Fenna tells me it takes a base of 24 hours for your ship to rebuild itself if you have enough salvage.

I walk up and designate a spot in the cove, and the world just starts to do its work. After a few minutes, I see the first bits of wood stretch and form, beginning to make the bones of the hull.

"Can we help speed this up at all?" I say. "My ship looks awfully vulnerable just sitting there in pieces."

"Do you know how to build a ship?" Fenna says.

"Not really."

"Just gotta let it do its thing then."

"If it's 24 hours for a ship, how long is it for your body, like if you die?"

"I'm not sure. But I woke up on the beach sometime later. I think it was the same day."

"So you lost your ship and life, respawned your ship, lost it again. You've sunk twice?"

"Three times, if you count our ship going down right after I joined your crew," Fenna says, holding up three fingers, then looking at her hand pensively. "I hope I'm not bad luck. Do you think I'm bad luck?"

"I doubt it. I don't even believe in luck."

"You should," Fenna says. "Some people have all the bad stuff happen to them. But, oh, that reminds me. After this, let's go to Death's Clutches. It's an island full of reanimated skeletons not far from here."

"Why the hell would we want to go there? That sounds terrible."

"Because you, cap'n, your arm will be healed enough by then, and you need to learn how to fight."

#

"The little fucker is all bones. No mass. The bullet went right through him." I feel it's a little unfair that you can "hit" a skeleton and have your bullet fly completely through them without touching anything at the same time.

Fenna anchors her long gun against her shoulder, tracks the same skeleton for a second, and then shatters his skull into a small explosion.

"If you miss, shoot again. But try not to agro more than two at a time."

After circling Death's Clutches, we found a group of animated skeletons on the north beach that were low enough level for us, which means level one. The skellies shamble back and form, each holding a weapon like an ax or cutlass. Nothing ranged, thank god.

After a few more shots and under the pressure of a thing advancing on me, I take one down, earning a small amount of exp.

Your Firearms ability has improved to novice level!

No prestige bonuses here either. I'd have thought my skill in VR shooters would have qualified for at least a point or two, but maybe the old skill needs to be related to real guns to prestige in. The mystery continues.

On the tree line, I spy some more forms of shambling bones. I take a quick shot at one, clipping him.

This time, four skeletons aggro on us, including one wearing a tricorn hat and carrying a blunderbuss. He fires off a shot at us but is far away enough that it's wildly ineffective. Still, let him walk twenty paces closer, and that gun could easily blow me into hamburger meat.

The melee skellies are faster, each breaking into a run while the gun-toter only walks. This puts me in a predicament. Those skeletons will be across the beach and on us in a few seconds, but the one behind them poses more of a threat. Still, we have to deal with the melee ones first.

Fenna fires off a shot, tearing the spine of the closest one into two pieces. She may be accurate, but she shoots slowly, maybe once for every three shots I might take. At least these guns have infinite powder, and reloading the slugs is relatively smooth and automatic motion.

Another two shots from me glance off the skeleton on the right, taking one of his ribs with him, but it's not like he's got any internal organs left for them to protect anyhow. He gets into range and starts swinging on me with a saber. I'm able to avoid it, but barely.

The other goes after Fenna with his ax, an attack she blocks with the side of her gun before sledging his skull with the stock. It knocks the skellie back, and then she finishes him with a shot from the hip at close range.

I'm having a difficult time tracking this skeleton up close. Each tiny movement is magnified with him right next to me, and I keep firing where the skeleton was, not where he is. I take a light wound to the chest before finally connecting a shot and shattering him.

The whole melee took way too long. Just as soon as my target falls into a pile of bones, the blunderbuss roars, pelting Fenna in the chest with a massive slug. It knocks her flat on her back, and my mind's eye tells me that her heath bar just dropped to zero.

Fenna's status reports as unconscious and a revive timer appears over her with a 60-second countdown.

Fuck! Did he just kill Fenna?

I advance on the last skeleton, pistol arm out straight, hand steady, trying to be calm and relaxed as I fire two or three shots. I know he has a delay before he can return fire, and I try to make it count, but the second he points the barrel at me, I dive head-first into the sand. The slug misses, splashing into the beach water behind.

I pull myself to one knee, pulling the trigger again, connecting a shot that staggers the skeleton a step backward and drops his health bar to under a third.

Your Firearms: Pistols specialization has improved! You have a Slight Edge when wielding pistols.

A slight edge? I'll take any edge I can get.

As he steadies his blunderbuss in my direction, preparing to execute me, I aim for his head, giving myself time, like Fenna would, to make sure my shot lands.

Then we pull our triggers in tandem, shooting each other from only a few paces away in a simultaneous kill.