**************************Authors note*************************************

Hi fellow humans and other races,

Thank you for your interest in the fanfic Long Island. I hope this journey continues further, as long as it can. Trust me, I really got ideas to fill a lot of volumes...

Is there anyone who can draw Raka based on the description I gave? I am not very good at it and I would like to have a picture. If you want further details, send me a message. If many people decide to draw Raka, I can choose the picture which fits better.

Anyways this is about the other thing. It is getting really hard to track Raka's progress. I mean the math. So I am going to lay down the ground rules on how the stats affect the attributes. This way I can ask you people to help me verify my calculations in the future chapters.

Also some attributes have not been mentioned in the chapters but I have been using it in my calculations. e.g. bag weight. I am going to mention that as well.

1) Attack = strength / 2 + weapon attack + any options. (Keeping it simple)

2) Defense = strength / 2 + armor defense + any options.

3) Bag weight limit = strength * 100.

4) Life = vitality * 10

5) Life recovery rate = vitality / 10 per 10 seconds.

6) Mana = Focus * 3

7) Mana recovery rate = Focus / 10 per 10 seconds.

8) Movement speed: it is a hybrid attribute which is affected by a lot of things including stats and the environment. There is no separate attack speed and dodge, movement speed covers all. If you have greater movement speed, it is likely that you will have better attack speed and running speed and dodging speed and mopping speed and what else; just because you can move faster. Game rule - everyone gets the same base/starting movement speed. The rest depends on your stat points and any equipments/buffs etc.

These are just rules I am following and I don't know if the math works yet. So let me know if it is too weird. I might also update or change some of these later.

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"Character Window"

Character NameRakaRaceHumanFame30Age15TitleGraduate of Magic level 1, Spirit of Warrior level 1, Recipient of the Queen's Brass medalLife150Mana45Attack32.0~37.0Defense52Strength29 (+5)Agility19 (+6)Vitality10 (+5)Intelligence35Focus10 (+5)Perception6 (+5)Endurance72Stamina55 (+3)Satiety100Wisdom11Life recovery1.5 / 10 secsMana recovery1.5 / 10 secsTitle Effects

Graduate of Magic Lvl 1 : Focus +5, Perception +5, Agility +3

Spirit of Warrior Lvl 1 : Strength +5, Vitality +5, Stamina +3

Recipient of the Queen's Brass medal : Fame +30Equipment Effects

Iron Boots: +10% movement speed

Leather Gloves: +3 AgilitySkills

Accounting - Beginner Lvl 8 - 5%

Bonding - Beginner Lvl 4 - 34%

Cooking - Beginner Lvl 6 - 9%

Dance of the Fighter - Beginner Lvl 3 - 90%

Estimation - Beginner Lvl 6 - 57%

Flute Music - Beginner Lvl 5 - 15%

Format - Beginner Lvl 6 - 12%

Formula - Beginner Lvl 4 - 81%

Magic - Beginner Lvl 10 - 5%

Massage - Beginner Lvl 1 - 1%

Spell Writing - Beginner Lvl 5 - 64%

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Swamy sat down on his table looking at his notes on the game. He was preparing another report to be submitted next week. He had always been told that if you finish your work early, you get to play early. Atleast that's what his parents had hoped he would learn. Swamy did follow this rule though he could never prove that it worked. Eventually when people learned that you completed one task early, they always had this inclination of giving you more. If this corollary is true then that work early play early thing has to be false.

Anyways it had become his habit now, which is why he was diligently studying for this report, which will be submitted next week. And Swamy gazed on his notes on the game.

Long Island was still classified as interesting but not a very popular game by the internet sites. Average in ratings though people did think it was unique in a lot of aspects. The stats were commonly used in most of the virtual reality games out there. What was different were the attributes. 'Well attack, defense, speed, etc are in most of the games out there. However it is interesting to think that there is no classification of physical and magical attack and defense. It makes sense though as magic in the game makes affecting a creature's or human's body directly very difficult. The whole transformation of stable form energy thingy was basically this. Though it will allow the effects caused by the environment. Like one can get burnt or frozen. It was mostly changing the environment temperature by creating fire or ice and attacking accordingly. But because it affects you physically, maybe it is not considered as magical damage. 'In that case if magic does affect you, would it be considered a curse?'

Since finding out about curses and curse magic, which kinda seemed similar, though people on the island were treating it differently, Swamy had tried to come up with theories on what it could be. He was planning to check up on those theories when he gets back to the island in the game.

Speaking of theories, Swamy was also trying to analyze the relation between the stats and movement speed. He had tried analyzing the math on how it was being affected and truthfully it was difficult. He knew that all kinds of speed, attack, dodge, etc had been combined with it. Which actually made sense once you thought about it. It allowed the player's own abilities to shine rather than simply a system assisted calculation like Dodge. Made it more realistic. And then it went on to improve your speed in totality. How the players use that speed was left to their discretion. To explain a few things he had come up with some guidelines:

a) Increasing Agility stat increases movement speed.

b) Increasing movement speed increases consumption of Satiety. You get hungry quicker. Also it consumes a hidden attribute called stamina which is different from the Stamina stat, although affected by its points.

c)Increasing stamina or the Stamina stat reduces consumption of Satiety, when doing actions. If you have more stamina, you can do a lot before getting hungry. So it counters the effect of increased movement speed.

d) Satiety always reduces over time even if you do not do anything, just like in real life.

e) Increasing Agility stat has to be balanced by increasing Stamina stat otherwise the increase in movement speed will directly affect your Satiety.

So even though the virtual body is not cells and tissues, it is being treated as such and consuming energy. Which actually raises an interesting question. Why do people add such a stat in the games. Its not like its real hunger and there were a lot of things which were not real in the games anyway. For example, immortality...not real!

'So why give hunger or satiety in the first place? This also seems like a good topic for the report. Should I go with it? '

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Raka logged in the room. The room had no windows, illuminated by those same magical lights which illuminated the Magic Institute back at Gurrow village. In fact these magical lights were the standard norm for most buildings on the island. Now it was dim though casting deep shadows in the room.

Two slightly breathing voices. A soft snore here and there. Lady Altia and Lady Verina were still sleeping which probably meant it was still night outside. Raka knew the room well, having used it so often in this trip, enough to remember where things were. He tiptoed to the door and quietly slipped out in the darkness. The deck hallway had only a small light, a magic light hanging in the galley, near the stairs, giving just enough light to see the way. Raka moved slowly and carefully. Suddenly appearing on a rocking ship does not help with your balance. He moved, avoiding the sleeping men in the galley and climbed up.

Noises were heard shattering the quiet of the night, instructions and bellows guiding the ship through the waves . He walked to the captain's cabin.

"Oh hey there Raka."

"Hello Captain, whats going on?"

"Ah! We spotted the pirate ship yesterday. Just saw it on the horizon as we reached there' docking spot. They seem to have seen us too. They took off in a hurry towards open sea."

"So did we miss their trail?"

"Not completely. Though we cannot see the ship in the dark, we did follow it throughout the day. It is a fast ship that one, we kept playing a nice little cat and mouse all day. But they forgot ol' Captain. I know these seas like the back of my hand. If they think they can get away from me, they have another thing coming. Anyways Lady Altia made a nice little guess on their destination and so far the pirates have followed that route. If we keep that heading we will run into them sooner or later."

Raka was flummoxed. He had missed a very important moment which actually brought into stark contrast his inability to play all the time. What if he had missed the entire battle completely! He did understand the importance of the real world though. Games come and games go. You still have to live in the real world. But there should be some way to take some time off for these kind of things. 'I mean shouldn't the university which supports playing virtual reality games have a policy of some kind which allows you to play such quests?!' Other than bunking that is. He could not imagine a university which would allow skipping classes to be the norm.

"So where are they headed?" he asked the Captain.

"If they keep the same course they will end up in Brittanica. But Lady Altia believes they could be heading to this small island, just off the coast of Brittanica. It is home to a Brittan noble family which mostly does farming. But its snow season now so there might not be many people. Perfect for pirates to capture and defend. They won't like to fight us over water owing to the numbers." the Captain replied.

"...so the best situation would be for us to find them before they get there. Can't we warn them?"

"Yep. Jus' hoping that those stinking pirates don't know the seas around here too well. There is this area of low wind in the course they have taken. If they fall into it, we may be able to catch up. But if they know and avoid it, then they will have the advantage. Dunno about warning them...better ask Lady Verina bout' that."

