A/N: for anyone who's reading my shit as its coming out I've been feeling particularly writey today so that's why I've written four chapters in a day, I might write a fifth so keep refreshing if you're seeing this if its not already out. Anyway, toodaloo my friends, I need to actually write the damned thing.
Also I might as well mention the discord while i'm at it cuz i usually forget to link it, check it out on my profile.
Now i write
Gameplan was:
Get strong
Get rich
Buy off Zeff
Kill Alister Vicci
Simple on paper, but nothing can be that simple, not in this world at least.
During our trip to… fucking nowhere as we don't have a map or a compass to go off of, I was training my Hasshoken by dipping my hand slightly into the water and humming, trying to transfer the vibrations of my mouth into the water, I felt like I was getting pretty good at it, there was a consistent flow of vibrations comimg from me into the water, enough get me to level (3/150) in Hasshoken and level (4/25) in Meditation as a byproduct, which I decided to read up on. 25 levels til the cap meant it was an active skill, and maybe it gave some bonuses.
Meditation (4/25)
Each level in this skill increases your recovery rate by 0.1x
Decent, but it's sorta situational, someone like Ben would make good use of it though, boxing has gaps between rounds.
I'll find a way to use it, but for now it is kinda useless. Well, not totally useless, it did help wonders visualising Hasshoken, but aside from that, it didn't do much.
"Hey! Shut the fuck up, that humming is annoying." Ben shouted.
"I'm training this new ability I have." I retorted.
"What ability?" He asked
"A little something called Hasshoken." I answered
"Fuck's that?" He asked again.
"I can absorb and expel the vibrations around me, if I hum I feel it in my throat and I can expel the vibrations easier than something in the distance
"Your mom can feel me in her throat." He laughed. "But in all seriousness, show me." I frowned at the statement about my mom but let it go. I took my fist out of the water and shook it off a little before planting it into his chest.
This time I'd try not meditating, instead I'd just try to direct the vibrations in my throat and move it towards my fist with my mind instead of visualising vibrations with my eyes closed.
I expelled it out and I felt it ripple on his chest.
"Trippy."
Hasshoken (4/150)
+100 EXP for upgrading a skill via natural means
"I can't do anything big with it yet, but I'll learn how to expel it faster-"
"I'm already expelling fast-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! We're in a dire situation you bastard. Clean the act up!" I screamed.
"Fuck… Man, I'm just trying to lighten the mood, I feel the pressure just as much as you, if not more, but what else is there to do while we're floating around." He explained.
"I mean… you're right, it just- it just doesn't feel right. Y'know what, let's just get shit done, let's row as fast as we can and hope to god we come across an island."
I nodded and picked up my oar as he did his and we started rowing at max capacity… well, I was going at around 80%, I didn't want to waste all my energy so quickly.
We rowed for a solid two minutes before I tired out, he had the stamina to keep on going but I had to recover by Meditating for a bit, which gave me a level in it when I managed to fully recover, it must've upgraded because I was focusing solely on the Meditation and not diluting that progress with Hasshoken.
I picked the oar back up and we continued on for another 2 minutes, we were travelling at astounding speeds, nothing too overt but the wind was certainly picking up when we were rowing hard.
We continued this song and dance for a few cycles, he had to rest a few times and that was when I had to take on the job of being the sole rower, but it was mostly me resting and coming back and taking over one oar. We did this until eventually we spotted something in the distance, it was nothing yet but soon enough it turned into something resembling an island.
"Hey, wake up." I said as I was trying to get Ben to arise from his nap because he was the one taking the break right now.
"Over there." I pointed to the island.
"Oh, shit, alright." He said, wiping his eyes off and trying to relieve himself of the usual post-nap-grogginess.
He took control of the oars and went full speed ahead, I could barely breathe from all the air brushing against my face, but I managed.
He slowed down as we reached the island and we left the boat in order to drag it back onto land so it didn't decide to up and leave us. The island looked rather deserted and overgrown, it looked like those stereotypical deserted islands that you always managed to hypothetically get trapped in.
Map updated:
Froghme Island
A map? When did I get one of those? I tried to summon one into view and I saw a giant globe in my mind's eye covered in the fog of war. I spun it around and pinpointed the west blue, which was also covered in the fog of war, but this island and the one we just travelled to was marked here. I saw my location there and I tried to zoom in, finally ending up on the exact location I was standing in.
"Are you gonna do anything here other than stare at a koala?" I said, realising a koala had crawled up onto my chest.
"WHAT THE FUCK!? GET IT OFF!" I started running back and forth like a headless chicken, trying to get the thing off me, but its claws only dug deeper as I tried to shake it off.
"HELP!" I screamed to no avail.
"I think it likes you." He said, grinning.
