Slaves & Ships

{Quest time remaining: 2 days}

The Warlord, Larry P. Head was angry, so angry his breathing was getting louder and faster, the veins from his neck were bulging. If he were a cartoon character smoke would exit his ears.

"It just doesn't make sense! Victor is my strongest and most loyal slave, so why haven't we HEARD FROM HIS SINCE YESTERDAY?!" Larry looked at the group of slaves who were all shuddering in fear.

In his rage he was destroying his room which contained a lot of paperwork, valuables, weapons, and some green scrolls.

On the side of the room were several slaves all afraid of his wrath. 

Over the years Larry had spent quite a few red scrolls, and many green scrolls on Victor, and even gave him a valuable red grade weapon.

The search for Jericho was still ongoing. But there was a huge nuisance who was killing all of his men, taking all of his ships, thus making Larry waste time, and resources tracking him down.

Desperate to get rid of the nuisance(Sky) he sends out Victor to hunt him down and kill him. That was three days ago, and he hadn't heard from him since yesterday. 

"Nothing has gone well for me this past month! I find out there is this little girl with an extremely rare skill, then we have her imprisoned, then she escapes. Next I find out by some miracle she made it to my island, and once again she escapes the island with the help of a fucking 18 year old kid who killed five of my men! Now, this past month someone is out there killing all my men! Hundreds of them! I am down 16 ships! 19 if we count the ones I ordered Victor to command."

The only one in the room who was calm is a man with a pair of sexy female slaves on both his arms.

"YOU!" Larry pointed at the man.

"What is it?"

"I want you to find your daughter and bring her here, and kill this nuisance!"

"Fuck that shit! You want me to hunt my own daughter?" 

"You already sold her out to me! Remember? For money?"

"I am not going to hunt her down. I draw the line at that."

"OH WOW! FATHER OF THE YEAR EVERYONE! The man who is willing to sell out his own flesh and blood, but draws the line at capturing her. BRAVO!"

"Fuck you, Larry."

"How about this? I will pay you an extra three million shells if you just kill this person who is causing me trouble!"

"Nope. Not doing that. I don't do bounty hunts."

"Five million?"

"...but you gotta pay me in advance."

"Forget it then!" Larry wasn't going to give someone five million shells in advance when he had betrayed his family and his crew.

The man shrugged his shoulders and continued to smoke a cigar. He was only there because when Jericho is brought in Larry is going to pay him what they agreed.

Just outside the Warlord's island there were 3 fishmen looking at the fortified island. There were huge walls surrounding the island. 

"So this is where the fake Warlord is."

"Looks like it."

"Sooner or later our little killer has got to come here. First we'll group up. And when the time is right we drag him down to the ocean floors!"

The three fishmen dived deeper to the ocean to avoid being seen. 

Meanwhile…

An entire day had gone by since that close battle with Victor.

Sky was swimming to another island, Harbot's. It was the kingdom Sky had visited before. 

Since there were only two more days left he decided it would be best to rest for the day, plan out his attack.

"Hmm… it's been about 24 hours." Sky took out a blue scroll from his inventory. The system told him he could summon the Merchant anytime he wanted, but had to wait 24 hours since the last time he visited the Merchant so he could buy new items.

{Say 'activate' to summon Merchant}

"So it does work like the other scrolls. Activate." Sky threw the blue scroll in front of him.

This time there was no square shaped building. Instead there were three tables and the Merchant behind said tables. Each table had something different, items he could buy, the special shop which sells items that he can buy for player coupons, and finally quests.

"Hello there. Not what you expected?" 

"No, not really."

"Yeah, everybody thinks the same thing when they first use the summoning thingy. Anything you like?"

Sky ignored the special item since he could not buy it. Instead he focused on the quests first.

'Useless… screw that one… another desperate guy seeking to impress a woman… that one has terrible rewards… Oh?' 

There was only one quest that caught his eye.

{Quest: Bring me slaves for my daughter}

{For a bit of context my twenty year old daughter has killed the last forty or so slaves. The next shipment of slaves isn't until next month. She's getting restless. If you can find me fifty slaves to quench her thirst for blood until the next shipment arrives I would appreciate it. The type of slave does not matter, she doesn't care about race, age, gender, color, or status, as long as they're human or sub-human it's fine. There's even a little something extra if you finish my request fast}

{Reward: 500,000 shells, 3x green scroll}

{Time limit: 5 days}

{Extra reward if quest is finished within 1 day}

{Extra reward: 200,000 shells, 1x red scroll}

{Quest punishment: none}

{Extra info will be given if quest is accepted}

"I want that quests"

"UGH! Not that family again. Now that I think about it they're perfect for you." The Merchant groaned upon seeing it.

