It had not been a long discussion, in the end. They had mutually agreed that the ship was a sitting target without armaments, even with the immense speed of which it was capable. They had tried attaching the machine guns, but had found that they could not penetrate the deck with the power drill that May had taken from the gunboat.

May was pretty sure that she could hold one and hip-fire it with a little modification, though.

“Okay, so, here is my idea.” She beamed at Robin, gesturing to the small blanket folded in front of them like it was a cushion holding a priceless artifact at an auction. Instead of jewels or antiques, however, it held an M2A1 .50 caliber machine gun and a tiny pistol, the latter looking almost like a toy compared to the massive machine next to it. “I would like you to use your superglue on these two, and-”

She cut herself off as Robin began shaking his head.

“What’s wrong? It’s a great idea!”

“No, I agree, actually, it is a great idea. The only issue is that when you combine a magical item with a non-magical item, I am fairly certain that it weakens the end result. I think we might get a better result if we combined the machine gun with a lesser item first, even though it would take up more of the Akashic Adhesive or Amalgamatape.”

Robin hesitated for a moment before reaching into the Aliquam Pack and pulling out a small metal flip-style lighter and offering it to May. He used Identify on it, reading the information out loud to May, and she nodded along as he read.

Forgotten Lighter of the Forgotten War [P] The Forgotten Lighter of the Forgotten War was carried by a soldier fighting a war he did not believe in to support a people who did not want his presence, the Forgotten Lighter carries the pain and shame of the soldier in every flame it lights. Flames set by the Forgotten Lighter are invisible, odorless, and silent to any individuals who are outside the range of the heat generated by the fire. This range can vary based on the size, location, and fuel source of the flames. The Forgotten Lighter may be refueled with the infusion of a single point of MANA. The Forgotten Lighter is not affected by moisture, though the flames it generates are affected normally. The flint and cotton of the Forgotten Lighter are refreshed with each application of MANA spent towards refueling.

“That is a weird, uncomfortable item.” May stated flatly.

Robin shrugged. “I do not disagree. The power is useful, though, if you are of an aronsonous bent, or need something to quietly burn without being extinguished. I think that adding it to the weapon might add in some kind of stealth ability, or maybe even make it so that the weapon uses MANA instead of actual, physical bullets.”

“Yeah, that could be useful. I have no clue how we’d go about getting more ammo for this thing, but I was hoping that this one would take care of that”, May said, patting the derringer. “It sounds like a good plan, though, and if it’ll make the final weapon stronger, then… Let’s start gluing.”

Robin nodded and pulled out the Akashic Adhesive, then hesitated. He placed it on the deck beside him and pulled out the silver roll of Amalagamatape. He picked up the lighter and placed it on the barrel of the large weapon, and then carefully unrolled a hand-length of the silver tape. He carefully wrapped the tape around the lighter, sealing it on the other end, and then looked at his handiwork.

It looked like a lighter duct-taped to a machine gun.

Robin placed his finger on the smooth tape and willed his MANA into it, feeling the energy pulse into the tape, causing it to begin to glow. He felt the pressure of the magical energy in the tape beginning to rise, and abruptly the lighter was pulled into the metal of the machine gun barrel like a stone sinking into mud. The machine gun…

Didn’t change. Robin frowned at it and immediately used Identify, touching the smooth handle of the heavy firearm, reading the notification out loud to May.

The Forgotten Machine Gun (P) The first new armament of the Wing of the Dragon, the Forgotten Machine Gun is capable of firing either bullets or firebolts, dependent on the setting (adjustable on the side of the weapon); both types of ammunition are fueled by MANA at a rate of one point of MANA per projectile. Injuries caused by this weapon are imperceptible to anyone outside the natural reach of the limbs of any individual who would view the injury.

Robin whistled, nodding in satisfaction. “The ammunition will not last very long, if it fires at anything even halfway approaching the firing rate of a normal machine gun, but it should chew through anything we point it at. And that is not even considering the derringer… Although, I will admit that it does seem a little odd that it called it the ‘first new armament of the Wing of the Dragon’, given that… It really has nothing to do with it, aside from being on the deck when it was created. I wonder if the ship influences things that are created on it… Will it influence our leveling or the class abilities we gain?”

