After Zheng Yang finished the street food dinner he'd bought earlier, he began to "discuss" the renovation plans with the spirit vessel.
He came to a clear conclusion after their discussion.
The magic formation had reached its maximum coverage limit due to the spirit vessel's current size, but it wasn't as simple as just increasing the length, height, or width of the boat, as he'd previously thought. What that maximum meant was that the magic formation had reached its maximum ability to cover anything.
This in turn meant that the magic formation wouldn't be able to cover more furniture on the boat, nor would it be able to automatically use raw wood and steel to craft new parts.
However, he could make adjustments to what he already had, such as changing the shapes and parts, and the total coverage area of the magic formation would remain the same.
He could provide ready-made furniture and facilities and use the boat's self-modification ability to install them, fixing them to areas that were covered by the magic formation, yet not covering those things with the magic formation itself.
What he was about to do was simply have the boat install and position those things at designated areas, without covering them with the magic formation.
As such, so long as he didn't change the boat's size or structure, he could still get some ready-made chairs and have the boat install them at designated places. However, he couldn't just dump several pieces of wood and have the boat manufacture said chairs at designated areas, like how he did with the cabin before.
After clearing up the particulars, he began to wonder if he should start buying things for the renovation, or if he should register his boat and get his license first. According to Henry, it would cost nearly 20000 pounds to register his boat and get his sailing license. His savings were just about enough to cover all this.
He decided to have Henry get the registration and licensing settled for him first, in order to avoid any future trouble. As for professional qualifications, he concerned that unnecessary, given that he was only sailing the boat for himself and wasn't using it for professional purposes.
Just as he put down the phone after contacting Henry, warning bells chimed in his head. He was stunned for a bit, but it took him just a second to realize that eldritch entities were coming. As such, he pried open the decking and pulled out a machete.
…
About 50 meters away from Zheng Yang, the dog leaped over a pointed fence that was over two meters tall. It managed to get itself over by hooking its paws into the fence and pulling itself upward. The young man who was chasing after the dog watched helplessly as the dog charged at one of the sailboats on the dock. He was unable to do anything but pant hard as he grabbed hold of the fence.
Zheng Yang stood on the deck at the bow with the machete in his hand, siphoning spirit power and getting himself ready to take on anything. He didn't know much in the way of combat, and he had nothing to rely on but the machete that he'd pissed on and those two moves he'd learned from his dreams.
Because of the boost provided by the spirit power, his perception was a lot more acute. He looked up at the dog running from the shore and steadied his hips, positioning the blade in his right hand to the left of his body, with his left hand supporting his right.
He'd acquired this move from that dream he'd had with the sailor monster. The move involved placing the blade to the left of one's body and twisting one's hips while bringing the blade up diagonally from the lower left to the upper right with both hands. The technique was very decent in terms of speed and power.
Shoop…
The dog's blood-red eyes were full of hostility and madness. It had lost all reason, filled with only the instinct to tear that thing in front of it into pieces.
The dog leaped from the shore right away, its mouth opened so wide that the corners of its mouth were splitting. Under the moonlight, its exposed fangs actually lengthened and shimmered coldly, as if the dog were aiming to bite Zheng Yang's head.
Zheng Yang gulped as the wind blew, bringing his physical attributes to their fullest.
The scene before him seemed to move in slow motion. He caught the window of opportunity and immediately raised the blade and brought it down in an upward slash. He felt as if all of his muscles were resonating with the blade, with each muscle fiber vibrating with power that flowed into the blade in his hands.
Swoop.
The blade reflected the moonlight, drawing a glittering arc as it connected with the dog's neck and cut open its skin, muscle, veins, esophagus, windpipe, and even its spine. Because the machete was too short, a third of the muscles at the back of the dog's head was spared, leaving the dog's head connected to its body.
He almost sent that dog's head flying as soon as he just struck it once with his blade.
The dog's blood sprayed all over him, drenching his head and face. Because of the force from the slash, the dog crashed into the ground about two feet away from Zheng Yang's right.
Zheng Yang was unable to move at that moment. He felt so exhausted that he couldn't even move a finger. His machete dropped onto the deck with a clang.
Earlier, he'd been in a strange, heightened state. By making full use of the spirit power's boost in all areas of his body and increasing his energy output in a single moment, not only had he expended over 20 points of spirit power right away, but he'd also depleted all his stamina. This caused him to fall into a rather dazed state. The only reason he didn't drop onto the deck was that his muscles were too stiff.
The dog was dead, and its dead body lay right beside his foot. Blood was still gushing from the wound on its neck, but Zheng Yang was perceptive enough to discover that the dog's blood was being absorbed by the boat, and the boat actually told him somehow that it wanted to devour the dog's dead body.
He recalled when he'd installed the keel on the spirit vessel, and how the boat had communicated its hunger to him right after it had expended all of its spirit power. Back then, he'd sense an intense hunger from the boat, as if it were telling him that it wanted something to eat.
A whiff of black aura was seeping out of the dead dog's brain, and it coalesced into a black blob about the size of a thumb. It tried to take the form of some creature but was unsuccessful.
Suddenly, the blob of black aura shot towards Zheng Yang's head.
Zheng Yang was completely stunned. He realized that the black aura was the true eldritch entity, while the dog was just its host. However, he was unable to move at all, and he had no strength left to fend off the black aura. He started to panic.
"Oh sh**. It's game over," he thought.
In the nick of time, a black bug about the size of a thumb then shot out from the deck like a bolt of lightning, stopping right in front of Zheng Yang. The bug then opened its mouth, which was about the size of its head, and swallowed the black arrow right away.
"Vessel spirit?" he thought in awe.
"So, that thing can emerge without me summoning it when I'm on the boat!"
Zheng Yang thought this was all too surreal. He was astonished by the fact that he'd actually forgotten that he could summon that bug to join his battles. This was simply unforgivable. While the bug looked so small and weak that you could easily squash it with one finger, when your neck was on the line, you had to use everything you had at your disposal.
"That thing looks so weak that I forgot it even existed and didn't count it as part of my arsenal. I'll have to be careful of this from here on out. In the future, I must remember that in the face of an enemy, I have to use whatever I have at my disposal, no matter how insignificant that power might be. After all, it might just be the last straw to break the camel's back!"
Zheng Yang finally slumped onto the deck. He checked out the surveillance cameras around him, confirming that no one had seen him, before giving his permission to the boat to devour the dead dog.
Thinking about the battle, he was very pleased with his performance. That full-powered move brought about by the boost of spirit power had indeed been sufficiently powerful. But it would have been even better if it hadn't tired him out after using it.
At the spot on the deck where the dog's dead body lay, the silvery light from the magic formation shimmered as it absorbed the dog. The magic formation looked almost human in the way it discreetly consumed it, as if it didn't want to catch anyone's attention.
The dog's body was quickly absorbed into the deck at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the whole process only took about half a minute.
The entire deck returned to its clean, squeaky state, as if it had been licked clean by a dog.
Zheng Yang regained some strength after sitting around for several minutes, and he was somewhat able to get up. When he did, he saw someone walking over to him with quick strides.