In the city of Bordon, in a ship that had passed through two expansions, an extremely tense and awkward and tense atmosphere filled the room.
Leah gulped as she saw five of the people she held either fear or some hate for.
“W-We are extremely sorry for everything we have done to you Leah! We only did it because of father!” the lead figure said while each of them had actually kneeled down.
The crew was there but were startled by what was happening. Only Mirella and Nelim knew best about some of her personal life but the newer members were much less informed about the details and the problems or even her real name.
“You bastards, although i hate captain bitch, I know her even better than you assholes and even know about some of what you assholes did to her! You think just bowing and begging is enough!” Tony said veins appearing on his face. Unlike his common outbursts, this face was very calm but veins were appearing. This was probably the most angry anyone had seen Tony.
Besides Mirella, Nelim and Leah, Joce, Victor and Crystal didn’t understand his anger but the fact that several fighters were outside the window.
The five did not know who he was but they knew the situation was far from good as they truly wished it to be.
Leah herself wanted to stop him but she had her own troubles in this situation. Her entire life when she was with her family had been one bad memory. Although her brothers and sisters had frowns whenever they frowned, of which sometimes she knew they even said stuff only to not anger their father, a lot of what was said was extremely painful to hear.
In fact, she knew they weren’t as bad as they had shown but it was still hard for he to openly accept this apology. Several times they had said insults which had greatly hurt her.
“Just say the word and i will dispose of this trash!” Tony said.
Sounds of weapons being armed outside was heard but it required Leah’s order to dislodge and open the windows into the top floor.
“No.” She said making Tony stop. She was looking nervously at them for what they were doing, “Why are you doing this?” She asked.
“We… we wanted to join little brothers crew but because he was in your fleet…” her eldest brother said, “... even as he made us do this, we all are extremely regretful of it. We just feared father to much. We aren’t like Palodius who is a monster talent who does contracts separate from the family business. We only left because we could not take it any longer with fathers madness…” He said.
Even as he said that, he didn’t look up and instead, seemed to shrink more.
Leah’s heart was heavy, she wasn’t sure if they were doing this just to enter her brothers ship. He heart was beating heavily because she really didn’t know how to deal with this. She only felt bad being with her family and seeing how they were now wasn’t exactly a relief, she felt even more awkward.
BANG!
Suddenly the door was smashed open and to the shock of everyone, a robot running on steam and gears walked in. Tony vanished and the robot stomped over and grabbed Leah’s eldest brother by the shirt and lifted him up.
“Before anything else, you asshole, how much do you know about the shit your parents did!” He said shaking them.
They all looked up to the dungeon conscious in shock. They became even paler then their sickly faces were. This was plenty to show him that they knew everything.
“We… we want to fix his mistakes!” the eldest brother groaned.
Tony snorted, “And how the fuck will manaless idiots like you even do something like that! Do you know that even with the unique method we found to cure Pelodius, it doesn’t work on Leah because of the shit those idiot asshole parents did!” he roared.
They turned pure white and Leah became confused.
“What are you talking about?” Leah suddenly said.
Tony turned around while holding her brother with one arm. “When you were born, you didn’t randomly blow up with magic. Just like your brothers and sisters, you asshole parents invented a machine to close mana channels.” the blockades in your body is all the concentrated energy that would be in your entire body instead of one space.” he said completely ignoring Pelodius’s desire to hide it from her.
Leah trembled and became pale as she heard that. “W-What?!” She said “I-Is that true?!” She asked her brothers.
They were sitting up and all of them scowled and their eyes turned red, “We all have suffered the same process. We all ‘had’ magical potential.” her eldest sister said. “Even when we knew, we still feared fathers retaliation.” she said.
That said, Leah was trembling, he heart beat was pounding harder.
“Unknown alteration in captains heart rate. Irregular palpitations.” the AI suddenly said and everyone suddenly turned to look at her only to find her holding her chest. She was sweating intensely and trembling.
“She’s having anxiety attack!” Joce suddenly shouted in shock before quickly running over and pulling out her scanner and medical gun.
She forced Leah down and removed he vest before scanning her quickly and applying the proper healing magic. The irregular breaths calmed down but Leah was dizzy and coming in and out of conscious while a fever had formed.
“She had to large of a shock, tony, help me take he to the infirmary.” Joce said.
The robot controlled by tony let go of Leah’s eldest brother and picked her up and with Joce, they ran out.
