Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.

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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"

%

Simple Dirty Mop

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.