Captain Seraphine was having a good day. The weather was nice and quiet. A couple of the girls was playing some cards with Rebecca's old set. Normally they wouldn't have been so relaxed and would have been more diligent in watching their surroundings but this particular stretch of the Emerald River was known to be quite safe.

Without any real branches in the river, any pirate would have to hide within the main part of the emerald abyss, which would mean certain death.

This combined with the season leaving the river docile made the trip one of the most safe ones you could get. Of course it meant a decrease in both gold and experience gained, which in her humble opinion wasn't all that bad.

Nope, she had seen the writing on the wall when she first decided to sail the rivers.

There were three kinds of people in this business. The first was the young and foolhardy. braving the most dangerous rivers and connecting far-off cities. This group usually didn't live very long.

The second group was the people who survived being the first. Here you found the heroes. like Captain Floodtamer who regularly ventured into flooded areas and saved countless people, being from the rivers or beasts. Or perhaps Captain Rapidsrunner who were known for her uncanny agility and ability to navigate even the most dangerous rapids, making use of some rivers that normal captains would never dream of.

All important people and great people even, but to get there you had to risk life and limbs for just the chance of becoming a hero.

Which brings her to the third kind of people. People like her. People who thought thoroughly before taking a route, researched its history, Both recent and old. People who didn't take unnecessary risks. Which meant she even had a decent chance of retirement, which the other groups certainly couldn't boast of.

Even then it would be nice with some more experience. With that thought, she open her status screen.

Name Age Class Level XP to next level

Active skills Passive skills Seraphine 36 Sailor 30 moderate to high

Navigation, Appraisal, inspection Endurance, Weather Sense, River Knowledge

With a sigh she closed it. She had been stuck with her current XB requirement for the better part of Half a year. This was despite her being rather low level for her age.

Common knowledge was a level a year, a trend that tended to hold all the way to the 50s.

Of course, that was for people who didn't live outside the cities. Anyone that dared to venture out would usually find themselves on the higher end of that line. due to the added risk of such a lifestyle.

"Captain, stop moping around and come join us," Alison said, while sitting around with the others.

I scoffed at her. "You know, however much you try, gambling isn't a way to increase your wage. You know that, right?"

"I just need to win my losses back, Captain. It's as simple as that. You never stop while down," Alison said with a toothy smile.

"Well, I guess you can't argue with that logic. What's the buy-in?"

But just as I was about to sit down to win some easy money, I heard a shout coming from down the river.

"Help! SOS! I need help! Please pick me up! Help! Can you hear me?"f

"Captain, am I dreaming or is that a naked girl screaming for us to pick her up?"

"No, Alison, I can see her as well." Strange. There wasn't any mention of a succubus on this route. And with that kind of strategy, you would think somebody would have noticed.

As the river carried us closer to the screaming girl, I was able to get a better look for myself. And honestly, I was just feeling more perplexed. It wasn't that the girl was ugly. Her face was honestly rather nice. She was quite a bit taller than the average person. Quite thin, everything considered, but certainly not malnourished. Long brown hair, And a nice pair of boobs that, if I'm being completely honest, made me slightly jealous. However, rather off-putting was the fact that she had no hair on her entire body, as if she was an overgrown child. For a succubus that was certainly a rather strange decision to make.

As the boat moved past her, the entire crew was staring at the creature on the shore, who at this point had stopped shouting and turned beet red in her face and was covering herself up with her hands.

But as we continued to move past her, leaving her behind, a almost frightened look came over her face and she jumped into the water, beginning to swim towards us.

Which was absolutely impossible. Monsters, heck even magical beasts, couldn't cross moving water, not unless they were invited to do so by a bridge or first by inviting them on a boat. This fact is why cities surrounded by rivers was safe and why the only reliable way to move resources was by boat. As far as I knew, no monster had ever entered a moving river and survived.

which could only mean one thing. This wasn't a succubus, it was an actual person.

dumbfounded by the very idea that somebody had actually escaped the Emerald Abyss alive And that very person in question was completely naked. It took us all a moment before we begin moving.

As we were all well versed on the river, we had prepared extensively for the occasions when people fall overboard. And so we all knew exactly what to do when somebody falls in the river. We quickly threw out the anchor, powered down the enchantments that made the boat move forward, and came to a quick stop.

The next moment was rather hectic as a life ring was thrown up to the girl and she was brought aboard. We quickly brought out some blankets, both to get her dry and to cover her up.

Alison Brought her a warm cup of tea which was a good idea. Even if it would still be a couple of months before the weather would really turn cold. The river was still ice cold at this time of the year.

Deciding that the situation warranted being a bit rude, I used my analyze skill on this girl. And got absolutely nothing in response. Which could only mean that she was out leveling me by quite a bit. At least 20 levels. 10 if her class was rare. But considering where this girl had just been, probably quite a bit more than that. At any rate, it would probably be healthiest to tread a bit careful around her.

With all of this in consideration, I slowly walked up to her with a smile on my face, an extended hand and said, "Good to meet you. My name is Seraphine. I am the captain of this here ship. What's your name?"

"Oh great, you speak English, that's perfect. I was honestly not expecting that. Well, my name is Isabel, you can call me Izzie. And can you please explain who you people are, where we are, and why is the water green ?And why is there fire wolves in the forest? And could I perhaps borrow some clothes? Mine kind of burned."

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the response, it only got worse when a prompt suddenly opened up in front of me.

Quest:

A strange girl with a lot of questions

description:

A strange girl who is called Izzie has come out of the Emerald Abyss alive and very much naked. She claims to be ignorant about anything and everything.

Objective:

Teach Izzy about the system, how to use the system, what the system is, and a bit about the world.

Time limit:

until you reach the next city.

