The Lavender's Sting, or The Ender as Twill preferred to call it, was a 40 foot dwarf galleon, bolstering an impressive cargo space, 3 main sails and home to 4 cannons on each flank of the vessel. It's wooden hull was painted a matt black colour although beaten and patched to cover its war wounds. Its sails were a dark green patchwork of fabrics, its rails and walkways matched in a tint of forest green and bronze metalwork.

Jim stood at the bow of the ship, with the rest of the team gathered around.

“That was great, I needed that little stamina boost.” Twill said as he licked the juice of the meat from his fingers.

Paxx, still mounting his broom, floated in the air just in front of the bow's edge.

“So, did you get what you were looking for? At the Blacksmiths?”

“Sure did! Signed myself up for the Expertise too whilst I was there. Here, take a look at these.” Jim conjured one of the small metal orbs from his storage and threw it in Paxx’s direction.

The ball stopped dead in the air as it approached Paxx. A small gnomish glowing finger pointed in its direction, guided by Paxx slowly towards him.

“Mhmmm. What is it?” The gnome asked, as he slid a piece of meat from his stick with teeth.

“It’s called a Grenade. Causes a big explosion.” Jim said.

“Well, let’s keep those in your then storage shall we?” Twill interrupted, grabbing the orb and handing it back to Jim.

“It’s not armed yet, I need to mix up the powder and figure out the triggering mechanism. Shouldn’t be complicated.” Jim said as the orb turned to dusk, absorbing into his watch.

“You’re a dab hand with mechanics then?” Said Filbert. The Ranger had changed into heavier combat attire. His chest now adorned in a diamond like chainmail with matching gauntlets and boots.

“I’d like to think so, yeah. I’ve built some cool stuff in the past. Do you guys want a machine that can create us perfectly cooked and flipped pancakes each morning? It was my high school final project, but I’m sure I can make an awesome one now.” Jim said, as he finished off the final chunk of meat from his skewer.

“I wouldn’t bother, Burnie is a great cook and keeps us more than well fed. What we could do with is some more battlements for the ship though. We only have the cannons and with only a few of us it can leave us in a tight spot if we’re raided by pirates.” Filbert said as he clutched the end of one of his throwing daggers.

“Pirates? Does that happen a lot?” Jim questioned.

“Nah, they usually go for bigger ships, more loot.” Burnie said.

The Draconid also had changed clothes, his previous green robes gone he now wore a mixture of light red plate armour and drooping green scarves, his scared arms still on display.

Twill clapped his hands heavily and brushed off some crumbs of meat from his armour plated top.

“Team, it’s time to head out, we have a few days of sailing till we can make our way inland to the village. Burnie, get ready on the mainsail. Paxx you get the bow lines. Fil head up to the crows nest. Jim come with me to the stern lines, I’ll show you what needs doing.” Twill ordered.

“Aye.” The team said in unison.

The team leapt into action as Jim kept pace with Twill.

“Now, the lines are easy, once I give the order Paxx will levitate the line from the dock, then just drag it in and wrap it in a big loop. Got it?” Twill asked.

“Sure.” Jim said.

A few moments later Jim stood with the line ready in his hands, the team were in position and with a roar Twill commanded the orders.

As soon as Jim head the roar of “BOW LINES GO!” he pulled with all his might to retrieve the line. It was wet and heavy but moving nicely towards Jim.

As Jim’s line flopped onto the deck the mainsail of the ship shot into full birth. A rush of momentum caused Jim to lose his footing for a moment as the ship started to move.

“ANDDDD WE’RE AWAY! Good job lads!” Twill roared.

***

The next day Jim had taken stock of his new jobs around the ship, learning the ins and outs of the pulley mechanisms, the rudder control engineering and cargo storage bays. The was designated the team's mechanic, and quickly identified parts of the ship to service whilst underway.

His Hololens Augment made this job much easier, as he could quickly identify items around the ship, their properties and see underlying mechanical issues visually, like a light X-ray view of items.

He oiled, adjusted and tweaked several of the onboard features using his brand new tools and tool box.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Item: Smithing Tools & Tool box - Growth

Rarity: Legendary

-75% growth rate due to lack of expertise.

Tools:

Claw Hammer: Rank - Novice: 1

Screwdriver: Rank - Novice: 2

Pliers: Rank - Novice: 1

Hand Drill: Rank - Novice: 1

Spanner: Rank - Novice: 1

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With each use of the tools his skill with them grew, however slowly. Reading the description he knew that these items, as growth items, would grow with him as he reached new overall blacksmithing levels, for now a system message told him he would be restricted to Novice rank until reaching the related Expertise skills.

