The swaying and rocking of the ship was the first thing Vendel noticed when he awoke. The second thing was a furry butt on his face. Vendel grabbed Basil and, lifting the mouse off of his face, he sat up. He appeared to be in a cabin on the ship, and judging by the all the expensive looking things and a certain snoring pirate, it was the Sea Captain’s lodgings. Vendel got out of the bunk and moved to the door of the cabin, being careful not to wake the Captain. He opened the door and nearly lost his head. The ship was out on the open water, and land was nowhere in sight. Vendel slid down the doorpost to the floor and started to pet Basil as a way to cope with his circumstances.
“Well this is great. Just great. We’ve been kidnapped by pirates Basil. And all because I fainted like an idiot.”
Basil nodded in agreement. His master should have fled the instant they met these smelly men, but for some reason he didn’t. Basil had since given it much thought and consideration, and decided that his wonderful master was the stupidest smart person ever. A pair of footsteps came up behind Vendel, and he turned around to see a very much awake Sea Captain. The captain scratched his beard and gestured outside the door.
“Apologies fer taking ye with us laddie. But what with yer faintin’, and there bein’ monsters around, we couldnae leave ye on the beach. So we set out to sea with ye on board. No hard feelings lad.”
Vendel shook his head,
“Basil could have guarded me. He’s done it before.”
The pirate shrugged and moved past Vendel out onto the deck.
“Well, yer here now. So why don’t we give ye a little bit o’ work to do?”
Vendel stood and followed the Captain. Once out the door, they headed to the right and went up a set of stairs that led to the wheel, and from there Vendel observed that the ship was a goodly sized frigate. Once he arrived at the wheel, the Pirate Captain turned to Vendel and grinned.
“Well? What do ye think o’ mah ship laddie? Ah, no need to say, I can see it in yer face. You love mah ship. Now.”
The pirate paused, and put on a thoughtful face,
“I may be a pirate, but I like to think meself as an honest pirate. So. I’ll give ye a choice. Ye can stick with us and become one o’ the crew, or ye can get off next stop we make. If ye want to leave, that’s fine. You can either work fer yer passage, or pay fer it.”
Vendel thought it over for a bit before walking off a way to discuss it with Basil. As he talked to Basil, Vendel was struck by his Mouse’s intelligence, and he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to train Basil some more. And if Basil was going to train, Vendel may as well work for his passage. If he could trust the pirates that was. All of them were more than ten levels above him, so he really had no choice but to play by their rules. He would not join the pirate crew, but he wouldn’t give up his newly earned money either. Vendel explained his line of thoughts to Basil and got a satisfied nod in return, so he got up and went back to the captain to inform him of the decision. When he told the captain, the man smirked,
“I knew that ye would choose that. Yer first order of business is to head down to the galley and help Cook with the grub. Then find Dwezel. He’ll be up in the crow’s nest. He should give ye yer next task. And then ye need to…”
The Captain went on and listed several things that he wanted Vendel to do, and when he was done, Vendel went to work.
While Vendel worked for his passage, Basil, who was not allowed near the kitchen by Cook, went off to see what he could learn. He found Dorcas after a while, and followed the big lunk around as he carried out his tasks. After a while, Basil grew bored so he wandered into the hold to see what excitement could be found.
Master was busy with dumb chores, so now is as good a time as ever to spy on the rest of the ship. Basil is a good mouse. The bestest pet ever. Far better than that mooing old cow that master had tamed yesterday. Anyway, the place below the deck held a lot of surprises. Like rats. And fleas. Those are both evil and disgusting things, so Basil must please the stupidest but wisest master by ending their existences. Basil chose a rat and followed it until he found the nest. Then Basil charged in and a great slaughter ensued. He felt a bit smarter after that, and decided to do it again with any rats that he found. Finally, Basil felt that he was on the cusp of a level up, and he found one last rat that dared venture out. He once again followed it, but what Basil found in the rat’s nest greatly frightened him. There was a Level 9 Monster, a Rat Queen, and she was surrounded by rats that had been turning into monsters. There were at least five Level 6 Rats, and nine Level 3 Rats, plus almost a score of rats that had yet to become monsters with levels. Basil considered charging in, after all, he was a Level 7 Scritch Mouse. He had a powerful skill! And he was very much smart. Wait, that didn’t seem right… he was very smart? Much better. Basil decided however to practice a… what did the wise master call it? Ah! Yes, a tactical retreat. Basil would return later when he was stronger and had an advantage. Perhaps when the rats emerged for food he could practice the hit and run tactic. But for now, Basil needed to rest. It had been a long day, and Basil was tired and hungry. So off Basil went, and after eating with Wise Master Vendel, he said his prayers to the Great Mousey Maker, and went to sleep, dreaming of slaying rats and stomping fleas into oblivion. The next morning, Basil ate again with Master, and then he pestered Master to train him some more. Today’s training pitted him against one of the smelly men. Basil sniffed the air and listened to all the smelly humans, trying to understand what they were saying. He could vaguely make out some phrases.
