Chapter 42: Book 1: Chapter 17 (Part 2 of 2)

I chortled in response and then addressed my quest imp. “Quixbix, will the Dungeon Ship have a gangplank or something equivalent to board or should we hold onto those crates?”

<Yes, it will have a gangplank> Quixbix assured me.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered and made my way across the silt bank.

The baked sand gave way a little here and there, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Soon, I’d clambered up the impromptu crate steps and hopped over the edge and onto the deck of the boat. The boat had come to rest at a slight angle and the deck did have a layer of algae on some parts which made it a bit slippery, but the youngsters who had been here before me had helpfully scraped most of it away.

I made my way to the pilot cabin, the white door had been padlocked at some point, but this had been forced open. I slipped inside and looked about. The cabin wasn’t large and there were a few discarded grotty blankets on the floor along with an impressive volume of empty beer bottles and cans.

Most of the dashboard had been thoroughly smashed over the past year, but none of that mattered. I drew the core crystal from my inventory and held the small scarlet gemstone in the palm of my hand.

“Are you ready for your new home Anastasia?” I whispered to the gem.

I hadn’t expected a response, but the gem pulsed brightly once. I didn’t have a clue if that meant yes, no, or go fuck yourself. The latter probably if our last conversation were any kind of barometer.

With a hearty chuckle, I knelt and brushed the mess out of the way. Then I firmly pressed the gem into the deck.

This is a suitable vessel for Dungeon Ship transformation. Would you like to install the Dungeon Core into this vessel? This action cannot be undone.

I mentally confirmed that I wanted to do this and felt the sensation of the gem dissipate from my palm as it sank into the deck and the transformation began. I backed up and exited the pilot cabin as the walls and surrounding parts of the boat started to shimmer.

The shimmer rapidly expanded as I watched in awe, but it seemed to be working its way around me. It was that observation that nudged me from my awestruck state, and I decided to debark with alacrity and let the core finish without me getting in the way.

I skipped over the shimmer that had almost made it all the way around me and then vaulted over the side, clearing the crates and landing on the sandy bank. I jogged back across the semi-dried inlet and joined Shana and Jackson on firmer ground.

“I forgot to ask, Quixbix, but how long will this take?” I queried the imp.

<I’m not sure. This is the first time I’ve witnessed this specifically but judging from what we can see I’d say no more than an hour, maybe two> the imp answered.

By the time I’d made it back to the others the devouring shimmer had incorporated the entirety of the boat and had begun forming a dark crystalline cocoon. I checked my watch and realised it was already past one in the afternoon. We had been in the dungeon longer than I’d thought.

“Cool, well then let’s have something to eat while we wait,” I suggested.

Shana smiled, nodded, and moved over to a clear spot to lay out a blanket. Jackson meanwhile remained mesmerised by the cocooning process, so I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Earth to Jackson, come in,” I joked.

“Unhhh,” came his distracted reply.

“Come on, you can watch just as easily from over here, while chewing on some fruit and sandwiches,” I suggested.

I managed to drag him over to the lunch area Shana had prepared for us. It took a while to get him to concentrate enough to actually bite his food, but after fifteen minutes or so, his fascination dipped when it became clear the cocooning had finished and the crystalline structure was too dark to see anything that was occurring inside.

We finished up and then cleared away our lunch which left us with some time on our hands which we used as constructively as possible. Shana and Jackson had confirmed their level up. Apart from her stat increases, Shana didn’t get any extra abilities. Jackson was the same and he explained that typically new class abilities only appeared at certain levels in a class.

However, Shana had received one hundred and ten additional Hit Points. Ten from being a shadowborn elf and one hundred for her Shadepath Markswoman class. She remained one hundred points shy of my starting Hit Points, but Shana was also only a few thousand XP from level three, at which point her natural Hit Points would exceed mine.

This only served to hammer home the need for me to level my character as well, which meant not losing notoriety if I could possibly avoid it. Which in turn meant committing acts of piracy.

With time to kill, I mentioned that to the group, and that was when Quixbix chipped in with some encouraging information.

<Well, the good news is that bonding with your Dungeon Ship counts as an act of piracy and it’s only been three days since you attained your class, so you will have eleven more days before you risk any notoriety loss> he informed me cheerfully.

“That is excellent news, Quixbix. I suppose now would be a good time to go over what qualifies as an act of piracy. And I don’t want you leaving out any options that don’t involve raiding and pillaging,” I admonished him in advance.

<Spoilsport> Quixbix insulted me playfully. <We’re past that remember. You’re the boss and I do as you command>

“Ha,” I snorted. “I’ll believe that the day pigs fly. You may not want to harm me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t give me a little push in your desired direction either.”

<You know me so well and after only a few days. I’m touched> he chuckled in my head.

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Shana laughed out loud at that and Jackson rolled his eyes grumpily at being left out.

