Dan walked casually to the meeting room, the slow morning was heaven-sent after what they had been through the day before.

  After surviving their episode with Sticky Reefs, they moved deeper into the ocean for a long time, changing their course constantly just in case anyone was still after them. Hours after moving like that, they decided that they had gone far enough and finally stopped the Voyager for the night.

  Of course, while all that was happening, William, the other Engineering officers, the deckhands and everyone who knew a thing or two about the Voyager were going around, making sure that nothing essential was hit by those spikes from before. Fortunately, it was all good and except for some auxiliary systems; like the water and waste pipes for some of the kitchens getting destroyed, nothing was harmed.

  They did have Voyager herself saying that nothing was off and that she was alright, but they needed to make sure for themselves. After all, there might be something small that could grow to be a huge problem later on, which she might not notice.

  Making sure that nothing major was compromised, they decided to rest for the night and leave dealing the aftermath to a meeting for the next day.

  As he walked, Dan thought about his skill choices and how hard aiming for a perfect 10 was proving to be. He had decided that he wouldn't take another skill before tier three, if it wasn't truly game-changing that is, and he was finding it quite hard to keep to that.

  From all that had happened, he had got 2 level-ups, one for taking down that stingray, and the other for facing the awakening of Sticky Reefs and coming out alive. He thought he would get more for the first one, but from how he had both the help of the Voyager and Old Raily, he should have expected it. The skill choices he got weren't there, and he ended up just skipping them. Looking at the bright side, it put him just one level away from the Voyager getting a skill at level 15, so it worked out in the end somehow.

  "Morning everyone." He pulled himself from his thoughts before greeting all those in the meeting room.

  Accepting their greetings, Dan took a glance around. The room had a mix between the original crew members of the Voyager and the family members, everyone who wanted and could join was there. Dan gave a smile as he shook his head lightly, he remembered how he gathered the original crew members and told them that they needed to protect the others who couldn't protect themselves, how quickly that had changed

  It had been been around the time when the Ghostly Lantern came after them that things had changed. After that night, there was barely any difference between the two groups as everyone realised that to survive, they needed to ignore their previous thoughts and work together for a small chance at survival. That night had been a wake-up call for many of them and had planted the seed for many of their future plans.

  "So," Dan said as he began the meeting, "Let's first start with how the Voyager is. William, how was she after your inspection this morning?"

  "Good," the old engineer went straight to his explanation, "She's healing, faster than ever before. I think you getting to tier two has pushed her even further on that path of self-healing. It shouldn't take us more than a couple more days to fix all those wounds she got yesterday. It didn't hurt that those spikes had a clear path and their damage was concentrated, imagine it like a needle or a thorn entering your body."

  "Yeah, just like thorns." Jackie shook his head with a chuckle. "She was plucking them just like those too."

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  Dan knew what he had meant, he had been there and also the one who asked for her help pulling the last few spikes she hadn't returned to the stingrays and putting them aside. Dan even knew that when she thought no one was watching, many were actually, she sneaked off a couple of them and put them in a secluded room. Thinking of it just as her being silly, he decided to let her have her fun and told the others to leave that room be.

  "Well, it's a plus for us that everything is good at least," Dan said, bringing the conversation back around and moving it to the next part, the most important one actually. "Now then, what are we going to do next, and where are we heading?"

  The room fell silent as no one hurried to answer. It was an extremely important choice that would shape their path for the foreseeable future and would either lead them to safety, or an even deadlier danger. Considering how even the seemingly safe Sticky Reefs turned out to be a living creature bigger than literal islands, Dan understood the hesitation and decided to help them by laying down the possible choices they could take.

  "Our first possible choice is turning around and hitting the Empire's waters again," he said as he looked at the people there one by one, "The advantage of this option is that we know the waters of the Empire the best amongst all the others. We have the most accurate maps for the area and we wouldn't need to worry about that side of the matter. The disadvantage, as I'm sure you know, is that the Empire must be on extreme alert after what happened with Sticky Reefs, and we must be a target of the highest priority for them at the moment. They might not be that hostile toward us, especially with how we helped with Sticky Reefs, but our weakness makes the situation tricky and hard to manage."

  Dan stopped for a second as he gave everyone the chance to consider what he had said before continuing,

  "Our second choice is heading to the Eastern Ocean. The weird phenomenon in that area, almost no wind and so no big vessels sail there, is a great boon to us; we don't care about wind at all and we wouldn't have to worry about most ships.

  "Now that was the advantage, the disadvantage is that unlike the Imperial Ocean and the waters of the Empire, we don't really know the waters of the Eastern Ocean that well, no one does really. The risk we would be taking by sailing into the unknown is a serious one. Plus, there are even skills that control the wind for a certain amount of time, so the advantage won't even be that effective against the ships of the strongest powers."

  Again Dan gave them the chance to digest what he had just said before continuing,

  "The third option is to go deeper into the Imperial Ocean and head to the Dynasty's waters. We know some of the routes from the many maps and books we bought from the black market, we are also not expected there so we should have a period before we are found. And finally, our relationship with that power should be the closest to being amicable.

  "I think that we have a big chance of growing some sort of relationship with them. And believe me, no matter how I would love for us to not contact any power or the like, I know that we can't do that. Eventually, we will need to introduce ourselves to the world, and having a relationship like that would be quite the advantage.

  "Now to the disadvantages of that option, the first and most obvious is how dangerous the trip there is going to be. Even with the routes we have, there is still a chance of meeting a Behemoth, a Kraken or some freak accident. Nothing is guaranteed about the truly deep ocean. The second point is how the Dynasty's apparent kindness might be just a lure to ensnare us. I might be too paranoid here but we are too weak not to consider all these possibilities and plan for them."

  Dan felt his mouth going dry from all that speaking, he felt that he hadn't talked that much in a long time. He took a sip from the cup in front of him before continuing,

  "This is an important matter that needs us to make a choice, all of us, so that's how we will do it, we will make a vote on it. Everyone will vote on which option we should go with, tell those who aren't here, we will vote during lunch."

  They then talked some more about a few things here and there before the meeting ended. A few hours later, at the Skyline, they had the vote. With more than two-thirds choosing it, their next destination was chosen.

  The Dynasty awaited them.

  IMPORTANT: as I said yesterday, we will be taking a few days off after the end of the vol, that means that the novel will return next Sunday. Have fun everyone, and see ya then~~

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