Dei

"The-the-the-the what now?" Glenn stuttered on hearing what Sky just asked.

"The Warlord. Do you know anything useful about him?" 

Sky needed to complete the important quest given to him by the system and he only had eight days before the quest ends, otherwise if he fails something horrible will happen.

"So I did hear you correctly." Glenn began sweating a bit.

Glenn looked around his surroundings. There were a lot of people in shambles but they were all alive thanks to Sky and his brave men who died honorably.

"Please, follow me and do not mention him again. A lot of people hate him."

Sky held onto Jericho's wrist and followed Glenn.

The people were still helping others and doing whatever they could to contribute to the chaos caused by the fishman.

Glenn led Sky and Jericho inside a building untouch by all the destruction. The inside of the building had many empty cells, with a single woman in her cell block who was sleeping soundly, despite the loud noises, and screaming of innocent people being slaughtered to death she slept through it all.

Glenn took out a thick folder that can be compared to a dictionary titled "Larry P. Head."

"This is what we have on the Warlord. 90% of it is related to the crimes he has committed over the past two years since he got here: robberies, bribes, illegal drugs, human trafficking, murders, and the list goes on."

"Human trafficking? So slavery?" Will asked confused.

"Nah, slavery is legal. But he captures innocent people and turns them into slaves, children especially."

Slavery in this world is legal as it had always been since the dawn of time. To become a slave legally it has to be decided by none other than the Carribean men themselves. If anyone else besides the Carribean men brands anyone a slave it is considered human trafficking.

The ones who become slaves are usually pirates, those who owe a massive amount of debt, criminals, and finally captured non-humans are also considered slaves such as fishmen and mermaids.

Sky opened the folder and read through it all. He was able to memorize most of it thanks to his high stats in intelligence.

To no one's surprise the Warlord came from the Land of the Dead. Apparently he had offended some powerful being whose name was covered with permanent marker in the folder, left with no choice Larry P. Head fled to the Land of the Free for his safety.

Larry P. Head in his short arrival took control of most of the Land of the Free using what strength he had obtained from the Land of the Dead.

The file contained most of his known abilities.

"I don't get it. With all this evidence, why hasn't anyone come to arrest him or kill him after all these years?"

"I don't know either. All our strongest forces are stationed at the Land of the Dead. We have requested for his arrest but they say they are too busy."

'I hate it when people say that.' Sky closed his eyes out of frustration.

When he was younger he always invited other people from his island to hang out to make friends, sometimes he would do it on his own will or his parents would encourage him to make new friends, but their favorite excuse was always "we are busy" which they weren't most of the time.

"Let's go." Sky led Jericho with him.

{Quest time remaining: 8 days}

Sky needed to continue grinding his levels and skills before it was time, what's more he needed a strong weapon since his living trident perished in the red gate.

Crafting a weapon was out of the question, he didn't know how or where to get the materials. Obtaining another powerful weapon was also unlikely, as he only obtained the living trident from a secret boss that his old captain found thanks to his wind skill, a skill which Sky didn't have. And any weapon sold in any shop was garbage compared to his ice tridents.

Which leaves only one choice but requires luck, finding the system merchant again.

Sky took out his boat again and sailed off to the nearest dungeon. Looking at the island in shambles made Sky chuckle a bit, how many of those people could guess that he was the cause of that fishman attacking their village? The worst part is Sky didn't seem to care.

"Another dungeon?" Jericho asked.

"Of course. We need to find the merchant again."

"The weirdo without the face?"

"Yes, him."

"I don't trust him." Jericho said.

"I understand why you feel that way, but I think he can be trusted, as long as he doesn't trick us into stealing anything again…" Sky would have held a grudge against anyone else if they pulled off a trick like that on him, but since he needs him he's willing to forgive him.

"Okay, I trust you. But I don't understand how any of this makes any sense, where did that man even come from?"

"I don't know either, but I know he can help us."

"Hm."

Sky looked over his ship to fish again. He could sense a lot of fish and could see some of them. 

At that moment an epiphany struck.

"Slowness. Slowness. Slowness. Slowness. Slowness…"

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%}

{Target has been slowed by 45%...}

Whenever Sky saw a fish he would cast slowness on it to improve the skill. Those fishes would then be too slow to run away and he would use telekinesis to fish them out of the ocean.

This skill must never be casted on himself or anybody he cared for. Apparently curses are permanent, unless one kills the caster or manages to dispel the curse, they might as well live with the curse for the rest of their lives.

