ICS - Chapter 105: Becoming a [Pirate]

[Upon inspection, you qualify for the hidden occupation: Pirate]

[Requirements: Strength 7, Agility 9, 4/4 seafaring survival techniques, 2/2 short-weapon-related techniques, plunder 5/5 large ships]

[Proceed with job change?]

"Confirm job change."

[Job change successful. Current occupation: Pirate]

[Attribute bonus gained: Strength +2, Agility +3]

Golden text swept across his vision.

As usual, a warm current emerged inside Roland without warning, then surged through his entire body.

However, because Roland's base Strength and Agility values were already quite high, this injection of energy did not bring a dramatic transformation.

Even so, as the warm current rushed through his blood vessels, he clearly felt his nearly exhausted stamina recovering fast.

After letting out a long breath, Roland shifted his gaze to the golden text that continued to appear before him.

[Trait gained: Wave Walking]

[Wave Walking: When this Trait is activated, you can walk across broad seas or surging waves like treading upon solid earth. Sea wind becomes your stairway, and spray becomes your path. Duration and stability depend on your Spirit attribute and sea conditions. Walking across a sea as calm as a mirror is far easier and lasts much longer than walking across storm-ravaged waves]

The words appeared clearly, and Roland's sharp gaze swept across every line.

When the full effect of [Wave Walking] entered his eyes, his breathing stopped for an instant.

Walking on water.

The meaning contained in those words unfolded in Roland's mind at once.

The ocean would no longer be an absolute obstacle.

This Trait would give him extremely high mobility when fighting on the sea.

Without using boarding boats or climbing over bulwarks, he could break directly and precisely into the weakest side or stern of an enemy ship under any sea conditions.

Most importantly...

Roland looked around at the boundless sea.

This Trait might let him escape his current predicament of being stranded in the open ocean.

"But... with my current Spirit attribute, I don't know how long I can walk on the sea. Once my mental power fully recovers, I'll test it..."

While he was thinking, another line of golden text appeared.

[Trait gained: Plunder]

"The hidden occupation [Pirate] actually has two Traits?"

Seeing the words before him, Roland was genuinely surprised.

After all, even higher occupations like [Knight Apprentice] and [Enchanter] had only given him one Trait upon job change.

While he was still considering it, the golden text unfolded.

[Plunder: When you completely defeat a hostile creature in battle, an invisible power will strip away its most precious possession for you. This trophy will certainly appear before you. It is the personal belonging the enemy values most deep within its soul, or the personal belonging of greatest exceptional value. This reward is the supreme blessing the sea grants to pirates]

Roland's gaze froze on that line. His heart seemed to be seized by an invisible hand, then began to beat violently.

Certain acquisition...

of the most precious possession...

This was not ordinary division of spoils, nor was it rummaging through corpses by luck.

It was "deprivation" at the level of law.

What did that mean?

It meant he would no longer need to search through blood and corpses while worrying that he had missed a hidden treasure.

It meant that even the most cunning enemy could not destroy or transfer away their true lifeline before death.

It meant that every time he defeated a powerful enemy, their most central, immeasurably valuable trophy would appear before him without suspense.

The only pity was...

"Is the range limited to personal belongings? Still, even so, this is an extremely powerful Trait."

Thinking of the world he lived in, a fantasy land filled with transcendent might, Roland gave a light nod.

In such a world, the most valuable treasures were often not tangible objects within reach.

Secret contracts, branded soul fragments, or arcane arts from ancient legacies...

At this thought, Roland's brow lifted.

"Then if I kill a powerful expert with transcendent strength, could I obtain the secret method that let him step into the transcendent realm?"

He temporarily cast this wildly imaginative thought aside. Seeing the golden text disperse and no longer appear, Roland felt the slight recovery of stamina within his body, exhaled deeply, and stood from the deck.

"I wonder whether Teresa and the others escaped that storm just now..."

After shaking his head, he turned his gaze toward the Pixie hovering in midair and looking into the distance.

"Tracy, do you know where we are now?"

"Sorry, Mr. Roland..."

Tracy gently shook her head. There was not much gravity on her face.

For fae creatures like Pixies, they could quickly adapt to almost any environment. That was also why they could multiply and thrive across every part of the continent.

"But judging from the direction the waves struck from just now, we should be north of Wailing Gorge."

"North?"

Although Roland often heard rumors about other countries from Galvez, his understanding of the more distant continental plates was not deep.