"Hmmm." Raka said pondering.

Well the chase just got pretty exciting.......not! After all we are still chasing a ship we cannot even see. 'Time to get mopping.' Raka sighed.

Fighting and mopping have nothing in common. So when you get a message like this, you tend to wonder what went wrong.

Skill Mopping: You have discovered a skill. You can now learn to use the mop for cleaning, wiping, waving, fighting and other purposes.

Requirements: Use the mop for 10 days.

'What the hell!!'

The sailors were astounded. To find a man in their midst frozen. Hands halfway through lifting a mop, eyes staring wildly unblinkingly into empty space, his body stuck in a gentle bow, almost like the man who saw a ghost and passed away while eating his meal.

What is the saying that goes like there are turnings in life which define you. This was definitely not one of those. Raka sighed. He slowly started moving. People who were gaping at him broke out of their reverie and moved on with whatever they were doing.

"Hey kid, you ok?" a sailor asked.

"Yeah....I am fine. Nice day isn't it?"

The sailor gave a hopeless look and turned back and gave a shrug to the others. All the others nodded for some reason and then went back to work. Seems this level of crazy was pretty normal on the sea.

A little while later, when his brains got back in gear and his body moved in auto mode doing the mopping, he started thinking about what it meant. Ok, so the mop can be used to fight in addition to cleaning. After all it is just a staff. In fact even the spear is a staff. 'It is just the ends which are different, ones a .....and the others a ....'

'But I didn't even get the staff skill, if there is a skill, but I get the mopping skill?' Raka was confused. If he assumed that there would be a staff related skill then that means that repeated use of the staff should have resulted in the skill just like it had with the mop. But it hadn't. 'Did I just not use it enough times? Or is it something else?'

Raka kept thinking while also doing his mopping. As he thought, he came across a couple of possibilities which might explain this. 'Either I haven't used the staff enough times or my Wisdom stat is coming into play.' As he thought more he realized that the Wisdom stat alone could not explain this. 'There should be other conditions involved as well, like spending so and so time doing this after getting my Wisdom stat or something like that. But Wisdom definitely came into play. Does that mean that the stat helps me in finding new skills also? Does this mean that if I did not have the Wisdom stat I wouldn't have been able to get this skill even if I spent all the time mopping? I still haven't heard anyone getting any sword or bow or even a staff related skill yet.'

The more he thought, the more it made sense about the role of the Wisdom stat. 'So the higher it gets, the more skills would be discovered. But to increase it I have to keep finding different uses for my existing skills. Does that mean the same thing applied in the library skills too?' After all a lot of books should be in the library at Gurrow village too. Some people should have stuck around in the library knowing they can gain skills there. Again nothing had come up in the forums so far. 'Before I got the Wisdom stat, all the skills I learned were from someone teaching me. Does that mean that Wisdom, probably, only applied when learning on your own and not when someone was teaching you? Or was it that it applied differently there?'

There were a million and one things going in his head right now. But one thing was sure, he was very excited at the discovery. 'But there is no way to test it without involving someone else. Damn why didn't I notice this sooner!' Well at the least he decided to see what kind of weapon the mop would be.

"Identify"

[p=center]Simple Dirty Mop[/p]

Class: Weapon, Tool

Damage: 0~1 (Added damage when embedded)

Weight: 10

Durability: 5/5

Made with a stick found at the side of a road combined with pieces of ragged cloth for the sole purpose of cleaning. Insignificant damage as a weapon. Has a very low chance of embedding magic. Even if successful, will not result in significant improvement.

'Useless.'

The sun had risen while he was having his internal monologue. 'Oh no! I still haven't completed half the deck yet.' But he had no choice, he had to go help prepare breakfast.

Raka knocked and entered. Lady Verina was combing her hair and Lady Altia was still under her blankets.

"Good morning!"

"Ah Raka good morning. How are you this morning?" Lady Verina replied cheerfully while Lady Altia simply grunted from under her blankets.

"I am good, though I find it a bit odd that the person who is a part of the military likes to sleep so much. I could hear her snore when I came."

"I do not snore..." came a cute voice from under the blankets.

"Yes you do. Just a little though." Lady Verina added.

"You do too~" Lady Altia added but she finally revealed her face. Her eyes opened like squinting as she looked at Raka. "Here help me up. I think I will have trouble moving."

'That was obvious. Can't expect miracles with just a beginner level massage.'

"Oh...ah certainly." And Raka moved forward to hold her outstretched hand as she lifted herself up. She yawned.

"Oh please do not yawn. You know I always get a yawn when I see somebody yawn." And then Lady Verina could not resist a yawn too. She blushed.

Raka simply smiled a genuine smile.

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A normal day started. Though Lady Verina did update Raka on the situation once again. It was the same as what the Captain had said. With one major difference.

"The scouts reported they saw humans and dwarves on the pirate ship. There were a few other beastmen but mostly it was crewed by humans and dwarves."

"Really? I thought it was completely crewed by beastmen. And why would they attack us?"

"Well I suspected this before when Altia explained her suspicions about the beastmen. If the beastmen can only use body linked magic, they shouldn't have any long range magic. Which would make them very weak on battles at sea. You know one side can attack long range and the beastmen can't. At first I was thinking that maybe they have some slaves, human or other races, for this kind of stuff. But knowing humans and dwarves are part of the crew and in such great number, kinda does not seem like they are slaves. It looks like they are working together. As for why they attacked us is still unknown. The Queen is personally overseeing the interrogation of the beastman to determine this."

"Hmm. Makes sense. By the way are dwarves capable of magic as well?"

"Yes they are. Although their magic is highly skewed towards earth related magic. It seems that they can hardly use the other elements at all. Do you know about the history of the world?"

"Are you referring to the curse magic theory?"

"Yes. It seems when dwarves came into being, they applied curse magic to strengthen earth related skills. Which increased their aptitude and power for this branch of magic. Their short height is also attributed to this. On the other hand other magics got out of reach. Even if they are able to learn they simply cannot gain any power in the other magics. There were other changes as well but this was the most important."

"Hmm... so is earth magic not used in sea battles?" Raka was learning.

"They can be, but it gets limited to embedding into other objects. Not that it doesn't help. Consider a strengthened ship hull. It would be very hard to make a hole in that. But long range aspects do get limited. After all they cannot use the sea floor to attack us. Nor would they want to. Although they can still use it if they somehow landed on our ship."

"So air and water are the preferred types of magic for sea battles?"

"Preferred yes. Required no. I did explain before that a person without magic can also fight a person using magic if he has the required tools, didn't I? And there is no beating the dwarves in their manufacturing and repair skills. I guess they would make a good addition to a pirate ship which cannot hire shipwrights from the land. But their fighting cannot be underestimated too. They are good fighters and when their earth magic comes into play, well they become very dangerous."

"Hmm...so it would be preferable for us to catch the pirate ship before they reached that island, is it? The one part of Brittanica? I heard the Captain talking about it. By the way, can't we warn them and ask for their help?"

"Yes. I suppose the humans would be strong too but atleast we won't have to deal directly with the dwarves or the beastmen if we can fight them at sea. And we did send a word to Brittanica. They will have their ships out, but there is still a chance that the pirates are able to land. After all their land forces would be mostly on the main island rather than the small one. That might already have been evacuated. In that case, we will join forces but we will still have a tough fight on our hands. Its just that I don't fancy fighting the dwarves or the beastmen if I can avoid it." Lady Verina shuddered remembering. And that was just 6 beastmen out of which 3 escaped. Adding the dwarves would result in a massacre even if they won.

"Oh that reminds me, we started training the other students and soldiers on naval warfare. Sorry we couldn't wait for you. But we were going to reach the place where the pirate ship was reported to be docked and it was deemed necessary to get the training started."

Raka looked a bit disappointed. It was another important thing he had missed. But, "I understand."

"Well cheer up, you will also join them from today."

Before that though, Raka had some cleaning to do.

A flurry of activity started just after lunch. As soon as Raka arrived at the upper deck, ropes had been lowered down into the cargo hold lifting out stuff, equipment and boats. Yes you heard right. Boats. Little small boats having no sail and no rudder but a long thick stick stuck at its back.

