Chapter 3
Yeutton Port, Caeba Kingdom, South Blue
Dan's eyebrow twitched as he stared at me with a deadpan expression. "You're... leaving?" he asked for the third time.
"Correct." I answered succinctly.
His twitch worsened. "To...become a bounty hunter?"
"Yes." I confirmed with a wide smile.
"Becaaaaaaause some people tried to mug you last night?"
"Right again."
Dan let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples in frustration. "Alright. Whatever. I don't care anymore. Give me back the pay for the return half of the trip and you're free to go."
-4000 Beri!
Captain Dan folded the bills into his coat and grumbled under his breath. "Young people these days... Damn it, where am I gonna find another pair of hands to..."
Anything else Dan may have muttered fell out of earshot as I walked away with a distinct look of satisfaction on my face. My thoughts still dominated by the newest quest that had appeared just after waking up in my soft extra fluffy hotel bed this morning.
Quest: Why wait for trouble when you can go find him yourself? Reggie Poliver will soon learn his brother was incarcerated and when he does he'll be looking for someone to blame. Explore the port town, find Reggie, and bring him in to the bounty office for the reward.
Reward: +2 STR, +2 DEX, 700 Exp, 115,000 Beri and ?
I could hardly resist rubbing my hands together in anticipation. I'd had quests with a '?' listed in the rewards before but I had never successfully completed one. They always seemed to be some sort of massive time sink and I had deemed the bulk of them more trouble than they were worth. The only one I had ever come within reach of achieving was the quest to read 100 books before my anniversary back on Kivuruk.
This newest quest, by comparison, looked positively simple. If dangling this easy prize in front of me was the Game's way of keeping me from sailing home then I have to admit...it's working.
I meandered through the port town spamming my arguably most useful skill. [Observe]. I used it on everything I laid eyes on. The blue words over peoples heads expanded into full profiles as I learned much more than just their names and levels. Information pop ups blanketed the air around me that I hastily scanned through for pertinent info. [Observe] leveled up so much that I even gained the ability to cast it silently.
Despite my happiness at people no longer staring at me like I'm insane for whispering [Observe] over and over under my breath, my mood had begun to dampen as the third hour past.
My bright sunny morning had turned into a complete slog as I moved down yet another busy street. Heaps and piles of useless profiles and building descriptions filled my vision and I could actually feel a migraine starting to develop. The only thing of remote interest that I had spotted was a nine year old with a LUK rating of 777. 'Now that kid's going places.'
Finally the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' appeared before me.
The Cracked Pearl
This seedy tavern is home to disreputable lowlifes and ne'er-do-well cads. Marines have raided it many times in the past but have decided to just let it be in recent years. This bar is famous for it's proprietor/bartender Bill, who always seems to know things he shouldn't and isn't afraid to share that info if you slide a few shiny coins his way.
I pushed open the broad wooden doors of the tavern and was immediately assaulted by the smell of cigar smoke and the scent of strong liquor. Grown men hunched over tables leered at me as I entered and the atmosphere was thick with tension, as though every patron was simply waiting for any of the others to make a scene. One man in the corner was sharpening a pair of knives and a second smiled widely at me with nasty yellow teeth.
'Well isn't this just a charming place?'
The bartender was a tall man with a shaved head and thick muscled arms that fit perfectly with the bar owner stereotype. The man was a cliché if I've ever seen one. He was methodically cleaning shot glasses with a white towel and hadn't even glanced at me as I approached the counter.
'[Observe].' I think, making good use of the now silent skill.
"Bill", Undercover Cipher Pol #5 Agent, Lv. 25
"Bill" is the proprietor/bartender at 'The Cracked Pearl', a famous tavern in the port town of Caeba Kingdom in South Blue. While those he interacts with think he is a lowlife like them, he is in actuality a government agent working for Cipher Pol #5 assigned to [-REDACTED TEXT-] in hopes of [-REDACTED TEXT-] and gaining revenge on [-REDACTED TEXT-]. Only then can he [-REDACTED TEXT-]. He has taken up a job as an information broker on the side.
