Mage Legend
Chapter 389: Travel and Travel Beyond Travel - Seven Old Ship_4

Chapter 389: Travel and Travel Beyond Travel Chapter Seven Old Ship_4

Puffing out a few smoke rings, the old man looked at the people standing on the shore: "Hey, young folks over there, this is an old broken boat. If you want to head downstream, cough cough, you’d better line up over there."

Lynch flashed a childlike smile and shouted loudly toward the boat: "Uncle Van Dijk, you should put on your glasses, or how will you know who’s here?"

The old man paused for a moment, then took two more puffs from his pipe. He took out a lens from his oil-stained shirt pocket, perched it on his nose, and squinted at the young people outside the boat.

"Kid, I’m old and can’t remember who you are." The old man shifted the cigarette butt from one side of his mouth to the other, exhaling smoke as he spoke, "You’ve got to make it easy on this poor old man, quickly tell me your name."

Lynch waved a hand, and a plank flew up, bridging the dock and the deck: "Uncle Van Dijk, it’s me, Lynch. These are my companions. So, is it just you still here?"

"Lynch!" The old sailor’s mouth gaped wide, yet the pipe remained steady at his lips: "Let me take a good look, kid, how many years has it been since we last met?"

"About five years, I guess," Lynch said, "Time sure flies, but you seem hale and hearty as ever. So, can you still sail the boat?"

Van Dijk touched Lynch’s head; time had slowly bent the old man’s back, whereas now the mage had grown a whole lot taller than him. He happily looked at the once mischievous child who used to run all over the boat and was now a grown-up: "Lynch, it’s great to see you again, and the one behind you should be your wife, right? Wow, is the kid this big already?"

"No, no!" Lynch hurriedly said, "These are just my companions, nothing more." Soka seemed fine with it, but if Zilvra suddenly got angry, who knows what might happen.

However, the female drow seemed not to hear Van Dijk’s words; she only looked at the broken and worn-out parts on the deck with concern.

"I know they’re just your companions," Van Dijk leaned in close to Lynch, smiling as he whispered. The wrinkles on his face seemed to unfold all at once, and the happiness in his heart smoothed out the sense of age time had brought. He then said loudly, "But we can’t sail now. Like me, this boat’s old and worn-out, with problems all over. Other than sunbathing here, it can’t do anything else."

Lynch laughed and said to Van Dijk, "Uncle, as long as you can sail, I have a way." He took out a pouch of tobacco from his pocket and handed it to the old man: "My mom says it’s better to save you the trouble of buying tobacco with the money for a boat ticket and give you the best tobacco straight away."

Van Dijk hurriedly took it, sniffing the fragrance of the tobacco through the sheepskin bag. He closed his eyes, his mouth slightly open as if he were already chewing the pipe and tasting the fine tobacco.

"Your mother truly is a thoughtful person!" Van Dijk carefully tucked the sheepskin bag into the pocket over his heart, saying: "Once I borrow a suitable boat, we can set sail!"

"There’s no need for that," Lynch waved his hand, he knelt partially down, left hand’s refined gold palm touching the old deck, while his right hand summoned a silver light sphere. "I can repair it directly."

From his palm, silver light spread in all directions. Where this light enveloped, old planks became sturdy again, and the rust on copper nails turned into powder drifting away with the wind, patched-up little holes were sealed, and even the once blurry "Shell" ship name became bright and clear.

Under the astonished gazes of everyone, the ship regained its vitality. The old hull seemed reborn, as if it had returned to those days ten years ago when it was freshly built.

"Now, you should be able to sail," Lynch wiped the sweat from his forehead, attempting for the first time to change the state of such a large object: "I’ve fixed the boat, though some parts might be smaller than before, there’s nothing I can do about that. I remember as a kid, Uncle you could sail this boat alone to fish on the Fengduo River, should be fine now too."

Van Dijk looked Lynch up and down, not knowing how this kid managed it. He kindly patted Lynch’s arm, happily saying, "Good lad, you’ve got some skills there. Seems like you’ve learned a lot. But don’t underestimate your uncle, though old, my sailing skills haven’t faded. So, where do you all plan to go?"

"Let’s drift down the river. It’s a bit early to talk about destinations now," Lynch smiled happily, "Want me to help out?"

"Go pull up the anchor chain. If you can’t move it, call me to help. Young man, you can’t afford to strain your back. Hahaha," Van Dijk, with his pipe in his hand, laughed heartily and walked toward the mast.

Lynch didn’t immediately head to the anchor chain; he stood still with his head lowered, seemingly observing the deck beneath his feet. However, his Eye of Insight noticed something strange on the distant mountain.

There was a man covered in leaves, with his face painted in vibrant colors. He was standing behind a bush, watching the few ships at the foot of the mountain.

"Amazing, with a flash of silver light, the old big boat revived as if anew," he murmured, "The elder will definitely be interested in this discovery." With that, he turned around, quickly disappearing into the dense woods. Those hedge-like, impenetrable plants seemed to open a clear path for him, forming no obstacle at all.

Lynch scratched his head, "How unlucky, I thought no one could see, but someone was on the mountain. Judging by his dress, is he a ranger from the hills or a druid from the forest?"

Before long, the Shell set sail amidst Van Dijk’s hearty laughter. It gracefully bypassed the larger, passenger-laden ships, like a playful elf on a wave, sliding downstream along the Fengduo River.