A trip to the ocean

Not too early on the next morning, Jay had woken up his new slave and given her some items for her stay close to Millshire.

A simple tent he has had in his inventory, as well as some water and the leftovers from the piglet were more than enough for her, at least she stated that.

Her only problem was her inability to move properly thanks to the last night. Jay had been a bit forceful, what had been to her liking, but the next day she was totally wrecked.

He still left her there with the order to hide and stay safe when he mounted his summoned horse and rode towards the west.

With a bit of longing she looked him after, half due to his really comfy tent, half due to his looks, edgy character and a certain body part of his.

Jay of course had noticed it but didn't look back as he rode down the small path to the road connecting Alexton's farm and Millshire.

It took him around two hours to reach the beach after he took a small path between the cliffs. The pebble beach was wide and to both sides he couldn't even see an end, or anything else noteworthy. Right in the direction where he was riding to was an island visible in some distance.

On that rocky looking island stood a massive construction that was the lighthouse.

Between Jay and the island lay a rowing boat on the beach. As he arrived at that small wooden boat, he pulled it towards the ocean and climbed onto it.

Probably from his old life, Jay knew how to row the boat without much thinking and after a few minutes he got close o the island.

It really was rocky and reaching high out of the water so Jay kept on searching for a place to land while looking over his shoulder.

The waves and the currents made it even harder rowing the boat in a backward seat like it works best and the sharp rocks around the island looked threatening as well.

It was not a problem of strength or coordination for Jay but simply something he was completely new to.

Glad to have found a small pier at the south eastern side, not more than a few yards wide, he landed the boat next to two others.

While he moored the boat after his miserable attempt to dock it, Jay thought about whether swimming wouldn't have been faster and easier.

Climbing the path up a slope towards the Lighthouse he met a man standing in front of it and seemingly waiting for him.

After they introduced, Jay learned it was Lieutenant Liam, the man he was supposed to meet.

"Welcome to our Lighthouse! I take it ya're ma reinforcements? Me's Liam. Thought ol' Gyran would send more men fer me…" LL.

"Greetings, I'm Jay. Stoutmantle is hard pressed at the moment and doesn't know whom to trust, so he sent me.

Care to fill me in on the problems at hand?" J.

"Sure thing, but let's go inside fer that…" LL.

The Lieutenant guided him towards the Lighthouse while Jay used that moment to check on his status. The man was a level 25 buccaneer, what surprised him a bit.

Still following him there as he felt no hostility, Liam soon began to show him the small building he was living in together with the keeper of the lighthouse and his family.

Inside he introduced the keeper, a burly man past his prime with graying hair, his wife and their six years old son. They all welcomed Jay and left the two men some room to talk about their business.

Sitting down at the table in the cozy living room, Liam began to tell the story of the lighthouse and the reason why only Stoutmantle knew his location.

Apparently the lighthouse was build some decades ago after more and more ships ran aground or sank due to the sharp rocks on this coast.

It didn't look that way as only a few rock formations were visible on the beach and at the cliff, but under the surface, the coastline was dangerous.

The problems for the kingdom arose from the wrecks a bit later though. Lots and many kinds of sea creatures settled along the shore, plundering the ships and those that were able to ran free on the beach.

As the lighthouse was finished, the ships could navigate through the passages without much problems and only seldom a ship was lost. It took some time, but many of the creatures that migrated left again as there were less to find for them at this shore.

The internal conflicts escalated and at some point, one especially strong Murloc went and attacked the lighthouse as the source of their problems.

It seemed to have understood that when the signal light was gone, their supplies would get better again.

The keeper of the lighthouse at that time fled as the monsters crawled onto the island and barely survived.

A few days later he returned with some adventurers but all of the Murlocs were gone. The repairs took some time, but the lighthouse was running again so no big losses on ships occurred.

And that was their demise.

Only a short while later, the Murlocs attacked again.

This time, not a single soul survived and the buildings sustained heavy damage.

Liam had seen it first hand as he and two of his childhood friends had been there. He didn't hide that they were part of a pirate group and there to free the Lighthouse for their own reasons. The crew wanted to secure and control the post to trap ships in the passage and rob them.

Liam and his friends though only joined to help the region.

It sounded shady at first, but he and his friends were born in Westfield, that already had to endure heavy taxes and high demands thanks to the war and then the fire of Arathor some years later. As the pirated did some of their trades in Westfield and behaved relatively good, they joined them.

They had their adventures and though pirates have a bad reputation, they rarely hurt or kidnapped someone.

In all the three years he was with them, only once a sailor got killed by their group and it was even self defense.

After they freed the lighthouse, all three of the boys to that time left the pirates afterwards and even joined the royal army later to protect region continuously.

It was Stoutmantle, a man from Westfield himself, that smuggled them into the military at that time, as they all had the marking as a criminal. And if anyone knew or learned of it, it would mean trouble for the captain as well.

That was the reason only Stoutmantle knew Liam's location as a protector for the keeper of the lighthouse.

He had taken that post willingly because of the second part of his story.

Within the pirates, he has had a girlfriend called Norah. He described her as the most beautiful girl he had met to that point and a sporty little blonde that caught the eyes of the whole crew. But he was the one to catch her heart, at least until he decided to leave the group.

She stayed with the pirates, mostly because her father was the captain, and they went different ways.

But a few years later he had learned of a disaster that happened on this shore. All he knew was that their ship sank after there had to have taken place some sea battle that no one survived.

The Lighthouses flame had been burning at that time and the captain knew every rock and sandbank in the region. Until that day, the shipwreck was lying on it's respective rock but no one had visited them.

