“Oh, I like this.” Aethe came close to her much cleaner boyfriend and captain and inspected him up and down. “This is much better. I’ve upgraded.”

Marco subtly did the same kind of assessment on Aethe. She always kept tidy, but there was only so much they could do onboard the ship. Glistening clean and with her hair drawn back into a braid, she was much improved even compared to her normal high standards.

“We could go on a date,” Marco offered.

“We could.” Aethe moved close. “But we could also see if we could buy new weapons. I’d rather do that.”

“I don’t know how Marco deserves this,” Riv said. “He didn’t even try.”

“He’s always been kind of lucky.” Elisa shrugged. “I think this is just part of it.”

“Don’t listen to them. Just buy me arrows.” Aethe let go of him. “Weird ones.”

“Can do. You two coming?”

“I think we have to. Let’s spend all the money.”

“Actually, Kuzai asked me to tell you something about that. He said to try to keep half of your credits. He wouldn’t say why,” Marco said.

“We can do that, I guess.” Aethe sulked. “It’s not as fun, though.”

Half turned out to be plenty. Some of their weapons, like Riv’s club, were so well suited to them they could never really replace them in the first place. Those they had just upgraded as they went, throwing whatever system tokens and runes they could at them to keep them as current as possible. Other members of the team just didn’t take that much equipment to begin with, like was the case with Elisa. She just needed the best armored robes they could find at any time, plus whatever jewelry the system would let her pack on to enhance her stats and general magic performance.

The outpost had a few neat things that helped with that, but not many. Riv ended up getting a small upgrade in the form of a pair of protective gloves that increased grip, courtesy of the generally low cost of gear for Sturdy classes. Aethe picked up a full gross of something called Pain Arrows, the specialty of a local Fletcher who claimed that they gave up on damaging foes entirely in favor of sheer agonized sensation. Aethe and the Fletcher seemed to understand why she’d want this, and Marco kept his distance as they conspired over the possibilities the arrows represented.

The only truly expensive item they found was out of reach, for the moment. Elisa found it while picking through a pile of random magic-enhancing items, none of which seemed to fit her before she found a pair of glistening metal rods at the very bottom of the stack.

“Oh, Marco,” she said. “Please tell me we can figure out how to get this.”

“Oh, that. Neat thing,” the shopkeeper said. “Not cheap. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ll never see anything like it again.”

“You must know you’ll have trouble selling it.” Elisa’s tone was hopeful. “If not me, it could take years.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Sure. But that’s true of everything I sell. Every item is perfect for someone. At my age, I’m content to wait until that person comes along.”

“I don’t get it,” Marco said. “Everything about how that item works sounds like the system’s calling it novelty garbage.”

“It’s not wrong.” The shopkeeper grabbed the Foci and held it up to the light. It wasn’t a fancy object, just a set of metal rods a little longer than their palms. “But look at your crewmate. Does it look like she cares?”

It didn’t. Elisa was trembling with what Marco recognized as powerful, powerful gear-lust. He knew the feeling himself, though it wasn’t something he usually expected she would be particularly susceptible to. In all their journeys, she had only really found a few things that were useful to her, and those had for the most part been routine upgrades to her kit. This was clearly different.

“How much?” Marco asked. “What’s your best price?”

Marco watched Elisa’s soul get crushed as the merchant named a price not only over their Kuzai imposed budget, but about four times the amount of money they had in general.

“You can’t do better?” Riv asked. “Look at her. She’s crushed.”

“Sorry, kids. When you start giving away merchandise, you end up broke. Come back when you can afford it.”

“We might be able to do that.” Marco thought hard about ways they could make quick money. Elisa didn’t ask for much, and she contributed a lot. “We could go find a hydra or something.”

“No.” Elisa’s shoulders slumped. “We need to stay here in this sea, remember? And after that we’ll have to go somewhere else.” She took the Foci from the merchant, gave them one last look, then gently set them down. “It’s just how it is. Come on, everyone. Let’s find Kuzai and see what he’s having us hold onto our money for.”

The outpost wasn’t small, exactly, but it wasn’t nearly big enough to keep the pulper hidden for long. They found him near the docks, having an animated discussion with a robed woman.

