In the evening, Dan found himself, alongside Marcus, face to face with the last two men who were still somehow uncertain about continuing with the guards.

  "Hank, Ricky," Dan nodded at the two men before saying, "Have you thought it through? You don't have to be in a hurry, you can take your time and think it over if you're still uncertain."

  "It's alright," Ricky said, shrugging a bit, "My Class might not be specifically made to be a guard, but I can see it being of use here. Plus, I would love to be of help, I will stay."

  Dan smiled at the previous deckhand, and the current Magic Enthusiast. The Class the man got had a weird name, and had Dan frown in confusion over how someone from Earth, where no magic could be found, found himself with a magic-based Class. The Class description gave him the answer he needed though, Dan didn't remember what the whole description said, but the first part stuck with him due to how funny it was,

  The system rarely ever sees someone with as much enthusiasm and excitement for magic as you, no other Class would make you happier than this...

  The man really was so much into magic that the system just ignored the thorough scan entirely and handed him what he wanted, Dan could respect that.

  "And Hank." Holding himself from chuckling at Ricky, Dan turned to the stoic man standing next to him. Hank felt even more of an ice block than his sister. Fleta was a bit cold, but she was someone who had more to her than her coldness and detachment. Hank though? He felt as if he really didn't like being with people. "What are you going to do?"

  "I will stay with you." Hank nodded. "For now."

  Dan smiled again, though this one wasn't really as genuine as the one before. Not because he felt that the man might leave the guards at a later date, he honestly would love for what he said to mean only that, but the man's Class made Dan think that he meant something else entirely.

  Wandering Adventurer, that was Hank's Class, Dan didn't remember the description exactly, but he remembered how it had something to do with not liking to remain in one location, and being more into drifting from place to place, enjoying what his wanderings held for him.

  Dan feared that what the man's for now meant was that he would leave the whole ship, not just the guards. He didn't know how Fleta would react to that, he didn't know how he would react to that, one of his passengers out there in this dangerous new world.

  "That's great to hear." He controlled his thoughts as he dragged himself back into the present. "I'm really glad that you joined us in this. And remember, you can decide to leave whenever you might feel that you can't go on anymore."

  Getting a nod and an affirmation from the two, Dan had them leave before turning around to Marcus and saying:

  "Thanks for letting me deal with this."

  "It's alright," the security chief officer said, "Having you deal with them might have made it easier to admit that they wanted to leave if they were going to. I might have made them hesitate."

  Dan just smiled lightly at that, he could see people hesitating at saying that they would give up to Marcus and Old Raily's faces.

  Dan and Marcus then made their way to the bridge. There were a few things for them to deal with there, the most important of which was the matter with the Voyager being able to shrink and extend her protective circle. That bit needed some experimenting with, who knows how useful it could end up being if they realised its full potential. That was the main reason why they were going there, but there was also the fact that if nothing changed, they were leaving the swarmers' territory that night.

  "Okay," Marcus started as he looked at everyone gathered on the bridge. The group included Robert, Keith, Freddie, William and Dan. They were all there for this next bit of experimentation. "Captain, you can have her start."

  Dan just nodded and called for the Voyager, and again, the aura pulsed first before gathering on him. The connection established, Dan focused and asked her to do what she had done that morning, shrink the zone as much as she could.

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

  The Voyager sent some hesitation and worry his way. What had happened that morning was still on her mind, she feared what would happen if she shrank it and she made them worry again. Dan had to spend some time coaxing her before she went with it.

  Once again, Dan felt something different about the Voyager that he couldn't really put into words. It seemed that he was the only one who felt it from how the others were reacting. He even asked them if they felt anything, and their answer was no. Dan saw Robert frown and close his eyes, as if focusing on sensing something before just shaking his head wearily, he smiled at his friend.

  "It's starting to shrink," Keith, who was looking blankly at the air, said before any of them even noticed it through the screen. "The Swarmers are getting closer to the Voyager."

  "Okay, keep an eye on it, keep us updated," Marcus nodded.

  Dan felt glad that they were in such a special place like the Swarmers' territory where creatures were packed so close together that even a small change in the area would be noticed.

  The protective circle around the Voyager was usually around 100 meters, maybe a bit more if they were precise. Dan listened with bated breath as it started tickling slower and slower,

  "98... 97... 96..." Keith kept on announcing as she looked from time to time at the screen, as if using both her system-given feed and the screen to give a more precise measurement.

  As time passed, the period between each call and the next started getting longer and longer. Once the last call had happened a couple of minutes ago, Dan got contacted by the Voyager. The emotions she sent had some expectations and a tiny bit of worry tinged with it.

  "That's all you can do for now?" he asked. Getting his confirmation, he continued, "Thanks Voyager, you did really well. I'm proud of you."

  Feeling the bubbly and pure happiness and pride that got sent his way, Dan smiled at his bonded ship as he nodded to Marcus,

  "That's all she can do at the moment. She might still grow later on, but this is her limit right now."

  "90 meters, almost 89," Keith said, giving the new distance between them and the fringes of the protective circle.

  "Good," Marcus nodded in deep thoughts before asking, "Can you ask her about how far she could push it?"

  Dan nodded and asked his question. From what the Voyager sent, after some wrestling trying to understand it, he got that she meant that the distances were about the same, she could push it as far as she could shrink it.

  "Now can you have her return the protective area to its previous location?" Marcus seemed in deep thought, as if considering something, "Have her put it back as fast as she can."

  Dan didn't know what the man was aiming for, but he did as was asked of him. Getting the idea that she needed to return the protected circle to its previous location as fast as possible across to the Voyager took some trying, but she eventually got it. Signalling to them that she was starting, Dan watched as the dots on the screen retreated so fast, as if chased by something,

  "It barely took a few seconds," Keith murmured. And Dan had to agree, it was faster than he had expected.

  "That's enough for now," Marcus said, "Now we know all there is to know about this new mechanic she has control over."

  "So now what? What does it mean for us?" Dan asked. At the same time, he told Voyager that she could cut the connection.

  His hope for this ability of hers was for it to shrink the protective circle enough for them to be able to hunt from atop the Voyager without worrying about getting hurt, unfortunately, that couldn't be the case it seems.

  "Who knows, for now it's still too far to be of use, but it's nice to know the limits." Marcus didn't seem too bothered about the matter. He then said after thinking deeply for a bit, "On the other hand, I've had an idea since we decided about going to restock on materials, about power levelling a selected few, raising their levels to an acceptable point, at least to the point where we won't be without any tier 2 skills at all."

  "You are bringing this up because..." Old Raily asked. It was obvious that Marcus was leading this somewhere.

  "Because how I wanted to go about it is by using tenders and staying at the borders of the protective circle, hunting from afar," Marcus explained as he walked slowly around, "But the problem with that is that we don't know how those creatures would react to being attacked by us, they might just ignore it and come at us.

  "I think we should continue with our experimentation, try and find how different monsters would react to getting attacked by someone from within the area protected by the Voyager."

  "It's worth a try," Robert said, "We can give it a shot with a couple of people at first, and see how it goes."

  "That's what I had in mind," Marcus agreed.

  "So when are we doing that?" Dan asked as he looked between the two.

  "Well, they say no time like the present, no?" Robert said with a chuckle.

  Dan looked at Marcus in surprise just to see the short man nodding too.