Book 4, Chapter 34

The Beast Bone

Alert: Minor offensive content against j.a.pan.

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           "But what??"

　　    "Wecan"t transport the corpse because it"s too big!" 　　
　　   

           "Soit"s not here?" Zirai asked.

　　    The old designer slowly turned around. "It"ssitting over the mountain yonder. You need to move it here on your own. Thecave is guarded by some monster recently and I never tried toenter the place ever since. If you can chase the monsters away and move thecorpse here, I"ll help you build a large warship. You won"t even need to payfor the keel."

　　    "Righton it!" I led everyone and rushed towards the mountain"s direction. 

            Butthe old man stopped us from behind.

　　    "Not yet!I"m not finished. The beast"s evil power still remain on the corpse so it istoo dangerous to approach. Use this to purify it before touching anything!" 

           He took out a crystal bottle from behind his back. "Take this holywater to banish the devil. Just spray some of it on the corpse." 

　　
　　    Hecalled it a mountain but the place is actually a big dirt clump, not anylarger than a small park. It took less than 30 minutes for us to climb over theterrain. 

            There"s the cave. We don"t see anything at the entrance besidessome twisted gra.s.s and weed.

　　    "Whereare the monsters?" Coin watched around the area.

　　    "Maybethey"re inside." I told everyone to stay on guard. I also drew my weaponto prepare for any encounters.

　　    Wereached the entrance. There"s a lone pa.s.sage leading towards deeper inside. After a dozen meters weentered a large stone hall. A series of blue magic lamps hang on the wallaround us, making the hall bright as day. The bone carca.s.s of an unknownmonster is located in the far end.

　　    Fromthe remains I can tell the thing was at least 300 meters in length when alive. EvenLucky would feel like a kid compared to it. The corpse lies in a coiledposition inside the cave. The breast part should be somewhere around 200 meterslong, which means our ship will come out around a similar size when finished. Weshould be able to put several crystal cannons on a ship like that.

　　    "WHODARES TO DISTURB MY SLUMBER?!" 

            A loud, aged voice boomed around us, makingus jump.

　　    Zirailooked around without finding anything, so she just spoke towards the ceiling."Who are you?" 　　
　　   

            "Iam the divine beast, Bi-Lin." (*) 　　
　　    

            "Andwhere are you?" 　　
　　    

            "Right in front of you!" 　　
　　    

            "Infront??"

　　    "Youclaim that you do not see this magnificent body of mine? Your joke isappreciated, young one."

　　    "Youmean, you"re this, skeleton?" I figured it out first.

　　    "An apparent answer." 　　
　　    

            "Butaren"t you dead?" 　　
　　    

            "Adivine beast never dies!" 　　
　　    

            "But,but you"re only bones left!" Yuri exclaimed. It silenced the "divine beast"for a brief moment.

　　    "My...bodywas badly damaged so I gave it up." 　　
　　    

            "Sowhy are you still here?" 　　
　　    

            "The hatred!!" The voice suddenly became excited. "I demand revenge!! Itshouldn"t have come to this!" 

            It"s becoming more violent. Even the cave began to shake, a numberof falling rocks forced us to dodge for cover. 

            So the "monster" theold man mentioned must be this soul or spirit or whatever it is.

　　    "Heyeasy. Calm down, please!" 

            I need to do something or we"d get buried alive! "Just, you know, tell us who did this to you, maybe we can help?" 

            I immediately regretted that. Whoever killed this thing must be way powerfulbeyond our imagination, which means there"s no way we can help!

　　    "Itwas a snake with nine heads. It claimed to be a G.o.d spirit from the land ofpirates east of here." 　　
　　    

           "Landof pirates? You mean j.a.pan?" Zirai yelled. "Youfell against the snake monster from j.a.pan? Is it strong?"

　　    "Humph!A petty creature. Do you know about the four symbolic beasts on this land?"

　　    "OhI know. Vermilion Bird, Black Turtle, White Tiger and Azure Dragon?"

　　    "TheAzure Dragon of the Eastern Rain, and the Vermilion Bird of the Southern Flameare my disciples. The nine-headed snake couldn"t even beat these two kids back then.However, that cursed abomination and those eastern pirates lured me into a deadly trap. Imanaged to get away alive, but those wounds they inflicted on me could never behealed, so my only choice was to stay here and wait for perish. Ahhhh... the hatred!!" 

