The ocean waves were calm as nothing attacked their vessel for days. An entire week had passed before anything of interest occurred. Xane enjoyed that calm. Watched the shoreline morph from flat sandy beaches to sheer cliffs and rocky mountains. It covered a large portion of the area. Large vulture like birds flew in the mountainous skies. Xane just hoped they wouldn’t come down.

“Calrin what are those?” Xane asked pointing towards the birds.

“Roks I think.” I usually go around the Ven Rook Range if possible. Nasty things live in that area. Giant lizards. Ogres and giants. Ven Rook herself lives there.”

“Ven who?”

“Ven Rook. As in the Goddess of Dragons. She is ancient. I believe she took over from one god before her but those who worship her will say Ven Rook is the first and only Goddess of Dragons.”

“From what I heard he is the 3rd Goddess of Dragons.” Lyenn added.

Xane bowed his head slightly, “So dragons are real. Should have guessed that.”

Lyenn went on. “Don’t worry she is friendly to a point. As long as you don’t try and go too deep into her lands you will be fine.” That barely reassured him as he looked over at the brown and gray mountains.

“I can’t confirm this but I believe there is an ancient dungeon there that Ven Rook is rumored to run herself. As well as every 5 years opens it up to people to go through. Some really good rewards like a feat comes from there. Believe the current king of Tortoga is rumored to have gone inside.” That was a lot to take in. Not really information useful to Xane right now but something he stored away for later. If things he knew about dungeons were correct then only when he was level 60 with a team of at least 4 who were also 60 should he enter an ancient dungeon.

That was something for way later. They were busy talking and paying attention to the mountains that they didn’t notice until it happened. An explosion of fire rocked the boat yet again alerting all to danger. Xane spun his sight to port side away from the shore. He couldn’t see anything. “What happened?” Xane cried out.

“I don’t see anything,” answered Calrin. The flames seemed to be short lived and only charred the hull instead of catching the entire ship aflame.

Xane looked around trying to find out where the attack came from. Then it happened again. A ball of flame came from the horizon itself and aimed for the ship. Xane had already been charging up an infused shot and aimed for the ball. His projectile was much faster and hit within milliseconds of being shot. When they collided both exploded into a glorious flame of his blue mana and the red flame.

The fire being much closer to the origin the fire exploded and revealed a shimmer of an outline of a vessel larger than his own. Xane immediately started pouring more mana into infused shot.

Huntress pulled out a special arrow. It shimmered like a vial full of shiny glitter. She shot it over the area where the outline was and it popped open mid air and glitter did pour out over the area dispelling whatever hid the vessel.

“Pirates” Hollowered Hatchet has what was revealed was a large ship with a multitude of people lining up on the ship. All looking ready for a fight. “I know a song about pirates. It boosted swimming speed and endurance. Too bad even if I sang the song nothing would happen.” Hatchet, having previously been a bard, sung songs to cast his spells and complained everytime he wasn’t able to sing one.

Xane grimaced, he was happy he wasn’t around when Hatchet wasn’t a hatchet. His singing was atrocious. Gaining a buff would feel wrong coming from him.

The first arrow wasn’t all as more strums were audible as multiple arrows flew towards the other ship. Most didn’t make it as barriers were brought up shattering the arrows. Xane could tell somewhere powered with a perk though as some arrows just pierced right through the weaker barriers. She seemingly killed 2 within the first few seconds of the fight.

Xane wasn’t to be outdone long ranged and shot his full charged shot. He didn’t aim for the people, instead the hull itself. If Xane had known how strong most ships were magically strengthened and material wise. He wouldn’t have done so. However, the strength of his shot was still powerful enough to make a small hole the size of a golf ball in the tough hull.

That wasn’t all as the other vessel was shaken from the blast. Perfectly timed as the person casting the fireball was thrown off balance the next projectile missing Sierra's Song. Calrin didn’t have many long ranged attacks being an upclose fighter. He did though take out a tower shield and moved in front of Huntress as a volley of arrows and bolts flew towards her in retaliation. “We can’t do much here, kid get us out of here.” Then he grinned. “Or get us closer.”

Xane decided that closer was the better option. He did have the propellers to boost their speeds beyond what the enemy vessel should have been able to do. As well as cast smooth sailing. But he didn’t want to risk it. Xane spun the wheel as he turned port side straight at the enemy ship. Xane knew his baby would survive the impact.

It took the core from the first giant bunny he helped kill, the core from the fire bunny, as well as a fortune in gold. But with it he was able to hire someone much better than him in macro enchanting to enchant Sierra’s Song with multiple enchantments. The fire core went into giving a boost to the vessel's fire resistance. Hence the fire not spreading. And the one he was relying on, his ship now being absurdly sturdy. Xane full on believed the claim that he could now ram into another vessel with only a scratch to show for it.

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Xane also turned on the propellers to add even more speed. Lastly he sat down and started channeling smooth sailing for the last few drops of speed. The pirates hadn’t seen this maneuver coming. They scrambled to try and move out of the way. However, the speed of Sierra’s Song was not to be out matched. It was built for speed with technology to help.

Xane heard a pop and shake come from down below. He assumed that it was a generator that exploded. He knew this would happen which is why he didn’t ever use them. Xane didn’t care as the entire ship shook from the impact.

