Victor

First person P.O.V. Steve.

I was never a wealthy man. Since I was a kid I always had to work hard to achieve everything I wanted. And because I worked hard I was able to save up some wealth.

Back at home I have a nice house, big enough for my wife and three kids to live happily in. My wife is the most beautiful, kind woman I have ever met. My children are my little angels. 

I have never broken a law. Every night I go home with a clear conscience and can sleep soundly through the night without having to worry about anything.

My job was difficult but I always made it through. I was in charge of killing monsters inside of portals along with a crew. I would carry their corpses to the ship, chop their limbs to make it easier to store in cards, and then sell them. Since I did more odd jobs for the crew I got paid a bit more than the rest of the crew, except the captain.

I had heard of the fishmen who have been causing trouble lately on many islands. I really hope none of them find their way to my home, which I highly doubt.

And today was supposed to be another day inside a portal where we would do what we do best, clear it, sell what we got, go home, and do it all over again tomorrow.--

But then 'it' happened.

We just made it to a dungeon, it was a plentiful dungeon which meant we would get good money because plentiful dungeons mean an abundance of food.

We barely made it to shore inside the portal, until another ship appeared behind us. It was a ship smaller than ours, and it only had two people in it, a young man with curly hair, and a little kid with their face covered.

Usually our crew doesn't like to fight to avoid wasting money such as damages, injuries, and fatalities. After all, if we spend money on such things, it is money we can't have.

The young man didn't even give us a chance to say anything. He summoned five huge birds made out of lightning that attacked us. I had never thought we would be attacked by summons that can only be found in red scrolls.

The birds were killing the weakest crew members while the rest tried to kill them. That was when I noticed the young man appear before us with two ice tridents on each of his hands, he seemed to be jumping in the air.

Amidst the chaos I heard him say 'sloth' and for some reason I fell asleep. I couldn't control it, it was as if I felt extremely tired and couldn't help but sleep on that very spot.

I woke up. I saw three crew members, including me, who were still alive, the other one alive was my captain and some guy I never talk to.

I saw this young kid, no older than 20, lift up my captain by his neck with an invisible force. The captain was flailing his limbs around trying to escape but no luck.

Seeing that I know I heard of such an ability, telekinesis. I heard people can unlock that by having an insane mana pool which can only be achieved by activating countless scrolls that increase your maximum mana limit. I never thought I would see it in person, much less it being used on us.

Beside him was the little kid. I could see it was a dirty little girl who had a worried look on her eyes, as if she couldn't handle seeing how cruel the man in front of her was acting.

I was scared of talking or running, not that I could anyways, for some reason I felt extremely heavy, as if something heavy was weighing me down. It felt like the curse of slowness was applied to me, it has happened to me on a few occasions, but this felt way heavier than usual.

The young man took out a pendant out of nowhere, and touched my captain's head with it. My captain's eyes were bloody red, his limbs were stretched out, and a red circle with a pentagram symbol appeared underneath my captain. It felt long but it only lasted a few seconds before my captain was sucked into the circle and was gone.

I was devastated. I couldn't hear the young man, but I think I heard him something about finally completing a quest. He turned to me and started beating me within an inch of my life.

I tried fighting back but he grabbed both my hands and burned them to a crisp. I was yelling, screaming, flailing my feet and charred arms. 

Why can he also use fire? Don't tell me he found two red scrolls, one that lets him control fire, and one that lets him summon lightning birds. I thought only the Warlord, our boss, had such scrolls with him.

Now that I think about it, I heard that a red portal should have appeared some time ago but we haven't found it. Don't tell me he found it and cleared it?

The other crew member jumped off the ship and swam towards the portal's entrance. I don't know how that is a smart move, there is nothing but ocean out there with the nearest island being hundreds of miles away.

The young man didn't seem to care, all he cared about was beating me. My vision was getting blurry, I was getting weaker, I was losing a ton of blood. 

Just when I thought he would beat me to death he stopped. He placed his hand on my chest, and all of a sudden I was in a dark world.

