Sky exited the teleportation gate of the Dark Faction’s Ocean City, Slyereen. It was a city in the middle of the dark ocean that wasn’t far from the mainland.
The economy centered around the aquatic industry and there were many items, equipment, and weapons focused on dealing with oceanic and water-attributed monsters.
You could see many nagas, sirens, and serpent race players in this city. Sky was the only unique naga that had four arms and each arm having light halos around her wrists. Normally, she would stand out quite easily but she always hid her extra pair of arms underneath her armor.
She really liked how this game was so flexible. Her armor didn’t need to be specific to her body’s physique since as long as she could wear it, it was equipable. Of course, it was more comfortable if she wore one that had 4 armholes in them rather than just the 2.
However, standing out like a sore thumb wasn’t Sky’s style. Keeping things a secret was better for her since she liked playing solo. It was why she didn’t stream nor did she join a guild or crew.
A crew was the new feature that came with the recent update of Unitale. Naturally, Maria wouldn’t know this because to form a crew, one needed a minimum of 10 players who were on each other’s friend list.
It was like an adventurer party but with the team being permanent. The lower limit of a crew was 10 while the upper limit was 50. As a crew, one would be able to take on adventurer and mercenary quests issued by their respective organizations.
A crew was much laxer than a guild. Most of the players that weren’t hardcore opted to join a crew than a guild. A guild needed one to invest a lot of their time into it while a crew didn’t have that requirement.
You can play as you want while occasionally helping out with the rest of the members of the crew. A guild needed you to be present at the drop of a hat if the guild leader or one’s team leader requested of them.
There were naturally more benefits to becoming a guild member but that didn’t mean being on a crew wasn’t rewarding. Just like a guild, a crew would also have daily, weekly and monthly tasks that one could accomplish to gain extra rewards.
The only difference was guild tasks could be generated by both the system or specifically assigned by the guild master or vice guild master to suit the needs of the guild.
If the guild needed monster materials to craft equipment or healing items, the guild master or vice guild master could just assign daily tasks that would lean more towards monster hunting and gathering.
Or if they needed to craft weapons and armor, then mining and raiding tasks could be given instead. The guild leaders also had the power to set the rewards for the completed tasks so well-off guilds like the Fallen Angels, Eclipse, or the Round Table, would have better task rewards that guild members would be more willing to complete.
It wasn’t unlike a crew’s tasks that would be system generated. It wasn’t as flexible as a guild and sometimes, the rewards didn’t match the time or effort it took to complete the task.
Sky’s friends were part of a crew called the Strawhat Marauders, the captain was somewhat of a nerd so the crew’s name was heavily inspired by a famous TV show. It was somewhat fitting though because the crew mainly operated within the seas of Eur, particularly, the Black Sea where Sylereen was close to.
Sky couldn’t hide the halos on her two wrists but most players didn’t pay attention to that small detail because they attributed it to some kind of cosmetic which was booming lately.
Ever since Maria’s hosting of Unitale’s first-ever live fashion show featuring only herself and a ton of in-game skins, many game designers and developers turned their attention to this aspect of the game’s virtual industry. They began creating and marketing custom skins for the players and the profit margin was quite great so they continued to do it.
Naturally, Sky didn’t have any of that on her. She didn’t see the point since her character already looked pretty cool.
From the teleportation gate, Sky quickly made her to the city’s adventurer guild to rendezvous with her friend’s party. Many of the people in the party including the leader wanted her to join them but Sky was quite reluctant.
If she joined, the details of her character would be shown to the members and she didn’t want anyone to know that she was an awakened player. Unfortunately, being an Awakened was something that couldn’t be hidden.
If it was just in the party menu, it wouldn’t show, but once it was in a formal organization like a crew or a guild, it would definitely become obvious. It was the system’s doing and it wasn't something that Sky could change.
Once more awakened players became known, it would be less attention-grabbing for Sky once she shows her status then. For now, she wanted to keep it a secret. She didn’t want to be pestered by questions and inquiries.
When she arrived at the adventurer’s guild, Sky quickly found her friend that invited her and the group that she would be partying up with later.
In the Strawhat Marauders, there were only 2 people that were her friends―IRL friends. Everyone else was a stranger but Sky was acquainted with them.
“Hey, there she is! Sky, over here!”
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One of the players in the group, a male serpentkin waved his arm in the air inviting her over. This player was the one she talked with earlier, BiggerBetter, or simply, B. There was a female serpentkin next to B and her name was Cyojin, or Jin.
“B, Jin, I’m here. Hope I’m not late!”
Jin walked over and said, “Nah, we just grouped up just a minute ago. We still missing a few others but we’ll be meeting them at the Black Sea.”
“Alright, since we’re all here now, let’s get going!” A player named Strawhat Capitan said.
This player was the leader of the adventurer crew and everyone just addressed him as Cap or Captain.
“Glad to have you with us again, Sky,” Cap said as he passed her by. Sky nodded to him and began chatting with B.
“Hey B, what’s the quest this time around?”
“Not a quest, but Cap found a hidden underwater dungeon a few clicks to the northeast of the Rift Isles. There’s no sign of any other player entering the dungeon so it’s the first discovery. We’ll be getting a lot of bonuses for this!”
