The Secret (Part 1)

"SKY! SKY WAKE UP!"

Sky, who was soundly asleep in his captain's quarters, woke up to Jericho's loud voice. He chuckled a bit as he used to do the same to his parents when he was a kid.

"What?"

"Come on! Wake up." Jericho nudged his arm.

Sky smiled. She was happy and eager because they were close to clearing Jericho's family's debt.

"Fine… but first-"

"Yes, food, got it." Jericho brought in a tray of delicious warm food for Sky.

"Um… thanks."

"Eat!"

"Jericho, calm down. Set course to the nearest portal."

Jericho nodded and ran out of his room.

After eating Sky exited his Captain's quarters. It was still night dark. They docked their ship on a small uninhabited island to rest.

Jay was sleeping while leaning on the wheel, Jericho was in front of the boat, and Jules was making potions.

"Jules, you haven't slept the entire night?"

Jules shook her head.

"Why not?"

"You haven't given me the order."

"Oh… sorry about that. You can go ahead and sleep in the crew's quarters." Sky felt bad that he had forgotten about her.

'Identify.'

{Alchemy: lvl 1}

Sky frowned, her alchemy skill should have been higher if her talent is included. But perhaps that's because the first dozens of times didn't count as her potions ended in failure.

Jules stood up, stretched her arms and walked inside the crew's quarters, shutting the door violently behind her.

"Um, what?" Jay woke up from the sound of the door being violently shut.

Sky inspected the potions she had made. As expected, the first dozen potions were complete failures. There were many vials of glass on the ground with black ooze inside, many of the other glass vials had been repeatedly washed and reused.

But the last few batches of potions Jules worked on showed progress. It was the result of trial, error, and talent.

{Low healing potion}

{Restores 1,000 HP}

{Low mana potion}

{Restored 1,000 mana}

Sky smiled. He had seen potions but they only restored mana and health by 500 each.

'I am so glad I didn't kill her.'

Meanwhile…

A Caribbean ship docked on the island owned by Edgar. A familiar Caribbean man wearing a red coat jumped down from his ship.

'I'm supposed to be on portal duty but now they want me to fetch a goddamn mermaid for them.' Boris thought.

Edgar, his wife and brother walked up to Boris to greet him.

"Ah, you must be Boris." Edgar greeted and extended his hand.

Boris pushed away his hand. "I'm not here for small talk, I came here for the mermaid."

"Well… the mermaid is gone."

Boris' eyes shot up.

"What?"

"It happened yesterday. We had a tournament and as a surprise I included the mermaid as one of the prizes. I didn't expect anyone to win but if I had gone back on my word then how would that make me look?"

"And you're telling us this now?"

"My brother tried calling you back but for some reason it did not work."

"Ahh…" Boris let out an annoyed sigh. It was common for communication to be obscured for no reason.

The communication technology they had was not perfect. It hadn't been ten years since the invention of the phone was created.

"My men are pursuing the mermaid as we speak and we'll find her soon."

"What does the winner look like?"

"Here we have an accurate sketch of the winner." Edgar handed him a poster.

The poster did not look like Sky at all. What was sketched is a man in his mid-thirties, over six feet tall, completely bald, with tattoos on his head and arms, toned muscles like a bodybuilder, and with a pissed off look in his eyes.

"Do you know where he went?"

"Sadly, no. No one saw him leave."

"Hmm… Thank you for your service."

"Anytime." Edgar and his family bowed to him.

Boris returned to his ship but did not sail away.

Edgar, his wife and Donald returned.

"Go back to our room." Edgar pushed his wife away.

"Sir, are you sure it was wise to trick the Caribbean?" Donald asked.

"Donald, you heard what Free'd said. His sister knows the location of the Nightmare sword. If we can get it I'll be unstoppable."

"Is that why you lied to them? You want to retrieve the sword that no one has seen for 80 years?"me

"Yes. Did you send everybody out to find the mermaid? We must spare no manpower."

"Yes, sir."

Back on the Caribbean ship.

Boris sighed deeply before calling HQ.

"Georgia, we have-"

"Boris, while on the phone, refer to me as HQ."

"HQ…"

"There we go."

"We have a problem here."

"Oh no, not again."

"It seems the mermaid was given away to some winner yesterday. I have a rough sketch of the winner. He looks like a hardened criminal."

"And are you sure they weren't lying to you about the mermaid?"

"Why would they lie?"

"I don't know but you should check it out before you leave and go on a wild goose chase."

"Fine. You guys, go and interrogate some of the island inhabitants, and use this sketch." Boris handed the sketch to his men.

"Georgia?"

"Call me HQ!"

"What is the point of this mermaid? What does Xero want with her?"

"I don't know either, which is weird because I know everything."

"Can you figure it out?"