Health: 1360/1360
STR: ?
VIT: 136
DEX: ?
INT: 64
WIS: ?
LUK: 5
I damn near trip over my own feet in surprise. 'Okay...THAT'S a new one.'
I sit down on a stool and patiently wait for Bill to finish what he's doing. The short period allowing me to study his profile in detail. 'Half the stats are missing and there's entire chunks of text blacked out. Is it because he's a higher level than me or because he's secretly a government agent? It could even be a bit of both.'
"What are ya having friend?" Bill asks cordially as he moves the cleaning rag to the side and leans casually over the counter.
"Whatever you have on tap is fine." I was never a great connoisseur of liquor back on earth. Vodka was my drink back then but I don't even know if that exists in this universe. I'd hate to start the conversation off by looking like an idiot and asking for something he's never heard of.
Bill produces a clean glass from the underside of the bar and fills it with amber liquid from a barrel behind him. He plops it down in front of me and smiles, "Anything else? We've got a 2 for 1 special on fried clams for lunch today."
"Thanks, but I had a big breakfast." I respond without actually touching my drink. "I'm hoping to run a question or two by you. I hear you're a man who's good at finding answers."
Bill's demeanor shifted very subtly. "I have been known to be a procurer of hard to find information from time to time. But it really depends on what questions you want to ask friend." he replied noncommittally.
"I'm looking for a guy named Reggie Poliver. I'm hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction."
Bill tilted his head and I could feel his eyes assessing me. "Now what would you want with a no good punk like that?"
I shrug. "I've got some business with him. Met his brother last night. My only issue is I don't know where to look." I speak, all the while laying three 1,000 Beri notes on the counter.
"What's your name young man?" Bill questions as one hand rests atop the obvious bribe and slowly slides it towards himself.
"Jack Parker."
Bill sighs dramatically and leans back to his side of the bar. "Well Mr. Parker I'm afraid I can't help you. I don't know where young Reginald is these days. And I certainly haven't heard rumor of him and his gang setting up shop at the old decrepit warehouse #4 along the southwestern edge of town."
I rose from my seat and toasted the barkeep with his drink. "Cheers." I intone before gulping it down in a single swig and then depart on my merry way.
"Have a good day Mr. Parker." Bill calls out as I disappear through the entrance.
Warehouse #4, Southwestern Edge of Town, Three Hours Later
"Sorry boss but we haven't heard nothing. They just didn't show up last night." one gang member says with an apologetic shrug.
"You think I don't know that!" Reggie Poliver snarls as he snaps a steel chain against the concrete floor. "Someone must have seen something! Thomas and the others wouldn't just vanish on us!"
One man leans over and whispers into anothers ear, "Do you think the Marines caught them?"
"I don't like this. I don't like this one bit." a third mumbles audibly.
Reggie stomps his foot and brings his underlings attention onto him. "Ok. I want you all to split up into groups and start putting out feelers. Someone in this town knows something and we're going to find them even if it takes all day!"
"Perhaps I can shed some light on the subject." My voice echoes out into the warehouse.
'Darn. I almost expected the [Game] to give me something for a dramatic entrance.'
All eight members of the street gang swiveled their heads around to the intruder who had just stepped in, a-k-a me.
"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Reggie shouts as everyone jumps to their feet.
"Nice place you got here." I compliment as I take a look around. TV's, couches, two refrigerators, it's honestly not a bad setup. "Took me a little while to find it. To answer your question though, my name's Jack."
"Okay...Jack." Reggie voiced with disdain. "Why exactly should we care about what you have to say?"
'I'm so glad he asked me that.'
"Because I'm the one who beat your brother like a red headed step-child last night and then turned him into the Marines. Since I'm already being paid for one brother I thought 'Hey! Might as well and go for the set'."
