Chapter 148: 138. Sea of Death (VI)

You would think a magic sea ship that was of a decent Great Quality would skim across the seas at high speed unfettered. It had the power to make sharp turns around obstacles and keep ahead of most of the numerous dangers that the Sea of Death offered. And that was mostly the case with the Soulful Requiem, a galleon with four masts, a bunch of square sails, and a single deck dedicated to cannons right below the top deck.

It came packaged with a bunch of angry skeletons where a crew of thirty had perished– probably from a mutiny– which had the matching clothes of the skeletons found at the Yellow Quest cave. After eradicating the bad skelly boys, Team Dante found the ship’s magic treasure trunks. They acted like Safe Zone Treasure Chests but with a reduced capacity.

Jay was pretty sure the Hell Circles didn’t offer the convenient Safe Zone Treasure Chests like other dungeons, but there were plenty of dimensional storage items abound as a tradeoff. So when they set sail six days ago with their own crew, a nice amount of loot, a change of clothes to get in theme, and a map leading them to their next destination, Team Dante had no idea what was in store for them. But Jay and his Champions were hopeful, especially since the Soulful Requiem cut across the water like an arrow in flight.

But it still took six days to get to their next objective. Which was absurd. The speed and agility of their ship was pretty topnotch while looking like a vessel that only moved at four knots. Magic was involved, and regardless of how the wind blew, the ship circulated the air in such a way it was like riding on a speedboat.

But it still took six days. And throughout those days and nights at sea, following a dungeon compass that was finicky at best, Jay, Brit, and Frank got to see a smorgasbord of what the Sea of Death had to offer. Their prior dungeon crawls couldn’t compare. Not even the Yoroachian Battles and the Junkside War could compare.

The Sea of Death was filled with nigh unimaginable obstacles and monsters ripped straight out of an epic fantasy pirate adventure. And there might’ve been a day where Team Dante and their crew had to delay their progress because there was more than just one Rank 4 storm monster prowling around the Sea of Death.

What horrors and challenges could Team Dante have faced that shaved away their limited time even further?

Hours into the adventure Team Dante and crew were set upon by a cloud of Rank 2 Flaying Skinlings. These were sky-surfing monsters made of leathery necromantic flesh. Each one aimed to latch onto a target, feast on its flesh, replace the flesh, and then feast on the body/Health while linked to a still-living host. Removing them once they latched on fully would require you to flay them off of your flesh– or burn them off. At the same time, rising from the sea were a school of Rank 2 Lock-jawed Sea Monkey Ghouls. Their best Attribute was Agility, which helped them keep up with the ship and scramble up the hull and onto the top deck. Then these knee-high creeps went about snapping at your lower legs, aiming to rip away the tendons. Jay and Brit tag teamed to keep the skinlings and sea monkeys turned away. Or the Holy Gravity pair corralled the monsters so Frank could burn them once they were gathered and cleared of the ship. The attack from sea and air didn’t stop until well into the next morning.

By the evening of day two at sea, an unsettling fog rolled across the ocean surface. It crept around the ship like searching fingers. The moment it touched Jay, he got a Conviction check. He passed it, thankfully. Then he got a Poise Check, and he didn’t manage to pass that one. He suffered fog delirium and started hearing invitations from the fog to come out and play. He even heard YoAnna out there, as if she had entered the dangerous and corruptive Hell Circle herself just so she could play with him. Before Jay walked off ship, Brit snatched him from the edge and cleansed him of the mentally warping fog. Which was truly scary, because that power was deceptive enough to get around his [Homeowner Defense] Talent. Brit blasted out rays of light and cleansed the entire ship of the fog. A monstrosity out there roared with anger. The water shook violently.

A Level 44 Fog Belching Siren Head revealed itself– it was a giant woman’s head, nearly the size of the ship, with snaking tendrils for hair and monstrous spine-like body swimming through the water with serpentine movements. From its empty eye sockets and ears, the fog streamed out. Its bloody mouth stretched open, proffering fanged teeth, a muscled tongue that could wrap up three men easily, and a throat that widened like a gate before vomiting up a bunch of low Rank 3 Sea Ghasts. Each Sea Ghast were undead humanoids with long claws and waterlogged bodies. They emitted a magically foul aura that would poison you with one whiff. The miasma that was their stench expanded five feet from their bodies, forcing Team Dante– Jay especially– to beat back the attack from a distance, eradicating the ghasts. Then the Siren Head met its end from the combined might of dragon fire, holy light, and freakish gravity.