“Wow,” Riv said. “She looks like Elisa. Only old.”

“Yeah. That’s really weird. Elisa, are you seeing her? She has notebooks and everything.”

In the older woman’s hand was a notebook that could have been any of Elisa’s, not just in appearance but in the way the woman was compulsively taking notes as Kuzai talked. It was like she inherently disagreed with what he was trying to tell her but wanted to know the details of his factually wrong story anyway. Kuzai didn’t let up, continuing to negotiate right up until the crew got to their side.

“I’m telling you. It’s special,” he said. “It really is. Levels galore.”

“At my age, Kuzai, leveling isn’t really a thing one does anymore. Let alone levels.” The woman shook her head and pointed at Marco. “And this is supposed to be your very special captain? This boy?”

“Yes.” Kuzai nodded. “Just trust me for once, alright? How long have we known each other.”

“Twenty years. That doesn’t make you more right, you know.”

“Just… Marco, tell her. Tell her how magical your ship is.”

“It’s pretty magical. I think.”

The woman rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be like that, Manala. You and I both know you have more runes stacked up than you’ll ever use.”

“Like you should talk, with your mountains of stored pulp.”

“That’s the point, Manala. I’m telling you that this is where I’ve chosen to use some.”

Manala shook her head, obviously frustrated. Somewhere within that motion, she seemed to come to a decision.

“You know what? Fine. Show me this ship. I’ll take a look if that’s what it takes to get this over and done with.”

“Marco, you heard the woman.” Kuzai motioned towards the docks. “Quickly, before she changes her mind.”

Marco walked the group to The Foolish Endeavor. At this point in its life, it looked unlike any ship that should have been able to stay afloat. It had been a pin-point ramming ship and retained some of the ultra-thin, blade-like styling from that point. It was double-masted, gave up cannons in favor of one huge ship-mounted crossbow siege weapon, and sported a massive chunk of metal in the center of the deck. It was the metal that caught Manala’s eye.

“Is that a magic amplifier?” She jumped aboard the ship with the grace a crafter usually couldn’t display and laid her hand on it, not waiting for the slightest bit of permission. “No, not an amplifier. A big battery.”

“Yes. We found some odd metal in some golems. When we’ve found more metal that seemed to fit the bill, we added it to it.” About every third temple seemed to be guarded by some golem or animated animal of some kind, but Marco didn’t feel the need to get into the exact way that worked. “Same with the rudder and wood for the ship, just normal upgrade path stuff.”

“A battery like this is not a normal upgrade.” She held her hand to the deck and held it there like she was listening. “And this is not a normal ship. When I put magic into it, it’s circulating through every part of it.”

“That’s not normal?”

“Not to this extent. I’m assuming it can do many odd things? Things other ships can’t do?”

Elisa nodded. “Odd things are the only things Marco does.”

“Well, every time he did one, he cut more magical channels through this thing. I’ve never seen an object this size with better magical circulation.”

“I don’t understand exactly what you’re saying but it sounds like I was right.” Kuzai grinned from the Ship’s rail. “Was I right?”

“Yes, dammit. How many runes is this going to cost me? How many blocks are you willing to give up?”

Kuzai did some quick mental math. “Four? Will this ship take four?”

“It might.”

“What are we doing here?” Marco asked. “I don’t like to interrupt…”

“Then don’t.” Manala pointed at Riv. “You. Gouge out some holes in the deck. Here, there, there, and there.” She pointed at the exact spots, then made her hand into a little rectangle. “Like this. About this big.”

“Why?”

“Because we need somewhere to put the blocks. I don’t want to explain this whole process. Elisa, was it?” Manala opened her notebook and shoved it in her face. “We are doing that. Tell them to leave me alone, would you?”

Elisa scanned the page, then went white.

“Yes. Of course.” Elisa turned to the crew. “Everyone shut up and let them do whatever they like. Not a word.”

“We hardly know either of these people, Elisa.” Riv said. “Why wouldn’t we…”

Elisa was next to Riv like a flash, moving faster than a crafter should have been able to.

“Not a word.”

“Uh… fine.” Riv wanted no part of whatever Elisa was doing. “I’ll just get on with gouging those holes then.”