Francis always loved mega projects. Buildings, machines, and factories, were all things he looked at in amazement and interest. A part of him felt that he would have liked his job even more if he had been involved in the building of ships rather than being on one and taking care of it.

  Not that he hated his job, he just felt that something was missing. Taking care of the Voyager and seeing how such a wonder worked was an actualisation of some part of his dream, it just wasn't all of it.

  The idea of changing jobs did cross his mind from time to time, but in this economy, having a stable job was way better than chasing a dream. Besides, he had been thinking about taking his relationship with his girlfriend to the next level. He couldn't push for change at a time like this.

  That was his life before all this mess happened, though. Having your whole world flipped in the blink of an eye was quite the experience. All the fear and uncertainty aside though, the system was something he was quite happy with, especially considering the Class he got.

  Mega Constructor, a Class that gave him the ability to plan and build mega projects. It was all he had ever dreamed of. After he got it, he felt as if he was back to his childhood, those Christmas mornings after getting the present he had been looking forward to.

  That happiness didn't last long though, hit after hit came for them, and the biggest was when they got chased by that Lantern, whatever it was called, that one hit him personally. Seeing all the people who could help join the group at the stern while he found himself hiding with the kids and others with no fighting abilities like him, he felt truly useless.

  Ever since then, he had been pushing his mind and trying to come up with something he could be of help with. The first thought that came to him was, obviously, any way to generate fuel. He knew that his Class could achieve something like that, he felt it instinctively. Even if not at the moment, as more skills got unlocked for him and as they tiered up, he could do so.

  Putting that into action at the moment was hard though, he didn't even know how to start with making fuel, especially the fuel specifically used by the Voyager. The Voyager was one of the very first cruise ships to have dual-fuel engines. It ran on both liquefied natural gas and normal diesel-type fuels.

  Trying to make any of those in this situation was extremely unlikely, so Francis moved to the next thing he might be able to make.

  "Do you think this will work?" Linda, his girlfriend, asked while he was going over his plans for the umpteenth time.

  "I hope it does," he answered before lifting his head and asking her, "What about you? How are things on your side?"

  Linda was a high school chemistry teacher, the Class she got after they made it to this world was Master Alchemist, a Class that was extremely well-suited for her, something he noticed was the same for many of the others.

  "My part is easy," she said offhandedly, "Making gunpowder might not have been even that hard for me in our world. Here? With the skills I got? It's a breeze."

  Francis breathed a sigh of relief, at least that part of their plan was going well. He wasn't lying when he said that things were going as well as they could on his side, but that didn't mean that there were no problems, there were many parts he needed to look into. But again, that was why they were going to where they were at the moment, meeting with someone who might be better suited for this.

  "Okay," he said as he calmed his racing heart, "Let's go."

  Holding the papers he worked so hard on, he left the room with his girlfriend walking next to him. If he was honest with himself, just having her be his partner in this did wonders for his self-confidence.

  They didn't know where their target could be, but they felt that the bridge might be a good place for them to try their luck, most of the others gathered there after all. Unfortunately, as they entered, he looked around and didn't see who he was looking for. A bit disappointed, they made their way to the next possible location, the Skyline. They were faced with another disappointment as they entered though, as they didn't see who they were searching for.

  "Mary!" Francis heard Linda shout excitedly from next to him as he was still feeling a bit of disappointment. Before he could even register who she had called, he found himself being dragged by her to somewhere.

  "Linda sweetie," the jolly old lady turned to them before her face broke into a huge smile after she noticed who it was. Francis felt that she would have smiled that way no matter who it was, "Why are you shouting for me this energetically this early in the morning?"

  "Sorry, sorry, just got a bit excited," Linda answered in a bit of embarrassment, "We were searching for Mr William but didn't find him, do you know where he is?"

  "He's probably in our room," Mary said while rolling her eyes, "Ever since he got that necklace from that girl Nulara, he has been locking himself in our room whenever he has time."

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Thanks a lot!" Linda said before starting to drag Francis behind her. He only had time to give Mary a weary smile and a polite nod before getting dragged away, Mary's laughter coming from behind them.

  Just a couple of minutes later, the pair found themselves standing in front of William's door. Francis calmed his heart first before knocking on it.

  Even though it wasn't the case anymore, William had been his direct boss just a few days ago, and even though he was a great man and would have never just exploded on him for no reason, he could still remember how mad he could get from some old memories.

