by Adam Drake
Incredulous, Rob ignored him and calmed his breathing. What happened? This should be an easy swim for him. He always loved to dive into the deep end of the community pool, sometimes timing himself to see how long he can hang out at the bottom. But this was different.
He was considering if it had something to do with it being salt water when it hit him. Yes, he was a good swimmer, but not here. Back in the real world swimming was almost second nature to him. Here, though, there was a severe limitation. His character didn't know how to swim. Sure, it was his body, or at least an exact representation of his body from the real world. But it obviously couldn't do all the physical things he'd learned.
When he'd jumped into the river, back when the pech were chasing him, the swimming skill his character had only got to 3%. And he wasn't really swimming then, just being carried along.
“I have to learn to swim again,” he said with growing frustration. But he needed to get to the bottom of the sea in hopes of making any potential progress with this quest. He needed to work around the problem and come up with another solution. How long would it take him to teach his avatar to swim? If the progress he'd made with his other skills were any indication it would be a good long time. Maybe never.
Struck with an idea, he began breathing deeply again.
Erwin was still chattering, his gaze looking to a far off place. “I'd order Jace to make me a big tree house. No! A castle tree house! And I'd have a thousand servants. No! Pech slaves. Let those goat-suckers feel what it's like. Ha!”
If there were more royal edicts Erwin wanted to decree, Rob didn't hear them. He took a deep breath and dunked beneath the surface.
Using the mast as a ladder, Rob pulled himself slowly downward.
After a few moments he'd made more progress than his previous attempt. The bulk of the ship soon revealed itself, emerging from the dark gloom. At the midway point of the mast he stopped to take in his surroundings.
The ship was huge. Nothing like the ships back in the real world, but big enough. It reminded him of the ones he'd seen in pirate movies or tv shows.
It had three masts, of which his was the middle and the largest. The one near the aft had snapped near its base and lay at an angle across the deck over the port side. The other was missing completely, only a ragged stump remaining.
Squinting, he could make out details of the deck. It was covered in rigging and thick ropes. His eyes traveled down the length of the ship to the raised aft deck which had a huge wooden steering wheel. As he tried to peer through the gloom to get a better look at it, a movement at the corner of his eye startled him.
A large strange form undulated in the water close by, dark and foreboding. Instinctively, he reached for his mace then realized his mistake. Releasing the mast, he grasped at the little fishing knife, only to have it slip from his grasp. As it tumbled slowly downward he tried to grab it, but he floated upwards.
He looked to the strange form again. It hadn't moved toward him, instead, it floated in place. Even as he was retreating upwards he realized what it was. The sails from the mast, ripped away from their rigging. They stretched out into the darkness like a giant torn flag of defeat.
But his relief was momentary. Already his lungs were bursting so he allowed himself to be slowly pushed upwards, occasionally kicking his legs, letting his heartbeat slow down.
When he broke the surface he wasn't the least surprised to find Erwin still excitedly babbling away.
“I'll have dragons, too!” the dockmaster exclaimed to the air. “And I'll ride the biggest one. If anyone talks to me like I'm an idiot, I'll set their ass on fire!”
Rob ignored the diatribe and worked on his breathing. After taking in a big lungful of air he submerged, again.
Using the the handholds down the length of the mast, he pulled himself all the way down to the deck in no time at all. Allowing himself a feeling of satisfaction he paused to look about, his eyes drawn back to the aft deck.
A figure hunched over the great steering wheel. Rob blinked in surprise. It was a skeleton, its bony hands clutching the knobs lining the wheel. It still wore clothes, all tatters. Atop its skull was a dark three-pointed hat. The motion of the current caused the skeleton to sway back and forth, as if it still tried to steer the ship, even in death.
Rob recalled the skeletons he fought back outside of Perrin's crypt. Although this one didn't appear to be a threat, he resolved to keep clear or it.
Suddenly, he was hit by a strange sensation. Fatigue. His limbs became leaden and he felt tired. What the hell was this? Thinking he might of overexerted himself during the descent, he noticed an odd movement in the water around him. A dark ripple pulsed outward from the back of the ship on the starboard side.
He assumed it was his imagination when another dark ripple pulsed out and expanded outwards to vanish from view. After several moments he watched the pulsing continue, almost regularly, like a clock slowly ticking.
Or a beating heart.
His fatigue got worse and as he glanced at his Energy bar as another pulse passed over him. His Energy dropped from 60 to 55.
Uh oh.
Something on the side of the ship's hull was sending out those dark ripples, and each one sapped at his Energy. He couldn't tell how much was lost due to the dark pulses or from his dive. Either way, the drop was alarming. Without Energy would he even be able to swim back up?
