The outer deck shell clack-clack-clacked as it receded back into the hull, exposing the endless blue skies and bringing with it the stagnant air of a trash island.
> Deck Shell: Retracted
The bridge monitors clicked off, and the bridge hummed as it was lifted high into its tower position. The protective sheath slid off, and the light of day poured in from the windows around.
> Bridge Tower: Raised
It was time to get to work.
"Begin recycling," I ordered.
One of the technician girls said, "Yes, Admiral." And she punched in commands into her monitor.
> EMF Engines: Jettisoned
The rocket engines hissed as they disconnected from the hull, and they splashed into the water.
> Mining+ activated x27.
>
> Recyclers: Activated
A shit load of recycler lasers began to construct on the decks, and already the crew were mounting on the ones already built and aiming them across the sea of trash.
Bzz-Vzz-BZZ-VZZZZZ--
The burn of the lasers grew as more and more ignited, and soon it was almost deafening to be outside.
> Recycling:
>
> Mining Lasers: 27
>
> Base Rate: 3000 M/s
>
> Size Modifier: Ship, 5
>
> Density Modifier: Soft, 1.5
>
> Auxilliary Modifier: Mining+, 1.5
>
> Final Rate Each: 33,750 M/s
>
> Final Rate Total: 911,250 M/s
>
> XP Rate Total: 3,037,500 XP/s
Incredible. I was achieving level progression at speeds yet experienced, and now that I was essentially in a sea of XP, the possibilities were endless.
> Work Order:
>
> Hull: Continous Expansion
Jessie's face blinked in on a nearby screen. "Oh, Redrim," she smiled, "Good job taking that jet." She kind of blushed and looked away. "Were you, um, serious about the whole dick sucking thing?"
I gave it a moment of thought. Jessie would probably make me some fucked up weaponized dick with spikes and rockets and retractable bullet magazines. It would be a better idea to visit the Phallomancer, or better yet, just getting my old body back. "Consider it a favor paid back," I said. "That counts as a favor, right?"
"Nope."
"Bullshit. I'm counting it."
She groaned playfully. "Fine. But engineering an air force will cost you."
I shook my head in defeat. "Alright. You win."
"Good boy," she purred. "And as a treat, I'll go ahead and drop in the new anti-air recipes."
"Thanks," I said.
She hit me with those bedroom eyes, winked, then blinked off-screen.
This was good, though. I had my best and brightest working on new things, and after flipping through the screens to see the other rooms, I could tell that everyone was productive.
Jenna was in the coffee lounge with Lara, and I had just caught them laughing at a cute joke or whatever. Boring girl stuff, I figured. It did make me a measure happier, seeing Jenna smile in a time of peace like this. Had I done well? No point in worrying; I was busy.
In the magic-alchemy lab, the knight was trying--and failing--to make some kind of spell. Some sparked inaudibly, the visual feed flashed white enough to drown out the screen, and when the lab appeared again, the knight was covered in black soot. His friends pointed and laughed except for the healer, who lovingly tried to clean him off.
In the Gimp Development Facility, the Gimp King fiddled with one of the monitors in front of a gimp--they contained things like biometric details, heart rate, progression stats, etcetera--and nodding to himself, he input a few commands on his wrist device--where did he get that--and a far door slid open, and trash water flooded in, rising up to the gimps' waists and up to his knees.
I wasn't sure what he was up to, and to be fair, I wanted no part of it.
The training room was built more like a gym mixed with a firing range, and in it, Vil was teaching a few rebels how to spawn in mana shields. Neat.
And Jessie, of course, was in the now-upgraded machinist's workshop--just a cleaner, larger, more laboratory-appearing workspace. On the far wall was the recycling chute, and she clicked a device, it slid open with a hiss, and she tossed a few scrolls in.
> +1 Portable Rocket Launcher
>
> +1 Small Rocket HE
>
> +1 Small Rocket AP
>
> +1 Small Rocket FLAK
>
> New recipes unlocked.
Excellent. Now I could equip our crew with these anti-air anti-armor weapons to face any threat. The only real problem was firing while flying through the air--people couldn't stand on the decks with all the wind--but that would be a problem for later. For now, the tank turrets and flak ammo could do the job reasonably well.
Unless, of course.
"Jessie," I said.
She blinked up on the screen. "Yes?"
"Make us some flak ammo for the machine guns."
"It would hardly be effective," she said. She narrowed her eyes and looked away in thought. "Actually, I suppose I could--yeah, yeah--that could work. Sure," she told me. "I'll work on it after I'm done with this fucking jet fighter plane."
"Great."
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
She clicked off.
> +1 Room Deodorizer
The fuck was this? I clicked over to the magic research lab. The Gimp King was there, fucking around in the potions. The hero party was nowhere to be seen.
