Quest of the Fishman

5 days later

{Completed monster hunter quest}

{Quest time remaining: 8 days}

Sky was currently sitting on the edge of the boat fishing. Without a fishing rod to fish he had to get creative, and it's why he's using his telekinesis to catch any fish he can sense. In a way using telekinesis was better.

Sky has grinded non-stop, only stopping to sleep and to gather food. He made sure to avoid any unnecessary fights with the Warlord's men or pirates unless he had no choice. Using the map function it was easy to avoid clashing with other ships and gaining unwanted attention.

The last five days in the dungeons didn't bear any new scrolls, aside from weak items, exp, and shells.

He also wanted to find the merchant again but no luck. Sky wanted to see if he had any more powerful items that he could afford.

Sky was also able to improve some of his stats naturally.

{Shells: 2.4m}

{Str: 65 → 68}

{Dex: 72 → 82}

{Spd: 110 → 116}

{Int: 160 → 161}

{Mind: 110 → 113}

{Sky Rouge}

{Level 103}

{HP: 5,350/5,350}

{Mana: 2,260/2,260}

{Stat points: 20}

Sky waited to reach 40 stat points to place it into intelligence, the reason he was waiting was just in case he finds himself in a dire situation where he needs to place those stat points into something else.

His speed and dex stats improved dramatically because he was running around and throwing the ice tridents at any monsters he saw.

Two of his skills were able to evolve during the past five days, and more skills had leveled up.

{Heal skill has evolved to → Healing touch: lvl 2: Heals 900 HP: Can heal others from a 30 meter distance without touching them}

The name of the evolved skill was ironic, because it was called 'healing touch' when you didn't even need to touch anyone to heal them anymore.

{Telekinesis skill has evolved to → Expert telekinesis lvl 1: Can move things at a 200m radius without using your hands, requires total concentration. Scales with Int D-grade}

Before, Sky always had to rely on his hands to move objects. With the improved skill he can move them with his mind but it requires him to be fully concentrated, if he is distracted for a second the telekinesis wears off. 

It was helpful as he can sense beings without seeing them and therefore could use the improved skill better.

He can still use his hands to move objects as it is easier, until the skill level improves he will rely on his hands to move objects in battle.

{Sense: lvl 8: Can sense even very well hidden enemies with stealth skills from 80 meters away}

{Slowness: lvl 9: Slows enemies by 45%}

{Dash lvl 5: Increases speed by 50% for 1 minute}

{Lightning eagle: lvl 3: Dmg 1200(600) 2000 HP: 15% chance to stun enemies}

{Throw: lvl 5: Increases range and accuracy by 25%}

{Ice trident: lvl 7: Dmg 1700(850) 35% chance to freeze enemy}

{Lightning resistance: lvl 9: 45% lightning resistance}

Sky was happy but he felt like he could be growing stronger if he could find stronger dungeons.

"Oh, I found a big one." 

Sky sensed a big fish underneath his boat. With his mind the fish was pulled out of the ocean and into the bucket of water behind Sky, inside the bucket was already several fish Sky caught.

"I think I'm getting better at this. I love this so much." Sky grinned from ear to ear. As he was about to catch another fish, someone broke his concentration.

"Sky." Jericho called out to him. There was a look of fear and panic in her eyes

Sky lost control of the other fish that he was about to catch and he ran away.

'Lucky fish.' Sky thought but turned his attention to Jericho.

{Jericho Haydie}

{Level 66}

{Str: 50 Dex: 52 Spd: 60 Int: 105 Mind: 59 Vig: 90}

Sky had given her the ring days ago to increase her level, he also set it to 50-50 exp share until she reaches level 100. It didn't cost Sky much to give her the ring, aside from the 500 HP, which is why his HP is at 5,350 instead of 5,850.

"What's wrong?" 

"My magnetism skill! Something's wrong with it." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I was practicing with some knives to cut the fish accurately, and it just feels different than before. Before I realized it this happened." Jericho showed Sky a knife that had been cut into several fine pieces.

The knife was so finely cut it didn't have a single crack on them. It was as if they were cut by a laser.

'Identify.'

{Expert magnetism: lvl 1: Can accurately sense the type of metals at a 250m radius: Can break apart metals, reattach them in any way, and destroy them with some difficulty} 

'Her magnetism skill evolved.' Sky realized and felt happy for her. 

She worked hard to level up her magnetism skill these past five days, but it was already level 9 five days ago, it took her more work and time to be able to evolve the skill than usual.

