Limitless Seas 3, Intro.

Intro.

It felt like a cool breeze on a hot summer day as Sally dove through the clouds. Her keen eyes spotted ships in the distance and as she closed in, the wafting taste of blood in the air was picked up by her incredible senses. Being a dragon was more than she had ever hoped for, it gave her a feeling of control and strength that she had rarely experienced in the real world. Sure, this was only a game, but Limitless Lands was becoming more and more real to her each time she logged in.

At first, the game was just a tool, a means to interact with her brother for perhaps the final time. Now, it was a way to express herself, to cut loose from the worries and concerns of the real world for a while. Her body back in the virtual reality pod was elderly, and Sally felt every one of the aches and pains that everyone collected as they aged. Here, she was something else. The pains in her body disappeared, and she reveled in the power that came with being a dragon. Never a gamer, Sally could now see why so many people loved to play and even understand how so many could become overly engrossed in the virtual world.

As she drew nearer to the two ships, Sally could see that one was a merchantman, and the other was identified by the system as a pirate vessel. Game mechanics were still weird to her, and she never bothered to dig into the minutia of how things worked, it just didn’t interest her. One thing she did know was that when a player or NPC attacked another, more of their information was revealed. A person might look like, and be tagged as a farmer, but once that farmer attacked someone, it could be revealed that they were actually an assassin, or something like that.

From what Lauren, the young lady at the hospital, had told her, there were some classes and higher-level NPCs that could mask their true nature even when attacking, but so far, Sally hadn’t run into anyone that powerful in her adventures. Sally didn’t get a chance to interact with too many other players, given that the server she was on, was being used for testing new features. Her brother was here, somewhere, and now that Sally had reached level eight, she was eager to find him.

Craig was now a pirate, a fitting class for him, given how he behaved in the real world. Anger crept up as she thought of her brother, but also sadness. He was her only living relative, and he wasn’t going to be living for too much longer. The medpod he currently resided in was the only thing keeping him alive, and his condition was still touch-and-go according to the doctors.

Her brother’s damaged mind thought that this game was a new world that Craig had been reborn on, and he only had vague memories of his prior life. The game’s AI kept up that illusion for Craig, at least for now. Soon, the repairs to his mind would progress to the point that they could finally unlock his memories and reveal where he really was. Before Craig was well enough to return to the real world, Sally was going to visit him in the game world.

The doctors and the game developers were concerned about what would happen to Craig when he died in the game. Dying in the game was seen as almost inevitable, and Sally had experienced it far too many times before she got the hang of things. Respawning was part and parcel of these games, but what happened when the person respawning thought they were really about to die? The game developers told her that they had put things in motion to deal with Craig’s inevitable demise inside the game. While the process might still be traumatic, they figured out a way to incorporate it into the game world so that Craig wouldn’t have any kind of psychological breakdown.

Of course, now that they had a way to deal with his death in the game, Sally could take the gloves off and deal with Craig however she liked. Craig, now going only by his last name of Larson, was going to be in for a shock when she finally found him. He was a creepy snake-man pirate with a raggedy crew to support him, but she was a dragon, and Craig was going to find out just how powerful his little sister had become.

Sally’s thoughts were disturbed when she flew over the two ships and felt pressure against her stomach. Someone on the pirate ship had fired one of those giant crossbow-looking things, she thought they were called a ballista or something like that. The bolt from the weapon had pierced the scales on her belly and Sally lost two percent of her health. It didn’t actually hurt, but she could feel the pressure of the hit, which was about all the feedback she cared to experience. Apparently, many players opted to turn the feedback settings up to the point where they could feel some pain, but Sally thought that was a bunch of foolishness. Who wanted to feel pain inside a game? As far as Sally was concerned, the game was a great way to get away from the daily aches and pains of her real body and she had no desire to invent new ones while she played.

She banked to the right, her speed allowing Sally to quickly get outside the range of the weapon that the pirates were now frantically trying to reload. The two ships were tied together, and a large force of pirates had already crossed over to the merchant's vessel and were well on their way to defeating the sailors that were trying desperately to fend them off. As Sally approached again, both ships turned their attention toward her, the terror of seeing a dragon, even one of her modest size, bearing down on them held all their attention.