"What do you mean by that?" 

"I've been working as a Merchant for a long time. And that family is a family full of sadists, each one just as bad as the other. All they want is slaves! Slaves! Slaves! Slaves! None of the slaves lasted more than a week with that family."

"Wait, they're actual people?" Sky was confused.

"Yeah, they are. They are not from this universe but they're real." 

"I thought you or G. were the ones who are issuing these quests."

"We do create a few of these quests, like the finding nemo quest is mine. But every quest you see on that board is issued by someone from all parts of the multiverse. Someone issues a quest, they pay for it out of their own pockets, and someone accepts them."

'Multiverse?' Sky was not familiar with that word but can somewhat understand.

He read how portals/dungeons are actually just gateways to other dimensions. In fact it is said that the invention of the phone was an idea taken from an advanced world, a world that had been destroyed.

"So the people I killed using that pendant a few days ago, that quest was from-"

"From a living person, yes. There are all kinds of people who issue quests every minute: insane people, kind people, rich people especially, sadists, demons, angels, monks, cannibals, desperate losers, bored people. Trust me, there's one of every kind of person who issues quests on this board."

"Well… that changes things. So you're telling me there are red and green scrolls on other universes?" 

"Not exactly. In this case one of the rewards is a red scroll, and you can buy a red scroll from me for 1,000,000 shells or more. So this person spends their money, that is equivalent to 1,000,000 shells or more, to give someone a valuable item as a reward so someone can accept their quest and finish it quickly. And just so you know in this person's universe scrolls of such kind do not exist. For you it might be a red scroll as a reward, but for another system user it might be a potion that increases one of his stats permanently, or for another person it might be a skill book worth that amount of money. Understand what I'm saying?"

"I think so."

"Good."

"So… does this mean these two guys would count as slaves?" Sky handed over two cards. Each card had a person in it.

Sky had carried both of these people all this time because he forgot about them.

"Well… yes, this counts." The Merchant wasn't comfortable with the idea of handling slaves.

"Wait, question, does that mean I could sell you these two guys for profit?"

"NOPE! We do NOT sell living beings! Especially humans! Unless it is specified like that precious, little rabbit. Muah! He's so adorable!" The Merchant squealed like a little girl when he remembered the rabbit. "But you can sell monster parts to me or their entire bodies if you want. Only if they're dead."

Sky looked over the items for sale. Too bad he wasn't able to sell people to the Merchant, perhaps it would have been a good source of money.

{Red scroll: 3,000,000 shells}

{Gentlemen's white shirt: 10 shells}

{Goblin club: 2 damage: 50 shells}

{Love letter in a bottle: 10,000 shells}

{Viagra: 500 shells}

"I'll obviously take the red scroll, and the love letter since I am curious."

{Quest: Spend 10,000,000 shells on the Merchant: 3,015,300/10,000,000}

{Shells: 8.8m}

"Will that be all, Sky? Because once you're done I'm gone, and you can only summon me back if you use another summoning scroll."

"I'm good." Sky didn't take a look at the special item. There was no point, he did not have a single player coupon on him.

"Oh, before I forget."

{Quest accepted}

The Merchant disappeared from the ship along with the shop.

{Additional quest information given}

A little gold bell appeared before Sky.

{Ring the golden bell when you are ready to give us a slave(s) and my sister will appear before you. There is no limit to how many times you ring it, as long as you have a slave before you each time you ring it}

Sky shook the golden bell. It made a wonderful noise when it rang.

Then all of a sudden a small portal appeared in front of Sky. From the portal a tall, beautiful, elegant white lady dressed in a fancy Victorian dress appeared. She had jewelry all over her body, they were all made out of diamonds. Her purse was small but encrusted with all kinds of gems.

Sky took a few steps back. The lady was a giant, Sky was average for his height, around 5' 9" but the lady was at least 8' 6".

'Identify.'

{Cannot use skills on quest givers}

'Well… that's new.' 

The elegant, tall lady looked at Sky. She turned her head side-to-side looking for her slaves, but there was nothing.

"I take it you are the one who accepted my brother's quest. Where are the slaves?" The lady's tone was serious and loud.

"They're right… here?" Sky did not have the cards on him.

"Oh, no, The Merchant must have them!"

"YEET!" 

The Merchant appeared out of nowhere and threw the two cards at Sky's face. He had forgotten to give them back.

