I was caught off guard by the sudden propulsion of the schooner. For a small ship, it sure packed some g-force.

I was sent hurtling backwards as the little ship shot up towards the sky. At first I slipped backwards on the slippery wooden deck, but then I began free falling.

More accurately, it felt like I was hovering in mid-air and the rear of the ship was rocketing towards me. That’s just how fast it was.

I slammed helplessly into a wooden wall; the ship’s wheel was directly above it. I could only assume it was the outer wall of the captain’s quarters.

Sally cackled from above me as she spun the ship’s circular wheel.

With a thud, Panda crashed into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and the two of us were helplessly pinned to the side of the captain’s cabin.

It all happened so fast.

After about thirty seconds of being crushed by the air pressure and Panda, the ship levelled out. The two of us fell to the deck of the ship in a tangled mess.

I picked myself up, groaning as I rubbed my sore head. I’d lost the feeling in my face because of the harsh, freezing wind.

“I can tell you two are flying novices.” Sally said, vaulting the rail above us and landing with a thump on the deck. “You’ll get used to it. The trick is to form a basic mana shield around yourself… oh wait, you don’t have any mana do you?” She laughed evilly.

“You could have given us some warning.” I retorted.

“What, and miss out on all the fun?”

Panda rolled onto his front and stood up gingerly. He wobbled towards the side of the ship, poked his head out over the side and began retching. Poor guy, he was quite possibly the first of his kind to fly in an open topped vessel.

I walked towards him and rubbed his back as he let it all out. Despite the cold from the wind, the view was magnificent.

We were sailing through the sky and it was simply amazing. Just above us floated a patch of fluffy looking clouds. They looked like sheep; I reached out towards them. I was so close I could almost touch them.

The sky itself was a Mediterranean blue and stretched out infinitely in all directions. It was an all-encompassing, beautiful reflection of the tropical waters below us.

We’d barely been flying for a few minutes but already the city of Havar was fading behind us. The skyscrapers that littered the town were almost as tall as we were, with the neon glow of the Adventure Society building standing above all the rest.

That building reminded me of the Tokyo skyscraper’s I’d seen on TV. As a young boy I’d dreamed of travelling there and tracking down my father. My mother hadn’t spoke of him much.

All I knew was that she met him whilst studying abroad and that she gave me his last name. With that name being Akabane, it was obvious he was Japanese. I didn’t have many Asian features myself but I just knew that’s where he was from.

Now I’d probably never get the chance to meet him. My own child would grow up never knowing their father either. It was almost like my family had a genetic disposition towards abandoning their children.

I knew that wasn’t a fair sentiment. According to my mother my father never even knew she was pregnant. Still, it was a bit of a sore subject and one I was loath to repeat.

I didn’t want to go home as much as I wanted to bring them here. At the same time the idea of my wife being alone in this world was terrifying.

I’d need to become much stronger if I was going to protect them in a place like this. That’s if there was even a way to bring them to me.

“What are you sulking over?” Sally said, perching against the railing next to me.

“Nothing in particular.” I replied, I couldn’t tell her that I was an outworlder and I was worried for my family. It wasn’t safe to admit that in a place where people skin outworlders for their ink. “When are you going to let us in on this quest?” I asked instead, attempting to change the subject.

“I’ll need to be on your contacts list to share the details.” She said, holding out her hand.

I had noticed that there was a contacts list in the options menu, I just hadn’t given it much thought since I didn’t really know anyone.

I looked at her hand in confusion.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never done this before? Jeez, you’re as helpless as a newborn sometimes. I really have my work cut out for me don’t I?” She said, noticing my hesitation to take her hand. “You have to shake hands with someone to get their contact info. Once you do you’ll be able to share notifications with them and call them through the interface.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Interface? I’ve been calling it a HUD.” I replied.

“I don’t know what that means Gonads. You gonna shake my hand or not?”

Reluctantly I took Sally’s enormous hand and shook. She squeezed mine so tightly I thought my fingers were going to break.

As we shook, a notification popped up on my HUD.

You have received a new friend request from [Sally].

Accept request?

Y/N

I mentally asserted yes and scrolled down my options screen. Like clockwork, the previously greyed out contacts sections was now clickable.

“Now I can share the quest with you, which means you’ll get it too. You’ll have to accept it though.” Sally said as a new notification appeared.

Sally has shared a quest with you.

Will you accept?

Y/N

I accepted the quest and the notification appeared immediately. I could see Sally watching me with curious eyes as I read it.

New Quest!

The Goblin King Coronation

Every century a new goblin king is chosen. He who is destined to unite the clans and conquer the world – or so ancient goblin lore says.