Sky knew why that was, the system said that party members can improve skills faster than ordinary people, and have the benefit of leveling up, but their progress speed was nothing compared to the player.

"Relax, your ability simply improved."

"It-it did?" Jericho asked.

"Yeah, it's nothing to worry about. Congratulations."

"Skills can do that?" Jericho was surprised.

"You've seen it before, have you already forgotten about the lightning eagles?" 

"Woah. You're right." Jericho looked at the knife in amazement. 

She was so shocked and afraid something was wrong with her that she hadn't thought of that. With that she calmed down.

Before she didn't believe Sky had actually improved his lightning bird skill to the point where it looked like he learned a completely new skill, it was so unheard of she was so sure her own father hadn't even heard of it.

{Emergency quest accepted}

'Another one?' The notification caught him off guard.

{A nearby island is being attacked by a powerful fishman due to the player's past actions}

{Quest: Kill the lone fishman. He and other fishmen split out to seek the player after you killed their family and friends. They will not rest until they find you and kill you}

{Quest reward: 200,000 shells, 300,000 exp}

{Quest failure: Letting the lone fishmen escape from the island}

{Quest punishment: More powerful fishmen will very likely find you in the next three days, and there's an extremely high chance you'll die}

{Quest notes: The fishman attacking the village will prove to be too powerful for the player's current strength, but it can be achieved if you act fast and wisely. Do not let him get to the ocean}

{The island being attacked is marked on your map}

Sky closed his eyes out of frustration. To think his past actions would catch up to him like this.

What's worse is that the quest reward was very generous, meaning that it'll be tough.

'Insane rewards, difficult missions.' Sky thought of what the merchant told him.

Opening his map he saw the closest island to him has a '?' on it.

{Time until arrival: 2:00}

Sky chose to go there and let Jericho know what they're doing before they arrive. 

Jericho didn't understand why they had to kill the fishman, but she thought Sky was doing it from the kindness of his heart, which is something she didn't expect from him because it was out of character. She's seen him mercilessly kill fishman and humans alike.

"Sky, shouldn't we be in hiding like we always did until now?" 

"Yes, we should, but we don't have a choice. Wear this." Sky gave her a hat, and some other clothes so as to not reveal her face, she still had a wanted poster. Sky was fine as his bounty poster wasn't accurate.

Jericho wanted to complain but couldn't, whatever Sky wanted to do she followed, and she also knew Sky wouldn't do anything he wasn't confident about. 

As for how Sky knows there's a village being attacked, Jericho didn't want to think about it because she could never get a direct response from him. She stopped asking him questions some time ago regarding his unique abilities.

Sky saw the island from far away. From the shores he could see people running, panicking, screaming, shots were being fired, it was mayhem.

Many people from the island were desperately leaving the island on any boat they could get on. 

Sky didn't have to save the people, but while there was confusion he can use it to his advantage and sneak up on the fishman.

"Summon lightning birds! I mean eagles! Summon lightning eagles!" 

Five lightning eagles spawned behind Sky. 

"Find the fishman on that island and kill him." 

The eagles flew fast to the island. The people who saw the eagles caught their attention all for a second before they began fleeing for their lives.

Once the boat reached the island's shore, Sky and Jericho jumped off. A group of people tried to board Sky's ship to get out of the island thinking that he was there to help them.

Sky pushed the people away with his telekinesis back to the beach, transformed his boat into a card, leaving everyone behind stunned. They had no idea what happened. They just wanted to sail away on his boat to safety, but they got pushed back by an invisible force, and the boat seemingly disappeared in front of their eyes.

Sky didn't care about them, he was too busy reading the new notification that popped up in front of him

{Card transformation lvl 9 has evolved to → Card sealing technique: lvl 1}

{Card sealing technique: Can transform items in a 100m radius into cards, and can seal living beings inside a card. The heavier and bigger the object is the more mana it costs. The stronger the being, the more mana it costs to seal}

{Requirements to activate sealing technique: Being must be lower than 2% of its max HP, the lower the higher the chance of successfully sealing the being. If the being has higher or equal stats compared to you, the being has a high chance of resisting from being sealed. However, beings with a collective 10 stat points or lower can be sealed immediately without meeting the requirements. Once a being has been successfully sealed in a card they can never escape unless the card is damaged}

(Meaning that if a goblin for example has one stat point on all of his stats, which would equal 6 stat points in total, it can be sealed without meeting the requirements above)

{Important note: Dungeon bosses cannot be sealed}

"*Whistle*" Sky liked this new skill a lot.

