In the past few days, Ray has visited the three inventors, and now he is traveling toward the fourth. But this fourth inventor, Felix, is going to be unique. He wants to create something that moves on water. He has been a fisherman for ages. He can dive under the water and fish or throw nets and use sticks to catch the fishes. His dream is to go on to the ocean and catch fish there.
Felix lives near the edge, where there is an ocean of water as a view. There are beaches and lands that can be seen. The breeze there is always cool and salty, brushing against the skin like a whisper from the sea. Felix taught a lot of fishermen how to hunt, but he hasn't found a way to stay afloat and catch fish before. Until he tried creating a raft, it could last a few hours before it got destroyed.
Then Ray came and gave him tons of brilliant ideas, and one of them was to create a boat the last time they met. When Ray came this time, he saw that there were lots of fishermen, and they were using boats to catch fish. Ray smiles seeing how his investments are earning him a small amount of money.
"Not bad," Ray murmured under his breath, watching the boats move across the water. "Looks like someone actually listened."
Although Ray invested so that Felix makes ships and submarines, he asked Felix to start making boats first and then go from boats to ships and then to submarines. He sees that his first-stage investment was successful. Ray is delighted to see that.
Felix was among the fishermen enjoying fishing by going in the middle of the water. The sun shimmered against the tide, making the small wooden boats glow golden. But then he sees that Ray is waiting for him at the shore.
"Ray?!" Felix shouted, standing up so suddenly his boat wobbled. "Hold on! I'm coming!"
He quickly rowed his boat towards Ray and happily introduced his boat and the other fishermen on the island.
"This one's mine," Felix said proudly, patting the side of the boat. "And these folks—well, they wouldn't be sailing without you."
Ray greeted them and enjoyed the wave a bit in the boat with the other fishermen. Ray sees that while they are fishing, they are using weapons to kill. Spears clacked against wooden hulls, and knives splashed into the water like falling stars. They have no idea how to use fishing tools like fishing rods and reels, and they are supposed to use bait to bring out more fishes.
Ray really thinks he went back to ancient times where nothing was invented. Everything and everyone is full of cavemen who need to be educated. He smacks his head.
"Why… why are you all stabbing the ocean?" Ray asked, eyes twitching.
Felix grinned awkwardly. "Old habits?"
Ray then asked Felix to take him to Felix's workshop. Felix thought Ray wanted to see the early experimentation on ships, so he agreed easily.
Felix's workshop was cluttered with blueprints, beams, half-broken prototypes, and the lingering smell of sawdust and seawater. Ray saw the charts and blueprints for ships. He also saw how the ship's equipment and broken experiments were here and there. They still need to calculate the perfect structure to create a ship.
"Your angle here is wrong," Ray said, tapping a blueprint. "And this support beam would break under pressure."
Felix leaned over. "Ah… that explains why the last one exploded."
Ray paused. "Exploded?"
Felix coughed. "…Tiny explosion."
Finally Ray started to give Felix the idea of how to create the ship using Ray's system. He then told Felix how to create a motor with magic and what will increase the speeds and all that. He also told Felix about the structure and the calculations by drawing on a blueprint. Felix enjoyed every bit of it and also learned more of it.
"You make it sound so easy," Felix said, eyes wide with excitement.
"It is easy," Ray said. Pause. "If you ignore the part where a wrong calculation sinks the whole thing."
But the most important thing he told Felix is that he started to help Felix create a fishing rod and taught him that many fish come for bait. So it took a few days to create fishing rods and teach Felix and the fishermen how to use the baits.
Ray even demonstrates to them how to fish using the bait. The fishermen watched with wide eyes as the fishing rod bent and Ray pulled out a large fish.
"How—how did you do that without stabbing it?!" one fisherman gasped.
Ray sighed. "Because that's the whole point of a fishing rod…"
When they saw how Ray easily caught fishes by staying on the boat and just using the fishing rod and bait. They got surprised and learned very well.
Seeing that Ray has done enough, he has stayed longer than he stayed in the past three inventors workshops. But he knows he had to stay since it was worth it. By fishing for some spiritual fishes, they could earn a lot of money by selling them and also help his cooking restaurants to run better.
Now Ray went to the final inventor's workshop that belonged to Ophelia. Ophelia has heard from the other inventors that Ray has visited their places, and she knows that Ray will come to her workshop. She is eagerly waiting but also feeling a bit guilty for Ray to come to her workshop. She is eager to show Ray her new invention, but she is also feeling guilty since the prince has actually used her weapon that she has invented on Ray.
She paced in her workshop, wringing her gloves. "What if he still hates me…?"
So she made sure that Prince Lucas is banned for life from the inventor guild as one of the five vice leaders. And the other four agreed to it. Ray has already banned Lucas from his product, but it seems the anger of the others was equally the same. They wouldn't allow such a bully, and that too to their leader they respect.
That wasn't the end of it; the inventor guild has made a screen out of Crystal Visions and highlighted it everywhere, showing that there is a new blacklist with only one person's name and picture on it. Prince Lucas's name and his picture.
People whispered loudly whenever they passed the glowing screen:
"So that's the guy?"
"He attacked one of them?"
"No wonder he's banned…"
People later got to know that the prince had attacked one of the members of the Inventor Guild, and that is why he had been banned from the Inventor Guild and was not allowed access to their land even.
When Lucas found out, he was absolutely devastated, and now he has become the bottom of the food chain in the royal kingdom. People with status avoid Lucas and do not want to interact with him unless they want to be banned as well by the Inventor Guild and lose all access and also might cause trouble for their family. Lucas now knew how much trouble he had caused and how many times he had been told by his queen mother to become friends with Ray. He is reaping what he has sown.
Anyway, now Ray, who has personally seen and felt the damage that Ophelia did. It is the magic gun that she has created, which has destroyed his silver stage formation and would have killed him if he hadn't dodged on time. He was extremely proud. But Ophelia was feeling guilty and kept on apologizing even though Ray had already forgiven her.
"Ray… I'm so, so sorry," Ophelia said, bowing deeply.
Ray raised an eyebrow. "Ophelia, I've told you a hundred times—it's fine. Really!"
"It almost killed you!"
"Yes, but it didn't. And honestly…" Ray smirked. "The power was impressive."
Ophelia blinked. "You're impossible."
Ray finally gave Ophelia a few hundred magic chips, which had been created by his matrix using runes. This will help Ray and Ophelia to have control so that no one can use it against them. It has the same function as his wristwatch.
She held the chips carefully, almost reverently. "With this… no one will ever misuse my work again."
"Exactly," Ray said. "It's your creation. You deserve to control it."
Then Ray stayed for a few days with Ophelia and discussed more about different kinds of weapons that Ophelia could make and then finally decided to leave and go home. The tension between them faded into pure excitement as they sketched new ideas late into the night, the workshop glowing softly with magical lights.