The comfort of the white room raises a grin to my mouth. It is starting to feel like a natural part of me, floating ship, cards, and eyeballs. Well, just eyeball for now.

  Red blinks at me as he usually does. No emotion, no hovering movement. Just weird eyeball stuff.

  “Anything new?”

  “You have leveled to twenty in your [Captain] job. The passive skill [ has been unlocked.”

  I frown as I read the skill over and over, unsure of how exactly I feel about it.

  “I was kind of hoping for something that will help me with combat, but I guess this can work if I can get another ship. Though, I don’t know when that will happen or if it’s even worth it. Also, what are even the limitations anyway?”

  “That information is restricted.”

  “I was just talking out loud, you red prick.”

  Red just blinks, unfazed.

  I sigh. “Not like I’ll ever know.” I look at Red. “Show me my job sheet.”

  “Huh. What the hell is a [Peerless Tactician] and why does Julia outlevel both me and my entire crew?”

  “That informa-”

  “-Shut up.” I interrupt the eyeball. “Don’t talk until I say your name.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Myers, you poor man. I have so many questions for you.”

  I shake my head and turn to Red.

  “Alright, I’m done. You can send me back.”

  Red blinks at me once.

  I wait for a couple seconds, but nothing happens.

  “I said you can send me back.” I say again, only to be met with continued silence.

  Oh, right. I’m an idiot.

  “Red, you can send me back.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  __________________________________________________________

  One moment you’re talking to a floating eyeball, and the next you’re waking up in a flying ship.

  With a yawn and a hop off my bookshelf bed, I exit my room and ascend to the deck to find Myers awake and accompanied by Micheal.

  “I guess me and Myers aren't the only early risers,” I say.

  Micheal and Myers smile at my approach. “Agris and Baldric are also awake.” Micheal adds. “Though they chose to lay in bed a bit more.” Micheal stretches his shoulder until he hears a little pop, “I can’t blame them, though. Sleeping on a ship is going to take some getting used to.”

  “They’ll get used to it after a few days,” Myers says. “Now enough about that. Why’d you have me depart so early?”

  “Oh, yeah. I stole an from Gladius. You know, the artifact that they were using to manipulate that guy's class and level.”

  Myers frowns. “How many runes?”

  “Eighteen.” I answer truthfully.

  The old man groans while Micheal just looks shocked.

  “Huh, I wasn’t expecting such a reaction,” I say.

  Myers glances at Micheal, gaining strength that at least someone else understands what’s happened. He takes a breath and begins to explain.

  “Items of epic quality are extremely difficult and expensive to produce- which raises the prices of such items considerably. Generally, nearly all items of Epic quality have eleven or twelve runes. More than that and the price doubles per additional rune. At eighteen runes, we’re talking about an item that sells for millions of trist at minimum.”

  “You’re making me really excited right now.” I grin.

  The old man sighs and shakes his head. “Millions of trist is not something that’s going to be ignored. Gladius will hire experts [Bounty Hunters] to track this armband and return it to them.”

  “Good thing they don’t know we have it.”

  “They don’t need to. [Bounty Hunters] specializing in finding items can track the item location quite easily. If we do not get rid of it soon, then an altercation is inevitable.”

  “Is there any way we can hide it?”

  “Not unless you have a mana suppression room or container.”

  “Or a [Smuggler],” Micheal adds helpfully.

  “Neither of which is perfectly effective when you’re dealing with an expert [Bounty Hunter]," Myers continues. “It will make it more difficult for them, yes, but not impossible.”

  Quasi pouts, “If you’d not mentioned the price, I wouldn’t have minded throwing it off the ship. But now, I don’t think my greed would allow such a thing. Is there anything else we can do?”

  Myers sighs, defeated. “Yes. A [Bounty Hunters] skill is only as good as what or who it is tracking. If an item is being worn by someone whose level is higher, then their skill is less effective and more difficult to use.”

  I nod. “So you should wear the armband.”

  Micheal glances at the old man curiously. So far, his first hour away from Gladius is quite an exciting ride. First he finds out that they just stole an Epic level artifact worth millions, and now he finds out that the old man is some kind of expert.

  “Yes. Bring it here and I’ll put it on.”

  “Perfect.” I rush into the ship, to my room, and then back on the deck with the armband.

  Myers grimaces as he takes the item and equips it under his clothing. Then he looks at me. “Is it working?”

  “It is. I like the job choice. Though, you should lower the level to twenty.”

  Myers grunts. “It’s fine. A level 20 [Navigator] at my age is going to have questions asked. At level 38, People will just think that I joined for coin instead of levels.”

  I shrug. “Works for me. Anyway, I’m heading down to train with Auranta. In the meantime, feel free to inform Micheal about myself.”

