DIY Island

After the party, the dust settled, revealing the hundreds of minor and major problems I had to deal with. Commanding a ship of thousands was much more of a chore than I realized. However, I had some help from my five officially named Generals. A select few tried to challenge the position, which I was about to shut down when all five of them stepped up before I could say a thing.

Needless to say, there were no further questions. And once they displayed their strength, everyone respected them enough so I could slip away into my lab.

I had one way to narrow the gap between my forces and the marines. Every since testing the Darwin Serum on myself, it had gone through thousands of revisions. But there was still a strain placed on the body, and the average person couldn't meet the requirements to transform.

So I created several versions with different strengths, ranging from minor changes in muscle structure. To completely reshaping the organ systems of the human body. I had programmed it so that each version had to be taken in a linear function from one to five.

The only part left was training my people and making enough batches of each serum to supply my army. Though I tried to figure out a solution to do onboard, I concluded that I did not have the room or resources even with the growth in space after Akuma's growth.

It left me with only one reasonable option, create a permeate base of operations. Though with so many unknowns, I was uncomfortable with having all my eggs in one basket. I needed something mobile but also defendable where my troops could train in relative peace.

Looking back on some of my notes, hoping for inspiration when I came across a small message on the darwin serum about possibly adding growth hormone to help encourage positive results.

Scrounging through my lab, I found the formula for the unrevised concentration, and with slight revision, I soon had a stable version. Running to the kitchen, I grabbed a still alive crab from the boat tank and secluded myself back in my lab.

Taking the inspiration from the Mink Island, Mokomo Dukedom on top of Zou, I wanted to recreate the same thing for my own people. Doing some personal work on the crab myself, I started to reprogram its mind.

I made it sexually inept to never seek out a mate and reinforced its bone structure to help the animal support its future burden. And after running the number to make sure my idea would work, I flew away from the ship and started to administer the hormone.

[On Akuma]

A crowd had formed as they watched Soren dropped something into the ocean and waited. "What going on? Why did everyone stop working." Cal pushed everyone aside as she looked to see what had caught their attention.

"Oh, it's Soren, nothing to see here get moving. Once he finishes, I'm sure he'll show us the finished product. But until then, move!"

[Soren POV]

The growth hormone didn't take effect immediately, and I had to fight off a few seconds who wandered by. I dropped them off by Akuma so the chefs could have something to make tonight. After a few minutes, the crab reached the size of a whale, but it still wasn't a quarter of the way done. All I had to do was wait.

The transformation took several hours, but it was an overall success. My new animal companion was a perfect size. Its carapace was a light gray but still soft after molting so many times. The island crab was already eating its discarded skin, and I realized the animal must have been starving.

Luckily at that moment, something swam by but wasn't fast enough to escape its claws. I already had a name for such a beast, "The Karathen." By now, Gibby and Hebi had wandered over to check in on their new comrade in my beast army.

When Karathen's shell hardened, I started to process, turning the animal into a hospitable base. Piling on dirt and pack it down with gravity to make sure there wouldn't be any shifting. With a sprinkling of growth hormone and a few seeds, Karathen soon looked like an average island.

"Do you mind telling me what you're doing?" Leana jumped on my shoulders from nowhere, "Nothing much, just making an island to raise an army. What have you been doing all day."

Leana pouted as she moved around to my front, "Doing your job, Cal and I have been working our asses off all day trying to get everything sorted out." Kissing my beautiful partner, I smiled, "Well, I'll have to repay the both of you tonight."

"Speaking of, I think it's time we think about adding a third to your harem." I froze for a second, startled by her sudden proposition, "Never in my wildest dreams would I think I would have this conversation. But I don't think it's really the right time to start a relationship with anyone else."

Leana flicked me on the forehead, "You owe it to Robin. Besides, I know the both of you won't forget it." Shaking my head, I still refused, "If she asks me, then maybe, but I won't ask her, and you can't encourage her. And I mean it, Leana."

"Fine," Leana pushed off of me, flying on her own, "Just know tonight you're not getting any sleep." Shrugging, I turned back to my work, some plants were still growing, but I was pleased with myself.

The following day construction started in earnest one thing that I didn't expect was the number of carpenters and masons in my crew. Though it made sense in retrospect, and after flying to a nearby trade island and buy all the raw materials I could manage nothing could stop us.

I had to oversee a few problems like getting people getting used to the occasional shifting by Karathen but the horizon looked good.