A new lead

The day passed and Sky fed the chest another item, but like before DEVOURER spat out nothing after consuming ten red-grade items.

Sky looked down and grabbed his face in frustration.

"Either your luck is terrible or its chances to produce a purple item are low." Jules said. She was there to see how the chest worked for her own curiosity. 

"Maybe it's both." Sky sighed. They have already fed it twenty more red items yet they got no results.

It seemed like a waste to throw away items to the DEVOURER. With ten red items he could sell them to the merchant for 10-20 million shells and that's without adding the gold sentient brick's multiplier.

{Food is ready}

Tianna used the system's chat to communicate with everyone on the ship for convenience. Since they are all part of the system they can all use it, until recently Sky told them to use it.

"Oh goodie, food." Sky stood up thinking about what new delicious food Jack had prepared for them.

"I am so glad you recruited him. I really am." Jules doesn't remember the last time she had such great food from someone. She does admit humans cooked better than mermaids ever could and liked their cuisine, but Jack's cooking was the best she had.

"Same. See you in the dining room."

Sky teleported to the dining room leaving Jules behind.

'You could have taken me with you.' Jules sighed, but before she took another step Sky appeared before her, held her shoulder, and teleported to the where Jay and Jules were already sitting on one of the tables. 

Jules just stared at Sky for a bit.

"Woah, you guys got here quick." Sky ignored Jules and sat down on the table that was already set up.

"We could smell the food from the other room and we couldn't wait any longer." Jericho said, enjoying the smell.

Soon the slaves and Jack appeared to serve the food. To everyone's surprise Jack was completely missing his hair.

Jack had short but spiky black hair that made him look cool. But with this new hairstyle he still looked good somehow. He looked serious and fierce without hair.

"Um…" Jericho didn't know what to say.

"Jack… is cooking for us stressful for you?" Sky asked, concerned while pointing at his head.

"Oh, what? Ha! No." Jack chuckled a bit. "I cut my hair and shaved my head when I woke up. I've been meaning to do this for years and I finally got the chance to do it this morning."

"Ahhh." Everyone said.

"I like it." Jericho said honestly.

"I also like it. Makes you look tough, like me." Jay flexed his non-existent muscles.

"Hm, I don't hate it."

"Thank you, guys. I like it as well."

Sky, however, read his mind.

Jack was thinking of how he always liked his father's choice of hairstyle and always wanted to do it for himself, but his mom never let him because she didn't think he'd look good bald.

"Wait, how did you shave your head? Did you pack a razor and shaving cream?" Jay asked.

"Uhhhhhhh… look at the food!" Jack said while everyone else placed the plates on the table while avoiding the question.

Sky read his mind. Jack used someone's razor in the bathroom, Jay's. Jericho and Jules don't use razor's, while his own razor is in his inventory.

'Pft.' Sky chuckled inward.

Much like the food from yesterday everyone loved the food being presented, by the end there were no leftovers left.

After finishing the food Sky teleported to the ship's deck to practice with his staff. Unlike before when he first started Sky seemed to now know how to wield a staff properly as if he had been practicing with it for years.

{Staff mastery: lvl 8: 80% more damage: 8% chance to stun enemy for 1 second}

Sky will never stop being amazed by how powerful this system is. As long as he practices a skill he can accumulate more experience in a day than people would in years.

{Slow time lvl 9: Slows time by 90%. Mana cost: 10% max mana per minute}

Sky didn't tell his crew but he has been training this skill for a while now, the more time he had to practice his skills the better. In reality they could have been in Servus Terra sooner if he didn't use this skill frequently but he felt that he had to, this skill of his is very powerful and is unmatched when trained to the highest level. It is the most powerful skill out of all the other purple-grade skills, a skill that should be found on black scrolls only.

At least that is what he thought until he fought Ryu and silenced him and nullified all his skills.

'If I can level up the skill once more will I evolve it or will it say 'MAX' and let me stop time completely? I don't know.' 

Sky thought how can people in the Land of the Gods, who easily have access to purple scrolls, counter against this time ability? 

'I'll ask Madame the next time she appears.'

Jules, Jay, Jack, and Jericho stared at Sky. To them it looked like he was swinging around his staff extremely fast, almost like how one would stare at the propellers of a helicopter.

"So is he really fast or is he slowing down time?" Jack asked,

"Both, honestly." Jericho said.

"Huh." Jack wasn't even surprised Sky could slow down time and neither was anybody else. Somehow it seemed more likely that Sky could slow down time rather than creating a purple portal inside a painting in his own house. 

"So does he always practice like that?"

