chapter 190

We were back in FTL. We would have a journey of about a week and a half, as there was a current we could use to get to the Four-leaf station faster than we normally could. It wouldn’t take long for us to get out of the red zone, which usually didn’t have any FTL current.

My shoulders relaxed as I realised we were out of that system. We seemed to have made a bigger difference than I expected us to make, which should improve our payout quite a lot, but honestly, I’m just thankful things turned out so well.

We also got the revelation that I am now at the first stage of the truth, whatever that means. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go back and see the Baron of Rock. We were now business partners, so he was probably the best person to ask, or perhaps the Adventurer Guild would have the answers I would like to know.

The AIs were busy analysing the entire battle, finding ways to improve themselves and the survivability of the ship as a whole. It was truly nice to have so much more processing power on board.

The current processing shards were among the best quantum processors humanity has possessed, but I knew that there were even better ones that we could purchase. The problem with that is that they were made by corporations, and who knows what limitations and spyware those things had.

The easiest solution was to simply continue to add more processing shards, as they were grown by the tech tree, which seemed to have no problem continuing to grow them. The materials it needed cost a minuscule amount compared to the end product.

It would also be good to have spares, as these processing shards didn’t last forever, but all of that brought up another problem, that of space. Without the inventory skills FH has, we would already have been in big trouble due to the lack of space on board.

Even with them, space has truly become a premium. We really don’t have the money required to upgrade this ship to a bigger one. We are also missing a decent number of upgrades I would like to make to the current ship.

On top of that list is a proper magic-tech heat exchanger that would allow us to fight even longer than we currently can, which is already near the top of any ship in the galaxy. Our shields are currently quite adequate, but our armour is lagging behind.

We haven’t come across a suitable space monster that we could harvest to make better armour than we currently have. We could purchase it with our current reserves, but that would mean we wouldn’t get the skills we needed for everyone. That would be a better investment, as skills need time to become truly powerful. The earlier we get them, the better.

I also wouldn’t be able to easily make Forward Horizon bigger, as making a bigger ship would mean designing a lot of new ship parts I didn’t have blueprints for. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply scaling up the current ship parts, like the engine, to make them work for a bigger ship; things don’t work like that.

There was possibly one place where I could get hold of a lot of different ship and ship-part designs. If I’m lucky, I should also be able to add to my current biological database a lot of the data I’m missing from Earth’s biosphere, and most likely a lot of new biological data from the galaxy.

While helping the human species survive in this galaxy is important for my own survival, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t profit from it. For our current vision of the seed technology to work, we need a lot of data, and if we want to make a bigger version of the Forward Horizon, we will also need a lot of data on bigger ships.

We could either trade for what we need with our data, purchase it, or steal it. Most likely, we will do a combination of all three to get what we need. After we help get a foothold for humanity in this galaxy, it’s time to come back around these parts so we can farm the necessary credits and increase our ranks.

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Those are longer-term goals, but right now it is important to focus on our individual skills. While we will spend a lot of what we have on getting the best skills for us all, I will hopefully get the core skills everyone will need in bulk, so that when we need to, we can awaken more crew members.

Currently, I am thinking of making three to five awakened crew members who would be designed to be the best they possibly can be at engineering, with all the technical know-how needed to make all the blueprints required to make and operate a large spaceship. This is something I alone couldn’t handle, considering all the other things we would need to build as our numbers increased.

An army and navy capable of fighting in space, boarding ships, fighting on the surfaces of planets or asteroids, and possibly fighting underwater or underground requires so much different gear and so much logistics that to design all of that would take me at least a century, if not more. So yes, I needed help, extremely competent help.

Now back to skills. I have been talking to everyone, and we have been running a couple of VR simulations that we could all join, which was possible thanks to our upgraded processing power, to figure out what builds all of us want.

While everyone who has gone through mana rebirth can feel mana, it is highly recommended to get a specific skill that would help you sense mana even better. Hopefully, I will find one for everyone, although those skills are quite universal, so they should work with most affinities.

Next is a skill that helps strengthen your mind from the influence of your own power and others’ skills. For me, that’s Mind’s Clarity. That should keep everyone from going off the deep end, even though I should be able to keep them in line thanks to everyone being bonded to me.

My own build is a bit complex. My biggest power spike comes through Crimson Empowerment, and I have been diligently training my simple flame and spark skill to get better at controlling the crimson manifestations I can make.

That has given me quite a big power boost, but it might not be the best idea to continue like that, as it would just empower me specifically.

Most of the skill slots I have left are in my mechanist affinity, so it is better to get skills that would allow me to improve my creations, and because I am also my own creation, as most of me is no longer flesh, it will improve me as well.

I think I am most reliant on finding unique skills that would fit my needs. The second hardest to find skills for would be FH.

Most of the skills would probably not work for her, but there should be quite a large volume of space monster skills that have accumulated over the years that no regular person can use. From what we have observed, those skills could possibly be used by FH.

Our priorities are quite simple: get FH skills that would improve our chances of survival, and get her a skill that would allow her to handle heat accumulation better. After that, it would be more inventory-type skills, then anything that would improve our damage output and her ability to process and store data.

She currently has seven skills out of 68 possible, so we shouldn’t have any problems getting what we need if they have skills that are compatible with her. The only thing that might be an even bigger problem is how much those skills would cost.

Sam has quite a clear picture of what kind of build he wants. We have talked about it quite a bit, and I enjoy the image he has of himself in mind. My mind flashed back to the moment he first told me about it.

“My innate ability allows me to shoot through things and even walk through things. I want no one to be able to keep me contained. Defences are pretty useless against me, so skills that would allow me to shoot faster and make every shot even more devastating would work nicely. I would be a ranged powerhouse, flattening anything that no longer needs existing.”

His affinities were mobility and guns. Both had 14 skill slots. It shouldn’t be hard to find skills that would allow him to do the kind of damage he’s looking for while never being able to be pinned down.

Dean has been practicing with his plasma light sword. He has been able to get that sword to move so much faster than I have been able to get mine to move. He wants to use his speed and disempowerment affinities to be able to attack as fast as possible while stacking debuffs on enemies that would cripple them.

It’s a more niche build idea, but I could see how it could be incredibly powerful with the right skills. Hopefully, we will find some that would help get that build online.

Bob has found a pretty interesting use for his supply affinity. Apparently, there should be skills that allow him to supply buffs to his allies. Other than that, he wants skills to make himself as indestructible as possible while being able to pull enemy attention. That last part would be the most difficult to find, as he doesn’t have affinities for that type of skill.

Lastly, we have Lola. She is in two minds about wanting to focus more on her creative side or her usefulness in combat. In combat, she is leaning more towards long-range support, as that would be possible thanks to her precision affinity.

The problem with that is she is our designated healer. While there are ranged healing skills, the most important skill we’re going to get for her is revival, so she could bring any of us back if we happened to die, but for that, she needed to be close by. Those skills only work with direct contact, with you only having at best a few minutes before it’s impossible to bring anyone back.

Hopefully, we will find skills that would allow her to be useful in combat as a damage dealer and a healer, but also so she can improve her creative side as well. She has been teaching me quite a lot, but I believe she will always be a couple of steps ahead of me in understanding biology.

We don’t want to stay at that station for too long, as it’s a dangerous place for a reason. Hopefully, we get what we need and get out without any big troubles.