Where'd they go? I flipped through in search of them and found them in Jessie's lab. Doc Jackelope was with them on a separate workbench, and he was drilling into some kind of bulky sword. It looked like an over-sized kitchen knife attached to a bunch of electronic pipes and wires. The knight talked to him with giddy excitement, and the mage presented the potion.
Doc accepted it gracefully, poured the reddish-white liquid into a reservoir in the orb, and he nodded himself. The heroes watched with child-like wonder as Doc snapped his gloves off, took the orb to the recycling chute, and dropped it in.
> +1 Sword Arm
>
> +1 Magic Dispenser Arm
>
> New recipes unlocked.
>
> New forms unlocked.
"Redrim," said Doc. "Did you receive it?"
"I did," I said. "What is it?"
"New weapons for your trash knight armor. You have these young adventurers to thank for this."
"Thanks," I said. I gave them a respectful nod, and they accepted it. My debt with them was mounting, but they didn't seem to care.
I was just about to click away when Jessie's obnoxious face jumped into frame. "It's done, fucker!"
"Good. Put it in."
She raised her eyebrows in that smug, playful expression, and she shook her head. "No, sir. You owe me."
She got me. She had me hooked deep, and now she was reeling me in. There was no escape from this. I lowered my head in defeat. "Goddamnit. Fine. My quarters. Five minutes."
She grinned wide, and the screen clicked off.
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. There was no way I was actually gonna go fuck that girl. Maybe I could just hit her with a sleep spell and tell her we did it.
"Imsi," said Cassandra. "According to my analysis, it would be beneficial to, as you would say, fuck that girl, as it would increase cohesion with the ship's chief engineer. Furthermore—"
"Fuck off, Cassandra," I said. "I'm not fucking that girl."
"Admiral," said the Card King. "I can take over from here while you go fuck that girl."
"I'm not--ugh--I'm just gonna whip her or something, I dunno." I stepped away. "Watch the deck."
He smirked. "Have fun, Redrim. Give her the ol' long dick."
What the fuck? I just shook my head and stepped into the elevator, and it hummed as it zipped down to the lower decks and clicked open with a ding.
I stepped out, dragged my feet as I walked back to my room, opened my door, and already found her waiting--
And naked. Of course.
She was already on my bed, her soft, pale body wanting and waiting and beckoning for my touch, and--fuuuuuck--this sucked. I still had no dick! I couldn't enjoy this! It was torture. That's what all this was. Punishment for my sins. Of course.
She sat up, her hair messily covering her eye--typical hot girl stuff--and she bit her lip. "Come on, Redrim. Play with me."
I just stood there, staring, drinking in the sight of her. "I don't have a dick, Jessie."
"But you have tentacles," she said.
"Oh."
She smirked and pulled me closer. I towered over her as she rubbed her thighs up my hips and leaned back. "I'm trying to become a hentai protagonist, Redrim, and every hentai protagonist likes tentacles."
"Oh." I gulped hard. "Uh, sure. Yeah. Fuck it. Heart of the Kraken... activate?"
> Heart of the Kraken activated x 50.
Fifty miniature magic circles appeared all around my body, and fifty octopus-sized tentacles thrust out--these sticky, fleshy, throbby things, and they reached out--I felt everything--and slid across the softness of her skin and up her body and gripped her and caressed and she moaned horribly and her body quaked and she shuddered and I roared as I conquered her lithe body with my Kraken tentacles and--
And yeah. Sex happened.
Hours passed. My bed was ruined. Covered in substances that shouldn't be mentioned, and I left her there as a panting, exhausted wreck.
> +1 Mana Jet Fighter Blueprint
>
> New recipe unlocked.
Cassandra whispered. "Good job, Imsi. Your successful intercourse has procured yet another powerful weapon for our needs. I advise that you continue to—"
"Cassandra, don't you have better shit to do?"
"Yes," she answered before falling silent.
Feeling a little better about my self-esteem, I returned to the bridge to get an update.
"Ah, Redrim," the Card King said. "Good job fucking that girl."
"We didn't--ugh--just give me a status."
We gestured at the ship. "Look around."
I surveyed through the windows, and I found myself wondering what happened to my ship. It was as though we had been transported to someone else's ship--no--not even a ship. This was becoming a citadel.
The bridge tower now stood several dozens of meters taller with thickened armor on its sides and attached, more cannon arrays just waiting to be outfitted. The decks had expanded by several more meters, the hull thickened out and lengthened, and there was now so much more room to put guns and shit.
This was progress. Leaps and bounds of progress, and we'd only get faster from here.
I opened the Work Order to pause it.
> Work Order:
>
> Hull Expansion: +11,645 Tons
>
>
>
> Time since last XP gain: 213 Minutes
>
> +38,819,250,000 XP
>
> +4 Levels [Level 70]
>
> +4 Class Points
More than 38 billion XP, and I only got four levels? Fuck this shit. It would only get hard from here, sure, but for drinking up trash island? It stung getting only four levels.
