"Captain," Robert called to Dan while he was having breakfast in the Skyline.

  "Seems as if you have something on mind?" Dan asked after greeting him back.

  "Yes." Robert nodded as he started eating his breakfast. "I've been thinking about what we are going to do next; considering what you mentioned yesterday and all that."

  Dan just listened. The night before, after they decided on accepting the invitation, he told the people in the Skyline that they were going to prepare themselves as best as they could, getting more information and maybe even grinding in a few key locations to be on the safe side.

  "I mainly want to talk about our next hunting ground." Robert chuckled at his words, he then turned serious as he said. "Should we really be focusing on forbidden zones only?"

  "What do you mean?" Dan asked, a bit confused. He didn't know what he expected from his chief officer, but it certainly wasn't that.

  "What I meant is," Robert started slowly, "We've gone to forbidden zones because they give us the privacy we need and they were locations where we could find concentrations of monsters to hunt easily. But we don't need to go with that right now, don't you think?

  "We can simply head deeper into the ocean and we will get both of those, a safer place to hunt that's away from everyone's eyes. Plus, with how full of creatures the ocean is, we don't have to worry about the second point too."

  "Who knows what might be waiting for us in the open ocean though," Dan said, "We know what we are going to deal with when we head to those areas and we are prepared for it."

  "Forbidden zones aren't that well known though," Robert pushed, "We saw what happened with Sticky Reefs, who says that other forbidden zones won't have anything like that?"

  "I will keep it in mind," Dan said after staying silent for a bit, "It's too early to talk about that. I still think that just heading to the open ocean is too much of a risk. We will first see if any nearby forbidden zones could be used as a hunting ground before returning to your idea."

  "That's enough for me," Robert said, "I just fear that if we keep aiming for forbidden zones, we would eventually find ourselves dealing with something that's too out of our control. Just like what had almost happened to us with Sticky Reefs."

  They talked some more while they finished their breakfast, before leaving and heading to the bridge. Dan was looking forward to what Keith and Freddie had managed to find out from the books the night before.

  Once they made it to the bridge, they first greeted everyone before turning to the first and second mates.

  "So any nearby area we need to keep an eye on?"

  "There's of course the Corroding Basin," Freddie started the summary of what they had gathered from those books, "We looked some more into it, and fortunately, there had been quite a comprehensive study on it over the years. So hopefully we won't find ourselves surprised by something like Sticky Reefs with this one."

  "From what we've found out," Keith took it from there, "The area's specialty is truly due to some kind of magical fungi that seems to be trapped within it. The waters in that area are thicker, and almost sweet unlike the salty waters surrounding it. For creatures inhabiting it, they are known to have thick armours and similar ways to ward off the digestive acids."

  "How is the air there?" Robert caught up to the main problem that they had worried about the night before.

  "That's the main problem," Freddie said, "The air is extremely hazardous, it's acidic, could eat you alive, carries who knows how many spores, and might blind you. All in all, not a fun time."

  "I guess that means that it's out of the window, huh," Dan said, the area was worse than he had thought it would be.

  "For now, yes." Keith shrugged. "That could change later on with us having stronger skills or the gang making tools to help us survive such an environment. The scholars who studied that place had many runes and magical devices just for them to be able to close in on such a place."

  "Okay, putting that area aside," Robert led the conversation away, "What else did you find for us?"

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  "None that are nearby, unfortunately," Keith said, "Many of them are just too far. Like the Ice Knives Ocean to the North. It's quite close to the Eternal Hailstorm that we found about yesterday, so the waters there are way below freezing temperatures, but it doesn't freeze for one reason or another. Well, usually that is. When something agitates it, it starts freezing, the water turning to millions of icy knives and needles that are extremely sharp and have sent many ships to the bottom of the freezing waters.

  "I think Voyager's body could handle that," Keith continued, "Unfortunately, and as I said, it's quite far away. We can't head there without wasting quite a bit of fuel and time, we are near the extreme south after all."

  Dan turned to Robert who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, a smile at the edge of his mouth. He just rolled his eyes at the man before saying:

  "Okay, we will look into some known areas of the open ocean that are full of creatures for us to hunt, one that is well known in a way."

  "Not a forbidden zone?" Keith asked.

  "It was something Robert brought up," Dan said with a chuckle, "An area in the open ocean might be just as useful for us as a forbidden zone. With none of those being what we need this time, why don't we try our luck with the other choice?"

  "We will look into it," Freddie said, Keith nodding from next to him.

  "Thank you for your hard work." Dan patted the two on their shoulders. He then said as he turned to Robert, "Let's hope that this is going to end up well."

  "I'm sure it will," Robert said, "We just have to be careful."

  ***

  William, Francis, Rose, and Jackie all stared at the piece of paper in front of them in deep thought. It was the same one that Mary and Mrs Raily brought back from their adventure at the Lonely Ridge Village.

  Dan and Marcus had been adamant about discarding it as soon as possible, but William had managed to get them the chance to study it for a bit first. Of course, that request was accepted only after Voyager said she couldn't feel anything from the paper at all at that moment. She said that it was dormant, as if its purpose was already complete, returning to nothing but a normal piece of paper. Even with that, they only had that day with it, they weren't going to risk everyone's safety.

  "So," Jackie finally broke the silence, "Do you think you could make something like this? Or is it under the umbrella of another group of Classes?"

  They met from time to time to see what everyone was working on, what new runes they had found, and how their Classes were doing. Due to how similar yet different their Classes were, meeting like this and sharing information and exchanging ideas was a good way to grow together.

  "It seems to be runic in nature," William said, "I might be able to make something like this, but it would waste a lot of materials."

  "Same," Rose said, "I feel that making the correct type of paper for this is going to be the hardest part. Everything else could be achieved easily, or at least it's going to be much easier."

  "From how our Classes usually work," Francis said, "It most likely needs magical materials. The hides of some magical animals or the like, maybe special paper soaked in mana-rich water or blood?"

  "I can see that being the case," William agreed, "So what do you think? Is it something worth pursuing, or would it be a waste of time?"

  "I think it might prove itself to be a valuable branch of magic," Jackie said, "But experimenting with everything from scratch would prove to be too much of a waste of materials."

  "I think so too." Rose nodded thoughtfully. "I think there's a high chance you or William would get a skill dealing with that in the future, so maybe we should shelve that for the moment? Returning to it later on?"

  With agreements all around, William pushed aside the paper on the table and shook his head. He felt sad that they couldn't yet touch on this branch of magic, but it was alright, after all they had a lot on their hands already. With that thought, he couldn't help but smile as he nudged Francis next to him who looked at him in confusion. Confusion that soon turned to a huge smile as he saw what William had put on the table.

  "What is that?" Rose asked as she saw their actions.

  "You know how we have been working on reloading bullets and all of that?" William said.

  "Yes." Rose nodded.

  "Well," Francis took it from William as he began, "We have been perfecting and optimizing that design for a while now, and we think we are happy with how it is. Which means that we are moving to the next part of our plan."

  "Which is?" Jackie asked, looking at the papers that William put on the table.

  "Production, from scratch!" Francis said excitedly. "For both weapons and ammunition!"

  "We aren't saying that we could achieve that straight away, but we are about to start working on that seriously," William added.

  Jackie and Rose looked at each other, a bit confused about why the two had brought that up with them.

  "I know what you're thinking," William cut them off before they could say anything, "Well, this is mainly for Rose."

  "Yes." Francis took the papers that William had put on the table and passed them to the Vessels Runesmith. "We know that you have started working on some attack tenders already, now what do you think about having some weapons for it?"

  "Maybe." William had a wide smile, "Even a heavy machine gun?"