{Lightning eagle has been killed}

{Lightning eagle has been summoned}

For now Sky ignored the new skill and ran towards where his lightning eagle was flying. With Jericho following closely behind him.

Along the way Sky and Jericho saw some corpses, most of them were Carribean men as one could tell from their uniforms. There were also some innocent people who got caught in the heat of the battle. Sky recognized the wounds on their bodies, it was done by a trident, a weapon he was familiar with.

Some of them had been boiled alive by steam as well.

"Are you okay?" Sky asked Jericho. He didn't know if she had developed an immunity to seeing dead people.

"I'm okay." Jericho did look fine, but Sky had his doubts. Then again they spent the last three weeks killing monsters nonstop, she was getting used to seeing blood, corpses, and death on a daily basis.

Just ten minutes ago they left a dungeon covered in blood and guts of monsters. They take a dip in the ocean to get rid of the blood, but rarely can they shower, it was why both of them smelled horribly and felt sticky.

"Stay back for now." Sky said. 

Peeking from afar behind some giant wooden barrels, he saw a fishman that was unusually taller than the ones he killed before. 

He was shooting out steam from his hands that could burn people and cause them severe pain and a painful death.

The fishmen he saw before were a bit above average in height compared to a human and muscular. But the fishman in front of him was over 6.5 feet tall. He also had armor on him that covered only his torso and legs, he carried a large trident. His face looked very angry. All of his movements and attacks were from an experiences veteran who has killed and fought for many years

There were many Caribbean men stationed at the island, and they were putting up a decent fight against the fishman even if many of them were already killed or gravely wounded by the fishman. Most of them mainly used guns, swords, or harpoons and there were many of them. 

Guns and ordinary weapons do not work well against powerful beings. Some of the Carribean men are more powerful than other people, but in this part of the ocean it was extremely rare to see such powerful monsters, that's why some of the most powerful Carribean men can be found on the Land of the Dead, while the ones stationed in the Land of the Free are mostly there to keep other people in check such as pirates.

Then they saw 5 lightning eagles come out of nowhere and started to attack the fishman.

They had never seen a summon monster, red scroll abilities and above don't usually appear in the Land of the Free, but they knew the eagles were summoned monsters. 

The fishman absolutely hated the lightning birds, most sea monsters hate being electrocuted as it was their main weakness.

'Identify.' 

{Lorca Defundo}

{HP: 3,100/3,100}

{Mana: 600/1,150}

{Str: 200 Dex: 440 Spd: 180 Int: 230 Mind: 150 Vig: 300}

{Ability: Search: lvl 1}

{Ability: Summon shark: lvl 3}

{Ability: Triple water slice: lvl 5}

{Ability: Boiling steam: lvl 6: Boiling hot steam comes out of your hands}

{Passive skill: Fishman body: 50% increase speed on water and land. Can breathe underwater. Can walk on land. 20% weaker to lightning based attacks}

{Talent: Potion maker: Can learn potion related skills 100% faster and has a 50% chance to produce better quality potions}

'Are those his stats?! And what is that talent?' 

Sky didn't expect someone to have those kinds of stats. He needed a plan to kill him. Facing him head on was suicide, like the Carribean men who were facing him and were getting killed left and right.

'Slowness.' He waved his hand at him.

{Target has been slowed down by 45%}

The fishman could feel something really heavy weighing down on him. One of the Carribean men had actually cast the same spell earlier, but the skill level was only level 1, Sky's was at level 9, and so Sky's level 9 skill replaced the other Caribbean man's level 1 skill.

'What a powerful curse!' Lorca thought. 'When did humans in this part of the world manage to get such a powerful curseness of slowness? If I had known I would've brought Jirco to dispel it!' 

He was carefully scanning the area looking for the one who casted the powerful curse on him. Being slowed by nearly half of your max speed was no joke.

There are three ways to dispel a curse from oneself: 1: Obtaining a scroll that can dispel other curses, but those can be found in red scrolls only and need practice. The second method is to own an item that can dispel curses, but such items are rarer to find compared to finding a red scroll that dispels curses. And lastly is to kill the one who casted the curse on him, which is the easiest method.

Sky made sure to keep himself and Jericho hidden from the powerful Fishman.

Many of the Carribean men had decent stats around 80-90 each as their training is not only hellish, many get a single green scroll a month to increase their strength if they contribute enough. It is one of the many reasons many want to become Carribean men, for the benefits, and because they get to fight for justice.

