Chương 79: The Second Gateway

There was nothing special about the cabin I had just entered. When I entered, I was greeted with a certain rustic charm, something akin to a house in the countryside. The room itself, though appearing quaint, was unfurnished, devoid of even a single object lying on the floor. In the most simple terms, it was a wooden container with a miniscule entrance. The walls were made of wood, the ceiling was made of wood, and even the floor was made of wood. Yet ironically, the only source of light came from torches.

It was almost identical to the cabin on the previous enemy ship and the cabin on the ship we had built. Now that I thought about it, the ship that we had built looked eerily similar to the ships that we defeated the skeletons on… No, that can't be it. That was something I shouldn't think about. There were several windows casting light into the cabin, with the sun's radiation providing extra illumination to this sad, empty room. At least they provided access to the resplendent views of the sun, the sea and the sky.

From the windows, I could see that the sun was slowly but surely reaching its apex. At the far end of the room, near where one of the torches was, there stood a door. A solitary wooden door with nothing but a door handle and a rusty door knocker. From all of this information, I casually deduced that the way to go down to the hull was through the door. Creak. Once the deafening high-pitched noises subsided, I descended the stairs, carefully watching where I stood and going down the steps one at a time. Clop. Clop.

Clop. When I was near the bottom, I could hear traces of a fight breaking out. Swords clashed, battle cries were discernible and the intermittent sound of objects falling on the floor reached my ears. Theo, Ben, Maya and Daniel were still fighting. Before I reached the fight scene, I hastily and apprehensively checked my system window again to satisfy the growing sense of worry in my brain.

[Mission 2/3: defeat the beasts] Beasts to defeat: 1) Skeleton pirate (advanced, 149/149) 2) Skeleton pirate (advanced/legendary, 67/69) 3)??? (?? /??) It's gone up again, I said in my mind. They will definitely need my help. I moved my forearms around to search for pain. Luckily, I didn't find any severe pain; it was all something that I could endure.

Then, once all of my worries had seeped away from my body, and with a rejuvenated body laden with unwavering confidence and renewed vitality, I marched into the room below the deck, ready to fight the remaining beasts. Clop, clop, clop. And soon, I saw it. The fight scene in all its glory. It wasn't a complete massacre, but it was still a sight shrouded in darkness and death.

Sweat poured down from my friends' foreheads onto the floor, some of my friends were wheezing and breathing heavily, while others looked ready to faint and froth at the mouth. There was not a single cell in my mind that doubted my decision to help. After all, that was what friends were for. Even if I hadn't known that fact before, the number of times Daniel had saved me in the past could make even a socially awkward loner like me realise how important friends actually were.

[Skill, 'Teleportation (advanced)', has been activated.] [Skill, 'Speed (advanced)', has been activated.] Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash! Immediately, the skeleton that had been attacking Theo fell, with its bones completely severed and falling on the floor as nothing but shards and fragments. Again, Theo displayed a look of bewilderment as if he couldn't process what had just happened. He only stared at my beaming face as it was revealed from the fallen skeleton.

"Again…" Theo's mouth dropped. After all, this was me simply repaying the debt from Theo saving my butt from a decision that could have produced far from auspicious results.

"Robert… you should be resting." However, I shook my head, a testament to my dogged persistence. There might have been some feelings of lethargy in my brain at that moment, but at the same time, I still had an unwavering resolve lingering around my brain which mingled with the feelings of tiredness.

"Listen, you have to rest, you have to… Look out!!!"

"Huh?" Reflexively, I turned around. A skeleton was charging and out to get my head, and the moves that were surely bound to split me in two were solely blocked haphazardly because of my instincts, creating an unsettling bang that resonated around the room. Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Do you need any help?" Theo asked, his voice tinged with apprehension after I nearly got blindsided by an adversary.

"Nope. You'll just be a hindrance. I can do this myself."

"Are you sure? Your ambition might be what kills you…" Clang! Another dissonant noise blocked out the rest of Theo's remark. With great swiftness, I swung my sword, leaving nothing but a blur for Theo to scrutinise. Although my moves were ragged and misshapen, they were still effective. After all, for a move to be effective, it just needs to hit the target. Clang!