Days Three and Four saw skirmishes with the pirate gangs of Wightbeard, one of the big bads of this dungeon crawl. Team Dante and crew learned of the unliving pirate king of the Sea of Death when they defeated a small pirate vessel and found a bound Level 32 Devil. Unlike the dungeon prisoners and dungeon monsters, devils existed as subservient workers inside and outside the mechanisms that kept each Hell Circle running. They could leave the Hell Circles to do their wicked work by possessing a host, but they would always be bound to their circles no matter what. Zikar was a ghoulish looking Devil with gray skin, ragged clothing that could’ve come from an old pirate renaissance set, and six crooked horns sprouting from a malformed oval-shaped head topped by thinning strands of white hair.

He was a ghastly thing to behold. And he stunk. But he was a chummy fellow to talk to. He especially liked to bug Jay while he was busy doing Attribute-limited pullups, crunches, or muscle ups from on top of the masts. Zikar helped out when Jay needed some extra weight while holding a barrel over his head and performing squats. Zikar took a liking to Jay easily, which might be because Jay was the only person keeping Brit from eradicating the fiendish creature. And it was quite good to have Zikar around– he helped point out troublesome spots where monsters lurked that would’ve slowed them down. But Zikar could only help so much when they ran into more of Wightbeard’s pirate crew.

Most of the skirmishes with pirates didn’t amount to much of a hassle. But the last one took Team Dante and crew by surprise when two vessels the pirates were sailing turned out to be living constructs of undeath engineering, foul death magic, and madness. These ships– Level 40 Hungering Hullbiters– skimmed across the water quickly on course to ram into the Soulful Requiem and take a big bite out of the ship. Even a full barrage of cannon-fire from the gun deck didn’t dissuade the Hullbiters’ charge, so Jay got creative at the last second. He [Sling Assisted] and [Graviton Walled] both Brit and Frank at each ship for impact, and let his champions cause havoc from there. That did leave Jay seemingly vulnerable to higher ranked threats.

Right on cue, Zikar tried to take advantage of that. He was a step too slow,  since Jay had been prepared for Zikar’s eventual betrayal. Jay took the fight to the devil without mercy.

“But we were good buddies?” Zikar cried, pleading for his devilish undead life.

“Yeah, we were,” Jay said before hacking the devil’s head off with a cleaving kick of gravity.

By the time that ordeal was over, they salvaged as much loot as possible, stuffing it in their second ship they had commandeered and roped to the back of the Soulful Requiem. Then a monstrous Rank 4 Screaming Death Waterfinger appeared. It towered like a titanic waterspout, spiraling around and around while screeching horridly and causing drastic hearing damage.

The best that Team Dante and crew could do was turn away and go in the opposite direction of the disastrous Rank 4 monster. At the very least, it moved out of the way faster than the death storm from before. But the detour had landed Team Dante’s ship over the territory of another Rank 4 problem.

A monstrous Island Charnel Turtle, which would probably go down as the worst thing Team Dante had faced yet, rose up from under their ship. It was immense, living up to its name. Its rotten shelled back was a wretched graveyard of wrecked ships, spires of fleshy coral rising up that caught hold of Team Dante’s main ship and loot ship, and lots of tunnels where high Rank 2 and low Rank 3 Corpse Tunneling Spiderfish crawled out.

But the eight legs extending from a body that looked like a zombified blobfish were not like spider legs– they were long and thin human-like fingers that could extend as far as Jay’s legs. Jay and Brit had to defend the ship while Frank went on a solo-mission burning his way past towers of fleshy coral spires, stinking pits of rotten and poisonous fog, and loads and loads of Spiderfish until he reached the Island Charnel Turtle’s monstrous head. Then Frank burned out its eye. The Island Charnel Turtle sank down right away, releasing their ships from its back, and taking the pestilent spiderfish along with it.