"G'day, mates." He spoke in a British accent before disappearing.

Sky grabbed the cards and handed it to the lady. She wore long white gloves on her hands that were very clean, and most likely made of leather. 

The lady frowned when Sky handed her the cards.

"What is this?"

"Your slaves. Just say 'activate' to summon them. Or rip them."

"Activate?"

The two cards in her hand disappeared and appeared two men who were broken after spending a day in limbo.

"Ohh! Impressive! And convenient!" The elegant lady was fascinated.

*Snap*

She was able to snap her fingers while wearing leather white gloves. From the portal behind her two black chains wrapped themselves around the two men's neck, arms, waist, and dragged them to the portal despite them screaming and begging not to take them, they will never be seen again.

Sky didn't even see the chains come out of the portal until they wrapped themselves around the two men. They were so fast.

"Have a good day." The elegant lady disappeared.

{Quest: 2/50 slaves delivered}

'Well… might as well complete the quest within the hour, since I have time to kill.' Sky smiled.

Below him was Jericho sleeping soundly in her new bed. Sky promised her that they would take today off, to rest before they fought the Warlord. So she decided to sleep the entire day.

Sky saw no point in grinding portals for levels anymore, he won't be able to level anymore and Jericho was already at level 99. Instead he plans on grinding his skills, because of his high skill levels he was able to defeat Victor who outclassed him in stats.

Sky took out the love letter in a bottle. Why was the price of it 10,000 shells? That was why he was curious.

Taking out the letter from the bottle to examine the contents of it, Sky was horrified when he read the letter.

"I LOVE YOU!" 

The letter was written in blood, and the writing appeared to be written by a lunatic.

'I don't get it. Why did it cost 10,000 shells? Identify.'

{A love letter made out of human skin}

"AHH!" Sky dropped the letter on the ground. He thought the paper felt weird to the touch, but did not think it was made out of human skin.

"That's messed up even for me!" 

For good measure, he picked it up without touching it, and burned it to ash. The bottle that the letter came in was thrown into the ocean.

"Good riddance!" Sky wiped his hands and would never think or mention about this moment again.

Checking out his map he saw a ship that was close to him, and he smiled.

'First victims ahead.'

Thirty minutes later…

Sky was in another ship, covered in blood. Washing off the blood was easy because his cleaning skill level was increasing, from level three to level five.

In front of him were people huddled and were scared to death of him.

In no time he was able to capture 48 slaves. He got lucky as the ship was a slave ship part of the Warlord, and it carried 40 captured slaves, and an additional 25 people who were delivering the slaves.

The slaves thought they were saved at first. They thought that Sky would bring them to freedom as they were all wrongfully enslaved by the Warlord's men. 

They had no idea they were just changing ownership.

*Ring*

The sound of the golden bell rang.

"I love that sound." Sky said.

The same elegant lady appeared before Sky. The rest of the people cried in horror to see a tall lady appear from a portal.

"Fascinating!" The lady's eyes were full of surprise, joy, and admiration for Sky. "You are quick and efficient. Although I am disappointed I did not get to see that ability again."

*Snap*

Forty-eight chains appeared from the portal and dragged everyone forcefully to the portal.

'Again, how fast are those chains? I was prepared for it but I still couldn't see them or react.' Sky thought.

"Thank you."

The tall lady also disappeared into the portal after bidding him farewell.

{Quest complete}

{Additional awards given!}

{Received: 700,000 shells, 3x green scrolls, 1x red scroll}

{Shells: 9.5m}

{The ship is now without an owner. Would you like to own it?}

Sky sighed. Did he do the right thing to sacrifice those people for these rewards? 

The answer is yes.

{Green scroll: Card transformation}

"Already have this one." Sky tossed that scroll into his inventory. It was a good skill to have especially if someone can evolve it like he did.

{Green scroll: Eye of truth: Can tell if someone is lying}

{Green scroll: increases dex stat by 10}

Sky ripped both green scrolls.

{Learned: eye of truth: lvl 1: can sometimes tell if people are lying}

{Dex: 110 → 120}

Sky then read the red scroll.

{Red scroll: Air manipulation: able to manipulate the air around you}

Sky's eyes widened. He suspected this is what his last captain, whose name he has long forgotten by now, used when they found that secret boss room.

"With this perhaps I can finally find secret rooms in dungeons!"

Sky feels that he has missed out on so many secrets, items, and levels in dungeons because he is unable to find the secret passages. He could search every nook and cranny in every dungeon he enters, but they're not guaranteed to have anything, and it would be a waste of time as well as risky.

