Speed progression. I think that's what we called it. A sort of fast-track run progressing through levels. A sort of training montage but in real life. That was what we needed to do.

The ship idled where I had left it last, right beside the partially-eaten carcass of

Ai-Gee's battleship. The recycling laser turrets that were above water were currently manned by various sailors. It apparently wasn't a hard job. Since the material density of the battleship armor was high, I was only getting a fraction of the resources per second, but I was getting substantially more XP.

Hardpoints:

Port: Mining+

Port 2: Mining+

Starboard: Mining+

Starboard 2: Mining+

Bow: Mining+

Keel 1: Mining+

Keel 2: Mining+

Keel 3: Mining+

Keel 4: Mining+

Bridge: Comms

Stern: Mining+

Deck 1 Railgun

Recycling:

Base Rate: 3000 / Ranged Recycler

Size Modifier: 5, Ship

Density Modifier: 0.5, Hard

Mining+ Modifier: 1.5, Dragon's Blood Injection

# Ranged Recyclers: 10

Resource Yield: 112,500 M / s

XP Yield: 281,250 XP / s

Hardpoints 22 unlocked.

Hardpoints refactored.

Hardpoints:

Armament: Railgun 1

Support: Comms 1

Auxilliary: Mining+ 10

Unused: 22

Mining+ x22 activated.

Recycling:

Base Rate: 3000 / Ranged Recycler

Size Modifier: 5, Ship

Density Modifier: 0.5, Hard

Mining+ Modifier: 1.5, Dragon's Blood Injection

# Ranged Recyclers: 32

Resource Yield: 360,000 M / s

XP Yield: 900,000 XP / s

That's right. That's almost 1 million XP every second. This was the power of actually recycling something besides shitty old seawater.

With this done, I started the work order.

Work Order:

Interior:

100 Living Quarters (Bunks)

10 Executive Suites

20 Officer's Housing

5 Rebel Offices

5 Elevators

Community Garden

Upgrades:

Machinist's Workshop 2

Magic Research 2

Gimp Development Center 2

Training Center 2

Hull: Dragon Scale Outer Layer

Hull: Liquid Mana Dispersement

Hull: Frontal Air Intakes

Hull: Bridge Upgrade

Hull: Bridge Transformation System

Hull: Secondary Gun Array

Hull: Aerodynamic Deck Shell

Engines:

20 Cyber Engines

Armaments:

SG-80T x 3

SG-120T x 1

T-34/85 Turrets x 2

RA50 x 1

Matter Required: 0 M

Estimated Time of Completion: 9min

That was a lot of work about to be done. Luckily, since we had so much stored, we only had to wait for the actual stuff to build.

The first bit was to add more rooms for our soon-to-expand staff. Then I needed to add more functional rooms like offices and a garden to help with food. I went ahead and upgrade our research facilities since those seemed to be our best bet at unlocking cool new shit.

For the hull, I added a layer of dragon scales across the outside, at Cassandra's recommendation, and to be fair, she was right on the money. Not only did our ship take on a similar menacing glow that the dragon had, but with the liquid mana dispersal system, we funnel spells directly into the scales directly. The old version essentially just puffed out liquid potions to give us shields, but now we are essentially enchanting our armor directly. The result is a much cleaner, much more efficient effect.

That and our dragon-scaled hull glowed differently depending on the spell.

I had Cassandra put our most-used or to-be-most-used spells on tap.

Liquid Protect: 50% Damage Reduction, Mono-Directional

Liquid Shelter: 120s Invincibility, Mono-Directional, 999s Cooldown

Liquid Manashield: 80% Damage Reduction, Bi-Directional

Liquid Haste: 50% Speed Increase

Liquid Silence: -99% Sonar Detection

Liquid Blades: Dragon Scales Sharpen

Liquid Ice: Freeze in Place, 50-meter Range

Liquid Earth: Bulky Hull

Liquid Purify: Cleanses Ship of all Negative Effects

The ship slowly built over itself, and when I felt the Gimp Development Room was ready, I tethered to the ship and brought up its menu.

Gimp Development System

Count: 100 Gimps

Evolution Status: UNEVOLVED

Current Evolution: Water Gimp

Current Progress: 77%

Evolution History:

Cyber Gimp >

Cave Gimp >

Forest Gimp >

Desert Gimp >

Ice Gimp>

Lightning Gimp>

Lava Gimp>

Mountain Gimp>

Island Gimp>

Water Gimp:

I regretted even looking. None of this made sense to me, but judging by how the Gimp King paced the newly upgrade Gimp Development Room, it seemed to be in his liking. Personally, I found it spooky as hell.

The floor was made out of metal grates with lights that shone beneath. If someone stepped across the walkways, their faces would light up in the most villainous ways. And the gimps were essentially tied to metal poles in the floor, unmoving, unthinking, sometimes twitching with the pull of the ship, the leather of their bodies glinting with the upward glow of the lights, and the Gimp King nodding proudly at his small, degenerate army.

Unnerving.

CREW: tbd

We had lost a few in that last fight, but not nearly as much as I had expected. Most of this was due to the healer's incredible healing potential; some of this was due to the availability of health and mana potions free from the crafting center.

