The Dao of Magic

65 - Retreat

I throw treasure in the air, letting them rain on my face. A sharp diamond hits me in the eye and a gold bar smashes into my nose while a smattering of gold coins hit my face. Ow, who said that falling gold was fun? It's heavy as shit.

I look around the hold with disappointment in my eyes. Maybe I should use a better method of gold-bathing? Let's think about that later. I kick the coins to the side as I squeeze through the rest of the hold. This ship is mainly transporting slaves, but it has cargo stowed away here and there.

The most valuable stuff was hidden in secret compartments inside the captain's quarters, with the exception of this chest of gold stashed in the hold. Various barrels of alcohol, rolls of cloth and crates of other materials are being carried upstairs by my students.

I feel a pressure building up in my mind, a clear indication that the stasis spell is starting to become too much for me. I walk up the planks and catch Bord stuffing a massive, ornamental couch into the necklace. I ignore the piles of loot stashed around, waiting to be stuffed inside the Tree, and walk to Vox.

"Figured out the dosage yet?"

He looks up with bloodshot eyes. "I... I really hate doing calculations, but I should give the average crew member 8 microliters."

I double check this and come to the conclusion that he is right! "Nice work, how should we administer it?"

Vox glances as Selis, but I shake my head. This stuff is important in the field of alchemy and the ability to make precise measurements is one of the most important skills in that profession. Vox opens the small bottle and pulls out of drop with a thread of qi. He separates the drop into six smaller drops. He holds them still and looks at me.

"That is about right for an average adult male, too much for kids and women though." Vox groans as he starts doing mental math again. I grin at him while grabbing control of the floating potion. I pull out some more and prepare a proper dosage for every still frozen person. The mage will not remember anything because of the truth potion, so I skip him.

Guiding a single drop to each person, I fly it into their nostril. There it will get absorbed by the mucous membranes. It takes me five seconds to administer everyone on board, the medicine will work very fast when the stasis field lifts. I look over the rows of frozen slaves think for a moment.

I decide with a sigh, there goes my peaceful life. No more lazing around for me, let's get to work then. I close my eyes and focus on the Tree. I see fields filled with fresh saplings and short blades of grass sprouting from the dark earth. I pick a spot behind the garden and clear out some of the small plants. I then make a quick and dirty apartment complex.

I make some bunk beds and one by one, place the frozen slaves on these resting places. Once a part of the building is full and the deck is empty, I place a more permanent version of the stasis spell on those rooms. I ask Tree to keep it going and feel that it does so with little effort, I will deal with those poor sods later, give them a chance at life.

I snap myself back to the real words and feel the current stasis spell pulling on my mental strength, so I let the formation go with a sigh of relief.

"Kids should get 3 to 6 microliters and... Why is everyone moving again? Where did the slaves go?" The crew stumbling about wake Vox from his math hell.

"Stasis spell was getting heavy so I drugged everyone. LOOTING TIME IS OVER, WE ARE LEAVING!" My yell attracts the attention of all the crew. Lola comes hopping to me, and I switch the concealment function off as she jumps on my shoulder.

"Who are you?"
"How did you get on board?"
"Rabbit?
"Intruder! Get him!"
"Looting, who is looting who?"

I dramatically point to the captain, who has fallen on his face. "Something is wrong with the captain!"