9 The fishmen island
{Emergency quest accepted}
{You have found yourself in peril after saving a little girl. You must escape from the island as fast as possible without fighting or attracting attention to yourself}
{Rewards: 4,000 exp, 6,000 shells}
{Failure: You will face the wrath of the Warlord and you will die. Jericho Haydie will be captured and her fate will forever be unknown}
'Fantastic…'
Sky led the kid through the island. Somehow they were able to blend in with the crowd.
"Kid, do you know much about this island?" Sky asked softly.
"No."
"Hmm..." Sky dragged her by her wrist looking for a way out without being seen.
'Hm?' Sky saw a shop selling some slave adults, and even some slave items.
'Never thought I would have to buy one.'
"How much for a leash?" Sky asked the shop owner.
"120 shells."
Sky forked out 120 shells for a slave leash.
Jericho looked at Sky nervously.
"Trust me on this." Sky grabbed her hands and tied her up, making her have the appearance of a slave kid. If people see them like that they'll think she's another pathetic slave.
"Excuse me, my idiot slave here wrecked the motor engine of my motorboat, do you know where we can buy a new one or who can fix it?" Sky asked the slave trader.
"Yeah. Keep going straight and you'll find someone there who sells boats and engines."
"Thank you."
Sky followed the man's directions. Just as he said there is a motorboat store on the edge of an island.
"Hello." There was a tall man organizing stuff in his shop.
"Yes, I would like to buy one motorboat."
"2,000 shells."
Sky placed down 2,000 shells on the counter.
"Here ya go." The man seemed prepared and handed Sky a card.
"Thanks… by the way I'm new around this area, I'm going to Harbot's to sell my slave, do you know where it is?" Sky offered him 50 shells for the information despite already knowing the information.
"Harbot's? It's about a couple hours west from here. you can't miss it."
"East? Thank you. Come on, you." Sky tugged on the leash. He summoned the boat and drove away.
Too bad for Sky that beyond the island there are gates and even watchtowers armed with all types of heavy weaponry.
Sky looked at Jericho and said, "I have an idea but you need to act normal. Use the hoodie to hide your face."
Jericho complied. She lied on the motorboat hugging her legs pretending to be asleep.
'I don't know if that's normal behavior but oh well.'
Sky sailed to one of the gates. There was a gross man who looked like he hadn't showered in months.
{Skill {search} is being used on the player}
After seeing Sky or the slave girl had nothing on them he proceeded to talk to them.
"The toll to leave is 200 shells."
"Here." Sky handed him the money.
The gross man waved his arm and the gates opened for Sky.
"Where are you headed?" He asked while the gate was slowly opening.
{Skill {eye of truth} is being used on the player}
'You've gotta be kidding me.'
"Have you heard of Harbot's? It's the kingdom near here."
"I've been there."
"I mean seriously, that place is awful. A bunch of overpriced items, buildings are always so close together it's almost suffocating, although the people are surprisingly nice. I mean seriously did you know that slave children sell for a lot?" Sky pulled gently on the leash.
Sky knows he has to trick the man into believing he's going to Harbot's and not answer his question directly.
The man looked at Sky.
"Whatever."
With a wave of his hand the gates opened Sky sailed out of the island.
The gross man halted in his tracks as he realized something.
'Wait, I just used the search skill and he had nothing on him, so from where did he pull out those shells? I must be getting old.' He took the money and placed it in his pocket, there is no toll or fee to leave the island.
Sky looked back at the island and was glad no one was following him.
'Can't believe we made it out.'
*DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING*
An alarm rang loudly across the island. All of a sudden all the ships stopped moving, the gates were closing as well.
Sky could also hear the alarm but kept going forward. Once he couldn't see the island anymore he could breathe.
'That was nerve wracking. Also can't believe I had to spend 2,000 shells on another motor boat just to trick a guy into believing we were going to Harbot's and not stand out.'
{Quest complete}
{Reward: 4,000 exp. 6,000 shells}
{Exp: 4321/5400}
"Here, let me take that off." Sky took off the leash from Jericho's hands. He kept the leash so as to not leave behind a trail.
"Are we going to Harbot's?"
"No, that was a lie, a trick that I hope works."
"Why? Oh, I get it."
