The next day began rather… calmly. Although it looked like a storm was coming, three mages from the crew stepped forward, jointly casting a skill that caused the clouds to recede. As for , I didn’t have much to do but watch the waves. Until I was certain how destructive my new master-level combat skills were, I didn’t want to casually train them on the deck of a very fragile-looking ship. That left Hawkeye-X as the only new skill that I could train, so I used it to project my vision upwards, scanning the waters around us.
After about three hours, I spotted sothing off to our left. “Captain.” I called out from my seat near the front of the ship. “The demons you were talking about, do you typically encounter them on ships, or?”
“Depends.” Slithers answered, stepping forward. “Sotis, a bunch of them will sail a ship, but other tis, they’ll just fly or swim directly over. Really depends which type of demon we’re talking about. Why?”
“To our left, I can see a ship poking just over the horizon. It looks like it is made of blackened, weathered bones with green flas lining the hull, and a tattered, black sail.”
When I said that, Slithers widened his eyes. I could hear him running to the left side of the ship, looking out into the distance. “Are you sure, lad?! I’m not seeing anything of the sort!”
Nodding my head, I cancelled Hawkeye-X, and then walked over to grab Slithers. I briefly used Glancing Steps-X to send the two of us high into the air, where he could see the ship just poking over the horizon in the distance.
He was surprised by the sudden shift in position, but seed too concerned to complain. Once we got back down, he shouted for his crew. “All hands, battle stations! Hug the shore and watch the sea! There’s a Ghost Galleon off the port bow! Should be cresting over the horizon any second!”
Imdiately, the rest of the crew gathered their weapons, pulling the ship to the right to stick closer to the shore. “I take it that these aren’t the sa as the demons?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“Not at all.” He said with a dark expression. “At least the demons have enough intelligence to be reasoned with, as long as you don’t fight them. Ghost ships belong to a wild dungeon sowhere at sea. Its location has never been found definitively, only that it’s sowhere between here and the demon continent.”
“Every now and then, a ship will sail from the dungeon. The ones I’ve seen before are the Galley, Galleon, and Brig. I’ve heard tell that the final boss is a Man o’ War, but I’ve never had the misfortune of coming across it myself.”
I gave a small nod at that. “For these, what should I be aware of?” I asked, since I was tasked with security.
“If you’re planning to fight it head-on, forget it. The Ghost Galleon itself is considered a level two hundred elite. Not aning to look down on you or anything, but players haven’t had ti to get that strong yet. Our best bet is to deal with the undead that spawn from it while sticking close to shore. These ghost ships can’t approach too close to the coast, so they only attack with their minions.”
“Those minions are Skeleton Marauders and Wraith Buccaneers. They’re level one hundred or one-ten, respectively. The forr tend to walk right up to the ship underwater, climbing up the hull, while the latter will blend in with the waves, phasing through the hull to attack those inside first.”
My lips pursed as I listened to the explanation, clenching my fists. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that I could get away with attacking a level two hundred monster just because I unlocked so new skills. I still needed to level them up a lot more before I was ready for that. “How many minions should we expect?”
Slithers scoffed at that question. “That’s the worst part. It doesn’t stop spawning them until it’s been destroyed. We’ll have to fight them off until we reach Elvenwall.” After he said that, he turned to look at . “I saw your training. I know you’ve got sothing to let you get around mana burden. Are you able to maintain that state in prolonged combat, or is it just a trait for training?”
I nodded in confirmation. “I won’t lie. It’s a ten-star trait. I can maintain peak performance as long as I want, but I can’t use Magic skills. Are the Wraiths vulnerable to energy-based attacks, even if they’re not Magic?”
Slithers let out a sigh of relief. “As long as it’s not purely physical damage, it’ll have an effect. I’ll task you with being the first wave of defense, while my n get ready to fight any that make it through. Should I go wake the girl?”
When I heard that question, I hesitated. On the one hand, this would be a great way for Diane to gain experience. However, she had only been to sleep for a few hours. “No need.” Diane’s voice spoke up from behind , holding a staff made of black bone, with a dark orb at the top. “I heard the shouting and ca to see what was going on.”
