I had held off on any poison training, even with the long trip on the cargo ship. The poison from the tree was taking time to get out of my system. Thankfully after a couple of days, my paws weren’t feeling numb anymore.
Since this was going to be a dangerous situation, I wanted to go into it fully ready and rested. I didn’t want to be overly stressed out. Also, the poison from the tree had boosted up my Purge Poison skill by quite a bit.
Instead, I had been reading that story and doing long hold stretches to push my limits. I had talked to Mes about whether stats could go back down, and they had said they couldn’t. That was part of what the word attunement meant. That had been good to confirm.
It also made me wonder what stats Mousethief had. If I had to bet his Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma were all very high. As a mouse his body focused stats would have a lower starting point most likely. So, he chose to specialize in certain areas. There was also the matter of reach and size. Mes had explained that altering such things wasn’t simple.
We had reached the port and our travel container had been moved off the ship into the port. After that Mousethief had commandeered a military cutter. About the same size of ship that the dogs had been using to move stolen fertilizer. He had several crates and dufflebags moved aboard in record time. I wasn’t involved with any of that.
I snuck on board the cutter instead. It was about 165 feet long or 50 meters. The back of the cutter was a level lower than the front and open to the outside to allow goods to be loaded on. There were two HMGs on the front of the cutter along with along with one artillery gun.
The lines were cast off and Mousethief expertly guided the cutter away from the dock. I was up in the control room with him as he quickly sped out of the port. “I still can’t believe they let you take an entire ship like this,” I replied.
“I normally don’t like to do it. It creates waves and gets back to High Cleric Maximilian. But an entire base going quiet requires a forceful response. We can’t go in half baked,” he replied.
“I am not disagreeing with you. Just surprised the military let you take it,” I added.
“Well we are commissioned officers, technically,” he said.
“I can’t believe anyone would let you be Colonel,” I replied.
“Well, it is useful for situations like this. There will be complaining, and High Cleric Maximilian will get pushback if we fail. But we have high ranks for a reason. Unless there is an Admiral or General, then it is easy to get heavy ordinance and equipment,” he replied.
“That is one thing, but such a large ship. What about the crew?” I asked.
“Staying on shore. If this goes well, I might just keep this ship,” he replied with a grin at me.
“What really? Wouldn’t that draw attention?” I asked.
“Possibly. But if the snakes are stepping up their actions, then having some heavier firepower wouldn’t be out of the question. Load up vehicles and supplies on the back. We would have to get some staff. Like Southpaw,” he replied.
“What brought this on?” I thought Mousethief loved his container method of travel.
“Safety. And if you plan to go visit the snakes you will need a support vessel. Better to get a crew and ship ahead of time. This one is quite new, less than a year old,” he explained.
“Alright. I will trust your judgement on these things,” I added.
“Thanks Mittens. Mousethief knows best. Also, I have no doubt that High Cleric Maximilian wants to keep a closer on our activities,” he muttered the last bit.
“Is that a problem?” I asked.
“Just need to be careful. It will make life easier, but we will be watched,” he replied. I nodded at this.
“Well, I just have to complete all the missions given to me,” I replied.
“Hmm, well this one I suspect will be extra tough. A huge disappearance like this, it isn’t simple. We should reach our destination in three days.” He hit a few buttons on the console and let go of the steering wheel. “All set,” he replied.
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“Isn’t that unsafe?” I asked.
“For anyone else yes. But I have a skill that will give me a heads up if I need to take over control. Let’s take a tour and pick out rooms,” he said.
There were three decks. The top deck was just the control room and the front deck. The second floor was the rear deck and the front of the ship, where there were crew quarters, mess hall, and general supplies towards the middle of cutter. There was small motorboat that could lowered at the back. The bottom deck held the engine housing, fuel, and armory.
I let Mousethief have the Captain’s quarters, while I took the First Mate’s quarters which were slightly smaller. We had a meal of fish and vegetables, which Mousethief pulled out of nowhere. After that we went back up to the command room at the top of the cutter.
“So, what’s its name?” I asked as we sat up in the command room watching the water and waves slowly move past us as the sun set.
