{Boss felled}
Sky alone stood on top of the giant alligator feeling satisfied after sacrificing it.
{Received 105 dex}
"I can never seem to get its highest stat which is its vigor. Shame." Sky sighed as using sacrificial ritual rarely ever gives him the one stat he needs from each boss monster he kills.
Still, he liked to see his stats grow.
{Sky Rouge}
{Level 204}
{HP: 59,390/59,390}
{Mana 29,705/29,705
{Str: 5,744 Dex: 3,355 Spd: 2355 Int: 3,511 Mind: 2,000 Vig: 2,367}
"Madame did say I would be the strongest in the Land of the Dead within a year's time and I am starting to believe her. Still… to go to the Land of the Gods is a bit… too much for me."
This has been bothering Sky for a while now, what reason is there to go to the Land of the Gods? If Sky had to choose he'd pick his old normal life where he helped out with his parent's store, and practice music as a hobby.
Judging from what he knows about purple scrolls and Madame's age he can safely say that the people who live there are beyond anything he could imagine. Going to the Land of the Gods was too risky.
"I do have the choice to reject her and stay here, but I wonder why she really wants me to go there? I know this system is amazing but I imagine they must have something similar? I don't know."
Sky dropped down from the crocodile's head and opened the chest after it appeared when he killed the boss.
{Received: 240,000 shells, 1x red scroll}
{Shells: 335m}
Sky would soon leave the dungeon and reach his ship. They would once again leave the dungeon and head straight to the next one without break.
"Captain, everything alright? You seem… down." Jay asked.
"No, I'm fine, I'm just… thinking is all."
Sky's voice was still high pitched but nobody said anything about it, it stopped being funny after the first hour.
Looking at the map there is the part where Madame circled. If he was right she was most likely going to give him more purple scrolls.
Sky sighed…
If he did take her purple scrolls he would really have to listen to her. If he simply took the scrolls and didn't comply with her demands it would be bad for him.
Like Madame said, there are others from the Land of the Gods who could sense him when he evolves a skill and she was protecting him from them, at least that is what she says but he has no way to know if that is true.
Not to mention Madame knew him, he knows his crew, his abilities, his weakness, his loved ones, and she can seemingly possess anyone she wants to and there is nothing he can do about it.
'I hate being weak. I hate it so much.'
Sky realizes no matter how many people or monsters he sacrifices to grow his stats, no matter how many scrolls he consumes, no matter how many abilities he evolves he just cannot compare to the people in the Land of the Gods.
The fact that Madame gave him all the known curse abilities from the purple scrolls without asking for much told him that purple scrolls aren't that valuable to them, whereas here everyone deems those scrolls as extremely valuable and powerful, Sky thought the same because it's the best they had.
'Well… there is nothing I can do here. There are still others who are beyond strong. However…' Sky looked at his crew.
He saw Jericho and Jay arguing about something, Jules was swimming with her new megalodon summon on the side of the ship, the three slaves were busy cleaning the ship.
'No matter what they're with me now, Jules is here by force haha…'
Sky walked over to Jericho and Jay.
"I'm telling you cereal IS a soup! What's so hard to understand?" Jericho said.
"And I am telling you it isn't! That doesn't make sense!"
"It does! I eat cereal like I do with any other soup therefore it is a soup!"
"Guys, calm down." Sky walked beside them. They were just bitterly arguing against each other out of boredom.
"Sky, Jay said that-"
"Jericho set course to Marjack." Sky interrupted her.
Jericho and Jay looked at Sky, stunned.
"I can see my family?" Jericho asked happily.
"I can see Katelyn soon?" Jay asked happily.
"I know I said we wouldn't go to see your family, Jericho, until we got stronger, but what the heck?"
"But the Caribbean… isn't that still a problem? That's the main reason you didn't want to go."
"It is… but are we supposed to wait for god knows how long until you guys see the ones you love?"
"Well…"
"But there is a chance we will get recognized so just keep your heads down and don't cause a scene. It's not like we're wanted criminals or anything."
"Okay, Captain." Jay had no problem with this.
"Thanks, Sky." Jericho was seemingly happy to see her family again.
"Captain, is there something wrong?" Jay asked, concerned all of a sudden.
"Why would you ask that?"
"Because there is no way you suddenly thought it was a good idea to stop clearing dungeons all of a sudden. Did something happen? Something bad?"
Sky looked at Jay and Jericho. They both saw he was hesitant to say anything.
"You got me, it's nothing bad but it will affect our lives. I don't want to say anything right now, give me a few days before I decide to make this decision. Until then just enjoy being with your loved ones."
Both Jericho and Jay knew Sky had to be experiencing something major to be like this.
"Okay, Captain, we'll give you a few days."
Jericho nodded in agreement.
"Thank you. Jay, I have a question for you, don't you wanna see your family?" Sky asked.
Jay's eyes and mouth shot up when he remembered his family, but his face just as quickly turned sour.
"It's not like I don't want to, Captain. But… she's probably still there. I do miss my parents, but I just wanna forget about her." Jay was hurt every time he spoke of his old crush.