"Yeah. We don't know how to say it or if you'll believe it but if you're on his crew you can learn things faster than usual." Jules pointed out.

"Is that so? So I can learn to sing or dance or paint really fast if I wanted to?"

"Not as fast as him but yeah." Jay said.

"I shouldn't believe this… but I do." Jack touched his head forgetting he had shaved his head.

'Hmmm… smooth.'

"Well if he's practicing I gotta practice as well." Jericho walked past Sky and practiced her magnetism.

Jules left as she continued making more potions. She didn't believe she could achieve fast or good results with alchemy, but even she could see she was already what people would call her a master at the craft in such little time.

"I gotta practice as well." Before Jay left, Jack stopped him.

"Wait, what else should I know about… well what should I know?"

"We never did tell you much, did we? Well what you should know for starters is that…"

Meanwhile…

On Marjack a Caribbean ship docked on the island. A familiar man that had the appearance of a dirty pirate landed on the island looking around.

He noticed there was a lot of reconstruction going around which bothered him. Before he took another step an old Caribbean officer with three tidal waves ran up to him.

"Sir Boris!" He saluted him properly.

"At ease."

"We weren't aware you were coming here."

"I tried phoning your island but no one picked up. What happened?"

"This is not my island but I am temporarily placed in charge here. There was a pirate raid here, and the brave souls stationed here were able to repel them but at a great price." The officer gestured to the island.

"Oh, so the pirates were able to destroy communications."

"No… not exactly. Two days after the pirates were repelled, someone stole the phones from the island at night, most likely to sell them and make a quick buck. We've been using our own warship phones to communicate with nearby islands until we can find replacements."

"I see. Do you know the fate of the Haydie family? I came here for them."

"Haydie? I am not sure, sir. Some citizens did die, most went missing including many officers, as far as thirty of them have yet to be found."

"That many Caribbean men are missing?"

"Yes. We are still looking for the pirates who fled but we haven't found anything. We've issued a mass man-hunt for these pirates who kidnapped those innocent and brave men."

No one could ever suspect Sky not only kidnapped nearly a hundred people to level up his death curse, but he also took down the fleeing pirates for his own benefit.

"And also… someone stole everything the island had from the Caribbean vault. We think it's a pirate but it might also be someone who was looking for an opportunity. I suspect this person knew about the vault and has been planning to rob it for months."

Boris, with a sigh, took out a card and gave it to the officer.

"This is my own money I was planning to give to a family here, but it seems more people need this money. There are about seven million shells here so use it well."

"Thank you, sir. Should I send someone to look for the Haydie family?"

"Please do."

The officer left running. Boris became worried thinking that Jericho's family had died. He only came to this island to tell them that Jericho had died, and to give them money which he had been saving up to help them with the huge debt they owed to the Caribbean.

He was glad that their debt is now gone, but felt tragic to what befell to Jericho. Boris would have arrived at the island sooner but Xero had placed him on portal duty for failing to retrieve the purple scroll that Jericho's father took. Now for the next four months he had to clear twenty portals a day which takes up most of his time.

Clearing the portals isn't difficult for someone of his strength, it was finding portals that took him so long.

"Sir, what should we do?!" a Caribbean officer yelled at him from their ship.

"Lewis, go tell everyone to help out with the island!"

"On it!"

All the Caribbean men on Boris' ship jumped down the island to help out in any way they could.

Boris was curious about something else and walked to the Caribbean building. It was fairly large with many rooms and was clean on the inside.

"Sir!" A young Caribbean man saluted him.

"At ease. Can you show me the vault?"

"Yes, sir. Please follow me."

Boris followed him to a room deeper inside the building. There it was, the vault that was wide open. The door is a heavy vault made of twenty inches of steel.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Yes, sir. Someone stole everything from the vault."

"No, I meant… ugh." Boris sighed, "I meant have you guys found any kind of evidence?"

"None, sir. Vault was closed, all the keys were on their usual spots, the lock hadn't been tampered, there were no signs of forced entry, no blood, hairs, nothing. Whoever did this was a ghost."

"Or they teleported here and out, that's what I would do if I had that ability. Have you guys found any suspects?"

"A few but none we could pinpoint with any evidence. There are these four guys who witnesses said they mentioned about money and slaves, but we can't have them talk."

"And why is that?"

"They're deadly sick, sir. We treated them with healing spells, potions, even fed them antibiotics but nothing seems to work. They have the flu but strangely enough they're not spreading it, it's just those four who have been infected. Now they're too weak to even talk."

"That's strange, I don't think the flu works like that. Keep me updated on those four. How about people who left the island after the pirate raid?"

