Dan thought it was going to be fast, go there, shoot monsters, get a level up and return to ship. Oh how wrong he was.

  First they moved the Voyager far enough from the Swarmers' territory that there was no chance of getting attacked at all.

  Because they had Keith to keep an eye on them, they didn't worry about the tender running out of that protective aura without them knowing, plus if things turned real bad they could have Sam use his swarm as protection. All those reasons made it easy for them to leave the Voyager's protection without much trouble.

  After they got in position, he got hit by two of Natalie's buffs. The first was the one she had used before, Strengthen Fire and the second was Strengthen Resistance.

  "I noticed how you were able to use Strengthen on its own last time," Dan asked the neurolinguist after she had cast her spells, "Thanks for that by the way."

  The Class that Freddie's sister took was called Wordmage. From what she wrote, instead of skills or spells, each level she got 3 words to choose from. After making her choice she would then be able to use those words as spells. The number of words she could use together was dependent on what level she was, each two levels meant that she could add a word to her spell. For example, at level 10 she could cast a spell with six words in it, one for every two levels, and the sixth was what she started with at level one.

  "As long as I focus on the intent, I can make the same word or two do many things," she explained lazily, "Strengthen Fire for example, depending on the intent I put behind it, it would either mean that it would make a fire burn stronger, or with how I have been using it, it would make weapon fire stronger."

  "That sounds kinda broken," Dan heard Sam murmur from next to him.

  Ignoring that, he asked the Wordmage,

  "So the second spell you just used, Strengthen Resistance, works by..."

  "Yup," Natalie shrugged, "It strengthens the bullet's resistance to water. You might think that that would mean that it would face even more resistance from water, but again, intent. I thought of it more as resistance in games and the like, so the spell took it as such."

  Dan didn't say it then, but at that point even he thought that the woman's Class was kinda broken.

  Things from there went slow but steady. Dan had a hard time aiming and actually hitting monsters, his aim just wasn't that good. Eventually, Marcus had them get as close to their target as possible and only then did he hit his first creature, then panic a bit as he saw it turn around and charge them.

  He calmed down fast and took aim again, he did waste a couple of bullets more than he supposed was needed to take it down before it stopped moving.

  "Here, help me pull it to the tender." Marcus patted him on the shoulder as he had Ricky get closer to the creature. "I don't know what those two need it for, but after Rose saw Arnold with the bodies we brought back yesterday, she asked if we could get her some more, I even caught them talking about how Jackie might have some interest in the bodies."

  Dan could only shake his head and steady his heart. He grabbed a hook that he was sure Marcus brought with them for exactly that reason, before they got to work dragging in the big-headed, fur-covered fish. It almost looked as if it had three mouths, but it only looked like that because it had two isolated muscles that connected its upper and lower jaw, splitting its mouth into 3 parts for some reason.

  After a quick rest and changing their position, they continued with their hunt. Dan got better and better after each target taken down, at least he didn't panic or flinch after the second one charged them, he managed to remain calm as he lined his shots.

  They underestimated how long it would take them to get that one level though. 10 monsters down later he still didn't get anything. And he started wondering if they were going to stay there till nightfall.

  The tender's protective aura must have been about to run out too, Dan knew that those didn't have much time. It did seem to have grown a bit as it held for longer than the times before, but that didn't mean that it was a permanent effect.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Marcus didn't seem to care though, he just kept on pushing for them to go after more targets. Even after Keith contacted them and said that their protective aura had run out and creatures were checking them out some more. He only had Sam bring back 3 of his Swarmers and have them circle the boat.

  Dan felt more pressure after that. Those creatures had nothing stopping them from just continuing towards the tender with the protective circle gone, which meant that any mistake could lead to some disastrous consequences.

  He almost messed it up with their next target, with the creature, a bulky fish that had what seemed to be hard plates all over its body, coming within 4 or 5 meters of the tender.

  They weren't dragging every monster they killed into the boat, those they didn't, they left for their escorts to enjoy. Seeing those things eat was the stuff of nightmares, their teeth seemed to elongate and glow faintly as they bit on their meal.

  Having killed who knows how many creatures, the last of which was still twitching in the water, Dan started getting worried that they wouldn't hit the level. The sun was already setting and they were getting tired mentally, if not physically, from being out there for hours. Just as he was about to talk to Marcus about returning to the ship for the day, he suddenly felt it, a notification from the system.

  "I got it!" he shouted uncontrollably.

  He could see the relief and happiness on everyone's faces as he said that. It wasn't easy for them either, fortunately they were done.

  "So what did you get?" Sam asked, clearly curious.

  "Let me look." Dan first went through his personal skill choice, but he didn't really hold much hope for it. "Not much for my personal skills. I got my first repeat, though."

  The skills he got were Whale Lung, Cannon Mastery and Captain's Shanty. Whale Lung was the repeat, it only made him able to hold his breath longer than usual. Cannon Mastery was self-explanatory, it had him have a better mastery over cannons and operating them. Captain's Shanty was a skill that had him sing a song that would have his crew be well coordinated as they sang with him.

  He found it easy to skip these choices, moving straight away to the part of this he had been looking forward to the most, the reason why they were there in the first place. With a sense of anticipation, he called the message:

  Bonded Ship's skill choice:

  Aura Appendages

  Dan raised an eyebrow at the name, thinking back to the dark oppressive aura the Voyager had, he had a quite the expectations for it. Not waiting anymore, he called up its description,

  The Voyager saw how useful her aura was, but she could feel the limitations it suffered too, so she got this skill as it gave her much more freedom in her control. Aura Appendages: Control your aura as appendages extending from you, using it for whatever you feel like. Makes the control easier as well as expanding the aura's range. The appendages take the attributes of your aura.

  "It's called Aura Appendages," Dan explained to the others. "It lets the Voyager control her auras as some appendages, letting her extend it far out of her body."

  "I wonder if she could use it for attack?" Marcus, who probably knew the most about the Voyager and her auras of those there, other than Dan of course, muttered to himself.

  Dan had the same idea, the one time he used the aura for attack was when those undead creatures were attacking the propellers. That was the only chance they had to use it, after that no other creatures got that close to the Voyager ever again.

  The Swarmers were the closest to it, having given him the feeling that the oppressive aura seemed to be just waiting for a trigger to lash out at whatever was nearby. He doubted that would have been as controlled as what this new skill promised though.

  "It's good anyway," Marcus said, "I doubt it would turn out to be pure utility, from our previous experiences with that aura, it should have an offensive part to it too. That aside, let's return. Ricky, bring us back to the Voyager."

  Dan's heart calmed when they made it to the tethering area, that long day was finally coming to an end. He felt even more tiredness coming when he remembered that they actually still had to move too, their journey started that night.

  Standing in the corner waiting for the cord to reach him so he could hook it to the tender, Dan suddenly had a weird feeling, as if something was moving around them.

  He looked around in confusion, unsure of what was happening, but then he noticed that the Voyager's gentle warm aura was enveloping the boat. In an instant, his mind understood what was happening as he shouted,

  "Voyager, NO!"

  It was too late though, he felt the tender they were in being lifted as it was brought up into the Voyager. Fortunately, his shout seemed to have stopped her as she didn't put them into the side of the ship and instead just lowered them back into the water slowly.

  "Just what am I going to do with you..." He could feel a headache coming.