Reward:

high XP to extreme XP

This was unexpected. Only important people got quests. Only the second groups on the rivers got quests. Quests was given out by the system itself. And as quests went this one was... extremely easy and that reward even at the low end I would get a level. On the high end I might even get multiple levels.

I mentally accepted the quest and looking at Izzy with a smile I said, "Well, do we have a lot to talk about!"

----------------------------------------

Seraphine seems nice, at least I think she is. She's really short but has this kind of shrewd look in her brown eyes. The eyes complement her black hair that is tied in a ponytail rather well. Although she does seem a bit distant after I asked admittedly a lot of questions. She got this a far off look in her eyes before refocusing in intensely on me as if I was some kind of piece of meat.

Feeling very exposed by the way she look at me and the fact that I only have a blanket to cover me up I can feel my cheeks turning bright red so I ask her "I do really want an answer to all my questions, but do you perhaps have some extra clothing beforehand?"

Seraphine, seeming a bit embarrassed by my reminder of my undressed state, said "Well...You're quite a tall one, ain't you? So I don't think we have anything that's gonna fit you just right. But we should be able to find something."

And with that, Captain Seraphine turned around, looking at the people that were very busy, looking busy, while certainly not listening in to our conversation.

"Rebecca You're the tallest one here. Go get a spare set of clothing for our unexpected guest."

Turning back toward me, Captain Seraphine said, "Well, you are quite right to point out my bad manners. You must be starving as well. We will have food ready as fast as possible. You hear that crew? We will be setting anchor here for the night. No reason to hurry. We got all the time"

After the captain's announcement, a well-muscled girl with hair in a shade of purple with hints of blue styled in a short bob that fell just above her shoulder, tread forward and said, "Captain, are you certain of this? We have plenty of manpower and the weather is good too. We know this here waters and there's no treachery in them. We can easily continue throughout the night?"

Huh, purple hair! It doesn't look like it's color either. And if it is, it's at least really well done. And now that I look around at the people, really, there's a lot of different hair colors. Everything from bright reds, to blues, to yellows. That girl even has silvery hair. Like proper silver, not just half white. It's even shiny. Luckily there's still some more mundane colors around so I don't stand out too much.

I haven't really had a chance to look around the people before, as everything just moved very quickly all of a sudden. I was afraid that the ship hadn't seen me, but the entire crew just stared at me and kept on sailing. So I decided to try to catch them, which seemed to have been the right choice, for as soon as I jumped into the water, they were very efficient in getting me on board.

Being absorbed in my own thoughts, I miss the captain's response. But from the way the woman seems annoyed at the captain, I can guess that she didn't hear what she wanted to. The captain, however, is smiling at me and saying, "Don't worry, don't worry. We will take care of you. We will take All the time we need to really get everything explained to you. All proper."

Just then Rebecca returns with a pair of spare clothing that I gracefully accept.

"Captain Seraphine , do you have any place where I can change in some privacy?" I say while holding the blanket around me a bit tighter.

With a slightly condescending look the captain answers, "Girl, we are on a cargo ship. The only privacy you can hope to get here is that not too many people will stare at you while you shit. Just change into that clothing already. You ain't got something we haven't already seen. both on you and in the mirror, might I add."

I don't quite like the response, nor the way the captain answered, but I don't have much of a choice, so I decide, whilst using the blanket to get some amount of modesty, to change into the clothing that I've been given. The clothes consist of a pair of trousers made of sturdy canvas and a shirt that was made from linen.

Just like the captain had warned, the clothing didn't really fit. Everything was quite baggy, so I was able to get it on, but the length of the clothes was just too small. The pants stopped well before my ankles and the shirt didn't even cover my navel.

Small as it was, it was a bazillion times better than being naked and I was eternally grateful for having any clothing at all.

The captain who was impatiently bobbing her foot while waiting for me to get it done snapped out. "Great! Now with that done and us waiting on food, let's get started on answering some of those questions. Let us begin with the system. What do you know about it?"

"Excuse me, but what system are you talking about?" I asked.

"What system? What system? THE system? The system that governs everything? What other system could I be talking about, girl?"

"Okay, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I guess nothing." I said to the at this point clearly worked up captain

"Nothing. Of course you do. I'm talking about the system that lets you see your status page, your skills, your abilities. It's how you picked a class."

"Okay, I haven't ever seen any of that and I certainly haven't picked a class or anything like that."

"Okay," the captain said, "if you're going to go with that explanation, I guess the first step should be for you to open your status screen and then, since apparently you have no idea how to do that, what you need to do is focus on the idea that you want to know your standing within the world. Some people find it easier to say status or think it, but it isn't strictly necessary, as long as the want is strong enough."

Feeling slightly stupid, I closed my eyes and thought. The feeling that I wanted to know how my standing was, it certainly wasn't very hard to evoke. I had been confused and uncertain about everything since I woke up that first day in the forest. And ever since then, all I really wanted to know was what was going on .And focusing on that wand, I thought as hard as I could. Status.

In front of me, for a brief moment, I saw a screen. floating on top of my vision.

Name Age Class Level XP to next level

Active skills Passive skills Admin NA NA NA NA None Immunity to all damage, Immunity to all disease, Immunity to all status effect, Immunity to change in temperatures,

Self-sufficient

Before I could really take any of it in another window opened on top of it.

Note from:

previous system admin

Note:

Hey, so I was just about to leave this world for good. Had one foot out in the abyss when I saw your soul floating around. And I thought, this seems like fate, and I might as well insert a new god now that I'm leaving. So I'm just transferring my powers and system rights to you as well as my preferences.

Congratulations, you are now God. Do with that as you want. I don't care. I'm leaving. Have a good one.

Peace

And right there was the answer to most of my questions. And so, so many new ones.