After weighing it for a moment, he still chose the direction he knew best.

"In other words... as long as I keep heading west, I should be able to return to the River Kingdoms."

Thinking of this, he confirmed the information about Mind Flayers with Tracy again.

When he learned that they were no different from the Mind Flayers of the D&D world in his previous life's memories, his brow furrowed deeply.

This meant the world before him was not only inhabited by powerful beings with transcendent strength, but was also occupied by those strange and unpredictable creatures from the D&D worldview.

The floating fleshy spheres and lethal gaze rays of Beholders, the ancient and twisted shapeshifting and mental domination abilities of Aboleths, even those warped beings capable of manipulating space and time...

Thinking of these mysterious and deadly monsters, Roland felt a chill run down his spine.

"It seems this world is much more dangerous than I expected."

"When I fought that Mind Flayer, if I hadn't had the Extra Buff [Steel Will], I probably would have been like Teresa and the others, instantly corroded by that invisible mental shock and stripped of combat strength. Then..."

After a light sigh, Roland began walking through the old pirate ship, searching it.

However, the waves had ravaged the cabins until they were almost empty. Worse still, he discovered multiple holes in the ship's bottom where seawater was seeping in.

If he did not act quickly, it would not be long before both he and the ship were buried beneath the sea.

Time was urgent. Roland stuffed his only gains, several bags of ale giving off a sour smell and a few pieces of salted meat, into the pouch at his waist. Then he grabbed the tools he found nearby and began cleanly dismantling the still-intact deck beneath his feet.

Relying on his rich forging experience, he used only half a day to produce a simple but sturdy small boat.

Bang!

With a muffled sound, the small boat fell into the water.

Under the cold moonlight, Roland leaped down from the pirate ship, which was already half-submerged, and landed steadily in the small boat.

After skillfully judging the direction, he chatted with the Pixie circling around him while rowing west.

Time blurred amid the sound of oars.

Day and night alternated, but the place where sea met sky remained a monotonous blue.

Just when his sense of passing time had almost vanished, a dark outline finally pierced the distant horizon.

Land.

However, above that outline was not a clear sky, but a heavy, unnatural gray-white fog.

Like an enormous shroud, it silently covered the coastline.

Roland looked at that deathly gray-white expanse, and his brow tightened.

"The Misty Lands? How is that possible..."

Looking at the scene before him, Roland gripped the oar in his hands tightly.

He recognized the outline of this coast.

Several months ago, while completing the requirements to change occupation to [Knight Apprentice], he had teamed up with Teresa and the others for an adventure and killed the monsters troubling a small fishing village here at the edge of the River Kingdoms.

Back then, sunlight had shone over this place, the sea wind carrying the smell of salt, fish, and cooking smoke. It had still been more than ten days' journey from the legendary Misty Lands.

But now, not only was it deathly still and without any sign of human habitation, the originally open coastal waters were also abruptly studded with savage reefs.

They were like black fangs stabbing up from the seabed, completely different from the scene in his memory.

"I have to go around it."

Roland's heart went cold. He had long heard of the Misty Lands' dreadful reputation, so without hesitation, he immediately turned the bow and rowed with all his strength, trying to find an area that had not been covered by the fog.

Yet everywhere his eyes could reach, whether north or south, that gray-white curtain stretched endlessly, merging with sea and sky. He could not see its end.

"If I keep sailing north along the coastline, I should be able to leave the River Kingdoms and reach the lands of other countries, but..."

Roland swallowed with difficulty, then shook his head.

The ale and dried meat he had scavenged from the pirate ship had long since run out.

That he had been able to sail such a long distance in a small boat was entirely thanks to the Trait [Hydrological Intuition] from his [Fisherman] occupation.

With it, he could catch some fish from time to time and barely fill his stomach.

However, hunger could still be relieved. Drinking water had become an unsolvable problem.

Although his current strength had already stepped into the transcendent realm, he had ultimately not broken free from the constraints of flesh and blood.

Without fresh water, death on this boundless sea was only a matter of time.

Roland did not dare guarantee that he could find safe land before he died of thirst.

As he was thinking, Tracy flickered uneasily with faint light on his shoulder and said in a low voice, "Mr. Roland, the Mana Elements in this heavy fog... seem much denser than when I left..."

Under the support of [Material Synesthesia], Roland's dissipating mental power could keenly sense the dense Mana Elements within the heavy fog.

