The end of the second month of travel broke the monotony of the vast ocean. I'd received replies from Sariandi, Doris, and Neep only. I didn't want to sound clingy and I refrained from flooding Lorna with letters even though I wanted to write to her every single day. My heart ached to see my Queen.
> Dear Princess Lakerta,
>
> It is with great joy we receive your missive. Our people still mourn the loss of your former self. But that's what you are, aren't you? The brightest flame burns its fuel the fastest. But keep on shining nonetheless. Taeral said he has a surprise for you. Please do visit us to find out more. Renyn was dismayed when he returned and found out he missed you. He's in Pekothas now, touring and making his performances. I don't think it will be too hard to find the so-called, "Poet of Torment". I'm fine and the blessings you showered upon us still bear fruit to this day. Lots of fruit, if you allow this Queen some levity. The new Royal bloodline is nowhere near extinction now.
>
> I still miss the old one, though.
>
> We have a lot to talk about but that should be done face-to-face, whoever face you wear now. Come. You'll always have a place in Fulgen.
>
> P.S.: The Mother wishes to grant you the same blessings as we gained. You're still one of us. Seek Her in one of Her temples.
>
> - High Queen Sariandi of Fulgen.
High Queen. With dozens of daughters. Sariandi has been busy all these centuries.
Nenandil didn't let me read her mom's letter. I didn't insist. I turned to read the one from Neep.
> Mah dear mukker silverstreak!
>
> We lassy ye. Th' fairies aye sing songs o' freedom in yer honor. Th' bloodline o' th' silver moggie princesses bides wi' us, it didnae vanish. Th' beast-folk 'n' th' were-kin ur a' guid sports. Th' folk, thay learned tae bide wi' us. A'm workin' fur a baron noo, cleaning 'n' fixing his mansion is fulfilling.
>
> Queen Brenna wishes her goddaughter th' best o' luck. She tellt ye tae fin' some fairy tae teach ye howfur tae uise th' shroom rings. Gawin` by boat is silly whin yer yin o' us.
>
> Mind that. Ye'r yin o' us.
>
> - Neep the Elder Brownie.
His writing was tiny and almost indecipherable with my Skill level of twenty-four. I cried a bit.
Where was I? Yes. We had an encounter. Between some huge sea monster, pirates, or a Dragon attack, Fate went with option two. Pirates.
My {Detect Living Sentients} undead Perk picked them one kilometer away. In the sunless darkness, I couldn't see the boat even though I knew where to look. I rushed up the deck to warn Captain Gunther.
"Captain! I sensed around two hundred people approaching us."
He didn't believe at first but when I pointed again in the direction I was sensing the approaching ship - I hoped it was a ship because anything else that allowed that many people to move together would be a bigger problem, like some sea monster with dozens of murglocks gargling as they rode it.
"Can you light them up, Your Highness?" He asked. "If they are coming our way, they clearly have a better perception than us."
Tell your men to shield their eyes," I sad as I wove the SP to throw the spell.
My MP sat quietly at the cap, fueling {Erode Curse} all this time. Still no result. I expected at least something. It's been months. The light spell flew like an arrow, the glow increasing gradually as it reached the sky hundreds of meters above the newcomers.
It lit up the cloud canopy and the ocean water. Without the Rayleigh scattering creating blue in the upper atmosphere, the color of the sea looked oddly transparent. We could see schools of fish scattering and run toward the light. Not away, to my surprise.
I saw the pirate ship, twice as big as our caravels, and crowded with pirates. The Jolly Roger flew on its taller mast. Cliché but I had a budding suspicion these Gods were once Earth people just like me. They shaped this world as their playground. That's why they're so troubled with me. I was basically hacking into their private server.
While our ships had twenty crew members each, the pirate galleon carried more than a hundred bloodthirsty buccaneers. And bloodthirsty was not an allegory. I could see them taunting and jeering. They started to holler and shout once the secrecy was out. At a distance, one shouldn't be able to listen to any sound a normal voice or two hundred could make over the crashing waves. It felt intimidating and I was sure there was some combination of Skill or Perk at work. And if I was shaken...
Everyone but captain Gunther was cowering in fear. I shook my rattle and converted my lungs to the elven form. If they want to play, let's do it. Two could do that.
