Chances were good that Damian would be waiting for them at Nynymmost. After all, he’d sent the assassin and once he got the ear back, he’d know where they’d been. He could just teleport there and interrogate the people until he found out they were aboard the Sea Tyrant. His former coworker would then just need to find out the ship’s destination and he could watch for the ship’s arrival in the gnomish capital.
“What’s the heading, captain?” yelled the pirate behind the wheel, breaking Jace out of his thoughts.
Turning, he saw it was a dark-skinned woman with short-cropped hair and large, gold hoop earrings. A quick glance at his HUD told him her name was Colette Nash. According to the information, she was first mate. Jace moved close to Mika and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Tell Colette the coordinates to the closest treasure.”
Mika nodded and climbed up the stairs to the wheel. She spoke briefly with Colette and then the dark-skinned woman began barking orders. The other pirates hurried to obey and soon the ship lurched into motion.
“She said it would take at least a day,” Mika told them when she returned. “Maybe a day and a half. Something about currents and winds.”
“We probably need to take her word for it,” Jace admitted. “Since none of us know anything about sailing.”
“I don’t enjoy being at their mercy,” Mika said, casting a sideways glance back at Colette. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “They are pirates. We cannot trust them.”
“It’s a good thing none of us sleep,” Diana commented. “Or we might not wake up.”
“You may be right,” Jace told them. “But now that I technically own the ship, through the game mechanics, I’m not sure that any of them could dispose me as captain. Drakkar could do it because he was one NPC doing it to another NPC.”
“And you don’t think they could do the same thing to you?” Mika asked.
“No,” Jace said. “Well, maybe. I’m not sure. This is the first vessel I’ve owned in the game - even as Mordred.”
“That’s comforting,” Diana said.
“Normally,” he retorted, “I’d just look up the information on the forums or ask someone at work. But neither of those things are options at the moment.”
“So, what do we do now?” Mika asked.
“Whatever it is we decide to do,” Diana said, looking around at the many crewmen on deck. “We should do it somewhere else.”
Seeing the curious glances they were getting from the sailors, Jace agreed. “Let’s go into the captain’s quarters and talk about what’s next.” He looked up and Colette. “I’ll be in my quarters if you need me.”
“Aye, captain,” she called down. “Your quarters are downstairs, towards the bow.”
Jace motioned to the door that led into the room where he had confronted Drakkar the night he’d stolen the crown. “Wait. I thought that was the captain’s quarters.”
“Aye.” The dark-skinned woman smiled. “It was. Till some scurvy thief broke in and torched the place. Now it's just storage.” She punctuated her words with a knowing smirk.
“Fine,” Jace told her. “I’ll be below deck then.”
He, the two girls and Luna went downstairs, through a long narrow hallway to a large wooden door. Pushing it open, Jace could see that many of the things he’d seen in the captain’s cabin were now in this new room.
The bed, the desk and several of the bookcases littered the new captain’s quarters. They moved to the back of the cabin where the bed was. The bed and end tables hadn’t been touched by the fire, though they all smelled of smoke.
There was also a desk, though the front of it had been badly singed, as well as three wooden chairs. The trio moved into the room but Luna bounded past them. The cat, still in her giant form, leaped atop the bed and caused the thing to give out a pained groan. She walked around in a circle and then settled into a spot near the head of the bed.
“Luna,” Jace scolded. “Same rules as the other ship. Inside, you have to be normal size.”
The cat looked dejected but shrank back down to the size of a regular cat. Jace could have sworn she huffed at him before putting her head down on her paws and closing her eyes.
“So now we’re all here,” Diana said, falling back into one of the chairs around the desk. “Now what?”
Both girls were looking at Jace for his plan but Jace hadn’t really planned beyond defeating Drakkar. He wasn’t even sure his plan would work and that the pirates would force the late captain to fight him. But he had won and now he was struggling to figure out their next steps. He’d have to make it up as he went.
“First thing,” he told them. “We need to watch each other's backs. No one goes up on deck alone. I don’t think they’ll attack us, but let’s not take chances. It’s a long way from here back to Lasthaven for respawn.”
The two women nodded.
He flopped down in the leather-bound chair on the opposite side of the deck. “Second, we need to keep the number of treasures to ourselves. I’m guessing that if we get the first one and pay off the crew, we can dock somewhere and take on a new crew. Then go get another one, but without telling them what it is.”
“You think that will work?” Mika asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jace replied. “But if we start going treasure hunting, the crew’s going to want a large cut of it and right now, we need that money if we’re going to stay ahead of Damian.”
“Can we even do that?” Diana asked. “Stay ahead of him, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” Jace told her. “And even if we can stay off his radar for a time, eventually he’ll figure out a way to track us.”
“What can he really do if he finds us?” Mika asked. “He is a character too, right? He can kill us, but we just respawn. He can’t kill us for real. Right?”
“Theoretically, that’s true,” Jace nodded. “But theoretically, he shouldn’t have been able to put us into monster bodies either. And there are worse things than death in the game.”
“Worse?” Mika asked.