Closing in on the bow of the pirate ship, Sally watched the crew finish reloading and line up for another shot with the ballista. Her eyesight as a dragon was amazing and she could zoom in close enough to watch as the crewman pulled the firing lever on the siege engine. As soon as the pirate started to pull, Sally turned hard, avoiding the ballista bolt that crashed harmlessly into the sea. Only fifty or so feet above the water, Sally flew over the top of the pirate vessel, activating her Flame Breath ability as she passed.

Recently upgraded when she had reached level eight, the flames flowed over the pirate vessel, not cutting off until she was already past the stern of the ship. Kill notifications and experience points began to flow in as the pirates burned or leaped off the side of the ship to avoid the destruction. The water around the ships was roiling with sharks and other predators, so jumping off the deck only gave the pirates a brief respite from the flames. Many of those that fell to the teeth of the sharks still awarded her a small portion of experience since she had already damaged them. Lauren had told her that it was called “tagging” a mob, and it was the way the game rewarded her for her contribution.

Her fire was magical in nature and left many parts of the ship burning after the initial blast. The buckets of sand and water the pirates threw onto the flames did little to quell them. Banking around for another attack, Sally could see the fires aboard the pirate ship start to wink out. They must have a mage aboard, or some other magical means to quench her fire. Flames weren’t her only weapons, though, and while her breath weapon was on cooldown, she had other means to deal with the foe. Slowing her approach, Sally endured a few arrows and thrown daggers as she settled on the stern where the helm was located.

A man in robes and an orc armed with a pair of cutlasses attacked as soon as she landed. Several other bodies were smoldering on the deck, but these two only showed superficial burns, leading Sally to believe that they were much higher level than the rest of the crew. As the orc closed in, the man in robes began to cast a spell. Sally had dealt with spell casters enough by now to realize this guy needed to be taken out first. Activating Tail Swipe, Sally turned violently to the side, whipping her tail toward the pirate mage. With a meaty slap, the tail connected and hurled the mage across the deck. Part of the railing had been burned away and the man slid off the deck and into the sea below. If he had managed to survive the hit from her tail, the sharks in the water would finish the mage off for Sally.

The orc activated a melee ability, and his two blades became a blur of motion as he hacked into her rear leg. A swipe of her front claws missed as the orc dodged, but the attack was just a means to force the man closer to the front of her body, and in range of Sally’s deadly bite. She didn’t have any special attack abilities for her bite just yet, but Sally didn’t really need them given the enormous teeth she had in her mouth. With a quickness that seemed impossible given the size of her body, Sally’s head shot forward, jaws snapping shut over the head of the orc pirate. With a rather disturbing pop, she decapitated the orc. Disgusted, but realizing it was just a game mechanic, the orcs head was swallowed down, and Sally’s health shot up a tiny tick.

Eating, even in battle, could help heal a dragon, but so far, Sally hadn’t taken much damage, only down to 96% after her little snack. Without the mage to help quell the flames from her first attack, the pirate ship was slowly turning into an inferno. The flames didn’t harm Sally, she was nearly impervious to that damage type given that she was a red dragon. With the fear of the dragon behind them lending them strength, the pirates redoubled their efforts to take the merchant ship and at the same time, cut their old ship free before the flames spread.

With a leap and a flap of her wings, Sally landed amongst the pirates that had gained a foothold on the main deck of the merchantman. Dual Slash was activated, and her claws lashed out on their own, tearing into the pirate ranks. Another bite dealt with an officer trying to rally his men, and a tail swipe sent more of the pirates over the side and into the shark buffet below. The merchant sailors defended themselves against the pirates but were reluctant to press their attack and move closer to the dragon that was taking up a good chunk of their ship’s deck.

A few blows landed on her, but Sally’s scales were tough, as strong as chainmail armor at her current level. With a bite attack, claws, and her leg sweep, it didn’t take long for Sally to finish off the last of the pirates. The merchants were indicated as hostile in her interface, likely due to one or two of them taking potshots at her when she had flown over earlier. Despite being valid targets, Sally didn't want to attack the merchants, they were the victims here.

