Task Notice: Pirate Elimination

Reward: 100,000 Chips

Details: A band of pirates have been raiding local caravans. Enemy forces include 1 warship class skiff, 30 flying pirate raiders, 100 armed pirates, 10 tinkerers, and 7 mages. They have been last seen around Big Mesa, heading north to Full Hill. Any and all loot found is the property of the hunters completing the task.

- Task notice in the Green Oasis Hunter’s Hall

*=====*

The sand sprawled out in front of the skiff, the setting sun painting the sky in warm hues that foretold the coming of night. In the distance, Mori saw a large mesa poking out from the darkening desert. Seeing it getting darker, Mori held her gauntleted hand and formed a simple sigil on her hand. A bright light shone into the desert in front of them, illuminating the way, “Thanks. Dim it a bit, though; you’ll catch the attention of something not fun,” Fara said. Mori nodded and dimmed the glaring light. Before long they reached the mesa, taking refuge in a cave. Fara parked the skiff in the corner of the cave and pulled out a pack.

“What’d you pack?” Mori asked, curious, “You have some food, right?”

Fara scoffed, “I’m not dumb enough to forget food, Mori. What about you and Unio? Do you need food yourselves?”

“Nope,” she replied, “We need mana sometimes. That’s it. Now that we have some time to ourselves, we should probably think about what we will choose for our Traits,” Mori offered.

Fara nodded, grimacing, “I know… it’s just that it’s going to hurt…” she complained, “I mean, you picked some Traits, right? You know what it’s like!”

Mori tilted her head, “You mean the pricking? How is it that bad?”

“You mean to say you don’t mind it!? How!?” she shouted in disbelief.

Mori tensed a bit, but relaxed with a sigh, “Well… something like your body or soul being changed is nothing compared to dying… I don’t know if I can tell you about it —The Creators might have something to say about it— but… it’s like having your entire person being peeled apart. Piece by piece. It’s like what I imagine being skinned alive feels like… You know, my soul actually nearly went. It was so close. Then, I felt the offer. It gave me an out, some sort of salvation. I didn’t care about the price; I took it… Well, no need to dwell! Suffice it to say that I have experience with pain. Something like a Trait won’t put me down, that’s for sure!” she laughed.

Fara’s face tensed and she shook her head, “Sorry, Mori.”

“About what?”

“I… Well, remembering dying was probably not something you wanted to remember. Sorry…” she replied.

Mori waved a casual hand, “Don’t sweat it. It’s something that’s just a thing that happened to me. I’m pretty sure that most others would be traumatized or something, though… I blame lich magic for this,” she concluded.

Fara looked her in the eye flames and nodded, “Alright then. So, what are you going to choose for your Traits? I have two new slots personally, and I know what I’m going to be using one of them on. How many do you have?” she asked.

Mori opened her status page and nodded to herself, “Five new slots for me. Five physical slots and six spiritual for Unio. Actually, I wanted to ask a question: what’s a Variant Lock? Unio got three different levels of a Trait, but the slots got refunded when he changed Species,” Mori explained.

Fara nodded and took Unio from Mori’s skull and placed the slime on her lap, petting it, “Well, it has to do with the way Species and Variants work in the system. Anyone can actually change their species at any time if they wanted, but it locks a certain number of Traits to allow them to do so. Those Traits can’t be changed at a Shrine, one of the things that can be done there, and have a lot of influence on your Species and Variant. But enough about that, what are you going to choose as your new Traits?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t know,” she sighed, “Physical Traits are obvious —I’ll choose something that branches from [Mechanical Integration] and [Mechanical Skeletal Manipulation]— but I don’t know what to choose as my spiritual Traits…”

Fara nodded, “Yeah, that kind of happens. Most aspiring mages pick up [Logical Affinity], because it helps with making sigil networks, but Ma always told me to get [Enhanced Mind] and [Parallel Thought Processing] if I wanted to become a mage. I’m not sure if you want to make such a big decision, but some madmen choose something like [Chaotic Adept] and go with an entirely off the walls type of mana. I’ve heard stories from Ma about this mage in Mount Averus that used a magic that entirely relied on the types of meat you ate that week. It was really weird, truth be told, but no one knew what kind of weird ability he had at any one moment,” she retold.

Mori laughed and took Unio back from Fara, petting its smooth body, “Yeah, no. I don’t want to mess with my mind too much. Yet, anyway. Maybe I can look into metamancy… deriving mana from things I already have could be interesting. Alright, I’m just going to go with [Enhanced Mind V] and [Mechanical Skeletal Manipulation VI]. And here we go…” As Mori finished speaking, she accepted the changes and immediately felt her soul tingle in pain. Instead of the normal pricking she normally got, it felt like her soul was being inflated like a balloon. With the pain, she felt her mind explode outwards. The speed of her thoughts flashed forward, more and more, until she could think a thousand things in a second. After a moment, her soul returned to normal and she breathed a sigh of relief, “That was… woah!” she exclaimed.

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Fara was standing over her with her hand wrapped around hers, “Are you alright? I tried to stop you, but you made the choice before I could do anything. How’s the pain?” she asked with tender care.

“I’m fine!” Mori laughed, “I just feel like everything became so much slower! It’s like I can make the world wait whenever I want! It’s great!” she cheered. Just then, she felt something had changed in her bones. Looking down at her gauntlet, she felt what was different. With a giggle, she shot the grappling hook out and let it fly. Just before it hit a wall, it spun around and flew towards Mori. It stopped right in front of her, hanging in the air. “This is amazing!” she shouted, “Look at this, Fara!” With a sweep of her hand, she sent the grappling hook flying through the air. It darted around the cave, flying here and there.