Meanwhile…
Everyone on the island was nervous, the Warlord was angry.
There was a familiar old man carrying his comically large sword. Beside him is a obese man, with a comically small pointy head that made him look like a pinhead.
{Larry P. Head} {Warlord}
There are a few staff members standing in front of the Warlord, including the man who sold Sky a motorboat.
"So… the girl was here, but she escaped with the help of a man, but the six men charged with searching the ship… their bodies suddenly disappeared."
"That's what I can tell, yes."
Larry looked at the scared man in front of him, it is the shop owner who sold Sky the motor boat.
"Hmm… and not long after that he bought a motorboat, managed to leave the island, and you said he sailed to Harbot's with the slave girl?" The man looked nervous and scared for his life.
"Yes, Warlord, he said he was going to Harbot's to sell the slave!"
"Hmm… I can tell you're telling the truth."
'Thank god.'
"You!" He pointed to the gross man who was beside the shopkeeper.
"Yes, Warlord?"
"Are you certain he said he was going to Harbot's?!"
"Yes! He said he was going there even after I used the eye of truth on him."
"Yeah, I'm not buying it. *Snap*"
The old man grabbed his sword and hacked down both men right down the middle creating a mess of blood.
"But I can also tell you two have been fooled. Now, you three." Larry P. Head pointed to the staff members who were too scared to move.
"You mentioned the man who helped the slave escape was a passenger, but you have no idea exactly where he was going?"
"N-no! We don't ask passengers questions."
"I know that. Where was the ship headed?"
"The ship was going to deliver some products to Helko's island, then Spiral's, Fritz's, Luvah's, Peeves, then Bao's."
"So six different islands, most of which are where I have no territorial power over. We can't even be sure that would be this man's final destination." The Warlord hated this, nobody knew where the passenger was going.
"Master." The old man said, "how about we split up and search all the islands? He only has a motorboat on him, he won't get far without fuel either way."
"Do that. Also hire some competent pirates to increase our numbers, also tell our allies to be on the lookout for a little girl and a kid who's around 18 years, make sure to post pictures of the little girl everywhere and offer them a reward of 100,000 shells. Also, I believe you mentioned yesterday we were a ship short?"
"Yes, Master, I believe our men betrayed us and stole our ship while we were clearing a portal to train new slaves."
"It has been a great week so far. Go! Get on the ships and sail away! You have three months to bring me the girl alive! As for the man, I don't care."
Hundreds of men got on their ships, and dozens of ships started sailing to different islands.
After an hour had passed Sky could relax seeing no one was following them. He stopped the boat and took out a card.
"Hm?" Jericho stared at Sky.
"Come, we're jumping ships. Activate." Sky threw the card and his ship appeared.
Jericho was shocked to see a ship appear from a card. From what she knows even professionals can only place motorboat size objects into cards.
Sky carried her using his telekinesis over to his ship. As he was about to transform his motorboat into a card a new quest appeared.
{Emergency quest accepted}
{The Warlord, Larry P. Head. will stop at nothing to find the player and 'Jericho Haydie'}
{Kill Larry P. Head}
{Quest time: 1 month}
{Quest failure: Unable to kill the Walord, Larry P. Head within time limit}
{Quest failure reward: A horrible fate will befall on Jericho Haydie and the player if quest is not completed before the time is up}
{Quest reward: 25,000 exp, 20,000 shells, 1 red scroll, 1 random red item}
Sky squinted his eyes, what did it mean by 'horrible fate' exactly?
"Everything okay?" Jericho asked after seeing him standing there staring at nothing.
"Listen, I don't think I'll be able to take you to your home."
"I know… it's too far for you. You also said you wanted to see your parents."
"Hm…" Sky looked at her. She might be thirteen but she was more mature than he thought.
'Is it because she's been five months away from home that she's like this?' Sky couldn't imagine the hardships she's gone through.
After climbing aboard he picked an island that's a bit far off using his map. The ship began sailing by itself.
"Where are we going?" Jericho asked.
"I realize that the Warlord will stop at nothing until he catches us, you especially probably because of your ability and I honestly don't care. So for now I'm going to get stronger. On the way when we get to an island we'll find a way to send you home. I'll give you some money for the boat ride."
