Chapter 23: Escort

The water crashed against the port and the pirate ship as it came closer. The city folk came out from their homes after the bell had stopped tolling, yet they didn’t seem to care as the pirate ship approached. Men and women approached the dock, excited to see the pirates who helped take down the Mermen ships.

“It’s the Captain!”

“The Captain is back!”

They shouted in excitement as the pirate ship anchored, apparently welcoming back the pirates in open arms. I watched on as the shouting continued, as if they were welcoming home a hero. Heads started popping over the rails of the pirate ship, and I took a look, seeing various named individuals, yet they were all only between levels ten to fifteen. These low level pirates actually fended off Mermen ships and the Imperial Navy? Their ship must be extremely durable and powerful.

A woman stepped off from the ramp of the pirate ship, making her way down towards the dock. The surrounding folk celebrated this woman as ‘Captain’. She wore a cocked hat, while her deep auburn hair flowed down toward the small of her back. Her top only had one sleeve, while the other sleeve looked torn open. I got a glimpse of her eyes as she checked out the docks, seemingly looking for something, and it seemed as if an ocean was raging beneath them, a milky blue swirling within her eyes. Her boots clanged as she stepped onto the deck, and her gaze finally landed on my ‘Vanquisher’ as her surveying ended.

She then looked up at me, “You did that?”

Her level and name were question marks as her identity was unknown to me. I had no reason to lie to an NPC, “Yep, sure did.”

“Aye, great. Work for me, then. I need someone strong to handle a special job.”

“Well, who are you, and what do you need that is so special?” I asked, hoping for the quest to pop up. I knew a significant character would provide a quest!

“What now? You haven’t heard of me? Strange. Everyone knows me unless — ah.” She gave me another look as she crossed her arms. “I see now. That makes sense. We should talk more privately. Come aboard.”

She started walking back up towards her boat, as she waved towards the onlookers, “Heya everybody.”

She then looked back at me as she noticed I hadn’t followed, “Call me Captain Briggs. Mad D. Briggs.” She enunciated how she wanted to be called, and she then headed back up towards the ship again, my eyes following her back. I transfigured ‘Vanquisher’ into ‘Ashen Gladius’, sheathing it and walking up the ramp behind her.

[Human Pirate Captain, Madelyn Briggs, Queen of the Nysel Seas, Lv32]

I followed her onto the ship, and her subordinates quickly called out to her, but she dismissed them as we headed into the cabin.

She sat in her chair, turned around and threw her feet onto the table in front of her. “Sit,” she said.

I sat down, waiting for the quest notification to pop. I asked her, trying to trigger it, “So, what’s the special job?”

She wagged a finger at me, “Where are you from?”

“Huh?” The question quite caught me off guard, and I think it showed on my face.

“You aren’t from here. And I would have known about anyone wielding a weapon as strong as that in these parts. It is like you… magically appeared here, so, where are you from?”

I stared into her eyes and could feel an ocean pressing down on me behind them. I didn’t have an answer to really give her, as I had never expected to be asked such a thing.

“I—”

“Too long,” she interrupted. “I can tell you aren’t a shade, but strange—the royal secrets definitely…” She started muttering to herself, but she did mention shades. Another person talking about shades!

“Fine. Here’s the job. Escort me to my hideout just West out of Northern Martel Forest. There are mobs lurking there, as well as some hired arms that have been trying to get rid of me.”

[System Notice: Quest received. Immediately choose a path to follow:

A: Kill Mad D. Briggs B: Escort and Defend Mad D. Briggs (Note: You will not receive quest completion, but may open up new quests)

Do you accept the quest? Y/N]

I accepted the quest, and chose option ‘B’. I wanted to complete my quests, of course, but like I said, conquering was more important.

“Sure.”

[System Notice: You chose to defend a quest target. Other players will be offered a counter quest: Pending.]

[System Notice: Accepted: 3. Declined: 1. Defend your quest target from opposing enemy players. Note: Defeated players will not die from other players’ attacks.]

Hmm? It now looked like there were four other players within the zone, one having arrived after I did. Additionally, three players decided to accept a counter quest, seemingly to attack this lady captain.

“We’ll leave immediately.” She got up from her chair, and motioned for me to follow her out. We started going down the ramp when she suddenly grabbed her head.

“Already?!” She yelled out, gripping her head tightly. She looked around, trying to find something—or someone. “Fuckin’ found you mate,” she blurted out as she pointed her finger, as if it were a gun, at a person who had a nasty glare in her direction. “Bang,” she said, and a bullet of compressed water formed and shot at the person she saw.

[Player Hildart, Lv9, takes 8326 damage.]

[System Notice: A player has died. Current players in zone: [4]/5.]

Holy hell. She instantly took out an opposing player. The player seemed to have a class that inflicted damage to the mind, as her head started clearing up. Then, a couple of people fled after seeing the death of the player. I couldn’t tell if they were opposing players, but if their plan relied on keeping Captain Briggs busy with that mind attack, then it seemed as if everything was over for them.

