章節 24: Those Who Cry
Sky woke up and noticed the sun was barely rising.
'When did I fall asleep?' Sky felt sore waking up as instead of sleeping on a bed he slept on the boat's deck.
Jericho was keeping an eye out for incoming trouble.
"Jericho, how long was I asleep for?"
"Sky, you're awake! Maybe less than three hours."
"Huh, I guess I must have been so tired but I was too occupied to notice. Still do you want to sleep now or…?"
"I'm not tired."
"Okay."
Sky was happy to see no fishmen had managed to find them. But that wasn't all he was happy about.
{Received: 25,000 exp, 25,000 shells, 1x red scroll, 1x red grade item}
The exp and shells were not much but the other rewards were generous.
"System, I have to ask, if I had failed to complete this quest what would have happened to us?"
{There is no point in explaining since it will not happen}
"I'm curious but you're right. I'm just glad it's over."
Sky took out the item he got from killing the Warlord, the false Warlord's shirt.
{False Warlord's shirt: red grade}
{A shirt from the one who falsely claimed himself as the Warlord}
{1,000+ HP when worn. 500+ mana when worn}
{Greed: increases shell drops by 10% when killing} (does not affect exp)
{Example: killing an ordinary man rewards you 100 shells, but killing him while wearing the shirt increases it to 110 shells}
Sky put on the shirt since he wasn't wearing one that granted him any benefits.
{HP: 8,650/8,650}
{Mana: 3,705/3,705}
He was just glad to see his HP and mana rise. All he needed was a pair of pants.
{Red scroll: increases vigor permanently by 41}
Sky ripped the scroll.
{Vig: 241}
{HP: 9,060/9,060}
{Sword of mid-intelligence}
{Scales with Int: C-grade, Dex: D-grade}
{300+ mana when held. Increases mana regen rate by 50% when held. Magic damage increased by 10% when held}
{Damage: 800}
This is the red grade weapon Sky received for completing his quest. He once saw an intelligence based weapon before, a staff. Compared to the staff this weapon was decent.
The naginata was of course superior to it in damage but that's purely dex and strength. This weapon is meant for people who use mana abilities such as fireball.
'I guess if my naginata were to ever break this would be a nice replacement for it.' Sky put the sword away.
Jericho was still keeping watch letting Sky take a break.
Sky pondered for a while if he should tell her about her father. He could tell her and she would be obviously mad, disappointed, and probably in denial. Or he could keep it to himself but he wouldn't know how long he could keep it a secret until the truth comes out.
'Man… this is gonna suck.'
Sky walked up to Jericho.
"Jericho, we need to talk."
"Hm?"
"On the island I saw your father."
Jericho looked at Sky. There was a pause between them. Sky did not see Jericho's face change expression in the slightest.
"What?"
"Your father… I saw him."
"How do you know it was my dad? I don't think I've told you what he looks like, or his name."
"Was his name Harvey?"
Jericho's eyes widened a bit.
"He had the appearance of a middle-aged man. He was tall, skinny, and had short black pointy hair. He also had a skill called "shadow sneak" and he was fast. When I even talked to him he referred to you by name."
Jericho looked down, unable to comprehend the words coming out of Sky's mouth.
"What was he doing there?"
"He was working with the Warlord. He said he sold you out for money. It's how the Warlord knew about your magnetism ability, and how they had a detailed sketch of your face."
Jericho didn't say anything. She just looked down on the ground.
*Plop*
Tears were rolling down her cheeks and dropped on the deck.
Very angrily she stormed off to the room, shutting the door fiercely which shook the ship.
Sky could faintly hear her cries as she tried to muffle the sound with a pillow. Sky let her be on her own, she deserved to know.
Sky sat on the edge of the boat and wandered about the ability the Warlord had. Sky saw how the Warlord was able to protect himself from a fatal blow using his mana, it was an ability Sky did not know he had which is why he was caught off guard.
And instead of taking damage to his HP Sky was able to deplete his mana instead.
"System, how did the Warlord control his mana like that?"
{Unable to answer. Player has to figure it out}
Sky had forgotten how sometimes the system won't provide him answers. And so he sought out the answer on his own.
He tried figuring out how to control his mana, but without any proper training or guide Sky had trouble.
'Come on! Gather the mana in your hand.' Sky thought.
A few hours later Sky was left with a cramped hand.
"Well that ended in failure. I don't think it was a scroll ability since I did not see such an ability on him. But, he did have 999 points in his intelligence stats, and he had more mana than me so there was that as well."
Sky could only give up trying to replicate the mana he saw for now, because there is something else he wants to focus on, getting home as fast as possible.
{Time until destination: 29 days}
Sky wanted to hurry up, he promised his parents he would be home in a month, that was a month ago since he said that.
Usually people would find it difficult to find a way to travel faster in a ship, but now it was different for Sky as he had the wind manipulation ability.
Sky extended both hands towards the ship's flags. Sometimes the winds go against his wishes and they slow the ship considerably. The system doesn't have a function to manipulate the wind for its user.
