Trapped in a Game Pt. 08

Jessie rubbed her chin thoughtfully, a dubious look on her face.

"This doesn't make sense. If these things do exist, then why would they even choose to take form inside of the game?"

I shrugged.

"Most of the ones I met so far seem pretty interested in learning about us... uh, humans, I mean; and manifested in the game to interact with us. I assume that the special interest in Hanamachi is no different."

"What do you think, Cap?" Jessie asked, and I snickered as the Captain materialized in the corner of the room.

"Honestly, if this was coming from just anyone, I'd dismiss it as lunacy. But you're sitting in front of an actual legend right now. Isn't that right, Mr. gloom stalker?" the woman said, and Jessie studied me with an interesting smile.

"Oh? A legend, you say?"

"Yep. This is the 'gloom stalker', unless I'm mistaken," she continued, as she headed for the window, and took a peek outside. "And out there is the 'twilight princess', the 'crimson phoenix'; not to mention that they booked this trip through 'the phantom line'."

Jessie began to laugh.

"Hnn~... but didn't these supposed 'legends' get their asses handed to them by Tsun's team? Had to get bailed out by Zephiel and the 'god squad'? You know, I even heard that you died in that fight."

"Well, what can I say? Rumors of my death have been somewhat exaggerated," I replied, and Jessie slapped her knee as she laughed.

"He even talks like he's in an action movie," Jessie exclaimed.

The woman who Jessie referred to as Captain came to the table, and leaning against it, she studied me.

"Level with me. Did you and Serra use cheat items to get ahead in the earlies?"

I shook my head.

"Tsun was the one who-"

"Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows he's been cheating. But you... there have been questions. I mean killing a Lich in week one? There's zero chance that two players could put out enough damage to even scratch him at the level."

"Yeah... not on our own, but our damage output wasn't what we used to kill him," I replied, and she tilted her head at me, her curiosity piqued.

"Don't suppose you'll tell me how you did it, then?"

"Actually, I'm not sure it even matters anymore. We brought down his lair on him," I replied.

"What? How?"

"Slice through stone," I replied, and the woman stared at me.

"That's a fucking level one spell that no-one has ever learned," she replied, and I snickered at her.

"Wasn't my idea, either. Serra was the genius. I just followed orders," I explained.

"So... this moderator friend of yours. That had nothing to do with what you two accomplished?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"We didn't even come into contact with them until after the battle of Karach," I explained, and she frowned.

"So, this story of yours... it's not bullshit? You really think you have a shot at ending this thing?"

I nodded, and the woman studied me intently, when all of a sudden, we jerked a bit, as the ship appeared to come to a quite sudden halt.

"What the fuck? Did someone just stop my ship?"

I followed the captain and Jessie as they headed outside.

"Watkins. What the fuck are you doing with my ship?" the woman called out.

"Something's wrong, Cap. My map is showing an island up ahead!"

"What? There's no island on the route I mapped. What the fuck did you do?"

"No one touched the controls. I swear!" the man replied, and she frowned, but as she made her way to the wheel, someone yelled from above us.

"There's really an island there. I can see it!" the man yelled, and the captain furrowed her brow.

"These fucking morons," she muttered under her breath. "Jessie, check the route, will ya?"

I shot a quick look at Serra, who also seemed quite concerned by what was going on.

"Uh... Cap. Either something's wrong with my map, or something's wrong in general; because the space around us is coming up blank for me."

The captain pulled up her own character interface, then furrowed her brow.

"This isn't possible," she said.

"Maybe we just sailed into unexplored territory," Jessie suggested, and the captain shook her head.

"I've sailed every bit of ocean between here, Hanamachi, and the Barrier Arch. There hasn't been a shred of unknown space on my map since the second week of this game."

She retrieved a spyglass from her inventory, and as she stared off ahead of us, I moved to her side.

"Does this kind of thing happen normally?" I asked, and she turned to study me.

"More like, never, actually."

"Do you recognize the island?" Jessie asked, and she shook her head, rubbing her chin. "So, what do we do? Sail back the way we came?"

"I'm not sure... our maps are supposed to show the port that we left, and the one's we've been to... but there's just nothing."

I pulled up my message function on my character interface, and as I tried to hail Serra, the message bounced back, and I frowned.

