149 Upgrade

As opposed to when we first arrived at the Trident city of Atlantis, the ship was crowded and filled to the brim. Now there was just me, Dinah, Qitar, Persephone, Raven Song, Darke, Mack, Zack, Sky and the still comatose Jack, not to mention seven thousand unhatched dragon eggs. Yep we're a real petite squad.

"What do we do now? We're wanted, which means there'll be information about us in the Ocean city of Atlantis. We won't be able to find the priestess that will save Jack. They'll see us coming from a mile away." Raven Song said to me with a whole lot more worry than I've ever seen on his face.

"They won't see us coming Raven Song, you guys forget that the Acheron has a submarine form, we can use that to sneak into the island and look for the priestess. We've come too far to back down now, our friend needs us. However if anyone of you feel like this is too dangerous, then there's no need to do anything about it, I'll sneak in myself and get her out, and then deliver her back to her people should the need arises. But for now I'm not giving up on Jack."

To be honest I was being selfish, Jack was in the position he was now due to a whole slew of events that had been orchestrated from the real world by my mother or some other fucking situation where the greed of humanity came into play. I felt responsible for him, so without a doubt I had to be the one who sees this to the end, I owe him that much.

"Look at you being all heroic and self sacrificing. Your reckless shoot first ask questions later attitude got us into this mess in the first place, however you've only ever went that crazy when we were in danger, so we can cut you some slack. But what kind of a crew would will be if we let our Captain act and behave reckless all on his own, you should leave the spot light for someone else." Dinah said as she absent mindedly scrolled through her tablet.

"The sex addict is right captain, this operation is not something you can do alone. You might be able to get on the island unseen, especially if you're on your own, but coming back out with someone else would be too dangerous, you're going to need extra help, someone to watch your back while the others are on standby..."

" I'll do it!" Persephone suddenly spoke up interrupting Qitar. Who was ignoring the death glare being sent her way by Dinah for calling her a sex addict.

"I'll watch his back, however after we get this elf priestess, I believe we would have to find a way to quickly get off the planet or we'll be screwed. Obviously she's quite important to this coven of Angeles people, we take her and they're sure to go wild. However I believe that we would be able to get off the planet if we used in her in an exchange for a starship." Persephone explained.

I shrugged my shoulders in agreement with what we said, it was quite criminal, but we've all been pushed to the wall as it is. Conventional methods won't work for us here, and the idea of starting up a guild here does not sit too well with me. I need to go somewhere I can build my strength and have proper grounds to negotiate, because even if I leave, there's still a virtual and real world ending virus running around looking for an opportunity to wreak havoc.

"Alright I think this is a good idea, I'll have to go with the ship's compass to find the priestess on time, however I believe with that in tow we would be able to get in and get out in time. You guys would keep the ship submerged and close to the island, it also has to be in stealth mode. We're going to a city of aquatic races, it would be much too easy for them to discover a submarine hanging around their island."

Everyone seemed to be in agreement and went of to do one thing or another for what was probably our biggest heist yet...or maybe our second biggest heist. It like be quite hard for a mission to top spiriting an egg seed holding seven thousand of the universes last elemental dragons, away from what was probably the most powerful guild in the history of the game.

Either way I felt that it wasn't just the crew that needed to be ready for what we were about to do. The Acheron could also do with a little upgrade, though I'm hoping it wouldn't take as much time as the last time. The ship was already powerful enough, but given that the entire world was now against us, she wasn't even close to being powerful enough to help us survive, much less fight back.

The ship had 23 upgrade points, how or the method with which she gained it, I didn't know. However the Acheron could use said upgrade points to level up different parts of herself. Though some parts cost more than others, and not just her parts, but also the skills she had could be upgraded. I've outlined what I knew needed the most evolution, the housing properties of the ship(if there's such a thing) was okay. We needed to make her skills powerful enough, plus evolving her weapons would also be a welcome bonus. I wouldn't what to use the ion pulse cannon every time I wanted to punch a hole through a shield. Of course the shield the dragon God guild used could not be considered normal by a long shot, which spoke volumes of how powerful the cannon already was at level 1, but still it would be better if the other weapons could cause that much damage.

The turrets had a high rate of fire, but their damage was just too light, the only saving grace they had was the fact that there were dozens of not hundreds of it, so it was like being under a hail of arrows. But other than a hail of arrows let's just say it's a hail of tiny stones that would eventually bring a structure down due to how concentrated it was and how rapidly it fell. Relying on the turrets would take too much time, and the guns were too slow even though they had really powerful impact and damage.

{ Spend 2 upgrade points to level STAR DRAGON TURRETS from L1->L2}

{Spend 3 upgrade points to level STAR DRAGON MOUNTED GUNS from L1->L2}

The next thing would be it's defense, I would say that the primary defense was already strong enough seeing as it hasn't gotten low enough that we had to see what the ship's secondary and main defense system was like. And I would very much like to keep it that way. The basic energy shield needed an upgrade too, just enough to be able to withstand stronger hits from much more stronger players and ships, heck I hope it would be able to withstand the weapons on a starship, or a battleship or a jet.

{Spend 3 upgrade points to level BASIC ENERGY SHIELD from L1->L3}

The shield required less points to upgrade than the guns, guess that's why it was a basic shield. It needed a single point to get it to level 2 and 2 points to get it to level 3. Which means in any case this was a win for us, and it was possible to rapidly evolve the shield since it was still a basic energy shield without too much cost. Anyway with that out of the way I had to pay attention to the ship's skills, and in particular two had caught my attention.

