Not bad as well. I returned to the farm and found Cael. He was excited. His girlfriend at another farm had found another dungeon. Two levels! It was pretty easy and the loot wasn’t clothes. I walked with him to Leo as he talked about it. Mole rats, lightning butterflys, red scorpions, mini trolls and fungus men were the monsters. The first floor had two bosses, a bigger version of the mole rate and a spectrum butterfly. The second floor had one boss, a full grown troll with two support healer trolls. We reached Leo and he told Cael he wanted to head to the mountains for some rare herbs for his wife and he had talked with Cael’s mother to protect him. Cael was excited. He had never been into the mountains before as he was technically not allowed. He was even more excited that I was going too.
We left after lunch. Cael noticed almost immediately that I was deciding on the direction so he began to question me and Leo. After 6 hours Leo allowed me to give the big reveal. Cael was jumping in excitement after and missed the fact that I had not told him immediately when I returned a few days ago. I quietly asked Cael about bringing Leo by the Aether pool. He gave it a lot of thought and 30 minutes later took the lead and brought our group to the pool.
Leo was intoxicated and we were both shocked when he pulled out a basketball sized core. After the surprise he explained the core was from the Flagship Battleship Halifax from the Blue Light Kingdom, the vessel was destroyed and he escaped with the core. He had kept it with him and had never removed it from dimensional space. The core would take only a few hours to charge in the Aether pool. While this was going on I explained I had learned the supplemental Aether core skill in the pool. Leo wasn’t surprised. Mages had a good chance to learn the skill soaking in an Aether pool.
I was left to guard the charging core while Cael took Leo to the dungeon. Two hours later they emerged from the pool. Leo was giddy with his loot and I had to admit this is where I got his underwear. Leo then negotiated with Cael to come and let him clear the dungeon every once in a while. Cael got some choice duties that would let him visit his girlfriend more often as compensation. We ended up camping at the pool to completely replenish the core. It ended taking 14 hours, about 3 times as long as Leo had guessed, he assumed the Aether pool was very minor and that is why it took so long. Aether pools usually formed at planetary Aether nexus lines which where deep in the earth. Water passing through an Aether nexus bubbled up forming a pool or sometimes supplied a dungeon. Generally cities where built up around Aether pools. But this planet had such weak Aether lines…it also appeared the dungeon had some symbiotic relationship with the pool. It was a mystery for another time.
In my tent we ate a filling dinner of fried fish, baked potatoes and a white wine, all supplied by Leo. At first light we took off to the ship. I rode my bike, Leo flew and Cael ran. By late afternoon we reached ship and panic struck.
The pool was still there but half the water was gone. The top of the ship was exposed. I looked for salvagers thinking someone found my ship. After two hours of searching I found that the dam was just very effective and my pool had drained via gravity. Leo had entered the ship using Aether respiration and had just come out.
Leo said the ship was apparently not in terrible shape. He said it was a very ugly design he was unfamiliar with since he had never fought orcs, just other humans. He said I would need an engineer and mechanic to check things out. He was also going to swap out cores if I was interested in salvaging the ship. I asked him to explain. He said the core he inspected in the ship had 150,000 capacity. While the core he had had a capacity of 980,000. Leo said his core was worth more than ten times the entire value of my ship, even if it was fully repaired. He said he had this core as nest egg but he was getting along and happy. He had 6 grandkids and the 150,000 aether core was still worth 500,000 credits. His skill in magitech was very low but he should be able to change the interface size to get his core to fit. I nodded not completely understanding. He said I should fix the ship as much as possible then go to the Ballen city to get the rest of the parts and get a crew. Cael immediately volunteered to be part of the crew which caused an argument. Leo said Cael’s mother would never let him go.
