Then, as if sensing Jace’s mental pleading for the warleader to focus his attacks on him, the berserker spun and charged at Jace. As he ran past, Mika sliced her katana along his side.
Mika Knightly critically hit Bear Tribe Warleader for 18 damage.
Bear Tribe Warleader dies.
You gain 1000 experience.
You have gained a level.
You are now level 15 in Swashbuckler.
Ability gained: Bladed Defense II
Bladed Defense II
Swashbuckler Ability
Description: Swashbucklers are masters of a one handed blade. When using a single weapon, they gain an Armor bonus of their Swashbuckler level times 2.
Not realizing he was dead yet, the warleader continued several more steps before falling lifeless on the deck in front of Jace. From the corner of his eye, he saw that he had gained a level and an upgraded Swashbuckler ability but that wasn’t his primary concern at the moment.
As soon as the stun wore off on Jace, he and Mika rushed over to Diana. Her stun wore off too and the older woman immediately began sobbing. Jace put a hand on her shoulder while Mika embraced her.
He looked around at the crew, who had started cheering when the warleader had died. Jace motioned for silence and then ordered the crew to search the longboat for plunder. The crew let loose another cheer and leaped to their task while Jace and Mika helped Diana to the captain’s quarters.
It had been a tough fight and Jace just hoped Diana could recover from it. She’d taken a bad beating and knowing her aversion to pain, he was worried that she might give up on them entirely and asked to be dropped off at the next port.
Chapter 39
The pirates made short work of searching the listing raider longship. In the hold, they found two chests of coins and small valuables, along with various trade goods like furs, cloth and, of course, several crates of alcohol. The cheer that went up when they found the alcohol was nearly as loud as when they won the fight.
Mika was in the captain’s quarters with Diana, but Jace needed to remain outside. He and Colette kept a wary eye on the remaining ship. The raiders had managed to get the fire under control but they appeared to be picking up raiders from longship the Wyvern’s Tail had rammed.
“Do you think they’ll attack us?” he asked Colette.
Colette looked out at the scorched ship and shook her head. “The mast is burned and the sail is gone. It looks like some of the oars are missing and some of the oar stations are burned. They’re taking on men from the other ship, so they’ll be heavy. Even if they come after us, we can outrun them.”
Jace cast a glance at the pirates still loading their goods from the longship. “Let’s have the crew hurry and then get on our way. I’d rather not test our luck.”
She nodded, obviously sharing his caution. “Aye, captain.”
Colette walked away and began shouting orders to the crew. Jace took the opportunity to return back to the body of the warleader and loot it. From the body, he received two items and a pouch containing some gold and gems.
Warhammer of Lightning
Type: Crushing
Level: 25
Damage: 18 + 6 (Heavy)
Wt: 4 lbs
Special: Enemies struck with this hammer take an additional 9 points of electric damage.
Description: Warleaders are often granted weapons from their chieftain for particularly profitable or brutal raids. This one bears the mark of the Bear Clan.
Skald’s Chainmail
Type: Chest Armor
Level: 25
Armor: 15 + 6 (Hardened)
Wt: 10 lbs
Description: A gift from a mighty chieftain to the skald who sang at his wedding, the chainmail was subsequently taken from the skald after the chieftain found him with his wife a month later.
Jace frowned as he read the descriptions of the items. While the chainmail might be nice for Diana or himself, it was level 25. He’d need 10 more levels before he could wear it. The hammer seemed nice, but none of them used hammers. Too bad.
Throwing the items into his inventory, he checked the other bodies his group had put down and received a handful of coins. He also found a silver ring inset with a blue sapphire. The ring did not look like a raider crafted item and Jace guessed the raider had taken it from one of his victims.
By the time he was done looting, the sailors had loaded all of the plunder on the ship and had raised the anchor. It was time for them to leave. Walking up to the wheel, he looked back at the remaining raider ship.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them,” Colette said over her shoulder, reading his mind.
He turned to face her. “You think they’ll want revenge?”
“Wouldn’t you?” she asked. “And they’re a proud people. I think the Wyvern’s Tail is about to be the most famous ship in the Bear Clan.”
“How many did we lose?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Three,” she said. “Two of them were new, Hendrick and Whitley. The other was one of the dog-kin, Rakktor. He’d been on the ship for a couple years.”
“Was it worth it?” Jace frowned.
“Oh yeah,” Colette slapped him on the shoulder. “We all know the life. We chose to be here. It’s a dangerous life. If they wanted something safe, they would have stayed on dry land, tending a field or something.”
He forced a smile and looked back at the ship, growing smaller behind them. “How long before they come back with more ships?”
“No idea.” The first mate shrugged. “I’d guess that it would take them a day or two to get home, maybe more with no sail. If they have more ships, and they decide to come after us, it will be another day or so before they return.”
“So, we have three or four days.”
“If I’m right. We should be long gone by then.”
Jace nodded and started towards the captain’s quarters to check on Diana. “You’ve got the helm, number one.
