While I waited for things to settle down above-deck so I could talk to the captain, I used [Greater Mana Sense] to examine the ship. Despite its somewhat simple design and appearance, it was actually quite the marvel of magical engineering. The entire ship was surrounded by protective wards powerful enough that even I would have to put in some effort to break past them, and there was an even stronger layer of wards surrounding the inner cargo hold. Both were powered by drawing in ambient mana, similar to how a Dungeon functioned, so, the mana was very dense in and around the ship.

  In addition to the protective spells, there were also water spells carved into the ship’s underside to help propel it through the water, wind spells on the mast to fill the sails, and a light spell to cloak the ship in darkness. There were a few more inactive spells that I wasn’t skilled enough in artificery to identify, but I guessed they were used in extreme conditions, like storms or battles to increase the ship’s survivability.

  About two hours into the journey, the shadow spell was finally lifted, and the crew began to return from the deck to their sleeping quarters to rest. I quickly dropped my privacy spell, and focused on finding the captain. He was still on the deck, giving some final orders to a few of the crewmates, but I heard him mention he was planning on heading to bed, so I left my room and made my way back upstairs. The sailors I walked passed turned their heads, but did not say anything.

  I got up the stairs just as he finished talking to the helmsman and began to take a swig of what smelled like strong liquor from a hip flask. He watched me out of the corner of his eye as he kept the flask upturned for far longer than the flask’s size would indicate was possible.

  “I have a few questions that I’d prefer you be sober to answer, if you don’t mind,” I said.

  He continued drinking for another five seconds, before finally stopping, and putting the flask back on his hip. He wiped his beard on his sleeve and belched.

  “I haven’t been sober in twenty years, lass,” he said with a smile. “What do ya need?”

  “I have some questions about sea monsters… and Ilsa Weber.”

  His smile fell at the mention of the name. “Aye. Follow me.”

  He turned and started trudging back to his quarters at the rear of the ship, and I followed. His room was larger than the one he provided for me, but I couldn’t say it was any better. The ground was littered with empty bottles and wet, torn papers, and the whole place reeked of alcohol and mold. The source of the latter scent was visible all over the roof and in the corners, and even above the bed in the corner which I was fairly certain was not originally brown. The only remotely clean place in the room was a desk on the side whose center was mostly clear, so that the large map on it would be visible

  It was this desk that he led me to, collapsing into the chair in front of it with a grunt.

  “Now, it seems yer concerned about the sea monsters, but ye’ve got nothin’ to worry about,” he said. “See here-” he pointed to the map. “This here’s a map of the territories of all the dangerous ones.”

  I walked over to stand over him and look at the map. There was weak magic coursing through the paper, and an illusory ship was moving slowly across the page. On either side of the map, the edges of the eastern and western continents could be seen, while the rest was taken up by ocean. The ocean was split into sections that looked like countries and each section was labeled with the name of a different monster, many of which I remembered from earth mythology.

  “This is the route we’ll be taking,” He traced his finger over the border between the areas labeled ‘Kraken’ and ‘Leviathan’ before stopping in the center of ‘Ouroboros.’ “We’ll make a quick stop here, then head this way,” his finger passed between ‘Sirens’, ‘Cetus’, and ‘Karkinos’ until it finally reached land. “As ya can see, the only monster’s territory we’ll be passing over is the Ouroboros, and since we won’t be botherin’ it, it won’t be a problem. We’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “Why are we making a stop?” I asked. “I thought this ship was supposed to be the fastest.”

  “Aye, it is,” he said. “Even with the stop, we’ll be faster than any ordinary merchant ship. Freddy doesn't use slow ships.”

  “Hmmm. I’ll take your word for it.” I studied the map a bit more. “Is the Ouroboros not dangerous?”

  “Ha,” he barked. “The Ouroboros is the most dangerous monster on the planet… when it decides to let go of its tail. But it won’t unless it takes damage, which won’t happen, because no one’s stupid enough to try to attack it.”

  “I see,” I said. “And how dangerous are the other monsters we’ll be passing by? The Kraken and Leviathan and the others.”

  “Ye’ve got nothin’ to worry about,” he said, trying to sound comforting. “They’re all very territorial. As long as we pass right along the borders, none of them will try to attack.”

  “I’m not worried. I’m just wondering how strong they are.”

  His eyes narrowed as he glared at me. “Yer, not thinkin’ about tryin’ to fight them are ya?”

  “Perhaps. They would give me good experience.”

  He stared at me incredulously for a few seconds before grabbing his hip flask again. “I haven't had enough to even start explainin’ why that’s a bad idea.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “I’m quite strong,” I said as he took another long drink. “And I wouldn’t start a fight I wasn’t certain I’d win.”

  “Ye’d have to be a damned Godly Emissary to even stand a chance!” he exclaimed. “And ye don’t seem very ‘godly’ to me, ye damn, lunatic.”

  “Sanity is not a requirement to be chosen by a god.”

  “No!” he shouted “NO! Absolutely not! I’ll not be havin’ ye bring the wrath of an ancient beast down on me ship, no matter how strong ye think ye are!”

  “Again, I wouldn’t start a fight I couldn’t win,” I said. “If they are too strong-”

  “NO! If ye even think about tryin’, I’m throwin’ ye off me ship! I haven’t been sailin’ all me life just to get eaten because some delusional bitch thought she could fight the goddamn Kraken! You see how big these territories are!” He slapped the map. “They’re the size of fookin’ countries! These things are so powerful that they have their own damn countries!”

