The next few days were filled with easy sailing. My increased physical stats made a huge difference. Not as much as my Sea-Legs ability though. I was now able to tell which way the deck was about to shift on an instinctual level. The deck used to tilt, drop and rise unpredictably, unbalancing me more often than not. Now, it was an old friend helping to push me forward. It was like every step I took was a step downhill. I could even haul on the lines harder when taking the ship’s rolling into account. I finally felt like a real sailor. It helped that the rest of the crew accepted me too. It seemed like getting abilities was some unspoken right of passage that separates professional sailors from hired help.

While sailing was easier, I took a few steps back when it came to my music. You’d think the extra Dexterity I had to work with would help, and you’d be right. But having a properly tuned instrument meant that I had to re-learn all the songs I could play before. Perfect pitch helped, and I had the wind dancing along to my fiddle before long.

I spent evenings trying to learn the songs Amanda shared with me and the crew was happy to give me pointers on what they were supposed to sound like. Nights were spent under the light of my personal lantern, puzzling out the runic alphabet used in Navarone. William knew some letters and helped me on occasion if I told a new story in return.

I was starting to run out of stories the crew could relate to. I even adapted Star Wars so the planets were islands and the death star was a huge magical weapon. It actually translated over pretty well. When you get down to it, A New Hope was about the farm-boy who goes on a grand adventure with a mentor figure to save a princess from an evil wizard. I only had to change around a few details to keep from confusing them.

On the fourth day, there was a bit of excitement. I came face to face with my first monster. It was a beautiful cloudless day and I was leaning over the rail shooting the shit with Theodore and gnawing on a biscuit when the water under us darkened. I leaned in to get a closer look but luckily for me, the more experienced seaman pulled me back into the boat. He actually threw me across the deck and into the far rail. Water exploded over the other side of the boat and a harsh coughing bark broke across my ears like a wooden plank.

“Sea Lion!” Theo shouted as he dove back just in time to avoid the huge blubbery mammal’s crushing weight. The rest of the crew sprang into action, running to the rail, reaching under it and pulling harpoons out from secure hiding places. I was still shocked and couldn’t do anything more than stare at the monster. Then it’s weight pulled it’s side of the ship down, The deck pitched alarmingly, as if it was trying to toss me into the creature's mouth. I made some noises I’m sure I’ve never made before as I gripped the rail. It was all I could do not to piss my pants.

The creature was a rough approximation of a Sea Lion at best. It was closer to the size of a walrus and it was jet black except for an odd, jade-colored mane. As if the barking muzzle filled with ivory teeth wasn’t bad enough, it’s neck puffed out like a blow-fish, causing the mane to transform into a bristling forest of quills.

It locked it’s pure black eyes on me and must’ve sensed weakness because it started scooting towards me, barking menacingly all the way. My legs were jelly. They wouldn’t move and my mind was just as locked up. I raised my arms in a futile gesture as the beast reared up, ready to flatten, bite, and puncture me at the same time.

A shining harpoon came out of nowhere and Harry followed behind it. He roared as he pushed the monster just far enough so it fell to my side instead of on top of me. The planks shaking under the impact shocked me back into motion and I scrambled away as the rest of the crew charged in with harpoons.

I watched in horrified fascination as they struggled with the huge monster. It thrashed around but the five sailors together were too much for it to overpower. It was a deadlock though. The Sea Lion couldn’t get close enough to bite them, but they weren’t killing it, just hurting it and making it angrier.

“Hold it lads! I’ll get my saber!” Duncan called as he vaulted down to the main deck from his raised platform at the stern. That was the first time it occurred to me that I should help. A quick glance around didn’t reveal any more harpoons. I mentally scanned my inventory but the only weapon there was my speargun. Even if it would work in the air, I doubted it would make a difference to such a huge monster. Then my awareness brushed up against an item I had all but forgotten.

I felt the deck getting ready to drop and I hopped to the side. The railing obligingly sank and I stepped onto it right before it surged back upwards and I jumped into the fray like a pro wrestler.

