Captain Hopscotch was having a good day. His hold was full, the crew was 'loyal,' and the Marines hadn't harassed him for days; he even got his hands on a limited edition issue of Sora, the Warrior of the Sea. Things were looking up for him, and he did not think the day could get any better when one of the crew informed him of a strange ship docked at the mini-island.
He went to the deck and looked at it, and sure enough, it was strange; it was a ship, though. He hummed; it did not look like it had weapons, and if he was right, it probably belonged to some rich eccentric, and he could probably get enough cash to 'retire' until he ran out of funds at least.
"Alright men, we are taking the strange ship and keeping the people," he commanded, and his crew obeyed with ayes.
They were almost at the strange ship when a purple and gold cloud? appeared on deck, quickly expanding to reveal a strange room with an insane man with a savage grin.
He made an unintelligible noise, yelling something, and smashed through the main deck into the hold. Judging by the sound, it looked like the man was breaking the ship from the inside. Hopscotch could not let this go on; he quickly jumped down and followed the trail of destruction left by the intruder only to find him ravaging through the bread.
He was eating the hard bread that was more or less a block of wood like it was cotton candy, and Hopscotch just stared at the man in morbid fascination. The intruder, having had his fill, gave a loud burp and turned to him.
"Sorry about that; I was ravenous." The intruder apologized.
"Who the fuck are ya, ya bastard?!" Yelled Hopscotch, pointing his pistol at him.
"Hmm..." hummed the intruder, his eyes narrowed, thinking, "Nah, I am done with this; I am on a clock and I have more important things to do." The stranger said to himself, and Hopscotch felt something stab him in the chest.
Hopscotch looked down to see a crimson blade hilt deep in his heart and watched with cold detachment as it slid out of his chest on its own and float by the intruder.
"You...bastard..." were his last words as everything faded to black.
It was pandemonium on deck as 15 metal men appeared and started murdering every single one of the crew, and those that jumped overboard fared no better as a giant serpent swallowed them whole or bit them in half.
While his familiars were massacring the pirates, Dud was busy looting the ship; he found gold, a bunch of secret caches hidden throughout the ship, the location of the pirate's base, and navigation charts for the local waters, letting Dud know his current location, which was a month away from the Reverse mountain.
Dud also found the captain's bounty poster; he had a bounty of 3 million, which was quite substantial if he was being honest. Dud thought for a bit and stored the captain's body in his inventory and paused.
He had changed. Now that he was thinking about it, was he more ruthless? cold? confident? self-assured? Yep, he was self-assured. He did not feel like doing evil stuff, but he had a lot less hesitation on doing things he felt were right.
With the introspection out of the way. Dud had his golems strip the pirate ship of everything that held value, and Dud decided to test the [Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch] and see how powerful it was.
He and his golems sailed the boat approximately 1 nautical mile away, and Dud portaled back to Herbie and tossed the grenade through the portal and quickly closed it, and well...
(Beep)
"Yeah, I am not going to use it unless absolutely necessary and nowhere close to my allies," promised Dud.
"Well," Dud said with a clap, breaking the solemn mood. "Give me a tour?"
(Enthusiastic beep)
Dud followed a mini-Herbie as he guided Dud across the various rooms and sub-vehicles present in the ship and ended the trip in the bridge, where Dud spotted the terrarium and a nest space for a bird, reminding him of the only unsummoned familiar.
"Honk!" yelled the goose at its master as soon as it materialized.
"I know, I am sorry, but I did not want to summon you without a proper place for you," Dud apologized.
"Honk," grumbled the goose as she looked away, annoyed at her caretaker, to check out her nest and gave a satisfied honk.
"Glad you like it," said Dud and was about to go take a long relaxing bath but was interrupted by a honk.
"What?" he asked, turning to the bird and seeing the bird holding a small book. Dud took the book and read the title.
