The shopping was a great success. We found armor that was within our budget for both of us and I got lucky and found a new gun for myself. It was a really good one too. It was still the same handgun but a bit bigger and with two sockets. Because of this I can use merged magic which is really destructive. We each purchased five sets of armor, 2350 total for me and 2200 for Mirella and my gun was 3k. The prices was steep but the drops we found the last few days and the money we stored were enough. We even had enough money for a crappy pair of gloves without the fingers for Queror. They came with a mystic gem in each palm. They weren't like mine. Instead of having a mana capacity which I filled and used for the spell these were like the ancient staff gemstones which helped amplify power. We went into the first floor of the dungeon just to check how strong his magic was. Setting my [Hyper Wave] as a benchmark we have him do the same skill. The power of his own [Hyper Wave] was on par with his [Psychotic Shock] previously. We kept him from trying anything bigger than [Hyper Wave] but in all spells the power had a large increase. The gems should increase his power by 0.5 times stronger but I feel like it's currently 1.5 times. I wouldn't be surprised if we could go down to the fourth floor with this power so high. That said I wasn't about to let it go to my head. The death of an adventurer follows how well he can control himself. Letting yourself get cocky will only lead to your own death. The fourth floor is always clearly taught that you need a healer and at least 4 combat class fighters. Minions do not count towards this so even with so many drones for Tony we wouldn't go further. We would need one more monster or a new crew mate plus someone who healed to go down without that we won't risk it. We leave after seeing all basic spells and up to what I can do. I also test out a new crystal I bought along with my gun. It was a beginner class earth gem. With two sockets I put both beginner class fire and earth gems in and load both. Starting at one mp from each I fire it and a small weak magma ball shoots out and cools quickly. Next I recharge to full power and shoot a full power shot. What came out was a bright red speeding ball of magma that hit and melted the dungeon wall. We watch surprised by the power behind it but like all dungeons it repairs the wall moments later. We leave before we anger him and he sends swarms after us. I still had my eyes on the only gem I was missing. A wind gem. As a mage the more magic types I can do the better and having studied and trained them all in the Academy I just required the gems to effectively do them. We return to the newly upgraded ship soon after and split up the gear we bought. I can't tell one from the other so once we split the gear up I return my armor to the ring and help Mirella take hers upstairs. I leave her to put away her own armor in the new much larger room now and head down a floor with Queror. I wanted to see his room so we head down and enter the non noisy room. The walls blocked out the heavy industrial noise from the nearby factory room. In the room there were several book shelves, glowing crystal balls a pedestal with an empty book and in the middle of the room was a large magic circle that apparently filled this room with extra mana so the regeneration of its occupant would be higher. The room was dark purple walls and the ceiling and floor was black. Queror was intrigued by all this and after a bit we walked up to the book on the pedestal and touched it. It instantly shined before returning to normal I felt magic from it so I opened it and again it glowed with my touch. What I found were many of the spells I learned and studied as well including Mystic type spells the demon had. It went all the way to [Psychotic Shock]. The rest of the book was empty. This book seems to have absorbed the knowledge of the Demon as well as me which means that it's a magic Grimoire that mages normally store researched spells and and notes inside. This would really be useful for learning new spells as well as inventing them. Mages usually have several trump card even today. All spells up to intermediate level are taught before 15 anything invented after that can range from any rank but advanced level spells can only be created even if it is already created you still need to study enough to understand. Though this was a place for the demon, I would definitely make good use of this later on. "From now on this is your home, your bedroom is over there and in this room you can learn,study and train magic." I told him. He nods and walks into the bedroom. I leave and head up to my own room. Nothing much in my bedroom changed still the same. The corridors changed though, they became a soft brown color and much wider at three and a half meters wide and high but they still had the lights on all four corners of the corridors and bright white light coming from them. Unlike my room the bathroom got expanded. The bath and shower were separate and the shower was now in a box while the tub became big enough to lounge around in. Captain's office gained a bit more like new computer and several hologram screens constantly showing the inside of the ship and several graphs like fuel, water, consumption of energy and so on. The kitchen now looks like an old style restaurant. With four round tables and a long leather bound sofa seat around a larger part of the table. The area of the kitchen gained industrial stove and a bar like counter separates the kitchen and dining area. On one wall was a large window letting natural light in while lights on the ceiling complimented the extra light deeper in. Sitting on one of the small seats of the bar counter was Tony's Hologram with a hologram bottle of beer of some kind in his hand. "So? You like what I did with the place?" He says with a grin. "This looks like some old style restaurant." I said nonchalantly with a frown on my face. "Hmm, well in my last life this was part way old. I would say classy