After she said that, she stepped up beside . “You were going to leave out of this to rest, right?” She asked, glancing up and over at . “Thanks for the thought, but I need the levels more than I need rest. Especially after your skills evolved again. If I don’t put in the work, my player will be left behind.”
As she spoke, she lifted her staff. Shadows wrapped around her body, and she quickly entered her shadow dragon form. Diane looked down at her scales, grimacing uncomfortably. “If we’re going to be fighting for the next few hours, I can’t afford to be picky.”
I simply chuckled at that, looking back at Slithers. “Just checking, but does the ship itself have any long-ranged attacks?”
“That’s right.” He confird. “That’s why we have to hug the coast as much as we can. If we get too close, it will fire a broadside of energy blasts. And if you try to attack it from the air, the Ghost Captain will leave the ship to fight you. Its level is also two hundred, so the best bet is to just wait it out until we get sowhere safe.”
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, realizing that I wouldn’t even be able to distract the ship without being forced to engage with a level two hundred monster. “Since that’s the case…” I focused my vision on the waters near the ship, soon seeing movent.
A spear of projected energy shot out, piercing a wraith near the surface of the water and causing it to cry out. Seeing this, Diane held up her staff. “Oh darkness, beco a shield from evil, and cast away all wickedness! Rise up, soldiers of shadows, and defend!”
I watched as the hull of the boat beneath the waves gradually turned black, the darkness rising up along the exterior. At the sa ti, two animated shadows ca to life, one on either side of Diane. They held black spears in their hands, and dove into the water without hesitation.
“My shadows won’t have the damage output to take care of monsters at this level, even if there are two of them.” Diane said, holding her staff up. “However, they can get their attention, and my improvised shadow barrier should be enough to stop the wraiths from phasing through.”
I nodded my head in appreciation. “In that case, I’ll try sothing, too.” I smiled, punching my fists together and closing my eyes.
In my mind, Martial skills shouldn’t be channeled with long chants like I would use for Magic ones. Magic calls upon the special powers of nature, a higher being, or so other force. However, I believed that Martial skills ca from oneself. Thus, a long chant wasn’t appropriate. What I needed was intense focus, a clear vision, and my own energy.
Martial Intent-X, granting the form of a blade. Ki Clone, granting the blade a will. Hawkeye-X, allowing the will to oversee the battle. Split the blade into ten. Establish the periter. Designate targets for protection. My fists pressed together, and I felt my Martial Intent-X skill boiling within , seeking a release. I had grown used to this feeling of preparing a big strike, but this was different.
Bringing my hands apart, I punched at the sky, releasing a burst of yellow light. With a cracking sound, this light condensed into a wide blade, then split down its length, becoming ten thinner swords that floated above the ship. One of the blades shot down, piercing the skull of a skeleton that the two animated shadows were fighting.
In the corner of my vision, I saw an injury alert called Divided Focus. It was hard to read the tooltip on it, given a pressure I felt in the back of my mind. However, when I did so, the description read ‘blurred vision until cleared’, with no tir. Ah… a player wouldn’t feel this pressure, their vision would just get blurry? That’s so not fair.
I could feel the strain of actively combining multiple high-level skills like this and having them operate semi-autonomously. It probably wouldn’t be as bad if I made it as an enchantnt, or if I didn’t include the Hawkeye-X skill. However, without that skill, I would have to be constantly directing the swords myself, and I could run into blindspots.
As things were now, I was essentially granting half of my focus to the skill. Perhaps sothing similar happened when I created clones, but the portion I granted was so small that it was unnoticeable? I’d have to worry about that later.
“Are you alright, Drake?” I heard Diane ask next to as one sword after another shot into the water, before flying back up above the ship. “You don’t look so good.”
“ntal injury.” I whispered, and I could barely make out her eyes widening. “It’ll be fine once I end the skill, I think. This is just the most efficient way to protect the ship.” As if to reinforce my words, one of the swords shot to the right of the ship, closer to the shore, where a wraith had been trying to sneak its way up in our blindspot.
Diane grit her teeth, turning back towards the underwater horde. “Arms of abyssal darkness, reach of the deep sea. Strangle, bind, contract. Beco terror. Beco death. Cloud the seas, and devour all who disturb your slumber.”
