We hear a bell ring from the black sword in front of us. Shortly after, the scout in our crows nest yells out.
“Ship ahead! Ship ho! Slightly port!”
Looking forwards, I see it. In the distance, it is barely visible on the horizon. I've been waiting for this moment. Yelling out to my crew.
“All hands on deck!”
The crew I designed for this mission. As we get closer, we get ready. The gnolls with griffons have been waiting for this moment. With the twenty griffins we're going to steal this ship. I need it for future plans. We can also interrogate the crew to find out more information about the pirates. We slowly get closer to range. I don't want them to notice our attack until it is too late. I yell out once we're almost in range of the cannons.
“Everyone deploy!”
We launch together. Me riding on Darkclaw, everyone else riding on their mounts. I had prepared a few special void satchels for this. They contain vials of both numbing poison and numbing poison gas. A few hundred vials of both are inside the containers.
We're far to high up to hit with the cannons. Ships aren't designed to fight against an aerial force. The members on the pirate ship might outnumber the assault group four to one. These numbing satchels might be the difference between easily capturing the ship or losing a much larger force.
We're straight above the ship. I can see the panicked pirates underneath us waiting for our attack. The number of pirates on deck look to number forty. I jump off Darkclaw and cut the satchel while also turning into my dragon form. I don't want him to accidentally get hit. Covering a large scale of the ship, most of the pirates on deck have been incapacitated.
Our troops land after the poison clouds fade. Only a few were unfazed by the vials. Either not getting hit or avoiding them completely. They're quickly killed off by being outnumbered. We dismount and split into two groups. One heading into the forecastle of the ship and the other following me into the captains cabin.
There he is, the captain of the ship, hold up in a corner of the room with his sword pointed at us. He yelled out.
“STAY BACK!”
I pull out my new weapon. I made it specifically for this mission. We need to take him alive over everyone else. With him we could kill the rest of his crew without fearing for loss of information. I aim my blow dart gun at him. The dart is covered in my numbing poison. I aim at his leg, hitting his chest might stop his heart or him from breathing. He topples over after it hits him. He put up no fight whatsoever.
We exit after one of them covers him in spider webbing from a net launcher. Most of the crew still hasn't used theirs. The more pirates we can capture the better though. Eventually we could turn them to our side. If not, they can always be used as slave labor, if they have collars made to force them to fight. Most of these pirates seem cowardly. I doubt they've ever fought against another ship before. Let alone one as special as ours… Wasting weeks of preparation on these void satchels is worth every saved life.
We only have the hold to check now. With the amount of pirates on deck, there might be a similar number of pirates below deck. We open the hatch and I'm the first to enter. Five swords are swung at my head all at once. I pull up the spare void satchel with the poison vials. Their swords cutting through it, sealing everyone down here's fate. An explosion of vials covers the entire hold. Either killing them or numbing them to the point they couldn't move. With that we defeated the first ship we've fought.
My blue mages struggled to tie up the knocked out pirates. The sheer number of captured pirates is the main problem. With one hundred men now captured, I send a scout back to tell my other ships to board this one. One person also goes back to the fortress to send word of our new captives.
Our ships board this one. We now outnumber them four to one. When they outnumbered us, we managed to beat them without a single casualty… They are beyond demoralized. A few have been begging for their lives. I had them spider silk gagged. No reason to kill potential profits. Prisoners of war can always be sold into slavery or used for labor. I attach one of the mind control collars onto the pirate captain. He has remained silent this entire time.
“Get up.”
He stands up. I want this to be a show of power to the other pirates as well.
“Do not attack my men or you will feel pain. Do not try to kill yourself or you will feel immense pain that will cripple your arms. Do not try to run or your legs will go numb. Nod if you understand.”
He nods his head. Finally I can begin to ask my questions.
“If you lie at any point. You feel pain. Now, first question. How many pirates and ships does Gold have?”
“You know her name? That is surprising… Only a few lieutenants of the pirate army know her real name. She is more of a legend than a-.”
