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

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Wonderlander class has reached level 6!
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?

"That was quite exciting!" Desiree said. She curled a tail around and brushed her fingers through it. There was a small burnt patch in her fur. Friendly fire? There had been a little bit of that as we ran around and tried to keep the ship afloat. "I'm one step closer to gaining my third tail, at least! Is that not worth all of the effort we've put into this kerfuffle?"

"Ah, I levelled three times," Booksie said. "I'm at level eleven for my main class, and two for Sue-Chef. This... worked, I suppose."

I nodded. "I got a level for my second class too!" I said, happy to share the good news.

Amaryllis huffed. "No level ups here," she replied. "But I feel as if I'm close. But levels, while all well and good, don't make up for the amount of trouble we'll be in if we don't get moving."

I winced, but she was right. The Beaver was one tough cookie of a ship, but we had taken a bit of damage there. A gryphon had flown face-first into one of our balloons above, and while its beak hadn't pierced the bag under the tarp, it had cut into the material.

Another had tangled up in some of our rigging on the port side, and in freeing itself had cut some of the ropes apart. Not all, not even most of the rigging it was caught in, but enough that it would need replacing too. Redoing any amount of rigging wasn't impossible while in-flight, but it was tricky, and would take a bit of time. We had some rope to spare, but still.

The Scallywags and the rest of the crew, under Clive's watchful eye, were already working on that.

The rest of the damage was pretty superficial. A few scratches over the paint, some stains where dirty gryphons had thumped right into the hull.

All in all, we were fine, if a bit worse for wear.

Caprica had her chin in her hands, a serious expression on her face as she watched the sky. I had the feeling that she was keeping an eye out for Rhawrexdee. Not that she had to, he was still circling high above. I could just about see his shape as a smudge in the sky.

I gave Orange a little kiss on the head, then went over to where my friends were waiting and plopped myself down. Awen scooted closer to me and laid her head on my lap. "This is going to be so much work," she said.

"It'll be okay," I promised. "We're almost out of the Seven Peaks anyway. Once we are, there's less chance of a random flock of gryphons ambushing us."

Amaryllis hummed. "I suppose. But that does bring us to the next big problem. Where do we go from here? Back to Port Royal?"

"Probably," I said. "Unless there's somewhere else we could visit."

Booksie came and sat down next to me, then she flopped onto the side, her head resting on my shoulder. "I want to sleep in my own bed," she whined.

I shifted my arm around to wrap it around Booksie's back. "Tired?" I asked.

"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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