Dirk awoke to a sudden thud on his stomach, he opened his eyes just in time to see a giant black boot connecting with his torso again, making him flinch. His eyes began to water at the pain as he moaned and pressed his hands to his body, but then he noticed that there was no pain at all.
"Good, you finally came to huh?" A voice said, towering over dirk.
Looking up to see who was assaulting him, Dirk found himself in the company of Mr. Barton's first mate, Shortstack. Despite the ridiculous name given by his peers, Shortstack was quite the physical specimen. He was a mountain of muscle, with what amounted to tree trunks for limbs, that added to his domineering aura made him a formidable sight. In terms of height, Shortstack was well over eight feet tall (243 cm) which meant he had to slouch in almost every room on the ship.
"Well Dirt, since you've joined our crew we only felt it was right to give you a little welcome aboard gift. You see, while we may be orcs and we may be violent, this ship runs on a few codes that we live by. One respects all, and in turn all will respect one, do you understand that?" Shortstack paused for a reply.
"How can I respect a bunch of bastards who follow a pile of crap like Barton?" Dirk said, glaring at Shortstack with a bit of hate in his eyes.
Without warning another boot made contact with Dirks stomach, sending him flying several feet before slamming into a wall.
"Don't mistake my tolerance for kindness, boy." Shortstack hissed.
"Anyway, the rules stand true, respect us and eventually we will come to respect you in turn. As for the gift we've given you, take a look at your left hand there." Shortstack said grinning ear to ear in anticipation.
Dirk looked to his left hand and in horror what greeted him was a giant metal sphere. At the base of the sphere where his arm started was melted flesh, for one reason or another it didn't hurt at all.
"Do you like it, its a cannon ball from the ship's armory. We used Wendell's ability to permanently attach it to you, meaning that you will always have that even if you manage to escape. I apologize for the burnt flesh surrounding it, we first attempted to weld the ball to you but it didn't take. In any case what's done is done, and I am sure Geoffrey is growing tired of using his ability to keep you from feeling the pain in your body so that we could have this chat." With that, Shortstack signaled an orc in the corner of the room with his hand in a stopping motion.
All at once Dirk was hit by overwhelming pain in his arm and stomach, a stream of vomit left him right before he lost consciousness once again.
"Once he wakes up get him started on the duties he's been assigned." Shortstack commanded the Orc named Wendell before ducking under the door frame and heading back up towards the top deck.
...….
"System, show me my stats." A certain fish boy said aloud after waking up from yet another body transformation. He now resembled a boy of about twelve years old.
Name: Caspian Munro Lvl 5
Title- Captain of the Aurora's Crown
Essence- 3,587
HP- 50/50
MP- 75/75
Strength- 40/50
Agility- 40/50
Intelligence- 40/50
Skills- Venom Spike/Shot, Lightning Breath
Spells- none
Status Points- 0
1 Status point costs 8,000 essence
"Wow, my MP is really climbing, which means I can use my skills more frequently." Caspian said. For some reason, when he leveled up his MP shot up by 25 points. Also, a brand new category called spells showed up, it appeared as if the system was about to open him up to the magical side of this world. He began to take stock of his newly upgraded body, he was taller now but still lacked a muscular build, making him look meek. He stood up and felt strength rush through his body like the first transformation but more intense. In addition to height, he noticed that his tail was no longer present, like somehow he had outgrown it. The fin on the top of his head had grown a bit larger than before, it reminded him of a Mohawk with scales.
Caspian looked around his cavern with distaste, in the few weeks since he had claimed this spot as his own, he had hunted the almost all of the aquatic life. This made extracting essence a bit of a challenge since without living creatures there was no essence to extract. This meant that he would have to venture out further to gain more essence and get stronger. Fortunately this was the plan after reaching level 5 anyway. It was now time for him to make his way to the surface world and acquire the materials needed to get his ship onto the waves and begin his ascent to power.
After equipping the Boots of the Whispering Winds, the Ring of Transformation, and the Chest Piece of Slumbering Fears, Caspian decided that he had to say goodbye to his inheritance for a while. Since growing to level 5, the Inventory space had doubled to from 15 spaces to 30. This meant that it could now hold all of his riches and weapons and then some, not that it really mattered as the only things going were the jewels, weapons and compass. The emerald tree bark was way to rare to bring anywhere, if someone were to sense it even in his inventory he would be wanted by everyone. The safest place for it for now was at the bottom of the ocean, hidden away for just a bit longer.
As he was exiting the cavern, Caspian made sure to block the entrance as he did not want to come back to any beasts lurking in his new home base. He knew it may be a little while before he saw his inheritance again but he would be beck stronger, wealthier and more worthy of his title of captain.