Comiak
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Chapter 179: Flagship Upgrades
🕑 Added 2022-05-31 01:57:22 +0000 UTCAN: Starting next month, I will be only releasing 2 chapters a week (Monday and Friday) for various reasons, one of them being health-related. It’s nothing major, just insomnia, but it’s bad for productive work when half the day, I’m too tired to do anything. The other reason is that I want to start preparing for the rewrite of this story which I hope to start next year. I will still work on this as it’s good to get the story in order and try things and see what works.
When I first started writing this story, I didn’t know where or even how to take it, I just had the start and end in mind and that was it. I didn’t know what I wanted the story to be, but that is much clearer to me now. I have a better grasp of my strengths and weaknesses. Fight scenes have taken a back seat, and there’s more focus on science and slice of life and especially the exploration of how the world works.
There are endless possibilities for me to explore this world; even if I run out of ideas for mana and magic, there’s still space and souls, anima, and so much more.
In the rewrite, I will cut out some things, characters, and story arcs that haven't worked out well. Others I will expand upon and see if I can’t salvage them; some I will reorder, so they happen at a later time than they did.
I have a mental checklist for what needs to be done before I start the rewrite; one is proper character building. Having a backstory and set personality for them to make them more fleshed out is one of my goals since I always felt like I could have done the characters better. I also want to do more world-building that isn’t mana physics, but things like culture, folklore, and other things like that to make the setting feel rich and real. I want to finish what I started with the Runalymo language, early criticisms kinda scared me away from it, but I feel like I can get it right.
So what does this mean for Patreon now that there will be fewer chapters? It just means that it will be cheaper. Instead of 2$ for 5 ahead it will now be 1$ and for 10 ahead will be 4$ instead of 5$; however, the 10$ tier will remain the same because I will be adding more to it.
For 10$ patrons you can help me world-build by giving suggestions. I am only one person with limited experience in life. I am not a musician, an architect, a linguist, a cook, etc. Everyone sees the world in a different way and may have a unique idea that may take me years to come up with, if at all. So every week on Wednesday, I will give a topic for suggestions in addition to my own ideas like Runalymo customs, folklore stories, past events, and mythical monsters like the Loch Ness monster or Chupacabra.
Obviously, it’s up to me if suggestions are accepted, and even if they are, they may not make it into this story.
So what’s the plan when I am ready for the rewrite? I won’t have deadlines for it. The chapters will be done once they are done but will also be longer. The first book will end after the Cursed being event. Once the book is completed, I will post it to RR and SH, but patrons will be able to read it as it’s written.
Also, changing the tier’s price requires me to delete the current one so I will do that as close as I can to the turn of the next month.
A few days later, I have ruled out the possibility of the Inscriptions being related to my low anima, which is relieving but worrying at the same time. I’m glad that it isn’t the problem, but that also means that the problem may be something more important.
My next test is to try and rule out [Manipulate Mana] by having Uloru and Kadona watch my anima level while I work on upgrading the flagship. However, just as I start that, one of my other minds make a breakthrough in my inscription research!
With the goal of finding an inscription that transforms elemental mana into reserved mana, I had begun working off of the [Manipulate Mana] magic circle, going through thousands of iterations to see if I can get any transformation of mana, and I finally did!
It doesn’t transform mana into reserved mana, but it does change fire mana into air mana which is a start! Now that I have a foothold, I should be able to work off this design, but this will likely take weeks or even months to figure out, and then I have to refine the inscription design.
The mana transformation inscription is similar to the mana gathering inscription in the sense that it doesn’t need a core, which means it won’t destroy the mana. I should probably make a distinction between inscriptions that burns mana to fuel magic and ones that don’t.
It’s almost like false magic, but from what I know, magic doesn’t need mana or miasma, just that those help it. Think of magic like a smoldering log. The fire reaction is still happening, heat is being produced, but there is no fire. Mana and miasma make it ‘hot’ enough to produce flame. Coreless inscriptions use that smoldering type of magic, whereas core inscriptions use the hotter, more effective magic.
Coreless inscriptions are inarguably the safer forms of inscriptions, but cored inscriptions are more powerful; however, I only plan to use coreless inscriptions on the flagship because core inscriptions will just destroy the airship. I don’t think there is a possibility for them to be used on mana structures.
As I upgrade the Airship’s hull, I don’t make room for future Inscriptions; the reason is simple, I will be making another thinner layer of mana for decorations and incorporate the inscriptions in that.
Once I have finished the hull of the airship, compressing the solid mana into supersolid mana and enchanting it, Uloru and Kadona give me some good news.
