Novel Bin Chapter 223 Paintjob
"Sure, let’s. Anyway, again, thanks for the ’Staff.’ I think they’re just about finished with the enchantments." Evalia pointed out as she lightly jerked her head toward the ship, where only a few people were currently finishing everything up with Xenia rushing around the ship to make sure the enchantments were all carved correctly in the way they were supposed to be.
About half an hour later, it was finally finished, as Xenia looked at the huge enchantment happily. "Perfect!" She exclaimed as she stared at the wooden outer surface of the ship, crossing her arms in pure satisfaction.
"Good job, Xenia. Looks impressive." Eisen said with a laugh as he walked up behind the High-Elf, who turned around with a smug expression. "Of course, it’s impressive. I came up with this enchantment, after all!" She answered happily, before looking to the side, where the figurehead was already being prepared to be attached to the front of the ship.
Hurriedly, Eisen made his way onto the front deck of the ship so that he could help pull the heavy figurine into its proper place so that it could then be connected by some of the workers. For a good half hour, the figurehead was being held up by about two dozen people holding it up by some thick ropes to make sure it would be stable, while the workers carefully connected it in the way that they were told.
Soon, the wooden dragon was set into place in a beautifully ornate setting that could only make you impressed and wonder at the amount of work that went into its creation.
"This looks really great, Evalia. Now, do you need any help with painting the ship?" Eisen asked the Artist, who swiftly shook her head. "Nope, not really. But thanks anyway. Just watch, with one simple color it’s going to take maybe 20 minutes for the base, and for the details in the dragon and above the enchantments, that’s gonna be... two hours? And then the interior for another hour or two. Well, I may need some mana, but Bree said she’d take care of that for me." She explained quite quickly and winked at the pumped-up and excited Fey-Kin girl as Evalia grabbed her Paintbrush Staff with both hands before she poured her elemental mana inside of it. Instantly, the brush turned into basically a shifting rainbow color, with every gradient version in it. The handle stayed this way while Evalia’s hands also became a similar color, while the brush tip became the very dark red-brown color that the ship would end up being for the most part.
"Now stand back, ladies and gentlemen!" Evalia exclaimed, taking a look around to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally cover someone in her magic paint, before nodding happily and swinging her brush in the air.
Not only did the air directly in front of the brush in response to that motion seem as if seen through red-brown dyed glass, but a large area of the ship was already now painted in an even layer of the paint.
The dyed-air soon disappeared, but the paint on the ship stayed that way while Evalia continued to paint the whole ship in precisely that manner, with the exception of the places that she couldn’t reach while standing on the ground. Because the places that the brush touched seemed like ’infected’ by the paint, and the whole area, in basically a three-meter radius around the tip of the brush was painted immediately.
So it wasn’t exaggerated when she was talking about finishing the base within 20 minutes, as she managed to do so with a minute or two left. "Alright, that looks pretty nice, doesn’t it?" Evalia exclaimed with a grin before she climbed up to the top of the ship, which she began to paint in a rather light beige color that fits well with the dark color of the exterior. And so, Evalia continued making her way throughout the different areas of the ship, painting every nook and cranny with her magic paint.
After she was finished with that, she prepared to paint the details of the dragon while also running along the enchantments to make the carvings stand out better.
The Dragon was painted in a somewhat grey-ish color while even being painted to seem like it had a bit of a rock-like texture, while underneath each of the scales a light golden shine appeared. And it was an actual shine, since, as she mentioned before, Evalia was able to make her paint glow a little bit. It wasn’t enough to blind anyone, especially not in daylight, but it was enough to light the Dragon Figurehead up at night properly, which was good to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally be crashed into by other vessels.
But Eisen was incredibly surprised when he saw what Evalia chose as the colors, since that were literally exactly the colors that Eisen’s rocks and flames currently had while he was in his demonic form. He was actually a little touched that she would draw a draconic-version of him.
Then, for the finishing touch, Evalia moved along the outside of the ship, painting over the lines of the enchantments in a light golden color as well, to make it look even better. And it did look better, quite grand, actually, as if they had filled the carvings up with pure gold.
