Max's POV
Aboard the ship, Max didn't know to laugh or to cry, his first job as a recruit was scrubing the ship with a brush and a backet in hand.
"Dublin why am I the only one who has to do this"
Max complained endlessly, after all he lived a rather sheltered life.
"I could help you but I'm a pirate officer I can't be seen doing things like cleaning the deck"
Dublin said in his ninja uniform, it was of course just an excuse to not help him out.
"By the way how on earth did you become an officer, the same day you were recruited"
Max asked seemingly angry, after all he had to pass through many duels just to be offered to be recruited and he became an officer without even fighting.
"The captain says I'm funny, but I think he's gay"
Dublin said while shamelessly laughing out loudly.
"Ship on the left!"
Shouted someone and the excitement in many pirates eyes was visible, but one voice blew it all away.
"What flag!"
Jak shouted and the pirate who was scouting took out a telescope and begun scouting the ship, the telescope they had just looted from Max's ship of course.
"West Merryland!"
The pirate answered somewhat sadly as he knew the usual answer to ships that flew flags from famous holiday resorts, Merryland Island was one of them.
Jak also looked through his telescope and suddenly shouted.
"Send them greetings, set course to ram them, everyone take your possitions"
This of course wasn't his normal attitude and only after looking through his own telescope he had changed his mind.
The greeting shot went right through the main mast of the ship, ruining their sails and making their ship move like a turtle, the ship Helllion had made was quite something, they had even the newest cannons in the market, called Magi-cannons, they could shoot canonballs without the need for amunitions although they consumed magic instead, making them only usable by players and only by those that had the mage profession.
The other ship was now static and suddenly a dark cloud appeared in the sky, while a booming voice shouted from the now battered ship.
"Who dares to interupt my travels!"
It said, the pirates were rather scared by it but Jak took out a strange artifact from his inventory and answered.
"You Scumming wizards, how dare you sell me faulty goods, I will not only interrupt your travels, I'm gonna fucking terminate them"
There was a moment of silence and the clouds no seemed less threatening.
"Wait, Jak we can talk about it"
The voice said, it sounded nervous now and other voices from the background begun whispering making this strange booming sound be seen through, it was some sort of voice transmiter that made it as if you are strong, in order to frighten Npc pirates from attacking the ship.
Of couse few knew that the only reason Jak isn't among the top 10 or top 5 was because he didn't have his own fleet, he just travelled with a single boat, which he sometimes sunk or let be captured whenever he got bored of being a pirate.
"We surrender, We will give you 100 no 200gold if you let us continue our travels"
The mage was now trying to negotiate his way out but it didn't seem to be working as canonballs were still shooting out from both ships.
"You think that 200 gold will make up for your guild mocking me and giving me a magic chest without a key"
Jak shouted angrily.
On the other ship the mages from the Wizdom guild were talking among themselves, after all magic chests were a type of boss treasure chest that was realy valuable and rare, you could only gain it by clearing a dungeon, who in his right mind would sell such a treasure. They begun guild chatting to find out what exactly it was all about.
There were five types of chest, normal treasure chests that could be opened even without a key, fortified chests that needed a key to open or some magic spell, magic chests that opened only by having a magic key, ancient chests that were really rare and were almost impossible to open making them similar to trash and lastly Legendary chests that were both rare and impossible to open but probably held inside treasures that could dominate the whole world, if someone ever found a legendary key he would probably become instantly rich by selling it or instantly powerful if he ever bought a chest for his key.
"How is that possible?"
The leader of the group said after learning the whole story from a guild member.
The story was quite simple, a member of their guild that had found a magic chest in a dungeon Island was returning by boat to their HQ in Merryland Island, where they had a few spare keys for it.
On his trip they were attacked by pirates and in exchange for their lives he gave the treasure chest away, after all it was his most valuable possession at the time, it wasn't really mocking them, he just didn't possess a key to it at the moment.
Although keys were less rare than the chests themselves, since they could be created by skilled blacksmiths or locksmiths, who were a rather useless and rare profession but there were some who liked creating locks and keys to challenge ambitious thieves but the most famous locksmiths all dreamed of creating a legendary key or lock.
