Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Four days later, at a pier on the main island of the Tanilia Islands, Winters, Andre, and Bud stood boredly on the top floor of the stern of the ship, competing to see who could throw a stone farther.

"You two are blatantly bullying the injured." Winters was injured because of his right hand, so he could only compete with his left hand and currently ranks last.

"You are allowed to admit defeat, do you?" Andre swung hard, and a pebble slid through a graceful arc and landed on the water far away.

Bud didn't say anything. He shook the stone in his hand, stood sideways, and used the strength of his waist and abdomen to drive his arms to throw it violently. The stone landed on the shining golden water farther away, and he couldn't even see where it landed.

Seeing Bud's new record, Winters began to think about it. He felt that he had to find some materials to make a simple sling to have a chance to make a comeback.

"Didn't you come from a monastery? Monks also practice shot putting?" Andre has a careless personality and says whatever comes to mind.

"Monks don't throw shot put." Bud said with a smile: "But I let the animals go for the monks."

Winters sighed, there wasn't a suitable string around.

Warrant Officer Winters is now basically half a disabled person: the spot on his left shoulder where Ike hit him has turned from blue to purple, and it hurts when touched;

There was a hole in the sole of his right foot due to a caltrop. Since he had no fever so far, it meant that the problem was not serious. After cleaning the wound, wrap it with clean cotton cloth and it will be resolved;

The most frightening thing was the stab wound on his right arm caused by a crazy female who didn't know where it came from. After several attempts to stop the bleeding and break away, the wound could not be closed. The flesh was turned outwards and bleeding all the time.

The officers all knew that they should sew up the wound with needle and thread, but no one dared to do so. In the end, Major Moritz drank a bottle of rum, and under the influence of alcohol, he took a fishhook and cotton thread and sewed more than a dozen stitches on Winters crookedly;

The phantom limb pain from the "third hand" was relieved a lot, but it started to itch again. And the itching is worse than the pain.

Moreover, Winters still couldn't use magic. Even the slightest concentration would cause intense phantom limb pain, making it impossible for him to maintain his spell-casting state.

In one day, Winters went from being a cadet to a warrant officer, suffering three wounds and temporarily losing his magical abilities.

"How long has this boat been parked here? Why hasn't it set off yet?" Winters just wanted to go home and have a good sleep.

Andre also lost his usual energy and hugged the guardrail dejectedly.

The ship they boarded was called the "Skua" and was a communications ship under the Inland Sea Fleet of the Blue Navy. Instead of taking the midshipmen home, the Skua carried them east across the Gulf of Senas to the Taneria Islands.

After arriving at the Tanilia Islands, the Skua first waited at the anchorage outside the harbor overnight. We docked at this pier the next morning. Moreover, we stopped for a whole day and the captain did not make any move.

Because Major General Leighton strictly prohibited any officer from disembarking the ship, the three Winters could only look at the colorful world on the shore, but could not go for a stroll. Finally, I was so bored that I stood on the stern of the ship and played throwing stones.

"It's coming, it's coming, the cargo ship broker will be here soon." The first mate of the Skua climbed onto the stern of the ship and walked to the three Winters with a smile.

The three Winters looked at each other in confusion for a moment, not knowing whether to salute him or not. While Winters was racking his brains to recall the navy's rank system, Bud spoke first: "Who are you talking about the cargo ship broker? The cargo ship broker is responsible for who leaves the port and who enters the port?"

The first mate did not answer the question first, but flipped his hand and turned out a few yellow fruits and handed them to Winters and the other three: "Try them, Taniriya's specialty."

The three Winters people had never seen this thing before, so they accepted the fruit with suspicion. I don’t dare to eat it and I don’t know how to eat it.

"You can eat it directly, or you can peel it and eat it." The first mate took out another fruit and showed the three junior warrant officers how to eat it. He peeled off the outer skin of the fruit, revealing the yellow flesh, and ate it in a few mouthfuls.

Winters also followed the example of the first mate, peeling off the peel and taking a tentative bite of the pulp. Sweet, juicy and delicious. He ate one fruit in a few mouthfuls and wanted to eat another.

"What's the name of this fruit? I've never eaten it before." Winters saw this fruit for the first time.

"It doesn't have a name, so the locals just call it 'Sweet Water', which is a berry found on the island."

"I've never eaten it, and I've never seen it." Andre added, and Bud nodded. Apparently they both liked the fruit too.

"It is difficult to store, and it will rot within a day after being picked from the tree." The first mate said lightly: "So apart from the locals on the island, only us sailors can eat it."

"What did you want to ask just now? What does a cargo ship broker do?" The first mate took out a few fruits from the pocket on his back and distributed them to the three of them. He explained seriously: "A cargo ship broker helps ship owners sell or buy goods. People. We don’t have time to sell the goods in the hold bit by bit, and we don’t have time to buy goods slowly, so we go to cargo ship brokers. They are all well-connected and can empty a ship or fill a ship in one go. Ship.”

"Wait..." Winters was keenly aware of the conflict in the information he had obtained: "Aren't you a warship of the Inland Sea Navy? Why are you still looking for a cargo ship broker to sell and buy goods?"

