RCJoshua

Chapter 65: Interesting

“What is this?” Marco asked. “Why is this?” “It’s a stage. For people to do entertainment on. Surely you’ve seen one,” the woman said. “I me

“What is this?” Marco asked. “Why is this?”

“It’s a stage. For people to do entertainment on. Surely you’ve seen...

Chapter 64: Duelist Set

Elisa jumped right on the party. “You’ll find love one day, Riv. And then you will get her drunk enough that she still thinks it’s a good id

Elisa jumped right on the party. “You’ll find love one day, Riv. And then you will get her drunk enough that she still thinks it’s a good ...

Chapter 63: Rest

The wizard’s house was a longer walk than any of them expected, though Marco could tell his team didn’t mind. They were still glowing with t

The wizard’s house was a longer walk than any of them expected, though Marco could tell his team didn’t mind. They were still glowing with the...

Chapter 62: Fowl Wizard

Riv caught on right away.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. You staying alive keeps all of us alive.”

Everyone tossed their coin bags on the table while Marco tried to arrange his face in such a way that didn’t indicate that the money they were spending was just a small fra...

Chapter 61: Gear

“Welcome to Quilton,” the smaller of the two men said. He had a pair of handguns at his side, and Marco suspected from the way he wore them that his class allowed him to use both of them effectively at once. “I’m Tauncy, a guard and the authority on new entries. This person with the fight...

Chapter 60: Outboat

The crew assembled around the mast, each doing their best to keep the little fairies at bay as they swept towards them like floodwater. Marco fired his gun wildly as he sliced back and forth with his rapier. Elisa slammed her palms into the ground again and again, making little explosive blasts o...

Chapter 59: Fairy Boats

“So we’re sailing towards occupied territory.” Riv said.

“Yes.” Marco had his hand on the wheel, but was hardly paying attention to the sailing. The ship was moving fast in the direction they wanted to to go, and that was good enough for the moment. “We are.”

“And we d...

Chapter 58: Thatch

Riv woke up a few moments later, none the worse for wear besides feeling like he had taken a dump in an icy part of the sea. As soon as Marco confirmed no longer-term issues, he sped back to the island to find the old man who was the key to everything.

When they found him, Thatch was sittin...

Chapter 57: Anchor

Riv let out a long breath. “You want us to sink it?”

“I don’t know if you can. But if it shows itself again. I want you to try,” the man said.

Marco didn’t answer immediately. He just looked toward the ship, still moored safely in the cove. The breeze had picked u...

Chapter 56: Ghost Ship

The forest was quiet and surprisingly uniform. There were no birds, no animals, and no changes in terrain. It was all just green and gray, the same few trees repeated endlessly like they had been copied over and over. The crew's boots made soft crunching sounds on the thin layer of dry needles an...

Chapter 55: Sticking

The tentacle struck like a whip, smashing across the deck and ripping away one of the railings. Riv roared and charged, swinging an axe into the rubbery flesh. The impact was less than it would have been with his club since his class was called Sturdy Clubber, but where the club would ha...

Chapter 54: Time

Marco checked the description for the Tortoise Gull’s Conquest.

<+

Armored Sails

The sails of your ship have gained a slight resistance to slashing and piercing damage.

+>

That was how his Conquest skill worked. Every time they defeated some ...

Chapter 53: Tortoise Gull

The ocean was a big place.

People usually described it as probably infinite. People had climbed aboard big ships packed with food and sailed into the unknown, sometimes traveling for years before returning. Wild-eyed and messy-haired, they told of waters that stretched on forever, punctuate...

Authors Note

One of the things about writing is that you don’t always get to choose the perfect idea and write about that. A hundred percent of everybody has this problem to some extent or another, because there are only so many ideas a person can have, and you don’t get them all at once. You are choosing...

Chapter 52: Epilogue

Marco woke up in his room, or at least one of the many rooms on the island that looked exactly like it. He was pleased to find he woke up alive when not waking up or waking up dead somewhere were options. He didn’t feel quite ready for the afterlife or lack of it. That revulsion towards perishi...

