"It is weird," Marcus said as he tapped his finger on the table they were sitting at, "And I doubt weird things in this world would lead to anything good."

  "Yes." Robert nodded from the side. "We've achieved all we wanted, no? I think it wouldn't be too bad if we left?"

  "We did achieve all we set out to do," Dan said, "Nothing is holding us from leaving at this very moment."

  "Okay, it's decided then," Marcus said as he stood up, "We will be leaving as soon as the sun sets, we will be getting ready for the coming trip. Anything else we need to keep in mind?"

  Dan thought a bit more and just shook his head, there was nothing else that needed them to tend to, so he remained silent.

  "Good," Marcus said before focusing on Dan, "We need to focus our efforts on you now."

  "Me?" Dan said reflexively. He didn't expect Marcus to bring the conversation back to him.

  "Yes," Marcus said, "You're one level away from the Voyager getting a new skill, right?"

  At Dan's nod, he continued,

  "That's what I mean. I doubt we are going to have another chance like this any time soon, so we should make the best of it and get you to level 12. Who knows, the next skill we get might as well be another game-changer like Aura Appendages."

  "Okay," Dan didn't hesitate to agree, "We head out there now?"

  "We don't have much time," Marcus started walking as he talked, "Today is our last here and we've already lost quite a few hours, better not waste any more."

  Following the short chief security officer, Dan watched as the man brought his walkie-talkie and started contacting people to be ready and to meet him at the disembarkation point.

  On their way to the open waters, Dan found them passing by a series of weird rooms at the stern of the Voyager. Those rooms weren't right next to each other, but every few doors, one of them would appear that was obviously very different from the ones before.

  Those doors led to the few specialised rooms they had decided on making after a meeting with all the others.

  The rooms they had decided on were an Alchemy room for Linda, a Forge for the young man and Luke, and a Saferoom at the heart of the Voyager, and finally, a suite that had been reworked to a Magical Workshop for William, Rose and Jackie to work their crafts. That last one was the one that used the most materials, but it had been taken into account in the list they took with them to the black market, which meant that they even had a surplus since the skill had a 25% discount on materials.

  They still had two other slots they could use, but they decided against it as they weren't in great need of any other rooms at the moment. Plus, who knows, after the next tier up, they might get another discount, so holding onto them might just save them more materials.

  There was a reason why those specialised rooms were chosen. The first one they decided on, without any arguments from anyone at all, was the Alchemy room. They all knew how important that room could be for their future, and that realisation only grew stronger after they got Linda some books about alchemy and recipes. The book was expensive, but it was worth it due to the recipes that were in it, the healing potion being the most important of all.

  Just that one potion made that room a must-have. The Voyager did have Fleta, and Jackie did say that if it came to it, he might be able to do some rituals for healing and helping with recovery, but those potions would help way more than that.

  The second room they had decided on in that meeting was the Forge. There were some arguments here and there about whether they should go for it or not. The source of the argument was mainly how the young man would most likely be the one to use that room the most. Of course, there was Luke and he might make use of it, but it would be a waste, his Class wasn't a Blacksmith, he was a Metal Sorcerer, and though he might be of help in the Forge, he wouldn't be the one leading the production.

  In the end, it was decided that they needed the Forge and the young man was already a part of their small crew, and they needed to let him do what he did best.

  The Forge was chosen for a few reasons, the first of which was that they were aiming for the ability to produce ammo, not just reload the spent casings. For that, they needed someone who could make them from scratch, they were sure that in the future, Luke would be able to make thousands of them with the wave of a hand, but they needed them now, and the only person who could make what they needed amongst their crew was their guest.

  Another of the main reasons also had to do with production, they needed to produce more weapons. More AKMs and who knows, maybe even weapons that were better than the ones they were working with. Those needed the metal to be strong and precise, and again, none of them but the young man could do that.

  The Saferoom was one they hadn't decided on before, it was something that Dan thought of after he had the civilian staff of the Voyager hide at the heart of the huge ship from any projectiles. Taking that into account, they chose one of the bigger rooms alongside the centre of the Voyager, and designated it as a Saferoom. It was plated with a thick layer of metal and had access to both water, food and air. It was a room prepared in case they got into a fight with ships that had stronger cannons than their last opponent.

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  The fourth and final room was one they had decided on ages before, the Magical Workshop was almost like a big hall with many smaller rooms connected to it, which is why they turned one of the Voyager's many suites into one. Their production Classes needed a place like that, a place for Jackie to do his experiments and make his charms, for William and Francis to work on their newest projects and prototypes and for Rose to work on her rune schemata.

  All in all, Dan was quite happy with how their productions were going and what the Voyager was growing towards, a self-sufficient system that would operate independently from the other powers in the world.

  Of course, they weren't truly self-sufficient as they were still getting their raw materials from the shore, but Dan could see a future where they could get all they needed from the ocean and islands on the unexplored routes.

  They soon left for the waters, Dan, Marcus, George, Ricky as a pilot, Natalie and Martin as their supports.

  They had decided to bring both the supports instead of just one of them because in those days, they had realised a bit about how the skills of their supports worked. Diana's was already known for how her songs affected the people, Natalie's words were also clear and straightforward. Martin's skills and Class were still a mystery but they had their own guesses about what they did.