In return for the chest Jak left them almost safely leave with their lives. Of course Jak possessed no key and his friends were far from being locksmiths, they were elite blacksmiths, he couldn't ask them to make him a key for the chest.
This chest has been on his mind for days now, he was really angry each time he looked at it sitting there in his inventory, sometimes he imagined what treasure it might hold inside, but today after seeing the same robe as the wizard who gave him the chest on board the ship his anger awakened and he became angry.
"So what's the worth of your lives?"
Jak shouted, the cannons had stopped shooting and his ship was next to theirs, with a single command he could storm the ship, capturing it in one fell swoop.
Jak might have been strong to a ridiculous degree but his crew and ship weren't, after the first thunderbolt shot from the sky, all hell broke loose. It was their answer, a storm spell that could sink any regular ship, they no longer cared to negotiate, they were ready to die together with the pirates, after all they had their dignity as the stongest magical guild of Merryland.
A storm with them as the epicentre begun, the two boats were unable to stand in place, fighting in such weather could be called madness, however there was one person that still fought, he even hopped from place to place as if the storm wasn't real.
Jak as if taken from a fable was already on the enemy ship and slaughtered anything that moved, he cracked thunders that found their aims and killed people that tried to obstruct him from finding the mages.
Max with difficulty could stay on board, many people were lost in the storm, some too were strugling to stay on board. His hand slipped and he lost his footing in the terrible weather, he was sure to die in the sea but that wasn't his fate as a hand pulled him back up on the ship at the last moment.
"Thanks!"
He said absentminded, before even seeing who his savior was.
"Dublin?"
He said surprised, after all Dublin could be called the worst trash of their guild but he didn't seem to struggle at all in this stormy weather.
"Have seen worse"
Dublin said reminiscing the Tempest they had experienced in Rubrick so long ago, even houses were turned upside down, this little storm spell was only mediocre in front of that. In truth Dublin wasn't there but after it he begun training for situations like that and he was rather good at keeping his balance, he even gained a skill because of it.
The problem of course with spells like Tempest and other high level spells was the high failure rate, even this storm spell was the collective struggle of multiple people to keep it going for so long, after all it was a chanelling spell, at some point they would run out of magic or fail the chanelling.
"Lets go inside, it's a lot safer downstairs"
Dublin said, dragging him downstairs, you should know that being saved by a man dressed like a ninja felt rather shity.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
Jak was now doing his explosion sigils and little by little the enemy ship was turning into a skeleton, sinking was the imediate aftermath.
The storm ended at the exact moment that a hole appeared in the lower deck where the hold was, two minutes after the explosions, Npcs were jumping in the sea and begun swimming as far away from the ship as possible, they didn't want to sink with the ship after all, only the captain, a player named Nemo refused to leave, he was sitting on board when Jak approached.
The ship sunk too fast and the people who were swiming were in eminent danger.
"I'm in need of a few more sailors wanna come onboard?"
Jak asked, Nemo just laughed at the comment and pointed at Jak's ship that was leaving at full speed, there were reasons for that but to Jak they probably didn't matter.
"You bastards come back Immediately!"
Jak shouted, in reality it didn't matter, as long as Jak's ship was safe he would respawn on it however many times he died, well even if the enemy ship sunk it didn't mean that he couldn't just swim away like the others.
"I'm Nemo, just lost my ship"
Nemo said to the resigned, Jak who had stoped shouting and was now cursing in a low voice as the sea water was no climbing on board.
"I knew it that High elves on a ship mean trouble"
Nemo said, it was a strange rumor that went on, making some players rather sceptical at taking elves on board. I could be said just misfortune but 40% of all sunken ships had at least one elf on board, the rest 60% were cause by women on board. Old superstitions never fail to take their toll on the female population.
Of course the population of earth being 70% female was the real reason that made it possible for these omens to resurface.
"Want a drink?"