Fara saw the display and sighed, “So that’s what happens when you level your [Mechanical Skeletal Manipulation] to level five? Wasn’t it just used to change the shape of the gauntlet? How about this, try to shape the knuckles of the hand into spikes,” she suggested.

Mori gave an appreciative nod and concentrated on the fist. The knuckles grew out, turning into spikes an inch long, “Ah! You were right! I could do so much with this! What if-”

Just as she got going, Fara placed a hand on Mori’s shoulder, “Calm down. Don’t break anything, alright? We can explore that stuff later. First, I’m going to eat and get a fire going.”

Mori nodded and silently played around with her new Trait. After a while, Fara took a runic fireplate from her luggage and ignited it. Fara ate in silence while Mori drew mana to her crystalized soul. After their dinner, Mori pulled the shells from the skiff, “Now then… Fara, do you know what happens when I add a fire component to a spell like this?” she asked.

“Dunno. I was never into sigils like Ma, but dad taught me all I know about runecraft. When I add something like an earth component to a propulsion base, it changes how the propulsion works. That one specifically led to the sand beneath the skiff moving it forward; it’s actually the one I use for my own skiff. But for your necromancy… dunno. Anything could happen. If you don’t want to waste the shells, then try to use something simple. Maybe light for the first one?” she mused.

Mori shrugged and made a sigil. With her new [Enhanced Mind V] she was able to shape it much faster than she was ever able to before. In a fraction of a second a simple spell with the two components, the death-type mana and the light-type mana, formed on her palm. The wave of mana crashed into the shell in front of her and seeped into its body. With a rattle, it rose into the air and began to glow a dull white. After a moment, it was entirely reanimated and Mori noticed a problem, “Hmm… it doesn’t have any legs…” she said, “Come to think of it, what type of bugs are these?”

Fara eyed the head-shaped shell with a critical eye and smiled, “It’s a Hilja Bug. They have really strong outer shells but entirely soft underbellies. They survive by digging themselves into rocks and the like and making themselves impossible to remove. They’re kind of common, but pretty useless —no one can find a use for their shells.” she explained.

Mori eyed the unmoving critter for a moment before shrugging and placing the undead on her head, right above Unio, and looking at her system message.

[You have created a low-complexity undead with your natural death mana. Experience has been awarded.]

“Huh,” she said aloud, “The system says that this thing is a low-complexity undead. That’s odd…”

Fara looked at the glowing bug and shrugged, “I mean, it’s no patchwork, but it is certainly different from a normal undead,” she guessed.

“Dunno. Anyway, this little guy gave me an idea… let’s see…” She dove into the sigils on her hand and, after a bit of sigilcrafting, she cast a new spell on the next shell. The chitin rattled and soon rose into the air, followed by the familiar system message.

[You have created a low-complexity undead with your natural death mana. Experience has been awarded.]

“Here,” she said, passing the shell to Fara, “Wear it.”

Fara gave Mori a bland look, “Are you serious?” she asked.

“Of course,” she replied, “I made it able to stick to anything it wants to. I think. Maybe. Just put it on!”

“Fine, fine,” she said, raising her hands in a placative manner. She placed the shell on her head and knocked it a couple of times, “Looks about right. Can you stay there, little guy?” she asked. The shell shook a couple of times and lodged itself firmly on her head. Fara swung her head back and forth, but the shell stayed on. After a moment, she stopped and pulled the creature off her head, the shell unsticking with a dull pop, “Well, it works. The only other thing to think about is what to do with the other three.”

“Agreed,” Mori said, “Eh, I’ll test some stuff another time. These guys seem like really good armor, in all honesty, so I’m going to get as many of them as possible. Anyway, it’s getting late. Get to bed, Fara. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow,” she said, “I’ll keep a lookout while I un-glow this little guy.”

“I-yeah, you're right. I’m just used to staying up for as long as I want. Alright, good night.”

“Good night.”

*=====*

“Ready?” Fara asked, making sure her new helmet was securely attached to her head.

“Ready,” Mori replied. Fara nodded and the skiff shot forward, sliding out of the cave and into the open sands. They rode on, kicking up a small sand cloud behind them for the next few hours. Mori looked at the cloud at some point and tapped Fara on the shoulder, “Hey, if this thing moves sand, then why is there a dust cloud behind us?”

Fara glanced at the cloud and shrugged, “Dunno. There are a bunch of parts that are dragged through the sand while it goes, so it’s not that unusual. Anyway, I was wondering, what should we do when we get to Green Oasis?”

Mori tilted her head, “I thought you were the one who knew what to do.”

“Oh,” Fara said, “I had the idea that we could work as hunters, but I was wondering if you had another idea. First, though, you need a necromancer’s license; getting arrested for existing is probably not on your to-do list,” she added.

“Yeah, not at all,” Mori laughed, “I don’t- Hey, what’s that over there?” she asked, pointing forward. Through her enhanced vision, she saw a big metal boat sliding across the sand, kicking up a cloud of dust as it went. It had two sails and a full broadside of cannons.

Fara squinted but shook her head, “I can’t see it. What’s the flag look like?”

Mori looked to the top of the mast and saw the single sabre stuck into a reptilian skull, “It’s a sword stuck into a skull. Oh, it’s coming towards us… Wait, are they pirates?” she asked

Fara growled, “Probably. So, what do you want to do here? I don’t think they’ll give you a hard fight, but you shouldn’t jump into danger stupidly,” she advised, pulling out her rifle.

“Let’s fight,” she said, a sort of savage anticipation gathering within her that she didn’t know existed, “You said you wanted a new skiff, right? Well, if we want something nice, getting more money is a good place to start…”