And as of right now Sky had no method to dispel curses.

{Through continuous actions you have evolved a skill}

{Curse of slowness: lvl 9: → Curse of the sloth: lvl 1: Slows targets by 50%, 1% chance of target sleeping for 1 minute}

{Sleeping target cannot be woken up no matter what}

"Woah, I need to increase this skill asap."

{WARNING}

"HOLY!" The warning sign popped up in bold red letters that made Sky jump up in fright.

{An anomaly has been detected. A being far away is observing the player}

"System, what is happening?" Sky asked worriedly.

{Apparently there is a being out there who has sensed your presence. Your skill {Curse of the sloth} has apparently caught the being's attention}

"Is this person dangerous?"

{As long as you do not provoke it you should be fine. As you are now the chances of winning are 0%}

"So what should I do? Should I not practice this skill anymore?" Sky felt kinda mad, it was such an amazing skill to have and not use.

{The being is observing you because you are interesting. I can only tell you it's because you evolved a curse, nothing more}

"Is there a chance it also knows about the system?"

{Unlikely. Unless you are stupid enough to reveal the system's existence no one will know about me}

Sky was contemplating on whether or not he should continue leveling up the skill. It was such an amazing skill, but will he die if he continued improving said skill?

"System, if this being wants to, will it come after me?" 

{I will tell you this, Sky, the being can only observe you. The only way you two will be in contact with one another is if you go towards it}

"Wait, really?" Sky was pleased to hear that.

{Whether or not you want to continue growing stronger is up to you. But just remember Sky, you are just a dim light bulb in a dark room. As you grow stronger the light will continue to shine brighter. You can try your best to hide it from others, but you will eventually catch the attention of others but that is natural}

Sky heaved a sigh of relief. He didn't know it was only observing him, but if he asked the system what that was, he wouldn't get a proper answer.

"Of course I'll continue growing stronger. I don't see why not. Sloth. Sloth. Sloth. Sloth. Sloth. Sloth…"

{Target has been slowed by 50%}

{Target has been slowed by 50%}

{Target has been slowed by 50%}

{Target has been slowed by 50%. Target has fallen asleep}

{Target has been slowed by 50%}

{Target has been slowed by 50%...}

Sky immediately tested out how deep the fish can sleep under his curse's influence.

The sleeping fish started suffocating, which was normal, but his eyes were still closed meaning it was still asleep.

Sky stabbed it, tortured it, injured it, but it was still asleep. 

It was only after the minute passed that the fish woke up and started moving.

To put it out of its misery Sky killed it to be cooked and eaten. Experimenting with this curse showed Sky how powerful it really was and how glad he was to have this skill.

"I need more power." Sky muttered as he continued grinding his skills. 

There is one more skill he hopes would evolve, the ice trident.

{Quest time remaining: 7 days}

Meanwhile…

The fishmen had relocated to another island far away. Staying on the same island where the majority of their families and friends were mercilessly slaughtered was too much to handle, especially for the innocent kids who witnessed the entire ordeal. The once happy kids were now depressed, scarred for the rest of their lives.

The majority of the survivors were fishmen kids, and the handful of soldiers who came back too late.

There is a tall and muscular male fishmen walking towards a female fishmen.

"Daita, where is Lorca? I haven't seen him since yesterday." The strongest fishman on the island, as well as the leader, asked a female fishmen where his friend was.

The fishman is called "Dei."

"We split up yesterday, he wanted to 'see' if the killer was on an island, but to be honest he just wanted an excuse to kill the humans there." Daita said while polishing her harpoon.

Fishmen typically relied on two weapons, tridents and harpoons

"Okay, but what I am asking is WHERE is he RIGHT NOW?"

"I dunno." Daita shrugged her shoulders, not looking at him once.

"Ugh… he's probably killing more humans or something." The thought of Lorca dying would have never crossed their minds, as there were only a handful of people who could kill them in the Land of the Free.

If there is the small chance Lorca did come across those other powerful beings, he knew Lorca was smart enough to retreat to the ocean and run away. No human was capable of outswimming a Fishman.

"I mean can you blame him? He lost his only daughter to that human."

"Daita, go to the island where you last saw Lorca. And take Jirco with you." Dei pointed at a small fishman.

"NO! Please don't make me go with Jirco." Daita looked at him and pleaded with him. They both looked at Jirco who was failing to juggle some rocks.