I was floating through nothing. There was no light, no sound, no sign of life. I tried to talk, I tried to move, I tried to breathe, I tried to let out a tiny sound, but I couldn't. I couldn't even move my eyes. All I could do was think, think and hope that someone would help me.

I even thought I was already dead. If this was the afterlife. 

It felt like an eternity being in here. It felt like I was in a prison where I only had the right to my own thoughts.

If I had known this is how it would have ended, I would have spent more time with my family, and taken a vacation with them somewhere nice. 

Then before I knew it I was back on the ship. I felt weak, I could move, I could feel pain, I could breath, I could see the light again. 

Then all of a sudden I was forced to the wall of the ship by an invisible but powerful force. It was the kid. He had a card in his hand, for some reason it had the picture of that crew member who tried to escape. I have no idea what is going on anymore.

Somehow I had gone from hell, to a prison, to being free, then back to hell.

"Tell me how was your experience there? What did you see? What did you do?" Sky asked.

I just knew this was my last day in this world. I just hope this man would kill me instead of sending me to that place again, that limbo.

Ten minutes later…

Sky third person P.O.V.

Sky had just tortured the two remaining men by experimenting his new card ability on them. The other man who attempted to escape didn't make it far before being dragged back by Sky.

"This was an interesting experiment. A very fun one as well." Sky washed the blood off his hands with the water of the ocean.

"Sky, where did you send them to?" Jericho asked, very curious. 

When she saw those two poor men disappear and return in the shape of a card she was utterly stunned, just when she thought she knew everything about Sky there he goes turning people into cards.

She didn't feel bad about them dying, since they worked for the Warlord, but she was still not getting used to how brutal Sky was acting.

"I don't know, honestly. But I like to call it "limbo" where you cannot escape by yourself, and you're practically a prisoner of your own body. And the only way to escape is if somebody from the outside helps you." 

That is what he got from the two men he imprisoned. It was a horrible experience for both of them who had only spent no more than 10 minutes in limbo.

Sky set fire to the ship and let it sink. As for the two men, they were still transformed as cards.

Looking at the remains of the burning, sinking ship, Sky was satisfied.

{New skill learned: close combat: lvl 1: increase 10% damage to close combat (fists, kicks, headbutts, knee, elbows, etc)} 

That is a new skill he got from punching both men with his fists repeatedly. 

{Quest time remaining: 3 days}

{Quest complete: ritual sacrifice}

{Quest reward: 100,000 exp, 200,000 shells, 1 ring of crappy intelligence}

The exp from the reward made him barely level up twice. The crappy ring was really a crappy ring that only gave him 1 point to his intelligence, but there was something else about the ring that the quest didn't tell him

{Ring of crappy intelligence(broken)}

{1+ int when worn}

Apparently it was broken. If he could somehow fix it it could be a decent item to have. At least that is what he thinks.

{Level 114}

{Stat points: 20}

{Pyrokinesis: lvl 3: can create and control a bit easier than before}

{Mana grace: lvl 2: increases and recover 20% max mana for 10 minutes: 1 hour cooldown}

{Expert telekinesis: lvl 3: can move objects a bit easier with the mind}

{Healing touch: lvl 3: heals 1000 HP: Can heal others from a 40 meter distance}

{Lightning eagle: lvl 4: Damage: 1400(700): HP: 2,250: 20% chance to stun enemy}

{Dash: lvl 8: Increases max speed by 40% for 1 minute} 

{Lightning resistance: MAX: 50% resistance to lightning damage}

{Throw: lvl 9: increases range and accuracy of thrown objects by 45%}

{Sense: lvl 9: can sense well hidden enemies from 45 meters away}

{Evasion: lvl 2: can evade attacks 7.5% of the time}

{Stealth strike: lvl 3: Hitting an unsuspecting enemy will increase damage by 15% and critical chance by 10%}

Of course his skills increased as well. But he felt it wasn't enough as he needed to kill the Warlord in three days.

"Come on, let's continue with this dungeon. I can't believe we found another abundant dungeon." Sky loved these dungeons as they contained a lot of food, and food that is stored in his storage doesn't get spoiled.

