Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 421: Anywhere is the Sea

The danger in Ice Cave last time was caused by the rise of Isabelle’s remaining soul. Now that Isabelle returned to Spirit Realm, this area had nothing special apart from being cold.

After choosing the materials he needed, Angor found somewhere near the storage and began his alchemy work.

In order not to reveal his tablet to anyone, he still unleashed his nightmare domain and activated Infinite Reticence before fully getting to work.

He had two tasks now. One was to make an illusion item for Greya, and the second was a flying vehicle for himself.

He planned to craft the vehicle first. The preparations were already done inside Water Grasse, and he only needed to find enough materials. He still hadn’t made any plans for Greya’s request yet. It would take some time later.

The core of the vehicle, which was its power source, had complicated mechanisms that Angor had no time to think about. He simply chose an existing recipe from Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy.

It was called the Transition Core.

It was one of the most cost-effective power sources found in the book. All the required materials could be found around the icy storage.

Next, he had to design a “shell” to go with the power core. The shell wasn’t important in terms of functions, but it still needed to be carefully shaped to provide optimal riding experience. One needed to choose what properties he or she wanted with the vehicle using runes, synthesis, or machine alchemy techniques.

According to Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy, a Transition Core was fit for a good variety of branches, including flying vehicles that relied on Rune of Floating, land-traversing vehicles powered by gears, or something that sailed on waters.

There were also all-inclusive ones that could travel on all kinds of terrains, but these asked for magic arrays, which meant the vehicle itself might turn out to be a mid-tier item already.

For now, Angor dared not create another alchemy omen again. For one, he had no idea whether he could survive a second alchemy omen challenge. Besides, he absolutely did not wish to become the center of attention while inside someone else’s territory.

With these concerns, he was going to make something simple.

To be precise, he was going to make a flying one, which obviously was the fastest for traveling great distances.

With this determined, he had to decide the shape of the vehicle shell.

After reading the book for more, Angor noticed that most shell designs that allowed the use of Transition Core had light and slim diamond-like shapes to optimize air current.

However, he had to bring Dodoro along too. He couldn’t keep the man inside his bracelet all the time, so he had to exclude all the extremely tiny designs that only allowed single passengers.

As long as the power core worked its wonders, an optimized shell wouldn’t really increase the speed of the vehicle.

He planned to make something a bit bigger and comfortable.

“Magic carpet? It looks handy… but it needs an extra protective rune.

“A floating house? Nice, you can decorate the rooms of it freely. But isn’t this thing a bit too showy?

“An airship for solo driving… Nah. It looks like a balloon.

“Broomsticks. Ugh. Can’t imagine how it will look like if Dodoro sits behind me.

“Is that a piece of tail grass? What the heck?”

He read several dozen suitable designs and denied them all.

Finally, he rested his gaze on another small vehicle near the end of the book.

It was a boat, which appeared a lot like those tiny vessels sailing across the waterways in Water Grasse. However, this one had both ends tilted upward, which made its entire shape look like a new moon. It reminded him of the “gondolas” he saw in an Earth movie about Venice.

The center of the boat, on the other hand, had an awning that created a small room hidden behind a curtain with starry patterns on it while the rest of the central space was empty.

Angor felt satisfied with this one.

This boat should have no problem supporting two passengers. The design suggested that the boat could be split into half that allowed it to be carried around conveniently, which was nice since his space bracelet was getting filled up slowly.

The general look of the boat looked beautiful—stars carved on an adorable, crescent moon.

Since none of the other designs caught his interest, Angor determined this “moon boat” as the shell of his new vehicle.

Apart from the complicated Transition Core, which took him some time, the actual crafting process was smooth and fast. With the help of the hologram tablet, drawing a large-scale Rune of Floating on the boat shell went perfectly.

He successfully created the flying boat in two days, which also brought him a little bit of extra surprise.

He mostly used low-tier or non-tiered materials during his attempt. Still, when one was lucky, the magical materials might display their special properties.

For example, there was such a material that Angor had spent a lot during his studies—Earth Fiend Bronze. This non-tiered magical metal could improve the hardness and wear-resistance of products; it had a tiny chance of triggering a special effect.

The chance itself was almost negligible, so alchemists wouldn’t really take it into consideration when crafting items. If they did encounter such a thing, they might as well regard it as an “Easter egg”.

But still, getting the extra effect meant the product had become something with composite effects, which meant improved functionality and value. If it appeared when one was crafting a tactical weapon… it would probably multiply the item’s assessment beyond what anyone could imagine.

Things said, such luck only stayed mere luck. No one could ask for it.

Since he started to learn alchemy, Angor had already spent maybe hundreds of tons of materials without running into such luck. Now, while crafting this flying vehicle, he could record such a jackpot in his career.

The root of this pleasant surprise was something called “Wavy Calm”. It was not a must-have material. Angor thought about removing it from his boat many times.

A Wavy Clam was a tiny, white seashell-like object that usually floated on the surface of the water, unlike its close relatives, which often hid in sand and dirt.

These clams tended to blend in with the white waves and foams created by the atmosphere above the sea and travel with the water flow.

Wavy Clams could be fused into the base of water-traversing vehicles to make them sail faster.

Angor’s boat, however, was meant to fly. It could still float on water like a normal boat. Even so, using Wavy Clams would only increase its speed to a tiny extent.

He wasn’t planning to use the clams on his boat since they were meant for enhancing “real” vessels.

But he then found the clams to be pretty pleasant to look at, and their whiteness was pure like unpolluted snow. They went well with the gray wood he used to construct the bottom of the boat. After careful selection, he didn’t find any other decorations better than the clams.

In the end, he affixed Wavy Clams to his boat as an extra piece.

And the “extra piece” brought him the greatest surprise.

…

The crafting was successful. Angor named it “Gondola” just to be convenient.

The boat was 10.36 meters in length and 2.78 meters in width. The main body was mostly black mixed with a blue hue, and it gradually turned to pure white toward the bottom.

Both ends of the boat had the color of midnight, sided with luminous stones. Two winged goddess statues sat on the tips; one holding a bright sun while the other held a dim moon.

The tips only displayed a portion of Angor’s talented craftsmanship. All other details of the boat suggested careful designing and great innovation, especially the small room behind a half-transparent silk curtain decorated by more shining stars, which constantly presented something mysterious.

The bottom of the boat was no less eye-catching.

Angor didn’t test his vehicle inside Ice Cave because the space was too small. He only activated the Rune of Floating and left the boat in midair to allow him to see the bottom carefully.

There was no water here, but Angor believed he saw the faint images of water waves around the boat, which looked so real when he tried to push the boat around.

Looking at the boat without minding the environment easily gave him the false impression that he was right on the sea.

The water waves looked both like illusions and reality. Such was the “pleasant gift” brought by the Wavy Clams; anywhere the boat went, so was the sea.

Normally, the actual effect of Wavy Clams was to increase traveling speed while the vehicle was on a body of water. Now that Angor was lucky enough to bring out the hidden property of them, his flying boat would be able to fly faster without touching the water because the boat now recognized the sky as the sea.

Now that his Gondola gained extra speed, it was now as fast as most mid-tier flying vehicles.