“Grygz is at the Three Squids tavern,” said Calran, deeply inhaling his native air. “I won’t go with you—I can’t show up before him without reporting first. Good luck! Follow me, you vagabonds,” Calran said to his pirates. “Let’s go see what we can replace my little swallow with…”
“Okay, the Three Squids tavern is located in…” Zlatan began, but I cut him off.
“Wait!” I produced one of my amulets and spent several minutes hypnotizing it, trying to get a response. The word ‘swallow’ had jogged something in my memory and I couldn’t rid myself of the thought that Calran had mentioned it especially for me. Or, more accurately, in order that I took another player with us—the owner of a unique means of transportation that he too called his ‘swallow.’
“If this isn’t about an inheritance of twenty million, then you are definitely disturbing me,” sounded the impatient grumbling on the other end of the ‘line.’
“Happy to hear your voice too, Plinto. I need you. Teleport to Altameda, and from there to Cadis. Viltrius has the coordinates. You have one minute.”
“Hey, Mahan!” came the Patriarch’s voice. “Plinto cannot abandon his training. He only has…”
“I need him to save Renox,” I blurted out. “We are about to go meet the pirates in Cadis and then we’ll sail in a ship to Armard. Please don’t ask what Renox has to do with the pirates, but if Plinto doesn’t come with us right now, we won’t be able to rely on his help.”
“One week…” replied the Patriarch after a little thought which made me think our connection had been interrupted. “You have one week. After that Plinto must return…”
“We won’t need any more,” I assured the head Vampire of Barliona, after which two sentients appeared beside me—a slightly surprised Plinto, for whom such a sudden jump was unexpected, and the Patriarch, who looked at me with his black eyes, nodded a greeting at Anastaria and dissolved, returning to his forest.
“Hey! Well met, people!” smirked the Rogue, recognizing who stood before him. “Two former bosses, a current one and an orc, by whose face I can tell that even in Kartoss, Zlatan continues to play the fool. What’d you call me for?”
Relating to Plinto the gist of what was going on and remarking to myself that I really could use his fine sarcasm, we headed out to meet Grygz. The time had come to meet the pirates at long last.
* * *
We had been trying to get into the Three Squids tavern for two hours already…
“I’ve told you a hundred times, the tavern is closed!” wearily droned the Level 300 bouncer who was blocking our entrance to the Three Squids. “Come back in two days…”
“Stacey, maybe you can make him fall in love with you?” I asked the girl in desperation. “I can’t bear another hour of this…”
Nothing we said budged the guard blocking our path:
“Need to get into the tavern? No problem. Come back in two days…”
“Grygz is expecting you? No problem. Come back in two days…”
“You want to give me money to let you pass? Hand it over. I like money. Now, come back in two days…”
“You want to force your way in? Good luck. There’s a guard patrol passing right there…”
All of the various formulations and appeals that Anastaria and Zlatan came up with, shattered against the cliff of the bouncer’s granite implacability. After our second time bailing out Plinto—who tried to sneak in through the window but only encountered the same bouncer, who then handed him over to the guards—it became evident that if we were ever to meet Grygz it would have to be in two days.
“I already tried my Charm on him,” Stacey now grumbled aloud. “It doesn’t work. He’s wearing an amulet of absorption.”
“In that case, maybe we should come back in two days?” Evolett said what everyone had been thinking for at least forty minutes. As pathetic as it is to admit it, the NPCs simply don’t want to see us.
“Ahoy, vagabond!” smirked the bouncer, stepping aside. “Drop anchor in my gullet if isn’t the scourge of the seas!”
The NPC that walked past us was decked out head to toe with swords, miniature crossbows, throwing knives and various other dreck for cutting and piercing things. Showing something to the bouncer, the pirate passed inside with a happy smile, as if he’d been awaiting this day for several years. For a moment, we heard joyous cries sound from the tavern and then everything went quiet as the door shut.
“Stacey, how can we become pirates?”
