"Tie down the sails!" The captain commanded.
"Got it!" Jay obeyed, getting up from his seat and running over to complete the task he was given. 'Everything's going well.' He thought.
On the map of the world there was a vast stretch of ocean that had never been documented. There were rumors of a government conspiracy but very few dared to go towards it, those that did all ended up missing. Eventually that part of the sea became known as the Sailor's Graveyard.
Despite all that there were still people ambitious and curious enough to take on the challenge, setting sail for a new world. Jay was one of few and with every wave they crossed he felt he was getting closer to the truth.
"Looks like a fog is rolling in!" The navigator yelled. "Make sure that Anchor is in place, we don't want to get stuck here!"
Jay rushed over checking the anchor, nearly slipping as waves crashed against the ship and water consumed the deck. He grabbed onto the railing and fastened the rope around the anchor as he glared at the cook. He was walking around leisurely bringing refreshments to all the ladies. As if the storm wasn't hydrating enough.
"Hey lover boy, mind helping the rest of us out?!" Jay shouted at the cook.
"Sorry, no can do." He smirked. "My only job is to make the food, it's your responsibility to get us out of this."
Jay growled as he finished securing the anchor, running over to the helm as he began to steer the ship. "Captain, this isn't looking too good."
"You're doing great, kid. Always doing the work of several men." She praised him, looking through a scope. "I can see land up ahead, get us there."
The young man nodded, a determined look on his face as the rest of the crew began working overtime. With each passing moment their anticipation grew. "We're almost there!" Jay yelled triumphantly as he finally spotted the beach beyond the fog.
"That's good but the temperature is dropping rapidly." The navigator warned. "Steer clear of any icebergs. You've gotten us this far kid, take it home."
Jay smiled, turning the wheel, dodging around massive chunks of ice, the wind making it hard for them to advance.
"Guys watch out, there's something really big beneath us!" The lookout shouted from above.
Jay felt an overwhelming sense of dread swarm his mind as the waves around them became wrathful, crashing to and fro damaging the hull as water flooded the deck, and the ship began to sink.
When he thought that it couldn't get any worse, a massive sea serpent rose from the water glaring down at them. The crew froze, they had never seen anything like it.
"What the hell is that?!" The cook yelled as their Captain began shooting the beast.
"I don't know but I'll get us out of here." Jay promised him.
The creature roared as giant tornadic waterspouts rose from the sea towering over the ship and climbing into the sky. Jay spun the helm, attempting to turn as the massive leviathan closed its mouth and the towers of water collapsed in on them.
Realizing there was no escape, Jay let go of the wheel and ran towards the figurehead grabbing hold of his Captain's collar and diving into the sea. "Captain, we have to swim!" Jay yelled as the ship was torn to pieces by the water. One last scream of pure fear and agony filling the air before dying out pas the massive beast devoured the remains.
"They're all dead." His Captain's brave exterior crumbled as she was faced with reality. "We can't beat that thing, we're not going to make it." Tears fell from her eyes as the serpent turned on the two. Its red eyes filled with delight, the blood of the weak humans lining its stomach.
'It enjoys this.' Jay thought. 'We aren't a meal it needs to survive, we're just toys in its playground.'
"Captain, get a hold of yourself, crying isn't gonna help us survive." The young man whispered, trying not to anger the creature.
"I-I can't." She shook herself away from his grasp as she began swimming as fast as she could towards the shore.
"Don't!" Jay yelled, but it was all in vain as the creature disappeared into the water before rising again at her location with its jaws opened wide.
"I don't want to die!" He heard his captain screech before she too disappeared into its stomach.
Jay watched on in horror. He wondered why he ever signed up for this expedition in the first place, he never liked the water, but his infatuation with pirates and the idea of journey beyond anything he's ever imagined had led him here.
Determined not to die he dived into the water, finally able to scope the true size of the leviathan, it was multiple times larger than the galleon. Its massive eyes bored into him a smile on its jaws as it began circling him faster and faster, the water forming into a whirlpool as he began to sink into the water losing his breath. He could only hope death would grant him mercy, one last time.
Jay slowly blinked open his eyes, surprised to see he was still alive. It seemed he wasn't the only one, in front of him were three strange creatures. One a lamb that was nothing more than a ball of wool. Another was a bipedal pink cat. And the final one being a chicken or rooster with a round body. As he made eye contact with the creatures they screeched and jumped into the air, the cat falling on its back as the other two ran away ahead of it as it struggled to its feet and followed after.
"My head is pounding." Jay complained, sitting up and looking around. Immediately he noticed that the clothes he had come here in were gone and someone had dressed him in a primitive piece of fabric. "Whoever these thieves are at least seem to have some dignity." He smiled, wondering whether the thief was one of the strange creatures or another human. He then looked at the scattered and broken remains of the ship.