"Hahahaha" Winters' question made the first officer laugh: "How can we be the navy? Look at me, do I look like a naval officer? Look at the Skua, does it look like a warship?"

"Isn't the Skua a naval communications ship?"

"Just in name, the Navy is the small owner of the Skua."

"Then why is the Skua taking us home?"

"For the work entrusted by the Navy, we usually do some passenger transportation work in addition to freight. Just like this time, besides you, didn't we also carry a few other people?"

Winters finally understood what those men on the Skua who were neither soldiers nor sailors were doing. Those few people had little interaction with the trainee officers. He originally thought those people were the shipowners, but he didn't expect them to be just passengers.

"No wonder." Winters sighed: "I'm still wondering why the navy's warships are so small?"

In Winters' opinion, the Skua is indeed not that big. Winters has seen many merchant ships much larger than the Skua.

The Skua has only two decks, the uppermost is the open deck, there is a deck inside the hull, and then it goes down to the bottom of the ship.

And because the Skua's freeboard is not high, and the second deck is already below the waterline, the cabin under the open deck can only have a small vent at most, and there is no way to open the window, so naturally it is impossible to set up artillery.

Not only did the small ship not have a dedicated gun deck, it also had no guns. Winters wandered around the ship for a few times. He didn't even see the cannonballs, let alone the cannons. Now he finally understood what was going on.

"The Navy doesn't have many real warships, they are all nominal merchant ships like the Skua." When others said that the Skua was not good, the first mate was a little unhappy. He tried to cite the advantages of the Skua: "The Skua The Skua is actually not small, can it still be small if it can carry a hundred tons of cargo? Moreover, the cables of the Skua are very well designed and easy to control, and can be handled by a dozen sailors."

"A dozen sailors can take care of it, so if we add more than thirty people, we will be crowded to death." Andre fired again.

The cabin of the Skua is used to carry cargo and can theoretically accommodate people, but it has no ventilation, poor lighting, and extremely poor living conditions.

Because of this, an additional level of forecastle and two levels of stern were built on the open deck to improve the living environment of sailors.

There is a small independent room on the second floor of the stern, which originally belonged to the captain, but the highest-ranking person on the ship is obviously Rear Admiral Leighton, so the Rear Admiral naturally occupied the best individual cabin without ceremony;

On the first floor of the stern of the ship is a large room for the wounded spellcasters like Winters to stay;

Major Moritz and the captain shared quarters in the forecastle;

Other trainee officers could only squeeze into the cabin with the sailors. After leaving the rain zone, the warrant officers simply learned from the sailors and slept on the open deck.

Precisely because life at sea is hard, Hailan students used to go home by land and never by boat. Taking a boat is not only risky, but the journey experience is also poor. If you travel by land, you can stay at a transfer station and eat and drink all the way home.

As a result, this year they actually asked the students to take a boat back because "the road is not easy to walk on". The fun trip turned into a torturous trip, which made all the trainee officers angry every time they thought about it.

"Although the space is a bit small, the Skua is very fast." The first mate still insisted.

"No matter how fast you go, what's the use if you go in the wrong direction?" Andre said reluctantly.

The first mate was defeated: "There is no way. You can't make much money by running the direct route between Hailan City and Guitu City. Merchant ships in the Senas Sea all run the triangular route. Don't worry, we can just pull anchor from here." Went to Hailan City."

"Bang, bang, bang!" Major Moritz also climbed onto the stern of the ship. He came to ask the first mate for help buying wine. Because of Major General Leighton's grounding order, Major Moritz could not disembark. After drinking it himself and giving it to the spellcasting students for "medicinal purposes", his rum inventory was emptied two days ago.

Without the water of life, the major's spirit has obviously weakened a lot in the past few days.

"Mr. First Mate, by the way, would you like to replace the fresh water barrel on your ship with a new one? The walls of the barrel are covered with green hair and they are greasy to the touch. Aren't you afraid of getting sick if you drink this water?" Major Moritz has not been there for two days. He couldn't drink any liquid. There was no wine, and he couldn't drink the fresh water stored on the ship.

Hearing the major's description, Winters felt a chill because he had been drinking fresh water from the ship in the past few days.

"Okay, okay, I'll let the sailor clean the bucket." The first mate hurriedly left.

On the water near the pier, there were many vendors on small rafts selling local fruits and vegetables to the sailors. The major whistled and called for a small raft to come over.

The major made a gesture to indicate that it was all over. No one saw clearly where he took out a small silver coin, but he flicked it gently and the silver coin accurately fell into the merchant's hand.

"You go down and bring him some food and drink, and give everyone a share." The major obviously had some withdrawal reaction: "I'm going to take a rest. Wake me up after you buy the wine."

It was clear that a silver coin had been thrown out just now, but now the major had another silver coin in his hand. He played with the silver coin unconsciously and left the stern of the ship.

"A magician?" Andre poked his head out and glanced at the hawker, then looked back at the major: "The silver coins he gave out can't be changed back by him, right?"

"How could it be? It's just another coin. I think the hand that throws the coin into someone's arms is very powerful."

Later that day, the Skua emptied the ironware and leather shipped from Guitu City, reloaded with sugar and tobacco in the Taney Islands, and sailed towards the sea.