Leksi was standing in front of a crate as we walked over, holding a small flat box in her hands. When we were finally close enough to see what was in the crate, we saw that there were many more boxes identical to the one she held, all of which were numbered. The one Leksi had in her hands was the one that was numbered 1-10, and when we looked at her in askance, she opened it up.

Our jaws dropped at was held within; protected by a fabric similar to velvet were ten neat rows of the eight-sided objects we had become quite familiar with. They weren’t any one color, and instead, each row went grey, blue, green, blue, orange, purple, purple, blue, green, orange. Reaching in and grabbing the box marked 11-20, I opened it up and saw the same layout, but the colors weren’t in the same order.

Looking a little closer at the skill gems that were in the box I was holding, I realised that each box contained ten sets of the corresponding skill or perk. The boxes seemed to be approximately 30 centimeters in both length and width, along with perhaps 7 or 8 centimeters in height. Assuming that each of the boxes had ten sets of ten skill gems a piece, that meant that there were upwards of ten thousand skill gems in this crate alone.

[Did you check these other crates?] I asked Leksi, since she was the one working in this part of the vault.

“You mean…?” she asked before the lightbulb went off in her head.

After picking up her tablet that had been sitting on the adjacent crate and passing it along to Leenah, she threw open the lid to reveal a similar sight. Rather than the entirety of the crate being taken up by boxes, however, it was instead divided up. On the left, there were three columns of boxes, and on the right, a pile of leather coin purse-like pouches. After grabbing one of them, she opened it up and dumped the contents into her hand.

[Huh, well that definitely explains something,] Leenah said. [Is this why you had us hold off on purchasing any skill gems, Abi?]

[Part of it. I knew your family had been saving up skill gems for a long time, but I didn’t realize they had quite so many. You’ll need to go through them, of course, but you may need to purchase some while we’re here. There have been twenty-three new skill gem discoveries since this vault was last opened, so you won’t be finding them in there.]

“Hey, I just realised that this one is a perk, but only the legendary version is in the box,” Lucia said, drawing our attention back to the box that was numbered 1-10.

[Which one?] I asked.

“005, but I don't know which one that is.”

[Enhanced Agility,] Abi said.

[I guess it makes sense. If you wanted it to be quick and easy to find a skill or perk, then ten to a box is perfect,] I said. [And why fill the boxes with lower tier perks if you have the highest tier perk available?]

"I think that's what these pouches are for," Leksi said. "This pouch has 058 on it, but the gems are different colors."

[Back it up. Are we saying that there are at least ten nearly-complete sets of skill gems in these two crates?] Leenah asked.

[Aside from those twenty-three skills that were discovered after we left, yes,] I replied.

“That’s assuming that all the boxes are full, too,” Leksi added.

[Of course.]

[I can’t imagine how much something like this would cost,] Leenah said. [Our parents must have spent a fortune acquiring them.]

[Not just your parents,] Abi said. [Some of those skill gems were undoubtedly brought over from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, and your grandparents acquired a lot of them as well.]

[Still, they couldn’t have come cheap. What are we going to do with them?]

[It only makes sense to use them,] I answered. [We’ll go through the boxes and separate a complete set for each of us, and then I’ll grab the skill gems we were looking for for Mason, Ben, and the twins. There will be some empty spots in the remaining sets, but we can work on replacing them.]

“You don't want to give them a full set?" Leksi asked.

I shook my head. [They don’t need every skill or perk in existence, and they couldn’t make use of them all even if they did. Not like I can, and you three will be able to. If I was going to give a full set to anyone, it would probably be Zaszi and Kiri.]

“Do you want to separate them now or…”

[Nah, there’s no rush. Let’s figure out what is in the rest of these crates and then we’ll come back to them.]

Although there wasn’t anything that was an immediate attention grabber as the two crates that were full of skill gems, there were still some interesting things to see. While most of the chests and crates were made out of wood, there were four boxes that were made out of some kind of metal. Besides that, each of them had a screen on the lid and said lids were secured.

[Those are stasis boxes,] Abi said as the four of us stood in front of them. [They’re typically used to store materials that would otherwise degrade or lose their effectiveness over time. You can find out what is inside and disengage the locks holding the lid down by using the touchscreen on top. I wouldn’t suggest doing the latter, though.]

“Why not?” Leksi asked.

