The System Seas

Chapter 64: Duelist Set

Elisa jumped right on the party. “You’ll find love one day, Riv. And then you will get her drunk enough that she still thinks it’s a good idea to cuddle with you the next morning.”“Let me shoot them,” Aethe said. “We don’t need them, if you think about it. We can find others.”

“Not yet,” Marco said. “Wait until they really deserve it. When it’s time, shoot Riv first. Elisa’s pretty reasonable. Sometimes she can be convinced by the mistakes of others.”

Elisa laughed. “Snarky. And here I thought I had some leads on equipment for you. I guess I shoudl just forget those before I get an arrow for my troubles.”

“Oh, fine,” Aethe said. “I won’t shoot you two. Don’t deprive my boyfriend.”

By the time they had made the walk to Elisa’s source, the worst of the hungover grumpiness was neutralized. They were laughing and joking when they made it to the small roadside stand. The sign read and was manned by a dark-skinned woman wearing a white garment more like a robe than a dress. She sat with her head cradled in a single hand, the weight of it resting on the table via her elbow.

“Welcome,” she said. “Who sent you?”

“A man with a footlong beard who was also picking up breakfast,” Elisa answered. “Nice guy.”

“Hugh. Yeah, a good man.” The woman stood up and motioned towards the table. “What are you looking for? Metals? Wood fragments?”

“Neither of those. He said you might have gear for a duelist,” Elisa said.

The woman froze.

“Did he,” she said, a chill in her voice. “Did he?”

“He did? I’m sorry if I’ve done something…”

“No, no.” The woman shook her head sadly. “It’s just that what he’s talking about is something he’s been trying to get me to get rid of for a long time. He had no right to send you here, but you couldn’t have known.”

Marco stepped into the conversation. “Oh. That’s okay. Sorry for bothering you, I suppose.”

“No, no. Wait. He’s not all wrong. At the very least you can see the items, I suppose. He probably sent you to look at these.”

Duelist Privateer’s Garb (Superior, Altered)

This is a set of clothing that has been worked and reworked by multiple tailors in multiple ports, making the best of local threads, local talent, and artisan clothes. It is leather, magical silks, and the finest stitching.

Every bit of it has been optimized for sailing. The owner of this set intended it to protect him, and it does that well. More importantly, he looked to amplify his skills in the handling of a ship. As a result, this set better integrates its wearer with the operation of their ship than a set multiple tiers higher. Skills, stats, and miscellaneous abilities stemming from your class will all work better with your ship when wearing this set of clothing.

In a lesser way, this set amplifies various duelist abilities somewhat. This aspect of the set is muted due to the emphasis on ships operations, but still higher than average due to the specificity and quality of the enchantments that drive it.

Warning!

This suit of clothes represents the legacy of a defeated captain. This legacy is unclaimed and of particularly high compatibility with your conquest skills.

Absorbing this set will supplant your Buccaneer’s set as the baseline quality level of your upgradeable equipment. Holding the set for much longer will act as assent, and the process will proceed automatically.

+>

Marco dropped the clothes like they were made out of fire.

“Hey!” the woman yelled. “Careful!”

“Sorry, it’s just that they were interacting with one of my skills. I’m a captain, and my class wanted them.”

“Ah. I see. Thanks for that, then. If they were gone, there wouldn’t have been a damn thing I could do about it.”

“No problem.” Marco picked them up, folded them, and then set them down. “I get why they are special, now. They belonged to someone you knew?”

“My captain and husband. It’s rare for someone who lived like we lived to get both, but I got him. He had those clothes built so we could cover more ground after we retired. See more things. He was strong enough to make good on the promise he made to me to do that, but he wanted to be sure we could outrun the kinds of things he couldn’t fight. There’s a lot of gold sewn up in those clothes, so to speak.”

“I believe it.”

“You’re together? You two?” The woman pointed between Marco and Aethe a few times.

“Yeah. How could you tell?”

“She looked more disappointed than the others when I said I wouldn’t sell you these clothes. Tell me, girl. Does he need them?”

“He doesn’t need anything. He’s the best of us,” Aethe answered.

“Then he needs them. Being strong just means you go meaner places sooner.” The woman reached under the table and tossed Marco an oblong leather bundle. “Careful reaching in there. Some of it’s sharp.”

