2 days past fairly swiftly. After which he increased their speed for a time. Royce only used the mana he could get back in a day of meditation and a night's sleep. At the end of the first day of meditation he got a notification in his system that made him look at his status.
Personal/Storage/Notifications 1 /Quest(s) 3 active.
Royce Shepard (Pierce)
Level 4 (+)
Experience 295/270
System Access 100%
HP 7/7
Mp 231/231
Sp 6/6
** 1/1
Strength 5 (+1)
Endurance 5 (+1)
Dexterity 3 (+1)
Speed 3 (+1)
Mind 82
Magic 104
Spirit 99²
Stat points: 102
Skills: Engineering/Forging lvl 87. Software Design/Development lvl 90 Weapon/Armor Design/Manufactur lvl 70. Ship Design/Manufactur lvl 79
Skill points: 22. available: 2
Magic: Heal lvl 3, Mend lvl 1, diagnose lvl 2, Inspect lvl 2, Mana Manipulation lvl 4, Meditation lvl 5, Cure lvl 1,
Available slots: 06.
Abilities: Summon Prototype lvl 01, Hardware manipulation lvl 05,
Ability points: 01 available slots: 04
He checked the notification.
*Unable to advance level.
The system was letting his experience climb over what was necessary for the next level and was showing that he had achieved the next level. 'I wonder if it keeps climbing in 3 years when the caps are lifted if I'll just proceed to the next set of level caps? What will the jumps in my stats look like?' Things he would contemplate after he slept.
It only took four more days of this routine to reach their destination after the third day when Mana Manipulation gained another level and another boost to their speed. On the 4th day the increased speed began causing issues with haul integrity and the inertia they were all feeling. He was able to slow them down and use a little less mana. But after thinking about it for a few minutes he decided to use a little extra mana and also add it to the haul and inertia dampeners and played with the amount of man he needed to support their new max speed. It was a little more than double So without overdoing it for too long he brought the speed down to where the ship could handle it. they were still going faster than before but only slightly and that the lower mana cost traveling for the same amount of time wouldn't drain his mana pool.
Since they still hadn't run into Fox, Royce decided to goast the shipping lanes toward the nearest inhabited planet. That would take about 2 weeks with their new max speed. In the meantime. It was only around 1/3 of a light year but with their sensors at maximum range he would scan for debris fields on their way hoping to find any wreckage from the battle his ship incurred. The range felt very low considering it was modified from two ships and his battle suit, still better than any of them were individually. He could use mana. But that would get expensive quick and extend their journey, probably doubling it. If he had the parts he'd add another sensor bank and something like his mother's tablet using his magic to the ship's current setup. That would probably get him close to half a light year.
As if to reward him for no specific reason.
*Notification
Wondering if his system was pointing him in the right direction he opened the notification section.
*Ability formed. Hardware Duplication.
*Hardware Duplication: Just like it sounds use Mana to copy an item. The higher the level, stronger, larger, or more sophisticated the item the higher the mana cost. More efficient at higher levels. cost 4 Ability points.
"F###!" Was all he could say before the notification went off again.
*Notification
Of course he immediately opened it.
*You created your first Ability. Bonus +3 Ability points.
Quickly he cleared the notification and opened up the abilities menu. What was all *******'s before now I had a line at the top. Hardware Duplication cost 4 points. He spent the points and learned something new about the system at the same time he gained the ability. The list of ********'s was 14 lines long before hardware duplication appeared now there were only 13 lines after he took the ability. If it means what he thinks it does. Will a total of 16 abilities be a lot or can he get more lines?
It was at this time his mother decided to sit down next to him. They were in the passenger seats facing the front of the ship where his father was sitting. "I think we need to talk. Michael and I have already spoken to each other." she fiddled with her hands for a second. "We know that, with what you are. You will likely be swept up in all sorts of situations and since you're from this Galaxy you'll have things you want to finish doing. We were thinking. Since you have a ship and you have a crew, we'd like to become part of it." She said holding her hands nervously.
Royce could see that his parents loved him by their actions now and in the last eight and a half months he knew they'd gladly give up anything for him. Even knowing he was a reborn.
"No." He paused for a second thing about how he wanted to word it. "You will be guests. Passengers that can participate in any way they see fit. I could probably end up using your help from time to time. But more than that you'll be my parents. I already lost my parents once possibly to the same assassins that tried to kill you." He said as he opened up and prepared to exit the armor. "So I'm going to protect you the way I couldn't protect them. But. This armor can only protect me while I'm in it." He held his hands out to her to be picked up. She instinctively reached out and lifted him out of the suit and held him close slightly off to the side in front of herself. He leaned in and gave her a hug before he spoke. "So I'm still going to need protection, and this body's not grown yet. It seems everything's going to take time I might find ways to speed it up, But there's no guarantees. I'm telling you this because I can still feel the love coming off of both of you and I feel it for you. That's why I'm sure I can tell you whatever the average ability of a is, I'm nowhere near there. My body has to mature if we want to see what that looks like. I can use magic and I think I can teach it to others at some point. Then there are others I have to find. First my sister I believe she was reincarnated as a Lynn and if my friends don't find us I think there's a good chance she could be on the planet ahead."
"How?" His father interrupted.
Royce set up a little more holding on to his mother's arm. "That part is harder to explain. Short story, I had a vision of her resurrection and I thought I recognized the planet she was on. I've been to NewFassiea before. That's what I thought I saw and it also has a strong Lynn population." He then looked back at his mom. "If it bothers you I don't have to call you Mom and Dad anymore I know your names. But if Fox doesn't find us we still have to get to NewFassiea as quickly as possible. It's a Lynn planet. So it is governd under their lawset. For any Lynn all basic needs are provided for and you won't see any living on the streets. Except I one area."
"The slave quarter." His father poked in again.
"Exactly. And we don't have much as far as things go I might be able to access funds when we get there but technically Fox has control of those now. It's possible he changed the access codes to my accounts. I do have a couple ideas on how to make some currency when we get there though. But all I have at the moment are ideas. The abilities I have access to I can make stronger but that will take time as well. So right now my plan is to try to find any debris fields on our way to that planet." He looks back and forth at his parents. "If that works for the two of you. I think I have an idea to enhance our sensors. Because finding the debris fields might help bring us the currency we need."
This Time it was his mom that spoke while smiling. "Mom works for me and just let us know how we can help." Losing her smile. " Since your sister is top priority how much currency will we need to buy a slave?" It seemed displeasing for her to even say the word.
"It gets even trickier there we will probably be buying two or more especially if she has a group She might be running with or trying to protect. Just for two as young as they are at least 20 million depending on how we can collect the currency. Credits might be more. We shouldn't walk in there with less than 80 to 100 million." Royce motioned for his mother to put him on the ground.
"We have half that in our savings and I have a couple contacts that can get me the rest. I could get it transferred to us on the planet but it would all be credits." She said as she set him on his feet. Her smile came back as she thought about how she'd at least get to see her child grow up in his own special way.
"That would make things easier but it's likely whoever was hired to kill you will be watching for your accounts to be moved. If they already have people in the area. They'll know right where to look or that fighter carrier will be there in 2 days. Without my ship it's very unlikely ours will be able to take down an attack vessel like that. not unless we get lucky twice and find that debris field, and hopefully it has something useful in it. when I saw my ship fighting on the news the images didn't match the description they were giving for the attack so I figure since they didn't even show debris from the fight. One of the vessels escaped from the fight and the others never reported in. So it's possible whatever ship came through didn't do anything but scan from within the lanes." Royce cleared his throat.
"Which brings me to my next idea. Enhancing the sensors, but I'm going to need to copy apart from your suits.