A quick movement on the deck to his right startled him.
A small red crab scuttled along the wooden deck, deftly climbing the fallen rigging. The creature was barely bigger than his hand, but it brought back memories of the monstrosity he fought on the tutorial island, and he watched the new arrival with suspicion.
A dark pulse of water passed over the crab and it froze in place. Its legs suddenly curled beneath itself and the currently lifted it up from the deck. It slowly spun through the water and over the side to disappear from view.
That wasn't a good sign.
He needed to get out of here, and fast. The risk of drowning was too great, now.
Pushing his feet against the deck he shot upward just as another dark pulse rolled up over his body. His Energy was now at 30.
You have advanced in Swimming! Skill has increased from 2% to 3%.
Despite the heavy feeling in his legs, he kicked as fast as he could, only feeling a sense of relief once he broke the surface. He desperately gasped, thankful to feel the fresh sea air fill his lungs.
“And I'll have ten wives!” Erwin said to himself. “No, fifty. And they'll all be beautiful and give me hundreds of fat babies!”
“Erwin!” Rob sputtered, his chest aching. He hung onto the mast for dear life, his Energy having bottomed out at 5.
Erwin blinked and looked at Rob, as if seeing him for the first time. “Oh, my Lord! Are you okay?”
“No,” Rob said, trying to not get angry. “Not at all. Do you have an Energy Potion?”
“Energy Potion? Well, no. No one does. No one can make them, either. And without any trade I don't see us getting some anytime soon.”
Whether Erwin intended the comment to be a barb or not, Rob ignored it. “There's something in the ship that sucked out all my Energy.”
“Really?” Erwin said, eyes comically wide. He looked over the boat's side at the water. “But I don't feel anything.”
“What's your Energy at?”
“A hundred. It rarely drops below that as I try not to exert myself when I can.”
Judging on how he rowed the boat, Rob didn't doubt it. “Any idea what could be doing that?”
“No clue, my Lord. But it does sound like magic of a kind. Although I have no idea what. Maybe Saif would know. We should go back.”
Rob frowned. This pulsing magic was probably the cause of the loss of fish. But his quest hadn't updated so he had to make sure. “No,” he said. “I have to see what the hell it is, first. Gimme a minute.”
“My Lord, there are other potions you could use to help.”
“Like what?”
“Well, there's a potion of Hold Breath that lasts about an hour before you have to breathe, again.”
“And I guess you don't have one?”
“No, my Lord,” Erwin said, but at Rob's grimace he hastily added, “But I do know the recipe for making it.”
“You do? What is it?”
“Two Air Flowers and Three Sea Beads. I think the flowers are found in caves, while the Sea Beads are a type of seaweed found in shallow waters.”
You have learned a new Recipe: Potion of Hold Breath
Ingredients:
Water x 1
Air Flower x 2
Sea Beads x 3
Required: Basic Alchemy Kit
Effect: Allows for the user to hold their breath for 60 minutes without the need for air.
Well, great, Rob thought, glumly. He didn't have either the ingredients nor the kit. It didn't help him now. He'd have to rely on trying for another dive.
“Where the hell can I get a kit?” he asked as he watched his Energy bar increase. Remaining motionless appeared to help it recover faster.
“No idea. From what I understand they are exceptionally rare and very expensive. But if you did get one think of all the potions you could make! Health and Mana and Invisibility!”
“Invisibility? You're kidding?”
“Well, I've only heard of such a thing, never used one before. But I do know it exits.”
“You wouldn't happen to have the recipe for that?”
“I'm afraid not.”
With his Energy at full, he took several deep breaths. Then, he submerged.
He was going to finish this damn quest, once and for all.
CHAPTER TWO
Mindful he was on a clock other than his air, Rob quickly descended the mast to the deck. He could see the pulsing waves moving outwards into the watery void like an expanding bubble. He needed to move down the length of the ship, along the side, to get to it. But with his Energy dropping, the distance looked like miles instead of meters.
A glint from within some nearby rigging caught his eye, and he pulled himself over to investigate. It was Erwin's fishing knife. He scooped it up, thankful to have some kind of weapon.
He decided on the shortest course of action and moved to the ship's side closest to him. The vast murky waters stretched out before him, cold and empty. From here he could see the pulsing waves were actually passing through the wood of the ship, like it didn't exist. It proved it was not limited by objects, like some kind of magical gamma rays.
His Energy was dropping quick, but he tried to ignore it. Panicking now wouldn't help the situation. Screwing up his courage he pulled himself up against the railing and leaned over just enough to see the outer hull below him.
The ship rested on the bottom of the sea, sand stretching out into the darkness. He found some solace in this. At least the ship wasn't floating along just below the surface. Such a revelation might have caused him serious vertigo.
