"That seems like a lot. How much is this thing worth?"

"About what an outpost is. Maybe a little less, but apparently the people here took our help pretty seriously. Now take it, Marco." Elisa jostled his arm with her wand. "Everyone is waiting."

Marco held up the crystal, took a deep breath, and let the system take over. Almost immediately, he felt a sharp pang in his chest. Having expected anything could happen, he managed to mostly keep it from showing.

"That hurts," he said. "Is it supposed to hurt?"

"Yup," Riv said. "I asked around. It's gotta get a good close look at all your current skills to build the new one. That means digging through your soul and sewing things together. That's gonna sting."

"Still." Marco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It didn't help. If anything, the burning was getting worse. "This sort of kills. You all said this would be fun."

"Oh, shush." Aethe kissed him on the cheek, her own face red from ale and embarrassment. "It's going to get better."

It took a few more minutes of pain for that to be true. Somewhere in his core, Marco felt things start to settle into position, and with each skill that found a new, better-fitting home, the pain lessened. Something started to form in the center of all of it, finally, a bigger kind of skill started to form, a lump of new power settling into the cavity made where all his old skills had once sat.

It clicked into place, and all of Marco's powers seemed to link up at once, a prism of different elements of Gluttony Marauder that finally, after so long, had seemed to unify.

He brought his free hand up, closed it into a fist, then released it. He felt more powerful, somehow. The system made clear what he couldn't quite articulate a few moments later.

Marco started to read out the skill to the crew. Elisa stopped him.

"We all got a summary," she said. "Because it affects us too, we know the basics of what it does. And wow."

"I feel like I'm getting pretty strong now," Marco said. "That we are."

"That's a talk for another time, but I have some ideas about that. Now, let's all have fun," Elisa said. "Aethe, Marco just made it so you'll get a bit faster and better the more people you shoot. How do you feel about that?"

"He's a good husband." Aethe took another oversized gulp of ale, unaware as Elisa healed away a bit of the effects on the sly. "Best I've ever had."

The hours of eating, drinking, dancing, and joking flew by after that. Sooner than any of them expected, it was night and time to rest up for the trip tomorrow.

"Oh. Huh." Marco looked up at the hotel as they drew close. "So how are we handling rooms, now?"

"Well, me and Elisa are using the same one." Riv waved behind his back as he and the mage started to walk inside. "You two? Your bed arrangements are your business."

"Huh," Marco said. "I don't suppose Elisa explained…"

"She tried to. I already knew. That, at least, is covered in Elf schools."

"So…"

Aethe watched Marco struggle to find the right words for the situation, failing so utterly she apparently couldn't hold in a laugh.

"Here's what I think," Aethe said. "We should ask that innkeeper for food for the night. Things that keep. You should take me on a boat ride a few miles from shore, and we'll figure stuff out."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Marco gulped.

"Sure," he said. "Sounds good to me."

"I thought it would. Let's go."

—

The next morning, Marco ate the most enormous breakfast of his life. Aethe outdid him. Even the hotel cook was impressed.

"So the ship itself changed to accommodate this?" Riv asked. "Just out of the blue?"

"I don't know if I should be impressed or grossed out," Riv said. "I'm proposing a rule, though."

"What's that?" Aethe asked between bites of heavy biscuit and meat.

"Nobody has to know about anything that happens in the cabin."

"Seconded." Elisa's face was deadpan. "Private things are private."

"Thirded and fourthed," Marco said. "I'll keep how I feel about all that to myself."

"No, you won't, because you can't, you grinning idiot," Elisa said. "You look so very pleased with yourself."

"He earned it." Aethe nodded through an enormous mouthful of pancakes before washing them down with a cup of juice. "I'm very pleased with him too."

"Gross," Elisa said. "I'm going to get my wand holsters. Riv, do you want to come with us?"

"Sure," he said. "I think I'm done hearing about things I don't want to know for the morning, anyway."

Marco watched as his friends walked off, joking the entire time. They could have all the fun they wanted at his expense, as far as he was concerned. His personal happiness account was so full at the moment there was no chance they could possibly overdraw it.

“So what are we doing?” Marco kicked back a bit from the table. As hungry as he had been when he and a giggling Aethe hit the docks that morning, there were limits to how many eggs a man could ingest. “Are there married things I don’t know about for the first day?”

“I don’t think so. Elisa said some couples take a trip, but…” She threw up her hands. “Sort of hard to do when your whole life is a trip.”

“I suppose.” Marco’s forehead wrinkled. “Is that a problem for us? I don’t think it’s ever going to be normal.”

“No, I don’t think so. I didn’t do this to make anything change, Marco. I did this to make things permanent. Going along just as we always have works just fine.”

"Well, not just as we always have, right?" Marco looked at her hopefully. "Because we did just get that brand new cabin."

"Greedy." Aethe laughed. "Fine. A few differences."

They were taking a walk to help their breakfast settle when Kuzai found them.

"Quite the day you pulled off yesterday," Kuzai said. "How's the system these days? Regarding your forced stay here?"

"It was never specific," Marco said. "No way of knowing."

"Sometimes it gives updates on long missions. You didn't know this? It's worth checking."

Marco pulled up the message. The old man was right, somehow. Marco had a sudden suspicion that he was even higher-leveled than he had let on, but he waved it aside in favor of reading.

“You’d think it would offer that,” Marco said. “Without me asking.”

“It’s a vacation of sorts, remember? Most people don’t like to be bothered during their vacations. See what it says anyway, though. It might be important.”

Marco assented to the new instructions, and the description filled out, if only a little.

“Huh,” Marco said. “Well, that’s convenient for you, Kuzai. You were looking for a faster ship, right?”

“As fast as I can get. I’m assuming yours just became available?”

“Something like that.”

“I’ll get my things back aboard, then. And for the rest of the trip, petty expenses are on me. When are we leaving?”

“Soon,” Marco said. “Wait at the boat for us. We’ll be there soon.”

Marco found Riv and Elisa walking back from the leatherworker’s shop with new, very basic holsters for Elisa’s wand that had nonetheless been enchanted within an inch of their life free of charge. He explained the changes to their schedule, none of which really threw Elisa or Riv off. Together, they walked back to the ship.

"We have everything we need? Supplies?”

"Full to the gills," Elisa said. "I bought just enough food to leave about a ton open for treasure. Aethe, you have arrows?"

"So many."

"Then it sounds like we are set. Riv, go ahead and cast off the lines and let's get going." Marco recalled the captain's cabin, making room on the deck for the crew to get to work. "Off we go again, I guess. It should be smooth sailing from here."