  "Oh, Francis, Linda, why are you here at this time? Did something happen?" The door was pushed open while he was still lost in his thoughts.

  "Oh, sorry," he said as he returned to the present, "We have something to talk to you about, can we come in?"

  "Yes, of course," the chief engineer took a step aside as he invited them in.

  "So what is it?" the old man asked them after they sat and he gave them some water.

  "We needed your thoughts on something," Francis said after he had had time to calm down. He passed his old boss the papers he had with him, "Linda and I were thinking how to be of help using our Classes and skills, and we came up with this?"

  "A Bullet Reloading Line..." William murmured as he read the title of the paper.

  A bullet Reloading Line, that was their plan. Francis knew that Marcus had been making the guards gather the bullet casings whenever it was possible, almost no casing that could be retrieved was wasted. That was when the idea came to him. Making bullets from scratch might be hard for them at the moment, but a reloading line? That could be done.

  Francis sat there in silence as he awaited his old boss's verdict. His idea was sound, he and Linda knew that. What they came seeking here wasn't the old man's approval, but more polish for their plans and maybe even for him to brainstorm with them how to streamline it, possibly even a way to secure the resources to have it start operating.

  "That's a fascinating idea, this is an extremely well-made blueprint," the old man said as he finally put the papers down, "I won't say it's impossible to do, but to get a reloading line like this working, it would need quite the specialised tools... or some specialised skills!"

  Francis was listening to the old man anxiously, but when he heard him bring up the point he was expecting the most, he couldn't help but smile widely, and it seemed just that was enough for the old man to get what he was leading to.

  "We do have such skills!" Francis started excitedly, before calming himself down as he said, "Or to be more precise, most of them. Using the machines in the workshop we can try and make a prototype first. Growing it to something worthwhile later when our skills are there."

  "I see..." William said as he studied the plans deeper, as if he was doing it with the idea that they now had skills to work with too.

  "The gunpowder side of things should be left for me," Linda said, "I was really lucky in my first 2 skill choices and got some great skills, Matter Analysis and Alchemical Touch. The first lets me analyse what something is made of, and the second lets me turn some form of matter into a related other."

  "Those skill choices weren't the best for me, but they made this possible" Francis added, "I got Visualised Blueprint and Assemble. Both are simply what their names make them to be. Visualised Blueprint makes it so your blueprints are more precise and accurate, and you can conjure a holographic version of them in front of you to see how they would truly look. And Assemble, well, assembles your parts for you. As long as they are accurate and would go together perfectly."

  "Wait," William jolted from his deep thinking as he looked at Linda with intense eyes, "Your second skill, how much can it change? What's the limit?"

  "You're thinking of using it for securing fuel straight away aren't you?" Linda shook her head with a light chuckle, seeming defeated, "We did consider that, it is the best use for it we have right now. Unfortunately, at the current tier, I can only transform up to 5kg of matter daily. It wouldn't make much of a dent on the Voyager's consumption."

  "That's unfortunate," old William said, though Francis noticed how he didn't seem that disappointed, he even seemed relaxed somehow, "But you're still undervaluing your skill. It has many uses that don't need it to have big output. Medicine for example! I don't know if you've noticed, but quite a few of us are old bastards, we need a few pills here and there to operate. We didn't bring this up because we didn't need people to worry about us, and we just kinda hoped that if we levelled up high enough, our bodies would also get strengthened. This does help a lot."

  Francis watched as his girlfriend froze, it seemed that such a thing was something she hadn't considered, which was fair, he didn't either, they had been too focused on their project.

  This is why having outsiders give their thoughts is always a good idea… Francis thought.

  "Sorry for derailing this," William smiled, it seemed that news of Linda's skill truly lifted his spirit, "It's just that your skill is so useful Linda dear, it's gonna be one of the cornerstones we depend on the most in this world. Anyway, go on with your explanation."

  Francis had to reorient himself for a few seconds, even trying to remember what he had considered saying at such a moment before beginning,

  "What we have presented you might not be enough to make you believe that we can come up with a perfectly running reloading line, but that's why I came to you. I know you can fix what problems we might have. We can also see if the others have skills that would help us. You saw how useful Linda's skills are, and how they have removed a huge hurdle already. We only need a few more skills like that and it would be totally possible to achieve this with what we have, or at least after a few more levels and after getting a couple more skills!"

  William remained silent for a short while, he then nodded and said seriously,

  "I will talk to Captain Dan and the others. We will have this running."

  Francis let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, it was a go.

  /night~~