"A-h… g.. wha…?" Clara tried to get the words out, but they got stuck in her throat. Her breathing became ragged and her body trembled.

"Hey uh… you good?" the guy with the hoe asked. However Clara seemed to not hear him. Her eyes stared off into the distance, filling up with tears.

"I told you that I should have greeted them instead," a voice rang out behind him. The door opened, and another man walked in. Unlike the other man, he was in a simple shirt and shorts, his hair was combed, and a small jar hung around his waist.

He walked up to Clara and put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched, and scooted away..

"Hey hey hey, can you hear me?" he asked in a calm voice. Clara slowly nodded, fixing her eyes on the man before her.

"Alright. I need you to take a deep breath for me, ok? In… out… In… out…"

Slowly Clara's shaking ceased and her breathing returned to normal.

"I thought a summoned person would get a bit more excited than this. I mean, gaming world, levels, magic. Beats a 9 to 5," the first guy grumbled. The other man glared at him and sighed.

"The bar opened already, Hol. Go get drunk or something," he muttered. Hol rubbed his hands together and flew out of the room with a smile.

The other man turned back to Clara, just as she took a small peek out the cabin window. She shrieked and jumped away from the window in surprise.

"WHERE ARE WE?!" she yelled, shaking even worse than before. The guy with the jar quickly closed the blinds on the window and turned to Clara.

"We are on an airship. It's like a plane, but slower."

"But what if we fall?! Isitsafe?! Howhighuparewe?!" she sputtered out, breathing heavily again. The man sighed.

This is gonna be a long day.

==}—

The man walked around in the hallway, with a trembling Clara walking behind him. She gripped the railings tightly as she followed him, her eyes glued to the floor.

People that saw them began to mutter and whisper amongst themselves, but Clara couldn't hear him. Her heart seemed to be beating so loud, that she thought everyone would be able to hear it.

"Hey cap'n!" the man with the container exclaimed, bursting into the room.

"Ellis…" a woman replied, looking annoyed. She pressed a button next to the large steering wheel and turned to Ellis. She glanced over at Clara peeking out of the door.

"Who is that? Your new girlfriend?"

"EH?!" Clara squealed.

"Cap'n, welcome our new Cooking Tool Hero!" Ellis exclaimed, pointing both hands to Clara. The girl in question took a few steps into the room, allowing the captain to get a good look at her.

"Damn… we're screwed. Can you summon another one? And what's with that outfit?" she asked, pointing to Clara's pajamas. Clara's face went red as she realized what she was wearing.

"I'll get her some armor later. And we don't have enough energy to attempt another ressumon. So unless you got like 3000 mana batteries just lying around, then be happy we got anything at all," Ellis responded, walking up to a chest in the corner of the room and rummaging through several items.

"Hey! That is my stash you're touching! Get your hands out of there!" the captain yelled and ran over to Ellis, her face turning red for some reason. However, he jumped away, holding a small crystal ball in his hands.

"C'mon, everybody knows what you have there. No need to be embarrassed about it. Let's go, Clara. We need to report to the queen," Ellis said, running out of the room and dragging Clara behind him.

"You guys have phones here?" she asked, eyeing the crystal ball.

"More like magic Skype calls. Do people still use Skype in your world?" he replied, opening a door to an empty room. Ellis set the ball on the table. Pieces of wood jumped from the table and wrapped around the object. Several glowing lines began to work their way onto the walls and form a large circle.

"Not really a popular choice these days. We have Discord which is free and lags less. Plus it's easier to use."

Ellis paused and looked at Clara in confusion.

"A chaotic cartoon villain turned into a video call platform?"

"What? Who?"

Ellis looked at Clara for another second before shrugging. "Nevermind. Anyways, I'm gonna connect us to the queen and introduce you so that she's aware of the situation."

"Ah, wait!" Clara exclaimed, causing Ellis to jump in surprise.

"What?! Something happened?!" he asked, looking around the room. Clara pointed to her shirt and pants.

"Ah, right. Let's go visit the tailor and the armory for now, and make the call after," he replied, leading Clara out of the room.

"You guys have an armory and a tailor on a f-floating airship?" Clara asked, shuttering at the thought of being hundreds of miles in the sky.

"We have pretty much everything here. This is the smaller one of three ships designed for long travel named Cloud X. The other two are World Walker and Last Hope. Though the last one is meant for an absolute emergency or a world ending catastrophe," Ellis replied, tapping something on his weapon. He swapped to a different weapon form with the jar lid looking similar to the crystal ball from earlier. A 3D floating image of the three airships appeared in the sky.