"There have been many, many civilians who used whatever they had left to leave this island for their own safety right after the raid happened so we didn't think much of it or kept tabs of everyone who stayed or left. We didn't think of searching the civilian ships for the stolen items until two days later after a Caribbean officer stole our phones and fled in a civilian ship."

"I see. Guess there's not much for me to do here without any leads. I really hope you guys find the remaining pirates."

"Sir Boris!" The Caribbean man from before came running to Boris.

"Oh, back so soon. You found the Haydie family?"

"Yes, they're alive and well. This is their address." He handed Boris a tiny sheet of paper.

"Well done." 

Boris walked out of the building memorizing the address of Jericho's family. In no time he appeared in front of their house.

'Hm, their house is bigger than I thought. Oh, well, here goes nothing.'

He gently knocked on the door twice. The door opened slightly with a mature older woman peeking through the crack of the door. There was a chain on the door still attached that didn't let the door open any further.

"Yes?"

Boris took off his own hat and held it in front of him with both hands.

"Hello, are you Mabel Haydie?"

"I am. What does a four tidal wave officer want?"

"I came bearing tragic news, can I come in for a minute?"

Mabel's eyes widened. She closed the door and unchained it before opening it completely.

"What's wrong?"

"Mom?"

Katelyn appeared beside her mom when she noticed Boris was there.

"I'm guessing you must be Katelyn Haydie. I came here to tell you both that Jericho Haydie is missing as of three weeks ago during a mermaid ambush on my ship. The fault lies completely on me. I am sorry."

Boris is not the one to apologize or do something like this if it wasn't one of his men, but he feels guilty that he had indirectly let Jericho to her death after taking her and everyone else on his ship. Not to mention he was also tasked with locating Harvey Haydie.

"Um, what?" Both were left bewildered and confused.

Boris noticed their reaction. They should've been shocked and devastated by the news as anyone would be, but their reaction was that of confusion.

"I said that Jericho Haydie is missing and presumed dead after a mermaid ambush two… I mean three weeks ago."

Katelyn and Mabel looked at each other more confused than anything.

"I guess you guys are… processing this news. I will be taking my leave now. I am sorry." Boris left though a bit of doubt lingered on his mind.

Kately and Mabel closed and locked their door.

"Jericho died? But we just spoke to her and Jay this morning." Mabel asked, confused.

"Yeah… he must be confused. Let's not say anything about anything just in case."

Mabel nodded before going on with their business.

Boris continued walking down the road before he stopped in the middle of the road. Mabel and Katelyn's reactions were too unnatural for him. 

In his line of work he had seen many families torn when he personally went to give them the news of their loved ones passing, as captain of his own ship and crew he bore the responsibility to give the families of his men the tragic news, and it never gets easy.

The worst ones he always sees are when old parents hear their child has been killed in the line of duty.

Boris turned around and faced the Haydie house pondering for a while. He turned at one of the neighbouring houses and knocked on their door.

"Yes?" A random old woman opened the door angrily and annoyed.

"Hello, madam, can I ask you a question about your neighbor there?"

"What about them?"

"Well have you noticed anything about them?"

"No, never seen them before." She shut the door loudly on his face. He scoffed and went to the next house.

The next four neighbors provided next to no answers. Two of the houses had no idea about the Haydie family, and the other two had family that passed away during the raid so they could not tell him anything. 

Until the next house he visited. He knocked and moments later a young man opened the door only wearing his underwear.

"Uh… sir?" Boris ignored the fact he was half-naked.

"Sup?" He said without a care in the world.

"I need to ask you a question about your neighbor?"

"Which one?"

"That… that one." Boris pointed to a house.

With his eyes squinted and leaned over.

"Oh, yeah, I know them. Well I don't know them personally but I've seen them. What about them?"

"Have you noticed anything weird?"

"Weird? No, nothing weird, sir. They seem like a happy family to me, a good looking family to boot. The oldest daughter is fine but shame she has a boyfriend, and the mom is so hot. And the youngest one seems adorable."

"The youngest one? Can you describe her?"

"Yeah, she's tiny, adorable, doesn't have any freckles like her mom and sister, and she had twin-tails."

"Wait… when did you last see her?" Boris asked, intrigued.

"Uhhh… last time I saw them was a day after the pirate raid happened. Thankfully the pirates didn't come for my house else I'd be dead."

"Hm… interesting. You said you last saw her after the pirate raid, do you know where she went?"

"No, it would be weird if I did. All I know is that she followed these two men, one of them is the oldest one's boyfriend, a lucky bastard."

"Two… Can you describe them for me? What do they look like?"