“Captain,” Colette said tentatively from behind him and he turned back around to face her. “The men are curious about the plunder.”
“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow.
“They want to know the shares,” she asked.
Jace thought for a moment. “I want to go through the chests and see if there is any magical plunder, but then then you can split among them. Keep a double share out for a ship fund, so we can cover port fees and repairs. When we get to a port, we’ll sell the trade goods and throw that into the ship fund too.”
“What about you, Captain?” Colette insisted. “You should be taking your share.”
“I took some items from the warleader,” he replied. “That will be my share.”
Colette considered his words but then nodded. “Aye, captain.”
He left her and went back to the captain’s quarters, pausing just outside the door. He paused there, debating whether he should go in now or find something else to do for a while longer. Diana had been crying when she went inside and he didn’t do well with crying women.
Thinking back, Jace realized that was most likely because he really hadn’t dealt with a crying woman or girl since his sister. Sure, he’d had some girlfriends, but he had never done anything to make them cry. In fact, he’d actually never broken up with any of them. They’d always broken up with him.
He wondered why that was but guessed his simple existence wasn’t very exciting. He just wasn’t a partier like others his age. The only club he ever went to was Club 20/20, a retro club that played the old pirated vidstreams on multiple screens while blasting the music from the last 20th century.
He thought about his life now. It had been anything but boring. Since he arrived in the game, it had been one thing after another. There had barely been any downtime or time just to really sit back and consider everything that had happened.
In fact, he had purposefully been keeping himself busy lately to avoid thinking about the real elephant in the room - his impending death. Technically,
it wouldn’t be “death” but it would be the end of his existence when they deleted him.
The thought scared him. No. It terrified him. Jace knew he was just a series of 1’s and 0’s in the computer, but everything felt real. HE felt real. He accepted that he wasn’t the real Jace and that even if he was deleted, the real Jace would go on. But he was more than the old Jace now. He had experiences and memories the real Jace didn’t have. He was unique now. Didn’t he have a right to keep existing?
The answer was no, of course. The real Jace might have rights and if the real Jace was actually dead, then he might have some protections under the law. As it was, he doubted he had any legal protection. In fact, by law, WorldCog would be legally bound to remove him as soon as they realized the mistake.
He shuddered, feeling suddenly cold. He’d probably have no warning. One moment he’d be a living digital person. The next moment: nothing.
Would they save him off somewhere or just delete him outright? Not that it would really matter. The moment they removed his program from the server, he would lose all awareness. For all intents and purposes he’d be dead. Or was it more like being in a coma. A coma just like his real self had been.
He smirked at the irony. First, his real self was in an accident and left in a coma. When that happened, he - Jace - was inserted into the game. He’d been living and experiencing things while the real Jace was in the coma. Then the real Jace woke up and now he, the digital Jace, was going to be either saved off, meaning he’d be in the digital equivalent of a coma, or killed outright.
Jace took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do about it. It would happen when it happened. He guessed that was just like real life. You never knew when your time was up. His real self had almost been killed in a car accident. He hadn’t been expecting it or even seen it coming.
He smiled bitterly. At least it should be painless. There were certainly worse ways to die than simply ceasing to exist. Or worse, if Damian caught him and figured out how to make him experience a painful death over and over again. Jace would settle for oblivion rather than an eternity of torture. He certainly didn’t want to end up like Big Cheese, the strange insane player inside the goblin chief he’d met.
Nodding his head in acceptance of his fate, Jace reached for the door handle. Once more he hesitated but he knew he needed to check on Diana. He owed it to her. Taking the handle, he opened the door.
And was met with peals of laughter. He saw Diana and Mika sitting at the table and they were laughing. He blinked. Was he seeing things or hearing things? He had expected the older woman to be crying but she and Mika were laughing.
He glanced between Mika and Diana, trying to figure out what was going on. The girls looked at him, at the stupid expression on his face and burst into more laughter.
Jace looked down at himself to see if suddenly he’d grown a shark tail or something. He looked back up at the pair of laughing girls. “What?”
Chapter 40
Jace looked from the laughing girls to Luna, who lay on the bed in her smaller form, and then back to the girls. He felt like there was some joke that he wasn’t in on. An irrational fear seized him and he quickly looked down to make sure he was wearing pants. He was.
He looked back to the girls. “What?”
The girls looked at each other and then laughed again. Jace was confused and it must have shown on his face.
“We are not laughing at you Jace,” Mika told him, still grinning.
“It’s a girl thing,” Diana told him, “you wouldn’t understand.”
Jace opened his mouth and then closed it. From where he stood, he could see the wet lines down Diana’s face, from her earlier tears. But now she seemed fine. More than fine. She was laughing.
“You can leave,” Diana said, making a dismissive gesture.
Opening his mouth again to ask what was going on, he snapped it shut and shook his head. Then he spun on his heels and left the cabin. He didn’t appreciate being dismissed like that, but at the same time, it was much better than dealing with a crying woman.