May nodded excitedly, bouncing happily where she sat cross-legged on the wooden deck. “I wouldn’t mind some dragon-related abilities, to be honest. Terrifying, sure, but dragons are the pinnacle of fantasy stories… Let’s add the little gun now!”

Robin shook his head in exasperation, but reached for the tube of Akashic Adhesive anyway. He placed the derringer on top of the new weapon, looping the finger guard of the tiny pistol over a pinion of metal that was poking from the top of the weapon, letting it hang on the metal. He unscrewed the Akashic Adhesive and applied a small strip to the machine gun, then matched the line of glue with an identical line on the derringer. He moved it over the other line and pressed it firmly down.

After a moment, the derringer snapped down into the metal of the machine gun with an audible clang, causing May, who had been leaning forward and watching in absolute fascination to scramble backwards with a yelp. Robin suppressed his chuckling; he would definitely be startled by something nasty in the future, and May remembered.

The machine gun looked… bigger. Robin was not sure when it had happened; he had only taken his eyes off of the weapon for a split second or two, at most. It was longer, and the barrel seemed wider, with four smaller barrels spaced around the central column. He reached over to confirm, and found that his entire fist, armor included, could fit inside the opening of the barrel. He glanced up at May and saw that her smile was as big as his was.

Robin used Identify, reading the box out loud, something that had become a habit.

The Glare of the Dragon King (L) Formed from two weapons already devoted in purpose to the defense of ships (or the defense of those who would attack ships), the Glare of the Dragon King is an exceptionally adaptable weapon, capable of absorbing energy from the environment, the user, or from the ship itself. The weapon may fire cannonballs, bullets, or firebolts using the MANA of the ship or that of the user, at a cost of five MANA per projectile, or one MANA per bullet. Projectiles formed from MANA gathered from other sources are variable in their nature and composition. Injuries caused by this weapon may not be healed while the subject is on-board any ships of the Armada of the Dragon King unless consent is granted by the captain of the individual ship. The Glare of the Dragon King will not fire unless it is mounted on the deck of a ship.

“This is excellent. It seems like it came out as a pure upgrade, with very little loss of ability. Also… I am glad that the ability that makes wounds imperceptible has been removed. That just… feels like a war crime waiting to happen. I do not want someone bleeding out in their bed after a bullet went through the wall because no one got close enough to see the wound.”

May shuddered a little bit, wincing at the mental image. “Oooh, yeah. That’s a fair point. I was picturing… well, it doesn’t matter. Not that. Can you charge it up for a test run? You have way more MANA than I do, and a much better recovery rate.” She gave Robin an obnoxiously big smile and hefted the machine gun like it was a twig, holding it up to him.

Robin was impressed. She had increased her STR score far beyond his meager score. The machine gun had weighed almost forty kilograms before the enhancement, and it had to weight at least sixty now, but she was holding it like it weighed nothing at all. He made a mental note to spend some of the System Points (SP) he had accumulated. A quick check of his menu showed him a whopping twenty-six. He checked his MANA as well to confirm that it had recovered after the Amalgamatape use, and did the quick mental math to determine how many cannonballs he could produce if he used all the energy at his disposal.

“Okay… I can fill it up with twenty-four cannonballs or one hundred and forty bullets. Would you prefer the bullets or the cannonballs? Or maybe I just need to add the MANA in and the user can decide…? I guess we will see.” He reached out and touched the massive weapon, filling it with his MANA.

I think it would be a good idea to try and make some kind of MANA battery for May.

“Okay, it is full now.” He help up a finger to May and turned upwards to look at Opal, who was performing her usual duties- manning the top of the mast, pretending to be a flag in the wind.

“We are going to make some noise, Opal!”

She looked down at him briefly, her entire head turning to look directly at him, before turning to look outwards at the waves again. She began wobbling hard for a moment after her movement, and then settled. Robin felt a sense of annoyance coming from her presence in his mind, and was briefly confused, until he saw the group of three large seagulls circling overhead. He smiled to himself and tried to direct a thought at her.

Sorry for interrupting. We will wait a while.

“Opal is hunting, so we should wait a while, as to not scare away her prey.”