old style." Tony says. I sigh and shake my head while I look at the place we would eat at from now on. "You couldn't have had it a bit less...showy?" I ask. "HELL NO!! GYAHAHAHAH!" She shouts and downs the hologram drink. "Pwahhhh!! Damn this food simulator is a genius invention. I wonder if other people in my situation would have gone crazy?" He asks. "Unlike AI who are useful, most if not all cores are a pain. I've yet to hear of a single trained core that wasn't an ass when they started up." I say. He shrugs it off not caring about much else. "We all have reason to act like this!" He says and downs more of the virtual beer. "Tell me, how would you feel if you died and were reborn as a being normally called a den of monsters or evil?!" He asks me while pointing the top of the bottle towards me. "I would be...in shock." I reply. He nods and takes another drink. "Now, after waking up as the mind of this "evil" existance, you're captured hours after birth and put in a small ball that shoots lightning at you and someone tries to "train" you! After a week of nonstop attempts to brainwash you with magic and torture she gives up and simply sells you like a low priced piece of trash. Afterwards you're bought by a bratty kid and treated like a slave where you should normally be completely under control of a puppet robot who can't even think for herself!" He shouts and gets up while pointing at me. "I bet if given the chance, those "tame" cores would hunt every last living being in the galaxy out of rage for the suffering they would feel!" He finishes saying before sitting down again. Truthfully I never once thought of their point of view because, obviously, I’m not a dungeon. “I wonder if there is a difference between a core that was bred and one that was captured?” I ask. “Obviously there is!” He suddenly shouts. “ONE WAS BORN TASTING FREEDOM AND THE OTHER WAS BORN A SLAVE!!” “What’s going on here?” Mirella asked as she entered to kitchen. She sees Tony pointing his finger in my face while I was pale as a ghost at what was being said. Taming a monster is one thing since they aren’t sentient to start with until a certain rank up but by then they will simply accept the servant thing but enslaving a sentient being is something that hits hard on the conscious. Cores are taught to be thought of as monster crystals that breed other monsters so using them like any other monster slave is a rather common thing. I wonder how many crews hear what he says. I bet not many since I bet not many can override the AI. "It's nothing, it was just a lot of-" I was going to shake her off, needing time to think about the implications of what Tony had said, but sadly he interrupted me. "I was just explaining to Captain Bitch how fucking thoughtless and shitty the people of this universe are. You never tried to think of things from our point of view, you just assume we're monsters you can use as tools even though you know full-well that we're sentient beings. You pull us out of our dungeons when we're scared and alone, torture us under the name of training, sell us like slaves, have your AIs suppress us so you can use the core's abilities against our will, and because I managed to escape that fate you all treat me like absolute dirt!” he shouts at her. With her mouth open in shock I couldn’t tell what Mirella was thinking, but it still irks me that this bastard went around me, the captain, and just told her straight-up like that. However, what he said next really made me realise that I need to reflect on how I treat the shitty guy. "You're lucky that command system is so robust, in the few days I've spent with Captain Bitch, you, and your sadistic mother I would like nothing more than to slaughter you all and fly off to start a new life an on uninhabited world." After that he just disappeared, leaving us both in stunned silence. A second later, the empty holographic beer bottle disintegrated. Mirella eventually walks round the bar, picks up two bottles of what is probably the strongest stuff in the default stock, and gestures for me to sit next to her at the bar. "I think the two of us need to talk about this and then go talk about it with him, but right now we need a fucking drink!" She says and starts chugging the drink before she starts sulking. I don't remember much of what happened after that upon waking up face-down in the corridor outside the restaurant room, to an annoyingly shrill and headache-inducing alarm. "AI! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ALARM FOR?! IS TONY DOING IT TO PISS ME OFF?!" And how is Mirella still snoring through this?! Why is she dangling off the edge of the bar?! "No captain, Stuss did not sound the alarm to annoy you. Intruders have entered the ship so it was activated, and he is currently fighting them with the drones." says the hologram that's far too bright. Was she always this shiny? Now my eyes are hurting as well. I'm never drinking with Mirella again. Anyway, she says intruders, why would anyone try and enter our ship especially with us in here. I say that and go grab a cup of water to try and push out the taste of alcohol and to help sober up. I then head to the captain's room and looked at the time. I understood why intruders would try something now, it was noon already. For newbies we would normally be in the dungeons grinding to gather MP for the ship core. I bring up the cameras and look through the floors to try and find them. I found them on the second floor and like the AI said, they were fighting the drones. What was amazing was the kind of drones in question. I recognized the Shield drones, fighters and the crab walkers all of which were improved and seem to put out more power. The ones I couldn’t recognize was a floating square drone with a single mechanical arm and inside were many missiles but it didn’t fire them. Instead it just floated there and when a fighter shoots all its missiles it goes to it and the new drone reloads them. I would probably put bets on it being a support drone from what I can see. The other