With that checked off, we were about ready to embark.

I wanted to work on the gunboats a bit more, but that could wait until we were in the next port. For now, it was time to start.

First, I needed to check the engines.

Engines: 20

Tier: 5

Type: Cyber

Description: Cyber Engine: Covered in a mix of black lace and hard leather. This enables the engine to be muffled in volume and somehow more efficient.

Power: 500,000

Top Speed: 22kph | 11 knots

Engine Fuel Drain: 30,000 E / s

Aux Systems: 17,000 E / s

Total Fuel Use: 47,000 E / s

Goddamnit, we were still slow as shit. It was fine for now since I was about to slap a fuckload of rockets to this thing and fly to the next port, but in the future, I would have to either invest way more into the engine tree or hope Jessie could come up with a rocket engine efficient enough to use as a main engine.

Work Order Complete

Time Elapsed Since Last XP Gain: 16 Minutes

+864,000,000 XP

Somehow I still didn't level up. I had nearly a billion more XP until my next level and another 7 billion after that. All the more reason to hurry.

Countdown: Activated

Gunboats: Docked

Recyclers: Jettisoned

EMF Engines: Activated

The gunboats clacked into their spots within the hangar, and the mining lasers hissed off their mounts and splashed into the sea. In their places, rocket engines began to manifest.

Bridge Tower: Lowered

The top decks had been changed, and now we appeared more like an ordinary battleship. The bridge tower clicked and clacked as it was lowered to the same height as the guns.

Deck Shell: Deployed

Heavy, metallic thumping noises came from overhead, and from the glass of the bridge, I could see the beetle shell expand overhead and wrap the decks. The line of sunlight overhead narrowed further as the two halves of the shell grew closer, and with the final thump, the darkness set in.

I was lit only by the on-deck terminals and screens.

Visuals: Onscreen

The bridge flooded with natural light--a scene from outside. Visual monitors had wrapped all around the walls of the bridge, mimicking the outside view while we were still protected within the shell. One of the monitors blinked out, and Jessie's face emerged. Behind her, the engine room.

"We're all ready here," she said. "We just need your voice to activate the new Masochist drive."

"What?"

"You need to verbally activate it."

I cringed. I really needed to say this shit out loud? "Uh, Masochist Drive... activate?"

"No, no," she said. "We've upgraded it. It's a Super Masochist Drive. You have to say super. And with more vigor. Like a hero."

I groaned.

Vil's face blinked in from the turret control center. "Do it, Redrim."

"Do it, Admiral," said the healer from the infirmary.

"Sir Redrim! Do it!" said the knight from the coffee lounge.

"Do it," said the Gimp King from the ceiling sex swing.

"Do it, commander," said the chef from the kitchen.

"Do it," said the soldier from the armory.

"Grnhh," said the gimp from the Gimp Development Center.

Soon, countless other faces popped up on visuals to cheer me on.

"Fine!" I snapped. "Fuck!" I raised my arms wide in a power stance, stuck out my chest, and made the command. "SUPER MASOCHIST DRIVE: ACTIVATE!"

The rocket engines flared to life, and the ship itself purred in masochist pleasure.

The engines roared, the ship hurried, raced across the water, dipping and skipping and soon lifting off--Jessie jettisoned a few engines--and we once we broke free of the water--our speed increased, the wind rushed against the hull and the shell, and throughout the bridge, the visual monitors showed us hurling through the air at a breakneck speed, the winds roaring closer, the sea zipping past, the horizon shrinking, the clouds pulling away as we breached the white ceiling--

And a plume of white with the deafening boom.

Jessie blinked on. "That was the sound barrier," she said. "No need to worry."

More engines hiss off the hull as we bled speed, and once Jessie felt our speed-to-fuel ratio was good, she left us in a stable flight on course.

The turbulence was still a bit light, but now that we had evened out, people were free to move about at their own risks. For myself, I wanted a coffee. I flicked on Jenna's monitor and saw her gripping her seat like a terrified cat.

"Want a coffee?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she said.

"You look pretty far from fine."

"I just--I can't see what's happening, so..."

I pinged Cassandra to do something, and she hurriedly installed a few more panels in her room. They shot out from the ceilings and floors, and wrapped around Jenna, then clicked on.

Her eyes widened at the sea of clouds, the scorching blue sky, and she said, "W-wow."

I stretched out my arms and disconnected from the tether. "Alright, crew. I'll be back presently."

"Admiral!" said the radar operator from behind me. "I'm getting a blip. No, two. More, countless more, it seems!"

"The fuck is it this time? Wyverns again?"

She narrowed her eyes at the screen to understand it, and the green glow lit her face. "No, Admiral. This looks more like a battle formation."

The mage blinked onscreen. "Admiral. Targets incoming. Two kilometers due West, approaching fast."

"What are they?" I asked.

"Transfering display--"

The screen flipped to reveal a blurry image of what looked like a machine in the far distance. It was surrounded by countless more just like it. All flying through the clouds.

"The fuck is this?" I asked.

Jessie blinked on. "Those are fighter jets, Redrim, and we might be fucked."