"Oh, Abigail. Sure, buddy, take your time." Sky patted his shoulder before entering his own room.
Jericho spared not a moment to set course to Marjack and called them afterwards letting them know that she's going to see them again.
"Master, what about me?" Jules, who was overhearing their conversation, ran to Sky and couldn't help but wonder what Sky had planned for her.
Something inside her told her that Sky would just transform her into a card for the remainder of the time.
"You can either go around and swim near the island and stay there, or come with us but hide your face. Choice is yours but if you do make a scene I will turn you into a card again."
Jules nodded and took his threat very seriously. Being stuck in that limbo world for any amount of time was torture.
Sky lay down on his bed thinking… For the first time in a long time he stopped grinding levels, stats, money, and skills to just sit down and think.
Meanwhile…
Deep beneath the ocean was a small fishmen city, despite its size it could house tens of thousands of people at once. It was a beautiful underwater city that was illuminated by strange plants that lit up in the dark.
At the moment the ones living in the city were being hunted down.
Buildings were being demolished, people swimming away were being sliced, pierced, injured by entities too fast to see and too powerful to stop. Those who fought back stood no chance. Nowhere was safe, no one could escape.
One certain woman was hiding between the buildings crying and pleading to be spared. The sounds of buildings being destroyed and sounds of screaming could be heard, but as time went on the screaming became less.
"No, please! Don't kill me! I'll do whatever you want!" She walked back until she hit a wall.
In front of her another fishmen appeared holding the skull of a fly the size of his hand. The fly's eyes that were white glowed black, and soon the fishmen particles of light were being sucked out of the fishwoman, every second the fishwoman aged faster.
"Your city should've joined my dad's side. Blame yourself for still living here."
In mere moments the young fishwoman had aged significantly to that of a 90 year old lady. Her hair was white, her color was pale, her skin was flabby.
She looked at her hands, unable to understand what had just happened. Soon she would die on the spot due to old age.
The fishmen holding the skull of a fly swam to another location to find his next victim.
Soon the entire city was demolished. There was no one alive except for seven powerful individuals. They all met up in the center of the city, there was already a single fishmen collecting rubble and making a throne out of it.
He was their leader, the Warlord. With them were two other familiar faces, Balthazor and Juvia.
"Father!" A young fishman that had similar physical appearances to the Warlord swam up to give him the fly skull.
Everyone else did the same as they all had giant skull flies.
"How are the scrolls?" The Warlord asked with a grin on his face. After completing his throne he sat down feeling relieved.
"Amazing! Using time manipulation is so much fun, even if I cannot use it like Uncle Belthazor." The Warlord's son said happily.
"Sebastian, get my name right for fuck sakes! It's Balthazor, not Belthazor."
"I don't hear a difference." Another young fishwoman said.
"You're all idiots, especially you, Yok."
"Me?"
"I just hope this is finally over. I don't mind the killing of our own kind but it gets so boring so fast." Juvia added.
"How am I an idiot? If anything Xiv is the idiot!"
"But I didn't say anything…"
"Stop, hopefully with this our deal with him is complete." The Warlord said.
The same light particles that were sucked out of the fishwoman were being forced out of the flies' skulls into an ordinary human skull.
"Father, how do you know when it's complete?" Xiv said.
"I don't know exactly but he said once this skull transforms the debt will have been paid off."
Just that moment the human skull suddenly sprung out two demon horns from its head.
"Like that?" Yok asked.
"I think so." The Warlord wasn't entirely sure either.
Just then the skull's eyes glowed red and it started moving by itself. This is the first time, besides the Warlord, has seen it move on its own.
"Ahahahaha! Warlord you paid off your debt quite early! For that you will have your other half of the payment."
Just then he spat out more purple scrolls from its mouth. The number of scrolls floating in the water was around 25-30. Quickly everyone grabbed a scroll thinking they would be destroyed by the water, even purple scrolls were not indestructible they were still made of paper.
"Relax… those scrolls are waterproof, even though the water pressure can't damage them either, they're still fragile." The Warlord had the exact same reaction the first time the skull spat out purple scrolls.
"Now your debt has been repaid, my master will be pleased."
"Thank you… I never got your name."
"I am my master's soldier. I have no identity but that… but if I had a chance to properly introduce myself I would have to bring my violin and siiiiiiiing~" He said in a singing tone.
Before he could say anything he noticed something weird on Balthazor.
"You…" The skull quickly moved in front of Balthazor. The skull's speed was impressive and no one saw him move, it was as if he had teleported but he didn't, that's how fast it was.
"Strange… you are cursed."
"Yeah, I noticed!" Balthazor said grumpily. Sky had cursed him with the curse of sloth and his speed has been severely reduced.
Normally they all carried protective items meant to protect them from curses, poisons, and physical damage, they even have items meant to dispel powerful curses. But nothing has been able to rid of the powerful sloth curse placed on him.
"No, this curse is powerful and has evolved."
"Yeah, I realized that, too. The items for dispelling evolved curses can rarely be found in purple portals. This is fucking annoying."
Seeing evolved spells in the Land of the Dead or even in the Land of the Free was rare but not unheard of.