My words had the effect intended and the older Poliver brother's face turned so red it looked like he might suffer an aneurysm. "Kill him!" he screeched out, losing the tiny semblance of composure he still had.
"Huh. That's exactly what Thomas said." I taunt as the seven cannon fodder members all rush at me with various weapons.
The first one to reach me is a lanky fellow equipped with a wooden baseball bat. I duck under the initial swing and ram my fist upwards into the man's stomach. Blood and spittle sputtered out of the goons mouth and the poor bastard was launched backwards at incredible speed, barreling into another grunt and taking them both out of the fight.
+15 Exp!
+15 Exp!
Next came a trio of men each holding the same type of dagger as the ones from last night. A dodge to the left, a kick to his leg, and a followed up punch to the side of his skull sends the first of them out cold.
+15 Exp!
The other two knife wielders begin slashing with abandon, desperate to try and get a hit in.
-7 HP!
HP Regen Skill Active!
-Current speed: 0.1% max health per minute.
A thin cut appears on my forearm where a blade manages to connect, if only barely. 'Alright. Time to stop goofing around.' I jab one of my attackers in the chest, briefly stunning him due to the speed of my blow. His stumble gives me the perfect opening to knee his partner in the stomach. A quick punch square in the nose to the first one and two more grunts are down for the count.
+15 Exp!
+15 Exp!
Skill Lv Up! Unarmed Combat Lv (5/50) → (6/50)
-Your instinctive knowledge in fighting with your bare hands.
The final two cronies take a few fearful steps back before dropping their tools and wisely fleeing the warehouse. 'Noooo my Exp...come back...' Meanwhile, Reggie's face has transcended the color red in its fury and somehow reached all the way to purple.
"You okay there buddy? Remember to breathe. First you go in.." I demonstrate for him. "...and then you go out." I say with an exhale.
"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" Reggie roars, charging at me with his steel chain dragging behind him.
'[Observe]'.
Reggie Poliver, Gang Leader, Lv. 10
The older of the two 'Poliver Brothers', Reggie is a vindictive hothead who, along with his younger brother Thomas, have harassed the people of Caeba's port town for many years. They have escaped Marine custody through a combination of always setting up an alibi beforehand and sheer dumb luck.
Reggie has been lying low in recent months ever since the local government finally issued a minor bounty on the two brothers heads.
Health: 200/200
[ENRAGED!]: Reggie is consumed by anger right now. He is receiving +4 to all physical stats and -6 to all mental ones.
STR: 21 (+4) =25
VIT: 16 (+4) =20
DEX: 13 (+4) =17
INT: 8 (-6) =2
WIS: 3 (-6)= -3
LUK: 11
I did my absolute best not to smirk. 'Aww cute. With that rage boost he's almost a third as strong as I am.'
Reggie raised his arm overhead to begin winding up his weapon. With a shout of primal ferocity he swung it down with every intention of splitting my head like a melon. Using the same amount of force one would use to crack concrete. He would know. He'd done it before.
His guttural scream died in his throat when I leisurely caught the chain in my left hand on its way down.
-9 HP!
"Ouch. That stings a bit. Lost a couple hit points off that." I comment offhandedly.
Reggie stared flabbergasted. "H-huh? But what-" the remainder of his comment is cut off as I pull back hard on the steel chain sending Reggie's dumbfounded face flying straight towards me. I cock back my right fist and slug the gang leader so hard in the jaw that teeth fly out.
The Poliver brother crashes down onto the warehouse floor and both hands shoot upwards to cradle his shattered jaw. Reggie lays there whimpering for a few moments before slowly climbing to his feet, hot angry tears spilling down his face. "Y-you bashterd I'll kll ya." he slurs through the injury.
I glance at the man's remaining health and saw he had lost over 60 points from just that one hit.
"Hmm. Nah. I doubt it. Go ahead and give it your best shot though."