"I'll see what I can do."

Boris ended the call and stood there. He took out Jericho's family file.

"According to this they should be on an island near here. I'll go see if I can help."

Meanwhile…

After an entire day had gone by, Sky steered his ship out of another portal after another successful run. By the time they exited the portal it was already night time.

"Wooh. We are so close." Jericho was feeling very happy and joyful.

{Shells: 357.7m}

Sky also felt happy. It was so easy to make money with the system. The amount of money people earn in ten years Sky could earn in less than a month.

"Captain, I just thought of something, how exactly are we going to pay back the debt?"

"What? By getting the money, obviously." Sky said, confused.

"No, what I meant is to whom do we give the money? Do we give it to that Tristan guy watching over Jericho's family? Or someone else?"

Sky and Jericho looked at each other unsure.

"We'll figure it out once we have the money."

"Sky, I haven't seen Jules all day. Is she alright?" Jericho asked.

At that moment Jules exited the room. What stood out was her weary eyes as if she hadn't slept at all.

"There she is." Sky pointed out.

"Rough night, Jules?" Sky asked.

Jules walked towards Sky and asked, "I need to go for a swim."

"Go, you don't need my permission to ask for simple stuff like going to sleep, bathroom, or stuff like that. But once you're finished with your swim, come back here and clean up and practice alchemy."

Jules dived off the boat elegantly, transformed into a mermaid mid-air, and all three of them heard a splashing sound.

"I know I'm going easy on her, but only for a while until she gets used to us and we get used to her. But if she doesn't help around I'm going to be strict." Sky said.

"If you feel bad about her, are you going to release her?"

"No, it's much better if she stays here."

"Captain, wanna call it a night?"

"Yeah, we've been grinding non-stop these past few days. Oh, damn, I didn't even count yesterday's loot. What's our loot count for both today and yesterday?"

{Today's and yesterday's loot: 22 red scrolls, 19 red grade items, 36,0000,000 shells}

{Sky Rouge: 4 red scrolls}

{Jay Press: 4 red items, 5 red scrolls}

{Jericho Haydie: 13 red scrolls, 15 red items, 30,000,000 shells}

The four scrolls Sky picked were very useful to him. The rest of the items were given to Jericho to sell.

{Red scroll: Rejuvenation: lvl 1: Heals 100 HP and regenerates the body}

{Red scroll: Maelstrom: lvl 1: Create a maelstrom in a body of water that damages and brings anyone close: Damage: 60/s}

{Red scroll: Summon seahorse: lvl 1: Summons a rideable seahorse that travels at the same speed as its summoner + 100% speed while underwater: Damage: 20(10) HP 500}

{Red scroll: 50+ Dex}

{Dex: 174}

'Man I have so many skills it's insane. I nearly have every red scroll ability, all the green scroll abilities, plus five purple scroll abilities, and some unheard abilities thanks to the system and the Merchant. It's gonna take me months if not years to evolve or max them all. I should first focus on the curses and the dispel ability.'

To anyone having this many abilities was insane because it would be difficult to keep track of and even more difficult to improve them.

Sky docked his ship on a small island inhabited by a few hundred people. He and his crew would rest in a hotel while Jules stayed behind to swim while following the boat. With her speed out swimming a boat was child's play.

Jules would fill Sky's commands and would clean the ship, and practice her alchemy skills. She was used to sleeping in the day and being active at night thanks to her messed up sleeping schedule.

When morning rose, Sky saw Jules hard at work with her alchemy. Beside her she had a hundred potions filled to the brim.

"I knew it was a good idea to buy all this while Jay and Jericho are out there buying more stuff." Sky handed Jules a bunch of cards, each card had barrels full of herbs, ingredients, and flasks all meant for alchemists.

'Identify.'

{Jules Mayfeather}

{Alchemy: lvl 6}

'Woah, level six already?'

Sky grabbed the newest potion Jules had made and inspected it.

{Potion of greater healing}

{Heals 32,000 HP}

'Woah… it heals more HP than I have.' Sky placed all the potions in his inventory.

"Good job, Jules."

Jules looked at Sky with a deadpan expression on her face before resuming making more potions.

"You don't like me, do you?" Sky asked.

"I hate all humans, especially you and that dictator who kidnapped me." Jules said angrily.

"Yeah, that's fair." Sky wasn't mad that she was angry at him, in fact it wasn't weird at all. No sane person wants to be someone else's slave.

"Hey, Jules, I've been wondering but you're strong and you should be able to quickly escape anybody while on water, how is it that you got caught?"

This question was bothering Sky. Mermaids can easily escape any human underwater.

Jules stopped and her face became horrid. She managed to hide her expression before Sky noticed.

"I was on land when I was caught, that's how."