“We can’t. Players can’t be pirates…”
“Just like they can’t be Sirens, Dragons, Vampires or Titans. Stacey, I’ll ask again: How can we become pirates?”
Evolett was right of course—we probably simple needed to reconvene in two days and decide this thing then—and yet I simply hated this awful feeling of being limited by some kind of dumb scenario.
“Where did Calran go anyway?”
“Who knows…” Zlatan replied. “He went to go look for his ‘swallow…’ I figure he’s at the wharf somewhere.”
“There are three wharfs in this city, Mahan,” Anastaria added, realizing what I wanted to do. “It’d take us three days to find him!”
“Us—yes,” I smiled. “But not them!”
“Who?” Evolett managed to ask before I typed into the city-wide chat:
“I’m looking for an NPC named Calran. I’ll pay twenty thousand gold to the first accurate coordinates of his location!”
The chat came alive with the babble of players. And of course while some of the coordinates were located in the city, other were pointing to somewhere deep in Malabar. The trolls were alive and well in Cadis too…
Five minutes later, the Imitator I had set on this task informed me that I had received three similar sets of coordinates which differed only in the final digits. Telling everyone to follow me, I ran in the indicated direction, afraid of missing the pirate. Judging by the map, Calran really was at one of the wharfs. The important thing was to not let him get away.
“Mahan!” Grygz’s officer exclaimed joyously upon seeing me appear before me. “I thought you had gone to the Three Squids?”
“I did and now I’ve come back,” I replied, sending the player who had submitted the first set of accurate coordinates the money I owed him. “I have some business to discuss with you. How can we become pirates?”
“Pirates?” Calran asked surprised. “Why do you want to be a pirate?”
“Well, you see, I realized that the sea is my true home. I know how to rob and kill, but I’d never yet set sail on the seas. One should try everything in this life; otherwise, what will I tell my grandchildren in my dotage?”
“The high honorable Earl, the owner of that huge castle, wishes to become a pirate?” Calran still refused to believe his ears.
“He’s not the only one,” said Evolett, surprising me along with Calran. “I too do not wish to appear before Grygz as an ordinary landlubber. If he is ready to meet us, I wouldn’t like to insult such a great pirate.”
“So that’s it! In that case, I see…” Calran shook his head agreeably contemplating something. “It’s no good, it’s no good…You’re right about that…He doesn’t much take to landlubbers…It’s no good, yes…”
“Maybe, I’ll become a pirate?” meowed Anastaria when the silence grew too long. Calran remained standing in a stupor, muttering something to himself and utterly refusing to make any kind of decision. It looked like his strong Attraction to Anastaria was having its effect.
“M’lady?” the poor pirate’s eyebrows hiked way up on his forehead. “Why would you want something like that?”
“A handsome fellow offered to become my husband. If for some reason it doesn’t work out with my present husband, I wouldn’t like to be without a means of income. But as a partner. A partner on the seas!”
“What the hell? I’ll kill you!”
“We’ll see about that…”
“Free Citizens have never become pirates before. In a
ny case, our fraternity’s never had any among its number.” The pirate stood no chance against Anastaria. “But you saved my people and me from prison and I am ready to take a risk…Darius!” Calran shouted.
“D’you call me, Cap?”
“To the registration office double quick and have them draft a patent of piracy. For Captain Anastaria and two junior Captains under her command—Mahan and Evolett. Do you need two ships or three?” Calran asked us.
“Two,” Stacey replied. “Mahan and I will take one ship. Then I’ll make him walk the plank if he…”
“Put in a request for two ships.” The giant scratched his chin in thought and added: “You can’t have a pirate without a ship…We need to think which type of vessels you’ll need…”
“Types of vessels?” Evolett asked carefully.
“Novice pirates typically get little frigates, with a crew of ten. Those don’t cost too much and teach the pirates a sense for the sea…Darius, are you still here?!”
“I’d prefer to start out in a normal ship,” Evolett said. “If I’m to be a pirate, then I’d like to do it right and for the long haul, and not just to sail around in some tub. How much does a normal ship cost—one that can fit a boarding group?”
