Might as Well

Sam stepped out of the Giggling Donkey satisfied and confident. He would need to do some research, as while he had a general idea of where the ship was, it would be much easier to find an information broker that would be able to tell him the coordinates.

Still, time was of the essence, so he needed to hurry a little.

Walking among the night crowd he thought about his options.

The bounty hunter guild and almost every other guild had an information broker, but sadly, he hadn’t joined any guild. He was holding out for the Runic Guild in the Capital. Sadly, one couldn’t belong to more than one guild, unless they achieved master tier with the core skill of said guild, or paid a lot of money.

So, the doors of those information brokers wouldn’t be open to him. Though he had the money to pay the fees, he didn’t want to waste gold if he had other options.

The second option was approaching the ‘homeless children’ roaming the city. As the thought went through his mind, Sam shuddered and shook his head. ‘No, for now, let’s leave that alone…’

Coincidentally, as he walked by a small but very dark alley, he heard chilling laughter in the distance.

Shuddering again, he began walking faster, trying to banish the images the laughter inspired in his mind.

The last option was going to be the independent brokers. Who usually operated on the introduction system. However, now that he started a chain of events that would annoy the Steel Lions, he would have to alter his past plans. No doubt, thanks to his meddling, people – NPCs and players – would move around, invalidating a lot of his knowledge. ‘Ugh, sometimes I hate my impulsiveness…’

Sam stopped near the water and looked out to the sea as it was illuminated by the lights from the night light and the rapidly rising moon.

He leaned against the rails for a minute, mind furiously wondering how to deal with a situation of his own making. In the background laughter, general shenanigans, and people making merry provided background music to his thoughts.

After almost ten minutes, he pushed away the railing, dodged a grabby lady of the night who seemed to be hunting for a client, then with another step, he avoided a pickpocket and began heading back to the city center, away from the merry crowds and petty criminals.

The city center of Deepanchor was much smaller than Ironwood. It contained the building for the administration, which dealt with city business as well as some shipping things. A very big and rich-looking merchant association with a few more buildings that every city needed.

He was heading for one of the smaller ones.

Despite its size, there was a sizable crowd in front of his chosen building. He walked past the line of scholarly, or shifty-looking people, as they waited, either grumbling or doing something to pass the time. There were a few mocking looks as he approached the doors, but to his surprise, nobody tried to ‘educate’ him. ‘They probably don’t want to jeopardize their spot…’ he thought with a chuckle.

The guards eyed him, a little tense, prepared for a fight, but then he retrieved his library card and they visibly relaxed, while the people nearer the door let out an audible groan at the sight of the small card. Access to the libraries was still limited thanks to the large influx of people, and as the players were starting to get desperate, they started trying to do crazier and crazier things to enter, causing the libraries to lock down the facilities even harder. A vicious cycle that caused unending grief to those who entered the game too late.

There was not an insignificant number of complaints on the official forums. However, the developers just told the players that the game was alive, and this was the reaction to the players’ behavior. If they wanted more access they should behave better.

That dev post resulted in a lot of salt but not much else.

Not that Sam minded, he had the library card that worked in most libraries that were set up by the kingdom. With private libraries or guild ones, he would need to seek separate access.

The guard raised his hand and cast a simple spell that caused a symbol on the card to glow with gentle light. He lowered his hand and gave Sam a respectful nod. “Welcome, sir, to the Deepanchor Library.”

Sam returned the nod and as the guard stepped aside to allow him to enter, he listened with relish to the players still left outside.

Inside was just as silent as one would expect a library to be. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of people turning pages and a few people walking around.

In the middle of the building, there was a circular desk -slash-counter with sea-themed reliefs on the lower part and an elderly librarian sitting behind it, writing into something.

Sam walked up to it, as silent as possible, and placed his hand on the counter. The small sound his hand made upon contact was enough to get the old lady’s attention. She looked up with a severe, but not unkind, look and quirked an eyebrow.

He bowed his head and spoke up softly.

“Greetings..” Then he took his library card, put it on the counter, and pushed it forward. “I’m looking for information,” he explained softly.

The woman took the card and cast a spell, a more complex one than the guard's, based on the feeling he got through his Mana Sense.

The symbol once again glowed on the card, then the woman frowned a little, and cast the spell again. However, the symbol stayed glowing. ‘Probably checking if it is legit…’ he mused as he waited for the verdict.

The glow died down, and the card was passed back to him.

“Before I can help you, young man,” the woman began, looking surreptitiously around. Sam raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I would like to see your Grimoire, young man.”

Sam blinked, surprised once again, but then shrugged.

He brought both of his hands forward and with a brief exertion, he replicated the spell without saying anything.

With a brief flash of light, the mysterious-looking book appeared on the counter. The book was around four fingers thick, looking black with white highlights and a snarling wolf emblazoned on it in silver.

The librarian reached forward and cast another spell on the book. Sam felt the mana intrude on the construct, but it wasn’t disruptive so he just let it happen.

After a few seconds, the old woman retracted the mana and made a dismissive motion. Sam understood the message and dissolved the book.

She gave him a deeper look, then nodded.

“Very well. How can the Deepanchor Library help you on this fine day?”

“I’m looking for information on local ship accidents.”

“Sunken?”

“Yes, probably not over the cliff but I’m not sure.”

