[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/739491419177353311/1106781363648081921/Malevolo_a_flying_sailing_megaship_with_tons_of_sails_and_masts_111b3ba2-d982-4854-8db8-dd86d0172877.png]

(This is an AI image. It captures the feel I was going for, but not the exact image in my mind.)

Maybe it was too soon to really tell, but he assumed that the other mutated mariner had been eaten by the other creatures. They seemed like a hungry lot, and he couldn’t imagine that there was much for them to eat in the lower levels of the facility. That was probably why he had met some so high up in the facility. But that also meant that he had a potentially good way to distract them. The animals in the chasm had been greatly depleted by Ander’s activities over the past week, but he would be able to use one or two carcases to bait a trap, or distract him from his movements elsewhere. He could potentially use it to get to the ship.

Ander really hoped that he could find something worthwhile there. While he had weapons that were sturdily made, all of his blades were getting dull, and efforts to sharpen them against stones in the ravine had been less than effective. Getting some armor would also be nice. While Ander’s healing was better than it had been on earth, every injury he gained took several days to heal. That was the hardest part of the group beneath him. These were the fastest creatures he had met so far. His only saving grace at the moment was their comparative skill levels. Way of the Wind gave him supernatural ability with pretty much whatever weapon he picked up. It had even helped him throw rocks better. Whereas these creatures didn’t seem to have much of a mind.

Ander looked back down at the group of monsters beneath him. On second thought, he would put their intelligence somewhere around that of an ape, but they went insane while fighting, to the point that they attacked completely wildly. Even with Way of the Wind, Ander figured that he would never have survived the last encounter if the creature had not left such a big opening. He had caught the thing just to the left of the sternum, and with his new strength had cleaved up through all of its ribs. He never could have done that if the creature didn’t have its hands fully outstretched to try to grab him. While he was significantly faster now, he wasn’t quite as fast as these monstrosities, and if he got multiple of them on him, he was less than sure how he would fare. Unfortunately it seemed he was lucky the first time, and he was unlikely to find any of the mutated mariners on their own again.

Ander leaned up against the edge of the rent in the wall, considering the giant ship for a moment before remembering to cast identify.

Unnamed Exodarian Flagship

Operational

Incomplete (98%/100%)

Damaged (Health 99986/100000)

Please claim this ship to rename.

Well, wasn’t that something. A thought crossed his mind then, and Ander hopefully scrutinized the roof. No luck. If the giant ship were some sort of flying vessel like you might find in a fantasy book, he figured the roof would be retractable. But of course it wasn’t, if the absence of any hardware was any indication. Also, the parts of the roof that had not collapsed were covered in mounds of rocks and dirt that had tons of plants growing through them. There was no indication that the roof was retractable or ever had been. That did stump Ander though, as he still couldn’t figure out how the ship was ever supposed to leave the dry dock. And if The flagship was here, where was the rest of the fleet?

Ander decided to set those questions aside for now. Getting to the ship seemed like it had to be his highest priority.

Ander left the crack and retreated back into the destroyed hallway. He needed to find a way down that wasn’t in sight of that entire horde. While he could use the platforms as a choke point for a while, there were too many staircases and he would eventually be flanked. In order to make this work he had to stay mobile and harass them until their numbers were more manageable. At that thought Ander felt the telltale pressure on his mind that indicated a notification.

Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has leveled up!

Skill: Way of the Wind is level 6.

Ander stared at the notification dumbfounded. He had worked so hard to level up this stupid skill and it gained a level just from thinking? Ander racked his brain to try to figure out how in the hell that was counted as skill training. Advanced tactics. That had to be it. Ander grimaced. Senoc had used Advanced Tactics as part of the skill fusion. Ander had a sinking suspicion that learning to employ tactics was going to be a crucial part of leveling up the skill. Just going into a fight head on was really only using half the skill.

Grumbling Ander re-entered the well preserved part of the facility and started to search for a way down. While searching, he did get caught up back in the more administrative section for a few hours looking through some papers. While a comprehensive search would take months longer than what he was willing to spend, he realized that this lab area was only a small part of the whole facility, which he gathered had been made solely for the construction of the flagship. Most of the facility was different kinds of workshops for different parts of the ship. Through an offhand note in one of the documents, ander learned that the ship did indeed fly. However there was no indication of how it was supposed to be removed from the premises.

One of the last documents he read before moving back to the search for a way down was quite interesting. It was a request to bring in an experiment from another site to use some of the specialized equipment that had been dedicated for the ship’s alchemical needs. There were several denial requests by one Researcher Karth, but they had been overruled by an Administrator Marik, allowing the experiment to set up shop in the room with the crack in it. The experiment was on a serum that had been created at this other lab. It was highly potent but also highly volatile, with very strong amounts of life essence. Apparently the researchers hoped that it was one step on the way to an immortality drug, but that this sample was far too unpredictable to serve as an actual immortality serum.

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Ander snorted and put the document away where he had found it. Typical scientists, always messing with things they shouldn’t. It didn’t take much to figure out what went wrong. Something must have exploded in the room with the serum, and its effects spread out and covered the ship’s new crew. Poor bastards. Under this theory it would mean that the creatures down there were the same ones that were originally affected by the serum. As there hadn’t been any identifiable females or babies, Ander supposed that was a reasonable assumption. Of course, that is if immortality was a reasonable assumption at all.

