Chapter 43: The Siren (Patreon)

Coop exited the menus of the civilization shard to watch the galleon, christened The Eye of the Storm, approach the fort. The massive ship entered the canal, rowing past the impressive library and advancing toward the center.

The settlement needed a proper marina. It was another construction to add to his shopping list. The galleon was able to fit into the canal, but there was no way a bridge would be tall enough to clear the masts of the huge sailing ship. The ship was so long it would barely be able to turn around inside the canal, and that was only if the canal remained completely empty.

Coop imagined docks and smaller boats moored along both sides that would make it impossible for ships the size of The Eye of the Storm to properly navigate. He would have to turn the current dock, outside of the fort, into a proper port if their navy grew any more. Non-ghost ships wouldn’t be able to enter the canal without running aground on the reefs anyway.

He left the shard to return to the huddle between Shane, Gideon, and Arthur. They turned to face him and noticed the huge ship looming over his shoulder as it made its way down the canal, passed the library. They each had a different reaction to the colossal ship. Shane looked on edge, Gideon became steely, and Arthur was unconcerned.

“Looks like we’re starting a navy as well.” Coop commented, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you mind including them in the plans, Arthur?”

“Not a problem.” Arthur, always the accommodating one, agreed.

Coop turned to Shane, “Is it alright to leave the details to these two? I’d like you to join me on a quick trip to survey the next island.”

“Of course.” Shane accepted, “I’ll gather the rest of my party.”

Coop let Shane return to the rest of his group and joined Camila and Charlie. They were still watching the ship’s approach.

“Looks like the settlement will be well-defended.” Coop stated. “Maybe I’ll come along to see the Empire after all.”

“You summoned an army of ghosts…” Charlie observed.

“Seems like it.” Coop agreed. “You were there, I didn’t do anything special.”

Charlie nodded slowly, distracted by the ghost ship. The trio stood together, observing the new arrivals until they were interrupted.

“Hey, Coop!” Olani called as she threw him a small pouch. He caught it and looked at her questioningly.

“My first healing tinctures.” She explained. Coop looked inside the pouch. “Don’t worry, the vials won’t break. Just tell me how well they worked when you get the chance to try them.”

“Thanks!” Coop responded while holding up one of the vials. It was filled with a clear syrupy liquid that seemed to be carbonated with pink bubbles. He’d keep them close and test them as soon as possible. Healing potions would be a valuable commodity.

“Can you mass produce these?” He asked the elder.

She shook her head, “No, there are restrictions that require settlement upgrades. As my profession levels up the quality will improve, according to Miss Sojjah.”

“What about other types, like Mana potions?” Coop asked.

“That will be my next lesson. Miss Sojjah says health potions are the introduction to the world of alchemy.” Olani explained.

“Sounds good, I’m glad it’s working out.” Coop congratulated her on her progress. “Oh, you should go with Camila to one of the other new shops, I thought the kids could use some new clothes and we got a Clothier built.” Coop told Olani.

“We’re gonna go to the library after, if they’d like to come.” Charlie shyly invited, fidgeting with her hands. Coop knew from experience that if there was one thing that got Charlie to open up, it was books. When he had returned the book she let him borrow before the apocalypse, she had hugged it tight and teared up. He thought she’d enjoy the library.

Coop went back to observing the ghost ship now that it had come to a stop right in the middle of the canal. The army had also turned to watch the ship’s arrival, but they backed away from the shore as the crew started teleporting from the upper deck of the ground.

Coop was shocked at the display. It was like they had his mistjump ability, but without the restriction of teleporting to his weapon. Each time one appeared it made a distinct sound that Coop assumed was a result of the air being displaced by the sudden presence. It wasn’t exactly the same as his set bonus, since he didn’t notice any mist. It seemed like they had true teleportation. He was actually a bit jealous. Coop inspected a few of the crewmembers.