I grinded my wild running and flailing to a halt and looked the bugger in the eye. It was rather cute, actually.
"Get on my shoulder." I said, trying to push it up and guide it up my body. It climbed up onto my shoulder and I started petting it.
"Alright then, what shall we do?" I asked.
"If there's any big wild animals here, beat the piss out of 'em. I'm talking bears, boars, tigers, not that pal of yours over there." He said, pointing to the koala.
I pushed the koala off, if I was gonna be fighting any big beasts I didn't want anything weighing me down, it plopped down onto the sand and I did feel a little bad about pushing him off but it was for the greater good.
"I guess we explore, get some supplies, and meet up when we feel we're fine." I said before walking into the jungle.
It seemed rather desolate in terms of fauna, the most I could see right now were mosquitos which I avoided like the plague because of how prevalent malaria is, I wasn't risking it. But aside from that, it was pretty quiet if I do say so myself.
Thump… thump… thump…
Nevermind, I was wrong, there certainly was something coming my way. I looked around and saw a gorilla walking in my direction.
This counted as a big wild animal, right?
Fuck it, peta doesn't exist in this world and it looks hostile enough, I might as well hit first instead of get hit later and then realise 'Oh, we're fighting'
I activated Flurry of Blows and sent two quick Strong Punches into its gut just to see how it would be affected. It did stagger back two feet but it bared its fangs, groaned and launched forward towards me. I swiftly dodged out of the way of its charge and tried to catch it while it was slowing down and turning to me by running over and leaping into the air, slamming a Strong Punch square on the nose, sending it skittering into a tree, I followed it quickly with a sudden burst of Sprint.
I sent a few regular hits in places I've targeted with Strong Punch but I may have gotten a bit greedy with how many strikes I was throwing and managed to get caught with a solid strike to the face that sent me kareening onto the floor.
-70 HP
Shit, that hurt a fuckton, still, I think I could beat it, I just have to be a little more tactical about it.
I stepped back a few feet and pumped my chest, hoping to try to bait it over to me. It worked pretty easily, I was able to shift out of the way quickly and I ran over towards it and sent another flying punch its way, managing to land a Strong Punch on the back of its head which made it tumble onto the ground.
I didn't relent and decided to finish it off quickly with a few punches empowered by Flurry of Blows and Strong Punch that finally caved its skull in.
+1500 EXP for defeating a gorilla
"Johnny, is that you?" A man hacked through some vines and leaves, approaching my location.
"No, my name's Ivar, who the fuck are you?" I asked as I turned towards the guy. He was wearing a red bandanna, some scruffy red shirt and some long cargo pants.
He also had a gun.
"Oh, you aren't a member of the crew, aye?"
Bang!
-100 HP
"I STILL HAVE 30 HP LEFT YA FUCKWIT, YAHAHAHA" I screamed as I rushed towards the man and slammed my body against his, we both got sent flying onto the ground but he was in a coughing fit and I wasn't, so it was very easy for me to get up and stomp his head into a slimy mush that could be confused with incredibly pulpy blood orange juice.
+250 EXP for defeating fodder
Ah shit, there's pirates on this island? With guns? Well first of all, I need to heal up, second of all, I need to rendezvous with Ben, exterminate whatever scum that was plaguing the island and presumably sanctioned their men to shoot any non members of the crew dead.
I activated Meditation and not before long I was mostly healed up, it only took what? Like five minutes.
During that meditation, I was considering a few things, such as just trying to find these pirate's camp, burn that shit to the ground and claim all the EXP in a fast manner, but I decided against that because of that one cute koala that might die, instead, I'm just gonna go down there on my own and wage guerilla warfare. My great uncle told me stories about his time in vietnam, not particularly nice for anyone there, I know, but he told me about how the vietcong hit n' run tactics that devastated his platoon, and I thought I'd try emulate that.
I made my way deeper and deeper into the forest until finally I found my way into a deforested area with a few shoddy cabins inside. I saw a giant pirate standing at about 8 foot come into my field of view and I immediately noped the fuck out of sight and started hiding in the bushes, seeing if he was gonna do something. He pulled from his pocket a large viking style horn and blew on the end of it, creating a large bellowing sound that could be heard from all over.
Pirates rushed over in a hurry, my fingers were tightly crossed and I was hoping none of whatever this captain wanted to announce was about me or Ben.
Luckily none of the pirates came across me as they rushed towards the sound of the horn, and soon enough they had all congregated around what seemed to be their captain.
"Arahahahaha! I've finished up a job on me own, I stole from a marine vessel and got out alive with a big chest of… BOOTY!"
"AYE!" The crowd roared
"DIG IN TO YER HEART'S CONTENT, WE'VE GOT ENOUGH FOR THE LOT O' YA!"