"What kind of boat is that?" Raka asked John the second mate/load master who was in charge of getting all this stuff out. Raka had read over the internet that this kind of stuff did not really happen in the old real worldian ships. The reason was that it cluttered an already busy deck with stuff. Also opening up a huge hole on the ship while at sea, was generally not preferred. Waves have really rogue characteristics.

So when you see that same big hole opening up and cluttering the deck with stuff, your heart starts beating harder. Just a bit.

"We call that a dinghy. This is a 2 person dinghy but you can have larger boats being called dinghy as well. This one is a battle dinghy."

Each dinghy or battle dinghy was slowly lifted out of that cargo hold and placed on sides of the boat, the outer side, and then were tied with more ropes as it hung out over the sea. 8 boats, 4 boats on each side, were taken out and roped to the side of the ship. It was time consuming work and the sails had to be drawn half mast so that sudden winds did not unbalance the ship.

And then came strange looking weapons. Something which looked like a crossbow but then had a slingshot like thingy attached. It was almost like an old style trebuchet (old style siege weapon) except that instead of a tall tower, the slingshot was stuck on the crossbow platform. It was not very big, just the size of large crossbows you see in the old style movies, the ones which are set up on the ground to fire those huge ass arrows. 'Those look like Ballistas.' Raka provided the specific information.

Its not like Ballistas were common knowledge but seeing a lot of virtual reality games had focused on the fantastical world of swords and magic, which is kinda old age, people had started learning about all kinds of siege weapons. After all every virtual reality game has a siege battle at some time. Raka remembered some of these siege battles as people who played the games often posted videos and companies liked to highlight such kinds of battles as an attractive feature. These slingshot-ballistas however, were not a siege weapon of old real worldian times, even though it looked similar. (**The author thinks it is a great idea to have a futuristic world in virtual reality games and will try to write something based on that, if he gets more time.)

"So what do you call them?" Raka asked John pointing to these weapons.

"These are called shotbows, not to be confused with short bows." replied John.

Right! And these 4 shotbows were lined, 2 on each side on the ship deck. And then came the stones. Lots of stones. Now if you were of a sane mind, you would have guessed that these shotbows would be used to fire the stones at the enemy ships. And you would not have been wrong at all. 'And how is it faster than cannons?' was Raka's perfectly logical question.

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Once the entire thing was done and over with the big hole was closed. And Lady Verina and Lady Altia along with the students and the soldiers, not all just the ones who needed to be trained, came up to the upper deck.

"Alright you know the drill. Pair up and board." Lady Verina instructed. Soldiers and students soon started pairing up and boarding the boats. Oh by the way if anyone of you is wondering, the Despira guy paired up with Iqbal Hassan, Ramone paired up with Theodore and Veronica paired up with Lucy, which made a girls only boat. The other boats were filled up with the soldiers, leaving one.

"You are with me Raka," said Lady Verina as she climbed up in the last one. Raka hurried to clamber in beside her. He took the seat to the back or where the thick long stick was placed. Assuming that was the back and not the front.

"Haul away." John's burly voice commanded.

The sailors took hold of the ropes and untied the knots holding the boats. Slowly they lowered these dinghies and their passengers onto the water. Once the boats hit the water, the people on the boat untied the knots tied on the front and back and broke free.

"Untie the knots." At Lady Verina's instruction Raka untied the knots at the back while she did the same with the front ones. And the boat floated free.

Raka watched the other boats now, as the people on the stick side of it took hold of the sticks and lowered them in the water. Amazingly the boats started to move away from the ship like a propeller had just started. Okay now these sticks were sticks, you could call them long staffs if you want, not paddles or propellers. They did not have the thick part of the paddle. And there was absolutely no rowing action involved. In fact the lot of them were moving those long staffs in circles.

"Um what?" Raka wondered what had happened.

"Ah here let me have this for a while" and Lady Verina took the stick, which was long enough to reach the front of the small boat and still touch the water at the back. The boat started to glide away from the ship towards the sea. Thankfully the waves were calm and the day was nice or it would have made for a very uncomfortable ride.

A little further away from the boat, Lady Verina stopped the boat.

"Alright now your turn."

"What?" Raka looked as confused as his voice made him out to be.

"Hohoho feels funny giving you lessons again doesn't it. And we are alone here too." Lady Verina teased.

Raka simply made a face.

"Alright now listen closely. This is a battle dinghy. A bit different from a normal dinghy if you have seen one."

When Raka nodded his head in the negative, she sighed.

"Ok. See normal boats have paddles or oars, you know for rowing the boat. Do you know what rowing means?"

"Yes I do know what rowing means, though I have never done any rowing. And I do understand what oars are." Raka replied.

"Good. Well the normal dinghies are the ones mostly used on the ships. They work as landing boats, if the ship cannot make it to land and as lifeboats. This battle dinghy is a bit different as I said. First of all there are no paddles. Not that you cannot use the paddles to row this but mostly because it does not require them. You see the unique feature of this boat is this staff like thing right here. It is made the same way as your staff was made. Which means it allows magic to be embedded and used. You see how this staff is fixed at the back of the boat. This allows you to apply magic to drive the boat."

"Oh...ok."

"Right! now have you learned water magic?" Lady Verina asked.

"Um I haven't." Raka answered a bit dejected.

"Ah that is a problem. This works best with water magic. But we can use air magic also. Its less effective but it will work. I believe you were able to learn how to embed air magic to your staff. Any improvement on that?"

"Ah yes. I have become able to use two air slashes now."

"Good. It means that you are focusing on control. As I have said before controlling your magic is very important. And well it will help you drive the boat as well. But it will require much more control." Lady Verina said smiling.

"Um..can I even do that now?" Raka asked still dejected.

"Lets find out shall we. There is no point getting dejected before even trying, is there?"

"Um..ok. So what do I do?"

"You blow air out of the staff. Oh by the way this staff is called a drive paddle. It is made to enhance water related magic. Though it works with air magic also, though not so effectively. Now embed this drive paddle with air magic." Lady Verina instructed.

Raka closed his eyes. This was the first time he had dived into his colorful world when at sea and it was too astounding. He could see the colors of the boat and the drive paddle and Lady Verina but then there was the sea. Or he hoped that was the sea. It was just too many many colors and all of them moved all around him. What's the term, sea of colors. This was literally a sea made of colors. Raka thought how would it feel to walk around here like this. Could he walk around was his question. But that can wait.

Raka embedded the air magic on the drive paddle.

"Done."

"Hmm. That was step one. Now you have learned to release that air in a slashing like manner. That move does look powerful but it needs much mana right. That is because to control more power you need more mana. But what if you can achieve the same thing with less power, wouldn't that be better? That is the basis of control, to use less power. To drive this boat, you simply need to blow out the air but slowly like pouring water out of a tap. You have to limit your power as much as you can. The air will push the water and move the boat forward. Do you understand?"

Raka thought for a while. It was similar as pushing compressed air out of a pipe. If water magic is applied similarly it would resemble how water jets work. But replaced with air. So instead of releasing air with full power, he had to control it so that it came out with just enough power to push the boat forward.

Raka nodded understanding.

"Now if you simply blow your air out, you will still need a lot of power to move the boat. Instead try turning the air in a small circle. You see like this. This will provide more power with less magic." And Lady Verina moved her fingers in a small circular motion. "To make it easier to imagine you can try turning the drive paddle in the same manner as you release the air. Now remember, the actions you do are only for your focus and does not affect the magic itself. So the imagination in your head must be strong."

Raka knew that the actions used to perform air slash or any magic were completely unnecessary. For magic if you imagine it right it will work, so names and actions like waving the staff, are only for providing focus. Though Raka had never tried the air slash any other way.

Raka held the drive paddle tightly and started turning it around in small circle. After a few turns he started imagining air coming out at the other end of the stick as if it was coming off a narrow pipe. It took a few moments but then...

The boat suddenly lurched forward, the bow rising high and for a moment it felt like it will simply turn over like a speed boat accident. But then the bow came down and the boat accelerated forward immediately parting the water in a white turbulent wake. Raka was exhilarated.

"Yipeee" He could not help his voice breaking out. This was fun. But moments later...

30 Mana used.

And he was out of mana. The magic stopped and the boat slowly slid down to a stop.

"Not bad. But you released a whole lot at the beginning. You need to control right from the start to the end." Lady Verina said while she waved her hands.

All recovery rates are increased.

His mana filled up pretty quickly with the buff.

"Allright try again. Remember control. You can move the boat with less power."

