After deciding with Nik that they would try their best to get as many mana crystals as they could onto the Voyager, Dan and Nik headed ashore, taking a look at what they were working with and understanding it was the first step in making sure their plans would work.

  Standing at the door of one of the warehouses, Dan pushed it open as he wondered how many of those they would manage to empty, and how many of them they would leave for those greedy bastards.

  "This is going to be almost impossible," Nik said as he looked at the wooden box after box filling the warehouse.

  Each of those boxes was 2x2 meters, and they were stacked atop each other neatly, almost filling the entirety of the warehouse without any space left.

  "Well, we knew that already." Dan shrugged.

  "I meant the whole operation." Nik shook his head helplessly. "The transportation, making space for them, deciding on the rooms for the best weight distribution, it's quite the effort."

  "We will work on it together," Dan said as he patted the other man.

  Nik then put one of the boxes into his Inventory, it would be good to have one of those boxes with them to make sure that their plans would work perfectly.

  "Let's head back," Dan said, nodding towards the shore.

  They had used one of the two tenders Dan had ordered to be sent to the shore in case they needed to evacuate the island fast. At the moment, both of those were situated at the shore and the rescued natives were told about what to do in case of an emergency, and how to know that there was one in the first place.

  While walking to the shore, Dan suddenly thought of something, brought up by how heavy the box had seemed and how far the warehouses were from the harbour.

  Looking around, he noticed one of the natives on their path. Raising his hand with a smile on his face, he said:

  "Hello, can I ask you about something?"

  He tried to keep his voice welcoming and gentle, but he still saw the other guy flinch and his face freeze for a bit as he looked at them. Especially the giant of a man that was Nik, the native seemed to be ready to run as his eyes fixed on the Supply Keeper.

  "Don't worry, don't worry," Dan hurried to calm him down, "I just need to ask you a few questions, is that alright with you? If not, you can continue with your day."

  The man calmed down a bit as Dan spoke, his eyes darting between the two of them then nodded after a deep breath.

  "P-please ask away," he said, stuttering a bit.

  "Thank you." Dan smiled at him. "I was just wondering, the warehouses are so far from the shore, how were the boxes moved from here to there?"

  It might have been silly to ask, but Dan had seen how heavy the boxes seemed to be, he doubted it would be easy to carry them to the shore and wondered if they had a tool or something to use.

  "We used to carry them," the man said matter-of-factly.

  "Weren't they too heavy for you?" Dan asked in astonishment.

  He knew that with the system, it shouldn't have been that surprising, and probably a few in their crew might be able to move those boxes with the right skills, but the natives didn't seem that strong at all, for them to be able to carry so many was quite the surprise.

  "Most of us are miners, farmers or such similar Classes," the man said, a bit of pride seeping into his voice, chasing away his fear. "We might not be able to do much, but those Classes don't lose a lot in pure physical aspects. Plus, many of us have skills that help with carrying heavy objects. If a few of us worked together, we could carry a box without much trouble."

  Dan raised an eyebrow, it shouldn't have been that surprising, but he seriously didn't think the answer to the problem he had thought of was so simple.

  "Well, thanks a lot," he smiled as he waved at the man.

  "No, thank you," the man said seriously, "All of us gave up hope, accepting that this island would be our grave just as it was the grave of many before us. Thank you."

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  Dan opened and closed his mouth, before just nodding at the man in understanding, unsure of what to say.

  As they continued on their way and the distance between them grew, Dan sighed as he turned and looked at the retreating back of the man, thinking just how many like him were buried on that island. They didn't talk much after that, feeling the heaviness of those words from the man.

  BWAAAA!

  As they were about to make it to the makeshift harbour, they suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of Voyager's horn blaring from afar.

  Both Dan and Nik froze, understanding what the sound meant, depending on the number of blares, they might be in some deep trouble.

  BWAAAA!