{Mana consumption rate: 16 mana/s}
Sky was pushing air to the flags but he wasn't making a difference. The level of air he was manipulating was laughable but he already knew that.
{Skill level up}
{Wind manipulation: lvl 1 → lvl 2}
Sky felt he could manipulate stronger winds but it still wasn't making progress.
Meanwhile…
The fishmen had successfully managed to capture and kill every single human in the Warlord's island. The island that was full of people, goods, ships was not just a barren wasteland. Nothing was left.
Even after all this destruction they were not able to complete their goal, finding Sky.
"For the past four hours, we have tortured, killed, mutilated every single human here with no one escaping our grasp, and yet the one who killed our friends and families isn't here. Not only that but no one knows about him." Dei said in a disappointed tone.
Every fishmen was upset.
Once they heard the cannons firing they thought that Sky would be here, only to find out that wasn't the case. They planned to get rid of every ship surrounding the island to cut off his escape.
"Let's get out of here. The killer wasn't here."
Every single fishman jumped in the water.
After a couple of minutes passed, beneath a pile of mutilated corpses a man emerged with a sack on his back.
"Phew. I thought I was a goner for a second but I lived."
It was none other than Harvey Haydie.
Before he took a couple of steps a trident pierced his thigh. It was so fast Harvey did not even have time to react.
"AAAAH!" Harvey dropped his sack and fell to the floor.
Dei emerged from the water after sensing someone was alive. Dei and the rest of the fishmen returned to the island.
"Hmm… you're not him either." Dei was disappointed. He thought that perhaps Sky was hiding in the island, and he faked to return home to lure him out.
"Please, don't kill me! I have a wife, and two daughters who are waiting for me!" Harvey pleaded for his life. Most of the fishmen are on his level, while Dei was stronger than him.
"You have a family? So did we." Dei said before piercing Harvey's face with his trident.
"Either our killer was here but we already killed him, or he was never here, or he somehow managed to escape but I don't see how that's possible without a ship."
One of the fishmen looked away. It was the same fishmen who pierced Sky with his harpoon. He didn't want to say how he let a young man escape because even he doesn't believe it. If he does say something how was he going to explain it to a bunch of fishmen who are bloodthirsty and angry as he is?
Teleportation does exist but people in the Land of the Free should not have such an ability.
In the end it was best if he did not say anything lest he wanted to incur the wrath of his kin.
"Let's go."
A few hours later…
Sky focused on nothing else but to raise his wind manipulation ability. When he did run out of mana he would rest and wait patiently for his mana to regenerate. Sky had two passive skills that let him increase his mana regen by 200%.
With the new sword in hand he could increase his mana regen by 50% plus an additional 300 mana was great. Not only that but the increase in mana attack actually improved his wind's performance by very little.
Sky already had a passive ability that increases his mana damage by 30% but he forgot he had it because he did not use mana based attacks. The ice trident, and many abilities of his did not count as mana attacks.
Out of all his abilities Sky had only four abilities count as mana attacks: water slice, pyrokinesis, wind manipulation, and telekinesis.
Lightning eagles count more as summons. Ice trident was a conjuration ability. Arc slash is a strength and dex ability.
"Mana grace!"
{Increased and recovered mana by 20%}
{Skill level up}
{Wind manipulation: lvl 2 → lvl 3}
{Skill level up}
{Mana grace: lvl 2 → lvl 3: increase and recover max mana by 30%}
Sky did not rest until he maxed out this ability of his.
Later…
Approximately ten hours later right when the Warlord's quest time limit would end something happened.
Four majestic battleships arrived at the Warlord's island, they all had the Caribbean symbol on their flags.
One man wore a different uniform from the rest of the Caribbean men. His uniform was red, with red fur, wore a black hat that a typical pirate would wear. He had the appearance of a 40 year old, he looked dirty, serious, and had a thick mustache and beard.
On his shoulder there was a badge of four tidal waves. Some of his men had three tidal waves which signify their rank, power, and authority in the Caribbean.
Anyone would mistake his appearance to that of a pirate, but this man is one of the Caribbean's most trusted members.
"What the hell happened here?" He was shocked to see the island was destroyed and everyone had been massacred.
The reason they could see it is because the fishmen tore down a large piece of wall thinking humans were hiding inside the walls, they were right.
Many of his men aboard the ships were horrified. So many people were dead, it was like the aftermath of war where the innocents got caught up in the chaos.
He grabbed a rotary phone from the ship and called someone with it.
"HQ we have a problem here."
"What?" A woman's voice came from the phone.
"The island is destroyed. The chances of Larry P. Head, Victor Manson, and Harvey Haydie being dead are pretty high. Just to let you know ahead of time."
"Can you tell me what you see?"
"It's a massacre. Civilians are dead, the numbers are in the hundreds. I see many pieces of ship debris floating everywhere. Everything here is destroyed."
"First identify Harvey Haydie as he is your main priority. Victor Manson and Larry P. Head are second priority. We need to find that purple scroll."
"Aye. Everyone on the island! Identify the criminals if they're here. And if you find any survivors, heal them."