{New skill learned: air manipulation: lvl 1: can barely control and feel the air around you}

Sky felt the air around him following his control, but it was so weak it felt like he was a weak cooling fan.

'Well can't say I didn't expect this.'

"Sky?"

Jericho heard noise outside and thought to check it out.

"Hey, Jericho."

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, we just got attacked by the Warlord's men. I took care of it already."

"Oh. Okay." Jericho went back to sleep.

"I would like to own this ship."

{Slave ship owned}

Sky transformed the ship into a card and placed it in his inventory. Transforming that ship into a card cost him nearly half of his mana.

Sky continued to sail to Harbot's.

"System, when you just said if I wanted to be the owner of that slave ship, does that mean I have to relinquish the right to command this ship to control that ship?"

{No}

"Then does that mean I am able to be in control of multiple ships at once?" 

{Yes}

"Oh… really?" Sky found that too good to be true.

{It seems the player has forgotten about the crew and captain benefits. I suggest you thoroughly read it again}

{Captain controls: As the captain of the crew you are able to give your crew mates a few benefits the system has}

{Crew's benefit 1: Crew Inventory: Includes a special inventory that is separate from the player's personal inventory. Crew members are able to see the contents stored in the inventory but they have no access to the inventory}

{Crew's benefit 2: Long distance chat: The captain and the rest of the crew are able to communicate with each other no matter the distance as long as they are within the party}

{Crew's benefit 3: Quartermaster: The most trusted person a captain has is his quartermaster. A quartermaster can access the crew's inventory and even access the ship's controls, they can even kick out crew members out of the party but not the captain, and can invite non-crew members to join the crew. There can only be one quartermaster within the crew}

{Crew's benefit 4: Crappy leveling up and skill grinding: Crew members will grow stronger faster within the party. Learning skills through books is not possible. Learning new skills through repeated actions is possible}

{Crew members will require more exp and time to level up compared to the player: this is a precaution in case a crew mate overpowers the player}

{Note: If a crew member leaves the crew all skills and levels that they earned while in the crew will remain}

{Crew members cannot benefit from any weapon or armor stats like the player can. They can never see their own or another's levels, stats, or skills, only the player has the benefit}

{Captain benefits}

{Benefit 1: Rank authority: You have the authority to give the quartermaster rank to anyone within the party. The position is important so give it to someone you know won't betray you}

{Benefit 2: Brig. If your ship has one you can teleport crew members, and non-crew members on the brig as long as they are on the ship and are not in combat mode. Those in the brig will have their abilities and stats bound}

{Benefit 3: Teleporting: If you command multiple ships you can teleport within each ship wherever and whenever you want with no cost and no cooldown: Note that if player is not within 10 meters of a ship you command teleportation is not possible}

{Benefit 4: Contribution system: You are able to see a list of how much each of your crew members have contributed by killing, earning loot, and exp}

"I have definitely forgotten about that. How many ships can I command at a time?"

At the time when he first read this Sky did not place this as important.

{There is no limit}

"Woah. One second. Activate." Sky threw two cards far away, and summoned the slave ship and another ship that was sitting in his inventory.

{Slave ship}

{HP: 53,000/53,000}

The slave ship was grand but nearly half the size of the battleship. It carried 14 cannons, seven on each side of the ship.

{Warlord fighter ship}

The ship was a tiny bit bigger than the Megalen. It had 6 cannons, three on each side. It was a ship he stole from the Warlord almost a month ago.

With a thought Sky teleported to the slave ship, and back to the battleship, then to the battleship.

"Amazing! This is amazing! If I had known I would have captured more ships! Maybe it's not too late?" 

Sky continued teleporting back and forward just for fun. 

"How far away can I teleport between ships?" 

{There is no distance limit. As long as you are within the same universe, and within 10 meters of a ship you own, you can teleport to any ship at any time at no cost. If a ship you own has been taken over or destroyed you cannot teleport to said ship}

"Does that mean I can also teleport crew members with me?"

{No}

"How many crew members can join my crew?"

{There is no limit to the number of party members/crew members that can join. There is only a limit of 1 quartermaster position}

'Hmm… this gives me an idea.' Sky smirked.

"I see. How can I chat with my crew members?"

{Say: Access chat}

{All crew members have the option to use this feature. But you can disable said feature for certain crew members if you want}

"Access chat?"

A new system window appeared in front of him. It was a small rectangle window that was mostly empty, except for one part that had Jericho's name and face. 

