"Classes have tiers too?" William cut her off.

  "Not in the same sense as skills," Nulara answered. Dan noticed that she paused a bit before saying that. It seemed that the mage had caught up to the fact that they didn't know that much about the system. "In some rare occasions, Classes evolve. People don't really know why, but it's thought that it happens when your Class is no longer good enough for you, as in not in harmony with you. Some people call those Tiered Up Classes, even though they aren't really that."

  That's new... Dan thought as he shared a glance with William. None of the people they talked to before mentioned that. But again, it might have had more to do with the fact that they didn't know to ask the right questions, than it being something that was kept from them consciously.

  "Returning to what you asked," Nulara continued, "Sometimes the experience that one had before they reached the age of 15, before getting introduced into the system, was way higher than normal people, so they get one of these Tiered Up Classes as their first Class. It's rare though.

  "Some noble houses try to get those artificially by forcing their children through a hell of a training. That mostly never works though, the system seems to recognise it and doesn't give those Classes in most cases. Another thing they might try is getting the child to hold back on choosing a Class, having them gain even more experience first. But as you know, it's almost impossible to ignore a Class choice once it's given so that rarely works too."

  "The longer time you have to gain experience, the better and more suited your Class would be..." Dan heard his old friend murmur from the side.

  Dan understood what his friend was thinking about straight away. That was their state, every single one of them already had years of life experience before getting introduced to the system and getting their Classes. Most of them were professionals in their respective fields. He could only wonder how specialised their Classes were. Probably most, if not all, of them had Tiered Up Classes.

  "That's about it I think." Nulara thought for a bit more before saying. "It rarely happens though. So most people don't worry about it that much."

  Her words dragged Dan to the present as he remembered why they brought this up in the first place, so he asked,

  "So all who have those advanced Classes would find themselves with the problem we mentioned before? Their Classes being somehow more complicated than they should be?"

  If that is the case many more than just old William should have been dealing with that problem.

  "No, no," Nulara denied hurriedly, "It's not always the case. It's mainly for complicated and technical Classes."

  "So how do you deal with that problem then?" William couldn't stop himself and asked, "I doubt people would get punished by the system for getting those Classes."

  "From what I know," Nulara said hesitantly for some reason, "The system would be more generous in handing them skills they would need. Might even make it so they find it easier to grasp their current Class, giving them a buff when learning matters related to their Class."

  "Good, good." William nodded from next to him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Dan would have loved to get more info from the young lady, but he felt that they had pushed her quite a lot already. So, he thanked her for her time and stood up along with his chief engineer and left the Skyline. Dan again noted how tired and dispirited some of the people there looked, he considered bringing this up with the others, they couldn't let things remain like this for long, that would bring morale down.

  As they walked to the bridge, Dan finally had time to deal with something he had been ignoring for a while now, his skill choices. He had 4 of those to deal with and he didn't look into them yet. Deciding to wait till they made it to the bridge before he chose his skills, Dan ignored the system's notification for now.

  Greeting everyone at the bridge, Dan separated from William as he walked to the screen that Keith had linked her skill to. He wanted to see how the Swarmers were doing. What he saw on the screen the night before was something he doubted he would be able to forget for a long long time.

  "They are not as concentrated as it was last night," Robert, who was standing next to the screen, commented when he saw him walk towards it.

  When Dan looked into the screen, he realised that it was as Robert had said, there weren't as many Swarmers as there were the night before. Not that there were just one or two, though, they were still almost filling the whole screen, but that was still much better than at night, some blue could be seen here and there.

  Their light conversations made them wonder whether Keith's skill showed everything within a circle around them, or was more like a sphere with them as the center that went to the depths of the ocean.

  "Well, the only person who can answer that is asleep in her room." Robert smiled as he shook his head. "So there's no reason for us to worry about it. So that aside? How are you feeling today?"

  "I'm good." Dan shrugged as he moved away from the screen. "Better than some of our friends it seems."

  "You noticed too, huh?" Robert looked around, "That surprise attack and chase put everyone in quite the mood."

  "We should do something about that. We can't just have things continue as they are."

  "Honestly," Robert smiled conspicuously, "I was thinking of a party to raise morale. We are in a safe location right now, and we can have a night for ourselves. We have a whole cruise ship to ourselves, it would be a shame not to have some fun! All this doom and gloom is gonna get old real quick."

  Dan just looked at his chief officer as he opened his mouth, and he then closed it as he thought about it for real. It wasn't that bad of an idea. The Voyager was the best place to be if you wanted to just forget about the outside world and enjoy your time. It was true that with just a few people to man the facilities, they wouldn't get the full experience, but even though the passengers weren't that many, they could just have fun together as a group.

  "That might not be too bad of an idea, actually," Dan answered after he had thought over it for a bit, "We should look into that. Do a tour of the ship as we have fun, have Raymond and the others prepare us a great dinner, I heard him complaining about only serving heated leftovers, and maybe even have Diana do a show as a way to end the night. It could get people out of their current mood."

  "Oh." Robert looked almost surprised. "I was the one who brought it up, and I do feel that it's a good idea, but I didn't think you would go with it."

  Dan just smiled as he looked at the few individuals on the bridge and then looked back at his chief officer as he said,

  "It is a good idea, and that's why I decided to go with it, we need some distractions. Especially after last night... Might not have gone with it if you came to me with this yesterday or so, but that chase really destroyed morale a lot."

  "This is going to be fun!" Robert smiled, "I'm going to go and start the preparation for our party then. Mary and Diana are going to love this for sure."

  Dan chuckled as he saw his friend leave. He hoped this would help people calm their nerves and make them forget their new reality for a short while.

  Knowing that he wouldn't have the time for it for quite a while, Dan decided to deal with his skill choice. With a thought, he brought up his system.