“I can tell right away that we’ll get along well!” A smile bloomed on Calran’s face. “A medium-class vessel costs three million, while the perfect vessel, one that you could compare to my former ‘swallow’ costs ten. That one will fit two hundred sentients comfortably with room to spare for loot…”
“I guess I’ll take a swallow then,” said Evolett. “And if she’ll be as good as you say, I’ll even give you a zero-interest loan towards a swallow of your own…”
“Zero-interest?” Darius immediately latched on. “For how long?”
“Let’s say, eight months…”
“A year,” Darius began to haggle. “A window of a year and…Cap, what do you say?”
“M’lady, what ship would you like?” Calran asked, ignoring his assistant.
“I think I’m with Evolett in this. If we’re going out to sea, then let’s do it right …I’ll also have a ship worth ten million…”
“Stacey! We don’t have that kind of money!” I almost yelled out loud but controlled myself at the last moment and sent the girl the thought telepathically.
“We do not. But I do. She will be my ship, not the clan’s, so relax. The money isn’t a problem. I’ll be a pirate.”
“Did you hear that, Darius?” The enormous captain asked his first mate. “A captaincy patent, two for junior captains and three licenses for five-masted galleons! We’ll have our beloved Fearless again!”
It was like the wind carried away the old man—despite his respectable age, he literally sprinted into the city, waving his arms fantastically to maintain his balance.
“I confirm it,” said Evolett, staring with glassy eyes at the nearest wall. “The conditions suit me just fine. I look forward to working with you in the future.”
“Excellent, excellent,” Calran rubbed his hands in satisfaction. As I understood it, the two had just concluded an agreement and the money the captain needed had been sent over from the Dark Legion’s account. “In that case, I propose we consider the issue right away—where are we going to get a crew?”
“What do you mean, ‘where’?”
“Wrong question. Do any of your Freemies have the Seafarer skill? You’ve got no business going out to sea without an experienced skipper. And you’ll need a boatswain to ensure that the loafers don’t loaf, and a first mate who can take care of the necessities, a cook so that the crew doesn’t starve, a pilot if you want to traverse the shallows…”
“And naturally a talented captain like you,” Anastaria meowed, forcing another puppy-eyed smile from Calran, “knows just where we can find such a worthy crew with which we won’t be afraid to set out against the terrible sea monsters…”
“I will select both the ships and the crew for you—one that will go anywhere with you—even into the maw of the dreaded squidolphin!” the mighty captain said triumphantly and a notification appeared before me:
You have received the patent of a junior captain. Your character has acquired a new ability: Seafarer. Do you accept?
“What the hell is a squidolphin?” Zlatan asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Agreed, it’s quite an odd creature,” Calran grew grim. “It destroyed three of my ships—and we didn’t even know what hit us. Just, poof, and the ship’s gone—and naught but some lumber floating on the surface…It’s a quick creature, like a dolphin, and yet it has tentacles, like a kraken. No one really knows what this monster looks like. The ships that it attacks tend to vanish along with the crew—and none escape to tell their tale.”
“Then why do you think the thing has tentacles? Maybe it’s a giant spider or, for example, simply a whale…”
“Because one time we got tired of sharing the seas with that beast and we—and by ‘we’ I mean the entire world—set out against it. Never had the sea monster faced such an Armada—and yet the squidolphin didn’t care one bit. It surfaced from the deeps, wrapped its tentacles around our ships and pulled them down to the abyss. Krakens aren’t capable of this—we already caught one once …One of the ships had a barrel with magic paint in it, which doesn’t sink in water. And I saw with my own eyes as the trail of paint swept out to the sea at an incredible speed. That creature not only has tentacles but it swims quickly, so we named it a squidolphin…But enough of these horrors! You have your patents, so let’s go buy our ships! In all of Cadis, there is only one place where we can purchase a worthy vessel—from Master Ravzan. That’s where we’ll go now…”
“Dan, I’ll pay for the crew as well,” said Anastaria, as soon as we signed the contract to hire the crew. Thirty-two mangy-looking NPCs greeted Anastaria as their leader, and we set out to board our new ship, built by Master Ravzan in a matter of seconds. That’s what it means to be a Master Shipbuilder in a computer game. In the real world, a vessel like that would take at least several months to build.
