Ryu

The group in no time appeared before the village. There was a large wooden gate in front but a small wall around the village. The "wall" was really just a single row of stone bricks making a perfect circle around the village.

"Who puts a giant gate without a wall? That's like adding a door but no building." Jay asked.

"Maybe they're still in the process of building? But it would be rude not to knock first. Stand back" Sky conjured a fireball in front of him without using his hand.

{Giant fireball: lvl 1: 1000 damage + mana inserted: 10% chance to burn target}

{Cast time required: 10 seconds}

{Mana: 200k/200k}

{Mama: 100k/200K)

The heat got so intense that his crew took a few steps back.

Inserting 100k of his mana the fireball grew in size, and in ten seconds he released it and it blew up the door startling everyone in the village.

"Show off." Jules said.

{Skill level up: Giant fireball: lvl 1 → lvl 2: 2000 damage + mana inserted: 20% to burn target}

They heard the sounds of people startled and the sounds of lions roaring, then followed by sounds of steel and heavy footsteps coming towards them.

{Skill level up: Parasite lvl 2 → lvl 3: Those infected with influenza will suffer harsher symptoms}

Just as the men appeared they were all slower than the others they saw. They were coughing, sweating, experiencing cold, and felt weaker as if their energy was gone. Parasite had already infected everyone in the village.

As for the lians they seemed unaffected and were charging at the crew at full speed.

"That's a horrible skill no matter how many times I see it." Jericho stated. Sky used that skill to clear mobs in red dungeons, but it never seems to work on bosses.

To her and Jay this skill was too powerful. How can anyone defend themselves from an attack they can't see or touch until it's too late?

"But it's very effective." Sky smirked. He did study it and found that some species are more resistant to parasite compared to humans who seem to have a weaker immune system, which is why the lians seemed to be unaffected but in reality the parasite has entered their bodies.

The lians were quickly cut down by Jack, with his dexterity and strength stat several times higher than the lians overall stats he cut them down without any effort. Jack was impressed with his newfound strength.

'Wow.' Jack clenched his hands around the sword's grip, both happy and satisfied.

Jericho took a step forward and reached her hand towards the sick men. She took away their own swords, and with those very same swords she cut them down.

Sky could hear the notifications of his crew leveling up and himself getting money from each kill, except Jack who hasn't joined his crew.

As Sky got closer to the village he stopped and spread his hands out to stop his crew from advancing.

"What?" Jericho asked.

"I sense someone strong up ahead in one of the buildings." Sky said while sweating slightly. The buildings were also made of stone bricks picked up from ruins.

But the building where the strong being was is a large tent.

"Is it the boss monster?" Jack asked expectantly. If they can clear the dungeon quick enough he can still make it home without getting in trouble.

"I… I don't know." Sky said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it just doesn't seem where a dungeon boss would be held at. It seems quick and… easy." Sky had his doubts about this being a boss monster.

"So what do we do?" Jules asked.

"We wait for a few seconds till my mana recovers. Liiiiiiiiike… now!" 

{Mana: 200k/200k}

'Hey, just in time.' Sky smiled. His mana regeneration was broken beyond repair.

His natural mana regeneration is 50k because his mind stat is at 50k, but if he were to add the 300% increase in mana regeneration from his system, plus 100% more when he stands still, plus 400% from his mind pants, and 1000% from child of Puor, and the fact that it takes him only 30 seconds to regenerate mana instead of one minute like everybody else made him a monster in recovering mana for anyone with the same stats as him.

Jack took a step forward and swung both his blades creating an invisible 'x' full of pure energy from just his swing alone.

He tore the tent in half revealing an old but tall, bulky, sleeping man in a sitting position facing towards them. The man had multiple scars across his neck and face. Unlike everyone else he wore a yellow robe and had no shoes, on his side he had a long sword that was sheathed.

The man opened his eyes, on his left eye he was blinded due to being cut there with a sword as one could see from the scar running across his face.

But his other eye was glowing a bright white light.

The crew took a defensive position.

'Identify.' 

{Yellow Ryu: Mini-boss}

{HP: 500k/500k}

{Mana: 500k/500k}

{Stats: ???}

{Skills: ???}

{A powerful warrior that guards the sky dragon king from trespassers}

'Well, it's been a while since I have seen the '?' on the system, but I don't think I ever saw it on a boss before. Wait, that's a mini-boss?' Sky looked at him carefully. The last time he fought a mini-boss it was an ape from the very beginning of his adventures.

'Then where the hell is the boss? Curse of sloth.'

Ryu, sensing an attack, drew his sword and deflected something in the air.

