QUEST REPORT (APPRAISED)
Title: Investigate Spire Reef (Pirate Country) (
Party Recommended.)
Sponsor: The Adventures Guild
Location: Spire Reef
Required Level: 4
Objectives:
- Read these reports (1)(2)
- Investigate Spire Reef (Pirate Country) and report back.
- Do not antagonize any local authorities. We do not need bad relations with a possible criminal organization.
Explanation:
With a recent report of likely illegal activities taking place in Spire Reef the guild would like information.
Rewards:
Report - Solet' Luna
Sea and ocean, the paradise and hell for noblemen, merchants, and pirates. Not only them but, from what I learnt in the previous world, pirates were a bunch of bandits that sailed the high sea and robbed the merchants, however, in their rank, although few, there were shamans and witches. Although only the strong and infamous pirates would have the witches and shamans in their rank, it was worth getting in contact with them, as their sorcery might benefit me.
And so, I set off to the land of thieves and sinners. It was a place where the strong ruled the weak? Very well, it seemed like a perfect place to gain some wealth and fame. If anything, the world of the Lord had taught me to be ruthless and cunning. As long as they are not overwhelmingly powerful like the Envoy or the Church fo the Lord, then I was sure that I would thrive in the environment.
As I journeyed up to the north, along the river, I encountered a group of bandits, consisting of various races. The lizardman hissed at me before yelling some weird words, a different language. Thankfully, I could make out some of them as a warning as well as telling me to be obedient. Well, they seemed very weak and had almost no experience with the danger of the world.
After all, only madmen and experts would travel in the wildness alone. Either they got lucky and got some free loots, or died by the hands of someone in a middle of nowhere, where no laws had reached.
With just one simple trick, I killed two of the bandits, and the others quickly dropped their weapons and called Frost Demon before running away. Ahaha, they couldn't escape fate and die by my ice. Good thing that I did not go overboard, as some of the loots might get damage. I picked up some gold and daggers, as well as a weird-looking coin. It had a skull symbol engraved on it.
Inspecting my appearance, I decided to cover up my feature, even more, to avoid gathering unnecessary attention. Now, even if one looked at me closely, they would only see a silhouette of me, and not any part of my face would be visible, except for the golden eyes.
The journey towards the Spire Reef was not that exciting. After the initial bandits encounter, most of the experienced one usually knew their place and avoided the lone traveller. Along the way, I could see many vagabonds' corpses and the wreckage of carriages, if I was lucky, I would find the on-going battlefield between the merchants and the bandits.
Nearing the Spire Reef, the bandits seemed to lessen in number, but occasionally, I would spot many men and women travelling with many carriages and cages behind him, filled with slaves of various races, not excluding humans or elves. Their body was huge and muscular, with some of them almost as tall as me and a half. Maybe they could even wrestle with Solet when he was in his body.
Their most distinctive features were their minimal clothing, their tattoos-littered body, and a bandana on their head. They exuded a strong and domineering presence, no lesser than our ordinary experienced adventurers. With their appearance, my interested in the Spire Reef deepened once again. With that many tattoos on their body, there must be some kinds of faith and believe in the Spire Reef, meaning that there must be some kind of magic users, like witches and shamans.
When nearing the cliff that spilt the river, called Prisoner's Knoll or something like that, I spotted the harbour. As its name suggested, the outer walls were riddled with countless spikey stones and there was the constant sound of ships howling, and a long yet unorganized line in front of the gigantic metallic gates. It was a usual occurrence that someone weak would get beaten and thrown out of the line for that stronger group to replace them.
With no intention to cause chaos, I went into the line quietly and stood at the back, waiting for my turn. Of course, there were many yelling and fighting involved, but when I snapped a burly man's hand in half before breaking his legs, no one wanted to play with me anymore. In the end, I could only extort a few gems and gold coins, but when I asked for the Skull Coin, the man screamed and told me he didn't have it. It must be something precious that he valued it more than him getting beaten again.
"Aye sprog, ye first time? Three gems here 'n signed yer certification or jus' somethin' o' equal rich." When it was my turn, I looked at the two muscular guards, holding a blade as big as his leg while looking down onto me. I hesitated for a moment before pulling out the Skull Coin and showed it to them.
"Sink me, so an ole-timer, aye?" Picking up my Skull Coin and inspected it, the guards finally gave me back my coin and let me pass with a fee of 55 gold coins. Thankfully, The bandits and the guy before were somewhat rich, so I got my fair share of the coins, totalling 175 gold coins.
Inside the city, I could see, touch, smell, and even feel the dirtiness of the roads, walkways, taverns, or basically everything. The salty smell of the sea flooded the place, accompanied by various shouting and the rotten scent of low-quality rums. There were brawls everywhere, but no one had decided to use their weapons, fearing the wrath of the so-called Pirate Kings. However, despite how lively the place was, I spotted no magic users like shamans or witches.
Curious about the place, I picked one of the random taverns and went inside, greeting myself with the scene of a smelly room full of various races, drinking and singing weird songs while swaying left and right, seemingly drunk to the point of unconsciousness, but somehow still remained lively. Squeezing into the room and picked a free seat in the bar stool.
"Ahoy, wench, wha' ye wants?" The bartender saw my action and walked to me, asking for my order. To be honest, I had no idea what they were selling, so I looked at the bar menu and picked randomly.
"Right, Sneak Bite, aye? I reckon ye'll snap jus' one zip." The bartender laughed and brought me a brown bottle, and watched as I took a big gulp with it. The liquid slid right into my throat, and I could feel a burning sensation radiated from my tongue to my chest, and finally down my stomach.
With just one zip, I could tell that the alcohol content was really high, higher than any drink I had ever drunk. However, with my elemental body, I could somewhat withstand the burn, and then, the comfort kicked in. After the initial burn, a strange relief gushed through my body as my hand moved and took another gulp, shocking the bartender. In only a span of a few seconds, I drained the bottle dried and placed the bottle on the bar table, placing a few coins beside it.
"That wee body o' yers sure hold great thin's, aye?" While I was drinking, the surrounding pirates got attracted by my performance and started clapping and laughing at my skill. They then bet with each other whether or not would I drink another bottle like this.
"Ye still do nah belong t' any crew, right? Why don't ye come wit' us, th' Cryin' Peep? Our cap'n be mighty generous 'n be under th' win' o' One-Eyed Snake Kin'!" One of the muscular men spoke, and everyone around him laughed, teasing his ship's name while joking about his achievement.
It seemed that he was just an above-average pirate who was lucky enough to be under the faction of the One-Eyed Snake King, and got enough fortune to start his own pirate crew. He was not someone I would work with, as I saw no potential in partnering with him, a practically nobody.
"No, not now. But, I'll consider it." After drinking another bottle of Snake Bite quickly, I placed some more gold coins on the bar and made my way out, accompanied by the shouting and cheering of the pirates. It seemed that my drinking skill was impressive even by the pirate's standard. Well, my body was a cheat anyway.
Before I could get out of the city, I bought a bandana and a rusty blade and hung it on my back, to make myself somewhat consistent with the crowd. And, something interesting happened just before I left.
A group of tattoo-filled muscular pirates shoved everyone on their path away while guiding the way for an old hag in the middle. That hag had a snake coiled around her, and her tattoos would glow in faint light occasionally. The exclamation of awe and respect would echo every once in a while, and gossiping about the origin of this person would fly far and wide.
From the moment I saw her appearance, I knew that she was indeed a magic-user, and it seemed that magic users were highly valued around here.
In the end, I decided to head back first before doing anything, just to prepare myself with this new environment. I'll be back here eventually, the Snake Bite is very good—