  “I will.”

  As I leave, I hear Myers begin speaking about the towers.

  My descent into the depths of my somewhat tighter ship quickly leads me to Aurantas' empty room. Frowning, I sniff to follow the scent further down into the hold where I see Irmgard and Auranta in the midst of practice next to numerous crates of runed weapons, armors, and quality gems to be sold by Cillian for greater profits.

  Sneaking closer to them, I watch, surprised as Irmgard thrusts with the rapier while unleashing what looks like a bolt of lightning down the blade. She does several more thrusts, each one flickering with a bolt of lightning.

  “Damn, that looks pretty powerful. Wanna teach me?” I interrupt the two girls. They turn to me, surprised at how easy I can sneak up on them. Which they shouldn’t be. Cats are naturally sneaky, and I’m even sneakier.

  “You’d make a great [Assassin]." Aurantas antennae swish above her head. “I couldn’t even feel a shift in the wind at your approach.”

  “Too squishy. I find direct brawls more fun… or subterfuge. That’s fun too.” I tilt my head to Irmgard. “By the way, your jobs changed to [Sub-Captain]- fuck. I forgot to ask Myers what exactly that means.”

  “You’ve gained the [Second Commander] skill, correct?” Auranta asks.

  “Yea, I did. I’m not sure how good it is, though.”

  “Any skill that increases the count of ships a [Captain] has control over is incredibly rare and powerful outside of [Fleet Captains]. [Second Commander] is one of the most coveted skills, for it not only grants an additional ship, but allows the second ship to function independently from the [Captain] so long as the [Sub-Captain] is aboard.”

  “Any downsides?” I ask.

  “Just one. The [Sub-Captain’s] maximum level is still restricted to your maximum.”

  “That’s fine, I plan to level my [Captain] class as much as possible anyway. But first, what’s with the lightning and how can I learn it?”

  Auranta grabs a book atop a crate and opens it to a page. She then places the open book in front of me. “Fulgur is the name of the rune and the spell Irmgard is casting is Fulmen.”

  Staring at the rune for a moment, I memorize its structure whose complexity rivals that of Ignis. Which means it’s a very basic rune.

  “What's Fulmen?”

  “It is Fulgur Destruction combined with Alteration and Transfiguration.”

  I perk up. “Not Materialization?”

  “No. But. Fulmen requires a long pointed metal weapon to be used so as to not harm the caster. Generally, this spell is used with swords or spears, but Irmgard Rapier is just as effective.”

  “Would it work on Gauntlets?” I ask.

  “Only if you don’t mind electrocuting your hands too.”

  “I’ll survive. So, anything else I need to know?”

  “Fulgur is more potent than Ignis,” Irmgard warns.

  “I’ll survive.” I repeat.

  “Learning Fulgur is the leading cause of death for young [Mages],” Auranta warns. “If you’re going to try the spell, do a single rune and do so in your Fenrimorph form.”

  “Fine.”

  With a mental command, I transform into a Fenrimorph with a single armored left gauntlet.

  With a command of my mana and a raise of my right hand, I create the Fulgur rune within my palm. Just a single rune.

  Then, completely unafraid of electricity- what with Fenrimorph being quite naturally resilient to it, I activate the spell.

  The spell activates and releases a magical induced current of electricity. This current, created from my own mana, spreads violently through my body, utilizing my own mana as some kind of amplifier. By the time the spell disappears, it’s been ten seconds and I’m on my knees.

  When I look up, I’m met with the smug looks of both women.

  Swallowing my pride, I transform back into a cat. “So, do you have another rune I can learn?”

  “Ventus is the most common rune used by [Monks]. It is also the safest.” Auranta flicks the book to the ventus rune. A just as complicated as the previous two.

  Sighing, I memorize the rune and transform back into a Fenrimorph. Like Fulgur, I do the exact same thing. When I release the spell, I feel a decent bit of pressure on my palm, but I also feel a gust of wind escape from it.

  “Ventus on its own is weak,” Auranta starts explaining, “even stacked upon each other. To make it lethal, it requires significant usage of alteration. The spell needs to be compressed as much as possible and then Transfiguration needs to be applied to direct the pressure. If you compress multiple Ventus into a thin line, you create a spell called Wind Blade, as I’m sure you’ve witnessed before.”

  I nod slowly at her words. I turn towards the hull of the ship and prepare to punch. Then I stack multiple Ventus runes and compress them around my fist. I simultaneously add a directional forward force to the runes.

  I hear a sigh from Auranta, but I ignore it.

  With a grunt, I punch forward and activate the spell.

  The spell violently slams into the ship's hull alongside the dismembered flesh of my right arm.