Some time later...

"No! More control. The bow should not suddenly rise. I think you are doing it on purpose to make me fall on you, aren't you." Lady Verina teased.

"Um...no. I will go slower."

"Not slow. Just control the initial acceleration. You are releasing most of the embedded magic right at the start."

And some more time later....

"More control. You can see still see the bow rise."

The exercise continued for almost a couple of hours. They changed directions every once in a while so that they don't drift too far from the ship. That was done by simply making an angle with drive paddle while releasing air. Only at the end did Raka understand how to control his release to Lady Verina's satisfaction (*dirty minds beware).

Raka imagined an even narrower pipe which seemingly worked and slowly eased the boat forward.

"Very good. Now try to keep this feeling of control. Nice..."

A little later, "Good now try turning the boat starboard. That is to your right...."

This time he managed to drive the boat for almost five minutes before running out of mana.

30 Mana used.

Focus increases by 1.

"Hmm... about 5 minutes. Not bad but to use in any sea battle more improvement is needed. Once your control improves you should be able to use more power and move the boat faster. But lets head back to the boat now. This is not the only thing you need to learn." Lady Verina said while again casting recovery magic.

The trip back to the boat took almost half an hour but Lady Verina let Raka keep practicing. Back on the boat they had to catch the hanging ropes and tie them to the front and back of the boat like in the beginning. Then the rest of the sailors pulled them onto the deck. They had to wait for the other students and soldiers to come in. Being much more proficient in magic they could stay at sea longer and their boats moved swiftly over water as they came in.

While waiting Raka remembered that his Focus had risen. 'So controlling mana use increases Focus. So its like the less energy I use the more my mana will increase. And the more mana I have the more power I can apply.' It was almost like a contrast. Using less energy meant less powerful magic. But it also meant that he will use less mana. And that actually increased mana which can then be used to do more powerful magic. 'Its almost like the more effectively I can control magic, the more magic I will be able to control.' Which actually makes sense.

Then again, there was something else as well. If all he needed to do was use less energy, then he had done it lots of times. He had set up fires to cook food on the way to the capital, which needed very little energy. So like everything else in the game, there was just something more, something extra.

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When everyone returned, they had a period of rest and the Cook passed some jerky around. And then they saw this demonstration.

"Control," Lady Verina began, "can be very powerful. In naval battles, control is a more important weapon than you realize. All right fire now."

Some of the sailors who were standing next to a shotbow loaded a big stone, okay not boulder size but almost as big as half a hand. They loaded the stone in a pouch attached with broad strings to the crossbow like platform. One man pulled at this string contraption, drawing the pouch like a slingshot, and launched the stone in the air.

As soon as the stone launched in the air, Lady Verina raised and then waved her hands. The stone flew forward but then changed direction and started heading back to the ship. Raka had seen this magic before. It was the same homing magic Lady Verina had shown back at the magic institute.

Lady Verina kept her focus on the flying stone. As soon as it reached the ship, she waved again and it flew upwards towards the sky. After rising for a bit, it came down again heading for the ship. She waved her hands again and the stone went away again but with far greater speed and then turned back again. This time however she raised her hands as the stone neared and the stone slowed down eventually coming to a stop, still floating in the air, near the guys who had launched it. And when the guys took hold of the stone, she dropped her hands. The magic ended, the guy holding the stone adjusted just a bit as the weight of stone was transferred to him.

Everyone started clapping after witnessing this display.

'That's why the Captain said the cannons are so slow. If you could do this much, it would be like comparing cannons to guided missiles.' For those who do not know, guided missiles start slow but by mid flight can fly faster than bullets and then do an accurate hit on to a moving target without slowing down. Even a stone can puncture and sink a moving ship if it can be guided accurately. And Lady Verina had increased speed as well. 'How fast could it become if she wanted? She could sink an entire fleet with just pebbles.' Raka had a sea change and was now fully appreciative of magic control.

"Alright. Now this does look spectacular but can anyone explain what magic or magics were involved?" Lady Verina was in lecture mode still.

Well the soldiers were not really students of magic, although they should have also passed the level 1 magic course like Raka. They probably could not be expected to answer such a question. The ones who could understand or even answer such a question would be the students of the Magic Academy. Being proficient in a lot of magic they would be able to figure this out. They might even know this. Atleast that's what Raka thought.

"All I can say is that it is some kind of air magic. You were pushing the stone with air when you wanted to change its direction." Theodore said. He looked like a pretty intelligent guy.

"Hmm...Does everyone agree with his explanation?" Lady Verina asked smiling. The Captain and Lady Altia, even some of the sailors who were near also started smiling.

"That is close but not everything. I think there is something else...like a lodestone in the stones." The Despira guy seems to have noticed the strange smiles as well. 'Well he was pompous but observant.' (*For those who don't know, lodestones are naturally found magnets.)

"But there are so many stones, you cannot put lodestones in all of them. Its rare. And even if you did you need to put lodestones really close together for them to show effect. The stone flew so far away, the lodestones will have no effect." Lucy countered.

"Lodestones cannot be responsible for this. I have to agree with Theodore on this one. It has to be air magic which you applied when you wanted to change direction." Ramone added. "You must have made a powerful gust or something." 'Sounds like an intelligent idiot.'

The rest stay silent but also nod their heads.

"So does everyone agree that this is the method used?" Lady Verina asked again to confirm. Now she was just sounding like a teacher who knew the answer is wrong but was still encouraging the students to figure out the answer.

Everyone simply nods. Even the soldiers nod. After all the logic made sense.

"Raka, you are not nodding. Can you explain what just happened?" Lady Verina gave her brightest smile yet. Even Lady Altia turned her head. Well everyone did, he was singled out after all.

And Raka knew. What do you think he did spending all that time in the library at the Gurrow Village Magic Institute. He was studying about the magics he had seen. Which included this homing magic. But even if he hadn't it wouldn't have been too difficult to figure out. (*Challenge to the readers, how many of you have figured it out at this point?)

"It was the same magic as driving a boat" Raka started,

"No its not. This and that are different. It should be obvious." And the Despira guy interrupted. 'Definitely a pompous ass.' (*Did the readers figure it out?)

"Please let him continue." Lady Verina simply said which shut the guy up.

"As I was saying it was the same magic as driving a boat. You embedded the stone with air magic. And then you released it in the required direction during flight, in order to keep control on the direction. I think you kept the stone in control from the time it was launched. We do the same when driving a boat only that magic is released in one direction. While controlling the stone you made the magic release from all over, wherever you wanted." Raka said. (*So how many of you figured it out? Hope everyone did. I gave the biggest hint - guided missiles.)

"Ofcourse you changed the power applied as well. When the stone was supposed to turn to the opposite direction, you applied a stronger force. Other times when the direction was going to be changed just by a little, you applied only lesser power. The time you could control it would be dependent on the amount of air magic you would have embedded but by strict control you made it possible to control it for even longer. You did say control can be powerful at the beginning didn't you. Its just that maybe launching a stone that heavy may require too much power or mana which is why it is being launched from the shotbows. Controlling an already moving object should be easier than getting a still object to move." Raka added.

"A rather complete answer." Lady Verina smiled proudly at him. Not to sound too pompous but Raka couldn't help smiling as he saw her. Lady Altia nodded her head too.

"As Raka explained, this is the same magic as driving the boat. In fact driving the boat and this, is simply controlling the release of embedded magic and nothing else. No special techniques or complicated magic in there. Just embedding and a controlled release. Which makes so many things possible that I will leave to your imagination. Now our purpose is to learn how to use it in naval battles. You see it is still easy to control when you are the only one controlling it. But what happens when you and your opponent are trying to control the same thing, which will often be the case during any magic battle whether on sea or on land?" Lady Verina asked again.

More silence...

"Maybe the one more powerful will win." As usual Despira jumped in.

"No. I think its the one who can keep it in control for the longer period of time." Theodore replied with a thoughtful look. 'This guy is intelligent alright.'

"Both of you are correct." Lady Verina agreed. "In the short term power will win. But in the long term control wins. But there will always be a way to attack or defend if you are short of power. You may lose in a power battle but remember if you establish control immediately after, it would still be your victory. Naval battles are both short range and long range. These shotbows provide long range support, but they are still limited to a particular range. After all the magicians on the ship would lose their magic power and control if they go past a certain range. But if the ships get too close, the enemy gets a similar chance to damage us. There comes the battle dinghies. They are crewed by 2 people each, a boat driver and an attacker. It is their job to attack the ship if it is out of range.