"Wow. Sounds cool! But do you only have these large ships?" Clara asked, looking at the model.

"Well, no. We have small ones called Cloud V, which are roughly the size of a small village. Those are used as cargo ships, or rich people floating yachts. Then there are Clouds, which are the size of a house. But those are basically taxis and they only fly short distances," he explained, showing the size comparisons on screen. "Cloud X however is just used by vassal heroes like Hol and myself. This is my Vassal Container, and he has the Vassal Farming Tool. This ship allows us to travel around, get more adventuring done, level up faster and clear any dungeons the kingdom finds. Any questions?"

"Yeah, what is that button in the corner of my vision?" Clara pointed to something in the air that Ellis couldn't see, but he knew what she was referring to.

"That's your status. Ever play any video games?"

"I played on my brother's pc once," she mumbled, looking at the floor.

"Hm. I see. I guess I'll need to explain that later. Anyways, off to the tailor!" Ellis replied, running ahead.

"Wait up!"

==}—

"This is the cooking hero? Well… we're gonna need a lot of work," she mumbled. The tailor before Clara was a tall woman who wore a huge hair bun on her head filled with different pins and needles, making her hair resemble a pin cushion. Her glasses seemed to glow slightly, while the blue eyes behind them pierced Clara's soul.

"Um… hello ma'am," she replied, waving awkwardly. The tailor looked at Clara, and her glasses shimmered. In a few seconds she smiled.

"Alright, I can work with this. Stand over there and look through the different colors. I'll be picking mostly green to go with your eyes and the knife's gem, so if you want any color changes, now would be your last chance to pick," the tailor said, burrowing her head in a closet.

Clara looked nervously at Ellis, who simply shrugged in return.

"She's 100% serious by the way. She looked at my orange gem and ever since then only made me orange clothes. Wouldn't let me add any other colors afterwards."

Clara's eyes shifted between the different colors on the wall and she pointed to a bright red square.

"That one? Why?" the tailor questioned as she dumped a bunch of different green pieces of clothes onto her work station.

"It's… my brother's… favorite color…" she muttered, looking down at the ground. The tailor rubbed her neck and sighed.

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. Now sit tight, I'll make you something quick."

"Don't you need my measurements?" Clara questioned, but the tailor shook her head and tapped her glasses.

"Already got them."

"Well, Laura, we actually have to get goi-," Ellis began, but the tailor cut her off.

"I said sit tight. You are no exception."

"But we nee-."

"Did I stutter?" Laura glared at Ellis and pulled out a needle out of her hair. It had a pink flower at the end and had a weird glow to it. Ellis raised his hands defensively and sat down.

As the two awkwardly sat in silence, watching Laura cut and sew pieces of cloth together, a tiny icon popped up in Clara's vision, making her scream and fall over.

"Woah, you alright?"

"Uh… weapon form abilities unlocked?" she said, looking at something in the air.

"Ah, you mastered your first weapon form. By this point it would be good to have at least 2 levels and a few of those to master, but I guess we'll put that off for now," Ellis explained.

"What does it mean? And how do I make it go aw- oh, nevermind. It disappeared on its own?"

"Ok, so, that knife can transform into different knives. You can have an unlimited amount of knives if you can unlock them. You can either get a knife by absorbing a material, or holding and copying an existing knife. Each knife has a passive ability, skill or bonus that will stay with you permanently if you have it equipped long enough, and remain even after you swap to a different one. Usually it's like 24 hours or so, but it can be longer for a stronger weapon form, or shorter if you already have a bunch of forms mastered," he lectured, showing a few images using the hologram jar from before.

"So… absorb anything not nailed down and sleep on it for power?" Clara asked, pointing to her knife.

"Pretty much. There are other ways to buff yourself, but that's the one thing all three of us share in common," he replied, tapping the gem on his jar. "You, unlike me and Hol, should also have 4 upgrade methods to buff you further."

"Uh… where do I see that?" Clara asked, looking around.

"See the little icon with three dots in the corner of your vision? Focus on it," Hol said, entering the room and almost ripping the door off its hinges.

"HEY! STOP BREAKING MY DOORS!" Laura shrieked, reaching for her hairpins.

"Nah. You know you like it when I break your doors, cause it gives you an excuse to ask the captain for more finances, and you keep 70% of the door money for yourself."

"I DO NOT!" she shrieked and threw a pin at Hol. He ducked just in time for it to hit the hinge of the door and send it flying down the hallway. Everyone in the room paused and Clara looked back and forth between Hol and Laura to see who would act first.

"... want me to make the call to the queen?" Hol offered, pointing a half empty bottle to the destruction. It was followed by a shriek and several flying pins.