Chapter 51: Temple of Thresholds

“That’s right, little captain. Everyone has their little tricks. You wanted your friends to be safe. For now, they are. But that tug you feel in your legs? That’s the whirlpool sucking you to the bottom. You only got a bit of it, but your friends can hardly move by now. Every step they take...

Chapter 50: Pull of the Deep

Marco pushed another dose of his magic into the ship. It was all that he could do at the moment. For reasons he couldn’t entirely explain, he didn’t need Elisa to explain what was going on. He felt every cannon shot that hit The Foolish Endeavor and a fire was starting to burn in his...

Chapter 49: Warning

When night finally fell, it was Aethe who moved the out of the trees. Marco watched her flit from cover to cover, getting to the first boat and disappearing down its hatch like a greased shadow.

“Explain how this is safe again,” Marco said. “Please, Elisa.”

“It’s not safe....

Chapter 48: Payback

“How are we not there yet?” Marco slashed vines and branches out of his way with his rapier. It wasn’t really built for the work, but the upgrades it had absorbed from dead pirates made that less of an issue than he would have thought. “We’ve been walking for days.”

“Hours,”...

Chapter 47: Sneak

As soon as the door closed behind him, the woman’s forehead hit the tabletop.

“Marco, you sure do bring me interesting problems,” she said. “I don’t think you realize just how close that was.”

“I got a sense. What are the normal rules of parlay, anyway?”

“It’...

Chapter 46: Parlay

Frisk’s step was more like a leap performed at light speed. Marco saw the captain tensing for a moment before he cleared a good eighth of a mile of ocean water in a single blurred movement. He had been feeling tough lately after taking down so many pirates, but that all evaporated in a single i...

Chapter 45: Burning

Marco nodded. “She took a risk on us. Feels right to pay that forward. I just hope she can use it.”

He moved to the rail, watching his prize bob slightly in the waves. “We tow it, unload what we can, and let her decide. Maybe she rebuilds it. Maybe it becomes a tavern. Maybe it burns....

Chapter 44: Fairy

Marco turned back to where he knew the captain must be by now. The man was rising to his feet near the wheel, carrying what looked like a halberd. A guard weapon, really, not something you normally saw at sea and not something Marco had ever had to deal with. His armor was expensive and glistenin...

Chapter 43: Speed

Marco sat alone in the ship's cramped navigation chamber, which was really just the edge of Elisa's bed. He was eyeing the map they'd sketched, surprised at how many assumptions were baked into it. Everything Elisa wasn't sure about was marked with a question mark, and more things on the map had ...

Chapter 42: Bar

As the sun set, they saw lights ahead. Aethe climbed the rigging for a better look.

"Lanterns," she said. "Patterned. Some kind of signal. Could be trade related, I guess?"

"Could be," Marco said. "I'll bring us in slow."

The lights belonged to a single structure, a huge derelic...

Chapter 41: Warner

Marco swung the wheel, sending The Foolish Endeavor in a tight hook toward the pirate ship. He pumped raw power into his craft, channeling every bit of energy he could into movement. The craft lurched forward in the water like it was being pushed by an invisible hand. The other ship was ...

Chapter 40: Ship Combat

After another ten minutes of maneuvers, Riv stomped down the stairs from below deck, a notebook-wielding Elisa in tow. "She's stuffed to the gills, Captain. I've seen warships with less rations."

“Have you really?” Marco asked.

"Well, no, it's a figure of speech."

"They pack...

Chapter 39: Upgrades

"It's an evil class. No big deal," Kelda said with an even tone. “You see a lot of them out around the edges of things. It's only back there that they get rare.”

"What?"

"You aren't real quick on the uptake, are you?" Kelda moved closer and shook her head. "Tell me, Marco. Do you ...

Chapter 38: Home Base

Kelda caught them before they could actually get to digging.

"Pirates," she said, "are on my mind today. They've been getting more aggressive, as you saw. I talked to Floater yesterday, and he told me exactly how easy your last battle with them was, which means they've gotten entirely too c...

Chapter 37: Needle

Riv handed his pack off to Aethe, rolled up his sleeves, and started digging. The forest floor gave way to him like it was made from marshmallow, and his shovel cut through roots and soil alike with ease. A few minutes later, the obsidian-like rock had grown from the size of a few fists pressed t...