But compared to the relatively active Mana Elements in other places, the Mana Elements in the Misty Lands were extremely concentrated, yet sank in silence like dead things. He could not hear any "whispers."

"I understand..."

After responding softly to the Pixie, his gaze locked onto the strange fog that had swallowed the fishing village.

He could not circle around it. He could not avoid it.

Ahead was an infamous land of death. Behind him was the abyss of thirst.

He licked his nearly cracked lips and drew in a hard breath of air carrying the smell of sea brine and the damp cold of fog. Resolve settled in his eyes.

The oar entered the water again. This time, he no longer tried to turn aside, but cut straight through the waves toward the coastline covered by gray-white fog.

A short while later, the jagged reefs were already close at hand.

After confirming that the small boat could not reach shore, Roland quickly tied it securely to a stable reef with hemp rope.

Looking at the beach several hundred steps away, swallowed by heavy fog, he drew a deep breath.

His mind concentrated, and [Wave Walking] activated.

The surging seawater beneath his feet instantly became a short-lived but solid path. The howling sea wind became invisible support, allowing Roland to stand steadily upon the sea surface.

However, this feeling was completely different from when he had tested the Trait on the open sea before.

The violent undercurrents among the reefs continuously tore at the power beneath his feet. Every impact made his mind heavier.

Even more alarming was the dense, deathly silent Mana Elements spreading around him. They covered the sea surface like viscous grease, making every step exceptionally sluggish, far less smooth than during his test.

Roland let out a light breath and searched for footholds among the interlocking black reefs.

Then, without hesitation, he began to move.

At times he stepped on waves to borrow force. At times he leaped onto slick rock tips, shifting and jumping between the savage "fangs."

Cold fog and seawater constantly struck him, and the obstruction brought by the deathly silent mana made every step consume a great deal.

Fortunately, Tracy on his shoulder emitted a gentle glow, greatly easing his mental power expenditure.

Even so, those few hundred steps were still exceptionally difficult.

When Roland finally leaped down from the last giant rock and planted both feet solidly on the cold beach covered in rotting algae, the power of [Wave Walking] dispersed.

The heavy fog, thicker, colder, and more rotten-smelling than it had been on the sea, immediately swallowed him.

Shing!

With a light sound, the mithril longsword left its sheath.

Roland gripped the hilt tightly and moved forward with caution.

This fishing village was very small. Originally, only a few dozen villagers had lived here.

Before long, Roland had finished scouting the surrounding environment.

After confirming there was no danger, he brought Tracy into the houses one by one and searched out several cracked clay jars filled with clean water from the corners.

The clear liquid slid into his throat, immediately easing the dizziness brought by dehydration and refreshing his mind.

"Hah..."

After drinking another jar of clean water, Roland licked the water from the corner of his mouth, let out a long breath, and let his gaze fall on the remaining containers.

"Drink sparingly. This water should last a few days. That ought to be enough for me to keep sailing north along the coastline and continue exploring..."

Thinking of this, he raised his head and looked at the somewhat dazed Pixie nearby.

"Tracy, what are your plans now?"

Ten-odd days of drifting at sea had made Roland and this tiny Pixie much more comfortable with each other.

Tracy had also recovered much of her former liveliness, adding quite a bit of life to the dull journey.

"Me?"

"Yes."

Roland nodded while carefully pouring the remaining clean water into the pouch at his waist.

"Are you planning to go deeper into the Misty Lands and return home, or leave this damn place with me?"

"I... I'll go with you, Mr. Roland."

Tracy's voice carried a little dejection. The butterfly wings behind her drooped, and their trembling became faint.

"I can't sense my companions anymore... Maybe they abandoned this homeland long ago and went somewhere else."

"In that case..."

Roland nodded. After confirming that the last drop of water had flowed into his pouch, he stood neatly and said, "Then we leave as soon as possible. This region covered in heavy fog is absolutely not a place to stay for long."

"Mm."

Tracy answered softly and beat her wings to follow Roland.

However, perhaps because the depression of losing news of her companions had left her distracted, she did not notice the abnormality in the surroundings until Roland beside her suddenly stopped.

In her unique fae sight, the originally thick, deathly gray-white fog was now seeping out wisps of deeper, more ominous shadow.

They were not physical things, but condensed coldness, twisting upward from the ground, rotten wood, and even the fog itself.

The icy touch did not come from the air.

It was countless silent screams filled with pain and resentment.

In her perception, they became a bone-piercing cold wind that stabbed directly into her soul.