“There are spells and items that can imprison people,” he told them. “Indefinitely. If you get caught in one, someone has to release you in order for you to escape. Either that, or you create a new character.”
“But we can’t create new characters,” Diana pointed out.
“Exactly,” Jace said. “It’s like being thrown in prison. Most people will either log out while they serve their sentence or create a new character. We can do neither.”
“So basically,” Diana summarized. “We’re screwed.”
Chapter 10
The first mate had been right. It had taken them just over a day to reach the island the late captain’s log had pointed them to. It was near dark, but Jace could see the twin volcanic peeks peeking through the dark jungle canopy.
“The charts don’t have an official name for the island,” Colette told them as they all looked out towards the island. “But it looks like Buchard had the words ‘Kroaker Island’ scribbled next to it though.
“Did you say Kroaker Island?” Jace asked worriedly.
“Aye,” the first mate nodded. “I take it you know what they are?”
“I do,” Jace nodded grimly. He’d faced them before as Mordred. They were bipedal frog people, primitive but cunning. Some higher level kroakers were even poisonous. They used poison from their own bodies to coat their weapons, making them very dangerous.
“I too have faced kroakers,” Mika said quietly. “They are common among the islands of the Coalition.”
“Kroakers?” Diana turned and asked with a confused look. “Dare I ask what kroakers are?”
“Amphibious frog people, or maybe toad people, I don’t really know the difference,” Jace replied. “They are strong and, as you can imagine, extremely good jumpers. One of their favorite techniques is to leap at their enemies, spear first. It does a ton of damage. High level ones use poison so it’s even worse.”
“Sounds painful,” Diana said.
&n
bsp; “I’d recommend avoiding it,” Jace nodded. He looked out at the island. Even with the Cat-Vision granted to him by his familiar, he couldn’t see past the initial trees of the jungle. “Let’s wait until morning. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go into the kroaker’s territory at night, when only I can see.”
“According to your coordinates,” Colette said. “The treasure can be found somewhere near the volcanoes.”
Jace smirked. “Of course it can,” he said sarcastically.
“You taking the entire crew?” the first mate asked him.
“I wasn’t planning to take anyone,” he replied and saw the woman’s eyes narrow.
“Why wouldn’t you take the crew?” she asked accusingly, her voice louder than it needed to be. “Planning to run off with the treasure?”
That got the attention of some of the nearby crew mates and it got suddenly quiet on the ship. Jace looked around and saw that the crew had stopped in their tasks and had all turned to stare at him. They were pirates. They probably suspected he was going to double cross them.
Jace sighed. “If you think I’m planning to run away with the treasure, I want you to take a good hard look at the ocean around you. Do you see any other ships?”
Several of the crew did actually look around and shrugged. Colette kept staring at Jace. “Maybe you plan on hiding some of it. Keep it for yourself so you can come back for it. Maybe with that racoon-kin captain.”
Jace shook his head at the paranoia but considering their former captain had been an idiot like Drakkar, he couldn’t blame them.
“Listen,” he told them. “I promised I’d give the treasure to you and I’ll keep my promise. You’re owed it. But, I don’t know what’s in that jungle. There could be an entire army of croakers. But even if there’s just a single tribe, how much noise is the entire crew going to make trampling through the jungle? They’ll be on us in a heartbeat!”
“Then we fight them!” yelled one and several more joined in. “Yeah! Fight them!”
“Have you ever seen a poison kroaker arrow?” Jace asked. “Have you ever seen someone skewered by one? Do you know how long it takes them to die, screaming in agony? Or have to watch their body contort and watch them bite off their own tongue?”
Jace hadn’t actually seen anyone other than players get hit by a kroaker arrow and their necromancer had purged the poison from them before it could do much damage. Plus, like most players, their sensory input level had been turned down. So maybe he was embellishing it a bit. For all he knew, that’s what COULD happen to NPCs.
True or not, his words had the desired effect. The pirates looked much less sure of themselves and even Colette’s glare waivered. They began muttering among themselves. Good. He let them. But only for a minute.
“My companions and I will go through the jungle, get the treasure and bring it out,” Jace told them in a loud, firm voice. “And then you all can split it. I won’t take any of it. Each of you will get what you’re owed.”
“But,” Jace said, trying to put as much iron into his voice as possible. “I’m the captain now. If anyone feels like questioning me again.” Jace glared at Colette. “They can do so with steel. But I’ll warn you, I held back with Drakkar. I wanted you to see me beat him on his terms. But make no mistake. If anyone mutinies, I won’t hold back.”
He continued to hold Colette's gaze until the woman finally looked away and nodded. “Aye, Captain.”
“Oh,” Jace said. “And in case anyone thinks they can plan something on this ship without me knowing about it...”
Jace sent a mental command to Luna. Thankfully, she listened to him and padded over to him. The tiger-sized cat rubbed up against him but looked menacing. At least, as menacing as a giant sized orange tabby could look.
“This is Luna, my familiar,” he said. “She can hear everything that happens on this boat. Not only that, because she’s a familiar, she understands what you’re saying. In case you don’t believe me…”
“You!” Jace directed his gaze at someone on the far side of the ship. The man went white, probably unsure what his new captain was going to do to him. “Whisper a word. Now!”