Team Dante and crew sailed on from there. They got into a minor fight against a Level 48 Minor Undead Kraken that nearly ate Jay– Brit dove in for the rescue and succeeded– and finally reached the Death Devil’s Hindquarters. The island outpost was one of multiple starting points for prisoners.  It supposedly had neutral undead and devils. But from what the late Zikar had said about the place, Team Dante knew it was a hotbed for murder, villainy, and freaky stuff. It would have what Team Dante needed to reach the next stage of this adventure.

***

“Frank, take whatever coin you need from our coffers and get us a third ship,” Jay said as the fourteenth day broke with the green sunrise. “Brit, wait on the ship and pray for me. You’re a little too scary to take out right now until I need you.”

“Yes, Cap’n,” his Champions replied as they moved to follow his orders.

Jay nodded before floating off from the top deck of the ship. “Crew, protect our valuables.”

The surviving Tano-nooey villagers and random friendly skeletons that were sent adrift across the Sea of Death answered with a sharp, “Yes, Cap’n!” The Tano-nooey villagers knew enough English to respond appropriately now. The friendly skeletons were just a bunch of randos who had no idea why they were lost out in sea, but they were thankful enough for Team Dante’s mercy. They pledged to serve them and help out around the main ship and second ship. Team Dante had enough crew to operate a third ship, which was much needed. They were running out of space for loot.

Captain Jay Luckrun landed on the bowsprit at the very front of the ship. He leaned over the edge, his hand on a rigging, as he surveyed the busy docks and dirty streets of Rancid Cove, the major port town of the Death Devil’s Hindquarters. The island was shaped like a C that invited ships to come through the gap and get to port along the edges of hellrock and wooden scaffolding and boardsteps. The town started from the port and rose up along the incline of the island. The incline led toward a pair of double round peak mountains that looked like a big butt mooning the sky– hence the name Death Devil’s Hindquarters.

Port workers shouted and cussed at each other as they hauled in boxes of loot from ships or onto ships. The boardwalks and scaffoldings placed next to monstrous ships the size of a five story apartment complex trembled with the foot traffic of undead sailors with some dungeon prisoners among them. Jay heard people and creatures singing sea shanties from the nearest bars. He’d learned some local songs from the amnesiac skeletons that strangely remembered certain key facts but nothing about themselves. Jay decided to not poke holes at the helpful exposition dungeon monsters. They were a funny group of friendly skeletons, which made Jay feel awfully reminiscent of his kiddies from the Corpse Kiddie Parade. He hoped the kiddies evolved soon and remained mostly intact.

Jay hit the walkway amid the port workers, using his powers to conceal his importance and calm others. Because of his short height, he was easily swallowed up amid the crowd of working undead. Zombies, skeletons, minor flesh golems, and other lowly undead creatures at the bottom of the totem pole worked ceaselessly, without much thought.

Jay maneuvered around them with quick and agile steps, sometimes outmaneuvering even the menacing undead hounds who had more Agility than Jay. Despite still being a Level 30, Jay had further honed the timing and precision of his movements where it felt more innate rather than a part of his profile boosts. His nice Great Quality boots thudded off the boardwalk and onto muddy dirt, hitting the island proper. Jay meandered from there, his hands in the pockets of his Great Quality breeches. The new threads were more magically enchanted and tougher than the former Good Quality stuff. Jay was sure Macy would do a better job stripping all of their loot down and remaking the Champions new things with way better enchantments once they got back.

After they saved the world from undeath raiding and pillaging.

Jay passed by meat markets where an Undead Minotaur hawked out fresh prisoner meat to passing undead. He skipped over bloody puddles, stepped around a crowd of gamblers betting on Undead Cockatrice Young battling it out between each other. He lowered his head when he passed a couple of brothels. The entire port reeked already, but the smell coming out of those brothels was the worst. He took a turn up a cleaner street at the center of Rancid Cove. Jay started up that street, the rising incline barely a bother for someone with gravity magic. He simply bounced up with a fun perk to his steps until a pair of guards stopped him.

“Papers, air-sucker,” asked one zombie guard.

“Make it quick, or you won’t be sucking air for long,” said another.

Jay didn’t bother pulling out his papers. He handed over some Bronze Multiverse Coins– the Rank 3 equivalent of currency. It might not seem like much, but Jay and his Champions had learned from their crew that it was highly scary to be around the powers that Team Dante had at their disposal. Most of the crew would prefer to fight weaker creatures. Only the truly strong or mindless who had an idea of what they were fighting would fight those who were stronger or more numerous than them.