Local Marine Base, Bounty Office, Later that Afternoon
Petty Officer Abrella yawned as she filled in a '6' on her sudoku puzzle. She didn't know why she volunteered for this assignment. She thought it would be easy gig to just sit behind this counter all day and well...she wasn't wrong.
It was too easy. Dreadfully boring and dull and so so easy. Occasionally someone would stop by, stare at the wanted posters for a while, maybe ask for a copy of one and then leave. She'd usually get three or four of those a day over the course of her 10 hour shift. Anyone actually turning in a bounty only happened about once every two weeks. One day she painted the walls just to watch them dry.
In fact, the only reason she hadn't laid her head down for a nap yet was because her direct superior Chief Mori informed her that a man was supposed to stop by and collect a 70,000 Beri payment for catching some street hooligan.
'Ugh...where is this guy... It's already past 1600...' she thought tiredly while scribbling an '8' down in her puzzle.
"Excuse me." A voice suddenly appeared, forcing her eyes to move upward. "Hi. My names Jack. Chief Mori said to give this note to you."
Petty Officer Abrella accepted the scrap of paper and read over the recognizable scrawl of her superior. "Sure. I was starting to wonder if you were going to bother showing up today." she commented neutrally. "Let me go in the back for a minute and I'll be right back with your money."
"Actually," I spoke up. "Before you go, I brought you another one. So it's actually going to be a total of 185,000." I moved two steps to the right and revealed the tied up, broken, battered, and slightly twitching man lying on the floor behind me.
"THE HELL?" Abrella shouted as she jumped to her feet in alarm. "Who's that!" she demanded with a raised voice. All thoughts of finding time for a nap flying from her head.
I winced slightly and raised a hand to my ear at the shrillness of her tone. "This is Reggie. The older brother. I came across him earlier and thought I'd go two for two."
"Why is he bleeding all over my floor!"
I scratched my chin. 'Well time doesn't pass for anything I place in the [Inventory] so his wounds haven't closed.'
"Dunno. You'd have to ask him."
My joke was apparently not appreciated. "You! Stay here! I'm going to go talk to Chief Mori for a second...and find a mop...and a chore boy...you just... don't move...I'll be back." Abrella sternly instructed as she exited her booth and walked away at a hurried pace.
Ding!
Quest Completed!
Quest: Why wait for trouble when you can go find him yourself? Reggie Poliver will soon learn his brother was imprisoned and when he does he'll be looking for someone to blame. Explore the port town, find Reggie, and bring him in to the bounty office for the reward.
Reward: +2 STR, +2 DEX, 700 Exp, 115,000 Beri (PENDING) and ?
Ding!
A '?' mystery box has been placed into your inventory. Open it to receive one of three rare items.
'Ohhhh. A mystery box. So that's what the '?' means.' I glanced around the empty hallway and saw no sign of Petty Officer Abrella returning soon. 'Well since I have to wait around to get my money I may as well open it now.'
I silently accessed the [Inventory] and scrolled to the bottom where I beheld the image of a white box emblazoned with a large red '?' pasted on the slide. Trying to extract the item resulted in a second blue pop-up.
Ding!
You are attempting to open a mystery box.
Please select one of the following three items.
1. Armored Impact Gauntlets: They aren't indestructible, but they're pretty damn close. Each of these gauntlets comes with an Impact Dial embedded in the palm that is sure to catch an opponent off guard with a devastating blow. Selecting this item comes with a permanent +2 STR and +2 VIT.
My eyes twinkled like golden stars at reading the description. Scratch that, I think they actually turned into stars for a moment. The distinctly anime moment might have been jarring to me if I wasn't so damn excited. 'I want it! I want it! I want it bad! I want it, I want it, I! WANT! IT! I can't wait to blow someone away with these things!'