Everyone turned to the sailor and Jace could see the man’s lips move nervously.
“What did he say?” Jace asked Luna, using his Monster Speak skill to speak her language. He could have just used telepathy with her, but he thought speaking in a cat language might appear more magical.
“Bollocks,” Luna meowed, the boredom in her tone evident.
“He said the word bollocks?” he asked. Hopefully, it was the sailor’s words and not the cat getting cheeky with him.
“Yes,” she responded.
“Thanks!” he meowed back to her. “Remember, looking frightening. You’re a giant-sized, killing machine now!”
Luna did seem to puff up a bit at his words and glared around at the crew members. Jace looked back to the sailor. “Bollocks!”
“Plautia’s Mercy!” the man blurted out. “That’s what I said. He’s not lying.”
“Now that we’ve established that,” Jace told the assembled pirates. “Let’s get back to the treasure. My companions and I will go fetch it. You lot will stay here and guard the ship. Remember, kroakers are amphibious. They can stay submerged for a long time. I want everyone on their toes tonight and tomorrow while we’re gone. Colette, organize them into shifts and keep watch. They may already know we’re here from our lanterns.”
“Should we put them out?” Colette looked around at the half dozen lanterns on deck.
“No, we need to be able to see,” Jace shook his head. Just knew some of the crew were dog-kin and he’d spotted a racoon-kin as well. They’d have better eyesight than the humans and at least he could use that. “Set at least one of the kin with each watch so they can use their better eyesight. I don’t know if kroakers can see in the dark, but let’s assume they can if they can see underwater.”
“Aye Captain,” Colette said. “Will you be retiring to your quarters?”
“No,” Jace replied. “I’ll be keeping watch too.”
“What shift?” asked the first mate.
“All night,” Jace replied and suppressed a grin at the woman’s surprise.
“Aye captain,” she said and Jace thought he detected a little more respect in her voice. Whether it was from taking watch or his earlier speech, he didn’t know. But he hoped he wouldn’t have any trouble with the pirates. He, the girls and Luna could probably kill every last one of them but if he did, he’d have no one to crew the ship.
“I will keep you company,” Mika offered.
“Oh great,” Diana said. “I guess I’ll be walking the decks too then. There’s nothing to do down in the captain’s quarters. It’s not like I can sleep.” The older woman turned to Jace. “Is that a permanent thing? The not sleeping? I mean, if they fix us up, will I be able to sleep?”
Jace considered her question. He realized he really didn’t know. It wasn’t like he had planned on dying anytime soon. Even though he’d willed himself into the game, he hadn’t really done the research to find out what that meant when he actually died. For him, it had been enough that he’d live forever inside the game. He shrugged and gave the older woman an apologetic look. “Sorry, I really don’t know.
“I hope so. God, I miss dreaming,” Diana told him. “Plus, the days just all blend together after a while with no sleep to break them up.”
Although he hadn’t really paid attention to it, he did know what she meant. Since he’d appeared in the game, his primary concern had been on getting to the Help Desk and contacting support. He had just wanted to get things fixed at first.
Then, when Charlena had thought he was alive, the situation had been a bit more urgent since he believed he was stuck in a medical pod while he was in a coma. At the time, he had thought he would need support’s help to safely wake up.
Once he’d learned the truth, that he - or rather the real Jace - was alive and in a coma but not in
a pod, things had changed. He realized he was just an error. A copy of the real Jace’s consciousness and was inserted by accident when he was declared dead at the scene of that car accident.
WorldCog would erase him from the system if they found out the truth. And he honestly wasn’t sure how long his story of being Jace’s twin brother would hold up. How ironic would it be if he managed to elude Damian, only to get deleted from the game. Damian might just be able to sit back, relax and wait. Soon, Jace might get a long, never ending sleep.
“Are you waxing philosophical?” Diana asked him and he realized he had been lost in his own morbid thoughts.
“Just thinking about the jungle, the kroakers and the treasure,” he lied, forcing a smile. They were his friends and, technically, his wives. That didn’t mean he needed to burden them with his worries. Especially since there was nothing they could do to help him. There was nothing anyone could do.
Chapter 11
No attack came that night and when the morning sun rose in the east, they took one of the small rowboats to shore. Diana and Mika insisted on rowing while Jace and Luna kept watch. The water here was a crystal clear blue so seeing anything underwater was easy. The only issue was Luna rocking the boat as she followed the schools of colorful fish as they swam beneath them.
Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling the boat onto the shore and then they each swapped their clothes into their inventory and then back out to dry them. It was an old trick most players knew. Items in inventory didn’t keep their status. Put a wet or dirty piece item into your inventory and when you brought it back out, it was clean and dry.
“Are you seeing this?” Diana asked, staring at the mist rising up from the jungle in front of them. The mist seemed almost unnatural to Jace. It rose from the moist ground and lingered in the air like a thick fog.
Jace nodded. “That’s going to make spotting kroakers very hard.”
Veil Online - Book 3: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 7