The rest of the crew and guests were left in shock and panic of what happened but the newer crew frowned with glares at he sibling.
“The hell you bastards do to her?” Victor shouted.
The face of the siblings became extremely dark but they didn’t keep any secrets and directly told the crew what they all went through as children and discovered only later in life. Only Leah, the youngest child, didn’t know about it until now.
They slowly explained about the ‘methods’ of rearing their parents did and what had happened to them the few times they were nice to Leah leaving them aghast.
“These aren’t parents, their fucking monsters. Even dungeon monsters are more humane than them.” Mirella said shocked by the secrets she didn’t know about.
“It’s no wonder Leah had an attack like that.” Victor said coldly.
They didn’t look at the five badly anymore but didn’t look favorably because they still said what shouldn’t have been said, even if forced.
Joce had returned after putting Leah to sleep, “This is going to be troublesome to deal with but i don’t think Leah will completely hate you. She isn’t such a closed minded person. It might take he a long time to completely forgive and forget but she isn’t an unforgiving person.” Joce said.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“True, she is a very caring person.” Nelim nodded.
They all agreed but the five only showed expressions of self hate. Her current personality was only because of how Pelodius was behind her backing her even though he had passed through the same treatment but had a totally different personality and didn’t fear their parents.
That said, the hate towards their parents only deepened.
The five were allowed in the extra bunks that had formed in crew dorm while Leah recovered which was just the night. She woke up very early and Tony showed her the video he took of them speaking after she had her attack.
She didn’t respond but at breakfast, it was incredibly awkward to say the least.
She breathed in deeply and walked over to their table, “Elder brothers and sisters, tony showed me what you said after i had… i had that anxiety attack. I didn’t know your side of the story, in particular what you all passed for the times when i was little that you acted nice. If i had known, i might not have hesitated, I’m sorry for judging.” She said.
“You don’t need to apologize, we were just cowards in front of him.” her eldest sister.
Leah looked sad, “I’m sorry, i really am unable to let you stay on my ship. I… i just feel to distressed. I can buy you a new ship and you be a third ship in our fleet.” She said.
“No need, really… as long as you forgive us, little brother would allow us as his research crew on his ship.” her eldest brother said.
She smiled weakly and nodded, “I will tell brother.” she said and walked away but hugged herself before going to the office and had Nelim bring her food there.
Leah paid for a ship to take her siblings to where her brother was because she didn’t have a teleport pad. She really only calmed down after her siblings weren’t there. Nelim held he in her arms, “I hope i can become like real siblings with them.” She said.
“Don’t worry Leah, you just never had the chance, now you will have all the chance in the world.” Nelim consoled her captain.
***
Pelodius looked at his three brothers and two sisters with no real emotions.
“I really didn’t expect it to be any different from this.” he said.
They looked ashamed at his words but did not deny it.
“As i promised, you can be my research crew, i really won’t stop you from doing your own research though.” he said.
“We want to make a machine to open Mana channels!” his eldest brother said. “You started something like that right?!”
Pelodius stopped and looked at his brothers. “I’m not making a machine to unblock mana channels. I’m making something to unblock Leah’s mana channels. If you all want to regain you lost magical talent, as the Ship’s dungeon and some of the magic users on the crew, if your willing to risk suffering a lot of pain, they can help you.” He said dismissively.
The five were confused and shocked but watched him enter the elevator.
“We…” the eldest brother sighed.
“Leon, you don’t have to feel bad about what we are facing.” the eldest sister said, they were close in years so had spent most time together.
“Yeah…” he said.
The Biswel had seven children, Leon is the 1st born boy followed by the Beatrix who is the first daughter. They are 34 and 33 respectively. From there was Wilson at 30, Pelodius at 27, Helen at 24, Gregory at 20 and Leah at 16.
They walked to the elevator and went to meet the crew and actually ask about what Pelodius had said.
As for Pelodius himself, he was in his bioengineer lab and was using his machines to slowly improve some weapon parts. Like before, he did not mind in his siblings business if it didn’t have to do with Leah.
Hours later the sound of the door opened and an excited face appeared, his hair deep blue. “Pelodius, I…!” just as Leon opened his lips, his jaw dropped as he looked at the lab.
With his new magical sense, having read records of it, he felt the radiation coming off each and every piece. “Pelodius… these are Cursed weapons!” Leon said.
Pelodius frowned but did not look away as he was in the middle of adjustments, “They are, I’ve been researching it for the better part of 6 or 7 years now.” He said.