“You.” She looked at me sternly, “You are supposed to escort me. I won’t be nearly as strong when I’m away from the ocean,” she whispered calmly to me.

She seemed to talk completely different when she spoke to me. For a pirate, she didn’t really talk like one.

“Right.” I said, walking closer to her side. “So, where first?” A player had just died, and I didn’t know what life they had been on. But they chose a side against mine, and one less player meant one less competitor towards achieving the conqueror completion of the floor.

“Right outside the city is Southern Martel Forest. Martel—a mad experimentalist—threw a bunch of failed experiments in the forest. They seldom come out of the forest, only coming out if triggered by something. However, we have to go through there to get to Northern Martel Forest. The beasts will be quite vicious once we enter their territory.”

“Oh,” I said. “Uh, I think I already killed those guys.” I shrugged my shoulders, explaining, “There was an attack off the northern side of the city, so I assisted some guardsmen in defending the city.”

She nodded her head, “Alright, well that is interesting. A beast attack and Mermen—at the same time…” she started muttering again. “Still, we must keep our guard up, more beasts will be in the northern forest, including enemies such as that assassin that I sent to the bottom of the sea.”

I acknowledged her, though I didn’t think the player would really be going to the bottom of the sea, allowing the Pirate Captain to believe what she wanted. She was clearly extremely strong, as she was level 32. I couldn’t comprehend the other players, unless they were unaware of her level.

“I would have brought my Mad Pirates along, but they aren’t strong enough on land. The beasts would have tore through them.” I didn’t know why she was explaining things to me, but I did gather that her crew was called the ‘Mad Pirates’.

We continued out through the city, reaching the outlier. We then headed into the forest I had ventured into to finish my first quest. The bodies of the various Chimera had already disintegrated, yet the colorful blood remained. I was given a short glance as we made our way out of the Southern Martel Forest, reaching a perfectly straight divider, separating the north from the south.

“Why’s this here?” I asked.

“To keep Martel from leaving. About 70 years ago, my—a person from the Kingdom sealed Martel off here. Martel hadn’t been one to directly injure people, but his experiments were awful. However, they couldn’t bring themselves to kill Martel, as Martel was the brother of the previous King.”

“I see.” I kneeled down and inspected the divider. It didn’t rise too high, but it did seem to emit a magical aura. This barrier was enough to keep a person from leaving?

We both heard a sound as we looked up in alarm. Then, there was a click, similar to what a trigger would make, and I dove at Captain Briggs, knocking her down to the ground. A crossbow bolt landed where she had been, as it came from the forest we had just left.

She seemed quite frail, and after getting a reading from her, I noticed her level was no longer 32. Her level dropped to 17. It was strange, something I had never seen before. She said she’d be weaker away from the water— I didn’t know it was quite like this. I quickly pulled my ‘Ashen Gladius’ out from its sheath, swapping it over to ‘Vanquisher’ as I loaded a mana bolt in it. I brought the captain up with me, ready to defend her for my quest.

“Shh,” she whispered, “It’s the Penumbra Five. A group of assassins. They found me quick, we haven’t even entered the northern forest yet and they’ve caught up…”

I quietly used {Area Scan} to scout the area. I was able to reach a large area enough to see what was around us as the assassins hid within the darkness of the forests.

Human Assassin, Feylin, Lv27

Human Assassin, Yun, Lv26

Elven Assassin, Ma’az, Lv27

Human Assassin, Sher, Lv28

Player Aaron, Lv11

Five enemies, one of them a player? I took Madelyn’s hand and we headed into the Northern Martel Forest. “Five enemies,” I said, “Why are assassins after you?”

She trudged along as I pulled her, though her level dropped she still moved fast, “Penumbra Five is a group of assassins who target those who have… royal blood. I’m—” She stopped talking as a figure emerged from the shadows, attempting to stab her with a pair of daggers.

I roughly pulled Madelyn towards me, pointing my ‘Vanquisher’ at the assassin, and pulled the trigger allowing my pre-loaded mana bolt to pierce straight on through.

[Elven Assassin, Ma’az, Lv27, takes 15600 damage.]

[System Notice: You gained 3900 experience points.]

The experience coming in grew more and more as the levels of my enemies grew.

“What—what the fuck!!” An exasperated noise came from a bit deeper in the forest, and we looked in the direction it originated from. As I had used {Area Scan} and identified the surrounding already, I noticed it was Player Aaron. He quickly covered his mouth as he tried to hide himself again. He had a sword in one hand, but he tried his hardest to hide himself. He may have been a bit stunned from my damage, but I didn’t know what he felt.

I loaded another mana bolt into ‘Vanquisher’ as I aimed it at Player Aaron. “Better me than her,” I said and started pressing down on the trigger.

“You—are only—n-nine!” He stuttered through it as my bolt released, ignoring his armor and defeating him. He disappeared instead of becoming a corpse, and I received a notification regarding the dismissal of a player participating in the counter quest. One player remained, and there were three more assassins.