{Spend 2 Upgrade points to level up DIVE from L1->L2}

{Spend 5 upgrade points to level up GHOST MODE from L1->L2}

{Spend 3 upgrade points to level CAMOUFLAGE from L1->L3}

{Spend 3 upgrade points to level up SEA SPRINT from L1->L3}

{Spend 2 upgrade points to level up NANO CELLS from L1->L2}

Camouflage had gotten our asses out of quite a few tight spots, plus Sea Sprint would be our getaway card should we find ourselves in a position where we have to get away from pursuers as fast as possible.

The Acheron was already quite fast for a ship of it's size, so an extra wind in our sails could make all the difference in a fight. Nano cells were like the ship's very own white and red blood cells, plus it was also the ship's healing factor, being capable of healing any damage to the ship and also responsible for it's upgrades by building and expanding the ship.

Dive was what activated the ship's submarine form, and as for ghost mode, that skill did exactly what it's name said it does. The Acheron would literally become a ghost ship, changing it's abilities from a technological aspect to one that's more fantasy like, not to mention this would completely eliminate the chance of any sort of radar finding us. It was an absolute hide skill that even Camouflage could not compare to, but using it just once would drain 80% of the ship's energy that we currently have access to.

{Spend 23 upgrade points}

{Commencing upgrade/ Estimated time for upgrade completion 0:30:50}

Just thirty minutes for an upgrade, well that's a whole lot more faster than I thought. But even so I still didn't understand how the Acheron's evolution worked, there was no definite level progression, especially when it last took it three days for the entire ship to evolve, I guess all I had to do was play the waiting game, it wouldn't take the Acheron long to evolve anyway.

SHIP NAME: ACHERON

• CAPTAIN/OWNER: AÁ SEVEN

• CLASS: MEDIUM SIZED PIRATE GUNSHIP

• GRADE: EARTH

• LEVEL: 2

• DEFENSE: 40.8/ SPEED: 67.9/ POWER: 60.4/BALANCE: 49.2

• MAIN WEAPONS: ION PULSE CANNON(L1)

• SUB WEAPONS: STAR DRAGON TURRETS(L2)/STAR DRAGON MOUNTED GUNS(L2)

• MAIN DEFENSE: BASIC ENERGY SHIELD(L3)

• SUB DEFENSE: BLACK PEARL MAGIC SHIELD(L1)

• AREAS: ENGINE ROOM(L2)/CABIN ROOM(L3)/MEDIC BAY(L2)/GENERAL ROOM(L2)/DECK(L3)/CAPTAINS QUARTERS(L2)/HULL(L1)

• CORE: MYSTERIOUS BLACK PEARL (L2)

• SKILLS: (CAMOUFLAGE L3)(SEA SPRINT L3)( NANO CELLS L2)(MAGIC NAVIGATION L5)(DIVE L2)(GHOST MODE L2)(SIPHON L1)

• UPGRADE POINTS AVAILABLE: 0

Everything was very different from the last time I gave it a look, and one very obvious fact that gave me a shock was the fact that the upgrade of her skills actually made her stats level up. It shocked the heck out of me, I knew that the upgrade points could also be used to evolve her stats, but this was even better than using the points.

At the very least I've learnt something quite important about the Acheron, and that's the fact that her stats was based on the total sum of every single thing on her, including her skills. So if you grew that, her stats would grow in turn, making for a well rounded and easily growing ship. We'll just have to see what the future holds.

I made my way towards Darke and gave him a nod while I took in the sights of the sea around me. It would be quite some time before the Acheron surfaces again, and that would only be at the most necessary of moments. After all it would be a whole lot harder to find a ship under the sea than above it, especially one that wants to remain hidden.

(DIVE initiated! Submarine form engaged)

I felt the Acheron shake a bit as the her central mast shook, then retracted into the deck along with the folded sails. From the side of the ship, tiny hexagonal shields made of gleaming silver metal began to stretch and overlap over each other until the entire deck area was covered. Based on the shape of the shield above our heads and the prior shape of the ship, I would say we looked like a massive silver and black whale.

The shield did not block out the sights, as we could still see the sky, though I very much doubt anyone would be able to see inside. It was like a one way window, with you only being able to see inside from one side, while the other would be completely blank, but in this case it wasn't a mirror but metal. Complex holographic equations and nautical lines began showing up above our heads on the shield, it was as if I was looking at a nautical chart or map, and with the way it was moving and had detail's, this was practically all the places we've been before. It was quite a sight.

The ship began her descent then, the sea on her sides seemingly parting to give her access into the darkness below. Her descent just like many things about her was a thing of beauty. And finally we found ourselves completely within the embrace of the sea, with the surface forgotten and left behind until further notice.

The shield above our heads lit up, the sea beyond it was exposed to us in a manner that left chills in my bones and ideas in my head. It was like looking through a night vision goggles, but everything from heat sensors, motion sensors, bacteria and viral detectors and completely 360 degree radar that encompassed both the top and bottom of the ship. And with every stride the ship made, it was learning and recording the life forms within 3 kilometers of it, and even more crazy was the fact that it was mapping the seas.

"Seriously Dude, where the hell did you get this ship from?" Raven Song asked with his mouth wide open. Unfortunately I didn't have an answer for him, I was just as shocked.