“6 or 7 years! Wasn’t that the same time you did the several military contracts including even making the prototype for a new generation of non-magical Space mining suit!” he said.
“It is, these were all to help Leah improve her control of her magic. Now i am making each and every part into an anti-neutralizer. I am using father's latest model and reverse engineering it so that i can used focus energy to nullify the original Neutralizers energy in Leah’s body.” He said
“You know if you made a general energy mana channel opening Neutralizer, you would become the most famous person in the galaxy!” He said.
“I am not interested, i won’t stop you all though.” he said and finished his adjustments before looking at his brother, “My worry is with Leah, if she has the ability to become the greatest mage in his history with her affinity, then i will help her.” He said.
Leon was shocked by his younger brothers devotion and smiled wryly. He looked at the lab and saw ten empty Bioengineer containers.
“What are you preparing those for?” Leon asked.
“Soon to decide which kind of humanoid monster we shall produce to fill in for crew.” Pelodius said.
“Oh! I can deal with the bioengineering, i majored in genetic research and machine cybernetics.” He said.
“I don’t need cyborg monsters, it would obstruct Adal’s mana channel opening art, its more effective for fixing the last defects in clones. I just need time to breed them.” Pelodius said.
Leon scratched his head, “Is there anything I can help with?” He asked.
Pelodius was looking at another part and paused and began to think, “You could help the rancher, your major in genetics can help breed better creatures with selective breeding.” He said.
Leon nodded wryly and agreed that it was a field he might fit into. Cybernetics isn’t a promising career path since few people want to mechanize their bodies. Just as he was about to leave he suddenly stopped and looked at the cursed weapon pieces.
“Ah…” he muttered. “Brother, can i look at your Cursed weapon research, i think might have thought of a good path.” Leon said.
Hearing the uncommon enthusiasm in his brothers voice, he looked back and saw the sparkling eyes of his elder brother who looked at the parts and slowly pieced together what he could be planning. “AI, allow Leon to access the research file for browsing but not modifying.” Pelodius said.
He left his older brother alone making him leave so he can get to work. Leon happily left and went to the top floor diner and began to read and read.
The others were having their channels opened and suffering from the appearance of their affinity traits which was their bodies adapting to it by absorbing mana into their vacant bodies.
***
A week after the event, Leah purchased a teleportation station which connected hers and her brothers ship no matter how far but it made Tony go crazy as he kept pestering them to get one of his low leveled 4 layered firewall programs. It was to expensive though. They could get only his 2 layered Firewall program for 40,000 MP installed and he was no happy but it was enough to form encryptions and alert him of hacking.
This obviously meant he also had the station locked down unless Pelodius called saying he was coming over. Tony wasn’t convinced of the safety though but could only deal with it as it was.
They also bought the space grade life support unit.
They still needed a 1.3 G Force gravity generator, Mark I Interplanetary Hyperdrive, Space Fighter Drone Hanger, Main AI Supercomputer Capable of holding D rank AI, Space Ship Shield Generator, Gun or Plasma Turret and Laser beam. The lowest amount needed was 675,000 mp to produce everything, if they used only mana without any extra extracted materials.
They were a ways from going into space but they already had a good amount of basic metals for decreasing lots of prices.
An event happened that caused them to desire to go to the 3rd floor of Bordon.
In the Imp habit, there have been three generations already born and each and every one of them Leah would go and kill the parents while switching the males and females with other groups to breed. Before switching, they would always open the mana channels of the Imps and it finally bore fruit.
When they went to see the groups, they found a pair of winged Imps in each habit. This was a great progress because the imps born of Winged Imps had much greater potential. Leah order the imps to be killed and switched the females of each habit and opened their mana channels and made a Demon crystal in each of them.
They would become the breeding vessels to who she would finally breed Lesser demons who were the desired base creature for crew. Queror had also had his channels opened and formed his Demon Crystal and he had even grown his horns as his mana was growing.
He had unexpectedly begun to train Adal’s mana cultivation of absorbing mana, as does Nelim and the other magic users.
That said, he had formed a method for demons instead of human or humanoids.
It was recorded and very interesting.
Because of the advancement of the Imps, they believed it was a good time to begin going deeper and securing the right of the 3rd floor and head to the 3rd floor shops and upgrading their gear.
Armor was different from weapons so they made all the plans to be fully ready for mining in the 3rd floor against fully grown Rock Golems.