Author's Note

I'M BBBBBAAAAAACCCCKKKK

Got distracted for a good while there with college, work, and all that good stuff but here yall are! A new chapter and with summer coming around now I should be having some more freedom for a good bit

Country Roads

It had been a few weeks since Cozy decided to travel with me, and in all honesty I haven't a clue as to why she decided to, after all I did kinda butcher her fellow townsfolk granted I didn't kill them but still I wouldn't have faulted her if she call me a monster and ran off to who knows where. But regardless here we are camping out in some place called the Everfree according to the map I scavenged from the ruins of her town. Cozy had initially freaked out after I told her we were staying in the everfree, something about timberwolves, but calmed down when I informed her that it was only temporary, as I only needed to stay here for a day or two partially so Cozy could rest but mostly because I wanted to hunt and since we’re in a obviously cursed forest there's bound to be some deadly predators maybe something like a basilisk or demon.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a tent or any sleeping bags, and the only material I had to work with was the hides of her fellows so instead I opted to build a little ground bungalow with a woven grass floor. Using some bones and flint I fashioned an axe and chopped down a couple of trees which I then cut, straightened and stripped their logs into some makeshift roofing, I then dug out a large enough area for both Cozy and myself to comfortably move and sleep in. After that I built the supports and set up the roof. Finally, I wove together a grass floor so that less heat would be lost. We wouldn't be able to light a fire down here but that shouldn't be much of a problem considering it wasnt winter and that if needed I could go and skin an animal. After that I started building a fire pit outside for cooking. Soon after I had the fire blazing I started cooking some food, mainly meat but I did have a couple of wild vegetables I had foraged for cooking as well.

Soon after our meal came the fading light of the dusk and with it the satin darkness of the evening, Cozy opted to head to bed instead of sitting by the fire, and with her no longer in the open I headed into the forest. My helmet afforded me perfect night vision albeit colourless save for shades of grey, around me I could hear the soft scurrying of vermin, the murmurs of birds and the silent rustling of the wind through the leaves. Here in the forest was awry with beasts both mundane and mythical in nature, however I paid little heed to those that seemed mundane and hunted those of the magical variety.

Scaly green lizards with the head of a chicken, ferocious lions bearing the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion, a hydra with many heads, and many more beasts of magic. And with them came a plethora of stats and skills. From the lizard chicken came 10 dexterity and the skill petrifying gaze, from the lion bat I received 20 strength and the skill venom synthesis (paralysis), and finally after devouring many heads of the hydra I gained 80 points of intelligence and the skill ultra-rapid regeneration, a skill that will most likely save my life.

System alert!
The skill rapid regeneration has been replaced with the skill ultra-rapid regeneration!

Ultra-rapid regeneration passive lvl 1
That's an axolotl health! Ba Dum tsss
The user will regenerate 0.1% of their health every second
Lost limbs will take 5 hours to fully regenerate

System alert!
The skill petrifying gaze and venom synthesis has been gained!

Petrifying gaze active lvl 1
Once a curse, now a blessing
At the cost of 50 mana the user can imbue their sight with the chance to turn others into stone the chance of this occurring is based upon the level of the skill, distance and the combined stats of the target, if the targets stats are lower than the users chance of petrification will increases and vise versa.

Venom Synthesis active lvl 1
Venomous not poisonous!
You are able to secrete venom from your appendages at the cost of 10 mana per mL
Current available venoms that can be synthesised

• Paralytic venom

With that out of the way I made my way farther and farther into the forest, until I eventually found myself before an ancient castle on the other side of a canyon. Unfortunately whatever bridge that had led to the other side had long since rotted away, No matter as it was simple enough to climb down and scale up the other side, though it did take a couple of tries to do so, due to the unstable terrain. Once I was on the other side I of course began exploring the dilapidated ruins, spear and scythe at the ready to lash out at anything that dared to strike me.

No ancient guardian nor great beast attacked me while exploring the ruins unfortunately, however I did find several interesting sights as well as a mostly full treasury area. I couldn’t take it all with me so I simply took the most valuable looking items, many of which seemed to be magical in nature due to the ambient mana surrounding them. The most bizarre of all of them was probably the small abstract statuette made of solid gold, considering its weight, that fit in my hand, pocketing it. I headed back to camp and went to sleep for the night. Waking up the next morning I made Cozy breakfast with the remaining wild vegetables and continued through the forest, nothing happened on our trek through the woods. However once we made it to the other side was a different story. Ahead of us lay a bustling harbour with ships coming and going and all manner of creatures making their way about the day, ponies, gryphons, dragons, and other creatures I was unable to discern from a distance. Making our way closer we were met with wide eyes and mouths agape, several times we were stopped by guards and were questioned on who we are to which we gave a simple explanation to them.

“My charge and I are simple travellers and seek passage across the ocean, we have no intentions of causing neither harm nor discontent amongst the citizens here. Simply allow us to be and we shall be gone by weeks end.” They looked wearily at me before Cozy piped up.

“It's ok, misters, he's not a monster, he's just got a scary mask on!” Cozy explained cheerfully. The guards looked at me expectanting me to take off said mask. To which I reluctantly obliged with a sigh. After revealing my true face they nodded their heads and gave us a simple warning before letting us be on our way.

Making our way through the town wasn't hard however finding the port surprisingly was, but after asking for directions from an admittedly terrified local we were quickly able to find the port with various ships of all different sizes and lengths. I approached a few with my mask off so as to not scare them, but unfortunately they all refused to even hear us out, at least the pony driven vessels by the looks of it. Eventually I found myself at the only other available ship, a cargo ship by the looks of it.