 It was quite common that Copper (the Rank 2 equivalent) and Iron coins (the Rank 1 equivalent) were the usual coinage circulating these ‘civilized’ locations. Bronze Coins belonged to those of influence and wealth. Jay had some silver coins he’d dove for when they’d sailed past a sunken ship that blipped on Jay’s spatial-g and contained some really, really nice loot. But Jay imagined he would bring trouble to himself if anyone knew Team Dante had silver coinage.

One Silver was worth a hundred Bronze. One Bronze was worth a hundred Coppers. One Copper was worth a hundred Irons. And one Iron was worth a hundred Multiverse Store Credits. Jay didn’t feel like doing the math on how much coinage they had on his ships– that was Tim’s job– but he imagined they had a lot. Once YoAnna got the Multiverse Store up and running, they’d be able to see what they could purchase to help Team Magic R&D craft further ludicrous things. It was cheaper to buy materials and make stuff out of all that than to straight up buy weapons, armor, or anything the Multiverse Store had to offer.

Whatever the guards planned to do with the little Coppers Jay had given them didn’t matter to Jay as long as they got out of his way, which they did promptly. It would also serve a purpose where someone of Jay’s status, which would be impossible to [Identify], would draw attention. And those who were good at reading energy through feeling alone might guess correctly that he was a Rank 2. So when a pair of Level 45 Undeath Devil Captains came around while Jay was at a nice and cozy bar that served stellar Great Quality rum, Jay smiled.

“Took you long enough,” Jay said as he turned in his seat. “Now, would you wait a second while I finish my drink.”

One goon grabbed Jay’s glass and crushed it, spilling the drink between its cold and gray fingers. Jay frowned, and said, “Now that’s a waste of good alcohol.”

The other goon punched Jay in the nose, broke it, and then grabbed him by the collar of his fancy coat. Jay blinked away his daze as he got dragged between both Undeath Devil Captains. They took him across the street from the bar to an open-aired cafe with soft velvety seats, lacquered tables, and lots of glassed souls strung to the wooden beams above. The souls screamed silently as their soul-forms shone down with harrowing blue-white light. Jay got tossed onto his knees in front of a fancifully dressed Level 50 Vampire Devil Petty Lord.

“Jay Luckrun,” hissed Governor Duradel.

“Captain Jay Luckrun,” Jay corrected with a smile, the blood from his nose dripping around his mouth.

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“Where is Zikar?” asked Governor Duradel, getting straight to business.

“Ah, so that’s what Zikar was doing with that magic crystal ball thingy,” Jay said, tapping his bottom lip. “Granted, good of him to use a Silence Area ritual to keep us from listening. But that didn’t work out, obviously.”

Governor Duradel frowned, his daintily painted lips of rouge parted slightly to reveal two glinting fangs. His powdered face and white wig made him look like a caricature of a man from the olden times where they sent people as common goods from one big place across the ocean to another. From what Jay knew of vampires in the media and in the archives, these creatures of the night and undeath liked to live as the cream of the crop wherever they went. Granted, this vampire was also a devil, so it probably had devil powers to go along with being vampiric.

“You will find that I have Great Quality cannons from the land and sea pointed at your ship right now,” Governor Duradel informed. “I have plenty of devils who are well into their Rank 3s that outnumber your crew ten-to-one. I know your more fiery [Fighter] is in the market, and I know you’ve left behind your [Medium]. Don’t think your cloaking abilities can stop me from putting the clues together regarding your abilities. The only mystery is you, little Luckrun. The part that confounds me is why you aren’t evolving when you have the time and safety to do so.”

“Curious, aren’t you?” Jay asked. “Well, since you insist on not addressing me correctly, I will have to hold your anticipation in expense. In the meanwhile, I’m going to let my first mate show you how outmatched you are, right, Brit?”

The Undeath Devil Captains whirled around too late as one got eradicated instantly by a charged up [Great Light of Cleansing]. The other got surprised as a byproduct, stumbling backwards from the light. It moved into Jay’s low kick that exploded with gravity at the ankles. The attack was not strong enough to drop the Undeath Devil Captain, a hulking eight-foot, and six-horned monstrosity similar to Zikar’s appearance. But Jay’s kick delayed its response further as Brit strode into the cafe, used a magic pistol to shoot the captain in the face while summoning her angelic spear.

