It wasn't a voice exactly, he heard no sound and he didn't know what it sounded like, it was more of a sentence sent straight to his mind. It wasn't bland though, attached to it was a mix of emotions that made it clear what the Voyager meant to convey.

  "Voyager!" Dan found himself exclaiming in happiness as he smiled, "You can speak!"

  It's hard, she sent him, the words mixed with a bit of strain.

  "It's still great," he said as he waved the others, who were staring at him, off. "This makes things so much easier. You're growing fast big girl."

  Just a bunch of happy and excited emotions were sent his way this time, and Dan found himself smiling at how she reverted to that.

  "Any other changes you feel?" he continued with his questioning, "What happened after the tier up?"

  There are changes, she sent slowly, I see better, feel more and further.

  "That's good to hear." Dan patted the wall next to him. "We will have to go deeper into that later."

  Getting her agreement, Dan thought back to what he wanted to ask about before saying,

  "I wanted to ask you about how many people you can link to now?"

  Another three, she answered quickly this time.

  "So five in total." Dan nodded slowly. "That's good, three more could let us mess around with Linked."

  "What about Specialised Rooms," he continued, "How many can you make right now?"

  Six in total. Dan again found himself smiling at her reply, he didn't know if she was imitating him, or if it was just a coincidence. That he could feel some pride, towards how she spoke rather than the answer, gave him an inkling about which of those it was.

  "That's great," he said, "Those skills are so good, thanks, Voyager."

  As he felt the happiness coming from her, Dan thought about what else needed to be brought up. Looking around, and noticing the many dead screens, something came back to him as he said,

  "Oh right, can you release some of the cameras and scanners? It would be great if you could."

  Not yet, she sent after a long amount of time, it felt that making long sentences wasn't easy for her, I can't use them if I release them. I can release them for a bit?

  Dan raised an eyebrow at that. It seemed that she still wasn't strong enough to use them while having them operational. From how she said it, it could be achieved in the future though. Still, just letting them have access to them if they wanted was good enough.

  "You use them to see the world, right?" he asked, trying to make sure, even though he was almost 100% sure that it was the case.

  Yes, she sent her agreement, I hate the dark.

  From the emotion she sent as she said Dark, Dan felt that she wasn't just talking about darkness. He guessed that the cameras and scanners must have been the best way to see the world.

  Knowing that the Voyager could let them have limited access to the different scanners when needed, and that after growing stronger, she could both have them be operational while also under her control, was a good enough answer to that point, so Dan moved to another thing that needed to be known and tested.

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  "What about your aura? How far can you extend and shrink it?"

  After that question, the Voyager took her time to answer, the longest amongst all the others before. Dan wondered if it was because she was experimenting with it, but a quick look at the screen with Keith's skill told him that no such changes had happened.

  Way more than before, she finally said. Dan waited for her to say more, but nothing else was added. Just that some hesitation was included with the words themselves.

  A bit confused about what happened, he realised what the reason might be after some thought. The Voyager most likely didn't have a way to let him know how much she could extend and shrink her aura without demonstrating it, he doubted she knew about meters after all. He also knew that she wouldn't just start experimenting with her aura, considering what had happened last time.

  "It's alright, Voyager," he said with a smile, "Let us go and test it out, I'll talk to the others about it."

  Okay!! she sent, relief and excitement cloaking her words.

  "Keith, can we talk for a second," he called his first mate.

  "What is it, captain?" She looked at him, dragging her gaze from the empty air. She was most likely keeping an eye on the tenders with her skill.

  "I'm going to have the Voyager start extending and shrinking her aura," he said as he took his walkie-talkie, "I will contact both Marcus and Old Raily, be prepared."

  "On it," she said.

  Dan then contacted the groups out on the tenders, updating them on what they were going to do. Getting clearance from them, and that they were ready, he focused again on the link between him and the Voyager.

  "Hey, big girl," he said gently, "We are ready, you can go on!"

  Okay! There was a sense of anticipation to her message and Dan found himself smiling.

  "It's moving, 99 meters, 98 meters..." Just like the last time, Keith gave a live update on the current range of the aura.

  Once it reached the previous limit, 89 meters, Dan found himself holding his breath even though he knew that there was no chance that it would stop there, but he still couldn't help it. As it kept on going, Dan felt himself relaxing.

  Reaching 70 meters he got quite surprised, he hadn't really expected it to drop that far down, but it just kept on going.

  "64 meters, 63 meters," Keith kept on going, "62 meters. It's finally slowing down..."

  In the end, the Aura reached just a bit more than 60 meters.

  "Big girl," Dan called to the Voyager, "Is it hard for you? Can you hold it like this for long?"

  Yes, a bit tired, but can go on for long!

  "That's enough." He nodded. "Let's try to extend it as far as you can now."

  Again, just like the last time, the Voyager was able to extend the aura as far as she was able to retract it, in the end, it hit just a bit less than 140 meters. Satisfied with the results, Dan nodded as he had the Voyager return it to its original radius before telling her how good she did.

  Dan didn't know how useful this new ability of hers was going to be, but he was sure that they would find a use for it. Just being able to hunt from the top of the Voyager without worrying about anything else was already a good enough reason, and he was sure that there were many others they could come up with eventually.

  And just like that, Dan spent the rest of the day talking with the Voyager and keeping up with the groups grinding for levels outside.

  A few hours later, just as the sun was about to set, and the groups were about to return, Dan's walkie-talkie suddenly came to life,

  "George here. Over," the voice of the Otherworldly Soldier said from the other side.

  "I hear you loud and clear. Over," Dan replied, expecting them to be contacting him to say that they were about to return to the Voyager. What he got instead was,

  "I've made it to tier 2, over."

  "Congratulations!" Dan said after he got rid of his surprise, he found himself standing up in excitement.

  "Thank you," George said, "I have tiered up Bind Weapon. I would have gone with Xeno-Hunter, but I have a few experiments I want to try with Bind Weapon, hopefully, they are going to go as well as I think they would. Over."

  "That's good," Dan said through the walkie-talkie, "So you're returning to the Voyager? Over."

  "Yes, all of us are, I've already talked to Marcus and he thinks that it's about time to stop for now, we are returning. Over."

  They had already spoken about whether they should go out hunting at night or not, after all, it was a known fact that most of those ocean monsters were nocturnal creatures, hunting at night would give them way more targets than during the day. They decided against it though, it was too much of a risk and they worried about what might happen if they attracted something they couldn't deal with outside of the Voyager.

  "Okay, we will be waiting for you. Over," Dan said as he cut the line.

  With that conversation complete, Dan just leaned back into his chair as his lips rose slowly. It was just their first day in the Sticky Reefs, and just two groups went down to grind, and yet, they already had three of their crew reach tier 2. They were growing, slowly but surely, they were growing stronger and getting ready for whatever the world might throw at them.