Jack Aalto

"Really, guys?" Sky looked at his crew.

"Hey, you said it, not us." Jules smirked while the other two looked away.

{Eyes of truth is being used on the player}

"Are you going to kill me then?" The man asked, still holding onto his two swords.

"Not unless you keep pointing those things at my crew and I." Sky spoke truthfully. This might be a secret place nobody but them should know about, but it seemed unfair if he killed the man for no reason other than to keep him silent.

Sky read his mind to see if he was going to sneak attack them. As far as he could tell he didn't want to fight them, he had a feeling he couldn't win. And also the man could not leave the dungeon because with Sky inside the dungeon the exit was closed off.

The man slowly put his weapons away but held onto their handles. Sky put away his weapon then his crew also put away their weapons. Jericho, however, is wary and is ready to break his swords into pieces.

"Why did you take their swords?" Jericho couldn't help but ask. She has a hobby of collecting metal weapons to store in cards so she can use them when she needs to.

"Money… I am going to sell them for money." He said. 

Sky read his mind.

{I need to sell anything I can find in this place. If I can make enough I can leave this island and away from my family. This is my ticket out of here and I need to make use of it as best as I can. If I can get more strength from this place I do not need to worry about protecting myself}

"Did you find anything valuable here while you were exploring?" Sky asked.

"Um…"

{I cannot tell them I found a purple scroll in one of the ruins that gave me increased dexterity. I know that scroll is valuable but it seemed too idiotic to sell it}

'Shit.' Sky thought inwardly annoyed and angry. The man found a purple scroll and already used it. 

'Identify.'

Once Sky saw his stats to gauge how powerful he became Sky's eyes and mouth widened in shock. Everyone noticed and it scared them.

"Sky?" Jericho nudged his arm.

"Uh… yeah, sorry. What's your name." Sky's attitude changed completely which everyone but the man in front of them noticed.

"Jack. Jack Aalto." He said.

"Another one with a J…"

"What?"

"Nothing. My name is Sky, and this is my crew. I want to make a deal with you, help us clear this dungeon and you can keep half of what we earn."

Everyone looked at him weirdly. Except for Jack, everyone knew that this was a high grade purple dungeon.

"Cap'n?"

Sky stretched his arm out signalling to them that he has this handled.

"Half?" The man looked at Sky, he knew he was telling the truth but found it hard to believe it. He knows that this portal must be valuable, he has already found one purple scroll yet has barely explored the portal, he can only imagine what else they'll find.

"As much as that offer seems too good to be true, I need to pass. I gotta go before my mom gets angry." He walked past them while Sky read his mind. To his surprise he could see how much the man fears his mom and wants to get away from this place as fast as possible.

"You can't leave." Sky said, turning around to face him.

"You gonna stop me?" believing that was a threat, Jack was ready to take out his swords again.

"No. See the entrance to the portal is closed. You cannot leave until we kill the boss."

"What? No." Fear enveloped in his face as he quickly ran to the ruins where the entrance would be located to see if it was true. While he was running everyone looked at Sky like he was a crazy person.

"Sky! Seriously? You just offered him half of what we get?" Jericho asked in a loud voice.

"Yeah, Cap'n, why did you offer him that?" Jay asked.

"I want to make him a member of this crew. That's why." Sky said, crossing his arms.

"Oh. Wait, is he strong?" Jay asked.

"No, except for his dexterity stat his other stats are too low."

"Does he have a talent?" Jericho asked. That's the only reason he wanted Jay and Jules on his crew.

"No."

Jules raised an eyebrow.

"He has three."

{Jack Aalto}

{HP: 43k/43k}

{Mana: 10k/10k}

{Stats: Str: 2k Dex 24k Spd: 3k Int: 2k Wis: 1k: Vig: 4k}

{Personality: Kind, gentle}

{Loot drop: None}

{Cleaning: lvl: MAX}

{Swordsmanship: lvl 9}

{Cooking: lvl 8}

{Dead language: lvl 7}

{Talent: Swordsmanship talent: 100% Increase in damage when wielding a sword. 100% increase in skill experience with swords. Can handle any sword with ease}

{Talent: Cooking: 100% Increase in cooking experience. All cooking buffs made have increased by 100%. Has a high chance to successfully create any dish}

{Talent: Languages: 100% increase in any language experience. Can easily memorize and understand any language. Can easily write in any known language with high understanding}

No matter what Sky for sure wanted and needed someone like him to be a part of his crew. Finding someone with one talent is already rare enough, but finding someone with three is practically impossible yet there is one right there, and he had a great personality as well.

