Leaving the island

Sky was chuckling in the house counting the cards in his hand. 

"About 160 people I captured. Oh I almost feel sorry about them. No, no I don't hehehehehehehe." Sky could not believe he had kidnapped nearly 160 people and no one knew about it. It didn't matter if they were innocent or not.

He was in his temporary room given to him by Jericho's family. He stared out at the window smiling. The sight of the island was beautiful, and the chaos 

Once the sun was out he walked downstairs where he was greeted by everyone.

"Morning everybody."

"Morning, Sky." Jericho said while eating pancakes.

"Morning… Captain..." Jay said slowly as he rubbed Katelyn's back trying to comfort her.

"Hello, Sky."

"..."

Katelyn was lost in her thoughts barely paying attention to anything. Their island had been raided by pirates and even though no one in their family died or got hurt she was still visibly shaken.

Katelyn is not used to seeing bloodshed. She actually peeked out the window and saw a body lying on the ground right outside their house, it was only for a few seconds but that was enough to scare her. Seeing that body made her realize just how lucky they were to not be killed or worse.

Perhaps if it were mermaids or other kinds of monsters who raided her she would understand, just like the time they were attacked by fishmen on their way here, because this world is cruel, but the ones who raided them were humans. She knows humans are just as cruel, but experiencing it was different than she thought.

And now she is too occupied thinking about Jericho's safety, and her new friends who live on the island but she is too scared to leave and check on them at the moment.

Sky sat down on the table not saying anything else.

'Still thinking about that, is she?' Sky thought.

He knew everyone was down after he captured the fleeing pirates. He couldn't say anything because there is nothing he could do or say that could make them feel better.

Jericho and Jay were the same way, they couldn't bear to even take or see a dead body. But they overcame it. Sky was never affected by it because of his system removing that weakness.

"We leave in three hours. Make sure to get everything sorted out before we leave." Sky said. He didn't want to wait another day as they could use this time to get stronger.

Jericho and Jay nodded. They knew he really wanted to go, to get stronger, to ultimately reach a place no one here has ever set foot in, the Land of the Gods.

"Here you go…" Mabel brought him a plate of delicious food, rice, sausage, and eggs.

"Hmm… delicious. Thank you." Sky began eating, her food was so good because she is practicing under the system's influence. He hoped one day he could find someone with a cooking talent.

"My pleasure…" Mabel smiled and walked away.

Sky noticed Jay didn't eat, he was just comforting Katelyn while Jericho was eating.

Jericho noticed Sky's gaze, she could tell he was thinking why he wasn't comforting her own sister. The answer is simple, there is very little she could say or do for her, because she was in her situation not too long ago. 

Sky decided not to do anything for the next three hours and would rather take it easy for the time being until they left for a long time. For all he knows this could be the last time they see each other.

After bidding his farewell he left the house. Outside was chaos, the Caribbean were cleaning the bloodstains and mess left behind by the pirates. No bodies could be found as they had been quickly stored in cards and thrown away.

There were civilians helping with the mess as best they could.

"Man I cannot believe someone stole all the money from the safe."

Sky slowed down once he overheard an interesting conversation. He noticed two civilians, two men in their mid thirties talking as they were eating sandwiches and drinking beer.

"Seventy million shells… gone! Just like that."

"Fuck the guy who stole the money! We could use that money now more than ever."

"Without the money we won't be able to recover fast from this. This is so stupid! I just had a baby a week ago and this fucking happens! A pirate torches our home with a fireball, and now the island can't repair our house because someone stole all the money!"

"It's worse than that, they didn't steal the money but all the other stuff as well, clothes, food that could be of use to us right now. Without the money we won't be getting food and stuff we desperately need right now. Like these two sandwiches here that I have, they're the last bit of food I own that was left. Just like these two beers you have are the last thing left in your burned house."

"Don't even remind me. I have no idea how I can afford to sustain my family when my fishing boat gets burned… why does everything I own get burned?" 

The other man shrugged as he patted his back.

"There, there. Our luck will turn out for the better… probably…"

Sky couldn't help but look at how much money he currently had.

{Shells: 403m}

'These guys… these people have so little yet I have so much… oh well.' Sky shrugged his shoulders and walked by those men.

The two men didn't notice it but there was a tiny gust of wind that moved their clothes ever so slightly. They didn't realize that inside their pockets they had multiple cards that weren't there before, and a single was enough to sustain a family of four four months.

'Hmm… I will just help those two people. I can't exactly afford to help everyone here, even if it is my fault. I mean of course I can afford it but I can't bother wasting any more of my time here.' Sky thought.

Sky made it back to his ship, it was still intact. It is actually the first place he went to when the pirates were raiding the island. Apparently some pirates sneaked into his ship to steal it as it is a magnificent ship, but they were quickly taken care of before they had a chance to take her away.

"Can't believe those no good pirates wanted to take you away." Sky patted the mast a few times before going downstairs. He saw three of the slaves on their hammocks tired.

