Dan again realised just how long grinding for levels could be.

  Not being his first try at this, he wasn't as stressed about the situation and he found his aim stronger and his heart calmer, finding it easier to hit his targets. Actually, his aim was so good that he felt something else was at play. Looking at the thin, sickly looking man sitting at the centre of the tender, Dan felt that he might have something to do with it.

  That wasn't the only weird thing about the situation, the stingrays were keeping to the surface of the water way more than was normal. It wasn't just a feeling, George noted the same thing, saying that they were quite lucky.

  A bit curious, Dan contacted Keith and she said that the stingrays were circling their tender way more than the others'. Hearing that, Dan again eyed the man but he didn't say anything.

  Reaching level ten hadn't taken him long, Dan wondered if that had to do with how the Voyager took down those pirates, whether he got some experience from her action. If he got any, it either wasn't enough to push him to a level up, or it suffered a major deduction before reaching him, seeing how it was the Voyager who took them down, and he had minor contributions.

  Or it might have simply been the passive experience gained from being a captain. It pushed him close enough to a level up that an hour of grinding was all he needed.

  He skipped the level 10 skill choice, none of them were good enough to fill another of his very limited skill slots. Seeing how most of the others were already at levels 7 or 8 and yet with only 1 skill chosen, he felt that he needed to be even more careful with his own choices. At least, he shouldn't take another skill before hitting tier 2, tier 3 would be more acceptable, but he knew how hard holding on till then would be.

  After skipping the skill selection, the long grind continued. From time to time, someone would say that they got a level up, no new skills though, they were being extra careful with them too. Dan was the closest to the tier-up but it still felt far away.

  As he aimed at one of those stingrays, Dan wondered if it would have been better if they had a numerical value to the EXP they had and needed to level up. He guessed that would give them a target to work towards and they would be able to plan their hunts better. It was useless to think about it though, they didn't have any of that and were just hunting blindly.

  So the grind continued. Other than a small episode when Diana tried her skill over the Voyager's speakers, something they had already talked about, nothing else of importance happened.

  Diana's skill did wonders for them though, it was short, but the calm tone of her singing was something Dan didn't know he needed, he could feel his muscles relax, and his jaw unclench a bit. It seemed that even though he didn't feel it and he didn't really pay much attention to it, the continuous hours of hunting were affecting him.

  Glancing around, he noted how the others too relaxed their stances and shoulders. Clearly, he wasn't the only one who needed a bit of relaxation. Keeping that in mind, he decided to hit the gang with a pulse of Calming Aura once he noticed them getting stressed again.

  A few hours, and a use of Calming Aura later, Dan felt that it must be time to return to the Voyager for a small break. Bringing his walkie-talkie, he contacted Marcus,

  "Dan here," he said, "How are things on your side, anyone close to a tier-up? Over."

  "Quite a bit away from it," Marcus's voice sounded, "What about you? How are things on your side?"

  "Same here," Dan updated him on how things were going, "I'm the closest to it, only needing one level up, but I reached level ten hours ago and still nothing. What do you think, we return to rest and have lunch before returning? Over."

  "Yes, I was about to contact you for that, let's return and rest for a couple of hours."

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  With that, they turned around the tenders and headed back to the Voyager.

  The lunch break was welcomed, having a warm meal and some refreshing drinks before heading out to the midday sun was of great relief. The weather at that time of day wasn't that hot, but having the sun beating down on you the whole day was still quite an unpleasant experience, even though he was used to it.

  The weather around that time of the year was called the Calm, Dan heard some of the people mentioning it, it was a period known for its mild weather. They had brought some books that went deeply into the weather at the ocean and what they would expect from it, but he hadn't had the chance to go through them yet.

  Their break complete, they went back to the ocean and the grind began anew. Again, there were a few levels here and there, but no new skills were taken, and neither did he get to tier two.

  Dan felt it even before he got the notification from the system. A current passed through him, filling his whole body with a potent energy as he froze. His mind didn't register what had happened straight away, he just looked blankly for a few seconds. It didn't help that he felt the connection with the Voyager deepen, their consciousness linking deeper than they ever did. The connection between them was so strong that it felt like a wave went through his soul.

  Then the flood of notifications came, there were so many of them that it overwhelmed him. The combination of both what was happening to him internally and the notifications for the system made it so that it took him a short while before he realised what was happening.

  "I got it!" he shouted in amazement and happiness after bringing himself under control. They had been trying to reach the tier-up for the whole day and finally making it made him feel a rush of excitement.

  "Congratulations!" Ricky was the first to react, followed by all the others.

  "Dan here," Dan contacted Marcus as soon as the excitement went down a bit, "I've made tier 2, will be returning to the Voyager and having someone else take my place. Over."

  "Congratulations," Marcus's voice came through, "Be sure with your choices, we will talk later. Over."

  Ricky then turned the tender around as they headed to the Voyager. Along the way, Dan went over his experience. He doubted what he had been through was normal, from the amount of messages he got from the system to the soul wave that went through him, it didn't seem like something that many would experience. Deciding to look through his notifications and not dwell on that, Dan called the first one.

  As expected, it was a message from the system congratulating him on his achievement. He went through it fast before another one came up after he read and understood it.

  You have levelled up to level 11, you can either choose a new skill or raise the tier of one of the skills you already have.

  Dan didn't even hesitate as he chose to raise the tier of one of his skills. Choosing yes in the next window that asked if he was sure, Dan smiled once he saw that he could choose from either Calming Aura or Advantage, the order of acquisition didn't seem to matter, he could tier them up in whichever order he wanted.

  And then came the moment of truth, which of the skills to tier up? Calming Aura seemed like the clear winner at first, it was a skill that had seen a great deal of use and helped him keep his crew calm and collected many a time.

  There were many in his crew with similar skills though. Honestly, if Dan had a second chance, he might as well not choose it. At the time he didn't consider asking his crew if they had similar skills and he ended up filling up a precious skill slot.

  Advantage lost to Calming Aura in that it was a skill that only affected him, it diverged a bit from his plan for being a support type Class, focused on his crew and ship. That didn't mean that it was useless though, he was sure that the skill was the reason many of his adventures ended with him just a bit bruised and not in serious trouble.

  Controlling the dark and oppressive aura to deal with the undead creatures attacking them wouldn't have been the same if not for Advantage. The recent episode when he pulled a tiny bit of it inside of him to see if anyone was around also mattered, Advantage must have been pulling some serious weight back then.

  That was what sold him on his choice, the fact that if it was needed, many of the crew would be able to throw skills like Calming Aura around. If the need arose for him to take control of that oppressive aura for prolonged amounts of time, no one else could do that, and Advantage was the one skill that would help him through it.

  His choice made, Dan didn't hesitate as he locked in on it.

  Skill tiered-up Advantage.

  Tier 1 Advantage: As long as you're on your Bonded Ship, you will get strengthened in all aspects.

  Tier 2 Advantage: As long as you're on your Bonded Ship, you will get a x3 boost in all aspects.