According to the charts, the mission was a long ways away, 177 nautical miles in total, but with plenty of time to get there in seven days, Raine and the crew were perfectly on time.
Of course, this is where the advantages of having a larger crew come into play.
Terry, Avril, Armin, and Arsan could take turns operating the hand-cranked thrusters, and with four people working in shifts, no one would be too tired to sail 30 nautical miles in a day and arrive well within the time limit.
"Hey, why isn't anyone controlling the rudder, Captain, you just take control of the rudder, and we'll crank the thrusters." Terry said.
At that very moment, a human male voice suddenly sounded from the empty bow, "I'll take control of the rudder."
Raine's sudden appearance, or well, announcement, startled the Terry family, and all three people looked at Avril in horror, "Captain, who is speaking? Is this... is this a ghost ship?"
"Ghost my ass!" Raine said nonchalantly, "I am this ship, and I am also the captain and helmsman of this ship."
His new crew members' eyes almost popped out of their sockets as they looked at Avril for a rational explanation, but Avril simply nodded at them.
"Avril, talk to them. How can they be my crew when they're scared of this little encounter!"
Avril was more than enough qualified to communicate with them. When she had just heard Raine's voice for the first time, she was scared half to death too, it was only her sadness that caused her to not act so exaggeratedly.
After some talking, the three finally understood what was happening.
"Well, now you understand, don't worry, I'm just a boat. I'm not going to eat you. Why are you so nervous?" Raine said lightly, "You are also my crew now. I hope we can work together in this Azure Era. Only when we are strong ourselves can we live better!"
"Aye... aye, Captain," Terry replied warily.
Raine didn't want to enlighten them further and continued, "Arsan, did you get hungry? I have some dried fish here. You can eat first and catch more if you don't have enough. There is no reason for my crew to go hungry."
"Captain, but..." said Arsan hesitantly, "I may be a bit of a big eater."
"I know. You're currently mutating."
"Mutating?!" The whole crew gasped in disbelief.
Raine said blandly, "The sea monster you encountered the other day may have been a mutated female that had come into contact with Arsan, causing changes to Arsan's body. You don't have to worry. Her mutation is benign and not contagious."
"Really? Arsan, you... you've really mutated?"
Arsan knew that her body was undergoing some wonderful changes, but she had been too afraid to tell anyone for fear of being driven away. Now that Raine had said this, she felt relieved.
"Captain, am I really benignly mutated?"
"Eh, your strength is growing, and the cells in your lungs are dividing so quickly that they could potentially develop into fish gills."
"I can't believe it's a diving mutation, great! Arsan, we've got a mutant in the family now too!"
Raine looked at the happy group. It seemed that people didn't care too much about their fellow human's appearance much now. They were more interested in evolving their ability to adapt to survive in this world.
And besides, what was the point of looking good and not being able to survive? It was more practical to have something useful, especially for these civilians.
In the two days that followed, the Arsan family gradually became less afraid of Raine, and the fact that Raine could actually tell that Arsan was evolving somehow made them trust the peculiar Captain even more.
Avril told them some precautions, such as not revealing the Captain's identity when there were people, and according to Raine, when there were people around them, everyone still called Avril the Captain.
The Arsan family said yes repeatedly and resolutely.
The group had to stop along the way to catch fish because of Arsan's heavy appetite, but they still made it in time.
Seven days later, Raine finally arrived at the Mississippi market and completed the transport mission.
Avril got another white pearl, and their total wealth came to 4 white pearls!
Raine had previously used seven timber units in a very extravagant way to build the simple cabin. At this point, with the increase in the crew, he had built a seawater purification unit, so Raine was now three white pearls short of buying enough timber for his evolution.
After a day's stay in Mississippi, they never received a mission, and thinking about what Goldwell had said earlier, Raine turned around and headed back to Morgan's Trading Post.
......
Goldwell was not a bad person, though his eyes were a bit lustful. He couldn't stop looking at Avril while picking out the rest of the assignments for them.
Understandably, it's rare to see a woman with even some beauty at sea. So if you can't eat it, at least you can see it.
A month later, they finally had seven white pearls when Avril was paid for their latest mission!
Raine immediately moved the boat, headed to the trading area, and purchased 70 timber units.
"No rush now, go somewhere no one will be at during the night!" Raine lowered his voice.
Avril immediately complied and waited until night, when all the boats around them had extinguished their fires, before they quietly left the trading market and headed off into the distance.
It was the first time the family had seen such an amazing sight, the huge amount of wood being cut, sanded, polished, and pieced together with unimaginable speed. On the other hand, it was Avril and White who looked almost as excited and anticipatory as Raine.
"Wow, look at this keel. It's at least seven or eight meters long! It's so thick!"
"The hull is so spacious, at least three meters tall! My goodness!"
"The craftsmanship is perfect, the mortise and tenon inlay is tight, not a single gap... Wow, what is that? A self-contained cabin? It's so spacious!"
These were not Raine's words but Avril's, and Raine grimaced. Avril had stolen all his lines!
But Raine had come to trust Avril after all this time. She was a good-hearted, trustworthy, intelligent and capable girl.
"Hey, also beautiful, but I can't do..." Raine let out a long sigh.
"Eh? Captain, what are you talking about?"
"Nah, nothing. I said you're smart and capable."
"No, you just said I couldn't do it. How come I can't do it?"
"Uh... You can do it. It's me that can't do it, all right?"
"No, you are our Captain. You can do it too. You can do anything!"
Raine's heart was in agony. He's a boat. How can he do it!?
Without Raine's bleeping, the system was getting lazy, and it took eight minutes to finish building the new ship.
New ship construction completed, his consciousness and items were transferred, and the small double-plank ship was recycled.
With a shoo, Raine and the others had already transferred to the new ship.
"Open the info menu. I want to see my new overpowered ship!"