> Project Sound
>
> Second Melody
>
> Polyphonic Voice
>
> Inspiring Song
>
> Countersong
>
> Polyphonic Rattle
I introduced them to pop music. "They told him don't you ever come around here / Don't want to see your face, you better disappear..."
Just beat it. The pirates stopped their shouting once they saw it wasn't doing any effect. I kept the rattle sustaining the beat and bass melody and slinked down to the cargo hold.
In a hurry, I flagged the young were-rat girl, "Talia, I need you to pick the twenty-nine kin with the lowest levels."
I could {Appraise} them but this way it was faster. Once I had the thirty volunteers, I assigned them to the {Equal Exp Split} and gave each one of them a short bow.
"You'll stay on the deck and shoot arrows at the pirate ship. Try to hit them. Nenandil will protect you from attacks," I rubbed the shoulder fairy's head.
With that, we climbed onto the deck and I checked. The pirate ship was two hundred meters away more or less. The sailors were ready for battle. I found Gunther easily. He was giving a brief encouraging speech. I waited for him to finish.
"Captain Gunther, permission to engage the enemy?"
"My pleasure, Your Highness. Have at them. Make no prisoners," he grinned.
I dumped a barrel of arrows down and grabbed Talia's shoulders, "Have the were-kin archers fire at the ship. As fast as they can. There are enough arrows there for everyone. {Shadow Warp}!"
I vanished into my own shadow and appeared on the pirate ship's deck.
"You chose the wrong ship to attack!" I challenged and unleashed a dread area attack with {Ultrasonic Rattle}: {Wail of the Banshee}. I also uncapped my Manastorm Wellspring.
Faded combat notifications flew up at the edge of my perception. Not all the pirates were affected, some of the higher-leveled ones were able to move. I rained Force bolts on these.
You killed level 35 [Pirate]. You gained 12,050,000 Exp ( [base 12.250 x 0,03 Exp Split 3,05 EXP Boost V ] 1205 Exp x 10,000 Fast Learner).
(...)
You killed level 52 [Bucaneeer]. You gained 2,474,000 Exp ( [base 27,040 x 0,03 Exp Split 3,05 EXP Boost V ] 2,474 Exp x 10,000 Fast Learner).
Exp boost was working with the split. It wasn't that way when I delved with the harem party. Maybe because the leader needs to have both perks. But the 0,03 multiplier meant everyone back on the Amber Witch was getting Exp.
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The bodies vanished as soon as they died, stored in my item box. The ones that were still alive stopped fighting, the accumulated damage from both areas effects too much. The pirate leader came out of the poop cabin with a glowing amulet in his neck. That thing was protecting him from my area effects. He looked to be in his thirties, with black hair and a caramel complexion. The captain wore a boiled leather cuirass over some frilly clothes. No eyepatch, peg leg or hook hand.
"Princess! You should've told us you were going to visit," he said. "I would've arranged a better reception party!"
He drew a rapier. "But then again, are you a real {Princess}? Your level in Status Obfuscation is very high! I can't see past that fake facade of yours!"
I used {Appraise} on him.
> [Merchant]
>
> Level 33 male human.
Of course, he was faking his Status too.
More pirates died. The ship's wheel was turning wildly as the vessel drifted freely guided by the wind and currents. The helmsman died and his body was collected by me.
"I'm not faking my Status," I replied. "What you see is what you get!"
"I doubt it. Have at thee!" He lunged.
I saw the pirate captain accelerated as he silently activated his combat perks. I tried to evade but no good. By reflex, my tail rose to meet his weapon as {Tail Bodyguard} triggered.
> Pirate Captain stabs you. You lose 21,939 HP. Mana shield burns 7,313 MP. (base 67 x 4 Skill x 2,2 Strength x 7 Crew's Grudge x3 Lunge x2 Ship Defense x2 Vendetta x3 First Strike x0.75 Favored Defense x0.35 Tough Scales[modified by Pierce Defenses V] x0,75 Steel Scales).
The guy's perks allowed him to ignore 65% of the enemy's armor. I got a bleeding debuff but my regeneration quickly wiped it. I didn't want to waste time playing with him.
