The capturing of our ship was a strange affair. The sailors did not fight back or run and it seemed almost like a tax collection rather than a robbery. Apparently the pirates while fierce were not stupid and did not want to escalate the situation. Rumours had it that their base was safe behind a magically created maelstrom but even if the never relenting storm that protected their island existed. If their attack on the waterways caused to too much death it would force the old mages to act. These old men may not be capable of breaching the typhoon but they were more than capable of slaughtering the pirates any time the left port. As such they would normally show up, take some goods and leave.

The pirates were armed with longswords and all wore the same dark blue patchwork uniform over chainmail and boarded our ship in groups of two or three via gangplank. The leaders were visible from their black capes and they approached our captain while demanding surrender. The princess was muttering about killing them all but I quickly silenced her by placing my hand over her mouth and dragged her to the back of the crew. Outnumbered six ships to one I knew the outcome as did many others as we surrendered to the pirates. I could have fought them off but not without exposing myself.

Alas my luck on the ocean remained terrible and one of the students of the magic school openly attacked a pirate rather than hand over his valuables. Despite blasting the pirate back with wind magic it did not end well for the elf as the other two members ran him through. This caused all hell to break loose as the guards started fighting off the pirates. Grabbing the princesses arm I whispered, “follow me“ before leading her below deck. The moment we got out of sight she began complaining “why aren't we fighting them off?” pointing out the porthole I replied “There are another ten ships in the area. It's better to cut our losses and escape when we reach land.”

Retreating to the VIP rooms I began to loot everything and place it in a single bag. Just as I finished two pirates barged through the door, swords still dripping fresh blood. Preempting their response I spoke up, “My master is a member of the new spirit wind kingdom royal family and I am a healer. I offer this tribute in exchange for our lives and request we be ransomed back to our kingdom.” forming an orb of healing magic as proof of my claims while handing over the just looted goods.

The pirates were slightly confused but quickly caught on to the fact they had captured some 'big fish' and that we would be more valuable alive than dead. They clamped us in mana suppressing irons and gagged before being lead back onto the deck which was now littered with corpses from both sides. One of the pirates explained the situation to the group of captains before we were escorted onto one of their ships and thrown in the hold with about twelve other survivors including the oracle. It was easy to see from the porthole that they raided the goods and treasures from our ship before burning it to the waterline. Why would the do that you ask? Simply to hide the fact they killed so many people with ties to the other countries. If they kept the ship it would be obvious that they killed them but with the ship missing they could claim it was destroyed by sea monsters and they simply rescued the survivors.

I overheard something about using the women before selling the rich ones back to their family but knew they would not touch the oracle or the princess. Why would they not touch those two? Because along with our performance in the VIP room we booked our ticket under the false record that she was related to the “new” rulers of the spirit wind kingdom as such harming her would directly violate the holy dragon empires protection treaty bringing them much more trouble then it was worth and the oracle was a member of the Holy dragon church.

Over the next two days, we were starved as they would not release our bindings or gags. The straw lined room also smelled of shit as there was nothing more than a bucket to relieve ourselves. Through the night I heard the cries of women and the laugher of pirates, both the princess and I knew these would eventually be dead men but until we were free there was nothing we could do at the time. We slowly approached the maelstrom, a massive dome of storm clouds forever rotating around the island the pirates called home. It was apparent this was no natural event as it parted to allow the pirate ships to enter before once more sealing itself.

Shipwrecks dotted the landscape for as much as we could see inside the storm wall telling of the attempts made to end the pirate nuisance in the past. We approached a dock that only had enough places for about two fleets our size and the pirates started to drag us from the hold to the deck. The deck was wet from the light rain and all the crew members that had raided our ship were assembled to escort us. It was clear to see that about a third of the ship crew had died in their assault and half of what remained were injured. As the ship stopped the gangplank fell and were escorted into the nearby buildings.

Other pirates approached and took some of the members away mainly the women while the princess along with the oracle were taken to a better-looking location. The two remaining men and I were dragged to a small shack. Left alone in the small shack I decided to make my move. Brandishing berserk mode I shattered the mana sealing cuffs before removing my disguise pendant from my internal dimensional storage. The other two men were still delirious from their injuries so I quickly healed them before hiding their unconscious bodies under some hay. Using the pendant I became a pirate and exited the building. Walking out of the shed was as simple as taking a stroll with the pirates not looking twice at the elf wearing their 'uniform'.

Walking closer to the building I eavesdropped on the conversation learning that they would be untouched until the third day of the week since that was the earliest they could begin ransom negotiations.

Seeing as it was the first day of the week it meant the princess would be safe for the moment so I walked deeper into the island following my mana sense and spatial mapping. Due to the perpetual storm, everything was overcast and muggy with moss growing on the cobblestone streets. The paths and houses were lit by small oil lanterns casting a net of shadows more than producing light. There were multiple pubs marked with the common stein logo and brothels both with willing and unwilling participants. After walking for an hour, I finally reached my goal, a large mansion located in the centre of the small island that obviously housed its leadership.

The few guards that wandered the area were more like a display of strength than a well-regulated military, with some even sleeping in the guard tower. After wandering the perimeter and studying the movements of the patrols, I decided leaping over the wall was a better option than kicking in the front door. After ending up in a bush within the boundary, I followed my mana sense to a stone-walled well located in the back garden of the mansion. Despite its simple appearance, the location was protected by no less than five barriers and numerous other traps. Essentially screaming at me that this place was important.