           "Aha!So that"s how things went." Zirai snickered. "I thought those j.a.psdon"t know how to count." (**)

　　    Ipushed the topic:"Your excellency, we are actually planning to fight withj.a.pan and stop their intrusion upon our land, now we need a keel bone toconstruct a ship. That"s why we came here for the body you left behind." 　　
　　    

            "Ifthat"s what you"re going to do, just take it. These bones are of no use to me anymore." 

            So generous!

　　    "Butwhat about your soul?" 　　
　　    

            "Justmake sure you don"t break up the bones and keep it whole when making that shipor yours so I can remain. I may even help you protect the ship." 　　
　　    

            "Muchappreciated! We will be moving it now."

　　    Isummoned Lucky, Rosa, Loong"er and Phiona to help with the bones. Tank wouldhelp too but he"s still on cooldown for using that cannon skill. Zirai alsosummoned her t.i.tans and Skyfire to help. With some extra effort from Pa.s.serby"sRoachy, we barely managed to move the giant skeleton remains.

　　    It"salready afternoon when we finally got the bone to the boatyard. The old manwalked around and inspected it in delight.

　　    "Goodstuff! So the legendary beast is real."

　　    "Well,get to it will you?" 

　　    "Ofcourse, of course. Shall we settle on the extra requirements and payments?" 

            Yup, this is very expected. 

            He took out some paper roll. "Tell me how you would like the ship, and I"llgive you a final price for it."

　　    Igave him a troubled look. "Truth is, this is the first time we"re tryingto make a ship so we really don"t know what to look for. Can you give us some pointers?" 　　
　　   

           "Ohthat"s no problem." He gave me a small handbook. "It"s a purchaseguide, just read the instructions."

　　    Theyeven prepared something like this! 

            I read it aloud so everyone can hear it. 

           "First, determine your desired ship keel according to the size andfunctions of the ship you"re expecting."  

           "We can skip that one."Hawk said.

　　    Iturned the pages. "Once the keel is set, choose the materials. There areusually the following available choices:" 

           I pa.s.sed all the cheap onesand began to read through the more st.u.r.dy ones. 

           "These are pretty goodmaterials so let"s pick among them. 

           Teak Wood, average protection, light weight,so you can put a lot of stuff on the ship. Problem, easy to burn. 

           Iron Lumber, highresistance against both impact and fire, very heavy. 

           Sun Wood, averageprotection and weight, resistant to spells, won"t catch fire. 

           The last one isCrystal Wood. Very strong, average weight and good spell and fire resistance. Butseveral times more expensive than the other choices. 

           Okay, which one?"

　　    "Itwould be best if we can choose the crystal one but...?" Zirai seems unsureabout the cost.

　　    "Howmuch money do we have?" Rose asked the simple question. 　　
　　    

           "Ihave a million crystal pieces on me." I checked my inventory.

　　    Hawkopened his too. "I have 550 thousand here, collected by everyone."

　　    "1.55million that is." Rose turned to the old man. "How much if we useCrystal Wood on this keel?"

　　    Heglanced over the structure. "So I won"t be asking money for the keel... Fromthe size of the breast part I"d say 500 thousand crystal pieces."

　　    "ButBi-Lin asked us not to break it apart." I quickly added. 　　
　　    

           "Asa whole?" He considered for a moment. "It"s possible but the finalproduct would reach beyond 300 meters. And you"ll need to pay 600 thousand formere materials."

　　    Rosecontinued: "How much for labor work?" 　　
　　    

           "Thatdepends on how you plan the cabins. It costs more if you build somethingcomplex. But 500 thousand crystals should be enough for even the most difficultlayout."

　　    Rosedid some mind-calculation. "I guess we have enough fund to use fullcrystal wood. We should make it best as possible since Bi-Lin gifted hisvaluable bones to us. We won"t find a second chance like this." 　　
　　    

           Zirai jumped: "Rose is right! Here, I have 50 thousand, take it."

