We slowly coasted into the small port that Khikall had told me about. He wasn’t lying when he said small. There was one dock with three slips for ships and that was it. Even the island wasn’t much more than a small rocky mass, floating adrift in the sky.

There were a dozen buildings, all crammed together with tight walkways between them to maximize the usable space.

“Gods, what is this shit hole?” I asked.

“The port is called Hylatty. It's where people go when they have nowhere else.”

“I can guess why. You sure there is going to be a portmaster here to even declare the bounties with?”

“Every port is required to have one in the Avuilian Protectorate,” Khikall answered.

I grunted, “what about selling the other items?”

“Depends, they may buy those cannons to help ward off pirate attacks, or they may not. Sometimes it is safer to just give the pirates what they want so they leave you alive.”

“Fine, let's get this over with and find someplace less depressing,” I replied.

There were no ships currently in the port, making it our pick for an open slip. Khikall picked the one that looked to be in the best repair, meaning it wasn’t hanging on by a thread, not that it was in good shape.

The magically enhanced fabric stretched under the ship as it settled into the berth. I didn’t trust the integrity of the support so I told Khikall to remain aboard and keep as much weight off the thing as possible. He nodded and I left the command room to head to the top deck. I wasn’t worried about Khikall stealing the Retribution. I could just activate the intruder defenses and recall the ship to my location. A draconian measure for sure but one I had been forced to implement after Javier’s betrayal.

I jumped off the deck and onto the dock, nearly falling straight through the rotten wood. I scrambled out of the hole I had made and brushed myself off while cursing this town and its inhabitants.

There was no sign of a dockmaster or anyone else for that matter. I sighed and headed for the local tavern to see if I could find him there or at least get directions. Not that I couldn’t search the entire town within an hour if I had to.

As I opened the door to the drinking establishment, the smell of old urine, sweat, and vomit assaulted me. I choked back my bile and surveyed the room. It wasn’t long past midday and there were already three people passed out drunk in the bar. One of them was behind the counter.

There was only one person awake and nursing what I assumed to be a beer but didn’t want to assume, given the rancid stench of this place.

I walked over to introduce myself, “Hey, do you know where the Dockmaster is?”

The man jumped slightly as I began to talk like he hadn’t realized I had even entered the bar. His half-lidded gaze slowly panned over to take me in. I swear the man blinked as if he were stuck in molasses, his eyelids moving at a glacial pace. He swayed on his stool, nearly falling over before his eyes opened again and he caught himself.

Holy fuck, this guy is three sheets to the wind.

“Hello,” I said, waving my hand in front of his face, “Dockmaster, do you know where I can find him?”

With frustrating slowness the man nodded his head, then he pointed to himself.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration, blowing out a sigh. “Well, time to sober your ass up,” I said, casting Cleanse on the man.

I stepped back just in time as the man turned green and vomited where I had just been standing.

“Fuck’s sake,” he said with deliberate slowness as he massaged his temples. I knew that Cleanse wouldn’t get rid of the headache associated with overdrinking but I didn’t have time to wait for this asshole to sleep it off.

“Good, now that you are cognizant, I need to turn in some bounties.”

He turned and looked up at me, truly seeing me for the first time. His eyes were red and bloodshot but also slightly accusatory.

“Did ya hav’ta cleanse me?” the man accused, speaking in a dialect that made the words seem shoved together.

“Yeah, now, let's get this shit settled so I can leave.”

The man grumbled but got off his stool and plodded out of the bar. I followed him to a ramshackle lean-to next to the dock. I saw him glance at my ship in confusion, but he just shook his head and kept walking.

When we got to the shack, he snapped his fingers rapidly, motioning for what I assumed was the evidence. I chuckled internally as he groaned from the loud noise of his snapping digits. I pulled out the flag and the wanted poster and handed them to him.

He looked at the sheet of paper, adjusting it closer or farther away to, I don’t know, see it more clearly. The guy was a mess.

Eventually, he was satisfied with whatever he saw and looked at the flag. He rolled the flag up and it disappeared into a ring along with the poster. He handed me a token that deposited the credits into my account.