The man was in his ship one second then he appeared on the island in an instant without touching the water. Many would think it was teleportation, but he was just so fast.
He squinted his eyes. Many corpses were in such a bad state it was nearly difficult to tell what they looked like.
"Judging from the wounds and the destruction, they were done in by fishmen although it's hard to tell how many attacked. Hey, Steven, remind me, did we get a report about fishmen? I think I recalled something like that a few days ago."
"Yes, sir. There have been many reports of a fishmen going around killing people and destroying islands."
"Hmm… Fishmen aren't wild beasts, they're intelligent beings like us. So they must be doing this for some reason, but why?"
"Sir! Come here!" A young man signaled to the man.
The man inspected a corpse who had his thigh and face pierced by a trident.
"Is this him, sir?"
"It's a bit difficult to tell with all the blood and holes on his face but this does look like Harvey Haydie." The man inspected the bag beside Harvey.
"A bunch of money, and a bunch of red-grade items but no purple scroll. Bring his body for examination, I want to be sure this is Harvey and not a look-alike."
"Yes, sir!"
The man made it back to the ship to talk to HQ again.
"HQ we might have another problem."
"What?"
"I am 90% certain we found Harvey's corpse although it's a little difficult to tell in its state, but we are bringing his body to see if it is him."
"And the purple scroll?"
"It's not with him. But I did find a lead, a bunch of fishmen killed Harvey. Most likely they took the scroll with them. That is if Harvey didn't use the scroll for himself already."
"We need to be certain before we come to conclusions. Treat this as if the purple scroll is still out there. Find the fishmen, I trust they won't be a problem for you?"
"Nah, as long as they're not part of the Abyss family I can take them on even underwater. And judging by the amount of destruction they caused, they won't pose a threat to even my men. Except for Bruno."
"What was that, sir?" Bruno thought he heard his name.
"Good. We hope to hear good news from you soon."
The man simply dropped the phone and laughed a bit. It was funny to him how they thought the purple scroll could still be recovered, when it was obvious that the purple scroll is long gone. Nonetheless orders are orders.
He suspects Harvey activated the scroll and attained its abilities. And if it was him then the purple scroll is long gone because Harvey was already dead.
Harvey was weak, but had an annoying ability that made him difficult for others to locate, shadow sneak. Unless one had great perception abilities they would not be able to find him. Harvey also did well to cover his tracks and hid from everybody until he was recently spotted in the Land of the Free.
"Looks like I'm not leaving this place any time soon."
Meanwhile…
The sun was about to set. He was recovering his mana after it nearly reached zero multiple times today. The time to reach his parents did decrease by an hour, meaning he was making progress which meant if he continues to practice the wind manipulation ability he can make it home earlier than anticipated.
*Bang*
Just then he heard Jericho open the sliding door very angrily. Her eyes were red. She had been crying all day until she cried herself to sleep.
"Hey, I made you some food if you're hungry." Sky said.
However, Jericho walked up to Sky still angry. And she planted her face on his chest and started to cry again.
"Why? Why doesn't my father love me? What did I do wrong? Why doesn't he care about me?" Jericho pounded her fists on Sky's chest which did next to no damage.
Sky remembered one time he cried like her. Sky has always wanted a friend but was always alone. During school he was a loner. Everytime he asked someone to hang out they would not want to hang out with him. Some did hang out with him, but later they would ignore Sky for reasons Sky didn't understand yet.
At the time Sky was no older than six years. And he hasn't made a single friend his age in his 17 years. He would be lying if he said he wasn't affected by it. But thankfully he had loving parents, and an aunt and uncle who cared for him despite them not being related to him.
Sky was six years old when he invited the whole class to his 7th birthday party. No one showed up despite everyone saying "yes" to his invitation. Something like that would deeply affect a kid.
He remembered what his mother and father said and did to him on that day.
Sky held Jericho in a tight hug and repeated the same words his parents told him, "It's okay. It is not your fault. You did nothing wrong. I'm here for you. You don't need him, and he doesn't deserve you."
Hearing those words Jericho began bawling her eyes out again. She couldn't even form a proper sentence anymore.
"It's okay to cry. Just let it all out."
This were the words spoken to him when he cried as well.
Ever since that day when he was six Sky did not have hope anymore to make a friend. He did try but always knew it wasn't meant to be. Since then he found solitude peaceful, quiet, and liberating.
Sky did not know how long Jericho was crying for, but he could feel something cold in his shoulder and chest. She stopped crying after she fell asleep while crying in his embrace.
'Poor girl.'
Sky gently carried her and laid her in bed while tucking her in. He did feel bad for her. She was a kid who found out her father did not love her, that would break anyone.
As he was about to leave her alone Jericho held onto his hand.
"Dad?"
Sky turned and Jericho was still asleep, she was talking in her sleep, He smiled weakly before sitting on the floor while Jericho continued holding onto his hand. She had done a lot for him, he felt he had to repay her for what she did for him.
"Where are you going? Don't leave me again." Jericho looked sad in her dream.
"I'm here. It's okay."
Jericho held onto his hand tightly and did not let go.
Sky could only sit there and stay with her.
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