I set up the tent while they argued. I was not aware of the outcome but Cael did not look happy when they came for dinner. We ate and Leo asked what I planned to do. I pulled out the system pad and explained I already had the engineering skill. Both the pad and the fact I had the engineering skill caused some shock from Leo. Leo said never show the pad on this planet. It was expensive and rare and unsavories would kill me for it or sell info that I had one.
Leo said I should also get a translator program on the pad for orcish as much of the controls and engineering panels were in orcish. I excavated a channel to drain the water. The water rushed away. While Leo and Cael reentered the ship a summoned a thin stone shell over the ship. A minor precaution until I got my large tarp up here.
I entered the ship and found Leo working on removing the old core. Cael was trying to break into the crew quarters I hadn’t opened. I took the cleaning robot out and it unfolded and stood up. I set up commands to clean the ship, putting gear in the bay getting debris just outside the bay. I spent two hours reinforcing my stone tub and clearing earth around the ship. The interior lights on the ship lit up. I found Leo and he had gotten his core inserted. I pulled out my SYSTEM pad.
It linked to the ships internal sensors and after twenty minutes gave me some data.
Ships Computer Offline
Structural Integrity 63%
Hull Integrity 78%
Magitech Hull Integrity 29%
Sensors 2%
AetherSensors 13%
Deflector Shields Offline
Aether Combat Shields 61%
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Life Support Offline
Magitech Life Support 15%
FTL Jump Matrix 47%
Weapons Systems Offline
Dual Fusion Core EJECTED
Aether Core 670%
Navigational Computer Offline
Main Propulsion 79%
Maneuvering Propulsion 30%
Magitech Grav Matrix 86%
Relative Mass Reducer Matrix 77%
Inertia Reducer Matrix 48%
The images that came with the data showed that most of the damage had occurred on the underside of the ships nose. Multiple structural supports inside the bow needed repair. All interior computers were non-functional, the pad had to remotely access sensors to access the damage. The ships non-magical fusion core was missing. The ship had a lot of magitech. The most important was the mass-reducer which when powered gave the ship 20% of its actual mass allowing better maneuvering. I already knew from studying the schematics the ship used fusion energy to break down water for oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for fuel. It had magitech that backed up these systems. Artificial gravity was governed by the Aether core…no mechanical backup.
I started going through the maneuvering propulsion system. I got absorbed working on the system on the interior of the ship. I spent nearly 12 hours straight going through and logging replacement parts needed. When I emerged I found it was morning Leo and Cael were eating. I joined them.
Cael said all the awesome thing he had found. Only one crew compartment had maintained uncompromised by water. Still Cael had found some cool personal items I had missed. He also gave an inventory of the armory which I already had. Leo said he had focused on the magitech hull integrity and magitech grav matrix. Leo didn’t have the expertise to rewrite the damaged runes. I would need someone with at least 23 in the magitech skill to do the repairs. Leo suggested the ship could fly with the new Aether core and maybe move it to a cave somewhere for security and make it easier to work on the hull. Leo had a stealth spell that would help in moving the ship in secret. It was a tier 10 air spell so I couldn’t learn it. This sounded like a plan. Cael knew some possible caves near the edge of the forest but none would be large enough. I had the ability to enlarge a cave so Cael said he would rescout them and get back with the best option.
Leo was going to head back to the farm. He would be available for advice and promised to work on Cael’s parents so he could leave with me when I finally left. Of course that was probably months away. Leo helped me learn how to use the interface with the Aether core and ship. Each magitech system drained the core at a certain rate at an hourly rate. Unfortunately this ship didn’t have any Aether collectors which could passively charge the core. There were four inserts in matrix where some could be added but they generally cost as much as my ship. Generally small ships like this were part of a fleet and capital fleet mages would charge the core. Aether collectors ranged from 100 to 100,000 aether per hour and the smallest would cost over 2,000,000. The thing with Aether collectors is they had to be purchased via SYSTEM terminals or found in a SYSTEM dungeon as magitech couldn’t create them. The big thing was they functioned even in Aether dead zones. Dead zones were places where there was no Aether for a mage in the environment to channel to replenish. Entering a star system that was a dead zone could be a death sentence if a ship that relied heavily on Aether systems didn’t have a collector.
