Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

36. The Priestess and her Samurai

The next afternoon Cal stood with his shirt off, basking in the sun of the quarter deck after a swim. His body was lean and healthy looking again. He took off his eyepatch so that he wouldn't tan in a funny way. Plus he didn't need his disguise with everyone on board the ship although Seamus was surprised to see him without it.

Once he had dried off, he spoke with Yvette who looked mentally exhausted.

"How's your project going?" He asked.

"I really hate you." Yvette practically collapse on the deck when she sat down.

"Good," Cal smiled sitting on the deck with his legs crossed. "What do you have for me?"

Yvette squinted her eyes and sighed. "From what I can understand the fundamentals have changed a lot since the migration. Your magic system is vastly different than ours. I guess you could say that you grow faster than us. But I don't know if that is still the same for you. Also there are no level caps so the speed of class upgrades has changed too. Instead of a class upgrade every other level, there is an upgrade every 6 levels, and they gain new skills or abilities every three to five levels interchangeably based on latent or natural affinity. A Rouge pick pocket wouldn't become a scoundrel until level six, then a cutthroat at level 12. From what I've gathered from Kadoka despite the removal of the level cap the humans of the southern continent don't get to very high levels any more relying more on numbers than skill like we do. Contemporary Adventurers started noticing the steady change about 50 years after the migration, but it has plateaued since 200 years after the migration. Using the ever-evolving and short lived humans as a base of reference of this change, a strong knight directly under the crown might be between level fifty to seventy, but would be substantially weaker to our Sylvan Knights on virtually every front mainly due to having three times as many class upgrades, skills, abilities, and the unique experience of fighting Great Ones in the past. A single Sylvan Knight like Fauna or Clera may be enough to single handedly siege a human keep depending on their methods. Diana or Sinder would probably be enough to burn it down in a single afternoon. However, their strength has always been in their numbers which have tripled in the last 250 years as if to compensate. Humans are tenacious quick breeding warmongering simpletons as a whole, and luckily, we had retained an amicable relationship with most of them through trade."

"Interesting." Cal rubbed his chin. Kami mentioned that it would take 250 years for the world to regulate, that must be one of those things.

Cal spoke at length with Yvette about his experiences and his level up with all his class upgrades.

Yvette stared at him wide eyed the whole time.

When they were done Yvette looked like she had been burnt out but had a sparkle in her eye over something, she couldn't answer any more of his questions just yet. But he had a feeling that she would have some very soon. She seemed to be putting a lot of effort into getting to know him and his past to compare it to what she knows.

Books may have some knowledge of the past, but Cal was there. He was practically an interactive textbook and she took several chances to sit down with him and chat. Since they were doing a raid based on his days as a Dread Pirate, that subject came up a lot.

*

[Days to Ragnarok]

[22 days]

"Land ho!" Cal said as he looked out to see the Island Nation called the Western Shore. "I've always wanted to say that."

There was a cheer from his crew.

"Cal, isn't the Western Shore your original home? How does it feel going back?" Shayley asked while enjoying the feeling of her fingers laced in his.