Still he continued on, improving the ship the best he could.

The sea was relatively calm, giving the ship a steady motion Jim quickly adapted to. With the time he had outside of the fixing and tinkering on the ship, Jim dedicated himself to trying to create a mix of gunpowder. He combined tiny amounts of the chemical components up in the open air of the deck. After hours of very careful trial and error, he safely assumed he had completed the task he now just needed to test his theory.

“Twill, can I borrow you for a moment?” Jim asked, dusting his hand of black stains.

“What’s up?” Twill replied, as he slightly adjusted the course of the ship.

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“I need to test one of these, they’ve worked in small amounts, but I really need to see if they work.” Jim held one of the small metal orbs in his hand. The orb now had a thick steady wick of scroll paper funnelled down into the main explosive chamber.

“So you need a monster?” Twill said, raising an eyebrow.

“Not necessaril…” Jim was cut off by Twill as the boomed an order.

“Lads, it’s fishin’ time, drop the sails and get the harpoon!” Twill locked the helm of the ship in place and dropped the anchor with the pull of a lever. The ship jeered forward as the anchor dragged along the sea bed. Twill then proceeded to grab a bucket of chum from the port side of the bridge deck and launched it over the bow of the ship.

“Get the lines ready!” He boomed.

“I didn’t mean right now?!” Jim shouted.

Twill opened a hatch in the floor of the deck, leaning in to pull out a long thin harpoon.

“No time like the present, we’re in Stargeon territory too. Tastes great and puts up a good fight. Got any ranged weapons?” Twill asked as he uncoiled a long length of thick rope for the hatch opening.

“Let me check.” Jim said, turning his watch to face him.

He selected the storage bay, and scrolled straight to the stash of weapons he “Stole” from the King Lachlans trail.

After a moment or so, Jim settled on one and pressed the button. In a swirl of purple energy a weapon conjured into the air in front of him.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Item: Crossbow

Rarity: Common

Use: A mechanically drawn crossbow. Draw, loose and kill your foes with this very standard crossbow.

Bolts: 15/15

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The item was as dull as the description, a standard wooden crossbow by any means of the imagination.

“I can give this a whirl.” Jim said as he threw the bow’s tip onto his shoulder.

Twill patted Jim on the shoulder, a look of doubt strewn across his face.

“Not sure that’ll piece the hide of a Stargeon, but you could do with the practice. Everyone in our profession needs a good mix of fighting options.” Twill said.

“So, this Stargeon, do we know how to fight it?” Jim asked as he loaded a bolt into the bow.

“We sure do. It’ll be our usual formation for fishing. I throw the chum around the ship and make a big old noise about it, then we wait. Stargeons are jumpy buggers, we may have a few jumping right over the ship by the time we get to fighting. Filbert is the key to getting these things, he’s a great shot and will use his capture arrows as quickly as he can. I’ll be throwin’ harpoons and reeling them onto the deck too. Paxx slows them down with spells and levitation, then Burnie finishes them off. I’d suggest you stay with Fil, try a couple of shots, and if you have no luck head down to Burnie and get out that Hammer of yours. Easy!” Twill said in a confident laugh.

“That sounds like a lot to keep on top of.” Jim said incredulously.

Throwing four harpoons over his shoulder Twill turned to Jim and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Ah, you’ll get used to the team synergy in time. Once you start to know your role, you’ll be able to come with us on the bigger hunts. Now get over to Fil”

The sea was silent and the team waited in their positions around the ship. The wait felt eternal for Jim, his eyes scanning the waves at the boat's heel.

“Stay up here.” Filbert said quietly, jesting Jim to his side.

“How come, surely we need to see where they’re coming from?” Jim asked whisperingly.

“Not Stargeons, they’re scavengers. If they see lots of activity they’re less likely to investigate. We have to appear dead in the water.” Filbert said in a hushed voice, his eyes not leaving the direction of Twill.

“Help! Help! We’ve been raided. Oh by the gods I’m doomed!” Twill shouted down into the water.

Time passed and the wait dragged on. Jim’s impatience was not matched by the team, their concentration unwavering.

Some more time passed, and Jim heard a faith rising of drums beating in rhythm..

“Fil, I think they’re here.” Jim whispered.

“How do you know?” Fil asked.

“A hunch, get ready.”

The rising drums continued to grow, Jim could hear the battle music gaining pace and gain. He looked over the edge of the water and saw glimmering lights darting in the water.