"It's a shame no one else survived." He sighed aloud. "At the very least, I promise I'll get revenge for you all." He wasn't at all phased by the death of the crew, he barely knew them and while their death was gruesome and left him horror struck, it was never going to be anything more than nightmares for a month.
Forgetting about his circumstances, he noticed a strange device on the floor in front of him. It had one message.
[The towers are the key, the tree holds the truth…]
The screen went black as the young survivor picked it up, suddenly a strange sensation overwhelmed him as it lit up once more.
On the screen was a 3d model of himself showing his braided hair and strange eyes that now had black sclera, on the left of it was an inventory that he assumed allowed him to carry things in a storage space, though it was strange that this space had a weight limit. On the right was his stats, his health and even his hunger was displayed. Confused by the strange situation, he decided to just close the screen and deal with it later.
Looking out at the world one more time, he noticed a cave in the distance and a shiny sphere right outside of it.
He picked up the sphere and a little bit of wood lying around when a notification appeared on the weird screen.
[You have reached level 2]
"Level two?" He stared at the screen. "Is this some sort of game?" He decided to play along.
On the bottom of the screen was another message saying that he had unused stat points. Deciding to open it back up to his inventory, he pressed the plus sign next to his health seeing the bar go up and feeling just a little bit better about the beach he was on.
'That leviathan might still be around.' He realized. Deciding to seek some shelter for a bit, he entered the cave.
The light from the sun slowly disappeared as Jay walked further into the cave. 'I should've brought a torch, this screen does not provide enough light.' He thought, but just as he was about to turn back, he could see a glow from up ahead. He sped up, nearly running as the cave opened up and he burst out into the light. Massive mushrooms and a strange ore illuminating the massive area.
Straight ahead were two floating purple squids. The device provided him with a name, Killamari. Despite there not being any other information on it, Jay decided it'd be best to keep his distance as he hid behind a rock and snuck past them.
With each step he felt that he should leave but something dragged him forward.
"The fpa is gearing up, we have to do the same if we want to win this war." He heard someone whisper as he looked around a corner, seeing some thugs standing underneath the bones of a whale.
"We won't lose, we can't let Zoe down." Another chimed in.
"That's some good energy boys, there's a strong pal up ahead, if we can get past it we'll be able to get the treasure, we'll destroy those fpa weaklings before they even know what hit em."
'Who are they?' Jay inched forward, accidentally kicking a rock.
Immediately, red eyes turned on him, the predatory eyes of the thugs sizing him up as the one in lead shouted. "Intruder, he's heard too much, kill him!" The leader held up a gun as the other two held up wooden clubs and ran at him. With the first shot grazing past his cheek, leaving a small cut, Jay realized for the second time today that death came easy on this island.
He broke into a sprint, running back the way he came, taking every turn he could to try and lose the thugs on his tail. He maneuvered around one of the larger mushrooms, hiding as they ran past.
He breathed out heavily as he walked back the way he came but the cave was dark, he couldn't see the way out, he just walked around aimlessly when a shot came from behind him. The thugs were back. "Fuck." Jay cursed.
"You didn't think you'd lose us that easily did you?" One of them asked as they ran forward swinging his club.
Jay dived to the side, dodging the strike, sticking to the walls as he ran back to where the whale bones were and through another cave, seeing the Killamari from before.
Seeing no other option he ran at them, they looked over in surprise but luckily didn't attack. He hid behind the creatures as the thugs shot at him, accidentally taking off one of the squid's tentacles.
They're eyes narrowed as they flew at the thugs wrapping around two of the thugs' faces drawing some sort of black energy from their body while the leader shot at them. The two thugs dropped and the Killamari turned on the leader but one well placed shot took one of them out.
"Pals don't know their place, even on this island we humans are at the top of the food chain." The thug jumped away as the killamari sent out some sort of ball of venom. Jay was unable to move as the fight went on, neither side willing to give in until the thugs gun ran out of ammo.
"Damn it." He roared as the Killamari wrapped around his face. Once again, Jay could see a black aura being dragged out of the thug's body. The cloaked man grabbed onto a rock and slammed it into the squid's head. Not wanting to be around when either side wins, Jay ran back towards the entrance of the cave finally seeing the light of day as he sighed in relief. He sat there for a couple hours, wondering what he should do next when he came to the most idiotic solution possible and went back inside the cave. He remembered what the guards said and he thought that if he managed to sneak past the boss, he'd be set for life. "Those creatures are pretty strong, that guy called them pals right?" He looked at the description of the sphere. "I want one."