"The thing is the enemy would do something like this too. That will draw the battle dinghies in a fight with other battle dinghies, which will allow ships to come closer and then the fight can become quite close range. In that case try to not let people board your ship and to group together to defend each other." Lady Verina added.

"So one can control the stone like till all the mana runs out?" asked Theodore.

"Ideally that is the case. But even if you can control it, you have to judge when your control will become so weak that it is not really useful. Like I can control a stone from so far away but I can only move it a hand's length at a time and your power would reduce over distance anyway. Would that be a good use of your mana? Wouldn't it serve you better to launch another stone?" Lady Verina answered.

"And what if it falls in the sea? Can we not use it by hiding it underwater and then attack them like this?" Lucy asked.

"Ah that is difficult. There are two basic problems with it. One, when the stone falls in the sea, can you still perceive it as a separate object? Two, we use stones for their weight. If such a weighted object can be granted speed it can act as an effective weapon. In water, speed becomes a problem because water acts against it. Now you could use an arrow like shape to make it a little easier but it is far easier to do it in air. In a battle where you cannot afford to run out of magic power, you have to save your mana wherever possible."

"But then why don't we use the arrow shaped stones in the shotbows? Wouldn't they be far easier to control and have greater speed?" Raka asked.

"We could. And it would work well as you said. But making arrow shapes with stones is difficult. It is far easier to use iron or metal and make those into arrows. But then again, its not like we can recover the arrows or the stones after battle at sea. So it becomes really expensive to use metal at sea. On the other hand it is far cheaper and easier to make an arrow's shape with air magic and use normal stones. Which is what you should do as well." Lady Verina explained.

After the exciting lecture and then trying to emulate or simulate, whichever fits better, the thing Lady Verina did, the day turned into night. The training was disbanded and everyone returned to their original work or whatever else they did. And Raka returned to mopping. Salmon was still there and the work hadn't changed.

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During dinner,

"So Captain how is your shoulder today?" asked Lady Verina.

"Hmm, still bothering me but its better than before. Guess I ain't as young as I used to be," the Captain replied.

Then he turned towards Raka, who was just pouring some more water in the glasses, and added,

"Wont' say no to the massage from before, if you can spare the time Raka."

"Well ofcourse. I think I can do it better than last time Captain."

"Oh have you been giving massages Raka?" asked Lady Verina with a smile. "I wouldn't mind that either."

"Neither would I" Lady Altia said as well, with a smile.

"Um could I ask for a massage as well" and a strange request came from one of the students, Veronica Taylor. Now she could be asking just because she was a fan of Lady Verina but Raka was still puzzled.

"Um..ok. But I couldn't really enter your rooms now. So would you like to come to the upper deck or would you prefer somewhere else?" Raka asked politely.

"I think upper deck should be ok. But I would not like there to be too many people. Can I ask to come wherever Lady Verina plans to have the massage?" She turned to Lady Verina to ask.

"Hmm, I was planning to have it in my room, but I don't mind."

"Well could you include us too. Oh I think the Cook wants it too." and a couple of blokes who were serving as well, joined in.

"Its turning up to be quite a crowd. There must be something magical in your fingers Raka," the Captain said jovially.

"Please do not joke about this kind of thing."

"Well if we are going to have the entire crew wanting to get massages, I think we can separate men and women into separate decks. All the men can have their massages on the upper deck. The women can have the galley. Thank you for your consideration Raka."

"Hohoho" "Hehehe" and two lovely teasing voices entered his ears as he stared at the Captain. This was going to be a long night. Oh and he still hadn't finished mopping. Raka sighed.

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The class just ended and Swamy decided to meet the head of the department Prof. D'souza. He needed to find a solution and that too a permanent solution for a simple problem. He wanted time off to attend the quests. The thing was that this would not be the only time such a situation will occur, that a quest is going on the same time as class. On the other hand, he could not suffer because of not attending.

With this in mind he headed towards Prof. D'souza's office. He knocked.

"Come in."

"Hello Professor. I am Swamy."

"Hello Mr. Swamy. What can I do for you?"

"Professor, I actually have a strange problem. I am playing the virtual reality game Long Island. Have you heard of it?"

"Yes. Oh and I am playing that too. Isn't it an interesting and fun game." He smiled.

"It is professor. In fact I actually came to talk to you about it. You see I have this quest, D+ difficulty, but the thing is I will have to take time off if I want to finish it. You see a battle is supposed to occur and it can happen anytime, during the day or night. I thought of skipping school, but I realize that such situations can occur in the future as well. This is why I came to talk to you." Raka said.

"Hmmm.. Yes I understand. You see lots of people had similar kinds of problems even in the past years. A major quest would require their non-stop attention and they would be unable to attend class. And as we encourage playing of such games, we very well cannot ask them to choose. A lot of things people understand as they get stronger."

"Ah so is there a solution to this?"

The prof stayed silent for a bit thinking.

"Mr. Swamy, do you know why there is a hunger meter or a satiety level in virtual reality games?"

"Um...I don't sir. I thought they put it in to make it look and feel real."

"Yes that is there too. But a lot of real things don't apply in virtual reality games. So why shouldn't they remove hunger as well?

"I don't know sir."

"You see Mr. Swamy, it is to remind you of the real world."

"Sir?" said Swamy confused.

"When you are playing, your brain-body connection is interrupted. Temporarily, your brain cannot receive signals from your body such as hunger, thirst, pain, etc. Body functions which are involuntary like excretion and urination can still happen. But voluntary functions like eating cannot."

"Ok."

"Early studies conducted to learn about human behaviour in a virtual reality environment found that, without these bodily inputs, people started getting too engrossed in the virtual world and started neglecting the real world body. All sorts of problems surfaced both psychological and physical because people would play for almost 3 days and then faint from hunger as soon as they stepped out into the real world. Or they would find that they have excreted or urinated in the capsules involuntarily. A famous case, which was never discussed in the public domain, was the story of a man whose house caught fire and he burned alive. His mind, which was still connected to the virtual world realized the signals of burning and pain , too late.

You see companies had to take care of a lot of problems in order to deal with these issues before a virtual reality world for the masses was possible. They instituted measures, like installing fire alarms in capsules. Or detecting capsule movement or proximity sensors which will warn if the capsule is moved or if someone approaches, etc."

"Ah...ok. I understand."

"Yes, hunger or satiety was also one of these measures. It was thought that if people got hungry in the virtual world, they would be reminded of the real world as well."

"But why would people be reminded of the real world when they get hungry in the virtual world? They can eat in the virtual world anyway right?" Swamy asked.

"Ah now that is one of the mysteries isn't it. But it does. Studies show that after introducing this hunger or satiety, the number of people who started caring about their real world needs actually increased. Looking at this, virtual reality developers also put in 'tiredness'. The fact that virtual worlds have a day and night system is also to remind you of the real world. So when the local population in the game sleeps, you can log out. Remind you, it did not eliminate all problems but it did reduce them immensely. Did you know that the Long Island capsule will automatically log you out after 24 hours of continuous play? Or if you fall asleep for more than 4 hours in the game? It does allow you to immediately log back in though."

Swamy nodded. He did not know that.

"You see Mr. Swamy, the reason I tell this is to remind you that it is in your best interest to pay attention to the real world also. You may think you want to stay all the time in the game in the anticipation of something. But it will be more harmful than useful."

"I understand sir. I will take care."

"Alright. Now I have no need to tell you that even though there is no attendance requirement for the courses, if you miss your coursework it will affect you adversely."

"Yes professor."

"Good. However the department is responsible if you indulge in continued absences. So here is the deal. You will submit in a short video of your activities of each day in the game, only for the days you do not attend college. You may edit it if it contains information you do not wish to divulge. Please understand that the department reserves the right to notify close relatives or try to check up on you if you continue missing classes or if you fail to submit the video."

"Thank you professor. I understand. Thank you for your consideration."

"Its ok. Remember to take care of yourself. Do you live with someone?"

"No sir, but my Aunt lives next door and she usually checks up on me."

"That's good. Oh you will need to fill up this form here, just your current address, etc. Oh by the way, what is your in game name?"

"Is that necessary?"

"No. Its just that if we ever meet in the game, I will know its you. My game name is Souzan."

