In the full moon night, the calm sea gently rocked the giant Black Death, and its two trailing sister boats.
The three masted Flagship of Vice Admiral Ailment—roughly 80 metres long at its spine—cleanly cut through the water surface, gliding along the wind among the gentle waves. Following it were two other three mast barques of a smaller size, around 50 metres long.
This was a third of Black Death's fleet, a ship that was destined to be sailed by a pirate queen in several years.
I was standing on top of the main mast, above the crow's nest, looking away at the gradually approaching shore lit up by the moonlight at the back of the ship, and me.
The cool sea breeze felt stronger at such a height, where there was little obstruction from the sails and the ropes.
I did a rough calculation of the wind direction, speed, and the ship's movement, before I took a step and jumped diagonally forward to my left.
The moment my jump's acceleration was cancelled by gravity, I started plummeting down, getting closer and closer to the deck. If I were to keep falling at such a speed, I would definitely become a splotch of blood, which would then have to be swabbed off.
Taking a moment to focus, I urged my spirituality with intent, and suddenly, my body felt as light as a feather.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... I gently landed on the main deck on one foot, and stretched my arms out to feel the air pressure around me lessen.
Taking a breath, I put my other foot down, took off my top hat, and bowed to the crimson moon.
Of course, I wasn't aura farming or anything. I was just testing one of the abilities of the Assassin, the Feather Fall.
I had tested other abilities before, and found myself very apt at throwing weapons like knives, and firing bullets. Of course, since Lorenzo was a new pirate, he wasn't a great shooter, but the improvement in senses brought by the potion allowed me to shoot not half bad.
"Hey, System, when you said that you can help me advance, how exactly did you mean? Can you provide me with potion formulas? Or with ingredients?"
[If the system could create beyonder ingredients, then it would have become a saint or angel of the Assassin pathway already, it wouldn't need the help of a weakling like you. The fact that it has to go down to your level simply means it cannot do so. Nobody in this world can.]
"So... you're pretty much useless?"
[Of course not! It's just that li'l Lorenzo is not patient enough to keep listening. Although the system cannot provide you with beyonder characteristics, it can provide you with charms of appropriate level at the cost of Assassin Points, or AP. When you go higher in the sequence, the points will change to have more value, for example, at Sequence 8, you would be able to generate Instigator points, by doing instigator things. Witch things to get Witch points at Sequence 7, and Pleasure things to get Pleasure points at Sequence 6...]
"Alright, stop, stop! You don't need to go into too many details, I understand. Anyway, what charms can you sell right now?" I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed about the idea of advancing to sequence 7 and beyond.
[Most of the charms the Host can buy from the system are from the Demoness and Red Priest pathway. The most you can buy with Assassin points is up to Sequence 7 of the either pathway. Would you like to see the costs of them, and how much Assassin Points you have at present?]
"Of course I would! Why is there even a need to ask."
[Alright, dear Host, be patient.]
Mere moments after the words disappeared from my sight, a screen flashed in front of me, showing several charms that recorded abilities of Sequence 9, 8, and 7 of the Assassin and the Hunter pathway. Of them, the cheapest was of course the Assassin's ability to inflict a Mighty Blow, in which they could morph their body's shape in such a way that they could concentrate all their power in one single blow. Any beyonders below sequence 7 would have a hard time avoiding such an attack from a well hidden Assassin.
Besides that, there was also the Shadow concealment, also an ability of the Assassin, but since I already was an Assassin, I had no need for them.
There didn't seem to be any charms for Sequence 9 Hunter, and for Sequence 8, there was the ability of Provocation, and it cost 20 Assassin points for each charm.
So far, I had only practiced my Assassin abilities, expending a little amount of spirituality, and had earned a measly 15 points.
But for now, it was not a matter of worry. In fact, there was a certain ability I was looking up to, the cheapest available charm for a Sequence 7 power, the Blazing Spear of a Pyromaniac.
Along with my weapons being 3 throwing knives, a few poisoned needles, and a six round barrel steel revolver with a wooden handle, I would have a trump card for my missions.
This made things less uncertain, and allowed a larger amount of firepower in case of emergency, if my targets were stronger than expected, or had some extra help.
One Blazing Spear charm cost a total of 100 Assassin points. Considering the amount I had gathered so far, as long as I keep doing well, I would be able to have a few by the time I had to assassinate my target who was a Sequence 8 Swindler.
"So, is there a way for me to better earn Assassin points?"
[It's simple, the system needs to records of experiences that an Assassin lives when acting as their potion, hence, that is what you need to do. Act well as an assassin, use your abilities, and digest the potion, and you shall earn the points. Also, the system can give you general insights about the acting method of your potion, it may have forgotten to mention.]
Indeed, so earning the points is simple enough, but why the hell would you not tell me the fact about acting method principles? Are you willingly trying to sabotage me?
Shaking my head, I thought a bit about the principles of an Assassin's acting.
Clearly, one of the most important was to assassinate, vanquish, erase the existence of one's foe, an evildoer in one's eyes. The other would be to stay hidden, as the potions gives them the ability to be one with the shadows. Another could be the ability to change one's body's form for a short amount of time, allowing one to accomplish superhuman feats like midair dodging.
Having internalised a bit, I decided to go back to the cabin, and look at what the system had to say about the acting principles of an Assassin.
Feeling my spirituality, I willed myself to morph into the shadows, and silently creep towards my room on the lower deck.