Jack watched with a fond smile as the crew all chatted around the room for some wholesome fun. Of course, for this crew, wholesome fun meant watching the Crystal alligator and Goldilocks try to convert the same piece of furniture into their respective elements, all the while gambling on it. The bets were things along the lines of being dangled overboard the ship by Longbeard’s beard, being used as shark bait in the case of a particular hamster, or being on Goldilocks duty.

Jack had seen such scenes countless times already, but it just felt different now. Though they were all idiots, of that there was no doubt, they weren’t actually dumb. Each and everyone of them understood that Jack had been warning them that what lay ahead was even more dangerous than anything they had experienced so far. Not only did none of them leave, they confirmed their place in the crew with a binding ritual of sorts.

Jack used his fairy magic, broken as it was, and the others contributed in their own ways. Neither Jack nor Lex felt comfortable forcing others or placing any kind of compulsion on them, but neither of them underestimated the necessity of proper precautions.

The purpose of the ritual was not to force them to stay within the crew. Instead, it was to protect them in case any of them faced external pressure to betray one another. If Jack were more coldhearted, he would have added measures to ensure that they could not reveal each other’s secrets regardless of the situation, and would have forcibly bound them to the crew.

But he wasn’t, so even though he was smart enough to know the risks involved, he didn’t do it. Instead, he would just live with the risks. Given his current power level, it was impossible to completely protect the crew and his secrets if they ever faced an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, and he accepted that, so creating forceful bindings in an attempt to protect his secrets would just be a betrayal of his conscience and character for small gains.

The better way to do it, however, was just hide the core of his secret, and only reveal what the crew needed to know, which is what he would do.

"Alright guys, enough fun and games," Jack said as he put on the hamsters’ parrot feather captain hat. He didn’t like the hat - he was just still ticked off at Pebbles and wanted to annoy him some more. "I’m setting a deadline of four days. We need to get our hands on some sharks, so we’re going fishing. After that, we’re going to leave Artica. Our next destination is a little place called the Fantasia realm. The coordinates to that realm are readily available, so getting there shouldn’t be a problem. From there... well, we’ll see about that."

As the crew took their positions aboard the massive ship, Jack returned to the helm and considered the details of his plan.

To locate the Nexus, he would need to make preparations, and that involved traveling to multiple realms across the universe. He also needed to get a handle on the exact timing of the Nexus event, as well as get his hands on the necessary materials to build the Midnight Castle.

He didn’t need to tell the crew what his purpose was while traveling the universe, just their destinations. That would protect both his crew, as well as his secret. When it was finally time to enter the Nexus, he would enter himself, so that the others didn’t need to be exposed to such secrets.

At the same time, he needed to make sufficient preparations, not only for himself, but for Lex as well. The Nexus event was not a big deal just for him and for oracles. Since it was a period where destinies could easily be changed, he expected the whole universe would experience some drastic changes.

If things went according to his calculations, then Lex would have sufficient time to become a Heaven Immortal before the Nexus event. Now it wasn’t like that would put him on top of the food chain, but at least he’d be a little stronger, and a little more well prepared for the challenges ahead.

Fortunately, his crew was on board for his idea of traveling the universe. While he had plans to grow his strength using the path of Paladins, his crew had a different idea. They wanted to create a legend that spanned the universe, and then return to the Folklore realm to use the feedback of their legend to grow their powers.

It wasn’t a bad idea. Everyone had their own ideas for how to grow stronger, which was great because there was no room for complacency.

At the stern of the ship, Bob stood in front of the three Boblings, who stood in line with a solemn expression.

"The captain is about to say the words. You know what to do when he does," Bob said, his voice deep with meaning. The three Boblings nodded, just in time to hear Jack scream, "Tiny-Sparkles, release the sails!"

"Captain, the ship doesn’t need sails to, well, sail across- you know what, never mind," responded Tiny-Sparkles.

As if on cue, the Boblings suddenly began to sing as if they were in a choir, setting the mood for their upcoming adventures.

*****

Skipping had just turned from one side to the other, ready to sleep for decades, when the abrupt sound of a notification woke him up.

New Notification: Host has missed daily check-ins for multiple days! Initiating Code: Touch Grass!

New Quest: Use 300 system generated items within 24 hours!

Quest reward: 1 additional check-in once!

Quest failure punishment: 300 rounds of Brazilian wax with special focus on sensitive regions.

Quest time limit: 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds

Remarks: Why are you waking up? Go back to sleep. Don’t worry about the timer - it’s just a bluff.

Skipping was a little groggy, so he stared at the notification for a few seconds before the words finally registered in his mind. Then, he sprang from his bed.

"Holy shi-" a shrill scream reverberated throughout Obsidian.