In Space With a Junkyard Ship

chapter 149



“I know that you did it,” the Duke said, and I felt the very essence of the world constrict around me.

His steps echoed in this large throne room as he walked closer and closer. While there was no point in struggling, never for a moment did I stop.

Soon, he was in front of me, looking at me like he could see through me. I never thought I would see an ugly-looking elf, but the Duke definitely qualified.

“Impudent little human. But I can see why, in the stories, even we were afraid of some humans. Tell me, how did you do it?”

My mind split like it was being torn apart, like continents separating. Constantly, something in my mind was telling me to give in, and the pain would stop. I don’t know how long I was like this, but finally I fell to my knees, completely exhausted.

The Duke bent down, grabbing my hair, making me look him in the eyes.

“You passed the test. Impressive. There is more to becoming a knight of the Dominion than just having skills. Do you know the essence of the power you now wield? What it truly means to have skills and to rank up?”

“I think I have the starting of that understanding.”

A moment later, a blade pierced my heart. “You have no idea.”

My eyes snapped open. Focusing, I took deep breaths to calm myself. But I could still faintly feel that blade. That fucker pulled that blade out and watched me bleed to death, constantly telling me what the essence of mana really was and how to use it to keep myself alive before my end.

If I wasn’t a quick learner, then I would have died on that floor. I barely managed to stay alive long enough for my nano machines to finish repairing the damage that the blade caused.

“Captain, your heart rate is elevated. Is everything alright?” FH asked me.

“Everything is fine. How long left in FTL?”

“Two days and nine hours.”

The further we got from that place, the better I was going to feel. It was nerve-wracking being in that system long enough for us to jump into FTL. Only then did I feel safe enough to go to bed, but it seems like that man was still going to hunt me in my dreams.

He certainly gave me new trauma, but that wasn’t something I couldn’t handle. The more important things were the lessons that he gave me. Lessons I still don’t understand why he shared. For now, the reason didn’t matter; the knowledge did.

Something that always bugged me were the ranks themselves. I was currently D-rank. Above me were C, B, A, and then S-rank. There was nothing special about that, and the way we were going it shouldn’t be any problem reaching S-rank. But then why, if it’s a simple calculation of enough killing to reach that rank, are there some people who seem so much stronger than others?

Now, at least I know why this is the case. There are probably millions upon millions of S-ranks in this galaxy alone, but only a couple of hundred Dukes. They’re also S-class, but they would demolish anyone who didn’t have a title.

It took me a while to figure out a good metaphor. The best I came up with was gasoline. The ranks were basically different qualities of gasoline, each one more powerful than the one before.

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Take an old American car with a 7.2-litre engine that only produced 80 horsepower. Each stronger version of gasoline makes it go faster. Yet even putting a turbo on it would give you better results. Change the engine entirely into something truly high-performance, then you have your Duke title.

So what is your engine? Your core is simply a blank slate; your ability to control mana and influence it is simply you operating that engine. What actually functions as your engine is your skills. A proper combination and truly refined skills is what truly makes you strong.

Each skill is one part of the whole, and you could easily off-balance yourself. The effect would be an unoptimized engine or something that might even be dangerous. Too many power-boosting skills, and all you do is blow yourself up. Everything must be a perfect balance for you.

I truly hoped that this would make sense to my crew members, because I certainly wasn’t going to inflict the same kind of teaching the Duke did onto them. I didn’t need to know if they were worthy or not, I already knew that they are.

We should still start with simple exercises, seeing how far they have come. My mind quickly ran through the different possibilities, putting together a lesson plan that stretched not few days into the future but months and years. They should know as much as I do in months, but after that, we will together continue discovering what lies beyond.

Before I walked out of my room, I opened up my status screen. I had made plenty of progress, but I would still need to absorb the two skills I stole.

When I did technically, I would be an Initiate Knight of the Elven Dominion. They didn’t need to know that, of course, although the Duke knows that I at least have telekinesis. Verrona did as well as I needed to use it to capture here.