“And why are we being so generous all of a sudden?” I asked.
“What’s so generous about it? The sea is large and the quests and First Kills available in it are as many as grains of sand on the beach. For the past sixteen years, no one’s explored the piracy in this game. I want to be the first. By the way—it’s only on our continent that players haven’t been able to do this. Other continents have had their Free Pirates for ages. At least seven years.”
“Captain,” Lom, the first mate, turned to me. “You still haven’t named the ship. We can’t set out to sea in a nameless vessel. If we are destined to remain there, it’d be better if we were remembered somehow.”
“I’ll make sure to name the ship,” I reassured Lom, familiarizing myself with the controls. Like Altameda, the ship had an immense number of settings, most of which were entirely mystifying to me. The length of the first mainmast, the girth of the second mainmast, the lumber that the mizzenmast was made from…Gaffs, booms, sprits…Despite the fact that I understood the letters, the words that they formed were utterly unfamiliar to me—and that went double for the settings that dealt with the names of items. Afraid of messing something up, I left it all on default, hoping that the crew would let us know at the right time what we needed to adjust. No, Stacey really is just too kind, too kind! She buys a ship and then just gives it to me to manage as her junior captain. Since, naturally, it doesn’t do for a head captain to dig around the subtler settings of a ship! Her business is the finer stuff, like strategy. And of course I owe her a big thanks for the book on seafaring which explained all the terms, but it’s all a bit too much, isn’t it?
“Have you thought of a name?” smiled Anastaria when Lom went off to attend his business. “Evolett named his the Butterfly. He says that his ship will float over the waves like a moth that is oblivious to the weather. I haven’t seen my uncle this happy in ages. I’ll let you in on a secret: The sea is
his passion. He can talk about sailing ships for hours. He even bought himself a retro sailboat in real life—one that looks quite a bit like that galleon. You are his favorite now. It’s rare that my uncle speaks of anyone with such respect.”
“Sorry, but no way. It’s your ship, so you name it. I’ve always had problems with coming up with stuff to say. There’s no point in forcing a weak brain to do what a good brain can! You can name the ship yourself and until you do, we’ll just sit here in port like dead weight.”
“I knew it!” Stacey said with a grin. “All right, I’ve had a name for a castle for a long time, but it’ll do for a ship too. Name the ship Vraanakush.”
“Vraana-what?” I echoed puzzled, trying to repeat the strange combination of sounds.
“Vraanakush,” Stacey repeated and sent me the correct spelling. “I want that to be my ship’s name.”
“What does that even mean?” I couldn’t help but ask, entering and confirming the ship’s new name.
“That was the name of one of the greatest Sirens of Barliona—the teacher of Nashlazar, who taught her everything she knows. Plus, this name has one particular feature to it, if I apply it to something I own.”
“What’s that?”
“Captain, the crew is ready,” came Lom’s voice from behind me.
“Why, this one,” Anastaria smiled. “Turn and see…”
No, I really have been building up my immunity to miracles. Only two months or so ago, I would’ve jumped back several meters—now, however, I merely cursed, looking at the first mate, Lom, impatiently beating his tail against the deck, eager to set out to sea as soon as possible. I looked behind Lom’s back and understood that he wasn’t the only one who’d changed. The entire crew we had hired thirty minutes ago had transformed from people into…
“M’lady, didn’t I tell you that I’d find you the best seadogs?” Calran approached us with a satisfied smile, completely ignoring the change among the crew. “Lom is a trueborn seafarer. He can’t be anything else— it’s in his Myrmidon blood.”
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5) LitRPG series Page 28