"Wait, you can't go to any of the nearby islands! They're under the Warlord's territory."
"Are they?" Sky looked at the map and it didn't say anything like that.
"The Warlord has allies on those islands."
"Seriously? Dammit." Sky picked another island a bit further away. According to the map it was uninhabited. He would need to travel even further for a human island.
"We can't travel at night because of the sea monsters. I'll have to dock the ship somewhere else."
Sky walked up to the rear end of the ship to sit down. He kept a close eye on the map to be sure if any enemies were nearby.
"Hey…" Jericho walked up to Sky.
"What is it?"
"How did you know my name? You already called me by my name twice."
"Isn't it obvious? You look like a Jericho, so it's only obvious your name is Jericho." Sky had no plans to reveal anyone about his system.
"That doesn't even make any sense."
"I know."
"..." Jericho.
Seeing that she won't be getting any answers from Sky she entered the captain's quarters. She noticed the comfy bed on the corner and slept there.
'Haven't been able to sleep on a bed in months.'
In seconds she was already soundly asleep.
After an hour Sky stood up.
'I can't even go home while the emergency quest is active, and I don't think I can send them another mail at Harbot's without being recognized. And if I do send them another mail on another island what if the Warlord finds out about my parents? I can't put them in danger.'
Sky went to the captain's quarters where the little girl was. He saw her sleeping figure, she was tossing around uncontrollably, saliva ran down her mouth, and the pillows and bed sheets were on the ground.
'This… this is the reason why I am risking my life, and my time, when I could've been on my merry way to see my parents. Still, part of me doesn't regret it. Now that I think about it where am I going to sleep?'
Sky knew he wasn't a good man, if he were he wouldn't have hesitated to save her, or he wouldn't have killed the exterminator crew and stole from them, he did it for his benefit, and yet he was fine with it.
Perhaps, when he saw her rare ability, part of him wanted to own that ability for himself.
But when she said she wanted to see her mother something in him snapped.
'I'm starting to think I have problems.'
Sky wanted to ask her a question but left her sleeping on his bed. Shortly after another notification popped up.
{You have claimed {Warlord fighter ship} after having it in your possession for 24 hours}
'Oh, right, that's cool.'
Night fell and Sky managed to make it to an uninhabited island.
Sky clicked on the island for more details, he wanted to stay on a safe island before night fell.
{Unknown island}
{Monsters: fishmen}
{A green+ dungeon can be found somewhere on the island}
'Fishmen? They live here?'
Sky has heard of fishmen, in fact everyone in the world knows of that species.
Humans have made many deals with them for many years as well as mermaids, although mermaids are rare to encounter since they live under the sea, but fishmen don't live around the area as far as Sky knows, they live way up north.
Fishmen are a bit of human and a bit of mermaid, they are better swimmers than humans but worse than mermaids, they can live on land better than mermaids but worse than humans.
They are sometimes made fun of as 'the mediocre race.'
'It's almost dark and it's easier to talk some sense into fishmen than sea monsters. I'll sleep on the ship for now and wait for sunrise, until that happens I'll leave. But that green+ dungeon is tempting.'
Sky hadn't seen another green+ dungeon. The rest of the green dungeons don't give him anything after completing it, never knowing that it was very common for that to happen.
Sky slept in the crew's quarters.
Sky woke up when he sensed several strange beings lurking outside his castle, their numbers were within 20-25.
'Fishmen.' Sky knew who it was.
He equipped his trident and exited the crew's quarters. It was still dark.
The fishmen looked at Sky as they waved around their lit torches.
Sky had never met a fishmen before. They appeared human-like with a head, two large dark eyes, and a mouth with sharp rows of teeth. They also wore human clothes. They also have two arms and two legs. They didn't have a nose but gills that were located around their ribs, or beneath their ears, or on the sides of their neck
Their hands and feet were webbed. Their skin was made out of fish scales that varied in color. On the top part of their heads, and their elbows, and behind their calves there are fins located around those areas to help them swim.
And compared to humans they appear to have more body mass and muscle. They are around the average height a human is.
One could easily tell a male and female apart as they have the same physical traits a human male and female.
"Human! Burn it down! Kill him!" One of the fishmen commanded and they began throwing their torches at the boat.
