With the anchor raised, Alvida stood behind the wheel. Out of the three of them, she had the most experience steering a ship. Lance was sitting next to her on a bar stool. Legs crossed as he sat. Enjoying the new view from the ship.
He watched as the cruise ship slowly got more distant from them. "Alright, Alvida. How do I set up a crew?"
Alvida kept her gaze forward. "It's easy. It's similar to pulling up your character sheet. Just focus on your desire to create your pirate crew. And a new screen will appear."
"Huh…" Lance breathed in through his nose and focused. He concentrated on what Alvida said. He focused on the creation of his pirate crew. And after a few moments, Lance heard the sound of a few men making a "Yarrr" sound. Before a prompt appeared in his vision.
You have decided to live a life of piracy! Forming your own pirate crew is the first step to becoming king of the pirates! At the bottom of the prompt was a text box with a blinking cursor in the middle. Waiting for a name to be entered.
He had heard that the different pirate crews on the seas all had unique names. And he had been thinking of names since he first planned to leave for the seas. And he had settled on one after Mary had joined him.
Lance entered in the box "Harem Pirates." After he entered the name, the prompt turned into a new screen on his interface.
[Crew: Harem Pirates
Crew Level: 0
Captain: Lance Duval
Crew Type: ???]
[Crewmates: 1
Mary Marzipan]
This was sweet! It was a neat and tidy way to keep track of all his slaves. He wasn't sure why Mary was included on the list of crewmembers while Alvida was not. Just as he pondered this, a prompt appeared.
You have decided to start your journey on the high seas! You already have a name for your crew. All you need to join the race on the high seas is to select your crew type. Pirate crews on the high seas choose to either fly under the flag of Peace Main Pirates or Morganeers.
Peace Main Pirates are mainly concerned with adventure and exploring. They also gain benefits from exploring and completing quests.
Morganeer pirates concern themselves with raiding and acquiring more treasure. As such, they get bonuses to raiding and extra treasure when it's stolen.
Make your choice. Peace Main Pirate: Your crew gains 5% bonuses to exploration skills and a 5% bonus to experience gained from quests. Morganeer Pirate: Your crew gains 5% attack and defense when raiding. And 5% more treasure when looting.
The choice seemed straightforward to Lance. He was out sailing the seas to acquire a great bit of booty. And some even finer booties~ He chose Morganeer. Really only interested in kicking ass and taking gold.
Congratulations! You have chosen to be a Morganeer Pirate. The last step before your crew is formed. Please provide a Jolly Roger to complete your crew creation. Please note that a Jolly Roger is an important symbol for your crew. This symbol will be attached to the progress of your crew. Attempting to change this symbol at any point will require you to disband your crew and form a new one.
Fuck! Lance didn't have anything that could act as a symbol for his crew. Why the hell was that even important? Lance stood up from his meditative state and turned to face Alvida. "Do you have anything for flag making? Apparently that's important to all of this." Lance leaned on the railing. Looking over at the deck. And admiring how far the ship has come since
"Hmm. Well. Back on my base, Goat Island, there's some leftover supplies from when we made my old flag."
"Well, that's a place to start. Alright, make a course for Goat Island." As Lance gave the order, Mary came out from below deck. She was dressed in a towel rather than her maid attire. Her wet hair let him see that she had just taken a shower. "Hey! Redhead! Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
Mary pouted as she turned to look up at Lance. "I don't know if you noticed. But I only had one outfit with me when I left. It's not like I can just throw on a new outfit. And I'd rather not wear that maid outfit all the time." She walked up to the upper deck to stand next to them. She was clutching her towel tightly to prevent it from falling off.
"Hmm…that is true…" Lance rubbed his chin with his hand in a thoughtful manner. "Alvida! Is there a nearby place where we can buy some clothes for Mary?
The large pirate paused for a moment to think. "Well…there is Shell Town. But there's a marine base on that island. It is probably not the best idea for us to go there.
Lance immediately disregarded her warning. "Ah, that's ridiculous. We can handle a few marines. In fact, maybe we can use this chance to take out a marine base… get some recognition!"
Hearing the captain's plan, Alvida couldn't interject quickly enough. "Captain, I think that's a terrible idea! Not only is Shell Island a marine base. But there are rumors that the Pirate Hunter is locked up there!"
That last part piqued Lance's interest. He heard someone mention the pirate hunter during the fight. "Who is this pirate hunter? I think one of your men mentioned them on the cruise ship."
Alvida hesitated a bit. Regretting piquing her captain's interest. "The infamous pirate hunter…they say she slashes up her marks like a bloodthirsty beast. People say she's a demon in human form!" Her attempts to warn him only made Lance smirk more.
"Does this demon have a name?" Lance crossed his arms. Trying to play off a playful disappointment in Alvida's inability to scare him off.
Chewing her lip a bit. Alvida eventually let the final piece of information loose. "K-kuina Shimosuki…"
With that, Lance's mind was fully set. "Excellent! First we'll head to Shell Island and check out this pirate hunter. After that, we'll travel to Goat Island, Alvida's former base. Get situated. And set sail!" Raising his fist to the sky. Both Alvida and Mary joined his cheer. They were prepared to face the world alongside their new captain.
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If you enjoyed it, please leave a review or comment! Let me know if you want to see more of the Harem Pirates. And if we get to 100 stones, I'll drop the first cover story.