“Unless the drain on your anima is so low that we can’t detect it, we can safely say that your extensive use of [Manipulate Mana] is not draining your anima,” Kadona says while Uloru does her best to not look at my tails lustfully.
I have to say it does make me self-conscious, but I can’t really blame Uloru since it’s a product of hormones. I am keeping my Hormones under control with a spell every morning, but Uloru can’t do the same.
I am relieved to hear the good news, [Manipulate Mana] is a staple of my skillset, almost an entire Class by itself, and while it is not my strongest skill, it is my most useful skill due to its versatility. However, this doesn’t quite explain how I can make magic items easier than others. While it does rule out normal usage of [Manipulate Mana], I am not entirely sure it’s not the cause, but I also don’t see why the curse will only drain anima when the item becomes magical.
The flagship is not a small ship. It’s not the Titanic either, probably closer to a Galleon in size, but considering the normal boat size for Runalymo, it might as well be the Titanic. In any case, it’s a ton of work, and all of it through [Manipulate Mana], so if the curse were to drain my anima, it should have done so in a noticeable amount.
This leads me to think that the most probable cause is my [Astral Projection] curse which I never found out what it did. I still don’t know what the curse is, but I suspect it has something to do with anima considering recent events.
I need to find out how my curse works and properly understand it to know what my limits are until I can finally cure it.
“Thank you for your help; this narrows down what I am looking for. I will probably have to make a magic item to really find out what is going on.”
“How do you intend on doing that? Arent magic items suppose to be hard to make? It’s more luck than anything,” Kadona asks.
“I just have to do my best with this airship and hope it becomes magical,” I answer with a shrug.
I never intended to make the airship a magic item; I’m not even sure if something so big can become magical, but even from the start, I just wanted to make it as best I could. Relying on something becoming magical has already sort of backfired on me, and being still recent, the bitter taste hasn’t left yet.
Now that I think about it, doesn’t the hope of one’s craft becoming magical mean that one’s own abilities fall short? It’s like admitting that I can’t achieve something greater or even what I set out to achieve in the first place. I should hope that it doesn’t become magical, not just because of my anima situation, but also because I want to make the best airship with my own abilities. It’s about having pride in my own work that I hope it doesn’t become magical.
A week later, I attend Esofy’s and Chyzu’s wedding. The previous day I made the most fabulous and stunning dresses I could for them.
“Thank you so much, Aly!” Chyzu says, crushing me in a hug. “This is perfect!”
I haven't seen Chyzu in a long time, and it was a little surprise to see another mana signature in her belly indicating that she is pregnant.
Esofy is likewise appreciative of my gift but much more controlled.
“You didn't have to do this, Aly, but thank you very much.”
The marriage ceremony isn’t long, and like the adulthood ceremony, it takes place during the Lojyo. The two cleanse each other with a special bathing oil under Myrou’s statue then they exchange their right adult earring to symbolize their joining and show everyone that they are now married. After that, everyone joins them in the bath, continuing the normal Lojyo customs.
A few days later, my house is finally complete, and with the help of a few dozen A.I.-managed clones, I have everything moved out in one trip.
“We’re going to miss you!” Mom says dramatically.
“My little Aly, all grown up and living on her own,” Dad says proudly.
“Don’t go, Aly!” Yafel and Yafe say, clinging onto me with their arms wrapped around me.
“Geez! I’m just moving a few streets over, not to another village! You can visit me whenever you want!”
“Wait, does that mean we get two houses?!” Yafe says, greed in her eyes.
I can’t help but smile amusedly at my family’s antics.
“Yes, you can come over whenever you want,” I say, patting the twins on their heads.
Having a large home and plenty of space to store my experiments is like a breath of fresh air. No longer will I have to trip over my stuff when getting out of bed, no longer will I have to go to the beach to do my studies, and I finally get my own shop.
“Saving up all your money really paid off; I’m so proud of you,” Dad says, seeing the double lot building.
Unless I wanted a four-story house, I needed two building lots which makes my house one of the biggest in the village, and depending on the future; I may buy the two lots behind my house for further expansion.
The twins run ahead to explore on their own while I give my parents a proper tour.
After moving into my new home, I quickly adapt to the new living situation. Being able to go to my parents' house for dinner or vice versa really helps with the adjustment. I have a clone working the shop full time, but since I now have thirteen minds, I have a few to spare.
With my living arrangements finished, I set my task back on completing the airship. With the hull upgraded, I can now focus on the interior and setting up mana wiring leading all through the airship and connected to where the airship reactor will be and where the mana collecting and transforming inscriptions will be placed.