But before he could continue exploring the island inside the dungeon, he saw something he did not think he would find.

"Are you serious?" Sky couldn't believe it, he found the merchant again.

Sky practically teleported to the merchant's building and opened the doors. Of course he was so happy that he ran so fast to an ordinary human he seemed like he teleported.

"Oh, back so soon? Did you miss me?" The Merchant was already at the counter looking at Sky, he spoke in a soft but condescending tone.

{Find the merchant three times: 3/3}

{You have completed the quest}

{Quest reward: 5x merchant summoning scrolls, 3+ quests will be added to the board}

In his inventory a new item appeared that he hadn't seen before. It was a scroll but it was blue, it was different from the scrolls he usually sees. The system summoning scrolls were smaller, had no words in them, only the picture of the Merchant and the store.

Sky also saw the number of quests on the quest board increase from three to six.

'I forgot that the quest even had the 3+ quests reward.' Sky thought, but was extremely happy.

"Well, well, well, congratulations, Sky. So, do you have anything to sell me, like a cute little precious bunny?" The Merchant tried hiding his happiness, but he couldn't.

Sky took out a card from his inventory and gave it to the Merchant. 

Sky thought of keeping the rabbit for himself, there was something about keeping something so rare and valuable to himself that it seemed enticing. Nonetheless he needed the money more.

"GIMME!" The Merchant practically snatched the card from Sky and said, "activate!"

The precious bunny appeared in the Merchant's hands, it tried to flee but the Merchant didn't let go.

"Oh. My. God, YOU ARE SO ADORABLE! With you I can finally complete my collection!" The Merchant held the bunny with both hands extended, if he had a face he would be grinning ear to ear out of joy.

And then he placed the bunny in his face and it disappeared.

"AH!" Jericho jumped from fright.

"Woah." Sky was impressed.

"What?" 

"You just ate a bunny!" Jericho said, even Sky doesn't eat his prey… alive… yet.

"Relax, he's in a better place." The Merchant touched his stomach.

Sky grinned. Jericho gasped.

The Merchant reached for his face and took out the precious rabbit alive.

"See? He's fine. I will send him to a safe place with other animals where he'll be taken care of." The Merchant made the rabbit disappear again.

"And here's your payment." The Merchant snapped his fingers.

{You have sold a precious rabbit, alive}

{Received: 10,000,000 shells, 1 player coupon}

{Shells: 13.7m}

"Woah, that's a lot." Sky was happy to have sold the rabbit.

"It is. If it were dead I wouldn't have given you more than a million shells, and no player coupon at all. Honestly most people who find the precious rabbit sell it to me dead."

"Glad I kept it alive then."

"Likewise. So anything you see that you like?"

Sky examined the special item in front of him. It was a type of weapon he had never seen before.

{Naginata of the Serpent Lady}

{Owned by a lady from Japan in the year 1584. A terrible curse fell on her where she turned into a hideous human-snake who terrorized countless villages. With the curse affecting her mind she ate children, and enjoyed torturing other humans. It wasn't until a young hero sought and killed the Serpent Lady that the people were safe from her terror}

{Damage: 3,000. 25% chance to poison enemy}

{Scales with Str C-grade, Dex C-grade}

'It's been a while since I've seen a weapon with those grades.'

Sky was pondering if he should buy the weapon. Its damage was greater than anything he had, but he preferred to use a sword or a trident since they are weapons he is used to, not to mention he had skills for both weapons that increased his damage and performance.

For a bit of recap weapons have a grade on them, a weapon with D-grade means that his strength stat gets added to the weapon.

If Sky has a strength stat of 100, the weapon does an additional 100 damage. If the weapon has a grade of C-grade it multiplies his damage by 2, meaning that instead of dealing 100 additional damage he does 200 damage.

"Can I test the weapon first?"

"No, Sky, if you want it you need to buy it." The Merchant shook his head while making an 'x' symbol with his arms.

Sky first took a look at the items on sale, perhaps there was something good.

