Chapter 12

Title: Practice on a ship(1).

Once again on a ship, this time for at least a few weeks Phesto found himself with not much else to do than practising magic and discussing his progress with Nejime. Perhaps he could even help Nejime out with her magic. He honestly didn't believe himself to be especially talented or to have a special constitution, he believed his progress to be the result of the system helping and changing him. And he was pretty sure he could use the system to affect other people as well.

If he was able to help people with the help of the system it would open a couple of new paths he could take. Currently, he only had a few ideas for what he wanted to do with himself. First and foremost was becoming immortal or at least making sure he was a bit more long-lived. Second was finding a profession. Sure becoming an enlightened monk meditating on some mountain was an option, but he wasn't that detached from world desires yet.

And as for the possible professions he could take, he could think of a few. He still went through the education system from another world so he could probably recycle some of that knowledge. If the system helped him teach others, he would have an easy path towards becoming a teacher, otherwise, if the system helped him craft items he could create magical artefacts for a living. And if all of the above didn't work he'd just live a slow farm life.

Testing weapon creation would have to wait, but teaching could come very soon. He had Nejime around who he wanted to help and if that didn't suffice there were all the other passengers on this ship. Who knows he might be able to make friends with some of the passengers. Though before he would do that he wanted to at least get a certain amount of skill before he attempted teaching someone.

It wasn't as if he thought that the system required him to be of a certain level, but rather that he felt uncomfortable teaching others when he was just more skilled than average.

Sitting in his cabin with a thoughtful expression Phesto said to himself. "Alright, before teaching I want to at least reach hmm, about level 50 first. Nene said my earth magic was fairly skilled when I was around level 20, so level 50 should showcase mastery, thinking back to it Taliyah the Stoneweaver reached her level of skill in the span of 1-2 years under the tutelage of Yasuo and when Nene praised I skill could have been said to be slightly below Taliyahs."

"But which skill do I practice first? Earth and sand magic were my highest ranked magics, but it would be a bit weird to practice them here. The sun and moon are always around so I shouldn't neglect them, but practising the wind and picking up water magic could prove to help for this boat journey."

Deciding on what to do Phesto stood up and left his cabin. Since he was going to practice wind and water magic and his wind magic was at an already decent level he might as well tell the ship's captain about it and tell him that he was willing to use it to travel faster.

*knock knock*

Knocking on the captain's door Phesto waited for a response, before being let in.

"Come in"

Entering the captain sized Phesto up again. He talked with him and Nejime before deciding whether or not they could be trusted not to stir trouble on the ship.

"Young man, you were with the veiled lady, your name was Phesto if I remember correctly, what is it you want?"

The captain was a bit wary of what Phesto might say. Though he believed in his judgement when it came to letting passengers on his ship, he had to honestly admit that his judgement would become clouded when coin was in play, and the veiled lady, Nejime, could pay quite generously.

"Not much captain, but I just wanted to ask if it was alright if I used magic to let the wind carry us a bit faster."

"If it's jus- w-Wati WHAT?.. I mean of course. Though I am unsure if I can pay you adequately."

Now, this was a surprise for the captain, he was ecstatic since a wind magician allowed him to be ahead of schedule by a few days, but he was a bit confused as to why Phesto only told him now that he was a wind magician, and somewhat worried, as he had barely any of Ionia's currency, and since Phesto and Nejime looked like the 'leaving and not returning for various reasons' type of travellers he doubted they needed any of Shurima's currency, especially considering how much the Nejime was able to pay him, for the journey in the first place.

Phesto was also surprised. When he thought about what the captain might say he thought he'd receive a response along the lines of 'I won't some beginner train using my sails'. Instead, he heard that his planned training could get him paid, and the captain even seemed to change tones to be more polite. All in all, quite a nice surprise, though since he really just wanted to use it as a chance for training he didn't plan to rip him off.

"No worries, I simply want to avoid getting rusty, and if I'm already using my magic, why not use it productively. But if you don't feel comfortable letting me work for free then how about this. Once we reach Ionia, introduce me and my companion to some locals, we have a place we need to go to, but don't really know our way."

"That's... not an issue, no, I can definitely do that. But I must say that's quite an interesting payment."

The captain did not just say so without reason. Part of the reason why he had so little Ionian currency was that Ionians paid just as much importance to the trust and reputation of a person or group.

Within Ionia currency was mainly as a substitute for trust and reputation, or when larger groups interacted with individuals. Smaller communities such as villages would mainly resort to bartering and only use their currency whenever they had to buy specific products from larger towns and cities. Conversely, precisely because currency could be used as a way to skip trust and reputation, many groups avoided using their currency with outsiders. So for outsiders introductions and recommendations were actually quite important.

After their initial interaction, they went over the details of their deal, for how long would Phesto use his magic to assist the ship, and what 'an introduction to the locals' would entail. Done with their deal, Phesto went and told Nejime about it, Nejime was still teaching Phesto her theoretical knowledge of magic that she learned, so they had to think of a new schedule for it.

Thinking of a new schedule Phesto brought up the idea of them doing one session of her teaching him theoretical content and another session of them comparing and discussing their understanding and progress. When Nejime asked why he wanted to compare and discuss, Phesto bluntly told her that he wanted her to also practise, that ever since he learned her magic, he should be able to also teach her something.

To that Nejime could not say much. Before, Phesto didn't have Nejime's force magic was too busy using his stone magic to travel and couldn't practice force magic. The first boat ride was also too short to get any good results from practising, but now that the second boat ride would take so long, there'd be enough time for him to practise enough to surpass her very soon.

Thinking about it, Nejime readily agreed. Though she taught him quite a lot already she didn't feel odd being taught either. Not succeeding with her practice in the magical academies made it hard for her to be too prideful to accept the help.