Parasite

Three fishmen made it deep down to the bottom of the ocean before they finally stopped.

"Xero is really pissed this time." The Warlord chuckled.

"Well when you saw the opportunity to manipulate his niece you should've known this would happen." Juvia said, wiping off the imaginary sweat from her forehead.

"And it was well worth it. We got a lot of information. And besides, she's not the only spy working for us."

"So… what now?" Yok asked.

"Now? Juvia, how many men do we have?"

"Aside from the spy's? None. You nearly killed everyone working for us just to pay that man whatever you owed him, and when that still wasn't enough you killed entire cities of our kind and mermaids. Now no one here wants to work for us unless they're threatened! And now everyone is fleeing from our territories to other parts of the sea."

"I already know that! We have photographic memory. Also you didn't seem to say anything about that when we killed all those people."

"Because you're my brother! Of course I'm gonna choose to help you and my family over others!"

The Warlord didn't say anything because there is nothing else he could say, except…

"Thank you."

"How are we gonna find the man who cursed Uncy Balthazar?" Yok asked.

"Hmm… with Xero on our tail like that it'll be hard to find him on land. There is just too much ocean to cover."

"Except… maybe the skull can help you!" Juvia suggested.

"Hmm… that might be worth a shot, but he'll most likely reject it. Heck, they might not even respond." Balthazar pulled the skull hanging from his belt. At one point the skull with the devil horns turned back into an ordinary skull.

"Hey! I need your help!"

The skull's eyes glowed red and it started moving by itself. This left all three of them shocked. They could have contacted them all this time?

"Well, well, this is the first time you've called out to us. How's it going in searching for him?" The skull asked.

"Not great. There is just too much ocean to cover, we cannot possibly find him in such a short amount of time." 

"So what do you want me to do? Go there myself? Please." 

The Warlord took a while to think about it.

"Isn't there an item that can specifically help us locate him?"

"No, there is no such thing. While there are items I own that can find a person in hiding, you need some kind of sample from him, blood, tissue, hair, sweat, shit, anything, do you have anything like that?"

They all shook their heads. 

Yok had an item but hesitated to speak.

"What about… looking into the past to find out where he went?" Yok suggested.

"An item that can look into the past so you can find him? Hmm… while I do own an item I am not sure you can pay the price."

"What price?" The Warlord asked.

"You have to pay it in blood. It's an item that goes on your neck, and once you wear it you cannot take it off, if you do manage to take it off you'll die. This item will demand you to pay it with liters of your own blood, it'll even lower your vigor stat to 10,000 and there is no way you can increase it anymore. And once the wearer dies it dies with you."

"That's such a heavy price to pay." The Warlord said. 

"You're not gonna accept it, are you?" Juvia asked, concerned and worried.

"Wait… how far can it look into the past?" The Warlord asked.

"As far as one month, which is something. You don't have to pay anything since it's a garbage item." The skull said.

"I'll take it."

Just then Juvia gripped tightly onto his hand.

"Are you fucking crazy? I'm not gonna let you do that! That's no different from a death wish! Your stats are in the hundreds of thousands! Vigor is the most important stat anyone can have!"

"Relax! I never said I was gonna wear it. I'm gonna make a slave wear it for me."

Just then Juvia managed to calm down.

"Good. And here I thought you'd be dumb enough to wear it."

The skull at that moment spat out a choker. The choker was made out of the legs of hairy, large, black insects that were still twitching. It was so gross and disturbing no one else dared to touch it. Yok even swam back several meters away due to the shiver she felt on her spine.

"Good luck." The skull's red eyes diminished and it stopped talking. The Warlord grabbed the skull and hooked it back to his belt.

"I am not touching that." Juvia said not even daring to look at it.

"I'm starting to believe I came in contact with some sort of bug demon." The Warlord touched the choker and transformed it into a card and kept it with him.

"Do we have any slaves that are bound to us?"

"I have one." Yok said.

"Is it a fishmen or mermaid? It would be better if it was one of those two."

"He's a mermaid."

"When did you get a bound slave?" Juvia said.

"The last time we killed all those mermaids I made a mermaid boy into a slave. Uncy Balthazar helped me get a written slave contract from Tola."

"Ah…" Juvia said in realization.

"Is it back at home?"

Yok nodded.

"Great, so, we go home, we attach this collar to the slave, and it'll lead us to the one who cursed Balthazar."

"But Uncle… I don't want my slave to die." Yok voiced out her disapproval which she rarely does, especially with her uncle who she admires and loves.

"Oh, shoot that's right, sorry didn't take your feelings into account. So you don't want him to wear this?"

"No." Yok shook her head.