"Oh, I see. That explains it." Sky walked away before patting her on the shoulders.

Jules let out a sigh of relief. 'Thank god he didn't ask me more questions.'

"Wait, why were you on land in the first place? Isn't that a horrible decision for any mermaid?" Sky asked genuinely curious.

It was common sense for mermaids to never be on land unless it was for a good reason. Did that mean Jules had a good reason?

Jules began to breathe out cold air and began to sweat.

"I… was looking for something."

"For what?" Sky noticed she was sweating.

"For… an."

"Look at me." Sky said.

Jules tried to resist but couldn't go against his words. Sky noticed she was sweating a lot.

"Hmm… it seems you have a secret you don't wanna tell me."

Jules clenched her fists out of desperation, trying to find the will and strength to oppose him.

"Tell me is this secret dangerous enough for me and my crew to be put in danger?" Sky got closer to her.

"Y-yesss…"

"Oh, ok. Wait, you said yes?" Sky was expecting a very personal and embarrassing secret, not a dangerous one.

"Mhm."

"How dangerous?"

"Dangerous enough… for the human race… the fishmen… and the mermaids would want to kill you for."

"Are you exaggerating?" Sky asked.

Jules shook her head.

Sky looked around making sure no one could hear him.

"Does anyone else know what you know?"

"Only my brother but I don't know where he is."

"Hmm…"

"Sky, we found an octopus stand and bought everyone." Jericho brought a bag full of tentacles.

"And more plates for target practice." Jay held on both hands rows of plates.

"We're leaving now." Sky said seriously.

Jericho and Jay never saw Sky that serious before. And before they knew it the boat was setting sail somewhere far.

"Captain, everything okay?"

"Apparently Jules here claims to know something so important enough that every single race out there would want us killed for."

"Really? What is it?"

"I don't know and I am afraid to ask. Wait, Jules, would the Caribbean want to know about this information you have?"

"Yes, without a doubt."

"Yup, I'm right to be afraid to ask." Sky said.

"Uhh… Captain, there's a ship coming this way. Isn't that the flag of that dictator guy? From the colosseum?" Jay pointed to a ship. With his amazing eyesight he can see the ship's flag whereas the rest of the crew, including Jules, could barely see a ship even with a telescope.

"What? It is?" Sky asked.

"Yeah, without a doubt."

"Are they headed towards us?"

"Most likely."

"Oh… shiiiiiiiiit." Sky scratched his head out of nervousness. He quickly pushed Jules inside the ship out of sight. "Did you tell anybody what you know?" Sky asked Jules.

"No, I didn't. The only one who knows is my brother."

"So your brother knows the same thing you know?"

"No, he only knows I have the information and that's about it."

"Is there a chance he's going to tell anyone what you know?"

"No, my brother is loyal but even we wouldn't say anything to our own kind about what I know. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he… was looking… for me… oh god. Oh god." The realization struck Jules like a thunderbolt.

Her brother most likely became a slave trying to rescue her, and she was right.

"I'm starting to think taking you as a slave was a huge mistake, but I've made a choice. I have an idea but now your vigor stat will be lowered."

{Jules Mayfeather's vigor stat has been lowered to 190}

{HP: 2,000/2,000}

"Wait, what?" Jules was confused.

"We may need to fight. But first we might need to lie our way out and I think I know how to trick them. Also, Jules, you can be mad at me for all I care but I'm doing this for all our sakes. Drink this immediately after you come out of the card." Sky handed her a potion of greater healing.

"What?"

Sky punched Jules on the stomach causing her great pain multiple times. She fell on the ground, unable to breath, while clenching tightly onto her stomach. 

With Sky she thought she would at least be treated better than her kidnappers did.

{HP: 56/2,000}

"Why?" Jules groaned in pain.

"Card sealing transformation."

Before them Jules transformed into a card.

{Skill level up}

{Sealing card technique: lvl 2 → level 3: Can turn 100m objects into cards. Can seal beings weaker than the player if their HP is 6% or lower}

"HOLY!" Jay was beyond surprised. He knows inanimate objects, even corpses can be transformed into cards, but not living beings.

"Jericho, hold on to this and don't lose it!" Sky handed her Jules card.

"What do you want me to do with Jules?"

"If you notice we are about to fight, take out Jules and have her fight with us. We will need her help. For now just act normal and do not stare at the ship that is following us."

Sky and the rest exited the room and did their everyday tasks.

'I was planning on having Jules use this after but this is our best shot to get out of this mess.' Sky sighed.

He took out a pair of eyeballs from his inventory. They were the same mermaid eyeballs he had bought some time ago but never had a chance to use them.

He transformed them into a card and placed it in his pocket.

Looking at the map he saw the ship was quickly catching up to them. It was a purple grade ship, meaning that the difficulty of taking on that ship was equivalent to a purple portal.