"Is there a communication barrier on this ship?" I asked, and the captain quickly pulled up her character interface, then sighed.

"What the fuck is going on?" she asked, and I gulped as her eyes narrowed on me.

"This moderator of yours... do they know you're coming after them?"

I shook my head.

"We were just headed there to talk to them, anyway; not to fight," I explained, and she sighed.

"They probably wouldn't need to go to this length if they wanted you dead anyway, huh?"

I nodded.

"What do we do, Cap?" Jessie asked again, and the woman sighed.

"Turn around. Our voyage, according to the map, started here," she said, pulling up a visible map interface over the ship's steering wheel.

The spot she was indicating to seemed to be where, according to the map at least, our journey spontaneously began.

As the ship began to turn, however, I shot a questioning look at the wheel, and Jessie snickered.

"It's there purely for aesthetics," she explained, and I nodded.

As we began to move, however, a call came from the bird's nest, above the ship's mast.

"Whoa! Cap, there's something over there!"

"Where?"

"Uh, starboard?"

"I don't do nautical terms, Ethan. Is it to my right or left?"

"Uh, right."

The woman started making her way to that side of the ship, when-

"No, other right!" he called, and she rolled her eyes, as she spun around and headed in the opposite direction.

As she retrieved her spyglass and began to survey the open expanse of ocean, everyone began to gather on that side of the ship.

"What did you see, Ethan?"

"An octopus... or squid? I dunno. I saw a tentacle."

"How sure are you?"

"Pretty sure. It was huge!"

"Watcha think, Cap? Could it be the Kraken?" Jessie asked.

"There's no Kraken in this sea; unless it just woke up, or we've been transported to... somewhere else."

She kept a lookout on the ocean for a bit, but as nothing showed up, she shot the man a warning glare.

"Don't let your imagination run away with you up there, Ethan," she called, and the man rubbed the back of his head.

"What do you think?" I asked Serra, as she moved to my side.

"I don't like this. We're vulnerable out here, and someone knew that and chose to strike."

"Who do you think it is? Heidegger?"

Serra shook her head.

"If Heidegger wanted to avoid us, he could just teleport away indefinitely. This might be someone who wanted to keep us away from him..."

"Luka?"

Serra bit her lip, nervously.

"From what Dieter and Sharada said, he's too busy working against the clock on merging the servers. After all; any delay to that plan gives us much better odds in the end."

She shot a glance at the captain, then sighed.

"You should stay with her. See what we can do to help. I'm gonna do some quick reading to come up with a battle plan... in case this comes down to naval combat."

We sailed until we got to the point on the map from where we'd apparently appeared, but as we got there, we found nothing but an open expanse of ocean.

"Uh... captain?" I began.

"Serene," she said, and I nodded.

"Serene. We have a wizard with dimensional shifting spells in our group. Maybe we could give that a try? Might be able to figure out if we're on another plane, or something."

She nodded.

"Let's do that."

I headed over to Serra and relayed my plan to her, and she frowned.

"I don't like it. Diego can't cast plane shift consecutively, and you have no idea what you'll find on the other side."

"How long does it take before you can cast it again?" I asked, turning to Diego.

"I haven't actually tested it, but maybe two minutes?" he suggested.

It was risky, sure... but what choice did we really have?

We were still considering the possibilities when a girl came over.

"Hi. My name is Aleisha. I heard you were looking for a wizard who can cast plane shift," the girl offered, and I nodded.

"It might be dangerous, though," I offered, and she nodded.

"It's fine. I've been running with high tiers for some time. We just took a break after the death spike last week."

I shot Serra a questioning look as she still seemed less than pleased.

"This solves our problem, right?" I asked, and she nodded, though a bit reluctantly.

"Okay. Kelly. You'll take them over," she said, and I stared at her?

"What? Why Kelly?"

"Because she can fly, and get them out of danger no matter what they port into," Serra explained, and I frowned.

"My mold spells and elemental conversion can do the same... why would we waste her ability on this when she can only use it twice a day. We might need that for combat if there really is some kind of sea monster out there coming after us."

Serra shot Kelly a worried look, and Kelly bit her lip.

"Excuse us for a sec," Kelly said, and Aleisha shot me an awkward look as the two went off a little way from us to talk.