Before the torches could land they stayed afloat in the air as if they were stuck.
"Wow…" Sky said before returning the torches to them. He didn't think that fishmen would be the impulsive type.
The torches returned to their owners with such speed that it pierced through their chests. Six fishmen died on the spot.
{Killed fishmen}
{Received 1833 exp, 2000 shells}
{Killed...}
{Level up}
{Level up}
{Level 46}
{Exp: 4308/5800}
{Killed…}
'Two levels from that? Screw the dungeon I'm going to commit mass murder right here right now.'
Sky looked at the fishmen with a greedy look in his eyes. Those fishmen were roughly around the same stats as one another, and they gave out a good amount of experience.
"KILL HIM!" One of them yelled. Most continued throwing their weapons, others charged with spears and tridents on hand.
{Triple water slice}
The fishmen were grouped together making it perfect to use Sky's trident ability. Twelve fishmen died at once,
{Level 50}
{Stat points: 35}
{1904/6600}
'At this rate, overpowering a warlord shouldn't be too difficult. But should leveling be this easy? Not that I'm complaining.' Sky smiled.
While seven of the remaining fishermen were trying to escape, they found themselves being pulled back by a powerful force. They floated in front of the human and felt that they were being choked by something invisible.
{Telekinesis: lvl 1}
{Scales with Int D-grade}
Sky let one of them down, a fishwoman. She was hyperventilating and had a hard time breathing and focusing.
"So… I'm curious why you all decided to attack me. I mean I get this is your island but why? That couldn't just be it, right, all because I docked my ship here?"
The fishwoman kept having a hard time breathing and couldn't answer his question.
{Killed fishman}
Sky pierced her face using his trident; it didn't even take much effort.
Sky let down another fishwoman from his grasp. She had trouble breathing at first but nothing compared to the last one.
"Same question: why did you attack me?"
"You attacked us!"
"AFTER you threw torches at my damn ship! There are children inside… well, one."
"You were going to attack us anyway so we attacked you before you attacked us."
{Killed fishman}
"That's some stupid logic but I respect your honesty. Okay, I see there's no point in talking sense with you fishmen so…"
*Stab* *Stab* *Stab* *Stab* *Stab*
{Level 52}
{1335/7000}
{Stat points: 45}
"I can put all these points on strength and it will go past the 50 stat mark."
Using his telekinesis, he gathered all the corpses, all the mess including the blood from the sand and formed a ball in front of him.
{Telekinesis: lvl 2: Increased telekinesis range}
{Mana cost: 8/s}
'I didn't even know it had a max range.'
He then gathered the ball of sand mixed with fishmen blood and corpses and transformed it into a card. Sky would then throw out the card at the ocean. The sight of a ball of sand mixed with corpses of fishmen made Sky feel disgusted.
There are two ways for cards to return to their original form, saying the word "activate" or damaging it. But items that have been transformed into cards are waterproof. It was even an effective way for people to hide corpses.
By the time he noticed the sun was already starting to rise.
Sky turned around and he saw Jericho was staring at from from the ship with a look of pure horror on her eyes.
Sky leapt in front of Jericho, but she was motionless.
"What's wrong?" Sky asked with no emotion in his tone.
"I just saw all that happen."
"Hm. Did you also see the part where they tried to burn the boat?"
Jericho nodded slowly.
"Are you scared of me? Are you afraid that I might be worse than the Warlord?"
"I'm not scared. I'm just…" She couldn't even find the word to express what she just saw.
Sky noticed she was shaking due to fear.
Sky closed his eyes. It only makes sense, the only reason he could do all that was because of the power of the mind, without it he wouldn't have the stomach to pull it off, he didn't expect a 13 year old girl to get used to that sight.
"Jericho… actually. I'll wait until you're ready to hear me out. I have a deal to make with you but you gotta be calm first before you can make a decision." He could clearly see her trembling in fear, she couldn't even look him in the eye.
Sky sat down and began looking at the beautiful amount of stat points he just received.
{45 stat points}
Sky placed 18 points on Vig, raising it to 50. His goal is to raise all his stats to 50.