[Boxes such as those are usually for the use of transporting rare or volatile materials, but they can also be used to hold those materials or even living specimens for a long time. Opening the boxes under the wrong conditions could easily damage or destroy what is within, and so only those who know what they’re doing should handle them. I would suggest using the touchscreen to figure out what is in them so you can add them to your inventory of the vault, but leave them alone, otherwise.]

[Duskwood saplings?] Leenah asked from where she was leaning on one of the boxes, looking down at the touchscreen.

[Ah, perfect example,] Abi replied. [Duskwood trees will only grow in complete darkness, and even the briefest exposure to visible light will have a detrimental effect on them. If you opened up the lid on that box, then the light inside the vault would be enough to kill those saplings.]

[Aside from the fact that it can’t survive being in the light, what is so special about them to keep saplings in stasis?] I asked.

[Well, duskwood trees are only vulnerable to visible light when they’re alive. When they die and begin to dry out, they actively absorb darkness. Because of that fact, duskwood is highly-prized among those whose combat relies on stealth, as well as those who use dark magic.]

[Dark magic? Don’t you mean unholy?]

I could hear her scoff within my mind. [I know your mom hates it when humans call it that, but she hasn't been able to get them to use the proper term. Unholy and holy magic doesn’t exist. It’s light and dark, respectively.]

[Oh. So duskwood is like magewood?]

[It doesn’t get stronger when you channel mana through it, but it does increase the potency of dark spells. Even more than magewood does, in fact.]

[I see. Is it just saplings in that box, Leenah?]

[Four in total,] she replied with what could be only called a mental nod.

"No way! Leksi exclaimed as she took up a position similar to her sister. "There's a Yvoel egg in this one!”

[Really?!] Leenah and Lucia asked as they moved over to place their hands on the box.

[It’s cool to the touch,] Lucia said.

[Do you mind filling me in, here?] I asked. [What’s a yvoel?]

It was Leenah who didn’t so much as answer my question, but showed me. Retrieving her own tablet, tapped and swiped away at it before turning it around so I should see the screen. [That is a yvoel.]

The thought that immediately came to mind was that I was looking at a real-life Moltres, only it’s entire body was on fire, and not just its wings, tail and crown. Honestly, it was rather difficult to see where it’s body ended and the flames began, seeming like it was almost entirely fire.

[That’s another one that I wouldn’t recommend opening without taking time to prepare. Even in stasis, yvoel eggs must be kept at no less than 770 degrees celsius or the budding embryo will no longer be viable.]

[Hold on a sec. Those are five living things that have been in your dimensional storage for well over a thousand years. I thought anything living that was placed in dimensional storage would be killed instantly, so how are they still alive?]

“That’s a good point,” Leksi said.

[People have been trying to get past that limitation, even spending trillions of credits every year on research to do so. Even now, after thousands of years, there has only been one breakthrough, which resulted in the crates behind you. While they are capable of protecting life even inside of a dimensional storage, there are limitations, size being the biggest one.]

[The breakthrough was a new type of metal simply called kosmil. Kosmil is able to protect the contents of one of those boxes from being exposed to the radiation that permeates the pocket dimensions that dimensional storages are linked to…]

[Like lead blocking radiation?] Leenah asked.

[Exactly, but lead isn’t effective enough in blocking radiation inside of a dimensional storage. The major limiting factor preventing the transport of anything larger than a few saplings--or a yvoel egg--is that kosmil is extremely difficult to work, especially as the size of a box is scaled up. If you look at each of those boxes, you’ll notice that aside from the lid, the rest of the box is made out of one single piece of kosmil. It’s made like that because kosmil is a non-weldable metal, and there are no other known materials that can block dimensional radiation. If there was even a single miniscule crack in a finished box, then the contents would be destroyed as soon as the box was placed in a dimensional storage.]

“How do they work with a lid then? Surely the radiation would be able to get through the gap between the lid and the box,” Leksi said.

[Extremely precise machining is how, often taking many days for each lid so it fits perfectly. Once placed and secured from the inside, nothing can get through, and the manufacturers of such boxes spend weeks making sure they’re working properly before they sell them. Of course, every box also has an extensive testing process accessible by their owners. That way, they can make sure that whatever is put inside won’t be destroyed almost instantaneously.]

[People really pay hundreds of millions of credits for boxes that protect living things from dimensional radiation?] I asked.