Creaks and splinters of wood showered the group as they pierced into the hull of the enemy ship. Xane felt power go to him as he killed multiple people with the action. Calrin now being in range cheered dual blades pulled out. Huntress rained more arrows into the disheveled pirate crew.

“Stop running you morons and attack. We outnumber these punks.” A loud male voice shouted over the pirates scrambling.

Sadly the enemy vessel was too large to be torn into twain but a large gash that was quickly sinking the ship was enough for Xane. Xane put the ship in reverse hoping there was enough juice to pull back.

Before that could happen the rallying pirates started jumping aboard. Calrin was elated by this and cut down the first in moments. Having looked over them a bit Xane could tell most didn’t even have a class yet. An average of 20. That wasn't the rule though as Xane saw many people of varying races with high levels. The pirate captain who had spoken earlier had a level of 36. It was much harder to inspect people at higher levels. There were items, skills, and perks that obfuscated or out right blocked those abilities. This specific person had such a thing that blocked all but level and Pirate Captain. And names were only shown if you had prior knowledge of their name.

Xane started firing into the wave of people who started boarding. The creaking of wood as Sierra’s Song tried hard to pull back. Sadly it was not to be. Hooks and rope hoisted the two ships together tight. It was either take out the 10 ropes that stuck them together or kill all the pirates.

Xane still didn’t like the idea of killing actual people. He was fine with killing creatures since they would kill him without remorse for the small amount of experience they’d gain. Though if the stories of what the pirates of Island of Iron are true then they were worse than most monsters. Xane started firing. They were so weak comparatively that 1-2 shots killed them instantly. Giant holes forming where the bullets landed.

Xane had to dodge as a wave of bolts flew into his direction. They were much slower than his own and he thought that with a few more points into dexterity he could probably start catching them out of the air. He didn’t try of course. The middle of battle is a terrible time to try something like that.

He fired back, killing even more. The captain was starting to get angry. As he yelled at his people. “There are just 3 of them.” “What are you even doing?” “Fire faster.” For some reason just yelling at his people seemed to bolster them and they actually started to quicken their pace. By sheer will or a skill/perk. Commanding people had to be something that was counted in the system.

The minor buffs were obviously not enough. Instead of a ball of fire a wall of fire spewed forth from the fancier looking one hiding behind the low level pirates. The fire flew towards Sierra’s Song. Calrin pulled out his tower shield and again blocked Huntress. Xane felt danger from it. He could survive but felt that being hit by that was too much for him. Xane decided to jump.

He splashed into the water and started swimming towards the other ship. He hopped the fire blocked the sight of his escape. He quickly started climbing aboard the larger vessel through the hole that was created when his ship rammed into theirs. Insided he saw no one around but saw that water was starting to sink the ship. He saw a few chests and with greed stored them away. Along with whatever else he found. “What are you doing?” Lyenn asked. “What if your friends are in danger.”

Xane picked up a crate storing it, “They are fine. Don’t want this stuff to drown though. They’ll understand. Calrin loves money.”

“Fine. Really I agree but thought it important to at least ask. What other goodies do they have?” They spent another minute looting before they ran uptop. There was an even further down where more goodies might be but a magically sealed door was blocking it. “Not going to be able to get through there any time. Probably even has traps.”

Up top, Xane noticed that barely any pirates were left. Most either dead or on Sierra’s Song fighting a charred looking Huntress and Calrin. Garry had been out of his kennel for a while and was too suffocating someone. A few bolts sticking out of him. He’d be fine.

Xane started gunning for the magic robed guy. They wore a red an black robe with a hood that hid facial features. Xane started shooting the moment he laid eyes on him. 6 shots sped forward. A hand that was concentrating on a spell swiveled around at alarming speeds and a barrier was revealed as most of the shots slammed into it. One got through slamming into another barrier that Xane assumed came from the robes. An enchantment or rune effect.

The magic dude spun around the prepared spell of a lance of water and was launched at Xane. “He has water magic too?” Xane had devoured a bowl of fire rabbit stew thinking it would help him. Before Xane could reorient from the attack, a smaller firebolt raced towards him. That too was dodge though he hadn’t much space using his dodge perk to reduce the damage.

Xane countered as it seemed the mage needed to start casting again. This time he was charging up an infused shot. Something Xane had learned was that he didn’t need to choose the one he was about to shoot. He chose the last one. Again when Xane fired the barrier went up. Again most were blocked or redirected. This time as the last broke through it hit the mage fullforce with the damage and explosive increase of Xane’s perk.

The armor protection was shattered as if it was wet paper and a chunk of the man's torso was demolished. Xane had to hold in the soup he just had. It was really gross.

The astounding thing was the mage wasn’t entirely out of the fight, as he started to drink a potion. The wound started to close. The fight had only taken 5 seconds. The captain had noticed but thought the mage capable. Seeing the mage losing decided to help with a grunt of annoyance.

He jumped down sprinting towards Xane, a cutlass in one hand and a small crossbow in the other. He shot the latter at Xane. Xane just smiled a bullet destroying the shot mid air. Another person who chose to fight with a melee and ranged weapon. This was going to be fun.