[Spectral Human (Level 1)]

[(Strength)]

[Phantom of Ghost Reef]

[Spectral Human (Level 1)]

[(Intelligence)]

[Phantom of Ghost Reef]

[Spectral Human (Level 1)]

[(Strength)]

[Phantom of Ghost Reef]

They seemed to be the same as the ones in the army. None of them had classes yet, so they shouldn’t have skills. That meant all of the spectral humans should have a teleport ability by default. The only thing Coop could think of was that they had started with the Ethereal title. Coop didn’t get it until he had taken Retribution and Salvation together, but it was also what allowed him to mistjump.

If he could get them the appropriate training so that they could level up, they would become a formidable fighting force. An army that could use short range teleports could have all sorts of tactical advantages, though he wasn’t sure if he was the one that should be thinking of them.

A handful of the crew stayed on the ship, hanging on the rigging and balancing on the booms or perched on the railings. Coop thought it was interesting that the ship’s sailors were a mix of men and women. It was different from his expectations for the era they appeared to have come from.

Coop looked closer at the crew and realized what should have been obvious. These were pirates. They were covered in tattoos and scars, wearing a mishmash of equipment that often seemed to favor style over utility. There were eye patches, tricorns, and bandanas aplenty. He supposed he would have noticed sooner if they had raised their suspiciously black sails instead of using oars to enter the fort.

Once the sounds of the teleports ceased, the crew deliberately made room. One more phantom teleported to the shore, into the cordoned off area, surrounded by the pirate crew. She started laughing. It reminded Coop of the time that Balor had first arrived. Balor had been heartily laughing when he realized they wouldn’t need him to build a wall despite all of his anticipation to do so.

The laughing woman calmed down and placed a tattooed hand on the hilt of the curved sword at her hip. Gold bangles clinked together with the motion and four different metal rings from each finger tapped against the handle.

She looked solemnly at the rest of the crew, deliberate about making eye contact, before addressing them, “Oh, how our fates must have been twisted!” She lamented. “To think we would end up pledging ourselves to the very fortress whose cannons ended our dominance! Even gods wouldn’t have been so cruel.”

The audience was silent, mourning their previous fate, even Coop felt the anticipation, waiting for what she would say next. She looked around at the enraptured crowd before raising her voice, “But this is a second chance!” In one smooth motion, she unsheathed her sword and pointed it to the sky. “The world, and now the galaxy, will know the strength of the storm!”

The 300 crew members erupted in shouted cheers and threats. “The Siren calls!” “Ghost Reef!” The army couldn’t help but join the cheers despite merely being bystanders. Even Coop found himself caught up in the enthusiasm. The ship’s captain had a natural charisma that was absolutely infectious.

As Coop was considering the natural leader’s ability and watching the army get caught up in her energy, the crew made way for a bulky shirtless man who was stepping across the town circle on a collision course with Coop. The man had tattoos covering his tanned body. His braided beard rested on a protruding gut that displayed a tattoo of a shark jaw crushing a human skull. The large tattoo was crisscrossed with scars that corresponded with scars everywhere else. The worst jagged looking scar went down the side of his face from the outside of his eye, but his belly was where they were the most frequent.

Coop wouldn’t dare call the man fat. Despite his massive stature he seemed solid. He probably weighed close to 400 pounds, but took smooth steps that hinted at a nimbleness that contradicted his size. Thick muscles were still visible in his arms, shoulders, and chest that left no room for doubting his strength. His long loose pants were tucked into leather boots that hid his legs, but Coop wouldn’t bet on being able to outsprint the big man. Where the captain had a magnetic charisma, this man had an intimidating presence that had Coop thinking about escaping by running in a zigzag pattern.

The man walked right up to Coop then stepped aside, revealing the charismatic captain in his wake.

“So, you’re the Champion I’ve sworn myself to?” The captain grinned, showing surprisingly white teeth for what Coop expected of a pirate. “Never thought I’d swear myself to anyone, but death has a way of changing things, doesn’t it?”