new one was small and ball shaped. A roughly built ball robot with a small wheel on the inside that accelerates the robot forward. When it gets close to the target it self destructs and causes a heavy explosion. When I look at the party, I saw 8 really tired and bloodied men that were on the complete defense. The drones were completely safe behind the shields from the shield drones and were simply shooting out. Weaker model fighters were flying around and distracting the party while the bigger stronger models were safe and sniping them. It was clear as day that these guys were just as much as newbie as me and my crew. They were clearly F rank adventurers because they couldn’t beat this level of attack. Though Tony has upgraded his drones, it looks like he only got about half of them before these guys arrived. As I watch without caring for their safety and only about how to get rid of this fucking hangover I just walk out and go to the kitchen and make a small lunch. I didn’t have the appetite but it was better to eat something to help push out the alcohol I drank. I really didn’t know my limit but I guess I’ll just chalk this up as an experience. After nonchalantly shouting to Tony to turn off the fucking alarm I eat up and drink a LOT of water to help sober up and dilute what remains of the alcohol in my system. I return to the captain's room to find two of the men were finally down for the count. I wasn’t going to go stop Tony, those idiots chose to invade and they will pay the price. Halfway through my meal Tony appears and floats in the air with a bored expression. "Done already?" I asked him. "Yep. They had good coordination but they were newbies. For someone smart who can simultaneously control multiple weaponized robots that have recently been upgraded, the best they could do is only prolonging their lives." He said and yawned. The next moment a small pack of some kind of medicine appeared on the table. "Thats some medicine from my old world. It helps with the hangovers and any possible feeling of nausea weak drinkers might get, just toss it in water and force it down." He says, then vanishes. I keep staring at the spot he was floating, confused by the change in personality. Was he really acting that way simply because of what was said before? I didn't have time to think of it as Mirella began to stir and slowly drag herself up. I helped her and put her on the seat in front of the table I was sitting at. I grabbed the pack of medicine, fill two cups and add two small portions of the medicine that sizzles and reacts to the water. I down mine first before I make Mirella drink hers followed by a cup of pure water. I drank it without worry because Tony can't suggest for me to do something that would kill me even if he gave me the weapon to kill myself. So unless I tell him to make poison he can't make it. Anyway, I set up a plate of food for the moaning hobgoblin who was slowly getting over the drowsiness. Soon she began to eat slowly while I went to the captain's office and looked where the party was. Unlike what Tony said, they were still alive, wait, less half of them were. The leader, a mage that had made a magic shield that was deflecting Tony’s attacks, and one that looks like a rogue or assassin class. The others were lying in a pool of their own blood with one of the frontliners missing an arm. From the video feed I can guess that the suicide drones might be the cause. They got close and took them out. Shifting the view to the drones I see the damage. From what I can tell, Tony built several new shield drones and when one or another is about to break he shifts them to out and lets them recharge. “Did you run out of the suicide bombers already?” I ask no one in particular. “Nope, but the shield is a pain in the ass and I’m simply waiting to take them out as soon as it is weakened enough.” Tony said suddenly appearing next to me. I don’t look at him and instead turn my eye to the layout of the floor they were on. It was near where Queror’s room was. “Is there a speaker in Queror’s room?” I asked. “Yep, the demon has been training and trying to figure out how to read, most likely a result of the habit itself.” Tony replied. “Open a channel to it, let's get this fiasco over with.” I say. Tony nods and opens the channel for me. “Queror, go aid Tony and kill the intruders in the ship.” I say. He looks up to where the voice came from and then stores the book he had in his hands and leaves the room He walks slowly towards the conflict and soon arrives at the fight. He simply looks over them with a bored expression. “Puny...weak...easy!” He shouts and lifts his right hand. He puts his hand out and the glove with the amplifying gem started to glow as the magic charged. [Shock Ball] Instantly, a compressed shockwave shot from his hand and smashed into the magic shield, it expanded slightly causing some structural damage from the shockwave but the shield was completely destroyed. All the intruders stared, faces pale, as the pieces of their shield fell to the ground, but before they could do anything a barrage of missiles flew at them and it was finally over. “Well that was fun, kind of worried which ship they are from though.” Tony says. “The captain shouldn’t bitch about it, those newbies were sent or came without orders so they have no right to.” I say. “Hey, just so you know, I am leaving the weapons that seem usable for you and the green bitch. A magic rifle, twin pistols, some daggers, and a sword and shield. I took the time to examine them and the sword and shield is better than Mirella’s and the twin pistols seem to be similar to yours in rank. The rifle is better though.” He says and vanishes. “He is acting different now. Was the outburst really enough for him to simply change like that? He seems bored now and the awkwardness of all this makes it strange to talk with him.” I thought. Anyway, I take the elevator down to the floor and walk around a bit until I find the gear laying on the ground. Any trace of the people were already gone and absorbed