{Banana peel: 1 shell}

{Black scroll: 3,000,000,000 shells}

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Sky wanted to yank the hair from his head. There are so many legends around the infamous black scrolls, they can only be found in black portals in the Land of the Gods. 

As far as he knows green scrolls are worth 10,000-100,000 shells, red scrolls 1,000,000-99,999,999 purple scrolls 100,000,000-999,999,999, black scrolls 1,000,000,000+ shells. At least that's what he knows, he could be wrong.

It was so close to him, the legendary black scroll, and yet he can't touch it because he cannot afford it. Of course stealing was not an option.

"Sucks to be you, man." The Merchant shook his head slightly. Many times he has seen players behave the same because of an item they cannot have that was in front of them.

"Any chance I could ask for a loan? A loan of three billion shells?" Sky asked, sincerely.

"HA! I've never heard that one before. That's a new one!"

"..." Sky.

Jericho didn't say anything. She was also stunned to see a black scroll. A purple scroll was a once in a lifetime opportunity for her, and she got it by accident. To see a black scroll was something unimaginable.

Sky looked at the rest of the items on sale.

{Great strength potion: Increases strength by 50+ for 20 minutes: 5,000 shells}

{A very beautiful mirror: perfect for women of high class to use: 300 shells}

{Girl bath water, water that a girl bathed in: 10 shells}

"The rest are garbage compared to the black scroll. I'll take the great strength potion."

{Great strength potion received}

{Quest: buy 10,000,000 shells worth on items on the Merchant store: 5,000/10,000,000}

"Hmm… hey Jericho, do you like that mirror?" 

Jericho didn't listen to Sky, she was drooling over the black scroll.

"I'll take a mirror as well."

{5,300/10,000,000 shells}

Sky took a look at the quest board next. It was nice to see six quests instead of three.

{Quest: I NEED MONEY!}

{Quest description: Hand over 2,000,000 shells to a desperate man who needs to pay his bills in time. PLEASE! ANYONE! Hand money to the Merchant}

{Quest rewards: 400,000 exp, bundle of good quality books}

{Time limit: 48 hours}

{Quest: Do my math homework}

{Quest: Complete a series of paperwork involving advanced calculus, trigonometry, and all the bullshit}

{Quest reward: 100 exp, 1,000 shells}

{Quest time limit: 24 hours}

"NOPE! SCREW THAT!" Sky grabbed the quest paper and ripped it to pieces.

{Quest destroyed}

"Um… Sky?" Jericho was worried for him. Why was he acting like that?

"Honestly, kid, he's got the right reaction." The Merchant said.

"Sorry. I just really, really, hate school. Anyways."

{SPECIAL QUEST!}

{Quest: G. wants you to head to the Land of the Dead}

{Quest reward: 1 player coupon}

{No punishment or limit}

"Ooh, a special quest from G. himself, that's rare." The Merchant said.

{Quest: Finding Nemo}

{Find a single clownfish for the Merchant who made a promise to a little girl}

{Quest reward: 1,000}

"Really? This quest again?" Sky looked at him.

"Please, man, PLEASE!"

Sky ignored him and read the rest of the quests.

{Quest: How do I get out of the friendzone?}

{Quest description: Give Ian Lanky advice on how to get out of the friendzone with a girl who he has been chasing for 10+ years}

{Quest reward: 200 exp, 2,000 shells}

"I never met this guy, but is it bad I feel bad for him?" Sky asked.

"No, it's not weird at all to feel that way for someone. If anything I feel pity for him."

Jericho didn't understand what they were talking about.

Sky ripped the quest in half.

{Quest destroyed}

{Quest: Kill}

{Quest description: Do you like money, power, abilities, and all that wonderful stuff? I do and I have lots to spare. If you want some then kill your friend}

{Kill Jericho Haydie}

{Quest reward: 100,000,000 exp, 500,000,000 shells, 1x purple grade item, 3x red grade items, summoning books, greater potions, new title}

{Time limit: 1 week}

Sky looked at Jericho, and she looked back at Sky worried for herself because she was also reading the quests. Was he really going to kill her then and there?