"Goose care and best practices by The Tired Imp?" Dud read out loud and looked at the waterfowl who just honked at him.
"I will make sure to follow it, your highness." Dud said with a little bow and received a satisfied honk.
Dud freshened up and shaved, leaving a mustache that did much to soften the harsh features of his new face, and went to the bridge to find the goose and Herbie talking to each other.
"Hey guys having fun?"
(Excited Beep!) (Dismissive Honk.)
"Glad to hear it, Do you have a name?" Dud asked the bird, to which she tilted her head in question.
"I will take that as a no. Hmm... how about Vorstin? It means either queen or princess," said Dud and received a pleased honk.
"Glad you like it, Your Highness." Dud said with a chuckle and turned to Herbie. "Hey, want to see how my traits affect you, or should we wait until after raiding the pirate's base?"
(pondering beep followed by agreement beep)
"Great, let me just get in position... aaaand there we go. Feel anything different, buddy?"
(Distracted Beep. A surprised beep followed by an exclamatory beep).
Before Dud could ask for clarification, a screen popped up similar to his inventory screen. The ship had a total weight displacement of 900 metric tons, but 60% of it was taken by the superstructure and 10% was reserved for the strange fuel Herbie used to operate, meaning they had a carrying capacity of 270 metric tons, which was further reduced when one considered the supplies they would need to carry to feed him and his future crew.
Now Herbie can carry an additional 900 metric tons, which opened up a lot of opportunities, and considering that the new space could not be inspected, it opened up even more opportunities even if Dud wasn't sure how/if he was going to use them.
The [Blood Pack] also increased the fuel capacity 5 times theoretically, letting them spend that much longer in the alternate mode, but they still need to test out those modes to see how they function.
The rest either needed a third-party perspective or needed to be in civilization or actually sailing. Dud was about to suggest they head to the hideout when he was assaulted by a dizzy spell and nearly fell, much to the alarm of the car-turned-ship.
SC appeared and held him as Dud recovered. "I am alright," he said to the ship and the imperious goose. "I guess I need rest." Dud whispered to himself.
"Hey, how far away are we from the pirate base?" Dud asked, dismissing SC.
(Worried Beep).
"I will be fine," said Dud, smiling and standing straight, reassuring his worried friend.
(Beep)
"Great, could you set a course? I think I will need to rest," Dud said as Herbie beeped in confirmation.
Dud made his way to one of the double-bed suites with Vorstin and a mini-Herbie following him. Dud lay on the bed, and Vorstin hopped on, resting her neck on his. Dud could not help the smile that bloomed on his face as he stroked the fowl.
A few minutes latter Dud found himself unable to sleep and was contemplating waking up when he noticed the Gacha blinking away and mentally shrugged and opened it.
{Achievement: Modify/Upgrade a {familiar}.
1X Platinum ticket}
{Achievement: Awaken your ship's Klabautermann.
1X Diamond ticket}
{Achievement: Annihilate a pirate ship thoroughly.
1X Gold ticket}
He blinked at it and engaged it, and the screen changed.
Gold:
[Contract Creation]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to enforce the clauses and conditions of any contract you make. The conditions of the contract must be set while contract enforcement is active; with contract enforcement, you can forcefully activate the clauses of a contract on your contract and force your target to comply. This, however, goes both ways.
Platinum:
[Grant]
|Elite Ability|
You are able to grant people lesser versions of your abilities. When you grant someone an ability of Elite rank or below, it is dropped down by one rank. Epic and legendary abilities are dropped by two ranks. Only one ability can be granted to one person at a time.
Diamond:
[Queen of All Trades]
|Elite Skill|
You have intermediate-level expertise in all basic trades (intermediate blacksmithing, medicine, mechanics, cooking, and interfacing) with fair competence comparable to actual performers of the trade and are talented in those fields.
Dud read through all of them, and before he could comment on anything, he passed out as [Queen of All Trades] put his mind through its paces.