And so, after she was done with that, Evalia began to paint the, still unconnected, masts while the color on the ship itself continued to dry and set. The workers watched the whole scene unfold with astounded expressions, then talked amongst each other excitedly while they prepared to heave the ship out of the warehouse and into the water.
There was already rigging and rollers prepared so that it could just roll down the ramp into the water without damaging the ship. But the biggest issue was to keep the large vessel utterly stable and upright as it did so, because if it were to fall over to the side onto the ground or crash into something, then it would most likely end up with quite a bit of damage, which was just not favorable in any sense of the word.
So they all needed to be more than just careful as the ship would be heaved down slowly, with some of the physically stronger workers and monsters pulling against the momentum at the back of the ship to help even a little bit, while the rest would end up trying to keep the ship as stable as possible. It was still on the large frame that would be used to set it in, so it was already pretty stable, but the workers still needed to make sure that the ship wouldn’t turn mid-motion.
About when Evalia finished painting the masts, the paint on the ship itself had adequately dried, so the ship could now be moved.
"Alright everyone, careful! If any of you break this ship, I swear that I will personally crack your neck. Now, let’s put it into the water!" Eisen exclaimed as he grabbed one of the ropes at the back of the ship to work against the downwards momentum and everyone else grabbed whatever they needed to as well, while the ship was slowly being pushed onto the ’rollers’ that would allow it to slide into the water.
And ever so slowly, the ship gained speed that Eisen and the others were working against as much as they could, before the ship’s center of gravity shot over the spot where the ramp began moving downward, meaning that the nose of the ship now also pointed there and rapidly gained speed.
With all their might, everyone did their best to control the ship’s movements somehow, although that didn’t end up working that well. Eisen, Jyuuk’s Monsters, Jyuuk himself, Brody and his Tank-Companion, as well as all of the other helpers, were pulled and dragged along without being able to do much until the ship finally hit the water and slowed down.
And after pulling it back into the square space in front of the warehouse that was reserved exactly for the ships being built in there, everyone began to cheer in the excitement that this huge ship was staying afloat properly.
With a grin on his face, almost unable to properly hold himself back as well, Eisen looked at the workers and yelled out, "Quiet down, everyone! Let’s not cheer yet! Save that for after we place the masts in and finish the ship!" He exclaimed before the workers nodded their heads almost in unison and made their way over to the large masts that were also now dry, before carrying first the smaller one onto the ship. The mast was then placed down into the hole that was prepared precisely for that purpose.
That hole reached down up to nearly the bottom of the ship to give the mast as much stability as possible. The mast was adequately attached and readied to everything around before the second mast was then brought in and placed into its hole as well. And once that mast was attached, and everyone once more checked that everything was alright with the ship. Every one of the workers gathered on the deck of the ship, where Eisen was preparing to thank them, although this time, he didn’t want to hold a speech, but just felt like letting the description of the ship speak on its own.
"All of you, thank you so much for all of your hard work! And now, let’s take a look at how this-" Eisen prepared to say, already nearly wanting to acknowledge the ship as finished, before Xenia interrupted him.
"Not yet! There’s something else you need to do first!" She exclaimed, before Eisen looked at her in confusion, and the High-Elf embarrassedly looked away from the old man before explaining. "Just put your hand on the Dragon’s forehead and pour your mana inside of the small crystal that’s there." She said before Eisen slowly nodded his head with a little bit of confusion.
The large Titan-Demon made his way over to the front of the ship, where he could already see the small crystal that Xenia was talking about, curious at what would happen, Eisen did as instructed and placed his palm onto the crystal and poured some of his mana inside. And what happened then was actually rather unexpected.
As Eisen took a step back, he could hear the creaking of wood from underneath him. At first, he was afraid that the ship was breaking apart, but then he saw Xenia and Evalia’s happy expressions, realizing that this was supposed to happen before he then also noticed that it wasn’t actually the ship that made those sounds, but the Dragon Figurehead.
Surprised, Eisen took a peek over the edge, until he saw something that was quite a surprise to him. It was the Dragon, detached from the ship, as it looked back up at him before tilting its head to the side while its two crystal eyes stared at the old man.