Coop couldn’t help but be drawn in by her charisma, almost forgetting about the giant bodyguard, and only realized he should be responding when Camila elbowed him.

“Oh! Yea, I’m Coop, this is Camila, Elder Olani, and Charlie…” He paused and looked around to introduce Charlie as well, but she had slipped away as the massive man advanced toward them. He couldn’t blame her. Coop returned his attention back to the fixed gaze of the captain, “Just Camila and Elder Olani, I guess. Welcome to Ghost Reef.”

“Glad to be back!” The captain announced. “I was called The Siren, Captain of the Eye of the Storm and Commander of the Tempest Fleet. This is Sharkbait, my first mate.” She reached up and patted the giant on the shoulder. “As far as anyone knows, that’s his actual name, but mine was Kayla. I don’t mind being called that in private, but Captain is preferable in front of the crew.”

“No problem, Captain.” Coop agreed with a nod.

“Now, you’ve got my flagship, but where’s the rest of my fleet?” Kayla questioned. “The Eye of the Storm is a proper battleship, but it isn’t good for a satisfying chase.”

“We need a suitable harbor with port facilities before we can recruit more.” Coop was quick to explain and was ready to apologize for disappointing the captain despite his position as Champion.

“If you give us a ride, you can have our ship.” Camila jumped in with an offer.

Coop noted the gleam in Kayla’s eye, “I’ll take whatever I can get my hands on. Call it a personal motto. When do we set off?” Coop watched as the two women went back and forth and realized they were quite a match for each other. As if they were distant relatives from completely different eras.

They both wore golden hoop earrings, and they both had brown hair, but the captain’s hair was so dark it was almost black and was kept much shorter and loose. She pushed through the strands with her fingers, keeping it parted to one side and behind her ear on the other. They were both tanned, but Camila’s olive skin was naturally darker and completely unblemished. The captain was lighter, but had tattoos on both hands and one arm. She also had some small scars including a prominent one above her right eye that split her eyebrow near the outside.

Without the occasional ghostly green wisp it was impossible to notice that these phantoms weren’t just regular people. Coop thought it would be best to treat them like he would any other residents. He didn’t want to try and take advantage of the circumstances that they found themselves in, even if they were the ones who chose it.

Coop let Camila and Kayla hash out the details of their deal after letting Kayla know about Arthur and Gideon. Olani finally had the chance to question Coop about all the ghosts and she just shook her head at his explanations. She went to retrieve her grandkids before waiting with Charlie while Camila organized their trip to the Empire’s settlement.

Shane and his party, minus Arthur, were ready, so Coop joined them. Out of curiosity he checked the settlement leaderboards for the first time since upgrading Ghost Reef to an Outpost. Since then, they had upgraded the settlement once again and completed the optional objective which resulted in an additional 7800 residents so far. He’d also added six more facilities since the upgrade. He hoped the additions would make up for delaying the upgrade.

Ghost Reef was ranked 23.

Coop was surprised they had moved up despite delaying their upgrade for the optional quest. He had assumed that population would play a bigger factor in determining the rankings, but it seemed like the settlement level was the primary determination while some other intangible factors were at play.

Day 23

1. Silvervalley
2. Gangcheon
3. Yucatan
4. Shinjuku Gardens
5. Nadoba
6. New Elega
7. Eynelon
8. Fortunis
9. Neon Park
10. Lekawa

There hadn’t been much change in the top 10, though other than the top two, the others had shuffled around. The third, fourth, and ninth spots were settlements that weren’t in the top 10 before. It seemed like every continent was represented, but Coop could only guess where each shard was located. As far as his geographic knowledge went, only Yucatan and Shinjuku were places he recognized, but only generally. The Yucatan was at least in the same region of the world as Ghost Reef.