I could vaguely tell that her animated shadows had disappeared through the feedback of my active skill. However, instead, a dark cloud spread through the waters around the ship, the magic circle Diane was channeling growing larger and larger. Sothing brushed against the underside of the boat, rocking it slightly as Diane’s grip tightened on her staff.
“Awaken.” She muttered, and the magic circle began to glow. Eight thick, tendril-like arms rose from the darkness, each clutching the struggling body of either a wraith or a skeleton. As soon as they appeared, one of the glowing swords shot down and pierced through the captured undead, the tentacle retreating beneath the water to search for another.
“Diane? This should be beyond the power your dragon form allows.” I warned, and she nodded her head.
“It is. My mana’s being burned now. It’s not as bad as normal, but I won’t be able to keep this up for long. So, while I’m protecting the ship, you find another answer that doesn’t involve that ntal injury.” She hissed out, literally.
My eyes widened, but I could understand her concern. ntal injuries weren’t that bad for players, because their minds were protected. However, they could be anything from headaches to complete loss of consciousness for a Chosen or a Fallen.
Grunting, I nodded my head, dismissing the combined skill I had created. Imdiately, I felt the pressure on my mind begin to ease, and a tir appeared beneath the injury, stating it would last another minute. For that minute, I could probably forget about trying to combine skills again, but I could at least plan.
So plan I did. I did my best to think about skill combinations I could pull off, and how they could be useful in this situation. I even delved into my magic skills, thinking it might be a good idea to create an enchantnt for the situation.
However, with my stats, if I wanted to fight reliably against monsters in the triple digits, I could only rely on my master-level skills. While I thought, I could hear Diane gritting her teeth, clearly fighting against her own mana burn.
Then, it struck . Once my injury cleared, I crouched down, placing my hand on the ship. This ti, I just needed to do a two-skill combination. Furthermore, I didn’t need to bestow either my vision with Hawkeye-X, nor my consciousness with a clone skill. Instead, I wrapped a barrier of projected energy around the ship, while creating a bubble over it. Then, I channeled the Counter Attack skill into this field, focusing on making it shoot out a ki spear whenever it detected an attack.
This ti, the pressure I felt from the skill was far less, barely more than a normal use of Martial Intent-X. When Diane saw the barrier form around the ship, her body seed to relax. She fell to the ground, and I rushed over to catch her as she reverted back to her halfling form.
Now that we were in a bubble of projected energy, the wind was no longer reaching the sails, so I moved the ship myself with Water Intent-X. As I did, Slithers walked over, looking at the barrier repelling the undead. Every now and then, there was a splash as a spear shot out. “Impressive work, kid.” He said with a nod, before turning to look back at . “She okay?”
I nodded my head, and he let out a breath of relief. “Good kid, going out of her way like that even when her player’s not on.” He said, before giving a knowing look. “You’re not actually a player yourself, are you? I suppose she already knows.”
My eyes widened, and I didn’t imdiately respond. “Don’t worry.” He started. “I’m not going to tell anyone. But, I saw you struggling with that injury just now. That’s also the only reason she’d push herself so hard. Even though your brand’s all lit up, you face injuries the sa as us.”
I hesitated for a mont, before briefly dispelling the disguise on my brand, letting him see the burnt mark. Of course, I imdiately re-established it, but he nodded. “Thought so. Too many things just seed off about you two. Like I said, I’m not going to tell. Who knows what the elves would do if they found out.”
“Thanks.” I spoke quietly, still focusing on moving the ship. “Can you have soone take her to her room? I need to focus for now, since we aren’t getting a strong wind through the barrier.”
Slithers blinked, only just seeming to notice that the ship was no longer being propelled by the sails. “Got it. How long do you think you can keep this up?”
“How long do I need to?” I asked with a bitter smile. I wasn’t getting a ntal injury anymore, but it was still hard to focus on both the double skill and moving the boat. It felt like when we were back in Ilsan, and I had to support the sand dunes above us all over again.
“About four more hours or so.” Slithers said, gesturing for one of his n to approach and take Diane. “After that, we’ll be close enough to Elvenwall for them to take over.”
“Four hours it is. Just tell when we need to turn. In layman's terms, please. I don’t really get the whole port and starboard thing.”
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