2. Shroud of Not Quite Invisibility:A discarded prototype created by the infamous scientist Caesar Clown himself. This solar rechargeable high tech cloak can provide the user up to 15 minutes of total invisibility when standing still or to be seen only as a faint hazy image when actively moving. Takes six hours in the sun to reach full charge. Selecting this item comes with a permanent +4 DEX.
'Ehh. I'm not denying it could be useful but stealth isn't really my thing. Plus the recharge time is a bit too harsh for my tastes.'
3. [Skillbook]: Reading the Ancient Language Vol.1: The Poneglyph's and their texts are one of the greatest mysteries of the world. Only an extremely small handful of people on the planet can read even a fraction of the lost language. With this [Skillbook] you can count yourself among their ranks. Selecting this item comes with a permanent +2 INT and +2 WIS.
Everything stopped.
Time itself seemed to slow as my breath hitched in my throat and my eyes widened considerably. If anyone was around they would've seen me physically recoil at the invisible screen.
'WHAT?'
I slumped against the wall behind me and slid down onto the floor, almost tripping over Reggie as I did so.
'I...I didn't expect this...The [Gamer] powers can even unlock the mystery of the Poneglyph's for me? This...this is a bad idea...If I choose this and anyone...and I mean ANYONE...finds out that I can read the lost language then it's BAD. VERY. VERY. BAD.' I visibly grimaced as my thoughts continued. 'But I really really really want to know what happened in 'The Void Century'. This might be my only chance to find out...the [Game] might not offer this chance again...If I ever come across a Poneglyph and I can't read then it I'll regret it forever...goddamn it Jack.'
With a healthy amount of personal doubt and a slightly trembling hand I begrudgingly selected option three. The mystery box in my [Inventory] morphed into an aged book bound in red leather. The moment the item had finished transforming I extracted the prize and held it in my hands.
It felt heavy.
Ding!
You have obtained a [Skillbook]. Would you like to use it now? [ACCEPT/DECLINE]
I took one final slow breath and clicked [ACCEPT]. The book briefly glowed a bright yellow and then dissolved into tiny golden sparkles. In an instant the golden flecks flew into my chest and I felt the knowledge flow into my mind.
Ding!
You have unlocked the letters 'E', 'H', and 'T' for the lost language.
I read the sentence.
Then I read it again.
I probably stared at that notification for a solid minute. All higher brain function had ground to a halt as I stared disbelievingly at that single line.
Eventually a small detail about the [Skillbook] I just absorbed reached my addled mind. It was titled 'Reading the Ancient Language Vol.1'
Vol. 1.
Volume 1.
'THAT IS NOT HOW LANGUAGES WORK!' I howled furiously in his mind. 'LETTERS ARE NOT REPLACED AT A ONE-TO-ONE RATIO LIKE SOME DECIPHERABLE GRADE-SCHOOL CODE! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS FINAL FANTASY X STYLE BULLSHIT?'
I buried my face in my hands as the regret pooled inside me. 'No. I take it back. Please. I take it back. Give me the impact gauntlets. Those were so cool! I don't want to be committed to unlocking all the other volumes. That could take years!'
My depressed musings were broken by Reggie Poliver whimpering slightly in pain as his fingers tried to reach for a small knife in his boot.
"Oh shut up Reggie." I growled as I got back to my feet. "I'm not in the mood." A small kick to the head and the man fell back to unconsciousness.
Chief Mori turned the corner with Abrella and a chore boy flanking behind him just in time to see me huff irritably and lean back against the wall. He took one look at the elder Poliver and smirked.
"Ha!" Mori barked. "I knew I liked this kid!"
Jack Parker, The Gamer, Lv. 16
Health: 610/610
Exp: 1195/1600
Money: 308,470 Beri
STR: 92
VIT: 61
DEX: 46
INT: 31
WIS: 28
LUK: 14
Points to spend: 0
Click here to see list of [Skills]
-Current number of [Skills]: 36
Click here to see list of [Perks]
-Current number of [Perks]: 0
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