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“___ what? ___ want me ___ fight ____ ___ mouse? Fine, I _____ use a bit __ entertainment, ___ gutting ___ mouse will __ fun.”
At this smelly human’s words, all the others started laughing, and the Wise Master frowned with a bit of worry on his face. Basil squeaked and patted his Master’s foot. Don’t worry Master! I will bite this man’s eyes out and Quick Slash his nose off! Basil got ready to fight and started by accessing the Great Mousy Maker’s menu
Acknowledged
Basil Wane:
Monster Lvl: 7
Class: N/A
Skills: Quick Slash Lvl 2
Perks: Increased Learning(Temporary) Increased Intelligence ???
Titles: N/A
A grin grew on the mousey little face. He was ready. And he would show these stinky men how Mice fight. Master yelled GO! And Basil charged at the man. The man drew a curved sword and brought it down towards Basil in an overhand swing, but Basil dodged around the slow attack with ease and ran up the outside of the man’s pants, climbing quickly up to his neck. The man started screaming and jumping around, trying to grab Basil or throw him off, but Basil clung to him, and even used a Quick Slash on the hand that was holding the curved sword, making the smelly human drop it and scream in anguish. Basil continued to climb until he was eye to eye with the pirate, then brought his claws up next to the man’s eye. The smelly man started screaming words that meant nothing to Basil until he heard Master yell,
“Enough Basil!”
When the Wise Master said to stop, Basil obeyed and scurried back to get pats from Master for winning. Basil got a level from the fight, and after much adoration from Master, training was over, so Basil went to fight rats. Basil spent the next several hours killing rats that came out of the nest. He even managed to kill four of the Level 3 Rats and two of the Level 6 Rats. Those fights had been harder. The Level 3 rats were half as large as Basil when he was first caught by Master, and the Level 6 Rats were nearly as large as Basil was now. It was a wonder the smelly humans hadn’t noticed the rats by now. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the humans didn’t go to the front of the ship under the deck that often. Now the Rat Queen had very few powerful minions, and Basil could consider attacking her nest.
Basil was waiting for all of his Quick Slashes to recharge before attacking when a thumping of paws started coming towards him. He looked up and prepared for a fight when the other three Level 6 Rats rounded the corner with a Level 3 Rat, two Level 1 rats, and the rest of the non-monster rats. Basil decided to take out one of the Level 6 Rats with a quick slash and then lead the rest into the flea territory. The interesting thing about the fleas and rats was that they hated each other with a burning hatred, and this plan to pit the many rats against the entirety of the flea army was what Master called The Lure and Skewer tactic. Basil thought it sounded dumb, but it had worked with smaller groups of rats before, so he used up his Quick Slashes and ran off with one less rat chasing after him. A short while later he sat hidden chuckling at the full out war happening between the rat elites and the flea regulars. A few of the elite flea monsters came out to fight the rats and Basil got to observe the strength of his next enemies after the rats. Four Level 5 Fleas, one Level 7 Flea, three Level 3 Fleas, and six Level 1 Fleas. The smallest of the monsters was the size of one of Basil’s front paws, the largest being almost as big as his head. Basil waited for both sides to weaken a bit, then charged in and finished off the remaining rats and one of the Level 5 Fleas. Then Basil ran to take on the Rat Queen and the four remaining Level 3 rats. When he arrived at the nest, he paused to clear his mind and prepare himself for the fight, then he charged in and swiftly slew the Level 3 rats, leaving just the Rat Queen. She screeched angrily and a much more dangerous and vicious duel began. She would slash at Basil, and he would jump back, then he would dart in to nip at her with his fangs, and she would dodge not quite as successfully. Thankfully the Rat Queen didn’t seem to have any skills, so when Basil got the use of Quick Slash back, he saved it for the right occasion. That chance came after he had received several deep gashes from her claws, and as she screamed out her triumph, he whipped his tail around and knocked the rat off her feet. When her head came level with his, Basil used his Quick Slash to slice through her head, and she died without a single sound. Basil squeaked happily as the Great Mousy Maker granted him two more levels and a level in his Quick Slash skill. He sliced the rat’s head off with his claws, and carried it back to Master, with head held high. The genocide of the rats had been carried out, and on the morrow, after Basil had recovered, he would begin the work of ending the fleas in like manner.
Deep within the Flea territory, a Flea Monarch shivered, it felt that something had dealt with it’s mortal enemy, and that the Monarch would be next.