“What have you done with my brother you bastard,” the man with the bloodied cloth over his eye said as he lunged for my throat. Out of shock or guilt I can’t really say why but I didn’t fight him off. After a few moments my vision starts to go dark and then my fight or flight reaction kicks in, and I grab the man’s hands and try to pry them off my throat and as I do I notice that there are tears in his eyes. He must already know what has happened to his brother and is just lashing out, and frankly a little part of me feels like I deserve it. I try to pry his fingers off my throat again, but it’s no use and I soon realize that approach won’t work, and I decide on an attack that is less then honorable. I kick him with the little strength that I have right at the man’s royal scepter. The man naturally released me and falls to the floor clutching his private area.
“I’m so sorry, I’m sure you know what the captain is like, that soulless dick he he he he……….” I say afraid to even finish my sentence, “I’ll find a way to break this curse and put a bullet in his face if it’s the last thing I ever do.” I then sink into the cold wooden floor completely exhausted from the combination of being tortured all day for the captain’s gold, the dual between me and Thomas and now the cherry on top of being the target of Thomas’s brothers’ rage.
“I’m Miles by the way,” I say while keeping an eye on him in case he has any ideas of trying to attack again. I then take a deep breath and slowly exhale “I will never be able to get over the fact that these hands caused the death of your brother,” I clutch my hands together so hard my fingernails cause my skin to bleed. “But mark my words, I will kill the captain and make him beg for mercy this I swear”.
New Quest: [Vengeance]
Let’s Kill this Mother Fucker
Objective: Kill Target: [[Sylvester Shadows] - Captain of the Foul Serpent of Deanity]
Reward: Class Change
“Aiden,” the man says while recovering, “my name is Aiden,”.
“Well Aiden I would say its nice to meet you, but I’m sure the feeling is not mutual,” I say with sadness in my tone.
“Yes you are correct I much would rather have my brother here with me, sadly however it’s like you say that vile captain is the cause of all this and you were just the instrument of his destruction”
“How long have you and Thomas been on Sylvester’s ship.” I say desperately trying to change the subject and to shift some of the guilt away from what I feel.
“I can’t really say for sure; time moves differently down here, it could be weeks or months,” Aiden says while looking at the ground. “They don’t really come down here unless to feed us that garbage they call food” he says gesturing towards a bowl of what could only be described of ground up pig intestines that have sat out in the sun all day to be left to rot. I walk over to the bowl and take a big whiff and gag at the rancid smell.
“Ughhh that is disgusting, is this all they give you?” I say pushing the plate of garbage food away from me.
“No not always sometimes they give us some moldy bread that they dropped and stepped on,” Aiden says with a somber tone.
“Well if its alright with you I think you deserve something more than this slop,” I say as I open my inventory and pull out a piece of my [Ape Meat], a [Stone Spear] and a [Lit Torch]. With the [Lit Torch] out, I get a better understanding on Aiden’s and Thomas’s living conditions and it makes me just as sick as when I smelled the food they were being fed. I then look over at Aiden and he has now stood up and backed away from me.
“How how how how how how did you do that, I’ve never seen an ability like that, what is your scar,” Aiden said is voice almost trembling.
“I’m gonna be honest with you Aiden I’m not from around here and I don’t know any of this scar stuff,” I say while sitting down and stabbing the ape meat with my stone spear to try to better cook my ape meat with the torch.
“What do you mean, you don’t know what scars are, everybody and every race are born with scars it’s a universal truth,” Aiden spoke as he walked closer to me and my torch.
“Not in Kansas,” I said a little caught off guard as this was the closest Aiden had gotten to me without trying to actively kill me. “I’m gonna level with you Aiden, I woke up on Captain Sylvester’s Island with no idea on how I got their and when I finally came to, I could do all these amazing things.”
“So, you’re telling me you woke up stranded on an island with no knowledge of what scars are as if you were a newborn baby,” Aiden said with a raised eyebrow “Do you remember anything before you wound up on the island,”. I’m not sure why Aiden was so concerned about me when a few moments ago he was trying to rip my head off, maybe he’s into mysteries.
“I don’t know man, the last thing I remember is eating my Chinese food on the couch watching an episode of American Dad and slowly falling asleep,” I say while shrugging my shoulders.
“I don’t know what most of those things are, what’s Chinese food and what’s….. what did you call it American Dad,” Aided puzzled.
“Its hard to describe, let’s just say Chinese food is made by the gods and tastes like heaven, and American Dad is some trashy TV I like to watch.” I say in pure disappointment that he doesn’t know what Chinese food is.
“Clearly you have gone mad, nobody has seen the gods in centuries,” Aiden sulks “Also what’s a TV,”.
“Well, I meant it as a joke, basically its just really good food for cheap and a TV is just people pretending to be other people for entertainment,” I say with a slight chuckle I never thought I would need to explain what a TV.