Finally his rambling is rewarded with immense pain from avoiding the question.
“Answer the question I asked or the pain will be doubled.”
“The army has over five thousand troops. Over one hundred active boats with the majority remaining at a hidden base.”
I pull out a map and point to a spot on it.
“Is the hidden base still here?”
He eyes widened in surprise at my knowledge. Greed's influence on my memories shows clearly from the amount of knowledge I have.
“Y-yes it is… How do you know about that?”
“I already interrogated another captain. He wasn't as cooperative as you, so we cut his arms and legs off then threw him into the ocean. Then pulled him out afterwords to revive him after he drowned. Then tied him to the ship to use as bait to lure a raid boss who ate him. That time, only I fought the pirates. I killed them all myself… They were delicious.”
I said the last part as I turned into a dragon. He started crying. I think interrogate mixed with Greed's powers of bluffing might be too strong together. I interrupt his crying to continue talking.
“He didn't tell me everything I wanted to know. I need more information, some about your pirate class. Any other information you can give about the pirate fleet and bases might also save your life.”
He spilled everything he knew. Positions of every base. The larger clusters of pirate fleets roaming the ocean. Some of the spots where they have their treasure hidden. As well as locations for potential pirate traps. It lead to him teaching me the pirate class.
Class learned Pirate passive skill gained Treasure finding- Can find more items and gold than normal, gives you a feeling when hidden gold is around
Level 1 Pirate passive skill gained Ship fighting- remove the penalties for fighting on ships, also gain a dexterity stat boost while fighting on boats
With that learned, I now don't have to be afraid of killing the pirates… Before that I should ask each pirate which classes they are. I have them all line up, asking them which jobs/classes they have. The first person who back talked me had his throat cut. I did it myself for the experience.
Pirate level 1 to 5
Hidden treasure location revealed
Secret Pirate passive skill gained Swashbuckling- increases dexterity by a portion of your charisma
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Level increased to 33
That was the first mate who acted up. It might be worth killing a few more of these pirates for their levels. If anyone else acts up, they'll die in the same way. Everyone else has already learned their place though. Each person meekly barks out their classes and skills which from using my interrogate skill, I could tell they weren't lying. Nothing special came from the rest… I should kill the leader just to be safe... He provided the information I needed. He didn't have any secret skills either and he is severely under leveled, compared to other pirates on the boat. It might be better to keep him alive for more questions later.
“Alright, so everyone is going to be sent to my fortress. If ANY of you act up, they will throw you in a jail cell and once I come back. I'll fucking kill you, then eat you... So don't act up. We don't have all the slave collars needed to collar all of you, so you might have to sit in jail cells until we can have them made.”
We slowly start the process of pushing pirates through the portals. I went through first to warn some of the troops still at the fortress. The enchanters have been busily making mana canisters and slave collars for the trip on the ocean. We only had thirty five mind control collars. It was enough to get some of them started. Putting around sixty people in a few jail cells is going to be too much. So we'll have to keep some outside until we expand and add in more cells.
I head back to the ships. With the success of the first mission, we still need to make it to Greed's island. I had the pirate ship attached to the back of one of the black swords. We'll pull it along so I strip the sails off it for now. We're only a few days away now. We get attacked by a monster during night. I need to get an attack off on him! I shoot a few explosive arrows at the sea monster. It is hard to tell what it is with it being mostly submerged. I hope it doesn't run. It finally surfaces. It is an octoshark. I yell out.
“KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!”
The octoshark is a shark with octopus tentacles attached to it. It's body is easily the size of a ship. It is very dangerous because of its sheer size it can easily sink a ship. Dammit, the first monster we fight is an extremely difficult one. I cast debuff locus swarm first. It will weaken the octoshark. Then cast all my buffs on myself, including Aegis stat boost.
