sanquin

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

Ceres almost fell out of her hammock when a bell started to sound quite loudly. It was still pretty early, but apparently the captain figured it was time to wake up. She grumbled a little, deciding she might as well get out now that she was awake. And what better way to start the day than with cup of rum. That wasn't her only job though. As the ship's cook she would have to start making dinner right away. She was used to getting up early and doing so, just not after a few hours of night watch... Still feeling a little groggy the woman started on breakfast. This morning would be something really simple. Bread with cheese or ham, leftover potatoes from the previous day, fruit, and a tankard of either ale or water. Normally things would be a lot more fancy, but she didn't have the time or the energy right then to do so.

After about half an hour the woman emerged from the kitchen, holding two large and one small plate with food on them. She put the large ones down in the middle of the deck. "Come and get your breakfast!" She shouted simply, before walking over to the captain with the smaller plate. She had of course picked out the best parts for him, hoping that he wouldn't just inhale in like last time. Everyone liked at least a little appreciation for their work. "So what now captain. We going ashore? Anything in particular we should be doing there?" She asked, still sounding a bit groggy. "

Elder Tale. (Sanquin / EveIris)

"Hmm, I have pulled all-nighters plenty of times before..." Alakai mused, then nodded. "We'll go with that plan then. Two birds with one stone. Or rather, two things in one day." Kali then mentioned needing lights. And indeed, they could use at least one lantern before going into the night. When this was just a game, lights weren't much needed. Day or night, the player would always be able to see enough. But there was no brightness option now. So they would have to do with actual light sources. "Selling your old staff is a good plan either way. But don't worry about the money. I still have just under 300 gold left from when this was a game. So I'll buy the lantern. I knew spending that bit of extra time to farm for a bit of extra gold would pay off. I didn't think it would pay off in this way, but still."

For the first drink, Alakai didn't notice anything different. And it tasted just like water, so it didn't exactly feel like he was drinking alcohol right now. Though once he was half-way through his second bottle of mead his head started to swim just a little bit. "H-huh...I...think I'm starting to get tipsy? Kinda strange that this stuff works, since it tastes like water." He mused, taking another sip. He was luckily no stranger to alcohol. So he could probably drink two or three bottles more before actually becoming drunk. Though he wasn't willing to go that far. Mostly because he didn't want to deal with a hangover if they were going to travel and fight somewhere during the next morning

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

"I'll take the first shift then." Ceres replied. She didn't feel like having to wake up in the middle of the night, so might as well get it done as soon as possible. 2 hours should be easy enough to bridge since there was still plenty of booze to entertain her during that time. Not only that, but it was a good moment to spend on her physical training as well. Something she had only now decided she should do. For now her devil fruit abilities made her pretty much immortal if she saw the attack coming. But if life had taught her anything by now, it was that you shouldn't rely on just your weapon. No matter how powerful, it always had a weakness.

So as everyone headed to their hammocks, Ceres instead brought a bottle of rum and a 40 pound bag of some kind spice to top deck, deciding that it was a good starting weight for someone that hadn't done any strength training before, apart from the usual 'training' you got while being in the crew of a ship. Then, during her two hour shift she alternated between bench-pressing the bag and taking a break with the bottle of rum. Once her shift was over everything was put back where it belonged. Ceres then went into the kitchen, crawled into her hammock, and quickly passed out.

Elder Tale. (Sanquin / EveIris)

Once they sat down Alakai started explaining his plans for when they woke up. "So, I was thinking we should go to the lake up north. It's around level 15 to 18 there. Two small area's for level 20 which we can avoid at first. We can hopefully do some quests for a goblin camp there, or head to a partially submerged cave system. Lastly we could go deeper into the forest. I don't know the exact location, but there's an area with level 17 to 19 corrupted ents that drop a good amount of early crafting materials and about 15 to 30 gold each. What do you think?"

He wasn't entirely sure which one he preferred. At the lake they could rest with a nice view on the shore, and the area gave better exp because of the quests. But the ents dropped silk and enchanted leaves for Kali's tailoring, and tree sap and berries for his cooking skill. Training their professions would help them in the future with faster leveling. Or they could first become higher level, then return to the ents to farm them far more quickly.