[Oh, absolutely, and people would pay billions if someone found out how to make them bigger. There are worries about that though, because dimensional storages can’t be searched unless you know exactly what is in them. If there was a box that could contain a person or an animal, then it would be all but impossible to find them.]

“What do you mean they’re not big enough to fit a person? I could fit into one of these,” Leksi said.

[You might think that, but there is substantially less room on the inside. That’s because the power source and all the mechanisms for the stasis field need to be held within the box, and they don’t take up a small amount of the total volume. That volume is reduced even further when something needs to be kept at a certain temperature, like the yvoel egg.]

[Why are they so expensive in the first place?] I asked.

[It goes back to kosmil being so hard to work, but it’s also rare. Like alii’lig trees, kosmil ore can only be found within a single dungeon, and only so much can be excavated per cycle of that dungeon. Add onto that the cost of labor and the demand for the boxes, and the price goes way, way up.]

The final two stasis boxes contained some living specimens that were just as interesting as the duskwood saplings and the yvoel egg, if not more so. The first one contained seven unnamed cat-like creatures, but the moment Leksi read out that they had come from Mezotis 3, we knew what they were. When we were exploring Yrranth in one of the Grasshoppers, we came across a family of cat-like animals with pitch black fur and a number of features. The most interesting of which was their long, seemingly prehensile tails that they used to catch fish. There was no danger in opening the box since the cubs or kittens were very young, but we weren’t prepared to take care of them.

Lastly, there was another egg, but this time whatever was inside was a complete mystery. There were no details on where it had come from or what was inside, and the only instructions were how to take care of it. It didn’t need to be kept above a ridiculously hot temperature like the yvoel egg did, but it did need to be kept somewhere slightly above room temperature. The egg was substantially bigger than the yvoel egg which had given me an idea, but I had seen enough eggs to know that it wasn’t a dragon egg. We debated opening the box so we could try to get whatever was in the egg to hatch, but decided to wait until we were back on Earth. Tamara was much more suited towards that sort of thing.

Having spent enough time on the four stasis boxes, we moved on to the rest of the crates and chests. While I was able to reach a decent ways up, Leenah and Lucia scampered up the shelving to get the boxes that were outside of my reach. Some they just dropped down to me depending what was inside, but most of the time they had to carefully bring them down. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t lift more with my telekinesis, otherwise it would have made things quite a bit easier.

Many of the remaining crates contained weaponry of all types, though a lot of it was either too high level or it was completely obsolete. The pulse rifles of old, for example, were quite a bit bigger and weren’t nearly as powerful, so Leksi marked those, and other obsolete firearms, to be scrapped at a later time.

What was most surprising was the fact that not a single weapon was higher than epic in quality, which made us wonder why they were included. A good weapon could be quite expensive on the open market, but more often than not, they were significantly cheaper than armor of similar level and quality. There were still some nice weapons to be sure, but it was somewhat disappointing. All four of us had figured that there would be some legendary or mythical items stored in the mammoth of a vault, but we didn’t find a single one. Perhaps we would find some after a more thorough search, but that would need to wait until a later time.

By dinner time we had gone through the entirety of the vault and Leksi had taken down a rough inventory. With the possibility of someone else accessing the room the vault was stored in being quite literally nonexistent, we decided to leave the crates we had removed from the vault precisely where they lay. After closing the vault up and separating the key into its four pieces, we shifted our forms and headed up to the mess.

*****

“What have you guys been doing all day?” Ben asked as I sat down. “We tried using Mindspeak, but it was like you disappeared.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize that the room was shielded. What’s up?”

“Nothing in particular. We wanted to hit up a dungeon or do some touristy stuff on Veria, but it’s probably too late for that now.”

“Sorry, we learned some things last night, and then we spent this afternoon going through our family vault.”

“Family vault?” Mason asked.

I nodded and filled them in on what I’d learned. Some stuff I kept to myself until I knew more, but I told them about the vault and some of the things we’d found in it, as well as the fact that my sisters and I still had living family.

“Grandparents?” Anja asked.

“Our mother’s mother and father.”

“Why didn’t they flee to Earth? It seems odd that they would stay back there when they could be used as leverage against you,” Ben said.

“That’s the thing. To Kaldrus Dhir, they’re untouchable.”

“More untouchable than a king and queen?”