Jirco is the only fishman who has the ability to dispel curses, the problem was that that was his only function in the group. For everything else he is magnificent at failing at. Fishing? Can't catch a single fish. Fighting? His skills were on par with children. Cleaning? He somehow makes more of a mess when he wants to help. Navigating? Gets lost as much as Roronoa Zoro. Not to mention he was the least intelligent of the group.

The one thing Jirco was decent at was swimming, which is something all fishmen are capable of.

"He's… a lost cause, I know, but I believe there is a chance some human might've casted a curse on Lorca so we need Jirco to be there, this might be the Land of the Free but many humans can learn curses easily."

"Please, leader, don't make me take Jirco. Actually, can you give me the pendant instead? It can also dispel curses." Daita pointed to the pendant hanging around Dei's neck.

Dei subconsciously grasped his pendant.

"Say. That. Again." Dei towered over Daita despite their similar heights.

"I was just kidding. I'm going now. HEY! JIRCO! FOLLOW ME!" 

Jirco fumbled his rocks, dropped them on the ground and followed Daita. He tends to follow orders without asking questions or complaining, which is something Dei likes about him.

"Jirco, your weapon." Dei reminded him without looking at him. 

Jirco made a quick 180 and grabbed his trident.

Sometimes Jirco was too much of a kid, a kid trapped inside a grown body.

Meanwhile…

Sky was in another dungeon clearing more dungeons. It has gotten to the point where he didn't care if there were already people inside, he was clearing the dungeon. 

Most of the time he would let others take the loot i.e. the items, monster corpses, etc. Two times Sky had to kill pirates who were going to rob him.

{Killed baboon}

{Killed baboon}

Killing monsters inside green dungeons wasn't cutting it out for him anymore. He only leveled up twice. 

{Level 108}

{Stat points: 25}

And he hasn't been able to naturally improve his stats or skills, but that was to be expected given the weak monster and short amount of time since yesterday.

"Sky, are you okay?" Jericho was worried about Sky, he was trying too hard and she didn't know why.

"Never been better." Sky wiped the baboon blood from his face. "Oh, I sense another one." Sky threw his ice trident at the baboon hiding behind a tree.

The ice trident pierced through the tree like cutting through butter with a hot knife, and pierced through the baboon's chest. 

{Killed baboon}

{Dex has increased by 1}

{Dex: 103 + 15}

{Cannot damage part of the system}

"GASP!" Sky let out a huge gasp which started Jericho.

"What?" Jericho had never heard Sky gasp like that.

"That notification. Follow me!" Sky ran towards where he threw his trident just now. 

Upon reaching his ice trident, which was broken into several pieces by now, struck the red-squared building.

The dungeon they were in was a thick forest based dungeon that covered most of the dungeon. But there was an entire meter radius around the red building that the forest didn't touch.

"We found it. I thought it would take longer but no." Sky was happy to see it.

He opened the doors to reveal the merchant standing in front of him.

{You have found the merchant ⅔ remaining to complete special quest}

"Hello, Sky, listen man, next time please don't throw stuff at the building, it nearly gave me a mini heart attack, which is weird since I don't have a heart: yohohohohoho!" 

Both Sky and Jericho stared at him.

"Ack, you two are no fun. It's more fun when people actually understand my references." The merchant crossed his arms, turned around with a 'hmph' attitude.

Sky took a look at the items on sale. To his shock, he found no weapons there.

"Hey, I was hoping to see a weapon here." Sky asked.

"I told you before, what is on sale is out of my control. Most of the time it might not benefit you because there will only be garbage, and when it does benefit you you will be too poor to afford it, especially in the beginning."

"Damn."

Sky took a look at what they were selling anyways.

{Green scroll: 15,000 shells}

{Crappy healing syringe: 1,000 shells: Heals user 100 of total HP}

{Fish bone: 1 shell}

{Ring of flight: 50,000,000 shells: Grants the user infinite flight: Consumes 1 mana per second}

{Bundle of wood: 400 shells}

"Is this what you meant by "It might not benefit you because there will most likely be garbage, and when it does benefit you you will be too poor to afford it".?"

Sky looked at the ring which was useful to have, but far too expensive for him. 

{Shells: 2.7m}

"Egg-xactly!" The merchant said while juggling six eggs at a time.

"Woah." Jericho said.

Sky bought the bundle of wood and the green scroll. Wood had many uses. Without saying anything Sky ripped the scroll in half.