"I'm going to help the others now. Call me if you need help!" As Theo's voice disappeared into the distance, I focused all of my attention on trying to defeat the skeleton in front of me. On the surface, it looked like it had a whole host of weak points, but because of his extremely fluid sword moves, that made up for it. Therefore, there was only one solution left.

"Let's try this." [Skill, 'Teleportation (advanced)', has been activated.] [Skill, 'Speed (advanced)', has been activated.] I aimed my sword at the skeleton's neck, ready to strike at any moment. It was going to be one move. Just one strike would suffice. However, there was just one problem. Clang!

"Shit." That got blocked as well. I didn't realise the skeleton had turned around since I had garnered all of my attention on one single thing, which was its neck. And when I hastily looked up, I could see the skeleton's hollow eyes and cracked yellow teeth just mere inches from where I was, ready to stare into my nightmares and all of my embarrassing memories. Still, I needed time to get my bearings and prepare another sword strike. But in this world, time is a scarce luxury that has to be utilised to its fullest.

Otherwise, if this rule is not adhered to, there could be consequences leading to people potentially flirting with the afterlife. Clang! It could have been down to chance that I managed to block the skeleton's next move. Everything could have been down to chance. All of my previous victories on Pirate Planet could have been nothing but arbitrary, lucky victories. Maybe this really testified to my position as the weakest skill user in our group of Night Hoppers.

That could have been my last straw; I could have lost all of my resolve right then and there. I could have completely lost my will to fight. Maybe beasts that were at a higher level than me were still out of my reach. Maybe I had to train more and put those countless hours procrastinating to good use. Maybe I needed to straighten my resolve and muster the strength to endure.

Maybe, before I could fully be a part of this elusive group of skill users, I had to be more independent, someone who could fight stronger beasts without needing support. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Clang! I had two swords but the enemy only had one. On paper, the one with two swords should have the advantage over the one who just has one.

However, in reality, hypothetical situations could piss off, because reality is a world that no one can predict. A world where anything could be thrown at you at any time. Out of the blue, your bedroom window could be shattered because someone a few doors down playing baseball had just hit a 'home run'. And out of the blue, miracles that could never be predicted on paper could happen. Slash, slash, slash!!! Just before I could teleport and attempt another ambush, my vision was clouded by a shade of gold.

My first thought was Maya's golden crown, but this person's moves were too light and too elegant for someone like Maya to produce. No, these moves were not something even the likes of Theo or Daniel could produce. Therefore, there was only one plausible reason left.

"Cayman?" Cayman stood facing me with the decapitated skeleton's skull nestled in his free hand. His blank look showed signs of him being puzzled.

"I've just saved you, haven't I?" he said, his voice tainted with nothing but hostility.

"Get up. Don't dawdle. I still have to help your friends." Once I heard Cayman's absolute orders, I stood up. Then I watched as Cayman turned and swiftly severed all the other skeletons' heads and ribs, leaving shocked looks on the rest of my friends' faces.

"Right," Cayman said once the rest of the adversaries were nothing but cluttered bones on the wooden floor.

"Now I have to sort out this gateway." Instantly, our heads turned, facing the pitch-black mirror-like oval looming in front of us, revealed once Cayman had murdered the brunt of the skeletons. It seemed to attract all of the loose mana that hung low in the cabin.

Just like with the first gateway, Cayman raised his sword high, then brought it down; the blade penetrated the black nothingness from the top right to the bottom left, resulting in a straight diagonal cut laced with gold akin to chopping meat on the chopping board. Slash! The gateway split in two, with the top half toppling onto the floor and the bottom half following afterwards.

In just one fell swoop, the portal that could take people to different regions on the same planet just by walking through it was gone, disintegrated. That was when our jaws dropped; we had watched Cayman destroy two of those things in the space of just a day. It was something that he had never done in Night Hoppers. It felt like a dream, something that shouldn't exist. Was this version of Cayman stronger than the person he was in chapter 570 of Night Hoppers?

