He had killed an Abyss God Kraken with a Trials Deck. I simply could not believe what I had seen. Desperate to know more I approached this impossibly powerful stranger. While he refused to answer most of my queries I did learn the name of this inconceivable Trials Deck.

The Stranger called it ‘King Of The First Epic’

-The Audacious Deck Builder's Guide to: The Ocean, The Silver Sea

Chapter 40: Duster

Alabaster

Alley pulled the Duster out of the padded inside of the box. The device itself looked like a small rectangle case about half the size of a boot with a latchable opening at the top. The bottom was studded with tiny Void Resonance gems, with runic script forming a circuit between them.

When a Card was placed in the Duster the device would activate and over the next twelve hours convert the Card into a powdered form of its component Resonances. As a lower-tier Duster, this one was limited to weaker Cards and wouldn’t output all that much dust but it was still a valuable find.

The process destroyed the Card but left you with Resonance that actually held a physical form. That physical form meant the energy could be used for the creation of infused items. Like Alley’s Buckler Ring or the Avian Assassin. They weren’t the only kind of ‘magic’ item out there but they were the only kind that could go in the three Link slots a Deck held.

Alley couldn’t spare any Cards right now but he doubted that would be a permanent state of affairs with this device in their possession sooner or later the pair would be able to barter with dust basically anywhere they went.

That line of thought reminded Alley of something important.

“Hey, what happened to Karieto?” He asked as he attached the Duster by the little loop on its back to his belt.

“Uhh who?”

Alley let out a little sigh “The Pirate captain.” To that, his friend raised an eyebrow

“You put that hook right between his eyes, he uhh died Alley.”

The dark-haired boy wanted to smack his friend.

“I know that! I mean afterwards, what happened to his body?”

“Ohh. It fell over the railing. After that, I think it sank.”

“So no one got his dealer?

Darius froze on the spot like he had just challenged a gorgon to a staring contest.

“FUCK!” Shouted the red-headed boy a few seconds later, his voice echoing across the bay loud enough to get attention from townsfolk working near the shoreline.

“I got the fish-girl’s one but I didn’t even think about the captain…sorry”

Alley shook his head but found he wasn’t actually that upset. He had killed the man, so the Deck would be locked for five years anyway. So while selling, trading, or dusting it down the line would have been a nice little windfall it wasn’t like Alley was losing a resource he could use now.

“Don’t worry about it, a Duster is a big score anyway.” In spite of what he said Alley suspected his friend did indeed worry about it, as when they were leaving Darius slammed a fist into the ship's railing with enough force to crack the hardwood.

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Alley understood his frustration and considered ways they might try to recover the body. It would be a waste of time, he knew that. Even if the boys were lucky enough to recover a suit of the water armor like Stradivarius’ from the Deep Hunters league and that was a big ‘if. They neither knew how to use the thing nor if the pirate’s body had floated away, sank, or been eaten. No Greed Of The Hungry Corsair was gone and it was better not to dwell on the loss.

Both boys proceeded to jump off the galley onto the pier fragment, landing in rolls that would have been identical if Darius didn’t have to hold his spear out away from both his body and Alley.

While the boys did need to replenish their supplies they opted to leave most of what they found behind. It simply wasn’t practical to carry and the townsfolk of Ashton’s Rest had insisted they would provide the boys with more home-cooked food than they could ever hope to transport effectively.

That sounded a lot better than any of the salted food they had found in barrels on the galley, so the pair returned to the dinghy. Long before they came anywhere near the shore a group of eight men that were obviously waiting for the boys filed down to the edge of the ‘S’ pier that was still attached to land.

“They don’t look like they are super happy to see us.” Said Alley quizzically. “You didn’t do anything offensive while I was out did you?”

Darius squinted as he considered.

“I don’t…think..so” Darius replied slowly. “ You never know with some of these out-of-the-way towns, but no one has gotten mad at me that I know of.”

“Okay. So any idea what this is about?” Alley pressed?

“No, but the tall guy in the middle, with the glasses, is the mayor.”

Alley quickly inspected the man Darius was describing. He was maybe a little older than Alley’s parents, with short grey hair. The man was tall like Darius had said, but he was also rail thin in a way that was extra evident next to the burly fishermen standing with him.

As the boys rowed into dock the mayor spoke up. His voice was surprisingly deep for his build and he had an accent that was absolutely not local.

“Gentlemen, I am afraid I must speak with you urgently.”

‘ Okay, here we go.’ Alley thought to himself. ‘This is where the lure sinks and the terrible price for their hospitality, or some task they need us to do rears its ugly head.’

“First I must humbly apologize.” The mayor dropped to his knees and began kowtowing.

‘Alright. So far so good I guess.’

“The two of you are heroes who risked your lives to save us from a well-connected pirate whose allies will certainly come for you should they hear of this.”

‘Less good.’

Head pressed to the wood of the pier the mayor continued whilst the two boys looked awkwardly between each other and the tanned group of men, who shuffled about like guilty children. If anything the man’s deep voice and powerful accent made his self-debasement even more embarrassing for the pair.

“You did all this without any promise of reward, bleeding, almost dying for a town of complete strangers.”

Alley shot a look to Darius that seemed to say ‘It would be nice if this guy got to the point.’

In return, the red-headed boy repressed a smile and tried to nod along seriously with the bowing man’s words.

“After achieving the impossible and saving us all you made a single simple request. A request we, the people of Ashton’s Lookout, should be perfectly suited to assist with.”

It was starting to occur to Alley that the man might be hamming this up. He knew the boys were Deck Wielders, ones powerful enough to defeat a small army of pirates who had conquered his settlement in a single night. So if he was about to deliver bad news to the pair of boys he wanted to soften them up as much as possible lest they turn that same power on the town.

“Yet when this humble servant of the people gave the order that your vessel should be found and returned to a state better than new. “ The tall man who was still bowing gestured with a single arm at the group of men behind him.

“These men utterly failed.”

Alley massaged his temples for a moment as he absorbed what he was hearing.

“Look. Just…just get up.” Said the dark-haired boy. “ We aren’t mad or anything, just tell us what happened.” With a clear lack of sureness, the older man got to his feet and eyed the boys cautiously.

“Well,” He said, scratching his neck in a very awkward manner. “ These men say that when they arrived at the spot they were told your skiff was beached. They found no boat, only a campsite and a few trees that had been hacked up for some reason.”

That made Alley frown which prompted a nervous half step back from the mayor. Alley didn’t really blame the man, even if he was normally a force to be reckoned with spending days in a cage watching the town he led get slowly fed to a monster would leave anyone easily rattled.

“We never camped there.”

“No” Replied the mayor. “ Which is why we think someone stole it.”