  “Hey, hey, calm down, it was a joke,” I lied, putting my hands up. “I’m not gonna fight them. I just wanted to know how strong they were, and I thought it would be funny to pretend like I did want to fight them.”

  The captain glared at me suspiciously while breathing heavily for a moment, before suddenly bursting out into uproarious laughter that lasted nearly a full minute.

  “That was good,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye. “That was good. I have to admit, ye really had me goin’ there. Haha! Ah, I shoulda known. There’s no way ye’d actually want to fight them.”

  “Haha, yeah…” I said. “I am still curious though. How strong exactly are they, for them to hold so much territory?”

  “Well, I heard an elf once say that they’re all at least level 150,” said the captain, still rubbing his eyes. “And the Ouroboros might be over 250.”

  “200? How’d it get so strong?”

  “Somethin’ about constantly eatin’ itself and regeneratin’,” he said, shrugging. “And not only is it very high-level, it’s nearly impossible to kill. Its regeneration is so strong that even if yer attacks get past its scales, it heals almost instantly.”

  “Wow,” I said.

  Sounds a lot like Wrath, I thought.

  “Aye,” he nodded. “Fortunately, it’s only interested in its tail, so it’s mostly harmless. It can be unnervin’ to see it for the first time though. Especially the head. So much blood…”

  “Yeah that does sound unsettling,” I agreed. “Has anyone ever tried to kill these monsters?”

  “Of course, they have,” he grunted. “Not recently, but I’ve heard stories about great heroes goin’ off and gettin’ ‘emselves killed tryna fight ‘em. A few about ‘em succeedin’ too, but mostly about ‘em dyin’.”

  “Huh,” I said. I couldn’t see away to get any more information an my prey out of him without re-arousing his suspicions, so I decided to change the subject. “What about Ilsa Weber? I’ve heard her name a couple times recently, since we share a name, but I don’t know who she is.”

  “Ye share a name, but ye don’t know who she is?”

  “I’ve lived an isolated life.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” he said, putting a hand to his forehead. “She’s infamous in Johann and Vivaldi. Ye really haven’t heard of her?”

  “I grew up in Ravel.”

  “Eh? Even then you should’ve… Ah, I don’t know where to begin. She’s the most famous outlaw in the world, and she’s got the same name as you, and ye haven’t heard of her?”

  “No, I haven’t,” I said, getting impatient. “So get on with it. Other than an outlaw, who is she?”

  “Well, ah, I dunno,” he said. “I guess I should start from the beginnin’. She was born in Johann to Count Weber and his beast-woman slave from the bear tribe, and she was raised as a pit fighter. Apparently makin’ slaves fight was popular there at the time.

  “Well, Ilsa, who didn’ have a last name at the time, was very good. I’ve heard she never lost a bout, or even got hit. I dunno if I believe it, because I’ve seen her scars, but I guess those coulda come from ‘er owners.

  “Anyway, one day, Angelo Paganini snuck into one of the fights, and apparently, it was love at first sight. He tried to buy her freedom from the Count, but the Count refused, so Angelo killed him. Then, he and Ilsa, who was now free, went on to slaughter the entire Weber family, and she took their name.”

  “How romantic,” I commented.

  “Aye,” he agreed with a smirk. “But that’s not even half of it. After they killed the Webers, they went on a killin’ spree across Johann, Ravel, and even Vivaldi, killin’ everyone involved with the slave trade and underground slave fightin’. And people mighta praised ‘em for it, if that was all they did. But weren’t very, eh, discriminatory in who they killed. A lotta innocent people died, and they eventually had to flee to the West when the church of Order started crackin’ down on ‘em.

  “Ever since, the two of ‘em have been running around, doin’ whatever they like, fleein’ when it gets too dangerous. If it weren’t for the Demon Kings, they’d be the most wanted criminals in the world.”

  “Wow,” I said. “And what’s her relationship with Freddy?”

  The captain’s face grew grim. “When she and her man fled to Eos the first time, it was Freddy’s boat they took, and her crew they killed to take it. They let Freddy live because Ilsa thought she was cute. I wasn’t with her yet at that time, but the people who knew her before say she’s changed since then. Hasn’t set foot on a boat since.”

  “That's… horrible.”

  “Aye,” he agreed. “That it is.” He took another swig from his flask.

  “Well, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions,” I said.

  “Bah, it was me pleasure,” he said, waving me off. “I haven’t laughed that hard in ages.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed my joke. I’m feeling tired though, and it’s late, so I should go to bed.”

  “Care to join me for a drink before ye go?” He held up his flask. “There’s plenty to share.”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “Shame,” he said, taking another swig. “More fer me I guess.”

  “Have a good night,” I said, walking toward the door.

  “Aye. You too.”

  After exiting the captain’s cabin, I took a inhaled deeply, breathing in the fresh air that did not smell like mold or alcohol, then walked downstairs to my room and made my preparations to leave. I placed my [Waypoint] on my bed, placed an illusory replica of myself on top of it, and put a [Proximity Alarm] on the door, so that I would know if anyone came knocking while I was out. Then, I turned invisible, teleported outside the ship, and began to fly north, into what the map said was the territory of the Kraken.