“I guess that explains the claws,” Marco said. “I thought for sure this thing would give us more.”

“Shh,” Elisa said. “It still might. Give it time.”

The floor shifted in color slightly a moment later, then shot out a single beam of light that connected with Marco’s forehead. He tried to twist out of the way but found that he couldn’t dodge it. That turned out to be a non-issue as the next notification popped up in his field of view.

“Oh,” Marco said after reading the notification. “Yes, that will probably help. Elisa, how hard is it going to be to get out of here?”

“Not hard, exactly. Worst-case scenario, I’ll have to put us near the exit and wait for Captain’s Cry to refresh. Why?” she asked.

“Because I have an idea where the first of those plinths might be. I want to check it out.”

Getting out was about as easy as they expected it to be, if not a bit easier. As if they had already paid their dues, the temple seemed reluctant to subject them to any more illusions. They were out of the space in fifteen or twenty minutes, and only that because Riv was significantly slowed down carrying the huge chunk of metal they had recovered from the larger of the statues. Marco and the rest of the crew were loathe to leave behind any part of the loot, especially when the loot was so good that they couldn’t even understand it. They rested for just a bit outside the temple, picking up their gear again and redistributing it to take as much load from Riv as possible before setting back towards the town.

It wasn’t a short walk, but Elisa kept them on track and they made it back to the settlement with hours to spare before sundown. They were met at the outskirts of town by Youff, who frowned at the exhausted Sturdy under the large lump of metal before reaching out and lifting it from Riv’s improvised rope harness with one hand.

“Bring that along. Might as well see if we can get it in on the action. No, no time to talk. Your ship needs you now,” Youff said.

Marco and the crew trotted along behind the high-level lumberjack until they got to the ship. As Youff had once warned, it looked truly bizarre. All over the boat, planks of thinly cut, close-grained wood overlaid as many vital parts of the ship as the limited materials would let them cover. On the deck, bigger piles of lesser but still pretty good planks were laid out in piles, as if for raw material availability alone.

“You are going to have to trust me that this is the best way with what you have available to you. If we had a true shipwright here, it might be different. The materials will make up the gap, though. Trust me on that.” The big man puffed up with pride. “My ancestors were no slouches when it came to trees. That’s the best one on an island full of good lumber nailed to your boat. With great nails, I might add.”

“What about this metal?” Marco asked. “We have three little ones and this one huge lump.”

“The three little ones I’d say to keep. They aren’t going to make much difference to the process when all is said and done. The big one? Let me handle that.”

The big man dropped the lump of metal on the deck and got to work carving out a slot of sorts in the deck, just in front of the mast. When he had it to a sufficient size, he took the huge piece of metal, slammed it down, and let the force of the motion wedge it firmly in the new, apparently intentional damage the man had caused.

“That’s about as good as we can do. Now, Marco. I suspect the system will be looking to you for guidance. It’s been all our poor shipwright could do to distract it this long. I swear I’ve never seen the system so eager.”

Just as Youff said, the notifications started pouring in as soon as the ship began to glow gold. Marco and the crew retreated to the dock as the chickens hid in their space, giving the upgrade process enough room to begin in earnest.

“Wow,” Marco said before he explained the options to his crew and Youff. “Good stuff. Two of them. Both solid, but I think I know which one is more exciting. I need to check out one last thing.”

Marco read both options out loud just to make sure he wasn’t crazy. Youff’s eyebrows climbed higher and higher on his forehead as he read the Warclub’s description, but just about jumped into his hair to get lost forever when he shared what the Magerunner could do.

“I’ve heard of things like the first, boy. The second is unheard of, at least by my standards.” The man shook his head. “Is there any reason you hate the second option?”

“No. I kind of love it.”

“Then take it fast before the system changes its mind.”

Elisa caught Marco’s eye and nodded her assent to the side.

Marco needed no more instructions than that. He gave the system permission, then sat to watch the magic happen. All thoughts of finding plinths or taking down bad overlords melted away as the ship stretched, grew, and changed form in front of him.

The needle format of the ship had been almost absurdly pointed. This new ship retained some of that shape, and Marco was sure it would be good at ramming. Otherwise, though, it was clearly built with other things in mind. The ship began to extend out on the sides, turning the needle shape into something that looked a bit more like a sharp oval. The greater size of the boat was small potatoes next to the extreme changes in the shape of the hull. The bottom of the ship rose while the top of the ship gradually flattened out. As it formed, Marco wondered how something so thin at the bottom could stay afloat so high in the water, but he chalked it up to magic and let it happen.

The mast split, then the two fragments seemed to consume an outsized portion of the loose wood on deck as they grew to a large double sail. The two new masts moved such that one triangular canvas was just slightly ahead of the other, free to catch the wind to their heart’s content. The cannons were consumed in a flash of yellow light, just as he had been promised. That light merged into one enormous mounted weapon near the rear of the boat, set at an angle that would let it shoot in almost any direction the masts didn’t block.

The greatest change, however, came from the metal embedded in the deck. It slowly flowed like water as it became rounder and smoother, eventually resolving into a kind of flattened dome on the ship’s deck. As the gold finally cleared from it, he was left staring at the most beautiful craft he had ever seen, a ship that looked like it would slice through the water like an enchanted razor cut through hair.

“Test drive,” Riv said. “Marco, now. Test drive.”

“I’m on the same page!” Marco said. “I can’t wait to give this thing a try.”

“No. You don’t understand.” Riv’s arm pointed out to sea, towards a horizon Marco had been completely blind to as his ship upgraded. “These people have been pretty nice to us, and I’d hate to see their village burn. That’s a very, very large ship. We don’t just want a test drive. We need one. And we need it to go well.”