　　    Ispoke to the old man. "Okay, Crystal Wood please. Next is...let me see. Thecabins. First, do we need lounges and storage rooms? We need them if we"re togo for any long-distance sails or crews will die. Opinions?"

　　    Ziraijumped again. "Of course! We"re going to travel all the way to j.a.pan right?"　　
　　    

            "Sure.One storage room and one lounge cabin please." 　　
　　    

            "Howmany crew do you need? You should decide on those rooms after telling me thenumber of sailors that are going to live on the ship. One lounge cabin is onlyenough for 20 people, and one storage can hold supplies enough for a hundredpeople to survive 10 days."

　　    "Hm.Let"s think about that later. Go for the next items." Hawk suggested.

　　    "Next,paddle chambers. They must be symmetrically placed on both sides. Each paddlechamber holds a long oar which needs four sailors to operate. How many levelsof chambers we can build depends on the draft length between water level andship"s rail, and how many chambers we can put in each level depends on ship length."

　　    "Whatis the draft length for our ship?" Rose asked him. 　　
　　    

           "Morethan 8 meters, or 9 meters at most. That means five levels of cabins. Be sure toleave enough s.p.a.ce for the cannon rooms though." 

           "Forsomething with this size...125 rooms should be no problem." 　　
　　    

           Roseconsidered for several seconds. "Three levels of paddle chambers, 125 oneach side of the level. That"s 750 chambers in all, 3000 sailors."

　　    Iread further. "Cannon emplacement. They share the same positions as paddlechambers, while you can also place cannons on the deck, or build a front cannonroom on top of the bow of the ship." I looked at the old designer. "Canyou make the front cannon base rotatable? We"re going to put the crystal cannon there."

　　    "Ofcourse." 　　
　　    

            "Then...fillall the rest of the s.p.a.ce with cannon rooms." 　　
　　    

            "Theyall use small sized firelock cannons, mind that they"re way weaker thanthat crystal cannon you have. You still have two levels of windowed chambers, plusa row of cannons on the deck. 100 rooms each side of the level, one cannon ineach room, each cannon will need 3 sailors. That should be 600 cannons and 1800sailors."

　　    "Nextis...mast. We need one or three or five vessel masts." 　　
　　   

           Coinspoke:"Well of course we put five of them for a ship so large." 　　
　　   

           "Fiveit is. Next is sailcloth. Three choices, Lug-Sail, high downwind speed butcannot leverage any side wind. Lateen (triangular sail), average downwind speedbut can have a boost when there"s side wind. Or combination of them, so we canuse any types of wind but of course it will be expensive."

　　    "Obviouschoice." Zirai said that without hesitation.

　　    Ican see the others nod too. "Composite then. So, rudders. We need todecide their number and positions. That"s beyond me, any advice sir?"

　　    "Theyusually go behind the tails of ships but since your ship is bigger than average,I"d suggest you use separated rudders. Two in the front and three at theb.u.t.tock, so you can control the whole thing better."

　　    "Let"sdo it." I kept reading. "Do we place a ramming horn or figurehead in front?"

　　    "Idon"t think we"re going to ram people using this giant with all the cannons. Let"s use a figure." Hawk said.

　　    "Wechoose figurehead. Outer plating? We have iron plating, mithril plating orcrystal wood pads."

　　    "Mithril. It doesn"t catch rust and can withstand spells."  Elfy said after reading over the descriptions.

　　    "Thatshould be all. Can you help us settle up the lounge rooms and storage? And giveus the final price."

　　    The designer read through the long paper roll. "You have 3000 paddlers, 1800 cannoneers, 300 sailsettlers, 200 support crew. That"s 5300 sailors, so you need 265 lounge roomsand 159 storage rooms to last for a month. Let"s see...you still have a lot ofspare s.p.a.ce on the ship."

　　    Ithought this over. "Make it 400 lounge rooms, and build 40 additionaldouble rooms. Fill the remaining areas with storage." 　　
　　    

            "Alriiight...Giveme a moment to finish this up. Oh and, you also need a captain room and a charthouse."

　　    "Justgive us the best plan." 

　　    "Righton it." 　　
　　    

           Heeven needs some more people to help measure the ship. It doesn"t look like he"sgoing to finish anytime soon. We have nothing better to do so we all moved tothe harbor to enjoy the view.