"Guess we have no choice but to find another one." The Warlord sighed and wanted to act as fast as possible, but not if it meant hurting his own niece.

He patted her head and thought, 'Hmm… if Xero had somehow messed with my niece the way I did with his niece it's no wonder he was so pissed off.' The Warlord didn't feel guilty about doing it but he knew what Xero felt, but it didn't matter to him because they all have done questionable things for survival.

And thus all three swam down to find a slave.

Meanwhile…

Sky was sitting on his ship as he conjured lightning on his hands to practice.

{Skill level up}

{Elektrokinesis lvl 2 → Elektrokinesis lvl 3: Command and conjure somewhat strong lightning with your mind}

Sky promised that this would be a break to everyone, but it was feeling uncomfortable to not see himself improve at all. Jericho and Jay were hanging out with Mabel and Katelyn as tomorrow would be the last day they'd probably see each other for a long time.

"Haah… so many skills to level, so little time." Sky stood up and stretched out his limbs. 

Sky looked at the sun and realized it was high noon. 

"Hmm… maybe I should already go to the place madame told me to go. I have to tell her I am not interested in going to the Land of the Gods."

Just as he was about to call Jericho and Jay he sensed was running towards his boat from the ocean. Running to the edge of his ship Sky saw a bald man running towards him in the water. Once someone's speed is high enough they can run on water like they could run on land.

'Identify.' Sky was ready to fight him and took out his weapon. By the speed the man was running he was incredibly fast, faster than him.

{Emett Monarch}

{HP: 4,100/4,100}

{Mana: 4.250/4,250}

{Str: 777 Dex: 1,011 Spd: 12,103 Int: 850 Mind: 800 Vig: 400}

{Possessed by a powerful being}

Sky was prepared to fight him and call for his crew, but the moment he realized he was possessed he realized it was Madame. 

However that name of his was familiar and he knew who he was, that serial killer with a wanted poster sign of 99,000,000 shells.

He jumped on Sky's ship gasping for air.

"Hah, hah, you were so… far, Sky." Madame sat on the ship while grabbing her chest still panting heavily, "I haven't felt this weak in so long, this body's vigor is so low. Ah… horrible memories indeed."

"Why are you here, Madame?" Sky asked. If she wanted to contact him she could've possessed one of the slaves.

"To give you the items I promised. But before I do that…" Madame stood up on the ship, "I need you to promise me you will come to the Land of the Gods in a year."

"A year? I thought you said three."

"I changed my mind because I think you'll do so much better there than here. You might have this… system that I still haven't grasped yet, but I know you will do so much better in the Land of the Gods. We have mountains of purple scrolls, endless resources, protection, everything."

"Well then… no." Sky said.

"What? What do you mean 'no'?" Madame asked, flabbergasted.

"I have too much to lose. And besides, apart from getting stronger I see no reason to go to the Land of the Gods. I'm happy here."

Madame grabbed her face and said, "You don't understand, Sky, I need you to come to the Land of the Gods."

"Why? You haven't said why." Sky asked. Sky even activated his Mind of truth to read her mind.

{Cannot access mind of a possessed person}

'What?' 

"Yeah, mind reading abilities don't work on the ones I've possessed, my ability to possess beings is frightening compared to anybody else." She smirked before reaching her back for a card.

"I will give you what's in this card if you agree to come to the Land of the Gods. Plus I will tell you why I want you to come to the Land of the Gods."

'Identify.' Sky wanted to know what was inside that card.

{Purple scroll x30}

{Black scroll x1}

Sky's eyes widened, unable to say anything. The legendary black scroll, a scroll told in legends, was in that card in front of him?

"So you already know what's inside, good. So there are a few reasons I want you to come to the Land of the Gods, number one is your system, I know that anybody in your party can get significantly stronger really fast, I won't lie, I really want that for me and others I trust in. You and your crew can evolve skills very fast just by practicing, anybody in the Land of the Gods would literally kill for such an ability."

"Yeah…" Sky recollected his thoughts fast.

"Second… let's just say that in sixty four years from now everything will change. The whole world will change."

"What? What does that mean?"

Madame shook her head.

"I don't know either. You see… Some of us have the ability to see far into the future, my niece is one of them. They all have said the same thing whenever they try to look further than sixty four years from now, all they see is pure white. It was as if the world was erased. They try to look further beyond that, but there is nothing to be seen either."

"What does that mean?" Sky asked.

"Nobody knows. It's all just theories. Some say it's nothing, some say it's the end. One thing is for certain, we cannot deny it."

"Then why do you need me?"

Madame got close to Sky.

"I asked my niece to look into your future, do you know what she saw?"

"What?"

"Pure white, just like the future everyone else sees sixty three years from now."

