Magi Craft Meister

Chapter 700: 21-11: Marcia, Shipwrecked

21-11 Marcia, Shipwrecked

Warning: Contains blood.

At the eastern end of the southern tip of the Elias Peninsula lies an uninhabited island called Io Island. Every year, it serves as the turning point for the Golem Boat Race.

Further east is another uninhabited island called Tryu Island.

Since the beginning of December, Marcia has been using Tryu Island as a base for testing her new ship model.

She has personally experienced the stability and habitability of the ship in open water, and is continually making improvements wherever necessary.

“We don’t have many people going beyond Io Island, Arrow. Be careful!”

“Yes, Marcia-sama.”

The Arrow that Jin had improved was now speaking fluently, effectively serving as Marcia’s assistant in both name and function.

“I have heard that other countries are building large ships over 30 meters. I can’t afford to lose either.”

Saying such things, Marcia steered the ship.

Sometimes she worked on improving the rudder.

“Hmmm, the rudder doesn’t respond well. Let’s try to increase the surface area a little more.”

Other times she would reassess the balance of the ship.

“If we use the left and right hulls as storage, one side is empty while the other is full, causing the ship to lean slightly… We need to rethink the loading method.”

And at other times she would work on improving the cabins.

“Hmmm, I want to be able to take at least short naps. That means I need to make the seat backs adjustable…”

In this way, Marcia continued to test the new model ship, refining its maneuverability, cargo capacity, and habitability.

“…Sigh, if it were Jin, he could finish this in no time.”

Fixing it by hand would take Marcia a considerable amount of time. Even though Bacchus had recently started helping out, making it much easier, there was still a huge difference compared to when Jin was around.

“Yes, this should be passable!”

After several rounds of modifications, the test run finally achieved a performance that satisfied Marcia.

Maximum speed: 20 km/h

Cargo capacity: 3 tons

Crew capacity: 2 people, 4 in an emergency (not including the Golem Arrow)

Delighted, Marcia made her way to Tryu Island as usual and docked.

“The stars are beautiful tonight. The waves are calm too. I think I’ll report this as a milestone to the Mayor… no, to the Lord.”

Marcia, wrapped in a blanket and leaning back in a chair in the cabin, eventually fell asleep, gazing at the sky through the window.

On the morning of the 25th, an anomaly occurred.

There is a sea monster called Bowoll, which resembles a whale, with a body length of up to 20 meters for larger specimens and an average of 10 meters.

They primarily inhabit the northern seas, but occasionally ride ocean currents to migrate south before returning to the northern seas.

Though Bowoll are generally docile (they primarily consume the free magic essence Ether), they have a habit of mistaking large floating objects for enemies and attacking them. One such Bowoll had been wandering near Tryu Island.

At dawn, it encountered Marcia’s new model ship as it left Tryu Island for Potlock.

As it rose to the surface, the Bowoll was incredibly massive. It quickly returned to the water.

“Whoa! What the hell is that?”

“Marcia-sama, it’s a monster! Let’s run!”

Scared, Marcia shouted, and Arrow put all his available strength into the pedals.

Unfortunately, Arrow’s propulsion system was far too fragile compared to the one Jin had created.

Both belts that drove the paddlewheel had snapped.

There was no time to replace them.

“Marcia-sama, I’ll push!”

Arrow declared. She had decided that the only option was to enter the sea and push the ship.

“Ah, yes. Arrow, please!”

At that moment, Marcia realized that she should equip her ship with anti-monster weapons and backup propulsion systems before venturing into open waters, but it was already too late.

Besides, the eight-meter ship was too big for even Arrow to swim by pushing.

“Whoa!”

Bowoll charged the ship and crashed into it with full force.

Although it was a new model, the ship was basically wooden and couldn’t withstand such an attack.

“Waaah! Ah, Arrow!”

“Marcia-sama!”

With the first attack, the stern of the ship was blown away. Naturally, Arrow was also thrown into the sea.

Then, a second charge shattered the entire hull. Marcia was thrown into the air for a moment before hitting the ocean surface, suffering a laceration on her right thigh from a fragment of the hull.

The shock and pain caused her to lose consciousness.

Bowoll, after crushing the floating debris, calmly left the area as if nothing had happened.

Arrow, though waterproof, was not built for underwater use. Made of ordinary materials, its specific gravity was significantly higher than that of water.

In other words, it would sink on its own.

In addition, Arrow had damaged its left arm with the first charge, allowing seawater to enter its interior.

As a result, it lost even more buoyancy and sank into the sea at a depth of several dozen meters.

Meanwhile, Marcia was.

She was bleeding from the laceration on her right thigh, turning the surrounding sea crimson as she was carried away by the ocean currents.

Fortunately, the laceration was relatively shallow, allowing her blood to gradually stop. In addition, when she fell into the sea, she unconsciously clung to a large fragment, which likely saved her from drowning.

Portua City

Jin rushed out of the shop and circled the building, Reiko following him.

He took out his Mana Camu, a magical energy communicator, from his pocket to contact Laozi. Reiko spread a barrier field around them to prevent their voices from leaking out and remained alert.

“Laozi, I need to confirm. What’s the status of the Stealth Mobile Unit SP assigned to Marcia?”

“Yes, Master Lord. Cattleya and Lotus are staying here this time. They should be close to where you are, Master Lord.”

“I see, as expected…”

They couldn’t follow Marcia as she ventured into the sea, even though they could have accompanied her on land.

“The force generator equipped with the field emitter was delayed…”

If they had installed the Force Generator Field Emitter, they could have secretly followed her by flying or moving underwater, but there was no point in mentioning it now.

“In that case…”

Jin thought that if Arrow was with him, he could find Marcia by tracking Arrow’s whereabouts.

“Arrow!?”

Reiko spotted Arrow coming out of the sea.

About four hours after the encounter with Bowoll, Arrow had returned by walking along the ocean floor, covering a distance of 60 kilometers.

Assuming that his damaged body couldn’t swim around looking for Marcia, Arrow had returned with all his strength.

“Creator, Jin-sama…”

Arrow crawled onto land and immediately collapsed.

“Reiko, take care of Arrow…”

As Jin was about to speak, Rodrigo appeared, having come out to look for Jin. Reiko quickly deactivated the barrier field to let Rodrigo in.

“Lord Jin! That golem!?”

“Rodrigo-san…”

With no other choice, Jin let Reiko carry Arrow back to Marcia’s workshop.

“This is…”

“It’s Arrow! What the hell happened?”

Jeremy and Bacchus were naturally astonished. Arrow, unable to respond, had malfunctioned due to overexertion.

Jin decided to administer first aid.

He opened Arrow’s chest, rinsed out the seawater that had entered and washed him with fresh water. After drying him thoroughly, Reiko provided him with some Magic Energy Mana.

Since the consumption of magic energy mana had temporarily exceeded the output of the Ether Converter in the magic energy converter, Arrow’s internal magic circuits had shut down. However, this treatment allowed Arrow to restart.

“Creator, Jin-sama, thank you.”

Acknowledging Jin, Arrow expressed his gratitude.

“No need to thank me. More importantly, what exactly happened? What happened to Marcia?”

“Yes, Marcia-sama is…”

Arrow recounted the whole incident.