His lungs ached for air. How long had he been down here? It was hard to say. Over a minute at least. Strange that he could hold his breath longer here than he could in the real world. The other dives lasted several minutes each. Perhaps his lungs were becoming better at holding air longer? Was that part of his swimming skill?
Another pulse passed over him, jarring him from his thoughts. He looked down the length of the hull in the direction the waves were coming from.
A huge gash punctured the hull near the aft end. From his angle he could see wooden barrels and crates jumbled within. A cargo ship?
The dark waves expanded outwards from within the hull, emanating from the hole, itself. A central point. What the hell could it be?
There was only one way to find out.
Carefully, he pulled himself along the railing, his body trailing upwards behind him. A nervous glance at the skeleton at the wheel told him it hadn't moved, but it didn't put his mind at ease.
Maneuvering to a point directly over the hole in the hull, he looked down. He figured it was only three of four body lengths away. A rope net extended down to the gash. He used it to pull himself down head first.
The water was pressing hard on his eyes, causing him to squint. A line of tiny bubbles escaped from between his lips. He was running out of time, but he was so close. At the upper edge of the huge hole he pulled himself down enough so his could see inside, upside down.
He feared the hold would be too dark to see into, which would require a return to the surface for him to cast his Light spell, but peering within proved that unnecessary. Strangely, there was plenty of light. Dozens of barrels and crates jammed the space within, no doubt knocked from their secure rigging when the ship sank.
Rob squinted at the chaotic mess, wanting to turn himself right-side up to properly survey the scene, but felt it would expose too much of his body.
A Light spell was at work here, allowing him to see everything. Maybe there wasn't anything as a dark cargo hold in a world where Light spells were common place. Perhaps it was always active. He didn't know, but he was thankful it was here.
It allowed him to see the odd elongated crate nestled at the center of the jumbled mess, deep within.
Rob blinked in confusion. It wasn't a crate at all. More like a coffin, its surface engraved with ornate markings and scrawls.
No, not a coffin. A sarcophagus.
What the hell?
The waves were coming from the sarcophagus, and as he looked longer at it he could see the lid was ajar, revealing a blackness within. The pulsing energy was coming from the crack. Something inside was creating them.
Upon this realization the pulsing suddenly increased in frequency, almost like an alarm going off. As if whatever was inside the sarcophagus sensed his presence.
The rapid succession of waves knocked his Energy down with horrific speed.
Oh, damn!
Knowing he was in serious trouble, Rob pulled himself up and away from the hole, but the waves continued like a rapidly beating heart.
This wasn't good! He quickly spun around in the water and kicked upwards. His Energy bar was in freefall and the surface looked far away.
His ascent was agonizingly slow and kicking his legs felt like he was swimming in wet cement. But he did keep rising. After several panicked moments the pulsing waves slowed again, resuming their regular rhythmic beat.
Yet, the damage had been done. His Energy finally hit zero and his mouth opened, the air in his lungs exploding out in a torrent of bubbles. He could see the surface, but his brain couldn't determine how far away it was.
Not that it mattered. He was drowning and there was nothing he could do about it.
I'm dying, he thought sluggishly. So this was what it was like to drown. He'd often wondered how it would feel, but never could have imagined these circumstances.
As his vision dimmed he could see his Hit Points were at full. He figured his body was taking damage of another kind. What crazy thoughts to have in the last moment's of your life.
Suddenly, the surface above him shattered and he knew it was closer than he thought. Something was dropping toward him, filling his sight.
Erwin.
The little dockmaster grabbed onto his shirt collar and pulled him upwards. The next moment he found himself breaking the surface, gasping desperately for air and coughing.
For several minutes he choked in air and regained his bearings. Erwin hung onto the side of the little rowboat while hugging him to his chest with his free hand.
“Are you okay, my Lord?” Erwin asked, his voice strained with worry.
“Yeah. Yeah, I am now. Thanks to you.” He still felt the rhythmic drumming echoing in his ears, but his Energy was slowly returning. “Enough of this crap. Let's get back to shore.”
With Erwin's help he managed to flop into the boat where he collapsed at the bow, too weak to move. All he wanted to do was sleep.
“Did you find the problem, my Lord?” Erwin said as he settled in between the
oars.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“What?”
“A bigger problem.”
Quest Updated: Trouble Beneath The Surface
Seal the Sarcophagus and remove it from the sea. Only then will life return to waters of your kingdom.
Rob groaned. How was he expected to do that? “Why does everything have to be so damned difficult?”
Erwin was silent, content with flailing the oars and splashing at the water. Rob didn't have the power to sit up, let alone take over the rowing. At least they were moving.
