Chapter 501: Day 4,789 (2) – The Crystal Vortex

Chapter 501: Day 4,789 (2) – The Crystal Vortex

I made my way out of my cabin, through the narrow hallway. The soldier who was heading for the shower, quickly backed up. The hallways could fit two people tightly. I was in my armor, so pushing past each other wouldn’t be fun.

For a large airship, it was only larger than the previous airboats. I reached the kitchen. “Morning, what’s the meal?” I asked. We had two light meals a day. While we could go longer without eating, me more so than the others, it brought a sense of mental peace to eat food.

“Bacon and egg sandwiches on buttered bagels. Watered orange juice to drink,” the chef who was also a soldier said. They rotated through the kitchen and the other duties. That was Captain Francis’ main role on my team. Keeping everything running smoothly on board the Crystal Vortex.

“Thanks,” I said and took the plate and juice cup. I went over to the nearby standing table where another soldier was eating.

“Morning,” she said. I could tell she was just coming off shift. The bleary tone and eyes, were a sign that someone had been looking at the surrounding zone for too long. There had been extensive medical checks by our resident doctor, but it was just minor damage to their energy. Very minor, but it had an adverse effect. That was one reason why taking the Crystal Vortex, into a level 6 zone had issues.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

“Morning,” I replied back. Another rule after the first rule, of not damaging my precious Crystal Vortex, was no formalities. Everyone knew their roles and jobs. We were packed in and completely miserable already, no need to add additional aggravation onto that.

I looked at the shelves, they were about two thirds of the way depleted. We could last 60 days out here on our own before resupplying. Normally we did 40 days out, then 10 days back including travel, to be on the safe side and let people get a mental break.

It also allowed the soldiers to swap in and out and for me to collect that juicy passive income. It was frankly sickening how much was brought in every day. Right now, the Gross Domestic Points, or GDP, stood at around 600 million points per day. That meant 60 million in taxes per day for me.

That was the number I was concerned about the most. Clarissa had her efficiency map by city, showing how much each one was producing compared to how much it should be producing. Tracking the percentages over time to show if cities were maximizing the zones assigned to them.

I liked to think of it as her, but she had a staff handling everything nowadays and was basically retired at the top of her game. After my breakfast, I went to the front of the first deck. That’s the one with bigger rooms, showers, bathrooms, kitchen, and now the bridge.

There were three soldiers on duty. Two manning the controls, while a third was nominally in charge. There were two beam cannons to either side of the Captain’s chair. If the Crystal Vortex needed to make sudden movements or evasions, then people needed to be on duty ready to respond. Thankfully the constant attacks at all hours seemed to have been worked out. No chucking waste off the side, or doing anything that would break our bubble of hiding, once it was parked and the area cleared.

That didn’t count the sky monsters either. Screw the sky monsters with a rusty stick. Fighting them was the absolute worst. It was a massive headache, and you didn’t get anything from it. The point crystals dropped to the zone below, which would cost a million times more to retrieve.

“Any issues?” I asked as part of my routine of checking on the Crystal Vortex. The name was etched into my mind.

“All clear. Hold steady without issue,” the soldier seated in the Captain’s chair replied. I nodded at this. I then went forward to right behind the controls to look out the thick glass windows. The soldiers manning them gave me a look but didn’t say anything.

The third deck was like a plus sign with a fat middle. It was very small but had jutting portions where one could stand on and railings. If there was an emergency, then I would have to respond most likely. Trying to keep track of the monsters while maneuvering the airship was a good way to damage it.

There was also someone else up here. “Doctor Katz, good morning,” I greeted the good doctor. He had changed a lot over the years. Now he wore a trench coat, filled with hand cannons, bombs, and healing flasks.

Normally he didn’t fight, but if he did, it could get messy. Instead, he played the roll of support most of the time using his various imbue type skills to great effect. On his weapons, others, and the beam cannons on the airship when it had become needed in the past.

“Just enjoying the early morning view. Watching the light source come up over the horizon, is something I enjoy,” he said. I knew this, since we had been on this airship for a long time together. Similar conversation had happened countless times. But there was comfort in the familiar as we fought horrors at the edge of known human civilization in the Systemic Lands.

“Bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast,” I said.

“Had one already. Any news?” he asked me.

“We are going to try a level 6 zone tomorrow. Today, we need to rest up, refocus, and get ready,” I replied.

“You want to try and kill a level 7 monster on top of dealing with the hellzone?” he asked me.

“Hopefully. A man can dream, right doc?” I asked with a smile.

“Yes, a man can dream. I keep looking out hoping to understand something about this place, still no progress,” he said while holding a piece of rock from the zone in his hand. The soldiers were listening in of course, but we were all polite enough to pretend we didn’t overhear each other on this cursedly small airship.

“The others should be getting up. We will need to plan out a strategy or something,” I muttered.

“The last time, we almost died. We were lucky the airship was only heavily damaged,” Doctor Katz said.

That hurt worse than anything. ‘Don’t listen to him Crystal Vortex.’ I patted the railing. ‘You are the best airship and are never, ever going to get damaged.’

“We can’t take the airship. We would have to go in ourselves, and battle our way forward to find a level 7.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that. I just think the Avatar was lying to you when she told you about the Divine Empress killing a level 7 monster. Level 6 monsters are nightmares and the level 6 zones,” he shook his head.