"Oh...ah my name would be Raka." Not that there was any point hiding it. The videos would reveal his name anyway.

"Hm...wait. That Raka? The disciple of Lady Altia Raka? the first one to leave the village on Ilmentia Island?"

"Um, I don't know about being the first to leave the village but yes I am that Raka. Did you start in Ilmentia too?"

"Ah no. I started in Khardoum. But you know the forums were ablaze with your name at one time. Nice to meet a celebrity."

Swamy simply made a face.

Swamy now had a free pass. He did understand the point Prof. D'souza was trying to make though. So he set up a schedule for all his activities. A break for 10~15 minutes every 4 hours. And then sleep for atleast 5 hours. Any less and he would start suffering those symptoms again. He would synchronize it with the game time.

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Raka appeared on the ship. The room was empty. Raka walked outside to the galley. It turned out it was evening in the game.

"Hey Raka, you are early? How come?" Cook asked.

"Ah yes. I got permission to come early. In fact for the next few days I might spend more time here."

"Permission? From the Goddess?"

'Oops. Well lets go with that.'

"Yes. Oh she is quite well by the way."

And Raka walked off leaving the Cook confused. 'I better have a reason.'

He found Lady Verina and Lady Altia in the mirror room with the Captain. He knocked and entered.

"Raka, how come you are here?" Lady Altia exclaimed.

"Ah sorry Commander, please give us a few minutes here." Lady Verina spoke to the person in the mirror and waved her hand. The connection was broken.

"Ah it seems that by the grace of the Goddess, I can stay longer now, though I will disappear from time to time in between. Not for long though."

"That's wonderful to hear. The Goddess is kind." Lady Altia said.

"She is indeed." Lady Verina stared and then rolled her eyes. "Well it is nice that you will be around more though." she added smiling.

"So anything new?" Raka asked.

"Nothing. We are still sailing under the assumption that the pirates are heading to that small island. Well anyways lets resume the meeting." Lady Verina said.

And just like that, it was fine. Long live the Goddess.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was pretty routine going after that. More work. More training. More practice. More mopping. Raka may be first class in understanding magic, but not so well in actual practice. The soldiers and magic students were much more proficient in their use. That's the difference with having grown with it. What's the word, they had a better feel for magic than Raka. He was improving in his own way though.

Raka understood that their were two types of magic users by observation. One was the power type, who had huge power. The other was the technique type having more control. Lady Altia and Lady Verina were prime examples of the two types, respectively. This was not the difference in actual ability but rather the difference in aptitude. Or simply how one thought about it. For example, Lady Altia would want to produce a large fireball to attack and Lady Verina would like a smaller fireball but control the attack trajectory.

Goddess's children like Raka on the other hand could choose to excel in both. But only if they could figure out how to get those stat points. Raka kept practicing driving the boat, trying to reduce the energy required further. The speed reduced but the boat was still moving. And then,

30 Mana used.

He still did not understand why Focus increased, just that it did. Maybe it had to do something with trying to reduce the energy required for a task. 'So it does not mean simply using less energy but trying to use the least energy possible for a given task. Even if I did not use the least energy, as long as I tried to use the least and succeed, the Focus would increase. Probably!' Not sure about his thoughts, Raka assumed that there had to be a limit like this. Once you reach that you won't be able to increase your Focus by doing that task anymore. After all each task should have a minimum energy requirement. 'Unless there is this thing that after my mana increases, I will be able to generate more power from the same amount of energy' but that sounds a little far-fetched. He couldn't be sure though.

2 days passed in game time and Raka logged off to sleep.

He logged back in, 15 hours game time later. And it was lucky that he did. Because as he stepped up to the upper deck, the shout was heard.

"Ship spotted on the stern." the guy manning the crow's nest called out.

Dawn had just broken and the first light of the sun appeared on the horizon. People hurried to check. The Captain brought out a telescope and looked closely at the ship which appeared.

"Its the pirates! Sound the alert! Pass on the word to the other ships! Ready for battle!" The Captain snapped commands as the highly trained crew jumped into action.

It seemed that they had overtaken the pirates by going around the low winds area, the Captain had talked about before, whereas the pirates had got stuck in it. In the dark of the night, they could not see them but as dawn broke, the pirates appeared behind them. Still a little far but with their speed they should catch up in some time. Though there was always a possibility that they could try and run.

"Turn to port! Get the boats out!" More commands.

Raka could not believe the speed of the sailors now. He had always thought that opening the hole and lifting out the boats would be a slow operation, like always. But the speed now! They had all the boats lined up on the sides in 10 minutes.

"Alright man the boats!"

Ofcourse Raka was not assigned to the boats. He and the other students were just learning, after all. It was the more experienced soldiers and some of the sailors who boarded the boats. Lady Altia and Lady Verina stayed on the ship too and the ship entered in an interception course with the pirate ship. The other ships in the fleet followed.

The best situation according to the plan would be if the pirates attacked. Being on a faster ship, if they tried to run, none of the weighed down ships in the fleet will be able to give chase. On the other hand, the pirates would have to change course for somewhere else and not the small island they were aiming for initially. Apparently in this region of the sea, the other closest land mass belonged to Brittanica main island and Ilmentia island. With them on guard against pirates, they would have to sail the sea for a long time, while the fleet could resupply easily by sending one ship.

All in all the choices were limited for the pirates. Their best case scenario would be to attack, disable a ship or two breaking through the defense line of ships and head to that same small island. Atleast the attack was imminent.

Raka watched as the flurry of chaotic activity slowed down to ready watchfulness. The preparations were done and the pirate ship was still a little distance away. Raka could see the pirate ship landing dinghies of their own. About 4 or 5, compared to the 30 something dinghies the fleet launched in total. After all, the pirate ship was designed for speed not cargo. There is advantage in numbers and right now it was with the fleet.

They say the start of a battle is silent. And then like striking lightning it starts abruptly.

"Fire away!" came loud commands from all ships. Lots of stone projectiles were hurled towards the pirate ship. Lady Verina immediately took control of one of the stones while Lady Altia did the same. And they zoomed towards hull, just below the water line. A hole there would reduce the ship's speed, if not completely disabling it. The other stones were targeted at important locations, sails and masts, some were even targeting people. Try imagining being shot by a shotgun. And then imagine the bullet to be the size of your face. It would have been gruesome.

If it had hit. The stones reached the hull but bounced off and could not damage it. The ones targeting the masts suffered the same fate. Only the ones targeting the sails and the faces of people were intercepted by magic. Some changed the angle of the approaching stones so that it would strike the hull instead. And some started a fight with other magicians who were still in control of those stones.

Distance matters in magic because it matters to us. And being closer to the approaching stones, the pirates had an upper hand in power. It took someone with magic control like Lady Verina to still keep control of the stone and again attack the pirates, even after being deflected many times.

And then the boats collided. The battle dinghies had reached attack range and started by launching attacks against the other dinghies first. Much closer in range, free magic was being used. Fire balls, air slashes, water whips, even the hulls of the boat hardened with earth magic collided. And as they closed in weapons were drawn. Consider a cavalry charge, but with battle dinghies.

The pirates were also experienced in combat. In fact their specialty was naval combat. Armor, weapons....hulls strengthened with magic reduced or diminished the various attacks. Wood did not burn. The armor protected the men. And then from the ship came arrows. They wanted us to come close to them, where they would have the advantage.

A blow of wind is enough to cause an arrow to lose direction or to make it lose power, if it is not supported by magic. But if simply used as a distraction, it worked great. The dinghy attackers had to focus on the arrows targeting them or others, which left them vulnerable to attack for a moment. And some other pirate would strike at that very moment as if anticipating it, which someone else had to handle. The pirates may be fewer in number, but they had the advantage in team work and experience. Knowing they had no way to run, they had committed whole heartedly to this.

Just then,

[p=center](Event Quest) Defeat the Pirates[/p]

Pirates have attacked the fleet. Help the fleet defeat the pirates. You will be awarded as per your efforts.

Difficulty level: D+

Reward: Contribution points with the nation of Ilmentia, Fame

Note: The quest cannot be refused and has been accepted. The quest may change depending on the situation.

'So I have to make sure Lady Altia does not overexert herself and I have to help in defeating the pirates!' Well doing either meant keeping track of the situation anyway.