{Yellow Ryu has blocked 'curse of sloth'}

'What? Since when can curses be deflected?' Sky was both horrified and amazed.

The man sheathed his sword before drawing it again and shooting a powerful arc at them. 

Jack ran ahead and swung his two swords creating another powerful slash arc. Both energy slashes clashed and created an explosion covering the entire area with dust.

"I can't see!" Jay said.

Sky cleared the dust with his air. To their horror Ryu was already close to them.

"SHIT!" Jack, while cursing, raised his swords as he blocked Ryu's sword. Ryu used his other arm, covered it in mana and turned it to another blade. But then Sky teleported beside Ryu on his blind side and swung his naginata at Ryu.

Ryu, with his hand now a mana blade swung towards Sky which both of their blades clashed.

{Slow time: lvl 8: Slows down time by 80%. Mana cost: 10% max per minute}

Slowing down time considerably, Sky teleported on the other side of Ryu stabbing him on his stomach.

{Ryu has resisted most of the damage}

{Damage dealt: 3k}

'What?' Sky stabbed him on the stomach and it only caused three thousand health out of the half a million he had?

Ryu could faintly see Sky was slowing down time. His eye glowed even brighter while looking at Sky.

{Silenced has been cast on the player: Unable to use any skill for 10 seconds}

'What?' Sky was flabbergasted. That was a skill he hadn't seen before. Had his system shown that skill before he would have been careful.

His ability to slow down time was nullified. Jack jumped back realizing he was in grave danger. Ryu ignored Jack and kicked Sky as hard as he could.

Sky blocked his attack with his naginata. Not realizing how much power his kick contained, Sky's naginata was thrown out of his hands and it flew to the edge of the island and it dropped down to the clouds!

{Damage received: You have blocked the majority of the damage: 2k → 1k 50% damage negated}

"Shit!" 

{Naginata has been destroyed}

Ryu swung his sword but his blade was paused mid-way. Jericho was straining her body using all her mana to keep the man from swinging his blade.

She tried to break his sword but she couldn't do it. There was something strange about his weapon that didn't let her break it.

Ryu noticed her but before he could do anything, at that time Sky rushed in with his body covered in mana.

Covering his hands with most of his mana he lunged at him and struck him. Ryu, with one hand, made a mana sword and swung at Sky. Both of them clashed but there was no explosion this time. Sky was lucky that one of the fairies had increased his {control mana} to the maximum level which made it easier to control in this fight.

{Mana: 200k/200k}

{Mana: 183k/200k}

{Mana: 133k/200k}

Sky could feel his mana was draining rapidly with each passing second.

Jay, realizing his rifle wasn't going to even hurt the boss, grabbed the bullets he had and threw them with perfect accuracy at his face, more specifically his eye. Throwing bullets was stronger and better than him using a red-grade rifle weapon.

Ryu tilted his head and body slightly to avoid his attacks.

'Jericho, when Jules attacks him, invite Jack to the party!' 

Sky spoke to Jericho in her mind.

'What?' Jericho looked at Sky still clashing with Ryu. 

He kept inserting mana so he wouldn't be overpowered, but at this rate he would run out of mana before he could regenerate anymore.

'DO IT! BEFORE WE BOTH RUN OUT OF MANA!' Sky took out a mana potion from his inventory and a dungeon escape stone with his free hand. He drank the mana potion quickly.

Just as he said, Jules appeared behind Ryu lunging at him with her trident on hand.

Jericho let go of his sword almost fainting from exhaustion. Ryu swung his blade at Jules but she managed to deflect it but her trident was being severely damaged.

Jericho didn't know what Sky was thinking but she trusted him. She ran to Jay who was looking for an opening to attack.

"JACK! JOIN OUR PARTY!"

"What?"

Jericho jumped, grabbed his face, and said,

"JUST SAY YES!"

"Yes?"

{Jack Aalto has joined the party}

Jericho and Sky saw the notification pop up. 

'Finally!'

With his other hand free Sky crushed the stone. Everyone soon disappeared from the area.

Ryu looked around for a while before making a 'humph' sound and sat down in his broken tent.

Sky and the rest appeared in Jack's dungeon gasping for air.

"We're… back." Jack noticed the familiar room.

"We're alive." Jules let out a sigh of relief. She looked at her trident and sighed. She threw it away because it was broken and useless.

"Yeah, barely." 

{Mana: 11k/200k}

Sky was on the verge of losing his mana just now. 'I got humbled real hard just now.' 

"We were too weak." Jericho said. Her arms were shaking from the pain of holding back Ryu's sword. If he had used his full strength to force it out of her control she could have lost all her mana, but he was focused on Sky, dodging Jay's bullets, and fighting Jules at the same time.