Once they saw him, instead of huddling together they stood up on the side of their hammocks still wary and scared of him. 

"Master!" They said softly. Now they believed they knew he wouldn't kill them as long as they remained loyal and did their jobs right.

"Have you guys even left the ship after all this time?"

"We… no." The slaves shook their heads, they were afraid if they left the ship Sky would accuse them of escaping.

Sky noticed the plate full of food he gave them was empty. He checked the barrel full of water he left them and realized it was half full.

Sky handed them each a card.

"Each card has ten thousand shells each. You have nearly three hours to do whatever you want on the island, shower, buy clothes, food, eat outside, I don't care. But if I don't see any of you on the ship in time, I will hunt you down, got it?" Sky said.

There was nothing wrong with treating the slaves better. He had so much money giving away thirty thousand shells, which is a lot of money to an ordinary person, was nothing to him anymore.

The slaves took the card after hesitating not knowing if it was rude to take it or not take it. They all come from poor families, so holding ten thousand on their hands was something they never thought would happen, especially after they were enslaved.

"I am not gonna hurt or kill you guys if you leave the ship. You just have to be here on time. Think of it as special permission." Sky teleported on top of his ship before giving them a chance to say anything.

Sky locked himself in his room. After making sure no one but the slaves were near him he took out a card.

"Activate."

He threw the card and from the card appeared a pirate barely alive after being beaten.

"AAAHHH!" 

"Shhh…" Sky used his telekinesis to stop him from screaming. The man's muffled screaming could still be heard.

"Wow, even with less than 10% of your HP you still have enough strength and energy to scream like that. It's okay. Don't worry, you will receive a painless death… although your HP needs to be a little bit lower."

CRACKS

The sound of his fingers cracking could be heard, causing the pirate great pain, he wanted to scream and yell for help but Sky would not let him.

"Curse of death."

{Failed to kill}

Curse of death was interesting. It has a 5% chance insta kill anyone if their HP is lowered to a certain degree.

For example, at level one you needed to lower the target's health to 1% of their max HP for the curse to work. But at level three the max HP needed was 3%, and oddly enough the 5% chance of activating an insta kill remained the same no matter how much he leveled it up.

Sky liked it when the curse failed to kill the target, because even if it fails to activate the skill level does grow either way, and with such a limited number of 'volunteers' he needed all the help for this skill.

"Curse of death."

{Failed to kill}

"Curse of death…"

…

Sky didn't stop until the man was dead.

{Curse of death success}

"That took 15 tries… next one. Hm?"

Sky sensed his three slaves leave their room, and after hesitating they left the ship.

'Those three better not use the money to flee or else.' Sky thought as he took out his next volunteer.

Two hours later he leveled up his two skills.

{Curse of death: lvl 8: Target has a 5% chance to instantly die if their HP reaches 8% of their total HP}

{Slow time lvl 4: Slows time by 40%. Mana cost: 10% max mana per minute}

After killing his third volunteer Sky thought he'd be killing two birds with one stone if he also practiced slowing down a time, a very powerful skill to have.

"Oh man… I only have twenty willing volunteers left, I don't think it's gonna be enough for level nine, much less beyond that. Damn…"

{Slave has taken damage}

"Hm?" Sky stood up. "System?"

{The system is warning that one of your party members, a slave to be precise, has taken damage}

"Map." Sky was shown a map of the island, he saw some blue dots that were Jericho and her family still in their house. 

On the edge of the island were his three slaves being surrounded by four red triangles.

'What happened?' Sky stood up and hurried to their location. In just a second he reached their current location.

There he could see his three slaves being kicked around by four men, three of which were Caribbean men. One of them, the older one, tried to act as a shield between them and their attacks. Sky noticed one of the men was holding the cards full of shells he had given to his slaves.

They were yelling profanities at them and even accusing them of stealing the shells. No matter how much the slaves tried to explain themselves no one believed them. Despite them being in a busy part of the island no one bothered helping them, as slaves were treated like trash by everybody, especially now since everyone was too busy worrying about themselves when they could barely afford to worry about others.

Sky could fly in and clear the misunderstanding, but there was no point. Those men didn't care if the slaves stole the shells or not, they just wanted the money for themselves, and Sky didn't even have to read their minds to be sure.

'You could have stolen from anyone else, yet you want to steal from me?' Sky didn't show it on his face, but he was mad. If that amount of money makes them happy they could have it for all he cared for.

But he is angry that they dare steal from him and damage his property. 

Looking around he thought the best way to approach the bullies. There he saw an explosive gunpowder barrel.

"Hmmm… should I use the barrel? No… maybe… summon parasite."

The black parasite appeared before Sky.

"Turn yourself small and infect those four."

The parasite split itself into millions of its tiny self until it was so tiny no one could see him anymore.

Few minutes later as the men continued berating the slaves they all felt a cold chill on their backs. Three of them noticed their throats were raspy and couldn't help but cough a bit, the other one was starting to sweat profusely and experience extremely cold shivers.