She thrust through the devil repeatedly, which left Jay and the Governor facing off. That would’ve ended badly for Jay if he hadn’t pulled out a Great Quality Vampire-Away Garlic Doll, something the Wightbeard Pirate crew kept on them as vampire deterrents or part of their plan to capture a noble vampire. Regardless of the reasons for having the garlic doll, watching Governor Duradel squeal in horror was almost as delightful as the [Grav Kick] Jay planted on the vampire’s chest next. The damage wasn’t much, but it knocked the monster backward against his seat and flipped him onto his back.

By then, Brit finished off the last Undeath Devil Captain and came over to point her spear at the vampire’s neck. The governor dared not move even as reinforcements arrived. The holy energy Brit gave off from her body scared away the undead. She was an antithesis to this place, a monster who had been through enough battles to reach Level 43 and pose a serious threat to all of the devils, undead, or what have you here. The way her eyes glowed an ethereal white while waiting for further orders from her Pantheon Commander gave Jay an enjoyable tingle up his spine since he’d planned for this to happen one way or another. He’d told Brit to pray for him as a code word for her to decide the best course of action to guard him even if that meant using her holy abilities to cloak herself from the undead better than Jay’s cloaking abilities.

Jay knelt beside Governor Duradel while he was lying on his back, staring in horror at the pulsating holy spear that wanted to run him through. The governor glanced nervously from the [Medium] holding it and at Jay. The [Freak] didn’t blame the guy for looking at Brit since she was dressed in a nicely fitted blouse and breeches that showed off her figure well. But Jay snapped his fingers in front of the governor’s face to have him pay more attention to the [Freak]. Despite the governor’s higher rank, it was clear he was more administrator than fiendish warrior and wouldn’t take long to get information from when pressured enough.

“I have two questions for you,” Jay said. “Where do we go from here to help us find the Grand Sea Witch? That’s one question. And what’s my name? You can answer those in whatever order you want.”

“What’s your name?” the governor blubbered in astonishment.

“Yes, that’s what he said,” Brit said menacingly from behind Jay, inching the spear point closer to the cowering governor. “What is his name?”

“C-c-c-Captain Jay Luckrun!” the governor shouted.

“Bingo, bango, this one gets a mango,” Jay said with a wide smile.

They got the information they needed, took the governor hostage, and found Frank at the docks with a third ship prepared. The governor’s devilish naval forces looked on with anger as Team Dante and their crewmates sailed out of Rancid Cove and put some distance between them and Death Devils’ Hindquarters. Then they tossed the governor overboard as promised, which didn’t do much since the governor could transform into a giant monster bat. Jay figured that wouldn’t be the last time they see the governor. Which was quite true, because four hours later, the governor and a giant one-hundred cannon war ship was zooming through the water to catch up with the Soulful Requiem.

“Oh no, Cap’n!” cried one skeleton crew member.

“Hit me with the exposition, my good skeleton,” Jay said from on top the crowsnest.

“That’s the governor’s favorite warship, the Reaping Fisher, said to be the highest level of Great Quality ship you’d find anywhere across these waters!” the skeleton crewmate shouted excitedly. “Its cannons can shoot minor hellfire shots, blood vampiric magic shots, and heavy hull-busting hellmetal shots! Then you got the Deadlocks, undead warlocks with ghastly powers from their former patrons that are part of the governors’ retinue. They’ll hurl ice and shadow and acid magic while we get gunned down by the cannons.”

“Thank you for the exposition,” Jay said. “You can go ahead and panic with the rest of the crew.”

“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” The skeleton saluted before turning to the rest of his crewmates. “Panic, everyone!”

Jay let them panic for about half a minute. Meanwhile, he used [Perception Highness] to the absolute limit. He found their salvation. It would require another daring maneuver that he was getting well-practiced in doing. Frank waited with his arms crossed on the topdeck, looking up to Captain Jay Luckrun.

“Got something for us?” Frank asked.

“I bet he does!” Brit crooned from the back of the ship.

Jay nodded before turning to his panicking crew.

“Enough panicking you skelly boys and mushroom-headed wretches!” Jay shouted as he jumped down to the top deck with air-shaking gravitas. “Your Cap’n has a way out of this!”

