Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Eight - There Were More Fish Than Expected

Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Eight - There Were More Fish Than Expected

Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-Eight - There Were More Fish Than Expected

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Wonderlander class has reached level 6!Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

Health +5

Resilience +5

You have gained: One Class Point,

You have unlocked: One Class Skill Slot

I blinked as Mister Menu reappeared before me. This was the second level-up in as many days for me. It was... actually, probably not too surprising. I was covered in a sheen of sweat that I hadn't yet Cleaned off, and my limbs felt heavy.

Worse, my mana was almost completely drained from casting non-stop fireballs. I hadn't spent this much mana in a long, long time.

The space around the Beaver Cleaver was only now clearing up, freed of the gryphons that had descended upon us over the last few minutes.

I saw Booksie slump down next to the railings; her hair was plastered to her head by sweat and her ears were too tired to stay upright. "They're gone," she said with a sigh.

"Looks like it," Calamity said. The cat-boy was in a better shape than Booksie, probably because he was a lot more used to moving about and hunting, and he had a few levels on Booksie too. "The last couple have turned tail and taken off. I dunno if your boyfriend will be going after them or not."

"Hopefully not," Amaryllis said. "Those things came out of nowhere."

I nodded. A few minutes after Rharexdee had obliterated the first batch of gryphons, we noticed a few specks high above us, and more racing along close to the ground below. Calamity had been the one to notice them, but it was Awen with a monocular that was able to confirm what we were seeing. More gryphons. A whole heap of them.

As it turned out, gryphons were territorial. To them, our group showing up and hunting a few of them down was tantamount to us coming in and staking a claim on this mountainside, and so they did the equivalent of calling up their buddies and flew right at us.

Sure, we had a dragon, which was the equivalent of putting a brick on one side of the scales, but Rhawrexdee was just one dragon, and he wanted Booksie to get a hit in on every gryphon before he swooped in and took them out.

That was easy when they were all coming in as one big, grouped flock, but when they were attacking from every direction, all at once?

"Mhm," she said. "But we probably shouldn't sit around too much, we do want to keep moving, right?"

"Yeah," I agreed without standing up. The rest of my friends were being a little lazy too. Clive and the others were looking at the rigging more than they were fixing it. With a bone-deep sigh, I carefully slipped out from under Awen's head, then I stood up, pushed Booksie to the side, and bent down to tug Awen closer so that she could lay her head onto Booksie's lap instead. "There. You two take a minute," I said.

I had captain things to do.

Being responsible could be a real drag, sometimes, but if I wanted my friends to be as happy as could be, then I had to be a good captain for them! I walked over to the other deck, then patted Clive on the back. "How are things here?" I asked.

"Hmm, well enough," the old harpy said. "The Beaver didn't take much damage, all things considered. We're fine to travel even with this bit of rigging undone. The remaining lines can handle the increased strain for a time."

I nodded. That made sense. "Alright. As long as everything holds together, it shouldn't be too bad, then. We'll be aiming for Port Royal. Do you mind keeping an eye on things here? I'll take the helm."

"Aye, captain," Clive said. "I'll have Steve help you with the sails. No sudden maneuvers, please."

"Thanks!" I said before skipping to the back of the ship and up a level. The wheel was locked in place at the moment, and the engine was idling so the big prop at the rear of the ship was only barely turning because of the wind.

I unlocked the wheel, cranked the engine out of neutral and into first gear, then let go of the big clutch lever to engage it. There was a thud as the engine engaged, then the prop picked up some speed behind me and I felt the wind whipping by pick up.

With a glance up, I was relieved to find that Rhawrexdee was still with us. He had moved closer, and I could see his blue form more easily now. It was probably time to give the few remaining gryphons a little more distance, though, before they decided to try fighting us again.

This whole hunting gryphons plan had seemed so smart. And it had been fun, if a little intense, at first. The levels we'd gotten were nice, and I'd gotten a bit of a power-up too. But it left me feeling like I was a bit of a bully.

I checked the compass, then turned so that our heading was north and east, away from the mountains and more or less towards Port Royal. If I kept good notes of where we were heading and at what speed, then it wouldn't be too hard to chart our course later and make some corrections. It wasn't perfect, but it would work!

Besides, Amaryllis liked fussing over the charts.

I was reaching the level of competency behind the helm where I could let my mind wander a little. So I spent some time thinking more about where I'd be going with my levels moving forwards.

Wonderlander had just unlocked a new skill slot, and I hadn't gotten a new skill right away. That was... actually kind of nice, but I'd have to get to practising soon, so that I could pick up something fun for that slot!

More importantly, I had a couple of open slots in my general skills too!

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