Just before leaving the inner cabins where the passengers were kept, Dan took one last look, his eyes falling on quite an entertaining sight. Marcus was walking around while being followed by a puppy, well, not really a puppy but an energetic young man who kept asking him about their weapons and different things on the ship. No matter how hard Marcus, who had his helmet hanging on his belt glared or tried to push him away, the young man kept on sticking to him.

  Dan had to stifle a laugh when he met Marcus's eyes. The man seemed less comfortable than when he found out that he had to face a crew of magical pirates. Shaking his head with a small smile, he turned around and started heading back the the bridge.

  "Captain, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," William said as they walked back to the bridge, one of their new passengers walking behind them, and old Raily keeping the rear a few steps behind him.

  Dan peeked at the man, who had a fascinated expression on as he kept glancing around. Dan couldn't help but smile as he saw that. There was nothing like watching someone experience the Voyager for the first time, especially in this new world, where the whole ship seemed to be something closer to a miracle.

  "What is it? And you think we should talk about it now," he answered as he tilted his head stealthily towards the man. The navigator they were bringing with them to talk to Keith.

  "Nothing urgent," William replied, before adding after thinking for a while, "I think, at least?"

  "Well, let's wait till we reach the bridge then," Dan didn't know what his chief engineer was going to say, but he felt that it would be best if they waited.

  "Okay.," William answered after considering it for a bit.

  They then walked for a while in silence. Dan noticed that the old man appeared to be in deep thought. Just as he was about to ask him what he was thinking so deeply about, the engineer lifted his head and looked at him

  "How are you dealing with all this though? It must be pretty hard for you."

  Dan turned and glanced at his old friend, the man had his usual gentle expression on, open and welcoming, with no judgment.

  Dan released a big breath, "You know how it is, right now, I'm just dealing with things as they come. My priority is making sure that everyone is safe and sound, and for us to survive here..."

  "I understand that Dan," the old man patted him on the back, "and I understand that you blame yourself for us ending up here... But that isn't the truth, who knows if that freak accident would have affected us even if we were in the port."

  "It's..." Dan didn't know what to say to that, a part of him was blaming himself for the mess they found themselves in, even if that didn't seem to make any sense, "I fear what I would do if something happened to any of you, I would never forgive myself."

  "Nothing will happen to us," William said with iron conviction, "and even if it does, it won't be your fault, so don't beat yourself over it, I would hate for something to happen to you too. We also worry about you, you should know that."

  Dan nodded at the old man, his words comforting and calming his heart.

  They soon made it to the bridge. Once they entered, the people inside lifted their heads towards them, their eyes falling on the navigator of the ship that had sunk, making him shrink within himself. Not letting the situation turn awkward, Dan searched the crowd, his eyes falling on the short haired woman, as he called:

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Keith, there you are," He beckoned his first officer closer, "this here is Rob, he is a navigator by class, see what you can get out of him."

  "Okay captain," Keith said, eyeing the young man as if she just got a new toy, "I know what I have to do."

  "Okay," Dan smiled as he lightly pushed the young man towards her, "good luck."

  Dan then turned to William to see what the man wanted to talk to him about, only to notice that the man wasn't next to him anymore. Looking around for a second he noticed him next to Robert, whispering something into his ear. Both men then stepped away and walked to him.

  "Captain, Robert was the one who noticed this first, and asked me to talk to you about it, when I get the time" William said, "Now that we are here anyway, I thought it would be best if he was here to discuss it too."

  "Okay, let's head out," Dan nodded to outside the bridge.

  "So what is it?" he asked once they were outside.

  "You know how our most pressing problem right now is fuel right?" Robert said after taking a bit of time to organise his thoughts, "So I have been keeping an eye on our fuel consumption as we moved and I noticed something quite alarming."

  Robert stopped here as he scratched his chin, his eyes turned to Dan, as if asking if he was with him so far. Dan gave him a nod to continue, his heart skipping a beat. He feared the worst, things would be horrible if they were losing more fuel than expected for some reason. He wouldn't even know what to do without enough fuel, they would be a sitting duck for anyone to come and steal.

  "Our fuel consumption is lower than it should be," Robert's words made Dan look up in astonishment as his shoulders relaxed before chuckling wearily.

  "Why would you do that to me? There was no need for you to word it as if it was going to be something bad."

  "Why so serious," Robert chuckled too, "you need to loosen up a bit."

  After the small intermission, Dan asked again:

  "So we are consuming less fuel? How could that happen.?

  "Yes, our consumption is around 25% less than it should be," Robert answered in all seriousness this time, "and that's not all, we also reached our speed without pushing the engines as hard as we should have."

  Dan was quite surprised, he couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed such a big difference. Though to be honest, it was unrealistic to expect him to keep an eye on everything in a situation like this with his mind already a mix of things fighting for his attention. Fortunately, he had a competent crew he trusted and who noticed what he hadn't.

  "Any idea why that is the case?" he asked. His first guess was that it must have been something to do with the system, and Robert's next words proved him to be right.

  "Yeah, I had some hypotheses, and when you went away I had time to check some of them," Robert was again scratching at his chin, "My first theory was, of course, the system. Must have been some skill or the like, you get me?

  "So, while you went to have fun with our new guests, I asked around if anyone had anything like that, a skill that lowers the consumption of fuel, makes the ship more efficient with it, or just makes it move through the water easier. And I found something interesting."

  "just stop with the theatrics, man, you are not an actor." William sighed from the side.

  "Sadly, that is," Robert sighed heavily, "the world lost a lot. That aside, I did find something interesting, some of us did have skills that made the ship consume less fuel and move easier through the water, but those weren't the source of the difference, it was something else instead. I guess you two haven't looked through your whole profiles yet? If you have, you would have noticed this too."

  Dan frowned as his mind went to his profile, thinking about what in it he hadn't gone through yet, and the answer presented itself easily.

  "Do you mean..?"

  "Exactly, it's titles," Robert clicked his fingers, "Each of us has titles that give different effects. Some of those effects aren't that big, but most, if not all of us have them, and it seems that they add up. Leading to what we have right now."

  Profile:

  Name: Dan Reeds

  Class: Bonded Captain

  Level: 02

  Skills: Skill Choice Available.

  -Personal Skills: Universal Translation.

  -Bonded Ship's Skills: Enshrouding Fog.

  Titles.

  Dan finally focused on Titles as a list appeared.

  Titles:

  -Veteran Sailor.

  -Veteran Captain.

  -Seafarer.

  -Trusted Captain.

  -Sea Dweller.

  -Pirates Survivor.

  -Void Sailor.

  -Kin of the Abyss.

  -Supreme Captain.

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