"I know that, but even so I rarely see this kind of high level curse even in the Land of… the Gods."
The Warlord and the skull realized something important, there is a chance that the curse came from the one they were looking for, the one who made contact with someone from the Land of the Gods.
The skull turned to the Warlord.
"It seems like a stretch but worth checking out, don't you agree?"
"Well you already paid us half, but is there any point anymore if we have already completed our deal? The only reason you paid me to find this person is because you feared it'll interfere with your master, but that's not a problem anymore."
"Oh but there is a reason, anyone from the Land of the Gods who is willing to make contact with an individual from here must mean he needs something, I don't know what but it could potentially be a threat to my master. Find and kill the person and we will pay the other half." The Skull said.
Hearing this everyone smiled. They just needed to find and kill someone and they'll get paid in even more scrolls? That was a great deal for them.
"How do we know when we find this person? All we know is that he might or might not be the one who cursed Uncle Belthazor." Sebastian raised his hand.
"OhMyGodThatIsNotMyFuckingName!" Balthazor said rapidly under his breath.
"Hmm… beats me, but good luck. If you kill the wrong person and claim it's the right person, we will know, and we will pay you less or not at all for trying to trick us."
The skull's red eyes disappeared and it stopped talking and moving.
"Huh… So what now?"
"First I read the purple scrolls we got. Then we find this person who cursed Belthazor and kill him, even if he isn't the one we're looking for, at least Balthazor will be free from this powerful curse."
"You got my name right and wrong in the same sentence…"
"Yeah, I know."
"Dad, what about the government and the Caribbean?"
"We'll as we've always done, kill them, and run away when necessary, speaking of which…" The Warlord looked at an entire army of Fishmen swimming towards them equipped with weapons.
"I am betting a hundred thousand shells that they're here for us." Juvia said as she lazily got her trident.
"Dang, they even got some mermaids with them." Sebastian seemed eager.
"Government mermaids." Balthazor said.
"Are we so evil that even the mermaids want to kill us as well?" Yok said, a bit surprised and amazed.
"I mean… we did destroy one of their small villages a week ago." Xiv said.
"Huh, I forgot about that. Neat."
The Warlord sighed as he grabbed his harpoon and stood in front of the family.
"Let's do this." The Warlord said.
"With pleasure." Balthazor said with an evil grin in his face.
Many didn't know it but for a while that part of the sea turned red.
One day later…
A grand and majestic boat docked in the island of Marjack. Seeing large ships was a rare sight to behold but not rare enough to warrant much attention from others.
Four individuals stepped down from the boat, two of which seemed eager and ran off.
"You know, Jules, I thought you would pick to stay in the ocean instead of here since you're a mermaid." Sky said with his voice had just returned to normal. He smiled when he saw Jay and Jericho run to their loved ones.
"We're going to stay here for a couple of days, I'd rather sleep on a bed than on a rock in the ocean, have warm meals instead of raw fish." Jules said.
"Fair enough." Sky couldn't argue with her logic.
As they continued leisurely walking together Jules stared at Sky. Feeling her gaze, Sky asked, "What is it?"
"Well I was wondering… you're growing stronger fast and I think you're already stronger than me. So don't want to get the Nightmare sword?"
"Does it look like I need it anymore? Especially when it's a weapon that can curse me or something?" Sky spread his hands a little bit.
Jules thought how right Sky was. The Nightmare sword can make the one who wields it stronger the more he kills, but in return they seemingly lose their minds.
Sky however already has a similar ability already so there is no need for the sword, not that he ever wanted it in the first place.
"Another question, how did you resist my singing? No man can resist my singing." Jules has been meaning to ask this question herself.
Even if he is her master he would still have been tempted by her singing. In fact many slave owners of mermaids prohibit them from singing, even going as far as cutting out their tongues.
Sky looked at her. She was trying to get as much information from him as possible. Sky took out a ring from his inventory, it was a crappy ring, as that is its literal name that only gives him 1+ intelligence when wearing it.
"See this ring? This is how. It can resist all types of mental attacks including your hypnotic singing." Sky placed the ring back in his inventory after feeding her a lie he just made up on the spot.
"I see."
"You know what, Jules? I feel it's too risky for you to be here. Go to the beach, take a swim, turn to a mermaid and remain around the area hidden from any eyes at all times."
Jules' eyes widened. Sky had just agreed she could stay on the island not even five minutes ago, now he wants her to go to the ocean?
"Yes… master." Jules had no choice but to obey.
Her questioning him made him realize something important he almost forgot, Jules is not his friend or his crew member, she is a slave, if she had the chance she would kill him to free herself.
"Me and my stupidity. I can't trust her even if she is bound to me." Sky felt angry all of a sudden for thinking that Jules would be anything more.
'She is a slave, not a friend, a slave, not a friend…' Sky would repeat this himself in his head until he reached his destination.
In a short time Jules would swim down to the bottom of the ocean as she transformed into a mermaid. She stood in one place and wondered why Sky suddenly changed his mind? But felt that if it weren't for her talent he would have sacrificed her.