When I composed myself, the first thing I did was find a place to lay low. I didn’t know if being bound to Davy Jones gave me an easy pass through the ocean depths, but I doubted it. I was very cognizant of the fact that I was in a part of the ocean known for monster sightings. Sure, it was a big ocean and most monsters wouldn’t even glance at me, but it payed to be prudent.

Walking along the ocean floor was a joy. I found that with a mental shift I could go from ‘walking’ to ‘swimming’. While walking, I felt the water around me but not in the same way. It was like the water offered less resistance, like either it or I were more ethereal. I felt normal gravity instead of suspension. My hair and clothing were behaving like Jones’ had, not obeying normal physics. That was as it should be; I was no longer normal. I was cursed. I was magically altered.

When I switched to swimming, it was like that magical alteration was turned off, and I was again moving in ways I had been for years. Only now, there was no timer to be cognizant of. I could breathe and supply my body with all the ‘air’ it needed. I still caught myself holding my breath out of habit and had to remind myself to breathe. Was I now amphibious? I mean, I was pretty sure I wasn’t confined to the underwater realm – I’d been breathing air in Davy Jones’ pocket realm and so had he. I didn’t have gills, like mutated ‘amphibian’ people did. My lungs were pulling in and expelling seawater like they did air. What did you call something like me?

Most sailors would call me a ghost.

I found the cleft of a rocky protrusion and tucked myself into it. I should be hidden from most predators in the area, and if something did see me it wouldn’t be able to sneak up behind me. Then I set to addressing my own growth and notifications.

Congratulations! You have learned water magic!

Congratulations! You have learned air magic!

Congratulations! You have learned a Deeper magic: Ocean magic! This power harnesses the ambient mana of the sea to accomplish unique feats. Be warned: Deeper magics carry greater risks!

You have learned a Deeper magic! +10% mana recovery, -10% mana cost.

I was now a mage. That was discomforting for two reasons … ok, it was discomforting for a lot of reasons, but there were two big ones. Reason #1 was that I had discounted learning magic years ago, when I’d failed to pick up on any of the tricks some people could do with water. It hadn’t seemed like a big loss, there were mundane ways of doing lots of the things I’d seen water mages do at sea. Nor did I want to devote my life into developing the power of a weather mage only to find that the best I could do against the might of the ocean was divert or modify it a little. (Seeing that mage try to stop a coastal storm all those years ago had been rather sad. He’d been so disappointed.)

Because I’d ruled out magic, I’d ignored the idea of assigning attribute points to either Intelligence or Wisdom. Since I hadn’t assigned many points at all that hadn’t hurt me, but it was a shock to realize that I couldn’t ignore those attributes: they could be vital to my skills as a ghost captain.

I took a moment to appreciate that I was now a ghost captain. A bloody ghost captain! Sure, I had neither ship nor crew, but that was minutia.

Reason #2 for feeling discomforted about magic was that I had learned no spells. Some tricks water mages could do involved using their mana without the control of a spell, but they were just that: tricks. Not to mention that they drained MP ridiculously fast compared to the mana cost of a spell. If I wanted to do something like shoot an icicle at a certain pirate, I’d need to learn the spell for it.

Then there was the Deeper magic. I actually liked that one. It was like I had proof that I was more than the average sailor. The mana bonuses would certainly be nice, too. Since I had no reference for how much mana I used, I couldn’t appreciate the bonus as much as a mage certainly would have.

I looked up my stat sheet to reference how much mana I currently had.

Name

Domenic Seaborn

Age

Race

Human (Cursed)

Profession

Captain of the Deep

Level

XP

,500

Health

Mana

Stamina

Strength

Agility

Dexterity

Constitution

Endurance

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

Luck

Skills

Swimming 14

Seamanship 18

Sea Legs 13

Rowing 8

Swordsmanship 2

Fishing 8

Unarmed combat 7

Dirty fighting 4

Small blades 7

Axes 1

Archery 3

Artillery 2

Observation 10

Analyze 8

Carpentry 3

First Aid 2

Lock Picking 2

Cooking 2

Traps 10

Stealth 6

Singing 2

Climbing 11

Leadership 2

Spears 1

Magic

Air magic

Water magic

Ocean magic

Achievements

Lifesaving III

Trickster

Perks

Adaptable

Heart at Sea