  The second blare sounded, and Dan's heart tightened, if they heard any more, the evacuation might have to start right then and there. While on Voyager, and after thinking about the possibility of a huge wave of Harvesters hitting them, he came up with an early warning system for the people on the island to know when such a thing happened. Two blares meant that the Harvesters were attacking in numbers that the Voyager could take care of easily, 3 meant a possibility of a few of them reaching shore, and anything beyond that meant that they needed to head to the tenders and return to the Voyager at that moment, throwing whatever they were doing aside.

  He had talked to Old Raily who had been on the island about the new warning system and had him tell the rescued natives about it, and what they needed to do after hearing three blares from the Voyager.

  Fortunately, that didn't come to be, after the second blare, no other came, the air almost felt too quiet after the first two cut through the space, overpowering every other sound.

  "It's too soon," Nik said, voicing Dan's concern.

  "Exactly." Dan nodded with a frown. "The last attack was just this morning, was it this fast because the first group didn't return, so they sent this one?"

  That seemed possible, after all, the only wave of Harvesters sent after the island that got totally wiped out was the one in the morning, all the others managed to return to the hive with their spoils.

  "We wait?" Nik asked as he looked at the faraway mass of fog, "Or head there, I think we would make it before the Harvesters if we hurry back at the moment."

  "Let's just wait it out," Dan said after thinking for a bit, "We shouldn't put them under more pressure, who knows what might go wrong if we head there and the Harvesters are faster than usual."

  Dan wasn't that worried about Voyager, with her and Sam there, the Harvesters were nothing but EXP and materials, they just needed to wait for them to be dealt with and they would be free to return safely. He did find the situation weird though, and weird usually meant danger in this new world.

  The huge water striders weren't supposed to be there anytime soon, he feared what it meant and whether they were going to get more of those frequent attacks. He decided then and there to talk with Sam and the Voyager to be alert at night, they didn't see an attack by the bugs happening at night yet, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't happen.

  They didn't have to wait long before Dan got the clear on the Walkie-Talkie, and he found himself on one of the tenders heading back to Voyager. Once in, he was met by Robert who was waiting for them.

  "How did things go?" he asked after jumping in, "How was the wave?"

  "It was a bit bigger," Robert said, "Not yet enough to be a threat to the island though."

  "Doesn't mean the next one wouldn't be," Dan said as he looked back at the island, "Make sure that the people are ready in case we are attacked at night, just because we haven't seen those bugs attacking at night doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen."

  "On it already." Robert smiled casually. "I even talked to Old Raily at shore about it, and had him start doing drills in case we needed to do an evacuation."

  "That's good." Dan nodded in appreciation. "Thanks a lot."

  He and Nik then went to one of the cabins further away from where they were going to keep the rescued natives. Once inside, they worked together to push the furniture to the side before Nik dropped the huge box on the floor.

  "We won't be able to bring many of them back," Nik said, frowning.

  "I see that, what a waste." Dan sighed in defeat.

  He stopped whatever he was about to say next as he felt something through his mind, the Voyager seemed to be quite interested in the box, or more precisely the mana crystals inside it.

  Can I have it? she asked as her aura stirred a bit.

  Curious, Dan agreed and watched as the Voyager sent her aura towards the box. To his surprise, it wasn't the gentle warm aura, but the dark oppressive one. Dan's surprise didn't last long as he felt the misty aura turn more physical as it ripped off the box's cover, and rushed into it. The Voyager was using Aura Appendages.

  When the Voyager removed the cover, he noticed how the material inside the box had a faint blue glow, but as the tiny aura appendages sank into it, the glow started becoming fainter and fainter till it disappeared and the aura dissipated soon after.

  Dan was about to ask the Voyager about what had happened when his walkie-talkie came alive.

  "Captain, did you do something? Over." Keith's voice came from the other side.

  "Maybe? What is it? Over," he asks, already having an inkling about what it might have been.

  "Well," Keith's voice came through, a bit hesitant, "Our fuel reserve rose a bit, it wasn't much, but I've been keeping a close eye on it these days, and I'm sure that it rose. Over."

  Dan looked at Nik next to him then both of them glanced at the box at the centre of the room, a feeling of contentment coming from the Voyager, as if a little kid licking their lips after having a bite of their favourite food.