In the end Ander could only find the original staircase to make his way further down. At the end of each hallway there had been more doors, but they all had eventually led to destroyed sections which had no access further on due to the degradation of the facility. While Ander was sure he could do it at this point, Ander didn’t want to try to jump a ten foot hole over who knows where. He would risk it, or go down the hole itself if he couldn’t find other options. But since the original stairwell went further down, he decided to try that first.

Like the documents implied, the lower floors were mostly workshops for various kinds of craftsmen. Interestingly enough, there were break rooms, dormitories, living spaces, and anything else someone might want if they were living here permanently. He even found several bars. Unfortunately, all the beer on tap was so far past bad it wasn’t even vinegar anymore. But he did find a number of barrels of different types inside engraved circles like the ones he had found upstairs. On a whim he tapped one, making a bit of a mess in the process, and managed to pour a sudsy tankard of beer. As he drank, he was very glad that this section had been preserved. Whatever kind of magic was on this place was, well, quite magical.

Ander decided to only drink half of the beer he had poured. While he had quite enjoyed himself, he wasn’t willing to get even a little tipsy in case he found something to fight. Instead he took a small plate and set it on top of the tankard and set it inside the inscribed circle. Hopefully that would keep it fresh for when Ander returned for it.

Ander continued deeper into the building and small well appointed workshops and living quarters gave way to larger workshops and more communal living spaces down below. Most of the larger workshops were oddly barren, sporting no caches of materials like the higher workshops. Ander figured that this was where larger sections of the ship had been crafted before being lifted into place. Of course none of these workshops would have been big enough to build the largest pieces like the keel, which would have been built in place in the main hangar.

Despite the odd nature of the facility, with some sections being pristine and some sections being completely destroyed, Ander was getting the feeling that everything was a little off. That was until he found a much nicer section with lavish furniture and plush rugs. The entire facility had been, grandiose, in scale. Doors were typically a full eight and a half feet tall, with the hallways a full ten feet tall. It was a little odd, but everything was so odd that he just let it go. But in this nicer section, the scale of everything was built for giants. Of course these were giants in terms of pro basketball players, not in terms of stories and myths. Trying to sit on one of the chairs caused Ander’s feet to dangle just barely above the floor, making him feel like a child. The doors had two handles on each one of them. One where it was convenient for Ander to grab, and another about a foot higher. Ander figured that his father, High Lord Torden, would be pretty comfortable in this section of the facility. This place was perfectly sized for the nobility.

But that brought up another question. All the doors were large, but not large enough. That is to say there were only personnel doors, but nothing large enough to wheel crafting supplies, tools, or even finished products through. It was the same problem as with the ship. Unfortunately for Ander, he found nothing else of interest in the Noble’s quarters except a sword that was too large for him to comfortably wield, even as a greatsword.

Finally, Ander made it to the final floor, and the door opened up onto more destroyed workshops. Fortunately for Ander, the supports still seemed sturdy. However, what set this section apart from the others was the rather significant amount of dirt that was literally everywhere. And in that dirt grew plants. Lots of plants. Ander hadn’t expected plants, he had seen nothing of the sort in any previous level. The light hadn’t felt like fluorescent light, but he hadn’t expected it to be able to support plant life. That said, all of the plants in this mini jungle were a shade of green a bit off of what you might expect to find outside, so maybe they had adapted. The Mutated Mariners certainly didn’t seem like gardeners to Ander. Along with the plants, came animal life. Ander didn't see any actual animals, but he could see their tracks, along with the tracks of the Mariners.

And of course, that is when he saw one of the mariners up close for the first time in a week. It was grotesque just like he remembered, with its skin sagging across most of its body and two extra arms of different lengths sticking out below its left shoulder blade. Surprisingly, It’s face was still mostly intact except for a maw that had just a few too many teeth, and Ander got to see in real time as the little intelligence in its eyes faded away as it saw Ander. It let out a piercing scream and charged without thought. Ander simply stood there and waited for it. As he thought, the speed of the Mutated Mariner was fast, but nothing he couldn’t deal with. As it closed in, Ander used the wind to dash forward and cleanly take off the creature’s head. In the next second the Mutated Mariner crashed to the floor, while a dozen more voices rose in a scream.

Ander scrambled away to hide behind a fern as 13 more Mutated Mariners swarmed the body of their fallen comrade, and started to feast. They didn’t even try to figure out who had killed it, they simply dug in. Seeing this, Ander snuck out of his hiding place and slew five of the mariners in quick succession. The others looked up in a dazed manner, clearly torn between the food and the intruder before them. Three more died in those couple of seconds. The last five finally jumped to their feet and tried to mob Ander, but he kept the bodies between them and him, moving around to cause them to interfere with one another’s attacks. Not a strategy for anything less mindlessly hostile, but it worked here. Finally all of the Mutated Mariners were dead, and Ander was left to catch his breath in the midst of the corpses.

The familiar pressure on his mind got Ander to check his notifications.

You have leveled up! You are now level 16.

+2 Conductivity

+2 Wisdom

+2 Regeneration

+1 Beauty

+2 Presence

+20 free stats.

Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has leveled up!

Skill: Way of the Wind is level 8.