'Either he is extremely lucky to have three talents or his parents passed down those talents to him. Either way, that is extremely lucky and someone who I need to recruit. Also this is the first time I saw a MAX skill on somebody that isn't me. How much cleaning has he done in his life?' Sky thought. 

"Three?" Jericho was shocked but she still didn't understand how incredible it was. But she couldn't help but feel envious of those who had talents for she had none.

"What kind of talents does he have, Cap'n?" Jay asked, curious.

"He has a talent for swords, cooking, and languages."

"Ohh." 

"I sense metal moving towards us." Jericho said, taking out her daggers.

"I sense someone as well. No, I sense multiple people." Sky drew out his naginata and turned around. Before long he saw five men carrying swords and wearing the same clothes charging toward them.

Sky identified them to gouge their strength.

"They're strong but we're stronger." 

Jericho reached out her hand and broke their swords into multiple pieces. The man noticed and halted in their tracks.

"Jay, shoot two of them on their knees."

"On it." Instead of grabbing a gun Jay grabbed some stones from the ground and tossed them at the men. Two of them had stones pierce through their legs easily.

While the rest were distracted Sky appeared beside two more and cut off their legs with his naginata. Blood spewed everywhere as the men were crying in pain. They tried to fight back but any resistance was met by Sky cutting off a limb and healing them to close the wounds.

The remaining man looked at Sky and his friends, what can he possibly do? He was as strong as his friends yet they were all taken down easily.

"Boo." Sky appeared in front of the man. The man screamed in horror and ran away nearly tripping. He spoke in a language Sky could not understand.

"You're letting him go?" Jericho asked.

"So he can tell his friends about us. It'll be so much easier if they came to us. Parasite, infect him."

A black parasite spawned beside Sky and it disappeared before entering the man's body infecting him with the flu. On the way he started coughing and experienced cold chills running through his body.

Sky walked up to one of the men and proceeded to use {Sacrifice ritual} on him. Each of their stats were between 2-4k each which is great for him since any stat he steals he can take 90% of it.

{Ritual sacrifice: lvl 9: Steals 90% of one random stat of the sacrifice}

Jericho took their swords while Jay was keeping an eye out. Jules stood there wondering what to do next.

Soon, Jack returned to Sky with fear in his eyes. Sky read his mind, Jack was so scared that if his mother came home and he wasn't there he would get in trouble.

"Please, send me back. Please." Jack asked almost pleadingly.

"I can't, not until we beat the boss." Sky knew he could just use the dungeon escape stone to leave right now, since he has nine of them, but it seemed like a waste to use them on someone he doesn't even know if he is going to be in his crew.

"Please. Is there no other way?"

"Only if you're part of my crew but you're not." Sky wasn't lying. The dungeon escape stone forcefully exits him and all party members out of a dungeon. It was how he was able to escape from Lucious after all.

"Crew… listen man, please. I have to leave. You have no idea what is going to happen to me."

"Let me guess, someone you're deeply afraid of? A girlfriend perhaps? Maybe your wife?" Sky asked, already knowing the answer.

"Worse… it's worse than that." Jack looked at the ground too embarrassed to say it. 

"Look, man. If you want to leave this dungeon you need to help us clear it first, okay?"

"How… how long will that take?" 

'Also what the hell is a dungeon?' Jack thought.

"I don't know." Sky shrugged.

Jack looked down not knowing what to do. If he isn't home soon he will face his mother's wrath like never before.

"Let's go guys, we have a dungeon to clear." Sky and the rest were about to walk away, then Jack spoke up.

"Hold on, I'll help." Jack said.

"Excellent." Sky smiled and proceeded to walk, taking his sweet time. The crew walked, staying on guard at all times.

As they walked they rarely encountered more people on the way. There were too many ruins made of stone but no blood or bodies to be seen.

"Up ahead there's a village of those people. There's too many to count so be careful." Jack said.

"How far have you explored this dungeon?" Sky asked.

"Not that much. I am afraid if someone from that village saw me I would be surrounded by them."

"Smart."

"Sky." Jericho pointed to one of the ruins.

"Go get it." Sky said, already knowing what she was about to ask.

Jericho took a few steps forwards. She extended her hand then pulled it back. A gold chest went through the walls of the ruins leaving a hole behind.

"Ooh it's a gold one. Haven't seen one of these in a while, and it's in a purple dungeon." Sky was excited and so was everyone else. Jack stood there dumbfounded wondering what the hell a gold chest was doing here.