“Where is the pirate, Craig!” She bellowed, causing many of the sailors to collapse and quiver in fear. Sally had used her Fearsome Roar ability as she spoke, meaning to throw a scare into them and get the merchants to answer her questions, not leave them all terrified and unable to speak. Turning down the volume, she tried again.

“Who here still has their wits about them, I need answers, and you don’t want to keep me waiting,” Sally said. She reveled in the power and fear her dragon form could cause amongst the crew, but it also made her wonder if this was what her brother felt when he used the power of his wealth to get others to bend to his wishes. It was addicting and Sally would have to make sure she left such feelings here in the game and not bring them with her back into reality.

“Oh, great dragon, we know of no pirate named Craig. Please, spare my ship and crew, we will reward you for saving us from these pirates,” A man in fancy clothing said, walking through the crowd of frightened sailors to address her face to face. The man bowed deeply and waited for her response.

“How about the pirate Larson, have you heard of him?” She asked, realizing that nobody in the game knew Craig as Craig, he only went by his last name of Larson here.

“He does not plague these waters, I haven’t heard of him,” the merchant captain said.

“Uh, I have,” one of the crew spoke up, a younger man that had somehow resisted her fearsome roar.

“What do you know, tell me now,” Sally growled.

“I just came from the Free Isles, and there is talk of some pirate there named Larson that has a big reward on his head. The port of Stratwall Harbor will pay big for him,” the young man said. Sally pulled up her map, seeing that the port town of Stratwall Harbor was far to the south of where she was now, patrolling from a small island where she had placed her hoard.

“The Free Isles cover a large area, where exactly is the pirate Larson?” Sally asked, hoping for more clues, but figuring that there wasn’t going to be much more to go by.

“Not sure, uh, your dragoness, er…I mean. I just heard he was out there and that he was a naga with four arms,” the man stammered. It wasn’t every day these folks ran into a dragon who was willing to speak with them, so Sally understood their confusion as to how she should be addressed.

“You may address me as great dragon,” Sally said, liking the sound of it.

“Yes, great dragon, the pirates in the Free Isles are normally contained by the patrols along the main shipping lanes, but if you look outside those lanes, you might have better luck at finding this Larson. I have a map of the shipping routes I’d be happy to provide you,” the captain said.

“Bring it, and whatever else might make a suitable reward for my assistance against these pirates and my restraint toward your crew, at least one of which decided to attack me as I flew overhead,” Sally ordered.

“It will be as you command, great dragon,” the captain said, shouting orders to his crew and running to retrieve the maps. He was quick enough, and only a few minutes had passed before the several rolled-up maps and a small chest of gold and gems were placed at Sally’s feet.

“This is paltry but acceptable. I shall allow you to live,” Sally said, collecting her loot. With a heave, her wings unfurled and pumped hard, the magic infusing them lifting her from the deck of the merchantman, the ship rocking a bit from her departure.

Flying toward her nest, Sally pulled up information on her hoard, sad to see that the small chest of loot wasn’t enough to bring her hoard to the next level.

Current Hoard Ranking: Modest. A modest hoard grants you a 5% bonus to damage and increases your out-of-combat regeneration by 15%. Amass greater wealth to unlock additional bonuses. You must visit your nest every 24 hours to refresh the bonuses that your horde confers. Your horde is currently eligible for relocation. Once relocated, your horde will need 15 days before it can again be automatically moved to another location of your choosing.

At least her hoard could be moved. She had relocated to her current nest shortly after leaving the starting area and had been locked into using that place as a nest ever since. Housed inside a cave on a deserted island, her hoard was well protected, but Sally still worried about it. She wasn’t high enough level yet to hire guardians while she was away from the nest, so if anyone happened by that could detect her wealth, they could easily pilfer everything. If she lost her hoard, she would also lose experience, and if she was going to confront Craig, she wanted her power to grow, not dip.

An alarm chime sounded; one she had set earlier to remind her that real-world obligations called. It was easy to become lost in the game, and Sally found she was a bit reluctant to leave the powerful body of her dragon avatar as she returned to reality.