As they did, I withdrew the material component that I kept on me, for casting 'Mold earth', and as I did, Jessie crept over to my side.

"Is that a jar of dirt?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah."

"Why do you have a jar of dirt? Did a crazy woman with a Caribbean accent tell you that it'd save you from a sea monster?" she asked, and I frowned.

"It's for casting a spell that can create a platform to stand on; no matter where we end up," I explained, and she snickered.

"Still weird that you have that," she said. "So, how many people can they take along for this ride?"

"Two," I answered, looking to Diego and Aleisha for confirmation, and they nodded.

Jessie frowned.

"Would have been good for someone with a sea-dog's eyes to get a look at what's over there," she said, and I nodded.

"I know. But unless you can cast some support magic to keep them on their feet in the middle of the ocean, this is all we've got."

Serra and Kelly rejoined us.

"We've agreed that you should go," Kelly said.

Serra still had a weird look on her face, but Kelly shot me a look that told me to drop it, and I gave her a subtle nod in response.

"Okay. Do you two need to make any preparations?" I asked, and Diego shook his head.

"I've got my component pouch," he said, and Aleisha pointed to a talisman wrapped around her wrist.

We placed our hands on each other's shoulders, with one hand on each other person, and as I nodded, Diego chanted:

"Plane shift!"

And I gasped as we instantaneously vanished and re-appeared in the air just above the open sea.

"Mold earth!" I chanted, creating a platform underneath our feet, and expanding it downwards to the water beneath.

"Elemental conversion: Water to ice!" I chanted, creating an icy foundation within which the earthen pillar was stabilized, allowing us to stand, though somewhat perilously, on a platform above the sea.

We appeared to be in the middle of the ocean; just as it was where we'd left, but while the conditions on our plane were sunny with clear skies and calm seas, the conditions here were anything but, as a torrent of rain cascaded about us, and lightning strikes were constantly illuminating the darkened skies as the sea beat upon our earthen pillar with reckless abandon.

"Should we shift back?" Aleisha asked, and I shook my head, as she grasped my hand, struggling to keep her footing as a gigantic swell swept us up, and back down, quite perilously.

"Just a sec," I shouted over the roaring din of crashing waves and booming thunder; but I'd hardly finished my sentence when a low, deep growl came echoing towards us from somewhere in the distance.

"What was that?" Aleisha yelled, and as another huge swell swept us up to a towering height; I spotted it.

A great, monstrous beast, protruding from the water's surface.

It towered at least a hundred feet over the surface, and its eyes, shining yellow and unblinking, seemed to penetrate to my very core with its piercing gaze.

The creatures call seemed to be reverberating about us, and a momentary panic set in as the platform beneath us began to crack, and crumble, as the ice beneath us gave way.

"Go!" I yelled, as Aleisha grabbed ahold of Diego and me, and as we popped out of that realm, I felt my stomach lurch as we spotted the ship a little way off, and we plunged unceremoniously into the depths of the sea.

The moment we went below the water's surface, all sound cut out in an instant, and as I stared at Aleisha and Diego, panicked looks on their faces, I gestured to the surface, and we began to swim.

As I emerged from the surface, Diego and Aleisha quickly surfaced beside me, and I let out a relieved sigh.

"Can you dimension door us to the ship?" Aleisha asked, and Diego took a look around.

"Can't steady myself enough to cast, I think."

"It's fine. They'll come get us; besides, we might need to conserve magic for... whatever that was."

"D-don't you think it might be here?" Aleisha asked, looking around, and I shook my head.

"If it was, we would have felt that presence by now..." I began, but my words trailed off as a bit of movement off to my right caught my eye.

"Hold that thought," I said, as I momentarily stopped treading water, and allowed myself to sink beneath the surface.

Water breathing, I thought, focusing the casting without a verbal component, and as the spell took effect, I tried to take a look around.

My magic item, the eye of the void allowed me to see through the ocean's depths, but the range was limited to a mere sixty feet.

As I placed my hands on the item, however, an idea occurred to me, and I began to pour my magic into it, as if focusing on casting a spell, and to my delight, the range of vision began to expand.

There! I thought, as I spotted the creature.

It was a squid; not as massive as the monster we'd seen, but it was no small thing either, and as it darted about in the water, I continued to expand the range of my magical sight, until I realized, with a bit of panic, that we were being circled by dozens of the creatures.