Sky clicked on Jericho's profile. Once he did there was this small *bleep* noise that rang in his head.

Jericho, who was soundly asleep, also heard the strange *bleep* noise and it startled her.

"What was that?" Jericho quickly stood up and looked around. 

Sky, despite Jericho not being beside him, heard her voice in his head.

"Jericho?" 

"Sky? Where are you? I can hear you in my head. Or am I just crazy?" 

"No. Come upstairs."

Jericho was confused but went upstairs. She saw Sky looking at her.

"So it does work."

"Sky, how can I hear you in my mind?" 

"It's one of the benefits. How do I end this chat?"

{Say: End chat}

"End chat."

There was a *bloop* sound that rang in their heads.

"Your abilities are weird, Sky. Cool, but weird." Jericho said.

"I know. This almost reminds me of a phone."

"Hmm… yeah. I guess you're right, in a way."

"Anyways, we are going hunting right now."

"I thought you said we were taking a break today from completing dungeons?"

"Who said we were going to hunt down dungeons?" an evil smile crept up on his face. He looked at the map to find something.

Jericho recognized that smile of his and couldn't help but sigh.

'Guess Sky is murdering more people today.'

She was surprised at herself for how easy it was to think that. A month ago she wouldn't even think about going on a murder spree.

Behind them was the slave ship and fighter ship following them at a safe distance.

Meanwhile…

There was another of the Warlord's fighter ships sailing around the ocean. Fighter ships are typically used by the Warlord's exterminators. 

Battleships are ships meant for naval battles and pillaging islands. 

And slave ships are for carrying slaves from place-to-place as well as items. Sometimes they're just known as cargo ships.

"It's so boring today! I just wish something interesting would happen." A young man carrying a mop said in an uninteresting tone.

"SSSSHHHH!" Many of the crew members heard him say the forbidden 'b' word, which is just as bad as using the 'p' word and the 'q' word: boring, peaceful, and quiet.

Because whenever someone says any of these words something horrible always happens.

"NEVER! SAY! THAT! WORD! AGAIN! NEWBIE!" 

"Wait, what did I say? That it's boring? I'm just stating the truth."

"LET ME AT HIM!" One of them wanted to beat him up before they got cursed.

"Okay, alright! What's going on?" an old, fat man appeared before them.

"Tiny Tim is saying the 'b' word."

"I mean what's wrong with that word? Most of us here use that word on a regular basis. In fact I at least heard all of you use that word on your wives."

"Not 'that' word, Captain, 'THAT' one."

"That one? OH SHIT! YOU SAID THE FORBIDDEN WORD YOU IDIOT!" The Captain began to berate Tiny Tim.

"Captain, aren't those our ships?" another crew member pointed out far into the horizon.

They saw three ships coming towards them.

"They look familiar but the flag's are different." 

"You think they want to fight us?"

"Nah, fighting us is like fighting the Warlord. Not even the Caribbean men want to mess with us."

"But they're heading towards us…"

"Uh, sir, what about those rumors that someone is sabotaging us?"

"Rumors are rumors, Jimmy."

"Um, Captain, weird question but do you believe in ghosts? Or ghost ships?" another crew member looking through a telescope asked.

"What kind of stupid question is that? To answer your question, yes, I do believe in them."

"Well… look who is steering the ships." The crew member handed the telescope to his captain.

Confused, he took the microscope and took a look at the ships. To his surprise there was no one on those ships, except two people standing in front of the battleship.

"What?"

As the ships got closer the young man jumped once towards them. Everyone who saw him thought he was boarding their ship and immediately got ready. 

But, the young man could barely make it to the ship and fell into the ocean, leaving everyone baffled and laughing.

"Hahaha! That idiot couldn't properly calculate the jump right!"

"AAAAAHHHH!"

As they were laughing, they all soon fell to the water because the ship they were on disappeared. Everyone was confused and stunned, where in the world was their ship? Why did it suddenly disappear? Is what they were thinking.

While carrying an ice trident the young man swam fast, jumped out of the water, and jumped while in the air to the battleship. On his hand was a card that looked identical to their ship.

"Summon lightning eagles!"

Five majestic birds made from lightning flew over to the Warlord's men and began killing them. The nearest island was hundreds of miles away. They were all trapped in the ocean.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT TINY TIM!"

Sky went on to repeat the same thing for the rest of the day, killing the Warlord's men and taking their ships.

{Skill has leveled up}

{Card sealing technique: lvl 1 → 2: items that are 100m or smaller can be transformed into cards. Enemies below 4% of their max health can be sealed in a card}