           That"s when we saw King Conqueror"s ship comingback.

　　    Wesaw the Ocean Might drifting towards the port in a strange angle while givingout thick smoke. I said drift because none of the broken paddles or tatteredsailcloth seem to be working anymore. 

           We ran to the docking area and askedabout the situation.

　　    Whenthe ship went close enough, we can see countless holes on the ship"s hull.A number of sailors are running wild, I also saw King giving out orders toput out all the fires. Their mail mast is almost burnt out!

　　    Wewatched in shock as the ma.s.sive battleship b.u.mped into the buffer ropes aroundthe dock and finally came to a halt. More workers on the dock joined the firefighting as well, and a group of boatyard NPCs ran towards it with all sorts of ladders, hammers or wooden planks. Guess Ocean Might needs oneh.e.l.l of an overhaul this time.

　　    Idecided to help too. The ship is damaged like this in a fight against thej.a.panese after all. I can"t repair ships but putting out some fire isno problem. 

            "Loong"er, come out. Can you control the sea water?"

　　    "That"smy job!" (***) 　　
　　   

            "Nice.Can you do something about the fire on that ship?" 　　
　　   

            "Surely!" 

            She dived into the sea. The area quickly turned dark. A small-scale rainstorm completelyextinguished the last ember, before sunshine returned as fast as the rain came. 

           Loong"erdidn"t return when everything"s done. She instead began to swim and dance onthe water surface. I think I should let her into the water more often in thefuture.

　　    Sincethere"s no more work to do, King Conqueror came down from the ship and walkedto us. 

            "Did you get your ship?" 

　　    "Notyet. That"s a battleship we"re talking about, it takes time." Coincomplained.

　　    "Battleship?So you"re going to beat j.a.panese pirates too?" 

           His face is blackened byall the smoke. He wiped it using one of his hands, only to make it look even funnier.

　　    Ilooked at the broken warship. "Do you end up like this every time youfight them?" 

           That"s too much damage to my liking. 

　　    Heforced a chuckle. "Not every time. We encountered a big fleet today. Sevenof them, and we only had one. We sank a ship, damaged another, before weescaped."

　　    Ziraispoke with excitement: "Are there no other guilds fighting with you?"　　
　　   

           "Thereare, but only few of them. Besides their ships aren"t gonna hold themselvesagainst those j.a.pan ocean warships. Not everyone can afford these babes youknow."

　　    "Isee..." 

            We became silent. Must admit, the j.a.panese have way more money tospend right now. We have a bigger land but everything becomes scarce when "averaged"to individuals.

　　    "Itmust cost a ton to repair your ship." Zirai spoke.

　　    "Ah,nothing to worry about. We seized a lot of stuff from previous fights, and weget EXP too. Worth it." 　　
　　    

            "Wait,what? Exp? The j.a.panese count as monsters too?"

　　    "Nonono,of course they"re players. But you still get EXP by killing foreign enemies. Alot I"d say. Players are considered as high level monsters so these battleslevel you up even faster than grinding by normal means. You know, if youkill a ship, everyone on board dies."

　　    "Isee it now." Elfy sighed. "I was wondering why you"re so pa.s.sionateabout it. So you get both fame and wealth out of these fights huh?"

　　    "Right-ho!Ha-hahaha!" 

            King let out a hearty laughter, as if he already forgot abouthis precious, now badly damaged Ocean Might.

(*) I found little English reference about this creature. Something about "the mentor/master of the four symbolic beasts." 

(**) They"re talking about Yamata no Orochi, the "8-branched giant snake" in j.a.panese mythology. However it is often considered to have 9 heads in Chinese ill.u.s.trations because of two reasons:

1: It is confused with Xiangliu, a Chinese mythology creature with 9 heads;

2: Language issue. The correct Chinese translation for Orochi is "the giant snake with 8 forks". And someone believe that "8 forks" means "9 heads" .

The confusion still exist even today.

(***) In some Chinese mythologies and stories (such as Journey to the West), eastern dragons are not majestic or very powerful creatures. Rather, they"re more like "local officials" who are responsible to control local weather and obey orders from other higher-ups.