The airship has three floors below deck, the residential floor on top, the industrial floor in the middle, and the storage floor on the lowest. Since this will be a mobile base, the industrial floor will have everything necessary for everyone’s crafts. There will be lifts that go all the way to the bottom floor for easy access to the storage.
I attach landing gear, then folds up when not used so the airship can land on the ground. I add powerful shock absorbers so the landing will be smooth. Above deck at the back of the airship is the command section where the battery room and reactor will be as well as all the other necessities for the flight of the airship is.
There’s one more thing that needs to be added. Defense. The airship needs to be ready to fight powerful heroic tier monsters with a thousand levels or outrun them. I make a separate battery room with its own mana wiring that leads to spell cannons that fire cannon rounds of pure solid spell mana. With such high mana density, the cannons should be able to pack a powerful punch even if it’s not enhanced by Classes.
Who knows, maybe in the future, there will be a Class that specializes in making mana bullets; maybe I can teach it to someone? It’s similar in concept to mana weaving, so maybe an evolution off of that… Right now, I am the only one who can make the cannon shells, and I’ll need to talk to Tusile about the prospects of an ammunitionist profession.
Being able to fight on its own is good, but what if there’s a legendary monster that we can’t fight? The airship will have to be able to run away at a fast speed, but how do I achieve that? Rockets? I don’t have the mechanical knowledge to do that, though… mana rockets then? I can use enchantments to draw in the air like a compressor, then use inscriptions to gather mana and transform the mana into fire mana which will heat up and expand the air to produce thrust. Doing it that way, I can make a mana thruster that will work similarly to how airplane engines work but without the mechanical stuff!
However, that hinges on me getting the inscriptions right. So far, I’ve found out how to transform mana to half of the elements with inscriptions but none into reserved mana. Without that, the cannons will have to drain the reactor, which may impact the normal operations of the airship. And the emergency thrusters won’t be possible without being a massive drain on the reactor.
With the inner workings of the airship done, its hull upgrade is done, the enchantments are in place, and all that’s left is the decorations, the inscriptions, and the reactor. The rector will be made with the monster parts that produce their own reserved mana, so I only have to wait for the dungeon monster slayers to get them.
The mana gathering inscriptions alone won't be enough to power the airship; it’s only to supplement the emergency power source, so the reactor has to be made. The only problem is that the airship needs a minimum of half a million mana production per hour, with an ideal amount being seven hundred thousand mana per hour.
With the reduced efficiency versions for mana structures, the mana gathering inscriptions might max out at a hundred thousand per hour altogether.
Comments
Dragonkinn
The rector>>the reactor
Dragonkinn
then folds up>>that folds up
Jemini
"The rector will be made with the monster parts that produce their own reserved mana, so I only have to wait for the dungeon monster slayers to get them." We've all heard about the stories where characters collect mana-producing monster materials for a big pay-day. We've also heard the stories where the protagonist collects the mana monster materials and then uses it to make their OWN magical gear. However, I think this very well might be the first time I've heard about the protagonist being the primary buyer of other people's collected monster parts. (We've seen buyers before, but not a case where the MC is almost the soul consumer (or even the biggest buyer.))
Jemini
"I want to finish what I started with the Runalymo language, early criticisms kinda scared me away from it, but I feel like I can get it right." Creating languages can be hard work, and it is often a lot easier if you can start off from some kind of base. I used Sumerian for the base of the elven language I created in my own story. For yours, I would recommend using Toki Pona, since your Runalymo language is already INCREDIBLY similar to it to the point where I actually was already wondering if you'd used it as a base. Toki Pona is essentially a language some linguist created as a concept language, making a language out of the lowest number of core-words possible. The base idea was to use the language to focus people's thinking onto only what's most central and important, while also allowing for the possibility of communicating more complex concepts by stringing words together into one larger word. Also, just like your Runalymo language, Toki Pona makes no distinction for genders. Just so many of the key details between the two were the same that I seriously did think this is what you did. If it's not, then maybe it can serve as a good base for you to flesh out the language more.
Michael Hughes
I had read the first 70 chapters of this story a long time ago. Over the last week or two I started this story over again and read the whole thing. I had to restrain myself from buying into patreon until the start of this month. I almost didn't join because you had 777 members but I just couldn't resist so sorry to break the number. I just finished reading all of the chapters and now I eagerly await the new chapter on Friday. The build development for the character is almost exactly what I would have wanted for myself. I was born with Cerebral Palsy and have lived a very small life. I would love the chance to get all of the sensing skills and just drift into a wide and magical world. Imagine being born into this world with a mind or creativity bond, getting all of the sensing skills to merge them into true sense building a class off of that with gaze or mana manipulation skills, then all of the mental skills to merge into unlimited mind to form a mind clone class, then you could see anywhere project yourself there learn form anyone and spread knowledge and creativity around. I really like thinking about a life like that. Given the way I have lived my life it is a little hard to read about the main character wasting their first life but hopefully it will motivate me to do something productive with my life at least until the next chapter comes out. Thanks for everything and see you next time.