“Time to hunt boys!” As Twill roared the order a huge fish leapt into the air off the port side of the ship, firing glowing shurikens of energy towards the deck.

The team leap into action, Paxx deflected the stars of energy back down to the water as Filbert let loose flurries of arrow in the direction of the fish. The black arrows looked as though they weaved in the air slightly, guided towards his targets.

The fish themselves looked relatively unextraordinary, very similar to the Sturgeon fish Jim knew from earth. The main difference being these variants had a ring of smaller pointed bills surrounding their heads, five in total, compared to the singular lance of the Earth fish. The firing energy stars from their mouths were a new trick too of course, surprising Jim with the force they had up on impact.

Burnie blew blankets of fire from his mouth over the edge of the ship, attempting to catch one of the fish mid jump.

Jim aimed his crossbow, firing at the fish at the apex of their jumps or if Paxx slowed them down using levitation magic.

The deck became chaotic. Burnie and Twill lunged and spun in a dance of harpoons and fire, dragging the fish to the deck and landing the catch.

After 7 bolts fired, with only two hitting targets Jim decided to jump down and help the team on the deck. Stowing his crossbow in his storage he conjured his hammer, channelling his mana into it and firing up the two handed jet engine weapon.

He leaped from the upper deck, arms holding the hammer high above his head. Jim had used some of his downtime to practise with his hammer, timing pulses of heavy mana driven propulsion swings and parries with his weapon. A Stargeon glided through the air, firing missiles of energy towards the team on the deck, completely unaware of the half human, half dwarf descending in a blast of supersonic power.

Jim pulled the hammer down, the crack of scales and ribs reverberated the shaft of his hammer as the fish crashed to the deck.

“Yes Jim! Great shot!” Twill yelled as he flung a harpoon into the side of another fish.

Jim landed on the deck in a thud, quickly moving to finish the creature. A notification ding rang through his head as the monster became lifeless.

At the peak of the battle Jim lost count of the amount of fish monsters swarming the boat, his best guess would have been around 20 to 30 of them in the air, bombarding the team with blasts of inaccurate energy stars.

They were easy enough to dodge, predictable and bright enough to see clearly where they were aimed.

The team continued on, their synergy a well oiled dance of death. The deck of the ship began to fill with bodies, the blood washing over the flooring and spilling into the sea below.

The battle began to slow, and less and less Stargeons joined the chaotic frenzy as the team captured the last few.

A much bigger red scaled fish dropped to the deck in the middle of Burnie and Jim, its body bound in a white glowing net.

“Nice Fil!” Burnie shouted.

Holding a hand out to the creature Burnie opened his clawed hands wide around its head and cast a spell.

“Your death will feed the Hallow, your wrath is mine to swallow.”

As he finished the incantation glowing white energy was pulled from the creature, feeding itself into Burnie’s hands. His eyes burned a bright white light, fading slowly.

“Thank you creature, your life has peace now.”

He placed a hand on the creature's head, said a prayer and turned back towards the next harpooned fish.

With the last crush of hammer Jim had finished the battle. 34 bloodied, crushed and impaled Stargeons littered the deck of The Ender. Filbert flipped and jumped his way to the main deck, Paxx following in a soft glide atop his broom.

“Well, that went well!” Pazz said as he began to levitate the bodies into an orderly pile.

“That went great! Well done team, Jim good job.” Twill said proudly.

“Hit level 3 yet?” Burnie asked.

Jim wiped bloody scales from the head of his hammer, shrinking it back down to a hand held size.

“Let me check!”

As Jim opened his game guide, he noticed that the battle music hadn’t completely ended. He assumed it was a lingering downturn as the pack of monsters began to abandon the attack. The music however, seemed to be growing again.

“Erm, so yeah I hit level 3 but… I don’t think we’re done here.” Jim said incredulously.

“How so?” Filbert asked.

“So I have this ability to sense danger, kind of, andddd it’s starting to build again.” Jim said, conjuring his hammer back to its two handed state.

“Youuuu have Danger Sense? How? That’s a barbarian ability?” Paxx questioned concerningly.

“I don’t know, I just have it. Get ready, something is coming.” Jim instinctively turned his attention to the open sea.

The team turned back to back, their eyes scanning the ocean surface. Each crash of the waves putting them more and more on edge.

A rush of wind crashed into the deck of the boat, followed by a deafening caw.

The team looked up, grasping their weapons tightly.

“Split up! Stay low! Go! Nowwww!” Twill commanded.