Those, however, seemed like problems for my future self. Right now, it was time to relax while we worked on improving ourselves and the ship.

“Everyone, get into the training room. Let’s get this started,” I announced to everyone.

Name: Remi Graves

Age: 34

Species: Human variant (bio-cybernetic) Male

Bonds:

AI: Lola, Bob, Dean, Sam (1200+)

Ship: Forward Horizon

Items: FH-02, Revolver, +

Enhancements: Bio-cybernetics, Bio-nano machines

Body: rank D

Mind: rank D

Core: rank D

Innate ability: Looting variant

Affinity:

Basic: rank F 1/3 20/22

Mind: rank F 1/3 4/7

Mechanist: rank F 1/3 4/12

Skills:

Journeyman Mana Sense

Journeyman Mind Guard

Journeyman Telekinesis

Novice Command

Adept 6th Sense

Novice Sense Aura

Journeyman Hardened Connections

Novice Resistances +

Apprentice Extended Command

Apprentice Solid Mana

Journeyman Minor Repair

Apprentice Extended Range

Journeyman Strength Through Willpower

Novice Crimson Empowerment

Novice Inventory

Two days later

POV: Sam

My mind was exhausted. I felt a deeper weariness inside my chest, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. My mind was just above my core, which I now looked at and sensed differently.

“Dean, how are you doing?”

“First time ever feeling so thoroughly exhausted. It’s a novel feeling, and I am not entirely sure how to feel about it just yet.”

The captain had just finished our first exercises in understanding our skills and how they interact with us. Never before had I heard about this. Everyone seemed to use skills like tools, not understanding that they were actually a part of themselves so deeply.

“That explanation… never thought it would work after the captain stopped his lecture on the first day.”

“That was kind of funny,” Dean answered back as we both lay on the training ground floor.

My mind played back the scene clearly.

“Now take gasoline,” the captain said, looking at us excitedly. Dean and I had no idea what gasoline was back then; we had never heard that word. The only one who seemed to really understand the word was Lola, even Bob only vaguely knew it.

The captain’s speech trailed off almost immediately as he went silent. “We will continue this tomorrow morning.” And just like that, he left.

The next morning started early with an over eight-hour lecture about old Earth transportation vehicles, racing, and every part of how they worked, especially the engine. Only after that did he start his explanation of what skills truly were.

While incredibly hilarious, that eight-hour lecture gave us the context needed to understand what he was trying to make us realise. It actually worked, which was beyond crazy.

“Hey Sam, do you think that this explanation would work on others as well?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it worked only because we are bonded to him. The way he explained how this knowledge was given to him was a lot more extreme, and I do not think it was done for the pleasure of that Duke.”

“You know what? I think it might have to do with someone’s affinity. Captain has the mechanist affinity. It’s definitely his primary affinity as it seems to be integrated with him on every level. What if to transfer this knowledge you need help from your affinity to make it comprehensible?”

I got up as much as I could to look at my brother without exerting myself too much. That was an incredibly interesting insight.

“That has to be the explanation, because otherwise everyone in the galaxy would know. You can't just keep this type of understanding hidden with so many individuals out there.”

“Well, Sam, let's see. FH, you followed captain’s training like we did. If you looked through your gathered information—especially things you might have classified as unhelpful or unknown—does anything now, make more sense to you?” Dean asked out loud for some reason.

There was a longer pause than we were expecting, until finally we heard her voice.

“Give me some time, please. Never has going through databases been so difficult.”

Her words brought a slight smile to both of our faces. So, she was experiencing the same thing as we were total mental and physical exhaustion.

“Yes, it does seem to have made many passages about the effects of and what skills are a lot more understandable. An interesting phenomenon I am going to try figuring out, later.”

“Understandable,” I said to her, as this wasn’t something critical. We still had some time before we dropped out of FTL to take off all the armour plates that hid this ship’s real silhouette. After that, it would probably be months in FTL once again, but the current road ahead of us seemed decades long.

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