I turn into dragon form and help with suppressive fire from the sky. Flying and casting my flame breath mixed with some other spells as well. Ignite and hex to keep its defenses low. We need more help though. The position the octoshark is in is bad because he is between two ships. We can't go all out against it for fear of friendly fire. The other ships haven't noticed it yet either. So it is only the two black daggers that are fighting against it.
The octoshark is moving very nimbly, with its tentacles attached to both ships, it has a far easier time moving quickly. Each time it pulls against both ships they start to tip towards it. If I didn't reinforce the ballasts on each ship to make them extra stable, both ships would've been tipped by now. I change back into my human form mid air above it. Firing my double barrel knife cannons at it.
When I was changing I was flying upwards. So I was in free fall as a fired. I started to fall towards it, barely getting out a few poison vials before changing back into a dragon and flying away. My gear can't be used in dragon form. So until I make some changes to him he's sidelined. It swings two of its tentacles at me. Shit! It almost hits me. Nargzar was finally woken up though. He managed to get his kurasi kama around it. The sickle dug into the tentacle enough for him to pull it away just as it was about to hit me. I manage to avoid the other tentacle.
Escaping its reach, I notice Leon jump from the other ship. Landing with both his bladetonfas first. Piercing into the octoshark… Leon started violently stabbing the octoshark. With extreme ferocity, Leon pounds into it, punching as hard as he can. The weapon is the perfect for his aggressive fighting style. He normally doesn't use the barbed whips unless he is training with Nargzar. I yell out.
“Get off him, I'm going to use a trump!”
Leon knowing better, immediately jumped into the water. While he was doing that I pulled out a vial of flammable liquid into my mouth. Crushing the vial with my teeth, the glass cutting my mouth. The blood is only temporary. I then pull out as many wind scrolls that will fit into my mouth. Four scrolls is all I can manage. I use my flame breath mixed with every volatile attack I can think to mix with it. BOOM!
A giant flamethrower attack comes out of my mouth. Covering the entire surface of water between both ships. SHIT it's too strong! One of the ships catches fire. I should have tested this before using it! The attack is easily four times the strength I thought it would be. It must be because of the new stat increases. I'm not accustomed to being this strong.
The attack is strong enough to burn every part of the octoshark that isn't concealed by the water. Both ships are set free from his tentacles grasp. This lets the guns aim better and both sides open fire. Five cannons open up on him all at once. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The octoshark is torn apart. My fire breath weakened it to the point that its skin was as weak as paper.
Blue mage skill upgraded Water affinity--> Improved water affinity- movement is faster in water, improved lung capacity
Blue mage skill learned Ink spray- Spray out ink to cover your presence in water
Level increased to 34
“Get some ropes around it before it sinks! We can use it as food!”
I yelled out. I rush over to where the boat was on fire and put it out with some water pulled from the ocean with elementalist. I could have used aqua jet but it might have damaged the ship. I cast a heal and regenerate on myself to heal my cut mouth from the vial I broke. I get to the deck of Leon's ship and help pull the octosharks corpse aboard. Leon was thankfully under the surface of the water when my attack went off. He's still in the water and is going to ride the bosses corpse to the ships deck.
As soon as we get it aboard he lets loose all of his ink. Even in death, this boss is an annoying asshole. I started collecting trophies from each boss we've recently beaten. I started with the previous raid bosses. Looting a basilisk fang, rok claw, golem rock and the living growth vine.
From this octoshark I collect a tooth, which is almost the size of a person. I get some ink and part of his tentacle as well. I absorb a portion of the octoshark. It was an above average stat increase because of the difficulty of the boss. All my stats were raised by 20. Learning pirate and the new skill swashbuckling also raised my dexterity some.
(Kite stats before fighting pirates) (strength- 1340) (dexterity- 510) (intelligence- 1360) (stamina- 1460) (total = 4670)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 1360) (dexterity- 570) (intelligence- 1380) (stamina- 1480) (total = 4790)
I'm going to omit Aegis stat boost from now on. He can just double my stats. The other ships didn't even notice the boss until he was dead and we were pulling him onto the boat.
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