“Is that all?” he asked in a hoarse whisper, rubbing his temples again.

“One more,” I stated, pulling out the head of the other pirate along with the bounty sheet.

He turned green again and hurled onto the dock. He wiped his mouth and turned back toward the grisly prize. “You know, an ear would have been enough to use for identification,” he said, stamping the second sheet. Quicker than I thought possible, the man had drawn a long knife from a sheath at his waist and sliced an ear off the head with a practiced motion that made me tense up. The rest of the head he simply tossed off the island.

This man was highly skilled with a blade, that much was for certain. I decided to use Identify on him.

Barcos | Blademaster/Tharian Bladesinger | 27/19

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I saw the man’s levels. The man didn’t seem to notice, or he did and didn’t care. He handed me another card and I took it, depositing the money into my account.

I wanted to ask how someone of his level ended up in this shithole but the man, now done with our business, walked back toward the bar. Deciding it was in my interest not to annoy someone of his level, I turned around and walked toward the ship.

“You meet with Barcos?” Khikall asked.

I nodded, “what’s his story?”

Khikall shrugged. “Probably nothing good if he ended up here. I’ve spoken with the man a few times, even tried to recruit him to my crew, when I had one. He would never talk about his life before coming to this island and adamantly refused to step foot aboard another ship.”

“Hmm, I can definitely see why you would want him as part of a crew, the man would be deadly in any situation. But the drinking would be a problem. Still… it may be worth attempting to get him as crew. You up for talking with him again? He didn’t seem interested in anything I said.”

Khikall rubbed his whiskers. “I agree he would be an asset on a ship as small as yours. I can try talking to him. But I need you to promise not to leave me on Hylatty. If you can do that… I will attempt to reason with the man.”

“Trust me, I’m not going anywhere without you, This area is far too dangerous for me to be traipsing about blindly. So I promise to wait for you.”

“Very well, I will take you at your word, Captain. This may take all night though.”

“Alright, if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.”

Khikall nodded and left the ship.

I wasn’t completely on board with bringing this unknown on as crew but the man’s levels were astonishing. And Khikall at least knew the man. Besides, I couldn’t keep jumping aboard random pirate ships by myself. I wasn’t ignorant to the dangers of that approach and we had been lucky so far, going after small-time pirates. It wasn’t my goal to eliminate the pirate problem but I did want to get even with the pirate that attacked me. He ranked far higher than even the two we took down combined so I would need a few more crew if I wanted to secure that prize.

I would reserve my judgment on the man until after Khikall returned. In the meantime, I went onto the upper deck and took out one of the massive cannons to examine. I would have done it inside but there wasn’t any space large enough to house the thing.

The cannon looked like the early stylized cannons from China. Where the cannon was shaped to look like a dragon or beast of some sort.

I assumed the Guild did this to drive up the price but who knew with those crooks. Other than that it looked like a fairly standard cannon. I didn’t know much about cannons, other than they used pound as a rating. That didn’t help me much as I had no clue what that equated to. I did know the bore on this beast was around seven inches.

There were glowing enchantments inside the barrel and along the exterior of the cannon, all leading to what would normally be the wick or ignition hole, I believed it was called. There was no such thing on this cannon and instead it was replaced by a small mana heart, similar to the ones imbedded into mana cannons.

It made sense, really. If these cannons were precursors to mana cannons, why not use similar architecture. So instead of gunpowder, the mana blast was used to expel the projectile out of the cannon. It was a pretty wasteful design. Then again, the Guild probably designed them to be wasteful. This way they could profit by arming their enemies with sub-par weapons.

I took out one of the cannonballs I had swiped. It was also covered in enchantments but these were inactive. I shoved the ball into the cannon and the enchantments began to glow and pulse. I swore, rushing to the mana heart and pulsing it to fire the cannonball.

A belch of blue flame roared out of the cannon, sending the rapidly pulsing cannonball toward the ocean below. I watched as it started crackling with electricity before it finally burst apart, sending out an impressive shockwave.

I looked around but nobody had bothered to come to see what all the noise was about. Deciding it was best to experiment later, I stored the cannon and made my way below deck.