"Stand still," I ordered with {Royal Geas}. I half-expected the guy to be some runaway or lost prince. No such luck for him. The guy fell down on the deck writhing in pain as he fought the geas. I put a contract and finished him.
> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 77 [Pirate Lord]. You gained 3,125,259,588 Exp ( [base 59,290 x 0,03 Exp Split 3,05 EXP Boost V ] 5,425 Exp x 10,000 Fast Learner x 7,59 Assassin's Contract x 7,59 Favored Enemy).
I needed only ninety-one trillion to the next rank-up. I quickly captured and contracted the captain's ghost before it could be purified by the Manastorm. Which I turned off because it wasn't needed anymore. I interrogated the ghost. Captain Selveric was the last person alive on the ship. I bound him to me and exempted him from the Manastorm's effects. I stored the pirate ship and fell in the ocean.
A quick swim and a {Shadow Warp} put me back on the Amber Witch's deck. The kin was grinning from ear to ear. "I got six levels!" Talia squealed.
> [Pedder]
>
> Level 29 were-rat female.
I chuckled and beckoned, "Talia, come here for a hug." Once she was close, I hugged her and whispered in her ear, "You have to update your {Status Forgery}, my dear."
She yelped, flustered. I could swear she was blushing under all that gray fur.
> [Rogue]
>
> Level 25 were-rat female.
I was laughing and holding the girl. "Try again. You just turned it off." So she was level nineteen when I rescued her. I didn't know why was she making herself look bigger than she was but I wasn't going to pry.
> [Peddler]
>
> Level 35 were-rat female.
"That did the trick!" I kissed the top of her tapered muzzle and released her. She squeaked and literally scuttled down to the cargo deck slash passenger compartment. "You might want to tone down your disguise though," I whispered in her ear. She nodded.
All the kin I shared Exp with had big grins and wagging tails. I congratulated each one of them. The lowest among them, a teenager that accessed the System for the first time less than a month ago rose ten levels. They were all twenty-three or twenty-five now.
I knew where to invest my free Perk.
> You purchased the perk: Improved Exp Split I (very rare): When splitting Exp between a group, you treat the group as if it was 20% smaller.
That would allow me to split between thirty-one people with as if they were twenty-five. Which would increase the Exp everyone gained by around 24~25%?
While they were busy spending their Attributes, Skills, and Perks, I interrogated my contracted spirit. After getting the information I wanted, I rattled a calling to get everyone's attention. Then we had the following exchange.
Me: "So, who wants to hunt a pirate's treasure?"
They: "Yes."
----------------------------------------
Using the information the pirate captain's ghost volunteered, we changed course to an archipelago a couple days away from us. Dead people had an entirely different set of priorities than the flesh-and-blood creatures they were. They lost all material urges and their lingering attachments were more rational than emotional. I could offer them something all of them wanted, purification and a path to the "good afterlife", whichever that meant. I was pretty sure the Gods used these souls as fodder for something. Like a metaphysical Soylent Green.
It was one of the great mysteries of this world. Resurrection was clearly possible. I had the Perk and it was sitting there on my [Spiritualist] Class list as Silverstreak. I resurrected all the time too. The Gods had some reason to forbid the people from coming back from the dead as often. What reason was that it was beyond my comprehension.
The Auvani princelings were sulking they weren't allowed to have fun with the pirate ship. I ignored their childish antics and our fleet of two ships veered toward the archipelago.
We took the tree from my cabin to the bow of the ship and I went inside, transformed into the tiny Etruscan shrew. I could use the sapling to detect the proximity of trees in a range of twenty-two and a half kilometers, well beyond the horizon past the curvature of the world. Once we were close enough, I felt the trees. Dozens of them.
"Land ahead!" The fairy shouted. "
One hour later, we saw the islands as the sun rose. A dozen ships and some settlements. I estimated roughly two thousand people living there. I went to the poop deck to have a word with the captain.
"Captain Gunther, did you know of this settlement? It's too big to be a pirate enclave!"
"{Eagle Eyes}!" He shouted his Perk then examined the settlement and the ships. "This archipelago is not in any charts, Your Highness. And I'm afraid they are pirates, all of them. Their ships are already coming our way with crews readying their ballistae. The people on land are also preparing to fight."