Walking back along the path, he made it back to the area where the Killamari and thugs fought but now all that was left was an Egyptian cat lapping up the remains. Its ears pricked as it continued eating, it knew he was here but didn't attack. It didn't seem as dangerous as the Killamari or the Thugs and it was even alone, as his mind filled with confidence Jay walked up to the creature.
"You're a cute one, aren't ya?" Even when he was standing right next to it, the cat did nothing, he thought he'd maybe tap it with the sphere but he thought it'd be easier to catch if it was injured. So making probably the fifth bad decision of the day, he attacked it.
It Immediately leapt away, snarling as it flung mud at the young man. Jay sidestepped the attack, leaping forward as he hit the cat across the face. The creature reared on him, aiming for his cheek but Jay already jumped out the way.
'It isn't too fast, I can just hit and run until it's low enough to catch.' He was about to jump back in until a ball of darkness appeared in its mouth flying at him slowly. 'How would that ever hit me?' He thought as he moved out the way, but the ball redirected and continued to follow him. He made sure to stay out of its reach but the cat continued to fling mud his way. Not wanting to be stuck in its pace he waited as it shot another ball at him, sliding underneath it as he dashed at his opponent.
The Mau as it was called tried to jump back but Jay caught it by its tail, using his full strength to slam it into the floor. He jumped on top of it, ready to pummel it into the ground but its body fell limp causing him to stumble and lose his grip. Taking the opportunity, the creature roared to life with a snarl slamming its hind legs into the human's stomach and sending him flying across the clearing.
Jay held his stomach in pain, coughing uncontrollably as he struggled to breathe. The feline sent out another dark ball with a grin on his face as it drew closer. Jay tried to stand but he wasn't able to move too much with the pain he was in, he began to crawl as fast as he could hiding behind a pillar as the attack destroyed it.
He could hear the paw steps of the creature drawing closer, he thought he was done for when the strange feeling from before enveloped his body and a message appeared on the screen.
[Body has been fully updated, stamina will now slowly return over time, your body will be able to move freely as long as you're not above the weight limit. Injuries sustained will now affect your health, rather than your body itself.]
Jay felt the pain in his stomach fade and saw his health go from six to five hundred. He smiled as he jumped to his feet, his body working properly as he turned back towards the cat for round two.
Seeing its prey stand up, the Mau leapt forward a bit confused as to why the two-legged mouse was suddenly able to move.
Jay met the cat's attack as the two tumbled across the floor in a flurry of blows, his hp continued ticking down due to the cat's enhanced reflexes and overall speed but he kept fighting. He could sense the cat grow tired as it took each heavy hit he dished out.
Jay slammed it into the floor again, aiming for the face but the large cat caught his fist in its jaw breaking a few teeth as it bit hard into the human's brown paw. The survivor pushed his fist further, he felt the pain but his body showed no signs of it, his health slowly approaching 100 as they continued their assault.
Jay forced his knee into the monster's chest, finally free of its jaws, Jay kicked it into a pillar. The feline quickly maneuvered its body, landing on all fours and jumping off of the pillar with great speed, extending its claws as it pierced the human's flesh with its attack.
It didn't understand, the human wouldn't even bleed. He clearly cut him, the two legged mouse even recoiled in pain but the damage wasn't visible.
Jay looked at his hp, it was down in the forties, one more good hit would kill him. He'd have to do it now. The beast leapt at him again, Jay was barely able to dodge it as he grabbed it by its tail and swung the mau into one of the pillars. Its eyes dazed, Jay used the opportunity to throw the pal sphere.
In a bright light it confined the creature, the survivor waited patiently as it shook once. He smiled, it faded as the sphere opened up and the pal fell back into combat, it was greatly injured but he wouldn't be able to defeat it so his only choice was to escape outside. He had failed, frustrated by the outcome he stepped out into the world just to be greeted by a cold that enveloped his whole body.
His health continued to fall, he thought for a moment of looking for some wood to maybe make a torch but then he felt a great pain in his stomach as his status went from hungry, to starving.
His health had fallen to ten and he could no longer see, he noticed it wouldn't drop any further from hunger but it still fell to the cold. He felt like he had been trapped in ice and there was only one option left for him. If he didn't want to be vulnerable to hungry pals, he'd have to reenter the cave. At least he'd be able to see and wouldn't be cold.
Inside the cave he could see the injured Mau patrolling alongside another. They were searching for him, he groaned as he curled up behind a rock forced to sleep through the night on the cold cave floor, starving with no food in sight. "First thing tomorrow, I'm getting some food." He said before passing out.
Authors Note
I decided to write a palworld story because there aren't too many out there, and by that I mean there's one on this sight. That one is cool and all but I was in the mood for something more along the lines of the actual game play so here we are. This story is basically my game play and all my horrible decisions just exaggerated to fit into writing. Anything my character does is actually something I did.