He didn’t understand it, but he was glad that Diana seemed to be okay now. He had been worried about her taking the damage she did. Jace had no idea what pain she might have endured throughout her life, but she seemed to shy away from it here in the game.
Then again, the pain they felt in-game was 10-20% more intense than it would be in real life, so he couldn’t really blame her. He wasn’t a fan of pain either, but he forced himself to push through it. Remembering the mental pain he’d gone through when his family died, the physical pain was easier to deal with.
Climbing back up to the aft deck, he saw Colette near the wheel while another sailor held it steady. The first mate was staring at a map and compass. She looked up as he approached and gave him a knowing look. “Women kick you out?”
Jace glanced back at the door to the captain’s cabin and shrugged. He hadn’t exactly been kicked out but he had definitely been dismissed. He had no idea what was going on with the girls, but he knew better than to stay when he was asked to leave.
The first mate flashed him a smile and glanced back to the map. “We should reach your destination around midday tomorrow.”
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what’s there?” she asked and then cast a look at the sailor behind the wheel. “Later.”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Something that will help me against the dark elf that’s trying to kill me and destroy the ship,” he replied. It was mostly the truth. He wasn’t sure what was there. And he wasn’t sure what might be guarding it.
At the last treasure map location, they’d found the kroakers. By themselves, the frog people might not have been too difficult. But then there was Bob, the ancient dragon turtle. Bob was a raid level monster. Had he not been friendly, they wouldn’t have had a chance.
What if they ran into another epic monster and this time it wasn’t friendly? His thoughts turned to the dragon that was currently terrorizing the area around Whitecliff. The dragon was a player like Bob. Unlike Bob, the dragon player didn’t want to be left alone. It looked more like he wanted to destroy everything.
“Well,” said the first mate, folding up her map. “I hope you find what you need to dispatch this troublemaker, so we can get back to piracy…” She smirked. “I mean, privateering.”
She took the helm from the sailor who had been manning it and stared off in the horizon in front of them. Jace snorted as he realized that another woman had dismissed him. He was three for three apparently.
Walking to the back railing, he leaned over and looked out to the ocean behind them. It was easy to forget that he was inside a game when there was endless water all around him. Glancing to the east, he couldn’t quite see the land even with his Cat-Vision. The coast was there, but just out of sight.
He wasn’t sure how long he stared out over the water, but he felt a light touch on his shoulder and turned to see Mika there. He smiled without thinking, happy to see her. “Girl stuff over?”
She returned his smile and moved up to stand next to him, placing her hand atop his. “She is okay now.”
Jace raised an eyebrow. “She wasn’t before?”
Mika shook her head. “No, she was crying because of all the pain but she cried so hard she started laughing and then I laughed, and then we both laughed and kept laughing until you walked in.”
Jace had no idea what she was talking about. He rarely cried. In fact, he didn’t remember crying since his parents died. Even then, he hadn’t cried much. His sorrow and anger had quickly turned to numbness. The therapists he’d seen while he was in foster care had tried to help him to “feel” again but he’d never fully managed to break out of that hole in his center.
“How is she dealing with things now?” he asked, worried that the older woman would swear off adventuring and fights.
“She’s okay with things now,” Mika replied. “I think the pain was intense, but now she sees that it is short lived and that she
is fine.”
“So, she doesn’t want to be let off at the first port we come to?”
“I don’t think so,” Mika chuckled. “I just think she really likes you and didn’t want you to see her breaking down or is it cracking up?”
“Maybe both,” Jace said, his brow furrowed. “She… likes me?”
“Not that way,” she elbowed him playfully. “I think she thinks of you like a son, or maybe a good friend. You have helped her, and me, and you treat us both with respect. I think maybe she was not treated very well by people in her life.”
“Like Bob,” Jace remembered. The dragon turtle had mentioned some bad experiences with his children or something like that. Maybe in a way, they were all loners - or just, alone.
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he looked to Mika. “Were you alone in the real world?”
Mika’s brow creased as if remembering something painful and she made a small nod. She bit her lip before finally speaking. “I was in a car accident as a little girl. I was in the front seat, and not wearing a seat belt. I went through the window and skidded down the road. I survived, but I had scars on my face since I was six.”
He moved his hand atop hers and squeezed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“In Japan,” she took a deep breath, “beautiful things are appreciated. Ugly things are not. I did not have many friends and no boyfriends.”
Jace didn’t know how to respond to that. He had thought maybe she was just a hermit or lived in the middle of nowhere. Now he realized why she had said she didn’t have any guys falling over her. She had been scarred. He couldn’t imagine her flawless face with scars, but he knew it must have been terrible growing up with that sort of stigma.
But it did add to his theory. Bob had been alone, estranged from his family because they were after his money. Jace had been alone. He had no family and no friends. Mika had been alone as well. And Jace guessed that while Diana was well known by her pen name, she probably didn’t have a huge social presence as her real name.
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