May rolled her eyes and groaned, but nodded, placing the machine gun down on the deck. “I guess we need to figure out where it gets mounted, anyway.” She got up and began to pace around the ship, and Robin joined her.

* * * * *

Opal only took about two hours to catch and devour all three seagulls. By the time the last few feathers had drifted down to the deck, Robin and May had found where to mount the weapon. A metal shaft with a spot for a pole had appeared directly in front of the bowsprit, directly in the center of the deck on the forward bow. The weapon had a pole that unhinged and fit perfectly, and they placed it into the deck. It fit perfectly, of course, and May only had one complaint after installing it.

“It doesn’t come back out!”, she exclaimed, tugging on the pole. “What if we need to move it, or go into a storm!?”

“I do not think that rust is going to be a problem for anything on this ship, or most magical objects, really. And this way, it cannot be stolen, which is a definite plus.”

May nodded, but she was still clearly disappointed. “I was kind of hoping I could carry it along with me like Tony Stein.”

“...who??

“Tony Stein. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II. He took a machine gun out of a wrecked plane, modified it, and carried it around. He called it his ‘Stinger.’ Saved a bunch of people… Oh well. Even if I can’t carry around an oversized machine gun slash cannon, it’s still a fantastic acquisition for the ship. Are you ready for me to shoot it now?”

Robin glanced up at Opal; she was cleaning her foreclaws, picking the bits of feather and gristle from amidst the pink crystalline spikes. Robin turned back and gave May a thumbs-up, stepping backwards a few steps. His MANA had refilled again over the wait, and he was sure she would want to try again, and barring that, he would need to charge the weapon…

The Glare. I need to start thinking of it as the glare. The more functions that this ship gains, the harder it will be to captain, and starting to think about these things correctly now will pay dividends towards our success or even survival.

The moment Robin extended his thumb, May snatched a large piece of driftwood she had snagged from the water earlier and hurled it over the bow as far away from the ship as she could. Before it landed in the water, she had moved to the machine gun and was aiming it at the falling log.

At the same instant the wood hit the surface of the water, May opened fire. Robin began counting.

The Glare turned baleful, the tip of the barrel too bright to look at directly, and the roar was the loudest noise any of the occupants of the ship had heard in some time.

The wood vanished into a huge plume, the massive geyser showering the ship in falling water. May continued firing despite that the wood had long since been obliterated.

The Glare clicked to a stop, and May turned to look at him, disappointment clear on her face.

“That was brief.”

Robin stared at her. After a moment he closed his mouth and shook his head. “Maybe so, but that was twenty-eight cannonballs in around three seconds. That is some deadly output. If it maintains that same rate of fire, it should be able to shoot… maybe six hundred rounds a minute?”

May began to shake her head, but paused partway through as she seemed to reconsider something. “Well, I guess… I thought we might have to worry about changing the barrel, but…”

Robin glanced at her hand and saw that she had laid the back of one hand near the tip of the massive barrel.

“It’s not hot, though. Not even a little bit. I think we can fire this fella for a long time before we would need to worry about that.”

“Do you need to try it again?”

“Nah, I think I have it down fine. It handles way easier than I thought it would, although that might be my STR score.” May casually rubbed her fingernails on her shirt in a pointedly casual way. “Thanks though. I think we should get to it.”

“I agree. There is one thing I wanted to discuss with you first, though. We… obviously, do not have a crew. One of us might need to stay with the ship at the dungeon to protect it. I am the only one who has the quest, so… I think I will need to go in. Are you okay with guarding the ship?”

May groaned. “That’s way too good of a point to argue with, but I really, really don’t like that idea.”

Robin gave a half-smile and shrugged. “Dungeons are not that bad, from my limited experience.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “Not any worse than the wild, anyway.”

Okay, how do I do this…

“Ship? I would like to begin the quest for the Teeth of the Dragon. Will you-”

The ship began moving, turning over the water to face the ocean before racing forwards, leaving the shore behind in a few scant moments.

I guess that did it.

Robin smiled at May, trying to look more confident than he felt.

She smiled back, but he was pretty sure she was doing the same thing.

The ship raced over the sea, taking them to the Cult of Dagon.