“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” shouted the crewmates.

“What will it be, Cap’n? Team Dante goes straight at the governor’s ship and fights them to the death-death?” asked another good skeleton. They were quite excited to see their three fleshy and living superiors do what they were good at– killing dead things violently.

“Belay that!” Jay shouted normally. “That is too predictable. We’re going to do something even crazier!”

“By the designs of the great Dungeon Cores,” said another good skeleton, “I didn’t know there can be crazier.”

Jay smiled wickedly.

Moments later, all three ships were tied together, hull to hull. They were taking cannon fire from the Reaping Fisher’s guns at the bow of the ship. Thankfully, the front of the governor’s favorite ship could only shoot a few cannons. But they packed a wallop when they landed, tearing up the back of Jay’s ships with infernal explosions and wood-tearing thrusts of the hull-busters. Burning planks and debris rained down around Jay as he ensured the crew kept working at a manic speed to get all the ropes bound and secured. At the same time, all three ships veered closer and closer to their salvation, which was also a calamitous creature of doom.

Before the governor realized Jay’s plot, the war ship crossed the line where the water swirled toward a central point of twisting evil. The force pulling at them was just as physical as it was magical, latching onto the heaviest ship even more than the three ships Jay had tied together. The Rank 4 Grasping Whirlpool Shipwrecker was an insidious entity that didn’t make itself known until it was too late. Only when it was sure it could catch something would it widen the underwater funnel, reveal spiraling bone white teeth as tall as giant rock spires, display the thousands of pieces of ship debris and corpses swirling around the water vortex’s center, and get more active at pulling ships to their doom by reaching out with giant watery hands.

“If my ship goes, you go as well!” roared the governor from on top the bow of his massive ship. “I can recoup my losses, but can you recoup yours?”

Jay chuckled as he picked up the thickest and heaviest Great Quality rope they had. He slung the rope onto his bare shoulders, going shirtless as the muscles he’d grown from all his training flexed with the movement. His back, deltas, arms, and chest were wider and more defined than they were before. His legs, too, but those didn’t matter as much right now. He lifted shortly into the sky and considered the rope tethered to all of the ships, which were carrying all of his crew, as something he was carrying. Brit hit him with an incantation for good magic. Jay found an easy going incantation for the moment.

“When the time comes that those who follow me need a savior,” Jay chanted with a lazy grin, “they will look unto me and knoweth that they are secured, for my back is large enough to hold them all, so we’ll reach the stars together no matter the weather, [Moonwalker].”

Jay dumped his Mana almost immediately to lighten all three ships, their cargo, and the crew. Brit passed him Great Quality Mana Crystal after Great Quality Mana Crystal to replenish him and have him suffer through Mana sickness and hellish pain that made his brain feel like it was going to melt out from between his ears. At the same time, Frank swung over the rail at the back of the middle-ship, aimed his dinged up, scratched up, and abused magitek arm toward the rearward direction of all three ships, and said the magic words, “Power Thruster.”

The 2nd Circle spellcraft ritual roared out of Frank’s arm, expelling as much dragon fire as possible while Frank shoved the ships to move faster with his own back on the middle one. With all three ships lightened and linked by some tough magical rope, Frank added the needed push to sail out of the reach of the grasping hands of the Whirlpool Shipwrecker. The three ships escaped the boundaries of the Rank 4s area of dominance and left behind the governor’s favorite ship as it got pulled closer to the center of the Rank 4 calamity of the Sea of Death.

“Damn you, Captain Jay Luckrun!” roared the governor, the last words Jay would hear before he blacked out.

The next time he woke up, his head was in Brit’s lap as she sang a sea shanty with their merry crew. It was a new song Jay hadn’t heard before. It sang about the adventures of this ridiculous fellow, short of stature, big of heart, and wild of mind. And no matter what challenges the fellow faced, he’d always find a way to win with the most outrageous options available. Jay’s foggy brain tried to follow along, deeply entertained. Once they stopped singing, he reached up shakily to touch Brit’s smiling face.

“Where did that song come from?” Jay asked.

“From you,” Brit said, her hand combing through his hair. It felt nice when she did that. “The Ballad of Luckrun comes from you, Cap’n.”