{Strength increased by 5}

{Str: 73 + 20}

Sky took a look at the special item on sale which costs him a special currency called "player coupons" which he didn't have at the moment.

{Magic missile staff}

{Player coupon cost: 1}

{Increased Int by 50}

{Mana regeneration rate increases by 100%}

{Magic missile: lvl 9: Fires a magic missile that follows enemies up to 300m away: Damage: 900 + C-grade int} 

{Mana cost: 40}

{Requirements: None}

"Woah, this is really good." Sky said, he really wanted to take this magic staff without paying, but knows what would happen if he does.

"For you, yes. Unfortunately you don't have any player coupons with you. Have an egg." Merchant said as he handed Sky an egg.

"Can you bend the rules a bit for me?"

"No can do, Sky. I am required by law to give players a SINGLE player coupon and the ring of 100 levels the first time they find me, if I give you anything more for free I could lose this job which I am quite fond of."

"But you gave Jericho a red scroll." 

"G. gave me permission to do that, once. Really it's all up to you, man. Don't expect me to help you. But if you want more player coupons check out the quest board, you might be lucky to find a quest that rewards you with player coupons."

"Who is G.?"

"The one who gave you your system. Duh."

Sky took a look at the quest board. There are three new quests.

{Ritual sacrifice!}

{Sacrifice 100 live monsters with a collective stat points of over 100 to the mad demon}

{More information will be given after accepting quest}

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

{Ring of crappy intelligence: Increases the wearer's int by 1}

{Quest failure: If QUEST ITEM breaks or is lost}

{The pacifist route}

{Go 30 days straight without killing a single living being}

{Quest reward: Exp, 5,000, shells, 20,000, 1 player coupon}

{No failure punishment}

{Failure: Killing a single living being during the quest is active}

{SPECIAL QUEST!}

{Spend 10,000,000 shells on the system's merchant}

{Quest reward: 3+ quests in the quest board OR 5+ new items in the item board}

{No quest punishment or limit}

"Seriously? I need a player coupon, and the only quest that awards me that is a quest I cannot complete!" 

Sky needed to continue killing to increase his levels, not to mention he needed to kill the warlord in a week from now.

"I know, sometimes it happens. Honestly it's bad luck… I think. Sometimes I wonder if G. likes to pull the player's leg sometimes." The Merchant scratched his imaginary chin.

"Looks like I am not getting that staff today. Another thing, what kind of reward is that on the special quest?"

"Oh, that, it means if you complete the quest you can either increase the number of quests on the board by three, meaning that instead of only three quests being there, there will be six from now on. Same goes for the items board. Special quests benefit the merchant, me, which also benefits you."

"Ohhh… I guess I'll accept both of those quests."

{Accepted SPECIAL QUEST}

{Accepted ritual sacrifice}

Out of nowhere a pendant with a pentagram on it appeared in front of Sky. The pendant was made out of iron, with the pentagram being drawn out in blood with some other symbols he did not recognize.

{The pendant of sacrifice: QUEST ITEM}

{When a living being has 10% or less of its total HP, place the pendant on their head to progress the quest}

"Interesting. So like this?" Sky reached out his hand towards a baboon staring at him from behind a tree.

The baboon found itself being drawn closer to Sky. Sky grabbed the baboon by its neck, but using his telekinesis he broke his arms and legs until his HP was less than 10%.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The baboon let out a scream filled with pain and agony.

"Um, you know, Sky, most people usually hesitate A LOT before they commit such acts in front of others." even the Merchant could not believe how Sky could injure another living thing in such a manner.

And that's coming from someone who has seen millions of players.

Jericho was the same. It was okay if they kill baboons quickly and painlessly, but not torture it.

"It's fine. I don't feel anything."

"Not what I meant."

{Baboon}

{HP: 2/30} 

Sky placed the pendant on the baboon's head. 

The baboon eyes glowed red and he started floating in the air, all for a second before he was pushed away by a powerful force.

{Pendant has deemed the being is too weak to be sacrificed}

"Yeah, that figures." Sky placed the pendant inside his storage. The problem was finding sacrifices who had over 100 collective stat points.

"See ya!" The Merchant quickly shut his doors. Sky and Jericho continued to clear the dungeon.

"Sorry you didn't find a weapon you needed, Sky." Jericho said.

"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault. But hopefully before the week ends we can find him again."

New items and quests are restocked 24 hours when he opens the doors but are always random, hopefully he'll be lucky enough to find a decent weapon he can afford.