“You say very strange things,” Aiden sighed.
“I know it sounds strange to you, but all these scar things sound weird to me,” I argue back.
“Fair enough,” Aiden responds, “But I have never met a person who doesn’t know what scars are”.
“And I’ve never had to explain what a TV is, so I guess that makes us even,” I say while looking at my cooked steak. I then hand the cook steak to Aiden, and he looks at it for a few moments until he reaches out and grabs it from my hand.
“Thank you, Miles,” Aiden says as he quickly starts to devour the steak.
“Don’t mention it, I promised Thomas that I would take care of you,” I say and look over at Aiden and I see more tears have started to stream down his face at the mere mention of my promise to Thomas. I then watch Aiden take his food I made for him and move back into his corner. I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk anymore are some of the thoughts going through my head. Now that I have taken care of Aiden its time for me to get some grub myself, I think to myself as I pull out another torch and ape meat to cook my own steak.
This sure has been one hell of a day, it makes me miss being alone on the island with the only thing I had to worry about is the impending doom of being crushed by a crazed ape or giant bees. I wonder what’s in store for me on this ship with this crazy person that I’m supposedly bound to, I think to myself as the flames of my torch flicker to illuminate my tattoo of the skull with scythes and the king cobra. Once my steak is finished cooking, I quickly eat it and once it’s been fully consumed I receive the familiar ding I have been accustomed to.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Ape Steak Consumed:
+5ATK for 60:00……59:59…..59:58
Seeing the familiar notice reminds me that I have other notices that I need to clear from my fight with Thomas.
Quest Complete:
Quest: [It’s time to da da da da da Dual]
Reward 1: Class change
Reward 2: +1 INT stat
Would you like to receive your quest rewards:
Yes/No
I wonder what the class change will do and plus I may get a new skill with the increase INT stat, I think to myself as my hand presses the yes icon. I glance over at Aiden and he seems to be interested in what I’m doing but then quickly goes back to looking at the floor when he sees that I notice him.
Distributing Reward 1:
Class Change update:
Waste of Skin -> -> -> -> -> -> Basic Pirate Crew Member
I close my eyes expecting some sort of change because I can never really tell with this system, it’s a tremendous amount of pain or the feelings is euphoric no in-between. To my surprise I don’t feel any different which causes me to look at my system info.
STATS:
Name: Miles Egan
Class: Basic Pirate Crew Member
Health: 9/15
MP: 13/13
Stamina: 14/22
Class Change:
***Basic Pirate Crew Member***
Lets go sing a sea shanty shall we!!!
+5 ATK when fighting near the ocean
+2 Axe DMG
+3 Slash DMG
+2 HIT Stat
“But I don’t know any sea shanties,” I say with a sigh which causes Aiden to look up again.
“What are you talking about,” Aiden says with a quizzical look.
“Oh its just something this screen says,” his question makes me quickly think of something that I haven’t even thought to ask anybody before. “Can you see this”.
“See what you bizarre fool, the only thing I see is you waving your hands around like a drunk idiot as if you are a damn composer at an orchestra,” Aiden scoffs as he goes back to eating his steak. That answers that, I’m the only one who can see these system screens.
“I’m sorry doing this just helps me relax,” that is such an obvious lie but it seems like Aiden has bought it for now as I see that he didn’t even look up towards me.
Distributing Reward 2:
Reward 2: +1 INT stat
Due to INT stat exceeding +10 threshold
New Skill Acquired:
[Spark]
***Spark***
MP Cost: 1
Skill Cooldown: N/A
Ability Duration: 4 Seconds
Channel the power of electricity through your fingertips. 20% chance to stun enemies for 30 seconds – 50% chance to stun water type monsters for 30 seconds. Double damage dealt to water type monsters.
“Sweet I’m totally going to be like Emperor Palpatine,” I whisper to myself. Thankfully Aiden didn’t hear, it would have been a hassle to explain Star Wars to someone who doesn’t even know what a TV is. I then let out a sigh as I look at my last pop-up screen.
Echoes of [Thomas Williams] soul has been added to the system info:
Thomas Williams:
Class: Hunter
Scar: Hydro’s Blessed Hunters
HP: 45
MP: 37
Stamina: 30
ATK: 23
DEF: 13
INT: 14
RES: 8
HIT: 9
SPD: 14
SKILLS:
Water Whip, Water Spear, Water Needles, Cool Down, Water Trap, Water Sink, Water Geyser, Life Exchange, Water Coat.
[Basic shirt] x1 has been added to your inventory.
[Basic pants] x1 has been added to your inventory.
[Wedding ring] x1 has been added to your inventory.
***NOTICE***
Select one stat of [Thomas Williams] to add to your own power however this power was not originally yours so it will suffer 90% decrease.