The old woman looked thoughtful. “Do you have the ship’s name?”

Sam shook his head. “No. But I have a name.”

“Oh?”

“Morrisons.”

There was an understanding on the woman’s face. “Ahh, you spoke with Jamie…”

“You know him?”

“We grew up in the same… circles…” came the hesitant answer. She took a deep breath and then continued. “We actually have a list and approximate location of all sunken ships, mostly to avoid ghost infestations and things like that.”

“Well, that’s convenient…”

“Indeed, young man…” She then stood up and gave him a small but sad smile. “If you could follow me?”

After a small journey, Sam was left alone with a giant book that was little more than several parchments bound together with thread, that contained the information he sought. Plus, on the way, he collected a few books about the local monsters he could come upon, plus a nifty little book that contained runes related to water.

The librarian made sure he was comfortable and then vanished among the bookshelves.

He looked at the pile of books and sighed.

“Oh, well… No need to procrastinate! Let’s start with some monster information…” he murmured, quietly of course, and took one of the books and opened it.

He inhaled the scent of the book and started to read with a small smile on his face.

It took him a day and a little more time to read the books he wanted, plus finding the probable location of the wreck he was looking for on the map he brought with himself.

Though, after he finished reading the collected records of accidents, wars, monster attacks, and other types of conflicts that had sunk ships, he had a very strong feeling that he wasn’t really supposed to have access to the information. It very clearly contained information that was not fit for general consumption.

Like a full list of cargo, true and false associations. Real owners along with the fake names on the manifestos, as well as information about which ships participated in smuggling activities.

Sam had hoped that the library worked as an information clearing house, but he expected that he would have to sweet talk the librarian to access it. However, it seemed his action back in Ironwood resulted in some nice consequences.

Later, he would have to look into what that symbol meant on his card, but for now, he was happy that it allowed him easier access to restricted information.

Aside from getting info on the sunken ship he was after, he also managed to raise one of his skills and a new title.

[You learned the following runes related to the water: …]

[Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 13!]

[Illusionary Runes is now Level 3!]

[You researched more than a hundred monsters in detail, in different environments!]

[You are granted the Sensible Hunter title!]

[Sensible Hunter: Every hunter studies their prey. You do too. Increased critical chance by 5% against monsters.]

Happy with his gains, he packed his notes and map up. He made sure to organize the books he had borrowed, but before he could begin to exit the labyrinth of bookshelves, the old librarian appeared and picked up the list of incidents with a deft movement.

“Found everything you needed, young man?” she asked with a knowing smile as the loose collection of papers vanished into the ether from her hands.

Sam performed a forty-five-degree bow.

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you for the chance.”

He was rewarded with a warm smile. “I’m glad to see that my coworker wasn’t wrong about you.”

Sam wisely kept quiet. There was a time and place for that, and this clearly wasn’t it.

Before he could say anything she continued. “I would dearly appreciate it if you could keep me appraised with your search…”

“Of course, ma’am. That’s the least I can do…”

He left the library with a similar line standing in front of it and guards giving him a respectful salute.

Sam looked around, ignoring how several people in the line were trying to get his attention then after quickly organizing his thoughts, he began to walk toward the harbor.

The harbor in Deepanchor was sectioned into several districts. One was for bulk products, for the big ships coming from all sorts of places. One was for the ‘important’ people, that is the rich people, behind locks so that the merchants who actually ruled the city didn’t have to mingle with the ‘peasants’. Then there was the common area, where smaller merchants could dock as well as ships that operated as transportation for people. Hidden at one side, behind tall walls were the military docks, where the ships that patrolled the waters around Deepanchor rested after spending time on the open waters. And directly opposite of that on the far end of the harbor was the hobbyist district. This is where the smaller ships docked, anything from small fishing vessels to hobby sailors who only went out when the weather was excellent.

And this is where he was headed.

Sam looked around, watching as all types of people walked to and fro, while several player groups were embarking and disembarking small ships. No doubt coming back from fishing or pirate-hunting quests.

Thankfully, according to the information he gathered, the sunken ship was at a calm part of the sea, which meant that either something catastrophic happened with the ship, or there was enemy action.

The only thing giving him anxiety was that the coordinates showed that the ship was pretty close to the cliff that led to the deep abyss. He was strong, but even so, Sam doubted he could go toe to toe with the monsters in the depths.

Shaking his head, trying to get rid of the errant thoughts, he began walking forward, his head on a swivel, trying to find a person who would be amenable to rent him their boat.

After an hour of looking, he got lucky. A small twenty feet skiff, with a grizzled old man who was a man of few words.

“So you are agreeable to taking me out to a spot?”

“Yepp,” came the short answer as the old man, with grey hair and a stained overall looked back at him with a placid expression.

Sam nodded. “Price?”

“Location?”

Sam took out the map and showed it to the old man. He didn’t see any recognition in the man’s eyes, but one never knew people like that. Plus, sailors were always mysterious… especially old sailors like this man. Sam could even feel a solid core of water mana settled very comfortably inside the man, showing that he was once a force to be reckoned with.

“Nuthin’”

“Why?”

“Good spot. Good fish.”

Sam nodded again. “When do you go?”

The man chewed something for a moment then answered. “Now.”

“Then, permission to come aboard, captain?”