Kai found himself on the bridge for the first time since boarding the ship.

It was a busy, beautiful, multi-floored room that rose from the bottom of the ship right up to the top.

In front of him a glass-panelled wall ballooned out of the front of the ship and covered both the floor and ceiling of the room. It provided a wide panoramic view of everything in front of the ship, especially from where they stood, waiting to be addressed, on a central platform that extended out into the middle of the room.

There were even panels that had been placed to cover the back walls of the bridge that presented a live projection of the angles that were otherwise blocked by the body of the vessel.

The whole thing came together to give the effect of some steampunk greenhouse where no matter where you are working, you could look around and see the world outside around the ship.

The only thing wrong with that thought was Kai had seen no evidence of anything being powered by steam. Sure, there were a lot of brass-looking fittings and fixings, but no pipes, valves or gauges. At least not in a design language he recognised. For all he knew, they could transport water through string using mana or use one stone and somehow transport it to another with no physical connection between them.

So steampunk as a comparison only gave you an idea of the aesthetic; he supposed that manapunk was the most apt comparison. They certainly had the Victorian-era uniforms… But he had seen no one with goggles, a monocle or even a pocket watch… Well, pocket watches would be pointless with everyone walking around with the system to track time.

Why mages chose to wear robes and late-era mediaeval armour was still a thing he didn't know. Could be because of dungeon rewards… And the armour might actually be more Renaissance era; his armour skills hadn't given him any insight into when or where certain types of armour came. There was the fact he was on a different world; any comparisons he makes could simply be aesthetic.

Maybe…

He was jabbed in the ribs by Alicia's rather tough, bony elbow.

"Ouch, be careful with those," he hissed and rubbed his ribs.

Stupid stat points, making pretty little el'viairen woman a viable threat in the prodding department.

He was jabbed again as Alicia coughed to get his attention.

His head shot forward towards the short little old dwarven lady.

Norrell Bell ( ??? )

Captain of the T.S.S. Spirit of Exploration

Up until the moment he had been jabbed by Alicia, the wrinkled old lady had been perusing a series of reports with her lips pursed and a sour expression, paying the five of them no attention at all.

The distraction gave Kai ample time to gawk as he took in their surroundings.

But now she was sitting in her slightly elevated chair, looking at the five of them over a pair of round wire-brimmed glasses, with an indiscernible look on her face.

Arnella and Alicia both reported with a quick, sharp salute as her attention shifted to them.

She huffed as she waved a stack of reports at them.

"The airframe's got minor distortions, the barrier's frequency is off by two percent, and to top it all off… I can't find anything to shout at you about other than the fact you acted without warning or authorisation."

"Lady bell-" Thanric started.

"Right now it's Captain Bell, thank you… and don't try and soften me up with that silver tongue," she snapped. The massive black bun streaked with silver strands wobbled on the top of her head as she whipped around to level her sour look on The Sage alone. "I'm furious on principle."

She leafed through the papers, again.

"You only got authorisation to test portals on the deck. I have nothing here about you testing a weapon… I didn't even think you were researching any weapons at the moment, especially not an anti-ship weapon!"

Thanric coughed awkwardly, "Maybe one or two things that have applications as weapons, but nothing dedicated."

"Then what the hell was this?" Captain Bell fired back as she pulled a report free from the stack, the rest of the papers disappearing.

She waved it in front of her with vigour. Kai wouldn't have suspected it from someone so… old? He realised he had lost all concept of age.

Good thing he was no longer single and did not have to worry about the age of anyone chatting him up on a rare night out. Or as he was learning it was on Alea, soliciting a casual arrangement for two to three kids with no strings attached.

Come to think of it, Captain Bell reminded him of the only other old-looking person he had met since the system turned his life upside down, that person being Gretchin, the little old pink goblin lady from the dungeon trials.

"This is a report from Bardrick. It states, The four of you moved to the foredeck; the boy pointed something at the mouth of the valley; a big blue ball of mana formed, and then bang, no more pirate ship," Captain Bell finished, the report disappearing as she let it go.

Leaning forward, she wagged a bony finger at Thanric. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, young man. Stop it with the unauthorised experiments," She said, her tone reminding Kai of a motherly old grandma.

"Captain Bell, I am older-" Thanric started, but he was immediately cut off.

"I know! Not everyone can find some stupid natural treasure that keeps us young and pretty beyond our years. And another thing, stop ignoring my requests for dinner. I'm a very busy woman. Managing this pleasure cruise of yours isn't easy. I at least expect to meet your guests. It's traditional," She said, exaggerating the last word, implying that it should have already happened.

Kai remembered Arnella mentioning having a meal with the captain, but there had been no appointment or invitation so far as he could recall. Had The Sage been putting the dinner appointment off without telling him?