This was only something purported; in truth, it could be nothing but an unfounded myth. Instantly after the gateway fell, lethargy and languor crossed our faces, prompting Ben and Maya to sit on the side of the wall, just like they did when Cayman destroyed the first gateway.

"I'm glad it's all over!" Maya wailed.

"I just want a break!!!"

"Those beasts were strong," Ben added.

"I thought I was fighting a version of Theo with strength at the pinnacle of the skill user world."

"Don't talk about me," Theo snapped, his voice strict and condescending.

"Then I thought I was fighting a version of Cayman with infinite-level skills-""Is talking shit really all you can do?" Cayman interjected in a very strict manner.

"If that's the case, then you'll be better off in hell." Immediately after Cayman finished talking, Ben's mouth closed, not even letting out a peep.

"Can we have a break now?" Maya pleaded.

"We can't last forever. We need at least some sort of break before we defeat the boss. Surely, right? Please?"

"Yes, you can have a break," Cayman replied, his voice tinged with resentment and enmity.

"However, when you're on a real battlefield where lives are actually on the line, you might not have time to even catch your breath. So watch what you say, because you might be fighting on real frontlines soon." Maya, who had already been delighted by Cayman's response, didn't bother to refute his words.

"Rest now. You never know when enemies might come for us. I don't even know any details about the mystery boss beast, so don't come asking me for details. We'll just have to wait and see." Sitting leisurely by the side of the room, Maya looked ready to fall asleep. Maybe she also didn't have a good sleep the night before.

"Oh wait. I have one more thing to do," Cayman said, twisting his lips into a sinister smile. Then he lunged at Ben, seeming poised to grab onto his throat.

"Ben! What the fuck did you tell us to do last night? You said that we should sleep all huddled together last night because it 'would help our body temperatures if we stayed together for body warmth'. Bullshit!" Cayman's rage was over the charts; he wanted to kick Ben in the solar plexus and punch him a million times on the cheeks. However, Theo and Daniel were there to restrain him before he could cause any physical harm to one of his 'students'.

"Cayman, stop!" Theo shouted, filling the entire room with his screaming.

"This is something we shouldn't quibble over! We're a team, remember? We should be fighting together, not fighting against each other!"

"Don't solve this with violence please," Daniel pleaded as he chimed in. Eventually, Cayman's rage did calm down. He let his bottom rest on an area of the floor where bones didn't dominate the land and let out a deep, prolonged sigh.

"We'll work as a team. We'll work as a team." I had moved to the far side of the room during my friends' endless bickering. I wasn't paying much attention to my friends' reckless behaviour, and I spent most of my time gazing at what this room had to offer. It was mostly just wooden planks carefully put together to form a structure, but then I found something that seriously piqued my interest.

"A treasure chest?" I had inadvertently blurted that out. Suddenly, to my surprise, everyone else stopped talking, and everyone else stopped moving. It was like I was watching them do the mannequin challenge.

"A treasure chest? Was that what you just said?" I nodded at Maya's words. Instantly, all of the lethargy that her body had been suffering from dissipated, making way for a rejuvenated body filled to the brim with vigour.

"Treasure?"

"Yes. Come here." Ben, who had been on the brink of suffering from severe injuries, was the next person to walk towards the treasure chest. It was just a wooden box with a curved lid, but it was enough to captivate my friends, enough to put them in a trance.

"Treasure, you say…" The rest of my friends started walking towards the treasure chest. Their footsteps were sporadic since they took extra care not to step on any bones that could pierce through their skin.

"It's another one of those chests," Maya whispered.

"I feel like I'm getting déjà vu again."

"Who's going to open the thing?" Ben asked, his voice brimming with zeal.

"If nobody wants to, I'm going to open it."

"Go for it," Theo replied softly.

"After all, resistance is futile, and bickering is also futile. Do it for the sake of our dignity." With a face that displayed an eager demeanour, Ben reached his hands out to the handle and vehemently opened the chest. The lid was thrown back, revealing another pile of delicate, valuable jewels.