Jak asked as he took two bottles of rum from his inventory, after all it was now impossible to swim away, since the ship was sinking too fast now and the sea water was flowing towards the sinking ship, creating a rather terrifying effect drawing some people who couldn't escape towards the sinking debris of a ship, which was now sinking at full force.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"Last drink?"
Nemo said as he begun sinking with the ship, Jak after one gulp begun sinking but he didn't mind as after a few moments he begun swimming back up, he was like a torpedo, in speed, you wouldn't understand if it was a person or not.
The pirates on the ship looked at the strange human torpedo and begun shouting in distress.
"Captain, please be reasonable, we had to save the ship, we didn't mean to disregard your orders"
"Nice One, I thought I heard a torpedo coming, but it's just captain!"
Dublin said as he saw the rapidly approaching Jak.
"Hey black beard do you have a float to fish his out"
Dublin said, of course he didn't mean to do that but to his surprise the sailor handed him a wooden barrel.
Dublin didn't understand what to do with it and just threw it in the sea, it was supposed to save someone from drowning after all.
Bang!
Jak hit right on the barrel with great speed, crashing it into wooden planks, but this action brought a strange reaction as the other pirates begun throwing barrels at Jak, making it hard for him to approach the sailing ship. Only Jak could see the mutiny message as the crew tried to let him sink in the middle of the sea and it would have happened if not for Dublin who had sneakily dropped anchor, trying to stop the ship.
By the time they understood that the ship wasn't moving anymore, cold sweat run down their spine.
Jak somewhat tired came on board the ship through the anchor's chain and the pirates couldn't even cut the chain, after all it was made rather well by the Helllion guild.
"Mister Jak, the Helllion guild regards you in great favor, I would like to invite you to make a branch here in the Isleplains"
Dublin said, making the pirates aware of whom had just betrayed them.
Jak smiled and five minutes later with Dublin tied on the main mast of the ship, the ship was fishing out any survivors or valuables left behind by Nemo's ship.
Max was now helping the pirates repair the ship, not that there was much to be done and most of the time they were just laughing and playing bet games. The reason why was because the captain didn't sink the ship with them and they owed it all to the strange ninja that was tied to the mast singing some strange melodies they had never heard before, well anime themes were rather hard to come by in a fantasy game, after all there was not enough technology to recreate them and singing them without music was rather poor to represent the work that's needed to create them. It also had to do that Dublin wasn't a very good singer.
Dublin probably thought that Jak hadn't seen who threw the first barrel, but he had seen everything, after all he had picked up too many strange skill on his travels through the Isleplains.
"So Max how did you like your first pirate experience?"
One of the crew members, the one with the black beard asked, he was strangely almost everywhere at the same time, he was Jak's first man, his right hand on the ship and although there were many officers, in reality they had no actual power, they were just excluded from the chores on the ship.
Max still remembered the prior experience, in a way it was the most thrilling experience in his life, although he was about to die but he came to like it on this ship, although the captain was weird and the sailors somewhat unrefined, but it felt realy stange, it felt like freedom.
========================================================================================
Ameth's POV
Simon was somewhat nervous he had received a message from Rod, the instructor of the Guardian training, Ameth had proably received one as well. In a fit he released Ameth from the hypnosis and told her to get ready. She was somewhat lost, as she didn't remember anything that happened the days before but the strange thing was that she was wearing different clothes than before.
"Don't stand there, they are waiting for us at the training grounds"
Simon shouted, behind Amenth was Emy/Green and some random girls she didn't know. Green was lonely so she decided to let the girls stay with her, although in truth it was forced on her by Simon.
"Ameth, we must go, now!"
Simon shouted seeing that Ameth didn't seem to move from her place, but one thing was for sure as she saw Green behind her smiling with a thumbs up, meaning Simon was the real deal.
Ameth went from Training hall to training hall scouting for promising people or just for people she liked to have in her group, to understand what was happening was simple, Divas were divided into three sides, One was the psychics, the other the Hackers and the last the neutrals, those neutral were many and did whatever they liked but from time to time they entered one or the other camp for some random benefit they offered. Ameth used to be with the neutral faction until she needed help with something and became indepted to Green, after all neutral Divas don't have much to offer as an exchange so they just join one side or the other for some time, until they can pay back the favor with some other trivial for them thing, Ameth's task was to gather guardians for Green. By finding Simon her favor was as good as paid but she had some personal interest in him.