Crash the party, kill the king, and get to the Winchester for a nice cold pint whilst you wait for it all to blow over.

Objectives:

Stop the coronation 0/1

Kill throne candidates 0/4

Reward: A New Active Skill

I wasn’t sure what shocked me more, the Shawn of the Dead quote or the amazing reward. I didn’t have any active skills yet.

“Not bad as far as rewards go right?” Sally said, flashing me a fangy grin.

“Definitely, I don’t have any active skills yet.”

“That’s probably because of your lack of mana. Most active skills need mana to activate them.” Sally replied, leaning back over the railing thoughtfully.

“She’s right.” Panda said, pulling himself back up and wiping his mouth. “The vast majority of active skills rely on mana for activation. That actually puts you at an advantage for this reward Kaleb. I can’t think of any stamina activated skills that are below rare quality.”

I had wondered about that. My class was unique but the system didn’t assign rarity to my passive skills or my personal skills.

I had assumed that all the skills pertaining to my class were also unique but I could have been wrong. It seemed active classes came with an actual rarity.

If I was going to unlock a rare skill as my first ever active one then I needed to complete this quest. Traditionally in video games active skills were way more powerful than passive buffs. Of course, this place wasn’t actually a game.

“That’s good to know. Hopefully my passive skills will be enough to complete the quest.” I said thoughtfully.

“Unless you have something super destructive like a bomb skill you won’t make so much as a dent in the goblins at your level.

“You just need to back me up and you’ll get your reward. If you’re lucky I might train you up a bit too.” She flashed me a devilish grin and suddenly I wasn’t so sure that I wanted her training.

“I definitely do need to train.” I said swallowing hard. “How long until we get to this coronation place?”

“The ship will get us to the island in a few hours, we’ll have some walking to do from there though.” She replied. “Which gives us plenty of time to do a little sparing.”

I looked at her blankly as she moved to the middle of the ship, next to the mast. She opened both of her hands and suddenly the wind stopped.

I looked around bewildered as a large, blue bubble encircled the entire ship. It was semi-transparent and the sound of the wind disappeared with it as well.

Suddenly the ship felt eerily quiet.

“Well, come on then. Show me what you’ve got.” Sally commanded, pointing at me with her other, muscled arm, bent and resting against her ripped obliques.

I stepped forward hesitantly. Something in the back of my head told me it wasn’t a good idea to fight her, even if it was only sparing.

“What’s the matter? I won’t hurt you… much. Look I won’t even use a weapon.” Sally attempted to persuade me.

“This might be a good opportunity Kaleb. You haven’t gotten to test out your new class yet.” Panda said confidently as he backed up as far as he could and made himself small.

Yeah, you look raring to go little buddy. I thought.

With a deep sigh I summoned my bow and nocked an arrow.

“That’s more like it!” Sally cheered, “gimme everything you’ve got.”

I steeled myself for the attack. I didn’t want to risk melting her with my acid but she seemed pretty confident. A part of me wanted nothing more than to wipe the grin from her face and I leaned into a primal urge: the urge, no, the desire to win at all costs.

I pulled back on the bowstring and took aim at her centre mass. There was no way I was going to risk a headshot, not after last time. I needed to play it smart and attack in a way that would definitely land hits.

I took a breath as I drew the bow and fired.

The arrow rocketed towards Sally much faster than the Loconut’s Hair I’d been using before.

She opened her eyes wide, a feral grin on her face. Did she plan to take it head on?

Bad move lady.

It didn’t matter how strong she was. Silver ranker or not, she was still made of flesh. She didn’t have any armour on and my arrows were tipped with acid.

I had this in the bag.

The arrow struck her chest and she took it like a pro. It didn’t even rip her crop top.

What the hell!

How was that even possible? She looked at me and tipped her head back as if to laugh. Then a hole started burning through the centre of her shirt and she looked down.

The skin in the middle of her chest had turned a deep red, but that was all. Even the acid had done little more than blemish her skin.

I wasn’t done yet. There was no way I was going to lose so pathetically. I dismissed my bow and summoned the dagger. It was my strongest weapon skill.

Not only would it replenish my own health, but it also did acid damage and I was faster with it.

I rushed towards her and her dark blue eyes bored into me as if she was daring me to try it. I didn’t back down.

I charged into her, holding the dagger out in front of me. With my bodyweight and speed adding to the pressure I would definitely pierce her skin. Then the acid would really shine.

Her skin might be super strong but were her organs?

She smiled and stood still once again, holding her arms out like a chav about to threaten to sic his older brother on you.

I made contact and pushed with all my might but it was like hitting steel. The dagger did less damage than the arrow and I looked down in disappointment.

Sally laughed and I looked up just in time to receive a back hand to the face.

Everything went black.