'Heal.'

The three slaves felt as if all their wounds had been cursed at the moment. They saw this opportunity to run away. They didn't know that far away Sky had healed them without touching them.

The three felt their breathing became short and heavy, they couldn't help but sit down as their symptoms became worse and severe.

{Skill level up}

{Parasite level 2: Able to affect others with a stronger type of influenza that is harder to cure and easier to spread}

'Spead? No, I don't want some kind of virus or bacteria or whatever it is spreading on this island, Jericho's family lives here.'

Sky called back his parasite. Once he recalled his summon to his surprise the four men who were infected were no longer showing any type of sympton's.

'What?' Sky was confused before realizing something, he could not only infect others but also remove it from their bodies completely? 

'Cool…' Sky was happy to see his black grade summon be so useful.

"Find those slaves and tell the rest! Find out where they got the money! They could be the ones who stole from the safe."

"Yes, sir!"

The other two Caribbean men ran while the officer reached into his pocket to count the shells in the card, only to find out the cards were missing.

"What? Where is it? I had it right here!" The man frantically searched his pockets for the 30,000 shells he just had on his person.

Then all of a sudden the same four men became too weak and sick to continue moving. 

Unbeknown to them Sky was walking away chuckling to himself as he placed his three cards back in his inventory.

"If possible I only want those four infected, got it? Can you stop them from spreading it?" Sky asked his summon.

The summon merely circled around his hand, not giving him a proper response. It was smart enough to follow Sky's orders but not smart enough to communicate.

"I'll take that as a yes." 

Parasite disappeared as Sky had unsummoned it. Back in his ship he saw the three slaves run back to the ship in a hurried manner. They ran back to their rooms where they felt the safest.

"Those poor girls… maybe next time I'll treat them to something special." Sky walked back to his ship.

Two hours later…

Both Jericho and Jay finally reached the ship.

"Ahoy!" Sky waved at them.

Jay waved back with a wry smile on his face. Jericho smiled and waved back back as well. They both made it to the ship where they saw Jules already on the ship working on alchemy.

"How are your mom and sister doing, Jericho?"

"They're okay but you could have visited them again after all this time. Oh, mom brought me this to give to you." Jericho handed Sky a giant box of lunches.

"I couldn't visit them because there were people who wanted to steal from our boat. And woah… your mom sure likes to cook." Sky accepted the lunch box and stored it in his system.

"Yeah. They said they were sorry they couldn't say goodbye to you, but Katelyn doesn't want to leave the house yet."

"I understand."

"Do you?" Jericho doubted Sky even understood the meaning of sympathy.

Sky ruffled Jericho's hair before walking towards Jay.

"You okay, man?" Sky asked.

"No, I am good, Captain. Just worried for Katelyn is all."

"You can always give her a call. And if they're ever in trouble I will obviously save them." Sky said loud enough for Jericho to hear him and put her worries aside.

"Thanks Captain… Could I make two selfish requests?" Jay asked hesitantly.

"What?"

"When I visit my family before we go to the Land of the Gods… could we bring Katelyn and introduce her to my parents in six months?"

"I don't see why not." Sky shrugged his shoulders. He could also visit his family around that time as well. He at least wanted to see them a few times before he would go to the Land of the Gods.

"Thanks, Captain." Jay ran to his room happily.

"Wait, you didn't tell me what your second request is!"

"I'll tell you in six months" Jay was uncontrollably happy.

Sky smiled. 'Is it that great to find love? I doubt I will ever find someone.' 

"Should I pick the nearest portal, Sky?" Jericho asked.

"Go ahead, Jeri."

"Hey…" Jericho pouted, only her family could call her that. 

"Okay, I won't call you that anymore." Sky said with a smile.

"No… I don't mind if it's you… Sky… could I call you something else instead?" 

"You mean like Captain?"

"No… I meant… d-dad… NO NEVER MIND!" Jericho ran back to her room feeling too embarrassed to say anything else.

Jules who was watching the whole thing unfold smirked.

"Jules… did she just say… dad?" Sky asked to be sure.

"Without a doubt. It is kind of obvious that she clearly sees you as a father figure after everything you've done for her and her family. And after what her father did… maybe she needs someone else to fill in that void her father left her." Jules said, not taking her eyes off the potions.

She had seen how Jericho behaves around Sky. At first she thought it might've been she respects and fears him, but she saw him as a fatherly figure instead.

"I see… I don't see her that way. And I am surprised since I have killed and have done worse things compared to what her father did."

'Instead I see her as a professional treasure hunter… maybe a little bit more than that.'

"It doesn't matter. She relies on you, and yes, your methods are brutal and bloody and sometimes inhumane, but you've shown you care and haven't abandoned her after all this time."

"Ha… I'm gonna be in my room. If you hear muffled screaming, ignore them." Sky walked past her and entered his room after closing the door.

Jules shrugged and continued brewing potions.