Good time as any for a scan, I thought.

Elemental conversion! I thought, creating a platform of ice around Diego and Aleisha's position, as I swam for the surface.

I climbed onto the platform, then helped the two up, and Aleisha shot me a relieved look.

"Thank God. I had no idea how I was gonna cast spells while treading water," she said, and I nodded.

Spell casting required absolute focus, and doing so while moving, even, could prove difficult; and that was without having to worry about being able to use a verbal component while under water.

My silent spell casting made me useful in that respect, but it was a skill limited only to the tempest class.

Diego raised his hands, and shot a firebolt spell into the air to signal the ship, in case they hadn't seen us yet.

"Should we port?" Aleisha asked, and I raised a hand.

"In a sec... I kind of want to see what we're dealing with first," I said, and she gulped.

"Scan!" I chanted, as I placed my hands down on the ice.

As I did, however, I channeled more of my magic into the spell; as I had, earlier, when using my magic item.

"What's down there?" Diego asked, as the magic continued to flow through me, and the pulse of my scan continued to travel further and further away.

"Giant squid, I think," I answered. "I count about fifty so far, though."

"This is so fucking terrifying!" Aleisha said, running her hands through her hair.

As my scan fizzled out, however, I felt something at its maximum range, and as a low deep growl came echoing through the depths toward us, my eyes went wide with fear.

"Teleport!" I yelled, and Diego instinctively grabbed ahold of us both, and teleported us instantly to the ship.

"Whoa. We were just coming to get you, you know," Jessie chided, as I quickly tried to get my bearings.

"We need to move. Away from here. Fast!"

Aleisha was hyperventilating, and Serene took one look between us before nodding.

"What direction are we going, cap?" Jessie asked, and the woman gulped.

"We'll head in a straight line in the same direction from where we came."

Jessie nodded, as a call came from above.

"Cap. Something's moving out there!"

As the commotion unfolded, Serra and Kelly came up to join us on the upper deck.

"What was on the other side?" Serra asked.

"A massive beast. Could be the Kraken, could be Cthulu. I dunno," I said, and Serra put a finger to her lips, with an expression of mock thoughtfulness.

"Not sure the game got the rights to use Cthulu," she replied. "Did you at least ask him what his name was?"

I snickered in response.

"Kind of insensitive of me, but I was too busy running for my life."

"What were the conditions like over there," Serene asked.

"Thunder storm. Huge waves," I answered, and Serene nodded.

"Sounds like we're on the right plane, then. Give me an update, Ethan!" she called.

"The ocean's getting choppy out there... could be a storm brewing!"

"Will it catch us?" she asked.

"Not if we keep going at full speed straight ahead!"

"Any of you got one of those watchy-thingamagigs?" Serra asked, and Jessie frowned at her.

"It's called a spyglass," she said, rolling her eyes as she retrieved one from her inventory, and handed it to her.

"Oh, another thing," I said. "There were like fifty plus giant squids in the water around us. When we came back, I mean."

"Fucking great," Serene said.

"Told you we should have gotten some harpoons instead of all those cannons," Jessie shot, and Serene waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't need to hear it now, Jess."

She put her fingers to her lips, then whistled loudly, getting the attention of the rest of the passengers.

"You all might wanna step back from the rails. If we hit something at this speed and you fall off; no-one's coming back for you!" she called out, and the group gathered there quickly made their way back to the center of the main deck.

"That doesn't look good," Serra muttered, and I cast her a questioning look. "Is that a whirlpool?"

Serene took out her own spyglass, and after checking for herself, she bit her lip nervously.

"I do not wanna know what's causing that," she said, before turning to her crewmember in the bird's nest.

"Hey, Ethan! Eyes front. I need to know what we're sailing into!" she called.

"Aye, aye, captain!"

"Still don't understand why you don't put me up there," Jessie said, and Serene snickered.

"Ethan might be a little dense, but kid's got eyes like a hawk. His passive perception is twenty-three."

"Fucking hell!" Serra exclaimed. "Is that even legal?"

The captain smirked, before turning to Jessie.

"Jess. Go down below deck with Watkins, and help him prep the canons."

"For what? We can't hit targets below surface with 'em."