Captain Bell's attention shifted to Arnella, her chair rotating to point the high-shipman's way so she didn't have to crane her neck as she addressed her. "Then there is you young lady! Care to make a report that sheds some light on this breach of safety protocols? Honestly, I would have expected you to see sense and stop an untested weapon when one was pulled out in front of you. I know we didn't see eye to eye on everything, but that's why you were the perfect first officer. You smelt my bad breath and told me about it!"

The captain glanced over her shoulder at a pretty young brunette human woman who was currently managing the bridge while Captain Bell was busy with them.

Turning back, Captain Bell said, "Casey has promise, but she has yet to tell me my shit stinks. Unlike you, who had no problem saying no, so much so that I would have expected you to say no to The Sage."

"In her defence, she tried to stop me; The Sage waved her off," Kai said.

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Arnella gave him a surprise look, her jaw snapping shut as she regained her composure.

The sage, on the other hand, looked at him as if he had just been severely wounded by his choice of words, the smile in the man's eyes telling Kai that he had not taken any offence.

But something about what he had said seemed to confuse the captain.

"Stop you? Why you?" Captain Bell asked as she leaned forward, her chair swivelling around as she focused all her attention on him.

Arnella stepped forward, "Captain, are we secure?"

"What do you take me for? It's only been six days with you on this new duty, and you've forgotten so much. You of all people know that unless I want to make a point, I always have my sound distortion active when dealing with people like this. You and The Sage are prime examples; insubordination is infectious."

Arnella nodded, "Captain, the shot wasn't The Sage's doing. Lord Kai used a skill that I believe he pushed to the limits before firing it through… what I think was a wand or a dungeon item."

While it technically was a dungeon item, it was a hilt. Or maybe a grip… Damn, when Kai thought about it, he was using it like some kind of magical multi-tool, but calling it a wand still felt off to him.

Captain Bell wagged a finger. "You expect me to believe this level? What was it, ten? Yes, you expect me to believe this level ten boy did that!?"

Everyone but Kai nodded in reply.

This somehow reminding Kai of all the times in his life the blame for something got pinned on him.

Captain Bell sat back in her chair as she gave Kai a long look up and down, assessing him.

Deciding something, she sat forward again, a report appearing in her hand. "There was a spike of ten thousand manajoules caught on the sensors… you really expect me to believe this boy did that!?"

Thanric walked forward to take the report and peruse it for himself.

He nodded as he handed it back with a smile, "Yes, that looks about right."

The captain scoffed as she looked to Kai, "How much mana do you have?"

Kai hesitated to answer; this was the first time he had met the captain, and it felt like privileged information. And besides that, he didn't actually know how to answer; he looked to Syl for help, but she just nodded. So much for her being his system guide.

Seeing everyone clearly looking to him for an answer, he tried his best to give them one.

"Well, er… I had about eight hundred percent when I left the dungeon, my mana storage cuff being absorbed, its effects somehow amplified twofold…" He rubbed his chin, thinking. "Each time I've levelled up since, that total has dropped a little amount. But I think that's because my actual mana capacity grew in comparison."

He was hoping when he got around to feeding his collection of dragon scales to the gauntlets that had merged to him, he would see his mana capacity percentage start to grow again. But he wasn't going to reveal that he had a treasure trove of scales to the captain. So he kept his mouth shut on that point.

For their part, when he had finished his attempt to explain just how much mana he had, Thanric just chuckled while the captain looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

Seeing the captain's confusion, he tried to elaborate, "I think my items from the dungeon gave me a set or calculated value increase, not a set percentage bonus. My personal system just represented any boost to my capacity as a percentage above my natural cap on my status…"

Silence.

Feeling awkward, he continued, "I mean, how insane would an item be that gave me a set multiplier to my mana capacity… I mean a growth item maybe, but not your basic soulbound trinket."

Captain Bell turned to Thanric, "When you said he was special, I did not think you meant that kind of special."

That had the three women with him giggling.

Thanric, however, came to his defence.

"If it helps, Kai was taught to work with the feel of his mana, the way it flows and refreshes as he uses it. Thus forcing him not to worry about values and calculations in the middle of a fight," Thanric explained on his behalf. "While it does make it difficult to quantify his mana in units, I would say every one hundred percent of his mana capacity is the same as a peak mage one or two levels higher than himself."

"An unorthodox approach," Captain Bell grumbled.

"Try teaching him basic spell construction; everything he does is unorthodox. It's fascinating."

Captain Bell turned back to him, "So, that was a spell?"

He nodded, "an uncommon mana bolt… overcharged and then compressed."

"And just how much of your mana pool did you use?"

He shook his head; he hadn't actually checked at the time.

He was working on what he could control, not what he had. Though he would have stopped the moment he felt the shift to using Syl's mana. But that had not happened.

Captain Bell tsked, "Fine, keep your secrets."