Jay didn't say anything, he just stared at the ceiling.

"Hey, you had a way to get us out of that place this whole time?" Jack, who was standing up, looked at Sky.

"I didn't lie." Sky stood up, "I said you had to be a part of my crew to leave, which is why Jericho, who is the second in command, had to invite you, otherwise we would've left you alone with that monster." Sky said.

"But… wait…" Jack thought how weird Jericho did that in the heat of battle, but what makes less sense is how any of what Sky just said works.

"It's how my powers work, don't question it." Sky said, even without reading his mind he could tell what he was thinking.

"I… couldn't you use that method earlier for me when I asked you?"

"No, I only have a limited number of those items and I can't use them recklessly, like right now, if I didn't have one we would all be dead… at least most of us would be. That's our life-guard, and I can't waste it like that." Sky said in a serious tone.

Jack let go of his weapons and he dropped on his knees.

"Wow… I feel weird all of a sudden."

"The adrenaline is wearing off and you almost died today, being back at home made your body feel relaxed. You don't have high vigor stats so a single punch from that monster would have ended your life, out of all of us you were the one mostly in danger." Sky chuckled as he dusted the dust off his clothes.

"Makes sense. Oh god… I almost died, you're right." Jack was shaking from the realization that death was at his doorstep.

"But you were the one who charged first, and I liked that."

"I didn't know what I was thinking." Jack said.

"I'll tell you what I am thinking. I want you to be a part of my crew." Sky said, extending his hand towards him.

"What?" Jack asked.

No one else was surprised, they already knew.

"I want you to sail with us. You have a talent for swords, I need talent like you to join me."

Jack shook his head and lied down.

"I can't. I can't leave my family but thanks for the offer."

"Jack, wasn't today… exciting?"

"Even though we almost died and I was stuck in a foreign world? I guess… much more fun than cleaning, that's for sure."

"Don't you want that kind of excitement in your life? Getting stronger, nearly escaping death, killing monsters and clearing portals?"

"Like I said, I cannot leave my family."

Sky nodded.

"Shame, and I really wanted you to join. Can I buy your painting?" Sky pointed to the painting.

"Buy it? Go ahead. I don't want to go back there alone to face that monster." Jack could not see himself defeating Ryu so he decided to not go back.

It would be worse if it escaped the painting and it killed him and his family and everyone in the island, at least that is what his fear is telling him that might happen.

"Here's twenty million. That should be more than fair." Sky placed the card on the table while placing the painting on his inventory.

"Wait, what, how much?" Jack thought he heard him wrong.

"It's twenty million shells. It's yours. Let's go guys." Sky put the painting away in his inventory.

Everyone stood up and got ready to leave.

"Oh, Jack, by the way. The offer will stand for a few days. I plan to take a few days here to rest."

"I can't leave. I… am afraid." He couldn't say he was afraid of his own mother.

He wants to be free from his mother's grasp, but is too afraid to take the first move. He doesn't want to have to listen to someone else who will just give him and bark him order after order after bloody order. He doesn't want to live the life he has where he is judged, ignored, beat up, has to clean and clean again and again while others make his life difficult.

Jack would much rather face a powerful mini-boss and nearly die than to face his mom. That's how afraid he was of her.

Knowing what Jack was thinking, Sky said, "No one in my crew was forced to join me, except Jules but she's a slave. If you join me you'll be stronger and richer, as you can already tell." Sky gestured to him. 

Jack was now several times stronger than anyone on the island, and is now several times richer.

"And when you want to leave you can always leave without repercussions."

"Ha… sorry, didn't mean to laugh. It's just… I don't know."

"You'll be paid, both with money and with items. How do you think my crew is so strong? You think they were that strong when I recruited them? You think I was this strong when I first started this… venture? And do you think I was rich enough to give you twenty million at the start."

"I get it. The answer is still no." Jack was firm on his decision.

"I see. If you want to leave this place, either come look for my ship, it's a big one. Or… you can give me a call."

"Your ship has a phone? That's cool."

"We don't, it's a part of my abilities. Just say, 'access chat: Sky' and you can give me a call that way."

"There's no way that…" Jack stopped mid-sentence realizing he's seen weirder things thanks to him.

"Okay, we'll be taking our leave now. Everyone, hold hands." Sky teleported his entire crew out of the house without raising any alarm or suspicions.

Jack sighed before getting up. He put away his swords but noticed they had cracks on them. They sustained damage from the fight just now.

"Well… these things were already old." 

He went back to cleaning like always. With his newfound strength and dexterity he could clean even more effortlessly.

Reaching for his pocket he noticed he had a card. It was the card with twenty million shells Sky gave him.