  Whatever group the man was part of, their tender would always have way more stingrays around it, and they would be closer to the surface and the tender itself. Marcus thought that having both him and Natalie on this last hunting trip was the best course for their operation, it would give them the optimal chance of getting Dan to level 12 and scoring them that skill for the Voyager.

  As the hunt started, Dan realised once again, just how much he hated the process. If not for the pressure of being on a time limit and in a dangerous world with the possibility of ending up as slaves if they didn't play their cards right, he would be content with the passive EXP they were getting from doing what their Classes expected from them. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and Dan had to step up and push himself for those levels. Especially with how he was linked to the Voyager and the skills she got were quite important and potent for their group.

  It didn't help that due to Advantage, Dan was starting to develop a serious hate for leaving the Voyager. While on his Bonded Ship, he was a superhuman, in strength, reflexes and stamina. He was barely feeling tired at the end of his days and his body was the best it had been in years, possibly ever. The fact that he lost all that whenever he left the Voyager, feeling all that energy and power leave him, was making those hunts doubly boring and tiring.

  Lowering his gun as he rolled his shoulders, Dan looked at George and the others around him, he wondered how they could do it. The guards were always out there ever since they got to Sticky Reefs, they were with each group that went down to hunt, protecting them and hunting themselves.

  That did mean that they were the highest levelled in the whole of the Voyager, though. He knew that George was closing in on level 15 a few days ago, and the others weren't that far off either.

  Due to the help from two tier-two supports, their hunting went optimally. The stingrays were all around them and they just kept to the surface. Their attacks were also extremely potent and they didn't need to waste any shots. Things were as perfect as could be.

  Something kept their spirits down though, just an hour or so after they left the Voyager, Keith contacted them and said that the pulse hit again. Dan was sure that that shouldn't have been the case as it had only been 2 hours at most since the last one.

  That wasn't the last of it though, an hour or so after that, she contacted them again, saying that the pulse was back. Half an hour later, it was the same, the pulse was back and the stingrays were showing signs of agitation, they even noticed it with their own eyes, how they seemed to be moving faster.

  After that pulse, it started coming once every 10 minutes.

  Dan could feel the air all around them growing more and more tense. His hands were sweating and he was finding it hard to concentrate. Something was happening, and they didn't know what it was.

  Fortunately, it didn't take them long before he eventually hit level 12. It was just 20 minutes or so after Marcus put a deadline on their mission, saying they couldn't continue with their hunt with whatever was happening out there.

  "I've made it," Dan said. His voice didn't even have the excitement he thought he would have, just relief at finally being able to return to the Voyager.

  "Good." Marcus also didn't have the time to congratulate him, he just turned to Ricky and said, "Take us back, be fast."

  As the tender started moving, Dan brought up his notification. Ignoring the possibility to choose a skill, Dan tiered up Calming Aura straight away. He had a glance at what it could do at tier 2.

  Before at tier 1, it calmed down those of his crew who were in a radius of 10 meters around him for 20 minutes and had a 4 hours cooldown, after the tier-up, it had a range of 25 meters, lasted for 50 minutes and its cooldown got lowered to 2 hours. All in all, a good tier-up, Dan didn't really care much for it though, at the moment he only had eyes for what the Voyager got. With a thought he brought up the Voyager's skill choice,

  Bonded Ship's skill choice:

  Armoury.

  Having been at the receiving end of many of them before, the Voyager understood how dangerous cannons and weapons could be, she hopes this skill will be as useful as she thinks.

  Tier 1 Armoury: put a cannon, or similar weaponry, along with its ammo in an empty room and the Voyager would move it to her armoury. When needed she would be able to move those weapons to any empty room on her and shoot them from there.

  Tier 2 Armoury: put a cannon, or similar weaponry, along with its ammo in an empty room and the Voyager would move it to her armoury. When needed she would be able to move those weapons to any empty room on her and shoot them from there. Raises the number of weapons available for the Voyager to control. Raises their firepower, reloading speed, and lowers the teleportation cooldown.

  Releasing a sigh of relief at the fact that the Voyager's skills worked as expected; getting tiered up as soon as he acquired them, Dan focused again on what the skill did.

  It was good, more than good, it was the first purely offensive skill the Voyager got. Aura Appendages could be used for offence, but at its heart, it wasn't an offensive skill, it was a versatile utility skill.

  The only thing that put a wrench on his happiness with it was that, just like with Specialised Rooms, they needed to provide cannons or similar weaponry, and they had none of those. It wasn't really an ability they could use at the moment.

  "It's a good skill," Marcus said after Dan told them what he got, "We can try and hit a town to see if we could buy some cannons or maybe build our own, that will have to wait for later though. I don't like this, I want to leave right now, no waiting for nightfall."

  "I had the same idea." Dan nodded. "I don't want to take my chances with whatever is happening in Sticky Reefs."

  Dan pulled his walkie-talkie to contact the Voyager, having them start preparation for the coming retreat.

  "Emergency!" Keith's voice came through the speakers before he could contact her though, full of panic, "We have two red dots heading towards us!"