Sky took out a gold irish beer and drank it quickly.

{Resisted 100% of poison}

{Your luck will increase on three separate occasions}

This was Sky's second drink out of the ten he got from the Lepreshade. He doesn't get to decide when he gets lucky, but it activates whenever he opens a chest or enters a dungeon, he knows from experience after his first drink. Sky wanted to save these drinks for very special occasions such as this.

"Greedy adventure."

{Greedy adventurer activated. The next chest you find in a dungeon and open will have its rewards doubled}

{Cooldown: 24 hours: Cooldown is not affected by cooldown reduction skill}

Sky opened the chest and just as he expected he got a massive haul.

{Lucky moment has been activated. Two lucky moments remains}

{Received: 555,555,555 shells, 6x player coupons, 4x fairy in a bottle, 6x dungeon escape stone, 18 red scrolls, 6 purple scrolls}

{Shells: 1.49b}

"Did you get anything good?" Jericho asked. All the items went straight to his inventory.

"A lot."

"Do you guys hear that?" Jay asked.

Just then about thirty people were charging at Sky and his crew. They all had their weapons pointed at them ready to kill. They also had a pack of weird hybrid animals they'd never seen before. 

The animals seemed to have wings made of dark clouds, while their bodies were that of a lion, and with the head of a silver dragon. 

"What the hell are those things?" Jules asked, creeped out by the animals.

"I don't know either. They creeped me out every single time so I never fought them." Jack said.

'Identify.' 

{Lian}

{A mixed species of dragon and lion. They can be found above clouds on sky islands. They are tame in nature and loyal, but if threatened they will kill and devour their prey. The clouds on their backs determine their moods}

{HP: 31k/31k}

{Mana: 5k/5k}

{Stats: Str 4k. Dex: 2k. Spd: 5k. Int: 1k Wis: 1k Vig: 3k}

{Thunder-bite: Bites shock and electrocute}

Each Lian seems to have the same stats as the others, and they each bore their fangs to the group.

"Everyone get ready to fight!" Jack said holding a sword by its grip, he covered the blade with mana. And he very quickly drew the sword and slashed it at the group of lians creating an arc slash of mana.

The lians jumped over arc slash but the people behind them couldn't dodge or block it properly. Those who were hit by the arc slash had their blades cut in half and suffered a serious cut across their chests and arms. Jack was able to take down five people with one slice.

As the lians approached they saw the gold chest behind Sky and the crew move on its own. It flew up high and it crushed one of the lian's head, it moved too fast for them to react properly. Jericho not only collected metal weapons but lately she has been collecting all chests to add to her stash. 

Using the chest as a weapon she continued to either crush or push off the lians off the edge of the island.

Jay pointed his weapon at them. The weapon itself, a red-grade rifle, couldn't do much against the lians. Jay knew this so he covered the weapon and the bullets in mana, and with that he aimed it at the lians eye easily injuring and blinding them.

Jay's maximum amount of mana is at 2,500, it was a tiny pool of mana that can't make a difference even if he applied it to his weapons, but if he could aim it at a target's weak spots such as its eyes it can indeed make a difference.

Jack was dumbfounded by Jay's aim and Jericho's ability to use a gold chest as a club. But he noticed both Sky and Jules, who had their weapons drawn, weren't doing anything but keeping watch.

"Do you need them alive, Sky?" Jericho asked.

"Some of them if you can." Sky would have loved to catch them all to sacrifice them, but he believes it was important for his crew to test their abilities and grow in combat. 

"Okay, leave no survivors." Jules said with a slight smirk.

"Sure." Jay and Jericho said.

"Bruh."

While the lians were getting decimated by the two crew members the humans weren't far off behind them.

"I got this." Jules jumped up high above the men.

"Summon Megalodon."

She summoned a gigantic shark on top of the men. A megalodon can weigh around 50-70 tons if not more, and with that she crushed nearly all of the men with few narrowly managing to escape being crushed. She quickly unsummoned megalodon revealing a puddle of blood and flesh on the ground.

Those who survived tried to run away, but with the crew on one side and Jules on the other cutting off their only exit, they jumped off the islands screaming something none of them could understand.

Sky, with an eyebrow raised, he looked over the edge of the island looking where the men jumped off to.

"Did they escape or did they think jumping off the island to their deaths was the better option?" Sky asked.

"I am not sure. I can't fly so I can't check." Jack responded.

"Interesting. Summon lightning eagles."