“Oh, cool.”
“You bet, I’ll finally hit level 105 with this. By the way, what level you at?”
“Remember to keep it a secret, but I just hit level 129. With this first discovery bonus, I think I’ll hit 130 by the end of it.”
“Damn, girl! What you been doing to level up so fast?”
“I just fight higher grade monsters and do as many quests as I can while I’m online.”
“Man, your job quests are pretty generous!”
“Yeah, though it’s unfortunate that they’re job-specific quests. I can’t share them with you.”
This was the excuse Sky gave to her friends to avoid any suspicion. Of course, the job-related quests weren’t only available for her but she told them that she had acquired a hidden class.
This much information was needed to be given for her lie to become a truth. It also wasn’t entirely a lie. Sky did have a hidden class, the SpellBlade, a class that used a combination of magic and weapons to fight their enemies.
Most of the spells were enchantment and enhancement-type. There weren’t many long-range magic spells in her arsenal but she did have one or two of them. Most of her spells enchanted her weapon and buffed her character so she would still need to get up close and personal to take down a monster.
However, the unique feature of the SpellBlade was that different weapons had different effects on the outcome of the enchantment spells she used. For instance, if she used a sword, her enchantment, [Water Veil], would put an aura of water around her weapon and when she attacked, her attacks would deal water-type damage.
She had experimented with many weapons so far and the best one and the one that suited her taste and style the most was undoubtedly the spear. When she used her enchantments on her spear, her attacks would change from melee to ranged.
Her [Water Veil], when used on a spear, could be launched as a projectile when she did a stab or it could form a wave when she did a sweep. The sword could do the same but it would just be a short wave that didn’t shoot out too far.
The flexibility of her class was what really got Sky into the game even after she was betrayed by her upperclassmen. She actually had to thank her upperclassmen because if she wasn’t brought to that dungeon and left to die as bait, she wouldn’t have been able to acquire the Pearl of the Sea God nor would she have obtained the SpellBlade hidden class.
Everyone in the adventurer crew that she occasionally partied with knew of her hidden class. Some were envious and jealous while others were accepting and thought that Sky was really lucky but that was only because not many knew of her story. They wouldn’t call her lucky if they knew what she had to go through to obtain the hidden class SpellBlade.
Of course, her two friends, B, and Jin knew since they were her IRL friends. Their group of 3 no longer interacted with that upperclassman but unfortunately, they were still on the same campus so they couldn’t avoid him altogether.
If they did encounter the person, they would just greet him and act as if nothing was wrong though they would do their best to try and keep the interaction brief.
When Sky and the party arrived at the port of Sylereen, they went towards one of the docking bays and onto a ship called the Mary Anne. It was a sturdy-looking galleon built out of black ironwood, one of the strongest and most durable shipping materials currently available in the game.
This was the ship that the crew’s leader, Cap, had somehow managed to obtain after completing a chain quest related to shipbuilding. Cap was also one of the few players in the game that had a hidden class just like Sky. He had a hybrid hidden class that focused on both the lifestyle and combat aspects of Unitale, Pirate Captain.
It was a combination of the initial oceanic combat class, Pirate, and the advanced lifestyle class, Captain, for the shipbuilders class tree.
This class let Cap fight on the high seas as well as build and customize the ship he owned. He didn’t need to go to a shipbuilder player to get anything built for his ship since he could just do it all himself.
He took pride in being a pirate captain but Sky couldn’t help but wonder if the city allowed a Pirate Captain class player to be within its confines. Well, they were part of the Dark Faction so it was probably acceptable. If Cap was in the Light Faction, he definitely wouldn’t be welcomed.
Once everyone got on board, they all sat down somewhere and waited for the captain to take them out of port.
“Alright, ladies and gents, let’s set sail!” Cap said after he donned a pirate hat on his head.
“Haha, does he always do that?” Sky asked.
“Every. Single. Time,” Jin said with a sigh.
“What’s wrong with that? It’s cool!” B replied with a laugh. Sky agreed with him. It was indeed cool in her eyes. Jin, however, wasn’t of the same opinion as them.
“It’s embarrassing. Can’t he see that other players at the port come out specifically just to see him make a fool of himself whenever our crew sets off? Watch, Sky, he’s not done yet...”
“Ease her out of the port! We’re setting off, mateys!”
Cap was addressing his ship’s crew that was composed entirely of NPCs whom he had managed to recruit. They quickly began working once their captain gave the orders, untying the ropes holding the ship onto the pier, pulling up the anchor, and lowering the sails.
Strawhat Capitan carefully maneuvered the ship out of the pier and into the open waters of the harbor.
“Lower the mainsails! We’re leaving the harbor posthaste!”
Before they even left the harbor, Cap started howling at the top of his lungs.
“Oooohhhh, Come all you young sailor men, listen to me I'll sing you a song of the fish in the sea~!”
“And there he goes...singing his shanties at the top of his lungs again…” Jin said as she covered her face in embarrassment.
“Hahaha! You sing it, Cap!”
The NPCs crewmates followed after their captain and began singing along. Back on the harbor, Sky saw a few NPCs and players come out to see the Mary Anne set sail. They waved at the ship while others just watched and enjoyed Cap and his crew’s singing.