into Tony. The walls and scorch marks as well as structural damage caused by the fight was already gone and the remains of the robot's as well. I could hear the factory in motion and the robot's were probably being repaired or rebuilt into better ones. I pick up the pistols and check them out. Like Tony said they were the same as my current ones having two slots. What was different and much to my liking was that one had different gems than what I had. In the pistol there was an Earth and a Wind gem, both capacity-60 gems, and in the other one were Fire and Water gems. That made things interesting, since I have a complete set now I could utilize all forms of spells without having to constantly change gems, which took too much time in battle. Then I looked at the rifle and a grin appeared on my face. It was a low-class military model with a mana battery pack that holds 500 mp and had four beginner-class gems for spells. The gems could be changed easily but the fact that the rifle held four slots made it clear that this was from a large ship. These kinds of weapons are found in Rokita on the tower's higher floors, which I never reached due to not having a party to help me reach further down the dungeon. Still, this was nice, the rifle utilises the crystals evenly such as when I use [Fire Shot] it will add in Wind magic to fuel the flames. Remembering the attack Queror used I look at one of the pistols and pull out my beginner class Mystic gem and insert it. I thought of the spell and fill completely the gem. I haven’t seen that attack before which is why I never used Mystic magic with the gun. When I shot the same spell, but much weaker, and hit the wall at the end of the corridor the magic popped like a balloon but barely caused damage like I saw with Queror. Though his amplyifying gems probably had a say in this, it showed I had a ways to go to catch up to my monster slave. I have Tony open up the drops screen and make him create a copy of the rifle holster, which went on my back, and a duel pistol holster, also a copy of what the mage had. If only the guy had a wand instead of a staff it would have been better. Still, this upgrade in weaponry is nice. I put away all the guns and then grab the daggers, each with a black gem at the base of the hilt, and a sword with a red gem. Both look really good so I take them up and hand them to Mirella who thanks me with a smile. She does ask where I got them and I explained. She simply laughs at the stupidity of the invaders and takes the weapons, saying she wanted to test them tomorrow. Though we didn’t get any monsters today I guess the invaders were a welcomed bonus for Tony. The amount gained in MP was around 7k which is kind of low, but since they were newbies I can’t complain. The mage gave 1400, while the rest split up more or less even at 800 points each. We didn’t care much about the attack and took the rest of the day off while we tried practicing with our newly gained weapons. At around 4 pm the AI called saying someone from one of the nearby ships wished to speak with us. I shrugged it off and told them to allow them only into the cargo hold, and then went to meet our guests. The person I found was a woman dressed like she came from the military. “Greetings, you are the captain, correct?” she asked. “Yes, I’m Leah Binoli, and you are?” I asked. “Lieutenant Rosa Bemin, I am the acting captain of the ship to the right of your own. Let me ask, did a group of 8 newbies come here?” She asked. Suddenly Tony appeared between us but one look from me stopped him from spouting bullshit. “Yes, they invaded my ship and were defeated, they all died and were absorbed by the ship's core.” I said. The lieutenant face palmed and let out a deep sigh. “Those morons, I told them to not attack but they go and do this. I was worried after our AI showed me those idiots coming to attack after I woke up, but it was too late since it was during the night. Was there much damage?” She asked worried. “They didn’t pass the first floor, the recent upgrades to our ship allowed the core to upgrade his units so they couldn’t progress far. I also possess an enslaved Lesser Demon which aided the core. Besides the damage caused in a small section of the ship, which was easily repaired by the core, there was no real damage.” I replied. “Thank goodness, when your ship expanded and those brats appeared wanting to “test” the ship I checked out the rank of you all and feared for my life, seeing the name of your first mate's mother. I made sure to keep all the others from trying anything funny.” She said. “Well, it's not like there was much going on. Still, don’t expect us to return the weapons and stuff left by the idiots who attacked.” I say. “Of course, I would never try that. Instead, to apologize, I came to give you this.” She said and pulled out a small, glowing gem about the size of the gems I use for combat. “We had our core make a mana crystal and we filled it up.” She handed it to me and I just stare at the crystal that held quite a bit of power. “Thanks...i guess.” I said a bit embarrassed. “Well, I guess that was all I came to do, I wish you luck and I would suggest expanding your ship away from prying eyes. Also, gather your crew faster, you will need it eventually.” she says and bids us farewell before leaving. I just watch the woman as she returns to the large ship. “Wonder what her motivation for doing all this was?” I asked. “Maybe because she was responsible for the brats she took it upon herself? Maybe also to see what the captain was like?” Tony says. I shrug and drop the crystal, letting Tony absorb it. Normally empty mana crystals are cheap and I know they make lots in dungeons and use creatures to fill them to feed dungeons. I finally found out why. The small crystal Tony absorbed gave us 70K points because it was a high quality crystal it seems, and it was filled with around 15K of mana but absorbing the crystal it amplified it somehow. Because of that the gym was built and the rest was kept for when we need more upgrades.