"Uh… the oldest one's boyfriend is relatively tall, scar on his cheek, always carried a gun with him, uh… about my age, short blonde hair. The other one was shorter than the other guy, slim, tan, black short curly hair."

Boris pulled out a folder out of a card he kept in his pocket and showed him a picture of Sky.

"Is this the one you saw?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Did you by any chance see a woman with them? Tall, beautiful, blonde, maybe carried a trident with her?"

The man shook his head. 

Jules had been hiding in the ocean the whole time and no one had seen her.

"Hm, do you know where they went?"

"Hell if I know. I'm just in my house most of the time and only go outside to fish for food. Why did they do something bad?"

"I don't know but thank you for your help. And, put some clothes on next time when you answer the door, please, it's common courtesy."

The man looked downwards on his body.

"I only have one pair of clothes and two pairs of underwear, and they're all drying on the drying rack right now."

Boris left with a heavy sigh. He quickly appeared in front of the Haydie house and knocked louder this time.

Mabel answered the door again not expecting Boris to be in her front door again.

"You again?"

"Yes, me again. May I come in?"

"No, this isn't your house."

She attempted to close the door but Boris put his foot between the crack.

"Miss, I already know your daughter is alive with Sky Rouge, and I believe the other is named Jay?"

Mabel started to sweat.

"She is not in trouble, and I am glad she and Jay are alive. But I have a question to ask, if you refuse to ask I will hold you in prison."

"Haven't you Caribbean done enough damage to my family? First my husband is dead, then you pin his actions on my family and have to pay a sum almost nobody can afford, and we almost became slaves to the Caribbean, so please just leave us the fuck alone!" Mabel was on the verge of tears.

"Mom?" Katelyn ran down after hearing a commotion.

Boris sighed angrily.

"Listen, your daughter and the others might have a dangerous woman onboard who might know something dangerous, it is the reason why we were attacked! That's why half of my men were slaughtered by fishmen three weeks ago! If this person is still with them I need to know, else more people will die. I will get answers now or I will issue a bounty on Sky and your daughter and Jay to find them, and you will be put in jail for failing to cooperate with a Caribbean man and withholding dangerous information."

Mabel stopped trying to forcefully close the door and stood still for a few seconds.

"I need to close the door to unchain it."

Boris stepped back. The door opened with Katelyn looking worried and Mabel looking angry.

Boris's eyes changed color.

"Have you last seen this woman with them when they last visited you?" Boris showed them a drawn portrait of Jules.

Katelyn and Mabel looked at the painting before responding "No, we haven't seen her."

Boris could tell they were telling the truth.

"Did Sky or anybody mention her?"

"They said she is a slave, a mermaid slave bound to Sky." Katelyn said.

"Kate, baby, why don't you go upstairs and leave me with the officer."

"I can't let you do that. I need both of you to stay here. It won't be long as long as you both manage to answer truthfully."

Mabel looked at him angrily. They cannot trick or lie themselves out of this.

'I am sorry, Sky.' Mabel thought.

"Did they mention anything else about her?"

"Her brother is currently kept prisoner by the Caribbean, and that she's good at making potions."

"Did they mention her whereabouts?"

"They said she was in hiding but didn't say where."

'So the fishmen didn't take her.' Boris realized something important.

"Do you know of their current whereabouts?"

Katelyn and Mabel were hesitant to say.

"I will know either way so say it." Boris said in a serious tone.

"Last I heard they were going to buy slaves at some island called Servus Terra."

"Interesting. Do you guys have a phone to communicate with each other?"

"No… they don't have a phone as far as I am aware." Mabel saw an opportunity to trick him. They don't have a phone, but they have the system to communicate with Jericho.

"Good. That's all I need to know. Oh, one last question, do you know who stole all the items in the bunker?"

"No, we don't. Other Caribbean men have asked us the same question weeks ago." Mabel said.

"I see. Good day. And I am sorry about all this, I really am, but it's necessary." Boris disappeared in front of their eyes as if he teleported.

"Mom-"

Mabel put a finger on his mouth indicating Katelyn to not say anything. She whispered to Katelyn. 'He might be listening so don't say anything. Wait till we are sure he isn't here.'

Katelyn nodded.

Meanwhile…

Back on the Melody Sky was practicing. As he was thinking of the DEVOURER an idea sprung in his mind. He let go of the staff and fell to his knees.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I AM SUCH AN IDIOT! THE ANSWER WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME!" He cried out. All of his crew members looked at him. Jack leaned closer to Jack.

"Does he usually do that?"

"No, but this is far from the weirdest thing you'll see."