"Ice trident! Ice trident!" Sky summoned two ice tridents on both hands. He had an idea, and he needed to wait for the opportune moment to strike.

Yesterday he realized he could summon two ice tridents in each hand, one was for throwing, and the other one was for protecting himself.

"Looks like I have to do this just to be sure."

{Stat points: 20 → 0}

{Dex: 82 → 102 + 15}

{Dex stat has reached level 100}

{Aim has improved by 50%}

{Decreased skill cooldown has increased 25% → 50%}

{New skill learned}

{Absolute shot: Accuracy and range is increased by 100% for only 1 shot. You can never miss your target. Shot can be blocked} {Cooldown 1 hour. Is not affected by decreased skill cooldown}

"Perfect! Absolute shot!" 

{Absolute shot activated}

Sky stood up and aimed his ice trident at the fishman. While it says it can never miss his target, it can be blocked. The fishman could block it with his trident, which is what worried Sky.

"Come on, eagles, stun him once." Sky waited patiently. None of his eagles could hit him as he was still fast, and kept his distance from them using his long trident.

Jericho could feel a weird metal coming from the fishman's trident, but his armor wasn't made out of metal at all.

'I have an idea.' Jericho thought.

The fishman was getting worried. He was getting close to being shocked by the lightning eagles, was at least using half his speed, and was getting pushed back by the Carribean men.

'I need to flee.' He thought it would be easy to kill all the humans on the island, and possibly find and kill the one who killed his family.

Before he could flee, his trident was vibrating for a second before it got cut into dozens of pieces and fell to the ground.

"What?!" The fishmen looked at what remained of his trident and couldn't believe it with his own eyes, how did it even happen?

That trident had been with him all his life. It was given to him by his father as a child days before his father died. It was the only present he had left of his father, and now it was ruined. He couldn't help but tear up a bit.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man standing behind some wooden barrels. The man wore absolutely ridiculous clothing which is what caught his attention. He carried an ice trident, beside him was a little girl. Once he saw them his eyes widened from shock.

'Wait, lightning birds, a man with a little girl, carrying a trident, metal gauntlets… IT'S HIM! I FOUND HIM! I NEED TO TELL THE OTHERS!'

The man threw an ice trident right at his face before he could retreat to the ocean. He tried to grab it with his hands, but the trident curved around his hands and the trident broke into pieces upon hitting his face, one barely missed his eye.

'What?' The fishman didn't understand, how did the trident curve?

Sky was just as stunned, as he didn't even need to use his telekinesis, the trident curved by itself because of {absolute shot} almost like he was using aimbot hacks.

{Critical damage! 3230 damage dealt}

{You have killed fishman}

'Wait, what?' Sky didn't expect to kill him in one shot, or that his trident would shatter. Before his ice trident would always impale monsters, but I guess that only worked on monsters and not on fishmen who have tough skin and higher stats.

{Exp, 10,215, shells 6,444}

{Jericho Haydie has leveled up}

{Completed mission}

{Received: 200,000 shells, 300,000 exp} 

{Level up}

{Level up}

{Level up}

{Level 106}

{Stat points: 15}

{Shells: 2.6m}

'I am so glad I saved up on those stat points.' Sky patted himself for being smart about his stat points. He turned to Jericho who looked at him waiting to be praised.

Sky held her and whispered, "This is my fault, I should've told you not to use your magnetism powers out in the open."

Jericho's eyes were wide open, she has been using her magnetism ability so much that she has forgotten it was the reason she was in this mess.

"Sorry."

"Other than that, nice going on destroying his trident. Just don't do it again in front of people for now." Sky rubbed her head, like a proud father.

"Thanks."

Sky didn't care if the trident the fishman was using got destroyed, its stats were worse than his living trident, which was no longer present after clearing the red dungeon.

The Carribean men saw the fishman die, and felt relieved to see that the powerful monster was dead.

"Healers! We need healers! Get a healer here now!"

"Jimmy is still alive! The boiling steam caused his entire body to turn red."

"Go help the civilians!"

"Communicate with the other bases."

Two of the commanding officers that were fighting the fishman immediately gave orders to the Carribean men. They immediately went to help the wounded.

Some the Carribean men used level 1 healing skills to heal their wounded comrades.

Sky grabbed Jericho's arm and said, "let's go, now." 

As both were heading towards the beach, Sky asked the system a question in his mind,

'System, that fishman had a 'talent' in its description, I've never seen that before.'