{Vig: 50}
{Health regen rate: 50/m}
{HP: 850}
{Stat points: 27}
{Vig has reached 50}
{Max HP: has increased by 100}
{HP: 950}
{Can now naturally regenerate health during combat}
{Increase regen rate: 10%}
{Health regen rate: 55/m}
Sky smiled, to see his HP rise like that to get benefits was amazing to see.
{Str: 22}
To see the only stat that low made Sky felt weak. He placed all remaining points onto strength.
{Str: 49+20}
To see it a point away from reaching 50 made Sky groan from anger.
'Wonder if there are more fishermen on the island.' Sky let the evil thoughts cloud his thoughts and he liked it a lot.
'How much is my exp again?'
{1335/7000}
'Hmm… going to have to kill at least five or six more fishmen. But I can't leave her here by herself.' Sky looked at Jericho.
Sky got off his ship and started swinging around his trident against a tree as if he was fighting an enemy. He had learned long ago that if he swings his weapon around his stats increase by themselves as well as the skill levels.
Sky didn't like to rely on this method to increase stats because it was slower compared to leveling up, but it was a great method to level up his skills.
With a swift swing from his trident Sky cut down the tree. Then he went on to the next tree, then the next, and so on until he increased his strength stat by one more number.
Jericho wondered what in the world got into his brain that made him want to start cutting down trees, perhaps killing those fishmen wasn't enough for him.
After an hour and cutting down countless trees Sky finally did it.
{Str: 50+20}
{Str has reached 50}
{All un-armed combat skills has 20% increased damage} (fists, kicking, etc)
{Heavy weapon damage increased by 20%}
{Shields block 20% more damage}
{Wearing heavy armor is no longer heavy}
'Wow… this is useless to me at the moment. If I had known I would've just slaughtered the remaining fishmen instead of this even if it meant leaving her behind for a while.'
Sky was just glad to see his skills were all now 50 or higher.
Sky walked back to his ship while stepping over all the trees he cut down. To his surprise Jericho was fine.
Jericho wasn't on the ship anymore, instead she was in the ocean trying to catch fish using a sharp stick, but she hasn't been able to catch one.
'At least she's not shaking anymore.'
"You're still here?" Sky asked.
"Where would I go?"
"I left you alone, I thought you would have stolen the ship and ran away."
"I did think about it, but I didn't want to leave you behind."
Sky didn't know if she was telling the truth but took her word for it.
In reality Sky was ready to let her go if she wanted to leave on his boat. But he knew if she did she would not have survived for long.
"If you were hungry you should've said something to me I have food, or were you too afraid to ask?"
"I didn't ask for food because I didn't want to bother you."
"..." Sky.
He saw a fish near her feet. Using his telekinesis he stopped it from moving, which then Jericho used her pointy stick to pierce it.
"I GOT IT!" Jericho had a bright look on her face as she waved the stick around as the fish tried to escape.
A few minutes later Sky made a fire for Jericho and she cooked her own fish. She was hungry and never looked away from her fish for a second, hoping for the fish and her stomach to reunite at once.
Jericho then ate the fish after preparing it.
"Want some?" Jericho offered.
"I'm good."
Jericho finished her fish but it wasn't enough to fill her stomach.
"Here." Sky offered her cooked baboon meat on a plate.
While in Harbot's Sky stored up in a variety of useful items, his inventory also seemed to have no limit on the amount of items he could place inside.
Seeing the delicious piece of meat Jericho wasted no time at all wolfing it down.
"Mmm, what kind of meat is this? It's good!"
"It's… beef." Sky didn't know how others would feel knowing they were eating baboon meat.
After a while Jericho was full and happy.
"I thought you would be more afraid of me after what happened this morning." Sky asked.
"I was… but then I wasn't. When I think about it I've seen worse things happen after I was caught."
"Caught? Were you a slave by any chance?"
"No, they didn't have a chance to brand me before I made my escape."
Sky felt that she didn't want to talk about her past anymore so he moved on to a different topic.
'What happened to you?' Sky thought.
"Are you ready to hear me out on my deal?" Sky sat beside her.
"What deal?" Jericho looked at Sky.
"You have two options: I can drop you off at a safe island, leave you there, with 5,000 shells I'm willing to fork out, and you can figure out your way to return home without my help."
"Is… is this a trick question?"
