As the day had come and gone, and with each of us heading out to fulfill our duties, nightfall had come, and we all decided to sleep, as we were sure we wouldn't be getting much in these incoming days. However, as I drifted through and across consciousness, I heard a rustling sound in the bush nearby. Take note that your uncle and I had to camp out since we were headed towards the Mythril mine your uncle told me about. So, hearing a rustling sound in the middle of the woods isn't really a comfortable position to be in before sleeping. I grabbed my sword, which I named Edamame for its slight green tone, and went towards the noise. I shouted a command, "Out! If you know what's good for you, that is!" No response. Not wanting to trigger a trap of sorts, I slashed whatever was in front of me. And what do you know, a Pirate bookie who'd lost a bet and had to capture us fell on the ground with a wee stain on his pants. Apparently, I missed his family jewels by just a sliver. Had I moved forward a little more, he'd end up like the leader of Nax a few years back, having only one of 2 family jewels. He surrendered himself to us, begging us not to take his life away. He said he had a bounty on his head, and if we turned him in, we'd be paid a fair amount of cash. The yelling of this mystery pirate woke your uncle, and he asked me, "What in the tarnation is going on here, boy?" I let out a chuckle, noting how he hasn't changed a bit since we were students, and explained everything to him.
He looked at me, then to the bookie, and back to me once more. He laughed and said, "Well, isn't this just nice? We have a guy to slave around." I laughed a bit as the guy looked terrified at what we'd do to him. Your uncle spoke up once more, "Don't be scared. We're just gonna make ya help us mine some Mythril. We'll feed you the same bread that we eat, quench your thirst with the same water we drink. After all, you're still but a human like me and my captain-o-captain over here." I gently punched his shoulder and mocked him for his "captain-o-captain" remark. The bookie looked calm, relieved even, after hearing that. We tied him to a tree overnight so he wouldn't run off while we rested.
As I once more drifted through and across consciousness, I heard a voice speak to me. It was the soothing voice of an older woman who introduced herself as the Goddess of Justice. She warned me about the impending danger we would have to face a few days from now. She warned that the leader of these pirates was no ordinary captain; he had gotten his hands on an ancient relic called the "All-Seeing Ring of Donia." She explained to me that a fallen god had given certain people he saw as fit candidates to cause havoc, relics from an ancient time before ours, hinting that there were many more. The goddess confirmed my speculation; there were indeed more loose relics of time, as I called it, and those relics were in the hands of evildoers. The goddess asked me to bring her back the relics; in exchange, she'd bless our crew with a different ability buff each time. For the first relic, she promised me to bless us with great swiftness to capture as many foes as possible. As a prison ship manager, this brought but a smile to my face. Without a second thought, I agreed. The goddess also promised to pay me. I don't know how that would work though; she's a goddess, after all, in a divine plane and all that. But we figured something out eventually.
And as the warm morning sun rose to greet all of the divine's creations with a warm blanket of comfort, I woke up, thinking it was a dream that changed. However, when I felt something in my pocket – a ring and a note – that said as follows: "My dear believer, I bless you with 'The Ring of Scales,' my own personal relic. Take this and use it to protect those whom you feel need help. Be a beacon of hope in this world of cruelty and curses. I bless you with my protection. I shall watch your career with high hopes." It was then that I came to realize it wasn't a dream; it was a vision and an actual conversation with the goddess of justice. She was wearing nothing but a cloth robe that barely covered her chest. As I turned red, I collected myself and snapped back on track. I woke up your uncle and gave him a ring, telling him about the vision I had, saying that the rings came from the goddess herself as a gift to us, the founding members. We got ready to move on to the mines as we woke up our new friend. Uh, we don't know his name, but he's a pirate prick that we're eventually going to turn in for a big bag of gold.