"Then I'm going there to meet them. Keep the course but don't rush things. I'm going to send a signal when it is okay to approach land. A big fireball exploding on the sky."
The fairy laughed manically,
I transformed into a falcon, the disguise kit morphing into plumage as it wrapped around me. I flew toward the fleet of pirate ships coming our way.
I turned the Manastorm on at full power without the purification aspect and dove down in the middle of the ships. I felt two hundred thousand MP transfer to Nenandil through our bond and she let out with the biggest ice spell I've seen so far.
"{Absolute Zero}!"
Sharing my memories and knowledge with her enhanced her understanding of ice magic and the nature of cold and heat. The water around the ships became an iceberg, trapping the vessels in ice and instantly killing the lower-leveled crew members. I descended and the Manastorm started to hack at the hybrid builds that had some MP regeneration and the lesser mages. A focused build would only obtain {Pinnacle of Magic} and the immunity to the Manastorm it brought around level sixty. Without that Perk, mages were extremely vulnerable to it as they suddenly started losing MP at three hundred the normal rate of regeneration along with an equal amount of HP. And, surprise, most mages had less HP than MP.
We landed and I took my normal form. I blasted everyone that was still alive and struggling with spears of Force while I rattled the Banshee's scream. A quarter of an hour after I landed, the fight was over. My [Assassin] side lamented the wasteful and wanton slaughter. While I could confirm that all of these people were indeed pirates, I couldn't put and enact contracts on all of them. A huge waste of Experience. I also was too far away from the Amber Witch to share Exp with the kin.
The leader of the pirates was the one aboard the first ship. none of these were above level sixty-five. I didn't let any of the ghosts to depart. I gathered them all as we floated on the deck of the biggest ship. I asked them about the treasure and who was still on land as well as their crimes. Any sliver of guilt I had for killing them vanished as they reported the evil they did in life. I activated the {Purifying Manastorm} and let them pass on. I shifted into a bird and waved my hand. The entire ice block including the ships and the corpses of the pirates vanished into my item box. A huge wave splashed in a ring around the spot as the ocean rushed in to fill the gap. I shrugged as I flew toward the settlement. Let's get us some pirate booty.
The settlement could very well be called a small kingdom, although they were isolated. With five thousand people in the archipelago and policy to sink or capture any ships that stray too far, they didn't need any relations with the outside. There was only one way they replenished their population besides organic growth. Some survivors from their raids were offered a position in their community.
Mostly women and all of the females were forced to work as prostitutes. Strong and morally eroded men were given a chance to work as pirates. I knew very well what I had to do and the burden that would put on my quest to rejoin my Queen.
Two hundred meters above the main settlement, I shifted and landed on a hovering platform of Force. Using my [Musician] abilities and wind magic, I made my proclamation.
"All combatants are to drop their weapons. Anyone displaying aggression toward me when I descend will be killed on the spot. This is your only warning."
I put on my fae silk body armor, more a tunic now that I didn't have legs, and descended. Arrows flew our way. Nenandil and I retaliated with aimed darts of ice and Force. Force was one of the best magic types to deal with focused damage without fear of collateral destruction.
There's one thing to be said about the people of this world. They'd rather die fighting alongside their faction than surrender. They believed that fates worse than death existed, and types deaths worse than charging against an enemy. A civilized person would see the display of an entire fleet being frozen and then disappear as a hint that fighting was futile but they couldn't measure how hard it was to kill me. They would rather die trying than belief in words.
"We need to learn non-lethal magic," I said out loud to Nenandil.
"I can use snow or hail but there will be collateral damage."
That was stupid of me. The Death Princess' mindset was too ingrained.
"Change of plans, Nenandil. Cut off the hands."
I can just fucking regrow them later. Or finish the job if they deserve death.
The night came back and I tossed the biggest light orb I've ever made at the sky while we pacified the pirates on the main island. The throng of ghosts behind me would awe any dhampir kid. We were about to storm what passed for the government building when a man came out.
"Your Highness, I beg you to stop your assault and accept our surrender!"
"Very well. I've killed captain Selveric when he tried to attack our ships. I have two caravels arriving soon. You'll see that the passengers and crew are well-treated, or you'll face a fate worse than death." I materialized the ghost of said captain Selveric and gave him a sinister grin, "Because not even death will keep you away from me."