The tribe of Murlocs that remained on the beach there was pretty aggressive and in the ocean, some strong sharks that feed on them were lurking.

Exactly those were the reasons for Liam's help request to captain Stoutmantle. The first and foremost was that he dearly needed assistance with the Murlocs that were growing in numbers again, in fear of another attack on the lighthouse.

His second reason for the request was something mostly personal.

Liam asked Jay to travel north and look for the reason the pirate ship sank years ago. If he found the reason, that would possibly settle some of his remorse he still held for having left them.

And there was one more thing he asked from Jay. If he made it into the wreck, Jay was asked to look for the remnants of his ex and take back a small ring from her. It was the engagement ring he gave her and a family heirloom that he wanted back to give it to his current lover.

Finally finished with his story, Liam asked Jay if he would take up that request as he still was an adventurer and no soldier. But without question Jay accepted.

On their way out of the small house, Liam asked him to look out on the beach and if possible thin out some of the Murlocs.

As he wanted to travel towards the north soon, Jay kept his goodbye short and only waved to the family, then jumped into the boat and rowed back to the beach.

Back on the beach, it wasn't even noon, Jay rode towards the north on his horse.

Riding along the pebble beach in the sunshine felt more like vacation to him than some possibly dangerous adventure.

The first encounters with some of the fish-like creatures didn't take long to come, but the same applied for their duration. Passing the monsters, Jay sliced them up while running or even riding through them, defeating quite an amount on his way.

But as the Murlocs were of low level and didn't pose a threat to him, Jay lost only a small amount of time on his way towards the shipwrecks. He only once lost a bit more time as he stumbled upon a pretty large encampment on the beach.

The Murlocs there had been overly aggressive, so he didn't even has had the chance to pass them by. Not to dirty himself too much, Jay went back to his old way of dealing with small fry. And thanks to him being on a pebble beach, the projectiles he fired with (Stone Shards) were bigger and even more easy to handle.

The environment one was in, really seemed to affect the power and usability of spells.

The result after twenty minutes of shooting spells and walking through the fish stinking camp was 86 monsters of around level 15 with nearly fist sized holes all over their bodies lying dead on the ground. Jay had spent all together about a third or half of his mana, he wasn't sure as it replenished a bit in between, until he was done and looked through the camp.

To his surprise it wasn't a totem that had riled the monsters up, but something like their treasure. The slightly bigger leader guarded it and as Jay looked through the pile of floatsam and rubble, analyzing the items to look for something of worth, it really showed something written in blue.

A message in a bottle lay in between some broken weapons, tableware and even an old cannon.

Opening the bottle and pulling out the old parchment, Jay couldn't believe his eyes at first.

It was a treasure map that he had found, pointing at some island in the south with a big x as marking, but he had no idea where to start. All Jay knew was that the landmarks on this this map wasn't Westfield and that his luck really jumped up with his LUK stat.

Noting to himself to test it out in some gambling if he got the chance, Jay summoned his horse again and rode on towards the north where he would hopefully find the shipwreck soon.

The trip still took close to three hours of riding full speed, explaining why the wreck never got examined. It was simply far from even the Alexton's farm, where the next known passage down to the beach was, so it really wasn't easy to reach.

In a slight and wide bay, hidden by a big rock formation to the north, Jay finally found the ship he was looking for. All he had to do next was finding a way into the ship and look how and why it sank.

The only problem was to know in which he had to look as there were two wrecks on the shore.

One of them, looking slightly bigger but broken apart in the middle, was stranded close to the beach. The second ship lay a bit into the ocean with only the prow and the first half, as well as a broken mast peeking completely out of the water. It looked like it had crashed onto some under water rocks and sunk as well.

Taking the safe route, Jay decided to look for the broken ship close to the shore first.

He dismounted and walked into the water, directly towards where it was broken apart. The water was shallow, reaching to his hips at most, but even as he was quite some distance away from the wreck, he saw the first monsters running his way.

It was Murlocs again, though all higher in level than those before.

With earth magic no option, lightning being suicidal and fire weak, Jay decided for direct combat.

Readying his dagger and hammer he was glad the water was only knee deep in the place he was at. The combat still proved hard even though the monsters were of lower level and normally weak as Jay's movements were slowed down and limited. Oh how he hated water battles…

Ducking down as the pair arrived before him and cutting their tendons, Jay got them on equal footing at first. What followed was a still standing battle based on dodging, parrying and riposte.

Finally done with the two Murlocs and standing in the bloody water, Jay had an idea as he saw a lot more of those fish-like monster patrolling around the wreck.

He took out his Mana-Rifle after a long time and began to take aim.

▪︎

*bang*

▪︎

▪︎

*bang*

▪︎

▪︎

*bang*

▪︎

.

.

.

One after another the small green and blue monsters fell. Each shot downed one of the Murlocs until not one was left standing. Satisfied with the result and even more the kill per mana performance, Jay stored the rifle and rushed over to the wreck.

From close up he finally saw what probably lead to it stranding on the shore. The rump was broken and had scratched at countless spots, while above what was once the water line, the wreck was riddled with cannon holes.

This had been no simple stranding accident.

As no signs or flags were left, at least not visible, Jay carefully entered the ship through the giant crack separating the parts.

Leaving the stern for later, Jay climbed into the second deck above the keel.

To his surprise, the whole space was empty. Normally on this deck there should either be supplies and goods or quarters for the sailors. But the place was completely blank. Except a group of three Murlocs that was.

Without thinking much about it, Jay shocked them with a nice and clean (Chain Lightning), frying them inside out.

Walking over to the stairs leading up after getting accustomed to the slanted ground, Jay began his exploration of the shipwrecks.