He shook his head again, "Sorry, it's not that… I didn't actually check in the moment; I was so focused on firing the warning shot –

"If that was a warning shot, you need to work on your aim, boy," Captain Bell interrupted.

He winced.

"I was so focused on the ship as a target, that I think the mana bolt tracked into it. I just meant to scare them off. I thought at that range I wouldn't hit it. But I could at least try and scare them off… felt better than just watching," Kai said, making sure it was clear that he wasn't happy about just watching.

Captain Bell's eyes narrowed slightly at the poorly hidden challenge in Kai's words.

Sighing, she seemed to let it go as she said, "Being able to make a shot that can take down ships at that range and not disrupt ship systems… you're dangerous."

"I think I got lucky…" Kai said as he thought of his new Shipbreaker achievement and its description as he mentally pushed it over to the caption.

A card appeared in front of her, and she plucked it out of the air with practised ease, not at all surprised at its sudden manifestation.

Whistling, she turned to Thanric and passed him the card.

The two of them nodded to each other as they seemed to have a silent discussion.

When they were done, Captain Bell once again turned her attention back to Kai.

"Thanric tells me the device was inert, just a composite wand you've found useful to fix your own abilities. Is that accurate?"

Kai, having nothing to correct about the statement, just nodded.

"Arnella, write up a report detailing the use of a dungeon item. Single use, one capable of receiving, purifying and, most importantly, stabilising the mana from multiple sources. Thanric, botch a research paper on such a device… and keep it short for spirit's sake."

Thanric sighed, "Yes, that should do… at least until our shipbreaker here improves his abilities and starts acting like some mobile shipborne defence gun. Though… anyone looking into it should find my 'work' and try to replicate it instead of bothering Kai. I'll draw up some of the old papers on stable ship cannons to make it look feasible."

"We can only hope," Captain Bell said. "Now, I expect to see everyone at dinner for a less formal discourse. Dismissed."

Arnella and Alicia immediately saluted and turned to leave, Kai following their lead to go.

It was then Syl spoke up, "It was roughly six hundred percent. So… it would take at least six normal mages his level to do what he did. Even then they couldn't have controlled it," She said and then promptly nodded to the two of them and promptly followed the other three from the bridge.

As they left, Kai just heard the captain say, "I can see why you're letting little Alicia go; they might just shake the world."

"I just hope they'll be ready for when the world tries to shake them…"

When the door closed behind them and they had made it far enough from the door guard, Kai turned to Syl.

"What was that about?"

"Just telling them to stay in your good graces. I mean, think about it: if you can do that now, what do they think you'll be able to do in the future?"

Alicia giggled as she grabbed his arm, "He is going to need to train a lot more if you go around telling everyonehow big and scary he is going to be."

Arnella cocked her head in thought, "What is his stat balance?"

"Oh! We are all perfectly balanced, a foundation for future tiers," Alicia said proudly.

"Yes… I've received the instructions on cleansing my core. It's going to take me a year or two."

"Well, good to know the information is circulating among friends. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some finishing touches to make and some eggs to check on," Syl said as she drifted in between both Alicia and Kai, giving them each a phantom kiss on the cheek before she disappeared.

Kai sighed as he felt the warm sensation she left behind.

He wanted to go check on her, make sure things were going okay, but the only place in the domain he had access to was the eggs, and he checked on them three times a day.

Going beyond that when he was in the domain felt like stretching the temporary boundary she had put in place. The last thing he wanted to do was cross that line and fuck up everything she was working on.

Alicia squeezed his arm, "I think we might have some free time, at least until dinner with Captain Bell. Anything you want to do? I know the resonance point between the drives; you stand in the right spot, and everything tingles and vibrates."

Kai shifted from Alicia's enthusiastic gaze and looked to Arnella; she nodded.

"I actually have some things I need to get sorted… appointments I can't miss."

Alicia looked at him, her eyes adorably large as her ears wilted and she pouted, giving him a cute puppy dog face.

He kissed her on her forehead and pulled away. "I'm sorry; I can't put these things off any longer than I have."

She slumped and pulled away. "I guess I am curious how Lord Vermont dealt with his thirty-second wife… his prose is terrible, but that has more to do with how he coded his diary."

Arnella shifted from where she was leaning against the wall. "Does your master know you're translating ancient smut?"

Alicia shrugged, "He says there's a lot of historical context in who fucked who."

Arnella's eyes went wide, "Alicia! you said there's and fucked? A contraction and a cuss word... Your tongue's finally loosening up," She said as she wiped away a fake tier. "I'm so proud."

Alicia turned a bright shade of red right before she turned and darted off down the corridor.

With the little el'vei princess running away in embarrassment, Arnella turned to Kai, "You'll be surprised by how much she has actually loosened up since meeting you. Now, should we go see the chef first? He has some samples he wants you to try."

Kai nodded.

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