'How comes so many days have passed?'
She asked herself, after all although she had lost her memory of those times but Simon couldn't stop time, Ameth calculated the days lost in the mental blank state and something didn't add up.
"Simon, could you tell me what happened in there?"
Ameth asked somewhat puzzled, but acting as a boy she had made her voice sound more masculine with some skill or something.
"You mean, Boss how did you deal with Emy?"
Simon corrected her.
(Hidden Giggle)
"Oh, boss, how did you deal with sister Green?"
Ameth asked, she of course didn't respect him at all but it didn't matter.
"We came to an understanding, you see, Emy wants to rule the world and I want to rule the world, so first we defeat the common enemy and then fight among ourselves"
He said somewhat unsure as to if it was real or not, after all Green liked to talk undecisively, he couldn't tell if she said "Yes" or "Maybe" at times, but the end result came out like what he had said.
In reality it was Green who manipulated him into agreeing, he wanted to rule them all and expand slowly but Green had already a large influence on the world, the rebel group called "the Archive" was entirely under her control, the other group called revs were under Saphire or otherwise called Blue.
"Is that all?"
She asked but in her mind she was thinking
'Boring!'
Ameth had no will to rule the world, many other Divas also didn't care if Green or Blue took over, after all they shared one emotion towards their mother, "Disdain". She ignored them and they ignored her back, after all the Empress only lived for herself, there was no person she cared about even if they all died, she wouldn't even know it and might not even blink at the loss.
"Weren't we going to the training hall?"
Ameth asked herself when she found herself alone in front of the training hall, Simon was gone and she couldn't even find him, after all she didn't have his adress or ID code.
Ameth sighed heavily as she entered the training hall, after all Simon's training was now over, he was to graduate by her decree. Rod was helpless on this one, as much as she wanted to she could do nothing against a Diva.
========================================================================================
Simon's POV
Simon as fast as he entered the teleportation platform, went back home. He had no reason to do what Rod ordered him but he didn't want to break his relationship with Kaj yet. If she learned that he wasn't in the training facility she would ask questions and stuff, which were hard for him to answer.
Kaj of course wasn't home, she spent most of her time in the game after all and that was what he would do as well from now on. Although his encounter with Green was short he had gained a new understanding in what he could do with the system, he had learned how to use teleportation through his Guardian status, he had two types of teleportation, a clearance based and an ID based, the clearance based range was regulated by his clearance level, while for the ID he had to know the other person's ID to use, teleporting a step or two near his target.
As Domina he swiftly teleported to Jak's side, after all they were a pair or something.
"When and how did you come?"
Jak asked somewhat surprised, Jak didn't know how to teleport after all.
"Hello? I've been Training on how to teleport this whole time"
Domina lied with a strait face, earning a punch in the guts and more negative health points.
"Don't lie to me, I know it when you lie"
"Right, right but it is true that I was training, ask Ameth, he will also verify it"
Domina said.
"Who is Ameth?"
"A guy at the training center, another trainee"
"I'll ask Rod, she'll tell me who this Ameth is"
Jak said but the answer from Rod made him somewhat uneasy, it wasn't that Simon had just graduated that made him pale, but the reason he graduated.
"A Diva"
Jak said silently, even Kaj didn't dare bare her claws against one of the ten Divas, they were like gods of the Virtual space, with one word 100% clearance.
"So?"
Domina asked somewhat mischievously.
"Simon, you do know that this Ameth is a Diva right?"
Jak asked in full seriousness, this matter could become a great tragedy if he did something stupid to her.
"Kaj, don't be so afraid, I just made a bet and won a prize, it was nothing dangerous to be concerned about, after all I only allied myself with Green of the Hackers faction"
Domina said, but kaj was completely oblivious about factions and Divas, she didn't even know who Green was supposed to be.
"Just trust me and everything will be okay"
Domina said as she went for his pants.