Knowing our cover story would be destroyed once the pirates to contacted the mainland using magic and started hostage negotiation, I decided to take the risk and move without a plan. I set about breaking through the multiple defences by activating my magic reduction sphere and punching the dome. This allowed me to shatter half of them before my antimagic properties dissipated and I used space magic to slowly crack a hole through the remainder. During the time I was attempting this, I had to use sensory shrouding to avoid a group of drunken guards and finished just before the next group arrived.

Slipping down the wet well wall, I plunged into the frigid water at the bottom, using echolocation in the water allowed me to map the tunnel section leading in multiple directions. Among the options was one that after a hundred-meter descent, the path looped back up and connected to an unnaturally shaped tunnel which emerged into an open air-filled room. Deciding this would be my best bet, I began holding my breath as I submerged myself in the cold water and swam down the tunnel and through the bend. The descent through the ice-cold water was not pleasant and the depth was not easy to reach because, despite everything the system provided, a way to mitigate oxygen loss was not included.

The first dozen or so meters I had to force myself down, fighting against my natural buoyancy but at some point, it just stopped being a factor. As I swam deeper the pressure began to build but was counteracted by my physique. Upon reaching the man-made tunnel entrance at a depth of around a hundred and ten meters, I began to feel light-headed and slightly drunk. The ascent was much easier as the surface of the water was only about twenty meters away and taking that first breath when breaching the surface was exhilarating. Arriving in the cavern I was pleasantly surprised to notice the source of the maelstrom as it was unmissable.

I never really expected to walk right into something so beneficial I was only trying to find a way inside the base to assassinate the pirate leaders. Bound by ethereal chins was the pulsing core of a level 95 greater storm elemental and surrounding this lightning-filled orb was a myriad of small cracked marble-like orbs floating around the centre like a galaxy of stars. I knew these to be memory orbs, the result of a ritual conducted by a mind magic specialist that separates memories into a physical form while extracting them from a target and guessing from the number and size of the ones surrounding the elemental I would guess that the elemental itself was nothing more than a mindless shell stripped of everything. Going one step further the majority of these memories were fractured and unreadable meaning they had been exacted decades ago.

I used Magical Might and converted half my strength into my new time affinity, feeling lethargic in the process. Abusing the powers of this new affinity I selected one of the larger orbs and restored it to a point in the past when it was whole. Seeing this act drain two-thirds of my mana pool for something that would only last a few seconds reminded me that time magic was much more costly than space magic.

Grabbing the now intact marble I viewed the memories contained. It was a simple happy memory of a girl on an idyllic island playing with a wind elemental before they stumbled upon a solar storm shard allowing the elemental to evolve into greater storm elemental. As the memory faded the marble returned to the present time, fractured and incomplete. The size of the orbs seemed to directly relate to the importance of the memory to the elemental while the degradation seemed tied to how long they had existed and how often it had been viewed.

Taking out a hundred of the mana crystals that had been converted into mana batteries to drain the dungeon and a selection of sixty gems containing pre-stored spells I created a space-time barrier ritual that increased time within by a factor of twenty. Why not abuse this you ask? Because all training is based on time relative to the system. So speeding up time is literally the equivalent of working longer for the same result, while slowing down time is recognised by the system and adjusted accordingly, invalidating the effort. The only time that time manipulation is useful is either grand magical workings of the higher realms, enhancing speed in combat or slowing down time for mundane tasks like reading a book... or as I would find out later, writing a book.

Going back to the elemental as I had just increased my free time, I began repairing and watching the old memories starting from the oldest and most important. I saw the key moments in its life from its first memory of being born into the world to meeting it's master Claire. I lived a small fragment of its life through its own eyes and came to realise this island was not always a place of debauchery and piracy. It began as a holiday home for a very powerful and elite elf who ascended. Years later his family was still living here when a criminal invaded the place. Unlike the modern pirates, the ones depicted in this memory were strong, being led by a level 80ish water mage and a level 60ish mind mage. They had raided the island for multiple reasons whether that be hearing about the girls familiar, the vast wealth the island held or the fact the family had produced no one of real talent in the later generations.

Regardless of the reason they slaughtered the inhabitance and used the life of Claire to bend the elemental to their will. Over the next decade, they slowly had the familiar expand its body while they created a ritual to bind its core to a single location, all the while removing its memories. Eventually, after the elemental had forgotten Claire, they killed her in a method that would seal her soul thus preventing the death of the elemental through the death of the contract holder. The creation of the maelstrom happened over years, with the elemental slowly gaining experience from killing anything that came in contact with its body which in turn levelled it and expanded its area while it's core was safe, making it almost impossible to truly harm.

The pirates came out of hiding and began raiding once the storm covered the entire island and by controlling the core they could allow themselves free passage while others would only face death.

After twenty hours of fragmented stories and absorbing all one hundred mana storage crystals, I finally knew the truth and knew how to end this. Walking from my ritual site back into regular time was like walking into molasses, as time seemed to crawl around me. It took a few good minutes for my body could readjust to the difference, creating a headache in the process. Walking out of the dark water room through the nearby door lead into the wine cellar and contained within the memories was both a house plan and knowledge on the location of the vault. You see, with the maelstrom being the greater storm elementals body, it means everything on the island is inside its body. It witnesses every action that happens and the small recently created droplets contain the overview of everyday activities extracted by the formation every twenty-four hours to prevent it from regaining consciousness.

Following the path was easy because they only guarded outside and knowing the sequence to the magical lock saved me hours. The plan was simple, I was going to rob the pirates blind before killing the elemental using the sealed soul of Claire and consuming its core. The resulting panic from the dispersion of their protective storm would make the perfect cover to grab the princess and the oracle before fleeing. Why grab the oracle? I was about to go to war with the entire dracon race and having a holy blessed member of that race on my side was a good way to stop this from devolving into a genocide.