It's because of this map function that Sky was able to avoid any unnecessary battles until now.

'Great.'

Once the ship catched up they signaled to Sky to halt their ship using a megaphone. Sky did as they instructed and a few people soon boarded their ship.

Using identify Sky saw that the majority of them had their stats between 200-400 while having almost no useful abilities, except one, the strongest one had each of his stats at 1,000.

{Lloyd Flud}

He was strong but Sky had seen stronger.

Jericho and Jay stared at them from a distance.

"Yup, it's you alright." Lloyd recognized Sky from the tournament.

"Can I help you?" Sky asked.

"We're here for the mermaid."

"What? Why? I won her fair and square."

"We know, but sir Edgar really wants her back. If you agree he is willing to pay back thrice the amount of money you would get from her plus more in the future."

"So you want her back alive?" Sky asked, slowly.

"Yeah… wait, why do you ask?" Lloyd was beginning to get worried.

"Um… that's going to be difficult." Sky handed Lloyd a card with the mermaid's eyes.

"Oh, no, you fool, you didn't. Activate." Lloyd took out the eyes from the cards to make sure they were mermaid eyes, and sure enough, they were.

"Something happened yesterday and I need the money. If I had known Edgar was willing to pay me thrice the amount I would have kept her alive." Sky feigned being nervous and scared.

Lloyd wanted to crush the mermaid eyes then and there but didn't.

'Please go. Please go. Please go.'

Right then Lloyd activated his eyes of truth.

{Eyes of truth has been cast on the player}

"Are these really her eyes?"

"They are eyes. They are genuine mermaid eyes."

Lloyd squinted his eyes. It seemed Sky wasn't lying but at the same time was dodging the question.

"Everyone, search the ship and the ocean! She has to be here." Lloyd commanded his troops.

Everyone looked for the mermaid but the ship was too small for anyone to hide, especially a full grown woman. They were even pulling out the boards.

Jericho thought now was the time to take out Jules but Sky looked and shook his head slightly.

"Where is she?" Lloyd got up on Sky's face.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you. I beat her up and transformed her into a card and I really do need a lot of money for a friend. The mermaid you're looking for is not in this world anymore."

Everything Sky just said is true. By transforming her into a card he's implying she's a corpse as living beings cannot transform into cards.

He also does need money for Jericho and mermaid eyes sell for a lot implying that he really does need the money.

And Jules was not in this world anymore, because she's in another world he calls "limbo" . It's where everyone who is transformed into a card goes to, it's more like a dark giant prison where no one can escape from. Sky was implying that she was dead when she wasn't.

Lloyd groaned loudly and was noticeably angry because everything Sky said was true.

Sky knew he had tricked him but was prepared to fight back.

"You fucking idiot!" Lloyd punched Sky on the face and sent him flying back.

{Received: 1,000 damage → 30% negated: 700 damage received}

Jericho was about to quickly activate Jules' card but Jay stopped her.

"Let's go." Lloyd said angrily and they left. Lloyd flung the mermaid eyes to the sea to piss off Sky.

Sky stood up, wiping the blood from his face and spitting out a tooth.

"Captain, are you okay?"

"I'm pissed as hell but this went better than I thought. Rejuvenation."

{Healed 100 HP}

{All body parts have been regenerated}

Sky felt the missing tooth was back in its place. But the ship's exterior was ruined. Taking some wooden boards out from his inventory Sky fixed the ship to the best of his ability.

Sky was confident in killing those men but it was better if they all thought Jules was dead.

"Jericho, set sail to the nearest dungeon. And hand me Jules' card."

Jericho nodded slightly.

"You okay, Captain? Want me to fix the ship instead?" Jay asked.

"I'm fine. I just want to hit something really bad. Also go make sure no one else is following us, you have the best eyesight here."

"Yes, Cap."

After taking several measures that they were not being followed, Sky let Jules out from the card while inside the red dungeon, Jules' vigor stat had returned to it originally was at 3,000.

Jules drank the greater health potion and her entire HP was restored.

"What… the fuck." Jules looked at Sky very angry, confused, and scared. What she had gone through in limbo was worse than any curse or slave contract.

She was floating in the air as if she were floating in water. There was no light, sound, or escape, and she couldn't move, only think.

"I want you to tell me exactly what you know that everyone would want to kill for."

Before Jules opened her mouth Sky interrupted her, "but first: Jericho, Jay, you guys can leave if you don't want to hear this. It's too dangerous to know." Sky said.

"If it's dangerous, why do you want to know?" Jericho asked.

"Because I am very curious yet pissed. Are you two willing to hear what she has to say or not?"

Jericho and Jay looked at each other before nodding to his response.

"Okay, Jules, tell us what do you know?"