<+

Reach Epee (Duelist enchanted, Modified)

The Reach Epee is longer and thinner than standard rapiers. It sacrifices much of the cutting power of a rapier for superior piercing and speed.

Specifically designed for the Duelist class, this weapon greatly increases dexterity’s interaction with the Duelist’s combat skills (NOTE: As your class is derived from the duelist class as concerns its combat abilities, this applies to Gluttonous Maurader).

When used with another Duelist centered weapon, the function of this rapier is increased.

This weapon has been optimized by various weaponsmiths and performs at a higher tier than your current weapon.

+>

The description carried the same warning as the clothes, and Marco set it down before his class could consume it before picking up the last item.

<+

Duelist’s Distraction Pistol (Point-blank Enhanced)

Sacrificing power for speed, the Distraction Pistol can be fired significantly faster than a normal magical pistol. Averaged over time, the damages of the two weapons are similar, though it’s harder to achieve that maximum damage with a spray-and-pray tactic. On the other hand, it drives enemies crazy, leaving them open for other forms of attack.

At point blank range, a single powerful shot can be fired from the barrel of this gun. This shot exceeds the power available even to a standard pistol of similar quality, and exceeds it by a wide margin. This shot disables your pistol entirely for several seconds, except as a makeshift club.

When used in conjunction with another Duelist-centered weapon, the function of this firearm is increased.

“It’s funny. The way you hold that.” The woman glued her eyes to the gun as Marco set it down carefully next to the rest of her wares. “It’s a lot like he did. More careful than you need to.”

“It’s because if you hold it any tighter than that, it throws off the aim. And when you fire, it hurts,” Marco answered.

“Ah.” She looked at Marco for a long moment. “I didn’t know that. You know, I had to hire someone who specialized in diving to even get these after his ship went down. It took months, and most of the money I had back then.”

Marco got it. He couldn’t really imagine how it must have felt for her, but he thought he got it anyway. This wasn’t the kind of memory you just let out of your sight.

“I can’t believe I’m about to just give these away.” The old woman sighed. “Take them before I change my mind.”

“What? My skill will destroy them.” Marco recoiled slightly from the gear despite how much he wanted them.

“Not entirely, no. It will put them to use, from what you told me.”

“They are too important.”

“You know, both you and that bearded jerk at the restaurant both said that, although only one of you meant the right thing by it. I’ve let these get too important.” She shoved them across the table at him. “Take them. Hold them. Let it happen.”

Marco looked at the items for a long time before he picked them up, watching them like a not-yet-boiling pot until they glowed gold, dissipated, and sunk into his current clothing. It was a magical process and made Marco feel as if the ceremony was just as important as the concrete improvements. When the glow dimmed, he was wearing the brand new suit, perfectly fitted to his body. He could feel the jump in capabilities even off his ship. The sword, the gun, and the clothes were all much, much better as a base than his old stuff had been, and it apparently wasn’t a small difference at all.

“Well. Look at you.” The woman wiped her eyes. “You look a lot like he did, at that age.”

The woman shook her head and smiled as the team admired Marco’s new gear. Though Marco had barely found these items, it was overall much better than what the others had been able to get. It wasn’t that their gear wasn’t good, it was just that his gear was a step beyond good. It was good equipment made better with care and memories, and suited his class like in water.

As the woman packed away her goods with big sweeps of her arm that led into big crates she pulled out from under the counter, Marco moved around a bit in the armor. It was good. A few fires of the pistol gave him real ideas for how he’d be using it in fights from now on, swarming enemies with distracting little floods of bullets. The rapier wasn’t that much longer to look at, but once he held it in a fighting stance it felt like he’d have feet of extra range.

Once the woman was packed, she came around the counter.

“It does look like it suits you. Now come on. There’s only so much daylight.”

“Wait, where are we going?”

“Out and about. You kids are young and if I don’t miss my guess you haven’t been in the big wide world very long. There’s things I know that you don’t know.” The woman started walking down the road like she expected to be followed, and the legs of the crew were suddenly in chase. There were no skills making it happen, she just seemed like the type who needed to be obeyed. “Shiny gear is shiny gear, but young people always miss the boring parts. That’s gold weighing down your backpack, right? Good. You are going to need every single coin.”