“LeeeeeeeRooooooyyyyyyy!” I bellowed as I sailed through the air with my hands raised over my head. The Sea Lion craned its neck to look up at me, just as my pickaxe came down. The acrobatics threw off my aim but the power they lent my strike drove the pickaxe straight through the inflated neck-sack and all the weight in my inventory kept it going until it embedded itself firmly into the deck with a solid thunk.

I scrambled back from the screaming monster which was now thrashing even harder in its attempts to get free. With its neck pinned though, it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Jenkins” I muttered to myself, a satisfied grin stretching across my face. I did it, I faced a monster! Granted, it was pinned and I just did one hit and run but I had helped! I wasn’t just dead weight! Someone smacked my head from behind.

“Idiot! What did you do to my deck!” Duncan scolded me.

“But, Monster!” I argued, pointing at the struggling Sea Lion.

“We had it under control. Stupid amateurs.” He turned away from me, raised a curved sword and blurred out of sight. The next thing I noticed was the Sea Lion stopping its struggles as it’s head rolled away from the rest of its body. Inky blood welled out of the neck in pulses until the monster’s heart finally caught on and stopped pumping.

What followed was a disgusting lesson in Sea Lion anatomy as we stripped the corpse for valuable materials. The quills were carefully plucked and sealed away using heavy leather gloves and I managed to disappear a few into my inventory when no one was looking. They were all preoccupied with their own gross tasks.

The blubber was collected into casks and the skin was hung to dry. An oily, bloody slick stretched out behind the boat for a mile. More than once I spotted the triangular fin of a shark slicing through our wake. I could only hope these were regular sharks and not something that could climb up on board. When we finally pushed the unusable bits overboard a frothing red frenzy erupted around the corpse.

Any cleanliness from leveling up was a distant memory as the ship and crew stank to high heaven. We spent much of the rest of that day cleaning the deck and ourselves with seawater and this powder Duncan broke out for the purpose. It burned but I was willing to put up with it if it meant I wouldn’t smell like blood and rotten blubber when we made landfall again.

As I was cleaning, I stumbled for the first time of the trip. When I tried to get up, I fell right over again. Harry came over, crouched down and began roughly inspecting me. He would grab an arm and yank it around, inspecting it from every angle and then move on to another limb. He did this until he found the scratch running across my left hip. I didn’t feel it happen in the heat of battle. The scratch wasn’t anything to write home about but the reddish blotch expanding from it was worrying.

“Poisoned” Grunted Harry through a scowl.

“Cap’n, We’ve got some dead weight here.” He shouted back to Duncan.

My head was starting to spin but I had the presence of mind to feel a fresh wave of terror wash over me. Was I going to die? Were they going to throw me overboard just like the Sea Lion’s remains? I did not want to meet whatever owned those shark-fins. Luckily, Duncan wasn’t a complete monster himself. He just scowled at me, revoked my pay for this particular voyage and sent me down belowdecks to recuperate… with a bucket.

The next five days were spent in the ship's hold, only coming up long enough to empty the bucket as necessary. It was like I had the world’s worst case of seasickness. Nausea and dizziness were my entire world. Even sleep couldn’t give me a reprieve. My dreams were strange, disjointed, and filled with spiders, giant crabs and on rare occasions, Sea Lions as large as office buildings. I couldn’t do anything but breathe deeply and try to keep some food down. I took out a meat-pie once but the smell was too rich and I immediately vomited in the bucket. I stuck to the biscuits after that. If this was just from a light scratch, what would happen if I was pierced by one of those quills?

Looking for silver linings had become a habit but the EXP I gained for helping to kill the monster wasn’t worth it no matter what spin I tried to put on the experience. The extra point in Endurance I gained for eventually fighting off the poison couldn’t raise my mood either and when I was pulled back onto the deck I couldn’t get rid of my surly mood. Especially when I was set to repair the splintered hole I made in the ship’s deck.

No one acted like my actions were heroic in the least. Instead, it seemed like I had only managed to get in the way.