The dry dock was ready and the old barge rested on pillars of stone a few feet above my head. I was examining the bottom to check for any issues I would need to deal with before attaching the plates. There was a thick layer of barnacles that needed to be removed but they proved to be not as strong as I was as I scrapped them away with a wide blade, enhanced with magic.

The creatures were between levels two and eight. I had the mages take care of them, essentially free experience though it didn’t add up to a lot.

The dirty work took about two hours and I finally had a clean…ish underside. It was still rusty from lack of maintenance but it would have to do. Since this was being designed to be as rugged as possible, I would be welding the plates in place. As with the fortress, there were more plates than needed and half could fail and still keep the barge aloft. It wouldn’t be fast, there wasn’t enough surface area in the front or rear to mount a significant amount of the mover plates. And it weighed significantly more than anything else I had built, even eclipsing the fortress in tonnage.

The work went quickly with the help of the mages. Having them position the plates and hold them in place with earth magic allowed me to focus on welding. My skills as a welder were sub-par but I had practiced on scrap metal while I waited. It would be acceptable for the purpose. Maybe for the next project, I would hire an actual welder. I’m sure a few survived.

In two days, the first floating barge was complete. It had four short stout landing pads in the corners. Just tall enough to keep the bottom from scraping on a flat surface. There were enough parking lots and roads to set the thing down pretty much anywhere. It was large though, at over two hundred feet long and about seventy-five feet wide.

It was just a flat platform, designed to be pulled behind a tugboat. I got rid of that restriction by adding a raised steering platform to the rear, similar to most ships. That had been heavily reinforced by runes, giving it the same amount of protection as my fortress had. Anyone attempting to assault the ship would find breaking into the steering section a daunting proposition.

There was no defensive magic aside from a light shield that kept everything about from getting buffeted by the wind. The mana heart I embedded into the control console and out of sight. It would have to be ripped apart to get at it, destroying the mechanism in the process. The only thing visible was a silver filigree of mithril that allowed the operator or another attendant to charge the vessel. I figured a five-hundred capacity mana heart was more than sufficient for the first test.

“So who wants to go with on the maiden voyage?” I asked, looking at my three employees.

They looked at each other before Charles spoke up. “No offense boss, but I prefer to stay grounded.”

I grunted in amusement at the unintended joke. “Suit yourselves. You might as well, get to floating the next barge into the dry dock. If this thing works as well as I suspect, we are going to get busy soon.”

Once people realized they could make a shit ton of money by shipping goods with me, I would be busy.

The three left the barge while I began the power-up sequence. It quietly rose into the air and maneuvered around as well as I would suspect a massive barge to maneuver. I rotated it to point back toward the ocean, if it did fail at least it would still float. The only cargo aboard was a modified vehicle to get back to shore with.

I was tempted to see if it could hold the weight of the fortress, but I had made my landing struts on the fortress a few feet too wide. Maybe I could get one of the massive dock cranes working to stick some cargo containers aboard for testing. I would keep that in mind if this test went well.

I increased thrust until I was cruising at the maximum speed of twenty miles an hour.

I smiled. “Faster than your shitty tunnel!” I yelled, cruising around the harbor.

***

Gaben fumed as he rested on his porch, overlooking the ocean in the distance. His broken bones had been set by a neighbor of his that had been a doctor prior to the fall, and now had some strange class called Mender. “Why not just call it a fucking doctor,” he groused. That man had humiliated him in front of his friends and his private security had done nothing to stop him. He had fired the guard immediately upon returning.

There was a knock at his front door and he heard his maid go to answer it. Most of his staff had stuck around, promises of security able to get them to stay and pick classes befitting of their station. Some had left and some had tried to attack him, neither of those groups had survived. Not that he much cared. He still paid his loyal people with good old US dollars. He had convinced them that the money was still good, thanks to his class called Inducer.

It wasn’t exactly brainwashing, more like inserting suggestions and it only worked on weak-minded people, then again Gaben was only level six.

“Mister Gaben, Mister Rosewill is here to speak with you.”

Oh, he hadn’t seen Edward in months, not since some sick bastard killed his little girl. “Send him in, Consuelo.”

“It’s been a while Edward, what brings you by?”

“A person of mutual interest.”

“Oh, and who might that be?” he asked intrigued.

***

I finished the shakedown cruise after two hours, only losing one plate that broke away. The section I welded it to, had been too rotten to support it. Not a big deal, I had spares, but that one was lost to the ocean. The barge was capable of cruising at five hundred feet, same as the fortress but it used less power around two hundred feet. I marked that down in the user’s manual I was having to create. There was also a new addition to the design, a panel that displayed the condition of the plates. It was just red or green, it's how I knew I had lost a panel. It was simple enough to operate. I was going to add a similar panel to the fortress. There was a tiller to steer and an adjustable lever to change the height. Not much to it other than learning how the barge handled.

I moved it next to the dock and set it down in the water, another benefit of using a barge instead of something else. I tied off the ropes and jumped onto the dock. It was a half-mile away from my dry dock but near the crane and had easier access to help people and goods board. Even if I couldn’t get the crane working, wagons could still get on by crossing the ramp.

I didn’t have time to play with the crane today, I needed to find willing participants that wanted to make some money.

***

“Heard you had a row with one of the rich folk,” The Marshall said, catching me as I was walking past his office building.

“Just some ass sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Why did he come complaining to you?”

The Marshall nodded, “Not him specifically, but a lawyer friend of his. Kept spouting about an assault and the law and that I needed to arrest you and blah blah blah. I simply told him, that if the law still stood, that the barges were considered abandoned and no longer belonged to Mr. Hewitt. But I would appreciate it if you would stop going around and hurting folks. Eventually, someone is going to get ideas that I can’t keep the peace around here.”