"There's no way there's twenty million in this card, right?" Jay asked him, doubting Sky. "But if there is, we'd be set."

Meanwhile Sky and the rest boarded their ship relieved to be safe.

"I'm sorry you guys lost your weapons." Jericho said.

Jules shrugged, it wasn't hers but Sky's, but it was a good quality weapon she did enjoy.

"It's fine. I got more weapons from clearing all those dungeons." Sky said. He took out a red grade sword and a red grade shield and a red-grade trident.

"Jules!" Sky tossed her a trident which she caught.

He was glad he cleared dozens of red portals and brought Jericho along for all of them to find the hidden chests, even if the majority of them were just bronze or silver chests.

"Captain… I need help." Jay walked up to Sky in a bad mood.

"Yeah… but I don't know how to help you." Sky said.

Jay had a problem he didn't see before, finding a good weapon. Just now he felt useless and all he could do was fling bullets at Ryu even then he didn't land a single hit on him. He prided himself on his good aim but this is the first time he faced such a problem.

Sky and Jules didn't have to worry because their weapons scale with their stats. Jay, however, specializes in long ranged weapons, especially guns, and such weapons do not scale with his stats.

He could add mana to his bullets, but he barely had any to begin with.

"How about a bow?" Jay asked. Thinking about it, that might work.

"A bow… interesting, but I don't have a bow. One hasn't dropped in any of the dungeons we visited."

"Shoot."

"So we either need to give you a bow or a purple-grade gun. Hmm… there's only one man who can do that for us."

Sky went inside his ship followed by everyone closely behind him. He took out a blue scroll and tore it to summon the merchant.

{Player coupon: 19}

{Dungeon escape stone: 10}

{Blue scroll: 6}

"SKY!" The merchant showed up waving his hands at him. "And friends."

"Sup." Jules gave him a small nod, Jericho waved and smiled back, Jay waved at him slightly.

Sky had taken numerous quests from him and earned many player coupons. He even upgraded the merchant's shop: there were nine quests he could accept, fifteen items he could buy, and three special items in front of him. 

The merchant was beginning to be harder to find, sometimes Sky couldn't find him. He once found him three times in one day, which is useless since his inventory resets once every twenty four hours.

He looked at his inventory and there was nothing he could buy. Not even the special items were good, each cost only one coupon and they were useless to him.

One is a red-grade pair of scissors that can cut paper perfectly. Another is a packet of potions that increases his health by ten thousand each, which is useless since Jules can make better potions. And lastly the last one is a book with a red-grade skill book.

"Hey… can I issue a quest?" Sky asked.

"I am afraid not. Many players and other system users have asked the same question: no, system users cannot issue quests, they can only accept quests."

"I figured. I just need something really quick but it's getting rare and harder to find you. Not to mention waiting an entire day for you is too long."

Jericho saw something she liked, it was a block of iron, so she took and placed it in front of the merchant, and then placed the money beside it.

"Thank you. Jericho." The merchant, although you couldn't see his face, smiled at her before turning his attention to Sky.

Jericho smiled before taking her block of iron with her. Jay patted her head. They have bought some things from the merchant with their money, sometimes.

"Sky… how many times have you found me or summoned me already?" The merchant rested his chin on his hand while stretching his back.

"I haven't been keeping count, but about over forty times? Why do you ask?"

"This is actually our forty-ninth time. I am not supposed to say it but if you summon me again after twenty four hours, or you find me quickly in a dungeon, the system will give you a new function I believe you'll like." 

"What function?"

"Ah."

*Ding* 

A discord notification could be heard from his pc.

"Ah shit. You'll find out soon. I really can't tell you but you'll see soon." He took his phone since he couldn't leave his post, and he read the comment and his imaginary eyes popped out.

"WHAT! SONIC THREE IS OUT ON THEATERS?! AND IT'S GOOD?!?!?!"

"What?" Everyone was confused.

"Sorry, I am just excited. If you're not going to buy anything else I am leaving. Byeeeee. HEY! G! I AM TAKING MY BREAK!"

His voice faded before his shop disappeared.

"He's a weird fella." Jules said.

"I always liked him. He's cool." Jay added.

"Okay. Let's just take a break for the next few days. Do whatever you want."

"You really meant it? Or was that because you're waiting for Jack to join?" Jericho asked.

"I really want Jack to join us, but if he doesn't want to I will not force him."

"Why not just… do what you did to me to him?" Jules pointed to herself.

"You were already a slave when I met you, Jules. Besides, I really believe he'll join us soon."

"What makes you say that, Captain?" Jay asked.

"Just a feeling." Sky smiled at them.