchemicals are too dangerous to use even at a testing site" Rowen said, glancing up and down at a piece of parchment as each barrel stacked.

"Good, I suppose I'll just try all of them, this is enough for two dozen shells at least" Nythera nodded "And where is Borris?"

"Last I saw, he was laden with a wheelbarrow, presumably full of tools, headed this way" Rowen said. Fine, I've got some time, it's time I get it over with then. The Aether Culverin needs more power and Kronan knows I have the flux to spare for it. Cannon Arm cannot hit that thing and I am at my primary skill capacity anyways, well until I ascend my class again. Nythera mentally dragged the Evolution Token from her status onto Aether Culverin. Breathing deeply, her mind let its grip loosen.

The token tumbled onto the skill. Skill Evolved! Please select one option: Time remaining: 24h Aether Organ Gun Summons an organ gun capable of hitting a large spread of targets. 40 Flux per reload with 120 Flux summoning cost. 2 flux is consumed every 5 seconds. Minimum Flow Quality: 180, Minimum Flux Control 210. For every level, increase speed and AOE and decrease reload rate by 1. 5%. Alright, a wide spread of … wait this was there last time! It is considerably more expensive.

I think taking this evolution would actually make my cannon worse. No thanks. Aether Lightning Gun Summons a lightning gun capable of hitting targets at close range. 200 summon costs with 2 flux consumed per second. Hits a target in range every second. Minimum Flow Quality: 120, Minimum Flux Control 250. For every level, increase AOE and speed by 1% and increase range by 2%. Is this an evolution? It feels more like what I would have expected from an augment token.

I don't think this skill even has physical projectiles anymore, just lightning, a whole lot of lightning flux. This would be amazing for rapidly clearing targets, I bet it would even do a lot on a single target… but that range penalty is the opposite of what I wanted. Maybe I'll add lightning later, that sounds fascinating. Aether Cannon Summons a cannon capable of hitting a target from great distances with significant force. 100 flux cost per shell with 200 summoning cost. 1 flux is consumed per second.

Minimum Flow Quality: 200, Minimum Flux Control 200. For every level, breach depth and explosive yield by 2%, decrease reload rate by 1%. And there it is, the Aether Cannon.

"Great distance" and "significant force" sing to my soul. Those stat requirements are massive, a typical mage class would hit them after accumulating 200 levels. Fortunately I do not have a typical mage class. With a mental nudge, Aether Cannon crystalized. A flick of her will manifested the creation before her, an intricate weaving of strands of condensed energy. Her skills already surpassed the requirements, allowing for a fluid manifestation.

An elongated barrel stretched across her workshop, the support base also having doubled in size. Looks like it can handle bigger shells. I wonder if the previously made ones will still work?

"Well ain't that something, I'm gonna need to make all new shells, aren't I?" Borris sighed, setting down the clanking wheelbarrow. Time to get to work.

"Borris, I need you to shape that metal into these, I am still working on the trigger for them, but do you think you could enchant them to explode on contact with anything living?" Nythera waved her diagram in front of his face. He grabbed it, straightening it out "Sea mines, ey? Well I suppose this could work, but you need to consider how blasting powder works underwater.

There are better compounds to use if you just want to kill a bunch of things" he look at her with a frown "This is a crude design, we are not making this, let me fix it" Alright time to get him to work.

"Borris, it's fine, I don't see what improvements you could possibly make to this" Nythera said, hand on her hip. He cocked an eyebrow questioningly.

"Let me show you."