<Also, you may want to rethink your metaphors, pigs with wings are a thing these days> he added.

Shana who had been drinking from a bottle of water couldn’t stop herself from sputtering it all over the grass verge in a most unladylike manner.

“Pardon me,” she pleaded, her face flushed scarlet with mortification.

“Of course,” I assured her with a smile. “Come on Quixbix, enough dawdling, spill it,” I ordered my imp.

<Fine> he started. <First off there are different gradations for the acts of piracy and they extend your grace period before you start to lose Notoriety by different amounts. Lesser acts, like bonding your Dungeon Ship, give you a week. Moderate acts will give you a month, Greater acts three months and Superior acts get you a full year. The grace periods you earn stack, but your maximum is based on your level, one month for each level of Dungeon Corsair Captain or above. If an act would take you over your current maximum, you don’t lose that grace, but nothing else counts until enough time passes or you increase your cap.>

As Quixbix finished the first part of his explanation I held up my hand for him to stop and relayed the details to Jackson, to keep him in the loop, and then asked my imp to continue.

<Apart from the aforementioned ship bonding, founding a pirate cove also counts as a Lesser act. You can convert or perhaps I should say subvert or conquer existing settlements into becoming pirate coves under your control too. The gradation of the act is dependent on the size of the settlement subverted. Hamlets and Villages count as Lesser acts, Towns as Moderate acts, Cities as Greater acts and a Capital will count as a Superior act. Then, of course, if you expand an existing cove under your control to the next settlement size you will get the same credit. Therefore, founding your own coves and building them up grants you the most grace overall> he explained.

I stopped Quixbix then and recounted his words to Jackson.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them eagerly when I finished. “Civilisation building too. RPG, Pirate Sim, and 4X together, Darkwyrlds just keeps getting better,” he moaned with glee.

He had closed his eyes and there was a giddy smile on his lips.

“Do we need to give you a moment alone,” I teased him.

Jackson’s eyes snapped back into focus. “Shit, did I say that out loud,” he squeaked.

“Yes,” Shana winked and handed him a leftover napkin from lunch and giggled. “For the drool.”

“Very funny,” Jackson retorted pithily.

That didn’t stop him from taking the napkin and then surreptitiously dabbing the corners of his mouth when he thought we weren’t looking.

<If we are quite finished with comedy hour> Quixbix snarked with impatience. <Although building up settlements can help out in a pinch with your grace period it will never be enough and requires both time and significant investment. The simplest and most efficient method is wealth acquisition which can be achieved in two ways. First is tribute, if you can convince or threaten independent settlements to pay you a regular tribute to leave them unmolested then that also counts as an act of piracy.>

<However, the Framework isn’t stupid. This has to be a genuine tribute; you can’t give them the funds in the first place or anything like that. Also, should a settlement refuse to pay an agreed-upon tribute then you will be required to make an example of them. Failure to do so in a suitable timescale or manner will result in egregious Notoriety penalties. I’m not saying you shouldn’t accept tribute, but you need to be sure they can or will pay and that you can or will do what’s necessary if they don’t.>

<Tribute is a bit more complex in how it works out what grade of act it will count as. We are several months away from being in that kind of position and can go through it in more detail later when it’s relevant.>

“Then why did you bring it up if it isn’t relevant right now?” I interrupted.

<Because somebody ordered me to leave nothing out> Quixbix scolded.

“Ah, yeah, please continue,” I requested sheepishly.

<Finally, there is my, and everyone’s favourite, piratical raiding. This is a simple assessment. Whenever you set out from a cove you control or a neutral one, the wealth count begins. Whatever wealth you attain by force, not by trade or deals, is counted until you make port in a friendly cove again. It doesn’t matter whether it’s coin, goods, or slaves, the Framework assesses it all and assigns a value.>

<Over two thousand Gold constitutes a Lesser act, over fifty thousand Gold for a Moderate act, over two hundred and fifty thousand Gold for a Greater act and a cool million Gold for a Superior act. The only other way you might get additions to your grace period is from a dilemma reward, but as we established earlier, I only give them. I don’t decide what’s in them> the imp finished his info dump.

That was a lot for me to digest, but any cogitation on the path ahead of me would have to wait.

There was a sudden thunderous cracking sound that seemed to send every bird nesting in the Ionia recreation grounds into frightened flight.

All three of our heads whipped around to the source of the sound.

The dark crystalline cocoon had cracked apart and as we watched, the hard, black substance disintegrated and fell away to reveal my sleek and deadly Dungeon Ship beneath.

Author Note:

There will be no chapters midweek this week. The next chapter will be Saturday 12th February.
I've been posting close to 8k words a week while only writing 5k, so will have to occasionally insert a break like this to keep a reasonable gap in my draft chapters for revisions. (I have a day job and my other series the Wolf King's Lair that I'm also writing).

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