At first, Dan didn't think much of Advantage's tier-up, it wasn't something that affected him straight away, he even felt that it was underwhelming. That didn't remain the case for long though.

  As soon as he set foot on the Voyager, he felt as if he had gotten a concentrated dose of caffeine, his mind became faster, his eyes clearer, his sense of smell, his hearing, everything felt as if it was pushed to an unbelievable point.

  As he stood there looking at his hands in amazement, he remembered something. The tier 1 Advantage only said that he would get strengthened in all aspects while on his bonded ship, only after he tiered it up did it show a numerical value. He guessed that before, the strengthening was there, but it didn't reach the point where it could be mentioned as doubling. The tier up skipped doubling and went straight to tripling all aspects of himself.

  It also wasn't lost on him that happened after he got the strengthening from tiering up. The tier-up's augmentation was already potent enough that he sensed it, add Advantage's effect on top of that, and he might as well be one of the strongest in the ship physically. He wouldn't be surprised if he was 4 times the man he was on earth, in all aspects.

  "Captain?" a hesitant voice called him from the side, "Is everything alright?"

  "Oh, sorry, Kathy." He smiled at the Helping Hand, "It's just a skill I have that took me by surprise."

  "Glad that you're alright." She smiled back at him.

  Waving her goodbye, Dan started walking. His mind called the rest of the waiting notifications. He knew what they were and that brought with it many more questions, some answers to a few of his earliest musings about the system and how it was going to deal with the Voyager's skills.

  As expected, those notifications were for the Voyager's four skills. All of them had tiered up. Unlike normal tier up, neither him nor the Voyager needing to choose one.

  That answered that bit, but also added a few questions, like what would happen after level 27 when the Voyager would get her 10th skill? Would she be blocked from a perfect 10, or would she have 33 tier 10 skills if he made it to tier 10 himself?

  Discarding all that because he had no way to deal with it anyway, Dan focused on what truly mattered at the moment, taking a look at the tiered skills and understanding what they had to work with.

  Calling the first notification, Dan read the descriptions,

  Skill tiered up, Enshrouding Fog:

  Tier 1 Enshrouding Fog: conjures a thick fog that covers every part of the ship, hiding it from sight and lowering the chance of being discovered.

  Tier 2 Enshrouding Fog: conjures thick magical fog that covers every part of the ship, hiding it from sight, people subconsciously ignore the fog and what it hides.

  Not much changed in that skill, at least not in the description, what the skill did had a major change though. Before, the skill only relied on the fog itself, just normal fog covering the ship. After the tier up though, the effect was magical, the fog wasn't normal anymore, it made people ignore it subconsciously.

  Satisfied with what the tier up brought for Enshrouding Fog, Dan moved to the next system message, bringing up the window,

  Skill Tiered up, Linked:

  Linked: links selected members of your crew to the ship.

  Dan felt a bit confused as he read that description, it was different from his first two experiences with skills tiering up. The first two showed him the skills' description both before and after the tier up, making it easier to spot what was different. Linked though, it only showed him one description, and it was the old one, it didn't even change.

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  Dan thought for a second and had a guess, it might have to do with how the skill didn't change at its core, and only the number of people the Voyager could link to increased. That seemed to be the most reasonable possibility, and knowing whether it was correct or not was easy, he only had to ask the Voyager about it.

  Deciding to deal with the last two skills the Voyager had first, Dan called the next notification,

  Skill Tier up, Specialised Rooms:

  Specialised Rooms: By providing the needed materials and putting them in a room of your choice, Specialised Rooms can be made. Alchemy Labs, Magical workshops and Forges! Whatever room you need can be made.

  Specialised Rooms: By providing the needed materials and putting them in a room of your choice, Specialised Rooms can be made. Alchemy Labs, Magical workshops and Forges! Whatever room you need can be made. Raises the number of rooms to make, and lowers the needed materials for the rooms by 25%.

  Once he read the tiered skill's description, Dan felt as if he was extremely lucky for not using the skill before. Just like that, they saved 25% of the materials they would have used. Part of him even wondered if they should wait till tier 3 to use the skill, the materials needed might get discounted even more. He discarded it soon though, they didn't have the time for that, many of those rooms were ones that they needed to make as soon as possible.

  Moving to the last tier up notification, Dan brought it up,

  Skill tier up, Aura Appendages:

  Tier 1 Aura Appendages: Control your aura as appendages extending from you, using it for whatever you feel like. Makes the control easier as well as expands the aura's range. The appendages take the attributes of your aura.

  Tier 2 Aura Appendages: Control your aura as appendages extending from you, using it for whatever you feel like. Makes the control even easier, doubles the previous range and appendages. The appendages take the attributes of your aura and strengthen the effects of the attributes.

  What Aura Appendages got from the tier up was clear from the skill's description, there was an emphasis on making the control easier and doubling the previous range and number of limbs. Those were all easy to understand and straightforward, the last bit was confusing though.

  Even after having the skill for so many days, and seeing it being used by the Voyager; at one point she even used it to lift a tender he was on, Dan still had no idea what that bit about attributes meant at all.

  It seemed that each aura had attributes, and their effects were different from one to the other. He had no idea what the Voyager's were though, they didn't even have any clue about that.

  Adding it as something else to ask the Voyager about later, Dan finally dismissed the last of the tier-up notifications. He felt lighter as he walked to the bridge, and it wasn't even because of Advantage, tier 2 was a small milestone in the grand scheme of things, but it was still a goal they had set for themselves, and they were finally achieving it. It was as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders, and he could barely hold himself from smiling.

  "Captain, congratulations!" Keith said with a huge smile as soon as he entered the bridge.

  "Thanks a lot." He smiled back at everyone who followed her in her congratulations. "Here's to your tier-ups next!"

  "I'm looking forward to it!" Keith said. Dan could see her anticipation plain on her face.

  It wasn't lost on Dan how much Keith was into the system and all its aspects, she was one of those who seemed to be taking things quite well even then at the beginning.

  "How are the others doing?" Freddie asked from the side, "Do you think that they are going to hit tier 2 soon?"

  "From those who were with me," Dan thought for a bit before answering, "George might do it. He levelled up 3 times in the time it took me to level twice. Some of the others only levelled once through all that."

  The Otherworldly Soldier's rate of levelling up was quite surprising for Dan. When they started their hunt, he was at level 7 while Dan was at 9, when Dan made it to level 11 and tier 2, the soldier was already in level 10, just one more level up from tier 2.

  "You think it has to do with his Class?" Robert, who had been just listening from the side, interjected, "He is getting EXP both from doing things related to his Class and from killing monsters. I also wouldn't be surprised if his Class has some innate multiplier for killing anything that's not from Earth."

  "I thought the same too." Dan nodded.

  He talked with them for a bit more before sitting down and starting on something that he wanted to do ever since he made it to tier 2, contacting the Voyager. He had felt the link between them grow and wondered what that meant for her, he was looking forward to the coming conversation.

  "Hey, Voyager," he called, "How are you feeling? Is everything well on your side?"

  Dan waited for the warm aura to start rushing towards him, but that never happened, it remained as calm as it always was, when the Voyager wasn't using it that is. Just as he started wondering if anything was wrong, he felt something call to him at the edge of his consciousness,

  Hey, Dan!!