Under Leo’s supervision I activated and moved the ship up 1 meter and then back down 1 meter. The crunchy sound from the bow indicated where the damage was most prevalent. Leo nodded in appreciation of my success. We all slept in the tent. Cael and Leo complained about lack of mattresses.
I spent the rest of the day crawling around the ship. Cael and Leo had left in the morning. I spent 3 days before Cael returned. My days were spent on checking ship systems, hovering the ship and recharging the Aether core. Cael eventually returned and said he found a cave that would do. It would need to be enlarged and the bats inside would have to scarred off and was only about 30 kilometers from here but closer to the farms.
I decided to pull the ships three computers, navigation, AI oversight, and emergency backup, and stored all three in my space. I left with Cael to check out the site. On the trip I reviewed my progress over the last few days. My starship engineering had reached level 8. A t level 7 I had selected 15% increased speed in repair work over 7% increase in ship system efficiency. It was a difficult call but seemed the best choice in the moment. My swordmanship had not leveled as I practiced only for 30 minutes each day. I increased my create water volume from 3 liters to 5 liters at level 7. I had two upgrades for the personal dimensional pocket spell. At level 11, tier 6, I reduced the base casting cost by 13 aether. At level 13, tier 7, I increased the pocket size by 22%. I had cancelled and recast the spell. Now for 189 aether pool I had a 5.22 cubic meter space. For replenish Aether core I got lucky, I increased the rate to 3 aether per second at level 2, tier 2, and at level 3, tier 3 I added ‘burst’ which allowed 20 times transfer rate for 60 seconds once every 24 hours. The ship movement spell was at level 4. At level 1, tier 1 I choose to increase the acceleration from 1 ms per ton to 2 ms per ton. At level 2, tier 2, I got to increase the mass to 1.5 tons, increasing the effect by 50%. At level 3, tier 3, I increased the acceleration to 3 ms per 1.5 tons. Slow progress. I had also removed the Aether core from the ship and stored it in my private space for now, it was only at 79% and I was planning to top it off in the Aether pool.
I went to the cave Cael found. The cave was very rough. It probably could barely fit the ship but needed the floor leveled and probably made a little wider at the deepest part. I estimated about 175 casts of my excavate spell. Focused I could do about 24 casts a day and would need to travel 17 miles to the Aether pool to help recharge quicker as well. So 7 days of hard spell casting. Cael joked about how inefficient I was. I wished I could use the Aether core but it required the matrix on the ship to draw Aether from it. Even then I wasn’t sure if I could siphon the Aether.
I told Cael I would spend 3 days, take a day off to go to town, then spend 4 days finishing up, and then Leo could move the ship with Cael. Cael agreed to the plan.
I set up my tent on rock I leveled in the back of the large cave. The first thing I did was smooth the ceiling where the bats nested. The bat creatures couldn’t find purchase on the new smooth ceiling and went to sleep elsewhere. I wasn’t sure about the piles of crap on the floor. I made the decision to get the cleaning robot from the ship. I started my days of casting, riding to the Aether pool and back (about a 40 minute ride each way). I actually had a lot of free time and found time to practice my swordmanship, made a bunch of health potions and retrieved the robot. I even cleared the bosses in the dungeon only using the sword with the help of the haste spell. I figured I was also getting some items for trade. I had tried to examine the ships computers but found I needed some hi-end specific tools. Three days passed in a blink. The robot worked tirelessly and I found the floor was meters deep in bat shit. It made the cavern bigger but meant I would need more casts to level the floor. The ceiling was done and the back of the cave was partially enlarged. My excavate spell had hit level 11 and I got a 62 aether cast cost reduction or 16% which would be a massive help. I was extremely happy it was time to head to town as I was bored with the routine.