Sky's eyes widened.

"You see, people can change their future. I've seen people do it, but I have never heard of anyone else having a white future like that. It's like your future is being written right now, which gives me hope because that pure white future is exactly what everybody's seeing, because if you have a blank future means that our future will be fine."

Sky looked down. Why was his future white?

'Could it be… the system?' Sky realized the reason for his blank future.

"It's why I want you to come to the Land of the Gods, so we can see if there is a future beyond sixty three years from now."

"I thought you said it was sixty four years?"

"It's somewhere between sixty three and sixty four years. But there is another problem, and it's the main reason I want you to come here."

"What would that be, Madame?"

"Despite knowing we might be facing our doom, others do not seem to care. They go on to live their lives by killing, pillaging, destroying everything in their path. Humans are at constant war with mermaids and insects daily."

"Insects?" Sky asked.

"Human sized insects with intelligence and they are above the food chain there. With your help we could make the humans stronger, we could annihilate an entire species that threatens us. In fact there are more species there, but the insects and human species are the more dominant ones. What do you say?" Madame asked.

Sky sat down trying to process the information. Despite his high mind stat it was simply too much to take in.

Madame smiled as she got through to him. She placed the card beside him.

"I'll be seeing you in one year, Sky." Madame spread out her arms to him.

{Quest updated}

{Quest: Land of the Gods}

{Within one year reach the Land of the Gods with the help of the figure, Madame}

{No quest reward}

{No punishment or timer}

There was no reward because Madame had already given him a reward.

"Kill this body and collect his bounty, or use ritual sacrifice on him, whatever you want and I won't move this time. Hopefully you'll get his speed."

Sky smirked, she really has been keeping a close eye on him which was creepy but at least he saved her the effort of having to explain his ability.

Sky grabbed her forehead and chest and activated the ritual countdown.

{12}

{11}

{10}

"Aren't you afraid I'll betray you? You know I could just take the black scroll for myself?" Sky asked.

"I am. But I know you're not a fool, you will come to the Land of the Gods. Also the Abyss family is coming to kill you so good luck with that."

"What?"

{2}

{1}

{Received: 595 int}

The man possessed by Madame fell to the ground dead.

Sky wasn't even mad at not stealing his speed. He turned the body into a card and threw it into the ocean, if people were to find out he killed a wanted criminal that would mean unwanted attention would be aimed on him, and that's the last thing he wanted especially from the Caribbean.

"Everyone to the quarters, now." Sky ordered his slaves who hurriedly complied.

Sky hid himself in his Captain's quarters under his sheets. His hands were trembling excitedly, he was smiling uncontrollably. 

According to the books he's read, black scrolls are said to have an infinite amount of spells one can learn, unlike the other scrolls. Meaning that once he learns this spell there is almost no chance anyone else will learn the same ability.

"Hehehe… black scroll. Activate!"

The card disappeared and instead 30 purple scrolls appeared plus a black scroll.

Sky opened the black scroll and read through it hoping it was something amazing.

{Skill level up}

{Dead language lvl 9 → lvl MAX: Can fully understand the language fluently}

Just by reading a little bit maxed out his skill.

{Black scroll: Summon plague}

{Summon parasite lvl 1: Summon a parasite by your side that infects others and induces both pain, damage, and debuffs}

{Damage scaling: Unknown}

{Takes 10 summoning slots to summon 1}

Sky was weirded out. This ability did not give him any more of a description on what it could do or what it was capable of. 

Sky let out a breath before ripping the scroll.

{Learned summon parasite lvl 1}

Sky used the ability on the spot.

He felt something come out of the back of his right shoulder, there appeared a black eel no longer than 12 inches that was swimming in the air. It was covered in some black oil that seemed sentient and alive, in its face it had clear black eyes and an exaggerated wide mouth with sharp rows of rows of teeth.

It stared at Sky as if it was examining him. Sky found its face rather creepy as if it was a creepy kid's drawing come to life. 

Sky extended his hand out to touch it, the parasite split itself into two which also halved their original size, then four which were now a quarter of their original size. Then they continued to multiply themselves until they could no longer be seen because they were microscopic size.

{Current parasite number: 100,000}

Sky was flabbergasted, the 12 inch parasite divided itself into 100,000 of itself?

The parasite returned to its normal self and started circling around Sky. 

"What exactly do you do?" Sky reached to touch it but the parasite avoided his touch and swam away. 

Sky unsummoned it on the spot. He was curious on what it could do but it seemed he needed a victim to use it on first to test it out.

"Weird… but it's a black grade skill and it's the first one so it can't be that bad, right? Oh well… time to see what the thirty purple scrolls contain…" Sky read through the purple scrolls.