It had been long enough that he now felt comfortable looking at the entire list. Surely all the settlements had become Outposts by now. They had to be an Outpost to appear on the list. Coop scrolled through the entire list and found the last place ranking. Ingra River Crossing ranked 722. Coop thought that still seemed like far too few cities for the entire world. It seemed like civilization shards really were limited. That was bad news as they approached the initiation of the settlement events on Day 30.

As he led Shane’s party down the main street, Coop stopped to get Balor’s attention. “Balor, we’re gonna need that bridge as soon as possible.” Coop wanted to place the combat facilities on the other side of the courtyard, since Jones had planned to put the government-related buildings across the canal.

The stonemason roused himself from his stoop, looking even more depressed than Coop had been about Jones. The two had bonded over their mutual love for the fortress. Coop thought that if there was one thing that would cheer the dwarf-like alien up, it was working on some projects that would contribute to the structure. And alcohol, probably.

“Aye, lad. I’ll get started right away.” He looked toward the canal before he decided. “I can have something basic ready in a matter of days, but if you get a Quarry I’ll have access to more stone, even if there aren’t any active mines.”

Coop didn’t commit to making one, with all of the other priorities already in place, but he kept it in mind.

Coop led Shane’s party down the west beach trail, toward the lighthouse, before veering to the eastern beach. He tried chatting with them on the way, just trying to get a feel for their personalities and avoiding an uncomfortable silence.

“So, what do you think of Ghost Reef so far?” He prompted.

The Tomb Blade and Illusionist couldn’t completely hide their uneasiness, but the Dragon Knight responded like he’d asked the perfect question. “It’s lovely! Definitely prime real estate.”

Coop remembered she was something like a realtor and listened to her sing the praises of the tropical island. Her enthusiasm reached the more uncomfortable members and they joined in discussing what they’d enjoyed so far. It seemed like that was enough to break the ice a little.

While they moved across the island, passing Defenders and the Prowler hunting ground, he explained to Shane that he wanted them to grind some of the monsters on Ghost Reef to get levels, or even the titles, and to keep an open mind when it came to making personal choices.

Coop viewed the primary advantage of Ghost Reef as the variety of monsters, and he didn’t want to be the only one that benefited from their presence.

Unfortunately, they didn’t seem prepared for that kind of commitment to hunting. Most of their classes wouldn’t synergize well with the grindy nature of Coop’s leveling strategy. Instead, they were enthusiastic about the nearby Mana Well. They would explore it as a group in the future, but Coop warned them that the level of the monsters he had seen inside were well beyond what they would find on the island. They would have to make some progress before they entered the Mana Well.

Shane’s party weren’t concerned by Coop’s warning because they expected opportunities to come to the settlement. Apparently, the Empire anticipated ways to get experience, other than grinding monsters, during defense events around the civilization shards. They even went so far as to call the events free experience for everyone, but Coop struggled to imagine experience being gifted without danger.

By the time they arrived at the western beach the group had relaxed a bit. Coop gave them the rundown on the Primal Kites and warned them not to underestimate the strength of even the lower level monsters. He could tell that it would take seeing for them to believe as they didn’t take him completely seriously once he mentioned the Kite’s levels. It gave Coop deja vu. Yes, the monsters were only between levels 10 and 15, but Coop had learned the hard way that they were difficult to deal with. The Primal Kites had forced him into learning about his ability to teleport when he first encountered them.

Coop was nearing the time to start grinding the Primal Kites himself. His mana pool had exploded in size thanks to his levels and quest chain completion. Funneling all of his attribute points into Mind was key for his build and a side effect was a huge pool of mana. His teleport cost was down to 33 mana from its original 50 mana cost. Once he started hunting the Primal Kites in earnest he was sure to see the cost drop even more. His Practical Application passive skill would provide the discount through repeated use, and Coop would only be able to kill the monsters if he teleported at least once. They would be able to kite him forever without the mistjumps.

The group waded into the warm waters, diligently waiting for the first Primal Kite ambush. Coop planned for them to explore the first island before returning to the fort.