***NOTICE***
Target [Thomas Williams] soul has bonded with user [Miles Eagen], due to this bond please select one of Targets skills to add to your own power.
Oh my God this is way too much information I’m practically giddy with excitement on what to choose first. The excitement quickly diminishes as the reality of how I was given these new rewards sets in. The smart thing to do would be to add his highest stat which is his HP, but then again it would be nice to have some more ATK power and MP. It’s a tough decision on one hand I could take more hits or on the other I could dish out more damage. I think about the decision for a few more minutes until I finally conclude on which stat to choose. The second I make my choice my skin starts to pulsate a slight blue for a few seconds before it dies down.
+4 MP has been added to your stats.
STATS:
Name: Miles Egan
Class: Basic Pirate Crew Member
Health: 15/15
MP: 17/17
Stamina: 22/22
Ohhh I love the feeling of a stat increase its so euphoric. I glance over at Aiden and he still has his head hung low, he must not have notice my change or didn’t care enough to notice or maybe it’s one of those things only I can see. It’s something else I must figure out, but for now I have to think of which skill of Thomas to choose from. I click back on the tab with Thomas’s info on it and I click on one of his skills, but to my disappointment it just shakes slightly as if saying “no way Jose”. I shake my head in disappointment I guess it won’t show me the goods until I choose which skill, there are so many interesting choices to choose from, and since it’s a gift from Thomas I really don’t want to screw this up.
I don’t think any of the water weapons are a good choice as I could always make weapons via the system if I got the right components and plus what if the water skills need a lot of MP to create. The life exchange ability sounds interesting but if its anything like what Vida did to the captain from Thomas’s memory that’s not something I want to try out. The rest of his skills are a little too vague but the only one that sounds like could be useful is you.
New Skill Acquired:
[Water Trap]
***Water Trap***
MP Cost: 4
Skill Cooldown: N/A
Ability Duration: 5 Minutes
Lay down a puddle of water, in which whatever enemy steps on it will get their feet wet and feel uncomfortable.
Oh come on you can’t be serious why would he even have something like that, its such a waste I think to myself hanging my head in shame.
***DING***
Updating Skill info
“What’s this now,” I say out loud which makes Aiden glance over at me.
I’m sorry it seemed like you could use a laugh.
Not the kind of laugh I really wanted.
***Water Trap***
MP Cost: 4
Skill Cooldown: N/A
Ability Duration: 5 Minutes
Lay down a puddle of water, in which whatever enemy steps on it will be held in place and unable to move from the spot of where the trap was placed.
***NOTICE***
If target’s ATK stat exceeds yours the ability duration will be reduced by 50%. If target’s INT exceeds yours the ability duration will be reduced by 50%. If both target’s ATK and INT exceeds yours the ability duration will be reduced by 75%.
NOICCEE that will come in handy for both hunting or if somebody is too tough for me to handle, I can use it to buy me a few minutes to escape. Once I have all the notifications cleared out, the weight of everything that’s happen in the past couple of hours finally dawns on me.
“I think it’s finally time I take a na……..,” I struggle to say as my eyelids feels like there a hundred pounds heavier causing me to quickly lay my head on the cool damp hardwood floor. But before I drift into Mr. Sandman’s sweet embrace I hear from the corner of the room. “They’re all going to pay.”
The darkness of my sleep is a peaceful and its welcome change of pace that is until I am startled awake.
“Miles,” I feel someone shake me to wake me up “Miles its time to wake up you have work to do.” Is that a women’s voice. I open my eyes to see only darkness and then I suddenly have a feeling of weightlessness. Am I floating, what the hell is going on.
“Miles do not be afraid your body is still fast asleep,” the female voice says.
“Who are you, and just as importantly where are you” I say in a hushed tone. Once the words leave my lips the darkness is finally filled with a blinding bright light. I raise my hands over my eyes to shield them from the light but as quickly as the light arrived it quickly disappears and in its place is a woman. Not just any women though its someone that I know very well, someone who I’ve known in my past life.
“I thought this form would be more comforting to you,” the women said with her arms stretched out almost as if she was trying to give me a hug “sorry I don’t have a plate of nachos to give you.” The person in front of me is the same cute girl from my favorite Mexican restaurant but she is different as she doesn’t speak in broken English, and she has an aura around her of extreme power.
“You’re not Rosa, what’s going on,” I say startled but also a little relieved to see a familiar face.
“I thought that was obvious, clearly I’m not this person named Rosa,” the person says while shaking her head. “Look I just took this form to calm you down, but if you prefer, I could take my true form and really fuck with your head.”
“Are you the system,” I say half-heartily.
“Ding, Ding, Ding, what do we have for him Johnny,” she says with a laugh.
“I I I I don’t understand what’s going on,” I say in complete shock.
“I just figured its time for me and you to have a talk,” she says with a smirk.