“Turns out that you don’t mess with the suppliers of high level adventurers,” I said with a sad smile. “From what I’ve heard, they’re among the best crafters in the galaxy, particularly when it comes to customized armor. Ever since we fled to Earth, they’ve been making deals with some of the toughest people out there in preparation for dealing with Dhir.”

“Deals?”

I shrugged, not knowing any of the specifics and saying as much. “We didn’t get to talk long, but they’ll be arriving sometime tomorrow evening. I’ll probably find out more while they’re here. Speaking of tomorrow, the four of you will be meeting with Oya and Hayir.”

“Us?” Sonja asked, confused.

“What’s with you guys and one or two word questions today?” I asked with a chuckle. “I’m surprised Mason hasn’t spilled the beans on it though. You guys would have found out on Wednesday, but you had other things you wanted to do instead.”

“Found out what?” the twins asked simultaneously.

“I’m allowing the four of you to design your own ships, which will then be built here on the station,” I said, putting my hand up before they asked any more questions. “I’ll get to your questions in a minute, but first there are three guidelines you need to follow.”

“One: the ship you want cannot exceed six million cubic meters in total volume. The example I gave Mason was a ship three hundred meters long, two hundred meters wide and one hundred meters tall, if it was a perfect rectangle. It gets a lot more complicated if you go with curves and other angles, but Oya knows the limits I’ve put in place, and she’ll make sure you don’t exceed them.”

“Two: this one was more for Mason, but it applies to the three of you as well, and that is that you must keep power in mind. I recognize the fact that none of you will know how much power will be needed, and that’s where Hayir comes in.”

“Three: No copying ships from popular culture,” I said, putting my hand up before Ben could interrupt. “Yes, I used the Puddle Jumper, but now the Grasshoppers look much different. No Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, Star Destroyers or any other ship you can think of. Don’t try to slip one by me, either, as Oya will be presenting your designs to me before I give her the go ahead.”

“Oh, almost forgot,” I said, looking over to the twins. “If the two of you want to, you can combine your budgeted volume together, giving you twelve million cubic meters to work with. If you have any questions, I suggest you ask them now, otherwise you’ll just waste time tomorrow asking Oya and Hayir.”

“You’re really giving us our own ships?” Anja asked.

“After Dhir has been dealt with, I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to spend on Earth, but I doubt your parents would want to leave permanently. Having your own ships would allow you to travel back and forth at will, and would also allow you to explore on your own, if you wish to.”

“About the size… should we be aiming for the maximum?” Ben asked.

“That’s entirely up to you. If you’re happy with a ship half of that size, then that’s fine, but you could also have two or more ships. As long as the combined volume doesn’t exceed the maximum, then you’re good to go,” I answered before looking over to the twins once again. “So if you two wanted to divide your combined maximum into three so you could each have a ship and your parents could have a ship, then you’re free to do so. All of you are. Mason already gave Oya two ships to design; one for him, and one for his mom.”

“What about weapons, shields, that sort of thing?”

“Oya has been instructed to go with their most advanced designs, though that will likely change as they work on some prototypes over the next few months. If you want to load up your ship with weapons then that’s fine. So too is not including weapons at all, but if you do that, then you better make sure your ship can get away when it needs to.”

“Shuttles, fighters?”

“You’ll be permitted two free shuttles similar in design to the Grasshoppers, but they’ll be quite a bit smaller, so make sure your design has some way to accommodate them. As for fighters or strike craft? They aren’t a necessity like the shuttles will be, so they’ll count against your allotment.”

“So if we went with what you had said and divided our total allotment into three, would that still mean four shuttles total?” Anja asked.

“Yes,” I nodded. “I’m allowing the two of you to work together, but I can’t allow you additional shuttles and not Mason and Ben. If you want additional shuttles, that will go against your allotment. Any other questions?”

“So do we only have tomorrow to go over it with Oya and Hayir or... ?”

“You’ll be able to talk with both of them all through the design stage and through much of the production stage as well. Tomorrow you’re just meeting them to decide what you want your ship to have, and how you want it to look. Oya will then take your input and put it into something you can see visually. From there, you’ll go back and forth until you’re happy with the design, and then she’ll hand it over to the people for the build. Keep in mind that you will only be able to change minor things later on in the build stage, since they won’t be able to make any drastic changes.”