Jericho knew she couldn't run or fight back, Sky was too strong for her. And the rewards are beyond generous and Sky has killed for less.

Sky took the piece of paper and ripped it in half.

{Quest destroyed}

Sky grabbed her shoulders tightly and said, "I am never going to hurt you or kill you. You don't have to worry about that, even if I am the most bloodthirsty person you have ever met, I won't kill you. I made a promise to you that I am going to get you to your mom and that is what I'm going to do."

Jericho didn't know what to say. She was really worried Sky would have killed her then and there for the quest. She couldn't help but hug him.

"Thank you."

Both shared a small hug.

Then a system notification appeared in front of Sky.

{A threat has entered the dungeon}

{Megallen ship has entered combat mode}

They heard the sound of cannonballs being fired from a distance.

'Wait!'

Meanwhile…

Three ships had entered the same portal Sky was on. It was led by none other than the Warlord's right hand man, an old man with a serious look on his face.

His name is Victor Manson. He wore a viking helmet, and carried a two-handed heavy red sword on his back. He was the captain of all three ships, and commanded a crew of nearly 100. This was the first time Victor had led three ships and nearly 100 men, but they had a purpose for doing so, to kill Sky.

The Warlord, Peter, would have joined them if he wasn't busy looking for Jericho.

They have noticed someone has been killing their men, dwindling their forces and resources. So they decided to tail one of their ships to a dungeon, then they noticed Sky's ship entering the same dungeon. That's when they knew they caught the person who had been killing their men.

Since there were no survivors no one could tell who it was that was killing their forces.

"Spread out and search for the-"

*BOOM* *BOOM*

The ship in front of them immediately shot at the ship with cannon balls despite no one being on the ship. The Megallen ship only had four cannons, two on each side, and it took about a minute to reload.

Despite the surprise attack the majority of the crew members immediately jumped and swam towards the ship, the few who stayed behind armed their own cannonballs and shot at the Megallen. Their ships were bigger than the Megallen and thus had more cannons.

{Megallen has been hit by a cannonball! Received 2,444 damage}

{Megallen has been hit by a cannonball!: Received 1,850 damage}

{Megallen has been hit…}

{Megallen}

{HP: 820/20,000}

The Megallen was on fire, not functional anymore. 

Jericho stared as the men destroyed their ship. They did not have any valuables on the ship, aside from her clothes and some kitchen utensils and some cheap furniture.

Sky watched, he was eyeing on who was the strongest one there. The only one who was a threat was the old man, Victor. The rest were also strong but not nearly as strong as him, but their numbers would be a nuisance to handle.

{Victor Manson}

{HP: 4,100/4,100}

{Mana: 2000/2000}

{Str: 700, Dex: 500, Spd: 460, Int: 400, Mind: 100, Vig, 400}

{Curse of slowness: lvl 4}

{Search: lvl 1}

{Eye of truth: lvl 4}

{Water slice: lvl 2}

{Fireball: lvl 7}

{Dash: lvl 7}

{Curse dispel: lvl 1: Can dispel curses on the same level or lower}

Seeing his stats it was clear Sky was no match for him, just how many scrolls must he have opened to have that many? He even had three abilities that can only be found in red scrolls, fire control, curse dispel, and dash.

"We have about 10 minutes till they get here. We need to use the island's environment to our advantage and pick them apart." Sky uttered to Jericho.

Facing them now while they're grouped up was a horrible move. They had a better chance hiding in the island's forest.

Before they did that Sky ran up to the Merchant desperate.

"I want to buy the weapon!"

{Bought: Naginata of the serpent lady}

"I want to accept all the quests!"

{Accepted 3 quests}

"I want to hand over 2 million shells to complete the quest!"

{Quest complete: hand over 2,000,000 shells}

{Quest reward: 400,000 exp, a bundle of good quality books}

{Level up}

{Level up}

{Level up}

[Level 117}

{Stat points: 35}

Sky got five new books as well.