"No, it's not. Or, you can take my second deal and you can stay with me, I can't guarantee it but I will protect you to the best of my abilities, but I will make you pull your own weight by having you train your body, and your skill which is powerful enough for a Warlord to kill for."
"This… this sounds like a trick question. But how will you train my ability?"
"I have a way. It's your choice. I can give you 5,000 shells and we never see each other again, or you'll travel with me but I'll make you fight as if your life depends on it, and it will."
'The quest doesn't rely on whether she is alive or not, and I'm not going to force a kid to stay with me if she doesn't want to. And also 5,000 shells is pocket change at the rate I'm making money.'
Sky couldn't afford to babysit a kid who won't do much to fend for herself. But if she's willing to put in some effort, and with the help of his system, he can have a powerful crew mate by his side in no time.
'Also, it would be nice to find out what the other system controls do.'
Sky also had his reasons to keep her by his side.
Jericho looked at Sky with no words. What was the correct answer?
"Can… Can I have time to think about it?" Jericho asked, this was a big decision for her.
Sky looked at Jericho.
"I'll give you till sunset. Until then stay here and don't leave the ship." Sky grabbed his trident and walked towards the forest.
"Are you going to cut down more trees?"
"No, I'm hunting for fishmen, and I also have to look for something hiding here but I won't be too far away so don't worry."
Jericho would then stay in the captain's quarters to lie down on the bed as she contemplated on the two choices Sky offered her. Being on a comfy bed in total darkness felt peaceful.
Later she would hear the cries of several fishmen erupting before suddenly going still again.
As the sun was about to set Sky returned to the ship, entered the captain's quarters and looked at her. He washed himself of any blood before touching his ship.
"So, what's your decision?"
"If I were to stay with you, will you take me home?"
"I don't know. My first plan is to kill the Warlord, or else he will never stop chasing us. When that's done I want to go to my parents. After that I am not sure."
Sky got close to Jericho.
"But just know, Jericho, that if you decide to stay with me you can leave any time you want, you are not a slave. But I will not tolerate you if you steal from me or try to harm me, understand?"
Jericho nodded.
"So, what will it be?"
"I… I want to stay with you for now."
{!!!}
{Jericho Haydie wants to join your party: Will you accept}
'Is that how that works? Whatever, yes.'
{Jericho has joined the Dungeon Slayer group}
{Can now access captain controls, exp share controls, and loot share controls}
{Jericho Haydie}
{Level 3}
{Exp: 0/60}
{HP: 150}
{Mana: 30/30}
{Str: 4. Dex: 8. Spd: 6. Int: 6. Mind: 7. Vig: 5}
{Skills: Magnetism: lvl 1: Swimming: lvl 1: Hiding: lvl 1}
On the left side of his view he saw a picture of Jericho's face with the three colored bar lines.
"Good, here." Sky gave her a basic sword.
Jericho could barely hold the sword due to her small hands.
"That's probably too heavy for you. How about this?" Sky took her sword away and gave her his fine knife.
Jericho seemed fine with it.
"Come, there's a cool place I want you to go with me."
"Isn't it already late?"
"I mean I did say I was going to train you like your life depended on it."
"You were serious?"
"Dead serious."
Sky led her to the other side of the island. There was a huge crack on one of the boulders just big enough for a grown man to fit inside.
"Um… what are we doing?" Jericho asked.
"Have you heard of a dungeon?"
"You mean those places where people keep prisoners to torture them?" Jericho backed away from Sky all of a sudden.
"What? Ohhhh… right. No, it's different, here it's a portal that is called a dungeon."
"You're saying a portal is right there?" Jericho pointed at the crack with her knife. She's seen a portal before and they look nothing like that.
"Yep. You go first."
After some mild convincing, Sky managed to make Jericho enter the dungeon.
{Dungeon: green+}
{Goblin dungeon}
{Monsters: Goblins, slimes}
{Boss: ???}
{Rewards: Exp, coins, green sea scroll}
Sky wasn't afraid this time of going to another green+ dungeon, he's gotten stronger and has gotten far better equipment.
{Sky Rouge}
{Level 60}
{2221/8600}
{Stat points: 40}
{Real title: The fishmen island massacre)