Five birds of lightning appeared above Sky, startling Jack. Looking at the birds he became mesmerized by them.

"Go check down there to see if you find anything."

The five lightning eagles flew down below the clouds. Sky waited to see if his birds died or not.

"What's that ability?"

"It's a red skill, lightning birds."

"But I saw that ability before and that doesn't look like anything I saw."

"It's an evolved skill."

"Lightning birds can evolve?" Jack has heard of skills evolving but never seen it till now.

"Yeah."

{All lightning eagles have been destroyed. Summoning more lightning eagles}

Sky frowned. Were they killed or was it something else? He didn't hear or sense anything. Either way it seemed like the best choice now is to avoid falling down the islands even if they could fly.

"Unsummon lightning eagles." 

"Everything okay, captain?" Jay asked.

"I hope so. Anyways, for the moment of truth." Sky took out six purple scrolls which shocked Jack completely. 

The rest have already seen Sky take out many purple scrolls already. In fact they expected that one day he'll pull out a hundred scrolls out of his ass one day.

{Purple scroll: Curse of hearing}

{Purple scroll: Shield of damage absorption: lvl 1: Can apply a shield to self or others for one hour that absorbs damage equal to 10% of total HP that the wearer has} {Mana cost: 10% of maximum mana}

{Purple scroll: 23k strength}

{Purple scroll: 6k dexterity}

{Purple scroll: 14k speed}

{Purple scroll: Poisonous touch: lvl 1: Inflict poison to those you touch dealing 100 damage per second}

(Author's notes: Like always I use a random number generator for these moments}

"Okay, one scroll for each of you. One is a speed scroll, dexterity, and strength. The other three are abilities, one is a curse of hearing, another is shield absorption which can cast a pretty good shield on us, and the last one can poison others you touch. I'll keep the strength scroll for myself."

"I'll take the poison touch." Jules said.

"Are you going to poison us?"

"I literally can't do that and you know it." Jules crossed her arms.

"Fair enough. Take it." without asking her any more questions Sky handed her the scroll.

"I would like the dexterity scroll." Jay asked. 

"Here ya go." Sky tossed it to him. "And you, Jeri?"

"The shield one."

"Hm, interesting. Here." Sky handed her the scroll.

Sky grabbed the speed scroll and extended his arm towards Jack.

"What?" Jack asked, stunned.

"Take it." Sky said.

"Why?"

"Because you helped."

"No I mean why are you… oh, but I am not a part of your crew."

"I don't want you to die here, so use it."

Jack extended his hand and grabbed the scroll. This is the second purple scroll he got, before getting such a scroll was more of a dream, now he has two.

Jericho looked at Jack knowing well how she felt.

Jack read the scroll.

"Wait, this is the strength scroll." Jack said, expecting that it was the speed scroll.

"I know. Don't you, as a sword user, benefit from strength and dexterity?"

"Well yes but… thank you."

"Mhm." Sky ripped the scroll acquiring even more speed.

{Stats: Str: 33k Dex: 29k Spd: 39k Int: 30k Mind: 50k Vig: 75k}

"Does nobody want the curse scroll?"

Everyone looked at each other. No one wanted the scroll.

"Why does nobody want it?"

"Well… I don't know about Jack but none of us want to learn curses. They take too long to learn and well… not to mention, that's your specialty." Jay said.

"Yeah, Sky, we have seen you practice all those curses almost every day. Our curses won't compare to yours." Jericho said.

"And besides we rather practice other skills." Jules added.

"Fair. What about you, Jack?"

"I… am good." Jack said. It felt wrong taking another purple scroll, especially when everyone else didn't want it.

"Well we can sell it to the merchant. His shop should reset soon anyways." Sky put the scroll away. He had wished that the gold chest contained an item, like a weapon of sorts.

Taking out the four fairies from their bottles they surrounded Sky and gave him a kiss before flying away and disappearing into particles.

{Ship repairing lvl 2 → lvl MAX}

{Evasion: lvl 2 → lvl MAX: 30% chance to evade enemies}

{Poison eye: lvl 5 → lvl MAX: Can poison enemies by looking at them. Enemies take 500 damage per second and experience great pain}

This skill was the only skill not found in any scroll. It was bought from the merchant.

{Mana manipulation: lvl 1 → lvl MAX: Can manipulate mana at a master level}

Sky was so glad to have the fairies even if they can only sometimes be found in gold chests. He has so many skills that it takes too long to level them up.

"Okay, let's get going. Jeri, please be on the lookout for more chests."

"Aye."