{Would you like to learn hunting lvl 1?}

{You already know cooking lvl 1}

{Would you like to learn painting lvl 1?}

{Would you like to learn piano lvl 1?}

{You already know sword mastery lvl 1}

Sky thought that the books would contain better skills. However what he really wanted was the exp that came with the quest.

Sky carried Jericho and ran with her deeper to the island which was covered in trees. Any monsters on the way Sky would crack their necks to avoid them making any loud noises.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" The Merchant closed his doors.

The Warlord's men were searching the Megallen for survivors and valuables. It stopped attacking once the people boarded her.

"Captain Victor, there were no survivors or any valuables. The only thing we found were little girl's clothes, and some furniture that was destroyed by our cannonballs."

Victor was a little perplexed by this. He was sure this was the ship that belonged to the ones who were killing all their men, and the only reason why anyone would do that was to steal from them. But the ship had nothing of value on it?

"Not even food?"

"No, sir. Just some pans, spoons and forks."

"Weird. Well we at least know the ones who were killing our men are stuck here with us. Go in groups to the island and search for them. For all we know there might be a lot of them." 

The reason they knew this ship was the one who was killing all their men, is because the ones who came before them had already disappeared.

Victor led a group of his own deeper to the dungeon. The 100 crew members split into groups of four.

Sky and Jericho were hiding on top of some trees. 

"Jericho, give me my ring back." 

Jericho handed him his ring of 100 levels.

{HP: 5,380 → 5,880}

The ring may not help him raise his exp anymore but his HP did increase.

"Don't move." Sky closed his eyes. He could faintly sense a huge number of people looking around the island.

And also Jericho was now at a high level.

{Jericho Haydie}

{Level 96}

{HP: 1300/1300}

{Mana: 660/660}

{Str: 83}

{Dex: 62}

{Spd: 100}

{Int: 132}

{Mind: 68}

{Vig: 120}

Once Jericho reached 50 and 100 stats on Int, Vig, or Spd they did not give her any special abilities like Sky, it was something that only belonged to Sky, the player.

Two of the groups, one that was led by Victor, came across the Merchant's building. Many were left there confused.

"Um, captain, what the hell is this?" 

"I have no clue."

They could see the doors. Victor grabbed the handle to open them, but they would not budge.

"What?" Victor took great pride in his strength, so how is it that he couldn't open a single door?

Meanwhile, Sky was looking at the notification in front of him.

{Someone is attempting to open the Merchant's shop}

{Only the player can access the Merchant's shop}

Victor even drew out his sword and swung it at the Merchant's shop. It made a loud sound but the shop did not even have so much as a scratch on it.

"Hmm… split up and look for those two. If you find them, capture them and bring them to me."

"What if they're hiding in this… box?" 

"I don't think they're there. But if they were, we can easily clear this dungeon and wait for them to come out of the dungeon."

The groups split to find Sky and Jericho, not knowing they were hiding on top of trees.

Sky was thinking hard. There was no way he could beat Victor in a one on one while fighting more than a 100 people at the same time. What was worse is that fleeing wasn't an option either, he was stuck in this dungeon until the boss was dead.

"Sky? What do we do?" 

"I'm thinking." 

{New quest has been created}

{Victor Manson is the Warlord's strongest right-hand man, and so his existence must be eliminated to give the player a higher chance to kill the Warlord}

{Kill Victor Manson}

{Quest reward: 1 random red item, 1 random red scroll. 10,000 exp, 5,000 shells}

{Quest failure: When Victor Manson has successfully escaped from the player}

{No quest punishment or limit}

{Would you like to accept the quest?}

"Accept." Sky has nothing to lose. Even so he doesn't believe he could kill Victor as he was now.

{Quest accepted}

Sky took out an item from his inventory, a speed boat.

"Jericho, just in case something happens, use this and sail away, I have two more on me. You're already stronger than when I first met you, if you can go back home to your mom then do it, it'll probably be safer there than here."

"Sky… what if something happens to you? What am I supposed to do, nothing?"

"If something does happen to me, grow stronger, avenge my death, and tell my parents I love them."