The pirate ship was getting closer even with all the attacks launched against it. It seemed the strengthening done by dwarves did not only increase durability, it also protected against effects of things like fire. Or maybe they had some other way to make fireproof wood because the hull wasn't burning one bit, even with constant fire attacks.

And then came their attacks.

The dwarves were good at manufacturing. Unlike the shotbows, they built proper trebuchets, though a smaller version as it was on a ship, which launched proper fire projectiles. Some stuff which burned good but held shape while it was launched and then scattered as it hit something else. In this case the hull or deck of the ship. Raka's ship was burning.

(Event Subquest) Dousing Fires - The ship has caught fire from the pirate's attacks. Act swiftly to douse it and you will have saved your ship from a worse fate. You have 1 minute to douse the fire or it will spread.

Time remaining: 59 seconds.

Raka had to hurry and grab a bucket, actually his mopping bucket, fill it with sea water and then douse the several small and big fires which had started as that fire projectile broke. It smelled funny.

And for some reason, the standard method of dealing with projectiles, a puff of air hadn't worked. It was under some strong magic control.

"Its made of pitch! " Someone shouted. 'Note to self, check out this pitch thing later.'

The fire has been doused successfully.

"There is someone really strong with magic on that ship." Lady Altia shouted. "Verina, find him. Raka help her."

(Event Subquest) Extra Eyes - Someone really skillful with magic is on the pirate's ship. Help Lady Verina find him. The more time he is unchallenged, the more damage he can cause the ship and the fleet.

It was Lady Altia's puff of air which had gotten overwhelmed. If it was simply a matter of control, it would have made sense. But the puff of air did not even budge that fire pitch thingy. It meant there was someone there who had power and the control to keep up that power for the time it took that fire projectile to hit their ship. If he was not brought down soon, defense would become meaningless. After all, unlike the dwarves, humans don't have the power or mana to strengthen a whole ship hull and maintain it for any considerable length of time, even if they could do something about the fire.

And then there was the pitch. It spread and it burned. Even when Raka doused it, the unburnt pitch remained stuck to the wood. That became a fire hazard just waiting for a bit of flame.

Raka quickly scanned the pirate ship looking for signs of anyone focusing on the trebuchets. Apart from the dwarves, there were a few other humans standing near it. But the problem was finding one human among a bunch of other humans. Also if the said human was the skillful magician, he wouldn't need to stand around a trebuchet. So one human among all the humans. 'Kill all the humans I say!'

Maybe Lady Verina heard his mind. But she was doing just that. She was now targeting the humans one by one using the stones being launched. In fact, seeing as they made no damage to the hull, all the other people had started targetting the people onboard the pirate ship, Humans, dwarves and beastmen. It became a game of distance vs control. If you had to describe it, it was the magicians battle for attrition. The one who lost focus or the one who lost mana died.

The fleet had the numerical advantage, and soon stones started hitting the people onboard. Raka watched carefully, noticing if any of them showed signs of being extraordinary skillful.

Few did. One guy was skillful enough to dodge two stones coming at him at the same time. The other batted the stones down with a bat. Oh wait that was a dwarf. The beastmen were the most useless on the ship, but they could use the strengthened bats the dwarves provided them and their hands/claws to do the same.

Another guy, who was standing next to and looking at the trebuchet launching a pitch ball aimed at the nearby fleet ship. But someone had stopped it with some good water magic. The pitch ball went down the sea. Next moment a stone went crashing through his head. 'Ugh! Gruesome indeed!' Raka turned his eyes away.

'Definitely not that guy.'

More time passed. The pirate ship was closing distance as fast as possible. It was so close that distance wouldn't matter too much for magic anymore. And it was showing effect. The magics started killing people on both sides.

"What are they planning?" Lady Altia shouted while attacking with her own magic.

"I don't know. But if I wasn't sure that it would be a stupid idea, I would think they are looking to ram this ship." Captain shouted out from the wheelhouse. The first mate and the second mate were both defending the bridge and anything directed at the Captain or themselves.

'Seriously!' Well that would have been a good course of action if they had more of their number. But the pirates still attacked even when dying. And the ship kept coming closer. Somehow the sails and mast were being protected, even when people, dwarves and human kept biting the dust. The beastmen were injured but its like a simple stone couldn't hurt them much even when struck with the speed of an arrow. 'Their body linked magic is surely something.'

"Raka watch out!" And Raka quickly turned his head to see a stone like five feet away from him frozen in air. 'Gulp!'

Lady Verina, who had shouted, quickly moved that stone back to attack the magician targetting him. But then Raka quickly moved and defended with his staff, against the stone which was headed towards her. It pushed him a couple of meters before he stopped.

"Thanks." she said smiling but her eyes were focused elsewhere.

"Thank you too. But that one's coming again" and Raka batted the stone again. Good thing his staff was metal. Even when he had embedded air magic. The air acted like some kind of balloon, cushioning the damage to the staff itself. Not that he had planned to use it like this. His transformation of energy thingy was still slow. He couldn't just dive into his colorful world mid battle or mid swatting the stone but as they say whatever works.

But this stone was persistent. Not that you could hurt the stone itself. All Raka could do was play cricket or baseball with the stone till Lady Verina killed whoever was targeting him previously. Another time and he swatted it again. It was in its own way quite fun.

"Alright thanks for keeping him occupied. I will take over now." Lady Verina called out.

Raka sighed as the stone stopped homing on him. In the meantime the pirate ship came even close. A few more minutes and they would smash into his ship. 'What are they after?' He had more important stuff to do for now, like finding out the most skillful magician. The pirate ship deck was now covered in bodies. Few people had died on the other fleet ships too. The pirate ship dinghies were broken or burned and a couple of the fleet dinghies seemed to be floating empty as well. Raka's ship had no one killed so far, thanks to Lady Verina and Lady Altia standing on the vanguard of defense.

People had died but the pirates had suffered much more. But their ship still kept coming closer. People kept trying to smash stones against the hull but dunno what the hull was made of, it just didn't break.

"Are they really planning to ram us?" Lady Altia shouted finally. After all once a ship comes this close what else was it supposed to do?

"I am afraid so. But looks like there are only a few people still left. If we all attack together, we should be able to finish them off." The Captain shouted in reply as another pitch ball started making its way to our ship.

"I will handle this" shouted Lady Altia but unlike last time she got her sword out. She focused and then started slashing attacks on the approaching pitch ball. Considering it was still far away, Raka thought she was using something like an air slash. But no, every slash she was doing was cutting and dousing that pitch ball at the same time. 'That looks like some kind of water magic.' Raka was impressed.

Well if you break an object into pieces, it does not remain the same object and hence the magic embedded in it does not remain effective which meant the out of control pieces harmlessly fell into the sea. Another reason why stone projectiles were preferred. Not easy to break those.

And the pirate ship moved even closer.

"Captain should we move the ship?!" Lady Altia shouted out.

"On Oars!" The Captain ordered immediately.

Most of the pirates had been killed or injured heavily. Even the beastmen were injured although still standing. But they were harmless. 'Unless they could jump. Damn!'

"Watch out, the beastmen are preparing to jump on our ship. Move away fast." Raka shouted immediately.

But he found out immediately how wrong he was. A couple of beastmen did try to jump but some clever air magic and they fell straight into the sea. And then some cool water magic was used to drown them. They were no fish after all. Now everyone was wondering what was happening. 'What the hell! I thought the beastmen would be the threat but they can be handled so easily. Like this, this battle can be won by just waiting....I should go take a nap or something...' Raka thought wryly. Being the weakest of the bunch its not like he had a lot to do. The stone batting contest was the most fun he had.

Then he had a brainflash. In fact napping had turned his gear for some reason. 'Who is protecting the ship?' Most of the people on the pirate ship's deck had been involved in fighting so whoever was strengthening the hull?! In fact could only one dwarf be responsible for that? And where was that incredibly skilled magician?' And the answer was.....the lower deck.

"Watch out! They got more people hiding in the lower decks!" Raka shouted at the top of his voice almost at the same time as oars came out from small doors at the side of the pirate ship and it picked up speed. 'Portholes, they are called.'

"Damn..."

"Move those oars!! Get moving or I will set the dogs of hell after you!" the Captain shouted in an even louder voice. Sailors do have loud voices.