‘Queen Anne’s revenge eh?’ I thought to myself. The ship itself was by no means in top condition from what I could tell on the outside, the mahogany wood was splintered and cracked in some places patches of various colours could be seen covering holes in the hull of the ship the mast itself seemed to still be in good condition from what i could see and while it made me hesitant to see if i could secure passage on this boat, if it was this beat up and still floating then the captain was either a genius or a fool either way they were my last chance before I had to go see if I could rent an airship. Walking up to one of the crew members I hailed them.

He was a gryphon with light tan feathers for the body with off-white feathers from his neck up. His golden eyes watched me as I approached him.

“Hello there sir, I was hoping to purchase passage for my ward and I, might I ask where you are heading?” I asked the gryphon.

“Do you have the bits to even purchase passage to wherever we are heading?” She asked me

“Indeed I do.” pulling out a sack of bits hanging to my side I presented them to the griffiness.

She nodded her head before continuing, “Very well then sir our current destination is Gryphonheim.”

“Splendid that is the destination we seek, might I ask if you are the captain or is it another?” I questioned further.

“No sir the captain is currently out on business right now, however, I am the first mate of the ship so I do have the authority to grant you passage on our vessel.” She explained, annoyance creeping into her voice at the mention of the captain.

“Then I would like to purchase passage for two if it helps. I have rations worth about 2 weeks for both myself and my ward, I am also adept with a bow and spear, and I am capable of using a wide range of magic.”

“Magic huh?” She questioned.

“Yep,” holding out my hand, I formed an ice shard.

She nodded hesitantly, “Alright then considering you have rations for the both of you and the pony as well as you being a combatant it'll be 50 bits.”

Taking out my sacks of bits once more I counted fifty and handed them to her. She nodded and put them in a sack around her waist.

“Welcome aboard Queen Anne’s revenge sir I am first mate Gwen, I’ll show you to the spare sleeping quarters.” She explained as she guided us onto the very pristine deck of the ship where a motley crew of well kept individuals were busy loading various pieces of cargo.

“Alright then Lads” Gwen called out to the crew on deck, “These two will be joining us on our voyage to Gryphonheim treat them as you would me, understood?”

The various crewmen nodded before continuing with their tasks. Gwen led us down the stair to the lower deck, passing what i had assumed are various crew quarters were led to the guest/spare room it's only furnishings being a bed with a dull whitish grey mattress, a deep brown desk, and a lighter brown stool, the only light source being a lamp that was currently off.

“They voyage is about 3 weeks, once you runout of rations, chow times are at sunrise and sunset, with a snack at midday, keep your room clean and stay out of the way of the crew if you have a question about anything you can ask me or an unoccupied crew member.” Gwen further explained before walking away to finish whatever she was doing before we had interrupted her.

Settling in I put my pack down and took off my armour there wasn't really a point to have it on right now anyways, Cozy had said she was gonna take a nap so I went to explore the ship to leave her in peace. Dodging some crew members going down the stairs with crates I made my way back to the top I was greeted with the sight of the various crew member hauling stuff onto the ship where it was then taken below, not wanting to disturb them i climbed up the centre mast to the crows nest where i hung out until we departed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 weeks later

The last three weeks had been quiet, no pirates or monsters or really anything of actual note honestly. I would often go swimming in the sea when I was bored much to the disbelief and amazement of the crew. I'd also hunt some of the local sea life might be why nothing had attacked us honestly but I digress. Stat gains from the sea life were negligible but welcome when they triggered. I had also been chatting with some of the crew these past two weeks, mostly small talk with nothing of real significance. Though most of the crew seemed to be really hesitant to speak to me, the ones who did talk to me gave me plenty of info regarding plenty of otherwise mundane things such as the invasion of Griffonstone and the fall of Gryphonheim due to the theft of some statuette they called the Idol of Boreas. I would tell them about my various adventures and how I got my armour and so on and so forth. They were amazed that I had made my own armour and weapons> I also helped around the ship in exchange they taught me how to properly maintain and man various positions and areas on a ship. This all accumulated in me getting another achievement.

System Alert!

The user has learned how to maintain and use a ship the Achievement Seaman has been given

Seaman
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Gives the seafaring skill and allows the purchase of the in depth nautical knowledge innate skill

System Alert!

The user has obtained the passive skill Seafaring

Seafaring lvl 1
One of the oldest forms of travel known to man
Allows the user to effectively operate basic naval vessels

It was a pretty good skill all things considered, and I honestly enjoyed my time on the ship, i got to hang out with some decent beings, spend time practising and showcasing my magic to the crew and of course help out with the maintenance of the ship, but all good things must come to an end. When the Queen Anne’s revenge hit port, Cozy and I bid them farewell and started making our way to the train station of which they were kind enough to tell us how to get there. We stopped on the way to resupply before heading to the station and purchasing a ticket to Griffinstone.

On the train I took out that strange statuette that id found in those old ruins, Maxson, one of the crew members on the ship, had described the idol of boreas to me in great detail and had showed me a picture of it from some history book, the statuette bore a striking resemblance to said idol and while the odds are slim that it is the real deal. If it was well I'd be able to make the deal of a lifetime and if it wasn't? Well, I'm sure I could fight my way out with Cozy.

With that last thought in mind, I gazed out the window as the various trees quickly passed by. Whatever may come, I'll weather it just as I always have.