"Imsi," said Cassandra. "I advise reviewing the new Mana Jet documentation to begin engineering manufacturing your new jet fighters."
"Good idea," I told her.
I stepped over to a monitor and brought it up on screen. It was awesome seeing my progression tree on a physical hologram rather than a mental image, and I flipped through my vast recipe list to check out the Mana Jet Fighter
> Mana Jet Fighter
>
> Designation: MF-16
>
> Engine: Mana Jet Engine+
>
> Cockpit: Sub-Masochist Drive
>
> Support: Hull Docking Module
>
> Hardpoints: 9
>
> Available Armaments:
>
> RAC: Rotary Autocannon, 20mm
>
> RKTL: Rocket Barrage Launcher
>
> MSL: Default Heat-Seeking Missile
>
> SR-ASM: Short Range Anti-ship Missile
>
> RAILG: Railgun
>
> Recycler Turret Module
>
> Recycler Mining Module
>
> Recycler Sword Module
>
> Recycler Liquid Magic Dispenser Module
>
> Recycler Bulwark Module
>
> Recycler Comms Module
>
> Recycler Rocket Engine Module
>
> Recycler Resource Air Intake Module
>
> Stats:
>
> Fuel Capacity: 3,000,000 E
>
> Mass: 15,000,000 M
>
> Max Speed: 2,500 kph
>
> Operational Time: 130 Minutes
>
> Enchantments:
>
> Recycler Inheritance
Incredible. These modified jets could redirect their thrust to hover around if needed, and because of that, they could dock directly to the length of the hull if needed, but we wouldn't need them to.
With the hull expansion, I would create a long hangar space in the bottom level to house the planes. They'd be able to take off from this onboard runway while we were in flight, and while resting in the water, they could take the equipment elevator to the top decks and perform a verticle take off.
We weren't a battleship anymore. We were a Citadel-Class Aircraft Carrier.
> Work Order:
>
> Hull Configuration: Interior Aircraft Hangar
>
> 5 MJ-16s
>
>
>
> Total: 79,000,000
>
> Estimated Time Remaining: 88 seconds
>
>
>
> Work Order Complete
Wait, who's gonna fly this shit? I groaned when I realized. We had literally no pilots who knew how to fly a plane. Jessie certainly knew how to do it, so maybe she could train some of the rebels. What a pain. It surprised me just how much I was relying on her, but not just her, but everyone else.
We had a common goal. That's all that mattered.
For now, I hurried through the last few systems I needed to check.
> Gimp Development System
>
> Current Evolution: Trash Gimp
>
> Current Progress: 100%
>
> Evolution Unlocked
>
> New Gimp Abilities unlocked
>
> Current Evolution: Water Gimp
>
> Current Progress: 89%
Of course. More weird shit from the Gimp Development Center.
Now for the crew. I thought to have some of the guys cross-train so that we could take advantage of class skills across disciplines. The biggest thing I wanted was to have the archer's homing arrow skill on our gunners and missile launchers. This would give us a huge edge against those pesky planes if we fought them again.
> Crew:
>
> tbd
>
> Classes Available:
>
> Knight
>
> Healer
>
> Archer
>
> Mage
>
> Swordmage
>
> Machinist
>
> Fighter
>
> Rifleman
>
> Anti-Armor Personnel
>
> Crewman
>
> Turret Gunner
>
> Gunboat Pilot
>
> MF-16 Pilot
> Job Placement Request:
>
> Archer, Anti-Armor Personnel: 20
>
> Archer, Turret Gunner: 20
>
> Healer: 10
>
> Mage: 10
>
> Knight, Swordmage: 20
>
> Crewmen: X
There! Finally! Done with all that shit. Now we could finally fuck off and head to the nearby city. We needed crew to fill out the ship. Badly. And while I wanted to gain a bit more XP, it seemed we had recycled most of trash island already.
"Swap to rocket engines," I ordered.
The technicians set their coffees aside and hurried to work.
> Countdown: Activated
>
> Gunboats: Docked
>
> Recyclers: Jettisoned
>
> EMF Engines: Activated
>
> Bridge Tower: Lowered
>
> Deck Shell: Deployed
>
> Personnel: Secured
After a few minutes of waiting around for people to strap in and for the countdown to finish, I shot out my tentacles arms into the ceiling and floor anchors, stood with feet shoulder-width apart, arms crossed, chest out, power stance enabled, and I smirked with untold confidence.
"SUPER MASOCHIST DRIVE: ACTIVATE!"
The ship cheered back at me, the rockets flared with a roar, and we took off again.
Our destination: The neutral trading city Eirshire.