“The Metalshark, not very imaginative, but it will do. Why you want to rename it?” he asked me.
“Just curious,” I replied, glad I had my skills, so I wasn’t dying on this vessel. Even with it being fairly calm I could still feel the rocking and my stomach slightly protesting. “Any information on the island?” I asked.
“No, unfortunately I wasn’t able to dig up a map. But there is the port, and a small town. On a cliff nearby is the military base overlooking the port that is in the cove. The besides the area around the town, the rest of the shore is made of cliffs and rocks, so no other good place to land.”
“If the Apostates control the military fort, can’t they fire on us?” I asked.
“Yes. That is why I will get you ashore with the motorboat into the port. Also here,” Mousethief said and pulled out a large bulky backpack. “A radio for when you get ashore.” I took it and looked at him.
“Nothing handheld?” I asked.
“Not with the range we will need. Leave it in the motorboat, but I can’t bring the Metalshark in close unless you let me know it is clear and it won’t be fired on. It is a big target. Better to stay out of range and sight until I am needed. You can look that over for the next few days until we arrive.”
“Hmm, alright,” I replied and began poking at the radio, taking my time to make sure I understood what all the knobs would do. It had only so much charge but was incredibly powerful. I made sure it was synced up with the ship as well.
After that, I put it away in my room and went out on front deck. The ship heaved up and down and I felt queasy, but it was a good way to work on two of my skills. Sea Legs and Sea Stomach were both skills that could only be improved when I was out on the water. The sooner I leveled them up, the sooner my body could handle boats.
Water splashed against the bow as the Metalshark cut through the waves. It was an impressive feat of engineering and a big reason why the snakes weren’t pouring across the ocean in mass to attack. They might slip people by various patrols in small boats, but a large ship was out of the question. It would be blown out of the water.
Even an elder snake couldn’t swim in the ocean for long and would drown. It was the unofficial boundary that kept the lands of the Covenant Church truly safe. It also helped that the snakes had a target in the form of Highwater Bastion on their continent with the paladins being based there.
I could only imagine how far things would go in another decade. Thinking about the level of technology that was available and history, it was clear there had been a huge shift in the last fifty to a hundred years. Less sword fighting, more metal, more guns, and more bombs.
It was taking time to build up enough to beat back the snakes, but their desperation was clear as day. It made me wonder what the world would be like once the Covenant Church fully won and there was no one left to oppose it seriously.
What would be the point of bad creatures then? I guess to create divisions among creatures, so they didn’t fight against the Covenant Church or ask too many questions. Even the criminal element was under their paw. Resting against the railing I held up a paw and flexed my claws.
They weren’t good, but they brought stability. Should I go against the Covenant Church, once I got strong enough? Was it a good thing to do? I wasn’t good at anything except fighting. That might not have been true before, but now I felt my path was set due to Mes.
If the Covenant Church left me alone, I would leave them alone. I knew they weren’t good before, but better an evil that I knew and could work with compared to whatever replaced them. Maybe I should ask that of Maximilian, a seat with the High Clerics on their inner council.
I wondered if he would price that as more or less than the cost of making cats good creatures and changing doctrine and an entire culture. It was honestly hard to say, since the leadership was very hidden. I knew there were High Clerics and factions, but beyond that it was a mystery how the Covenant Church operated.
Maximilian might hold my leash, but who was holding his leash? I had never considered that before. It was a very important question in my mind and one that would not be easily answered. The Covenant Church had been around for a long time, so their secrets had to run quite deep.
Glancing back at the control room Mousethief wasn’t there. But I had no doubt he had set the ship on the right course. He was an interesting creature and a tricky one. I still hadn’t asked him where he had initially found Mes’ stone. That was ducked away in a duffle bag with my personal belongings. But I would need to hide it somewhere. I couldn’t keep lugging it around.
Some place safe and secure, that would never be checked. Or would be checked and overlooked. It was hard to think of a good place, since I traveled so much. I had been keeping it with me and this ship seemed like a good place to store it for now.
The ship went up and down again and I looked forward, the wind pushing past my whiskers. I could feel my stomach muscles clenching and unclenching, as I fought against the nausea that threatened to overtake me.