Shadeymankey
Insane mana cost
Gray Gillespie
Rewriting, or a re-visioning, of this is story is good as it most often makes a story better then it once was. I’m just unsure of it positioning as I’ve felt I’ve only seen half of the Great Idea. The beginning and not the absolute ending. It should be good though. Too many settings is bad for a story and narrowing them down is a necessary step. Personally I dislike a slice-of-life genre because there is no tension. It mostly stays in the order realm and may never, or briefly, go into chaos. It’s an insinuation of what might happen but most likely won’t. A suggestion to my imagination worked upon by the given settings. This isn’t what I’ve seen as there has been tension. I wish there was more. It’s just it’s a different sign post entirely compared to the signpost involving the great spirits and their designs on the main actor’s soul. Anyway, I could be wrong but that’s my rudimentary take so far. I hope the revision goes well and that one day I might see the entirety of this Great Idea.
Pawzom Lz
Building vertically up(more than 1 extra floor) and down would also be possible(and then she can further increase space inside). If I remember right they use some kind of bamboo as building materials, which probably cant have too many floors up while keeping structural integrity, so maybe she can introduce cement, concrete and rebars(latter of which could have 2 versions, one made out of normal steel and another out of mana metal?). With how little land mass there is in the Nexus, introducing ways of better using what little land there is should be quite helpful, and currently Alysara is the only one that can increase the space inside something, but by introducing these building materials/methods everyone else can use them also. It would also be an interesting change as so far everything she has invented/introduced are more challenging/complex fields/skills that most wont be able to participate in. Cement/concrete/rebar would be quite different. Ofc it has the issue of being ugly which is a challenge that the Runalymo would have to figure a way around.
crue
Hmm what with small flying escape pods, with evasive maneuvers and a set destination for their home island?
Norbert Fuksz
In a sea infested by monsters that can down the flagship? Not always the best idea... it is only usable in certain situations...
Norbert Fuksz
Now don't get me wrong if you plan to publish it as a book somewherebe my guest rewrite away... i probably won't ever re-read it but i may buy it to show support. Just don't let that get in the way of the story i'm actually interested in. He may thing that every thread needs to lead somewhere but it really doesn't... if every cough of a character lead to a terminal illness its no longer a good story its a cliche fest...
Norbert Fuksz
The author needs to see it from the point of the reader too... do you really think i want to re-read a slighly improved story instead of seeing the continuation? Even in coding where you have the opportunit to rewrite as many times as you want many times "it works good eough" will just have to do...
Aegis OT Void
Have you tried to look at it from the view of the author? Sometimes a rewrite is needed to keep our own sanity or simply because we are unsatisfied with what we did.
ShotoGun
Unneeded rewrites are what kill stories.
_ YezFriend _
TFTC
Comiak
Oops. Haven't looked at my own pricing since I set them, had my own pricing mixed up with someone else's.
Ninetails
Unless I am reading the numbers wrong, the current prices for tiers are $2, $5, and $10, not $2, $10, and $15, so with the price changes there will be a price increase instead of decrease for the 2 higher tiers. The renaming of of "no chapter limit" to "10 chapters ahead" also mean that if you decide to be more than 10 chapters ahead or such at some point, the no chapter limit ends up tripling in price from $5 to $15.
DisasterPrism
It was jarring to go from reading your note to Alysara talking about her anima, since there was no separation or _______ lines.
Cryptic_Reality
One fun thought I just had is what she could do with the inscription that converts elemental mana into reserved mana once she discovers how to do it. When she figures it out she could make inscripted items that draw in, convert, and store mana as reserved mana for her clones to carry. That would help mitigate the draw on the main body's mana pool. They could even maybe siphon off the converted mana from the items and feed it back to the main body through her links to the clones in an emergency. Would be a good way for her to help with the drain on her reserves when the clones are far away, or when using magic. Especially with her planning to obtain Unlimited Minds in the future. Just a fun thought. :p
Straven
Thank you for the chapter. Found your story about a week ago and quickly got hooked on it!
Kemizle
instead of buying more lots to make her house bigger she could enchant it to be bigger on the inside...she's already working on that for the ship
SpaceGoddess76
Has she also considered escape pods? Perhaps ones that can be mini airships too so they can fly away from the problem rather than just flopping to the ground/water?
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