Elder Tale. (Sanquin / EveIris)

Alakai gulped, but then slowly nodded. She was fine with sleeping in the same room, so he was too. What kind of guy would refuse something like this, after all? "O-of course I wouldn't do anything..." He mumbled softly, still not sure how to think about the whole situation. Though the subject was then quickly changed to their items. They had spider legs to sell. Not worth much. Only 1 gold each. But it would at least cover their stay at the inn for the night. "That sounds good. We probably can't get a better price for the legs anyway. The other items we can sell in better places though. The silk we could sell at the tailor, for instance. Or we could save them for you to make something."

Once the exchange was made Alakai ordered himself a bottle of mead. He had never really liked beer or wine. But the taste of honey in mead was great. Then again, the drinks didn't have any taste. Just like drinking water. So it didn't really matter what he ordered. "Let's have a few drinks first. We can go over what we'll be doing after resting in the mean time. As right now, we probably have three different area's we could visit. Two of them being close together." He knew of a goblin camp close to the lake to the north in the mountains. The enemies there were stronger than the goblin scouts they had encountered earlier in the forest. Between level 15 and 18. So around their level. Which meant they could farm them for a while with ease. Plus in the game there were several quests for the area as well. Two involving the goblin camp itself. So with a bit of luck he could get to level 20, and Kali to level 18 at the very least. Maybe more if they worked on it for most of the day. And then there was a partially submerged cave on another side of the lake which could give good loot and also had a quest or two. And once he was level 23 they could go to the beach town of Buka to the west or travel even further. As the places to go grew exponentially after level 20 to 22.

Elder Tale. (Sanquin / EveIris)

Kali was the one to step to the innkeeper. The Inn was actually pretty busy. Not a surprise, as apparently most players were too confused or afraid to go outside and see what this whole 'waking up in another world' thing was about. Alakai was thinking about other things though. Like where to go next, after they had rested. First they had to sell items of course. But considering how he wasn't soloing, what was the best place to level up? He was brought back to the matters at hand when Kali asked him about the rooms. His eyes widened a little, and his face quickly coloured red as her question sunk in. "E-erm...sleeping in the same room? Well...er...i-if you're fine with it. I mean...we're still practically strangers... Definitely drinks first though." If they were going to sleep in same room Alakai wasn't sure if he could even fall asleep. He had never had a girlfriend, let alone a girl sleeping in the same room as him.

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

Ah...I can understand that. Thing is, the world is...a lot more dangerous for pirates now. The navy hugely stepped up their game and started actively hunting down pirates for a long time. They got better ships, stronger soldiers, etc. Yet it still took them about half a year to catch the Simurgh. That's how I see it. But if you don't agree I can change some things. :)

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

Hey if you don't agree please say so! :P

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

So, here's what I came up with. See if you agree or not:

The musician in the pirate bar is the guy Octavius is looking for. He informs the captain that the Simurgh was destroyed by the navy, and that he's the only one still alive as far as he knows. So they have to find a new navigator, as the one Octavius was looking for is either dead, or can't be found.

This way I can throw in the navigator woman I planned a bit later. Plus, I don't like just going from ship to ship to destroy them so Octavius can get his old crew back. Sounds so...standard. ^^;; I'd rather have at least one person be a chance encounter during their travels.

The great pirate era. (Sanquin/Sarpedon)

It took them until the next evening before the island Ceres had been sailing them towards came into view. The problem was that they couldn't just sail up and dock like normal sailors could. This island was more closely guarded than the last one they had visited, and pretty much every ship was checked for pirates. For pirates there was a different place to go ashore. A small lake in the forest, which was connected to the sea through a river. Ceres had heard of it, though hadn't seen it herself yet. So she started steering the ship around the island, which took considerable time since it was one of the larger islands in this sea. But eventually, when it was already dark, the river was finally spotted. Another few minutes of careful sailing while keeping all lights off, and they finally arrived. Two more ships had dropped anchor near the lake's beaches, though neither looked of any importance at the moment. And it was better to not try and steal from other pirate ships here either, since there was a kind of code on the island. Pirates had to keep a low profile, so they had to leave each other alone. If someone broke that rule, they would quickly have several ships against them if lucky. If not so lucky, the marines would join in too.

On the shore, hidden between the trees, there were a few small makeshift buildings and some small docks for row boats. The lights were fairly dimmed in each, and there were some people outside. Everything was peaceful, apart from a very faint sound of music coming from one of the buildings. "Sounds like they have a bar ashore, cap'n." Ceres spoke as she steered the ship towards a secluded spot on the water. "So what's the plan now? Wait for daybreak?" There wasn't much you could do in the pitch-black of night anyway. They could find the actual town tomorrow morning, after some proper rest. Something they hadn't really had since two days ago.