“There’s something else,” I said when it was clear there weren’t going to be any more questions, going on to tell them about the ten complete skill gem sets we had found. Having some more time to think about it, I decided to present them with another option; “If you don’t want your own ship, then you can have an entire skill gem set. Minus the ones that were discovered since the last time the vault was open.”

“Pass,” Mason said immediately with Ben following right behind him with the same answer.

The girls looked at each other briefly before looking back, “We’ll pass as well.”

“Alright. My sisters have the list of skill gems that they were searching for, so you’ll probably have them in your hands tomorrow or the next day. We’ll see.”

“So we’ll be able to hit up at least one high level dungeon while we’re here?” Mason asked hopefully.

“I don’t see why not. Aside from the opera and a meeting the morning we head back home, my schedule is relatively clear. Maybe once you learn all your new skills and perks, then Abithynazethrala can find a good challenge for us.”

[Jonathan....] she groaned.

“Abithy-what?” Mason asked.

“Abithynazethrala. It’s her real name but it’s too hard for people to pronounce, so she goes by Abi instead.”

“It definitely sounds a lot better,” Ben said. “I’m just imagining how ‘Abi’ would look on the side of her in big blocky letters versus ‘Abithynazethrala.’”

[Oh, so now you want to brand me?] Abi asked in a serious tone.

“N-no!,” Ben answered. “Every other ship out there has a name or designation, I just fig…”

[Relax, I’m joking, Ben,] she replied with a giggle. [Right now it’s about keeping a low profile when my shroud is inactive, but when we don’t have to worry about that anymore, then I would be fine with that being my designation.]

“So what are we going to do with the rest of the night?” Mason asked. “Are you going back to the vault or…?”

I shook my head. “We’ll continue that tomorrow while you’re meeting with Oya and Fayir, assuming that our grandparents haven’t arrived yet. I’ve got some reading to do, and I figured that I would get some more telekinesis training done at the same time. You could go down to Veria or Alade without me, you know. You’re not known at all so you shouldn’t be a target, and they should have the snow cleared up by now if you choose the latter.”

“Ehh, going down to Veria just sounds like a hassle without someone to translate for us, and I don’t know what we would do, anyways,” Mason said. “Are you sure about the snow being cleared though? It’s barely been a day.”

[The storm lasted for a little over nineteen hours, so they’ve had the last six hours to clean it up. Looking at their page on the net, it appears that twenty-six of the one hundred thirteen trails are already open.]

“I think we’re going to stay here and use most of the night to go over what we want our ships to have, maybe draw a few rough sketches,” Sonja said, speaking for her sister as well. “I wish you’d have given us a little bit more notice. You have to admit that it’s out of the blue.”

“I let you know shortly after I knew,” I replied apologetically. “Oya and Hayir are two very busy people, and this is sort of a side project for them. There are a lot of other people waiting, and they’ve had to reschedule more than a few appointments over the past few weeks.”

“I’m with the girls on this one, sorry Mace,” Ben said. “I think I’ll be taking a more scientific approach, however…”

“Because of course you will,” Mason said, with a roll of his eyes.

Ben ignored him and took out his tablet instead. “Abi, can you help me gather some information, please? I’m particularly interested in engines and thrusters.”

“I think I’m going to spend some time in the armory so I can customize some more guns,” Mason said as he stood up. “The four of you may want to think about that as well, since we’ll likely be racking up the experience in a few days.”

“I’ll be heading out as well,” I said, standing up as well. “Girls, you're meeting with Oya and Hayir at 09:00. Ben, you're at 12:00, and Mace, you're at 15:00. If you need anything let me know.”

I hadn’t been lying on my bed for long before Vixa popped into the room. It was one of the few rooms aboard Abi that she could teleport into or out of, just so she wouldn’t be stuck inside if she decided to sleep in. After eating her dinner and drinking from her bowl, she popped out of the room and I went back to what I was doing.

Although it had been difficult at the start, levitating items around the room was now second nature to me and was done almost unconsciously. So far my limit was a far cry away from where it needed to be at only 35 kilograms, but it was increasing at a steady rate. As I scrolled through the tablet my father had left for me, I added another 1 ounce ball, and then continued reading.

So engrossed in what I was reading, I didn’t realize that over three hours had passed until Abi interrupted me

“Jonathan, there’s something you might be interested in,” she said as a screen began protruding from the ceiling.