{Talented individuals can learn faster than others and can yield better results depending on the talent they have. The only way to have a talent, or more, is to be born with it. The talent a person is born with is completely random}

'So… just to be clear I don't have talent, right?'

{That is correct}

'Is there a way for me to get a talent?'

Sky wanted to know if it was possible as learning skills 100% faster seemed amazing, but if it was combined with the speed he's learning skills thanks to his system, his learning speed would be amazing.

{I will not answer that. Player already has something better than 'talent' and that is a system}

'Eh, worth a try. Wait, do people with talents know they are talented?'

{Some do. Most die without knowing they have a talent. Or they do know but hate it. Being talented in something and liking it are two different things}

'So I can just recruit talented people into my crew and raise my overall strength. How can I find people with talents?'

Sky has had thoughts on recruiting powerful people to join his crew/party to become stronger, right now it was just him and a little girl clearing dungeons.

The problem was no one stronger than him would want to join him, it was common sense, not to mention having to go through the trouble of leveling them up and sharing his exp.

As much as Sky likes having Jericho around for her convenient ability, he didn't like sharing his exp but had to for their sakes.

{Keep using 'identify' and find a talented individual as that is the only ability you have right now that can find people with talents. Talented people are rare so don't expect to find one so easily}

'Last question: if I were to recruit a talented individual, like that fishman I just killed, would his talent combined with the system's help make him learn his talented profession faster than before?'

{Of course! But even if the system does help a talented individual progress faster it is still nothing compared to the player}

'Now the only problem is finding talented people.'

As Sky was about to leave the island with Jericho, a Caribbean man called out to them.

"Hey, you!"

Both of them stopped to look at the man behind them with Jericho purposefully covering her face so as to not be seen. It was one of the Carribean men in charge, as one could tell by the tiny tidal wave badge on his shoulder which signified his rank and strength.

What Sky knows about the ranking is that new recruits don't have a single tidal wave, a rank above the recruit is a soldier, they have one tidal wave, then above that rank is commander, which is two tidal waves. 

Sky forgot the names of the ranks that are above the commander rank, but the total amount of tidal waves a Caribbean man can earn is five.

The man in front of them had two tidal waves, which meant he was a commander.

'Identify.'

{Glenn Kingly}

{HP: 400/400}

{Mana: 275/275}

{Str: 150 Dex: 171 Spd: 66 Int: 55 Mind: 94 Vig: 30}

{Ability: Search: lvl 1}

{Ability: Eye of truth: lvl 1}

These are the stats and skills a commander usually has. 

Sky was somewhat impressed by his stats, they aren't low but they aren't high either especially if he compares them to the fishman. Whereas a soldier's stats must be way lower. 

The only reason they were able to hold off a powerful fishman is because of their high numbers.

"Thank you for killing that powerful fishman. The Carribean men, and the people of this island owe you a huge favor."

Glenn saluted Sky as he would to a superior of his.

"It was nothing. I was just doing what anyone else would do."

Sky couldn't tell anybody that he was the reason that fishman was attacking the island. Some things are better left unsaid.

Jericho couldn't help rolling her eyes at him. She knew he was the cause of the fishmen killing all these people, even if the fishmen on that island did attack first, that didn't matter to their friends and families because all they cared about was revenge.

"Seriously, you were a great help. If it weren't for you many others would have died."

"Like I said it was… hold on, question, does this island have a phone by any chance?" Sky asked.

"We actually do."

"There's an island called "Peeves" that's far away, can I call them?" 

"Unfortunately no, we don't have many bases out there with phones, only here, Harbot's, and some other islands, Peeves is not one of them."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I am sure. There are only five bases out there with phones, this place, Harbots, Reef's, Gogonut, and Hesohn. Peeves is still not one of them."

The invention of phones was still too underdeveloped. People use rotary phones in this world and it was the best and only type of phone in this world. Phones were first invented two years ago, so they are still scarce especially in the Land of the Free which wasn't a priority.

Of course the news of the phones was spread worldwide as people could communicate with others from hundreds of miles in real time instead of relying on mail. The invention of the phone was revolutionary. But such a great invention was not yet available to everyone.

Sky's parents had also talked about getting a phone, but that was merely wishful thinking.

"Thank you anyways…" Sky was about to leave but then stopped and turned back. "Actually, since I saved many people I have a favor to ask."

"Name it."

"Tell me everything you know about the Warlord."