“I can’t guarantee that, but I will try. But I won’t back down if some stuck-up prick comes trying to take what doesn’t belong to them.”

“Fair enough. Where you off to anyway?”

“Heading into town, the barge is up and running, now I need some enterprising merchants to sell the idea to.”

“Well, good luck with that. Martin should be at the courthouse if you wanna go say hi.”

“Thanks, I think I’ll do that.”

The Marshall tipped his hat as he turned around and walked back to his office.

As I walked, I thought back on the last few weeks. It was a change of pace from what I was used to but it was nice. At least for the moment. I would be back to fighting monsters and people bent on evil soon. With that in mind, I had condensed my skillset, getting rid of skills that were not useful and seeing what Void Lottery earned me.

I dropped Acidic Coating, Reflect, Nightwalker, Wall of Thorns, Brute Strength, Protection, Shroud, Life Link, Mana Link, and Word of Power. These were skills I didn’t use or frankly didn’t want to use as in the case of Word of Power. Losing a permanent point of Intelligence didn’t seem like a good trade for a spell that could only be used one time. Mana Link and Life Link just weren’t that good. Not for as high a level as they had come from. Sure Mana Link gave me the ability to recover mana by attacking but the percentage was so low as to make it useless in a fight. Life Link would help my allies but its duration was extremely short and you had to be close to the target for it to be of any use. I would be better off healing the person myself.

I also had a theory that higher leveled spells might produce a higher-level return. What I got in return was a bit surprising.

Frostwave: Produce a 10m long cone of freezing air that coats everything it touches in ice, reducing Agility by 3 in the area and causing anyone caught in the spell to take INT x .2 modifier frost damage. Cost 80 mana. Cooldown 30 min

The first spell I got was a decent attack spell. It wasn’t as damaging as Earth Fist but with the cone, it was far more effective against a group of enemies. It also reduced agility which many melee builds seemed to max out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more fighters in the future with agility above the cap similar to Ska.

Victorious Shout: Your voice is a beacon of hope to your allies! Reduce damage to allies by 20% for three minutes. Cost 100 mana 25 Stamina. Cooldown 1 hour

Damage reduction of any sort was a huge boon. It was certainly better than straight armor, considering all the skills that could bypass armor. The flavor text made me think that if the person casting the spell, fell during the fight it would have disastrous consequences for anyone under the spell. What those were, I couldn’t say.

Corrupting Touch: Your touch causes the affected surface to quickly decay and putrify dealing INT x 2 damage per second for ten seconds. Cost 10 health 85 mana. Cooldown 5 min

This spell was a damage over time ability that did massive damage, or it did with my high intelligence. It also gave me a counter against those nature-based creatures like that nature elemental and its stupid fast regeneration.

Summon Pygmy Goat: Summon a level one pygmy goat to keep you company. Summon cannot attack and only has one health. Each day the goat remains alive it gains a level and 100 health. Cost 1 mana. Cooldown resets when goat dies

I wasn’t sure what to think about this spell. What would the goat even be good for if it couldn’t attack? I guess it could be used as a meat shield if you managed to keep it alive for a few days. Then I imagined what a goat that was alive for a year would be like. Not that I expected anyone with this sort of spell to be able to keep a goat alive for that length of time. Perhaps the class it was derived from had synergistic abilities to use with it. It was on the chopping block for Void Lottery.

Cannibalize: Reduce an item to its component parts or extract precious ores. Item must be held to be applicable. Cost 35 mana. Cooldown 20 min

At first glance, I thought this was some disturbing ability to eat other humans. Thankfully, it turned out to be rather benign in nature. It made me think it had come from dwarves or even gnomes with its description. Perhaps it would be useful, time would tell.

It wasn’t a bad set of skills overall, but not the bounty I had hoped for. Oh well, At least I would use these skills.

***

I arrived at the city and spoke with some of the merchants that had set up shop around the outside of the Bazaar. A few seemed interested but most were skeptical of my claims at easy-to-reach and safe trade locations. I set the hook by offering the first trip free of charge. About half the merchants took me up on the offer and I notified them of the locations we would be visiting. This way they could arrange for what to sell better.

I wasn’t worried about having a full load of sellers. Once word got back to town, more people would seek out the opportunity. But those wouldn’t make nearly as much as the adventurous merchants.

With that bit of business out of the way, I went into the Bazaar to purchase some more components for my next barge. Unfortunately, I realized I was almost out of funding again. After we had returned to Texas, the four of us had gone through the loot from the dwarven stronghold and sold it off in the Bazaar. Fiona wanted me to take her cut but I refused, sticking it in one of the hidden rings within the fortress. I had a feeling she would eventually be able to remain in her human body at some point and she would need the money.

That haul had made the four of us extremely rich. Even more so than selling off the mana cannons. My cut had quickly been spent on expensive rune crafting components. Mithril and the mana hearts being the most expensive of the bits. After my purchase today, I was left with five hundred credits and enough material for a second barge.

I decided to sell a few more of my runic weapons as I needed just a bit more money to purchase two replacement staves. The bone of these staves was a dark grey instead of the white of my previous ones and I had two different staves built. One had the same style of ends with the short spike but the other had one end that resembled a stylized lion and a roaring dragon on the other. It was ridiculous and over the top but presented a powerful image to anyone that saw it.

I wanted to try and make a masterwork weapon and starting with a superbly crafted staff would make that much easier.

After my shopping spree, I went in search of Martin.