'Damn how could I forget...pirate ships are made for speed so they don't have much cargo space.' Which meant they have a bigger lower deck than the fleet ships and that lower deck can be used for a good number of people. To sleep and to stay protected. And ofcourse they had oars. So the pirates were basically hiding their forces to spring a very nasty surprise. And that surprise was about to smash into the ship's side momentarily.

But in Raka's defense he could not have realized it any sooner. For one, the pirates were always coming out from the lower deck. And going down below as well. It had seemed that they were busy taking out the cargo to supply others or something. And what had happened was a bit worse than that. People, humans, dwarves and beastmen had actually left the upper deck after fighting for some time. In the heat of battle, no one noticed people suddenly missing from the upper deck. Who was counting anyway....the missing ones would have just been killed. Or that's what the people would have thought. No one counts the dead bodies if you have enough of them. And so the skillful, powerful people who maybe the higher ranked ones quietly descended to the lower deck. Maybe they had split their forces into weak and strong ones beforehand and they sacrificed the weak ones as pawns on the upper deck.

Ofcourse this became clear much later.

But right now the ship was about to break into pieces and everyone watched the pirate ship ominously with wide eyes and bated breaths. The, now 20 something, dinghies fired magic non stop. Some even came in next to the ship in order to buffer the impact of the pirate ship. This way the boats would be hit first. The sailors quickly tied the boats with the ropes so that they don't drift away and then jumped off and swam to get out of the way.

"Abandon SHIP!!" The simple command rang out as people were moved into action.

Lady Verina suddenly fell on her hands and knees as if supremely tired. Raka hurried over to her.

"Are you ok?" he asked but Lady Verina had her eyes closed.

"I will stop that ship. But I need to get close." She simply replied softly. Raka understood. She was probably going to transform a large amount of energy for something. Just then,

(Event Subquest) Powerful barrier - Lady Verina aims to do a powerful magic which will stop the approaching pirate ship. For that she needs to get closer to the oncoming ship and the water. Help her reach one of the dinghies by the side.

"Ok, hold on." Which brings us to the bag limit weight. See rabbit and wolf skins and bones weigh like 1~2 stones. But he had carried about a hundred each of those so almost 200 stones atleast. Atleast about 100 kgs and he hadn't felt a thing. A woman such as Lady Verina should weigh far less.

Raka easily lifted Lady Verina and carried her in his arms. Whats the word, bridal carry...princess carry...whatever it is called. And then he quickly ran over towards the approaching pirate ship. He jumped aiming for one of the boats. He slipped as his feet reached the boat and he landed on his butt instead. Thankfully he kept holding Lady Verina who still had her eyes closed.

You have successfully landed on the boat.

Soon she opened her eyes and reached for the water. A soft word spoken in her clear voice...

"Kraken."

Eight small ribbons of rapidly turning water rose high into the air. But then came down and settled on a height of about 8 feet. And slowly started getting thicker. Almost like the water was being sucked into it and increasing its volume. From a ribbon to a thick rope to a tree trunk....to almost 2 feet thick. Raka felt the boat being pulled towards it. Infact even the ship was being pulled towards it. It had so much power.

And then 4 of them disappeared. And the 4 remaining got even thicker. Lady Verina stood slowly and Raka supported her by standing behind her. She opened her hands and moved them away to either side. The 4 joined to become 2, even thicker. And then stood in front of us just as the pirate ship hit it.

The front of the bow was higher than that and it still approached, passing over Raka's head as it smashed into the ship just behind him. And then the hull met the water barrier and the pirate ship stopped. Noises bellowed out of the pirate ship, probably calling for greater strength at the oars. But the ship did not move forward. In fact the turning water was pushing it back little by little. Like two large gears working together, they were generating more reverse pushing power than the ship's forward power. And so it moved back, and the thick masses of water moved back with it, pushing it all the way. Soon the pirate ship was pushed back just far enough. With that said, it was still close enough that one could jump on their ship.

And then the oars were cut. Like all the oars on one side were cut off at the same time. Probably Lady Altia was the culprit. The 'so called strong' pirates had made a simple mistake in their plan. In their complete victory simulation they had probably not expected to be stopped like this and hence had forgotten to strengthen their oars. By the time they realized their mistake, the other side oars were cut as well.

"Quick! Cut their sails!" She shouted from above. On hindsight this was not too incredible. They were childhood friends. Their teamwork was the best.

But the fight was not over yet. If they stayed this close, the people who were now coming out of hiding, would probably jump on to our ship and reign havoc. Lady Verina had considered that possibility. She had not cancelled her magic because of this. As soon as the oars and sails were cut, she started pushing again. It went easier this time without all that forward force and soon the ship was about 20 meters away. Not too far but it was enough.

She waved her hands and the two swirling masses of water quickly dropped down.

"Pull us up!" Raka shouted.

"No! Wait! Hold me!" Lady Verina said in her clear voice and closed her eyes again. She was transforming more energy. And probably that needed water as well.

Once more, "Kraken."

And 8 ribbons of swirling water rose again. But this time it surrounded the pirate ship. It looked exactly like an octopus now. The pirates sensing danger quickly started firing all sorts of magic. But none of it reached us as they got blocked by so many people, soldiers and sailors of the fleet.

Some of the pirates even managed to shoot a pitch ball towards us. And the highly skillful magic user probably got involved in it as well because somehow it kept heading towards us.

"There...him, the guy wearing black clothes." Raka finally spotted him. It was easy this time, he was the only human who was intently looking at them, the rest had gotten engaged with fighting other people.

You have found the skillful magic user.

Lady Verina simply moved her hands like she wanted to catch it and a ribbon or tentacle caught the pitch ball, blocking it. And then two other tentacles moved. One of them towards the skilled magician. As soon as he moved to block himself from this attack, the other tentacle hit the pitch ball back towards the pirate ship. Without that guy's control and the others being engaged by the people of the fleet, the pirates had no chance. The pitch ball fell on to the deck and scattered.

Then all the tentacles came into action. Lady Verina quickly moved her hands while Raka held her from behind. All the tentacles hunted that one guy. In a magic battle if you lose focus, you die and keeping track of 8 swirling ribbons of water was not easy. Not that he didn't try. But the tentacles caught the skillful magic guy from the back and then quickly threw him overboard over quite a distance. That guy was effectively out of the battle. And then Lady Verina fainted.

"Alright lift us up now!"

The fight went on for some time after that. And a lot of pirates were killed. Raka laid down Lady Verina near him and Lady Altia and watched the fight, always ready to defend. But this fight was about numbers...and the fleet had them.

And finally the pirates surrendered and the battle ended.

Event Quest: Defeat the Pirates ends successfully. Based on your efforts, you have been awarded 30 contribution points towards the Nation of Ilmentia. Contribution points can be used in various endeavours or to ask for favors from the nation.

Fame increases by 20.

Raka carried Lady Verina back to the room and laid her on the bed. There were still lots of things to do but Lady Altia and the Commander of the fleet would handle the rest.

The captured pirates were divided into each ship with the beastmen being tied far more securely than required. They were also kept on separate ships. It turned out they had enough chains and ropes which had been brought expecting an encounter with the beastmen. The same was used now for the dwarves and humans, as well. Not that they resisted. They were kept on the upper deck and under strict watch always. It turned out that the number who surrendered were only 10, 3 humans, 5 dwarves and 2 beastmen.

The pirate ship was stripped bare, the sailors picking up any and all supplies and weapons they had, which was not much and all the treasure they were carrying was divided and loaded on two ships so as not to add too much weight on one. And then it was scuttled and sunk. When Raka asked the reason, he was explained that they didn't have any extra crew to handle that ship and hence it was decided to sink it.

It turned out that the skillful magician guy was actually the pirate captain, but no one cared to look for him. "Let the Goddess judge his fate" the Captain said."We have our dead to worry." The dead were given a simple ceremony and laid to rest among the waves.

And then the ships turned home.

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Swamy logged off to take a break. He decided to submit the video of the battle to the university. He didn't have time to edit it anyway. After thinking for a bit, he also uploaded the video on the Long Island forums.

Who knew what kind of effect this video would have.

Formal complaint against the editor in use. I can not preset my font size and type. Every time I copy some text it will always ends up getting smaller. eg. Every time I copy some text it will always ends up getting smaller.

Hope someone fixes this problem. Or go back to the older editor, I liked it better.

Comments welcome on the chapter :). This might have more mistakes than last one. Oh and I have not added the character window thingy yet...will add that soon.

TwoFeet