"Sweet…" Maya let her words trail off. Instead of finding mana crystals inside a cave, the mana crystals on this planet were inside chests which provided pure crystals that had already been mined. All the menial manual labour had already been done for us. We all reached our hands and tried to grab the crystals, some of us grabbing more and some of us grabbing less. A whole heap of crystals spilled out from the bulging pile in the chest, reminding me of bones falling after someone defeated a skeleton pirate.

In my hands, in a small pile, were around ten advanced-level mana crystals. I picked up around five of them and threw them all into my mouth at once. Even though the crystals had sharp edges, I didn't feel it slicing my throat and creating grievous internal wounds. Mana consumption, I whispered in my head. [Mana consumption] Available mana: 100% Good, I said internally. I finally have all my mana back. With all my mana circulating around my system, I felt like a completely different person.

My legs were finally bursting with vitality, and the pain in my forearms had eased completely. The wound that I had sustained from when I was fighting on the deck was also mostly healed, reduced to just a minor cut that was not sufficient to kill someone. My right pocket was already bursting with mana crystals from the first treasure chest. Despite this, I still stuffed that pocket with crystals before proceeding to fill my left pocket with crystals.

Maya, Ben and Daniel were doing the same, making this situation tantamount to a frantic bank robbery. I still had some crystals left in my hands. Reflecting on my performance on the battlefield, breaking the crystals and upgrading my stats wasn't a bad idea. After all, breaks like these don't come often in modern warfare, since enemies like to exploit moments when soldiers are slacking and not vigilant enough. Crack!!! You have chosen to use an 'Advanced Mana Crystal'. What will you be using it for?

1) Strength +5 2) Agility +5 3) Stamina +5 4) Intelligence +5 5) Perception +5 6) Upgrade skill Option 1. Trait, 'Strength', has been upgraded by 5 points. Strength: 56 → 61 You have chosen to use an 'Advanced Mana Crystal'. What will you be using it for? 1) Strength +5 2) Agility +5 3) Stamina +5 4) Intelligence +5 5) Perception +5 6) Upgrade skill Option 2. Trait, 'Agility', has been upgraded by 5 points. Agility: 45 → 50 You have chosen to use an 'Advanced Mana Crystal'. What will you be using it for?

1) Strength +5 2) Agility +5 3) Stamina +5 4) Intelligence +5 5) Perception +5 6) Upgrade skill Option 3. Trait, 'Stamina', has been upgraded by 5 points. Stamina: 39 → 44"Guys," Ben said once I was done upgrading my stats.

"You might want to look at this." Soon, we averted our gazes from the remaining mana crystals in the chest to something Ben was pointing at from the window. It was another ship that was in the completely opposite direction from where the ship containing our bags was stationed.

"Isn't that just our ship?" Daniel asked.

"I'm not good with directions, so correct me if I'm wrong."

"I don't think that's our ship," Cayman said with a look of disdain on his face.

"That ship has a lot of figures on it."

"But aren't Devon and Ellie still on our ship? I haven't seen them since you deployed us. It might just be them."

"You idiot, that's definitely more than two people," Theo interrupted, pointing to the figures that were on the ship.

"It might be the boss ship. We have to go." As soon as Theo finished his sentence, Cayman scurried out of the room, not even caring about all the bones that were on the floor. He was followed by the rest of us tentatively crossing the river of bones and going up the stairs leading to the deck. And on the deck, Cayman stood, turning his head from side to side. From where we stood near the door, the full picture was on display right in front of us: two ships, one on either side of us, were parked and surrounding us.

"That's definitely an enemy ship," Cayman whispered, although his 'whisper' was clearly audible from where we stood, which was at least five feet from where he stood.

"We have to get ready." Clop, clop, clop. Being careful not to step on sharp bones, we made our way to where Cayman was. Sure enough, there was a ship right in front of us carrying a multitude of figures. But there was something different about the figures we stared at. Something that made them stand out in a group of skeleton pirates. And that something was that those people had flesh. Human flesh.

"Fucking hell," Cayman spat, cursing at the scene in front of us.

"There's only one plausible explanation for this."

"What is it?" Ben asked, letting his curiosity take over.

"Those guys," Cayman replied, his tone eerily chilling and sinister, "are from The Leak."