I went to check on the people and found them gathered on the top deck. Although I doubted many of them had much to do, I intended to assess the progress of the healing. Upon arrival, I was relieved to see that everyone had been stabilized. However, lying on the floor were only three individuals: two Dwya and our dedicated healer.

  “They alright?” I asked.

  Kaylie responded, “Yes. They are severely mana-drained. All three of them have been healing as much as they can. It is all low-level spells, but they are effective, and everyone is out of danger at the moment. I doubt they will be healing anyone for the next little while, though.”

  Whenever they explained something to me, they never used an actual time measurement other than days, months, and years. I was beginning to wonder if they had such precise details on the measurement of time. If they didn’t have clocks or watches with them, those measurements wouldn’t exactly be useful. From where I was from, everything was measured in specific units of time.

  Oh well. I would have to let it go and try to cope the best I could.

  “Are they going to be alright?”

  “Yes, but any more injured and our healers might have to take risks.” She looked me up and down as if remembering where I was from. “I forgot. Depleting your mana is normal, but you should never push beyond that. That is a way to seriously injure yourself or even die if it is bad enough.”

  I didn’t need to worry about this because I didn’t have any practical magic. As of this moment, all I had on was my time spell that only slowed down time by 1 percent. It wasn’t even noticeable, but I kept it on to keep Rabbit happy. He had chosen it, and while I did like teasing him, I didn’t like rubbing in his face that we likely made a mistake. I couldn’t say he thought the same way.

  “I didn’t know we had three healers,” I said.

  “Yeah. If we didn’t let the Dwya out, we probably wouldn’t have won. And even if we did, we would have lost several more people from a lack of healing. There are some restore health potions we found in the captain’s quarters, but we didn’t want to use those,” commented Kaylie.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Well,” Kaylie started, and she looked toward Jack at the helm of the ship and back to me. “We all talked about it when you were below. We even confirmed with Jack that it wasn’t him that did all of this…it was you. Since you came here to save all of us, we wanted you to have the spoils from the battle. I even got Mason here to agree.” Kaylie gestured to one of the Dwya, but as I couldn’t tell them apart, I was not sure how she knew which one was Mason.

  When gestured to him, Mason got down on both knees and said, “We serve.” All the Dwya repeated this action and spoke words in their language. Even the two who were lying down got up to say this and lay back down.

  “Anyway, I confirmed with Mason here,” Kaylie continued, as if nothing weird had just happened, but she still rolled her eyes. “And he seems to think everything aboard is yours. We discovered a substantial amount of gold, silver, and copper, along with an item that far exceeded the value of the ship and its contents combined. Even without the expensive item, the gold would be enough for a person not to work another day. Well, maybe not an Elf but at least a Human.”

  “What was the other thing that was so valuable?” I asked as my mouth watered from the excitement of what was aboard, ignoring everything else.

  “It’s a transmutation crystal,” Kaylie said with glee. After seeing my blank look, she continued to explain, “A transmutation crystal is exactly what it sounds like. It is a crystal that, once your mana is fed into it, transforms into an object that matches your magic.”

  I looked at her even more blankly because that was not what it sounded like at all to me. I summed up my understanding to her clearly with, “What?”

  At this, Kaylie wasn’t as excited and put a small crystal in my hand that looked ordinary, except when I looked at it, I thought it changed shape. I wasn’t sure, as the outer form looked the same, but the insides of the crystal seemed to be slowly shifting, and the light that reflected was moving with the changes.

  As I was staring into the crystal, Kaylie resumed, “If I provide an example, it becomes much easier to understand. You see, I possess Fire Magic along with a limited amount of Light Magic. Let’s say I channel a small portion of my mana into the crystal. In that case, it could transform into either a staff of fire illusion or a stave of burning light. You know, something along those lines. Although it may not be exceptional as a stand-alone weapon, its true greatness lies in its customization to the owner and, most importantly, its soul-binding nature.”

  After a second of her looking at me, I felt like it was my turn to say something like ‘wow’ or be in awe, but it didn’t ruffle my feathers. “What is so great about something being soul-bound?”

  Kaylie’s mouth hung open as if she couldn’t believe what I was asking. “You really aren’t from around here. Soul-bound objects aren’t just objects. As your soul changes, the bound objects can change themselves. Your soul usually only changes in one way, and that way is to get stronger. That means if you had a normal weapon and you got stronger, so would the weapon. It grows with you to a certain degree. Items are different, though, and you have to remember that. Just because you get stronger doesn’t mean a soul-bound item would get stronger, but it might change its aspects as you do. More than that, soul-bound objects are connected to the soul, so it won’t work for anyone else unless the owner wants it to. So if you had some great soul-bound object, I couldn’t just torture you for you to give it to me. It wouldn’t work. Your soul says something completely different than your mind.”

  “What if you kill the person for the object?” I asked, and Kaylie raised an eyebrow.

  Eventually, she answered, “It is doubtful that someone’s soul would want their killer to have it. Occasionally, one of these soul-bound objects can be passed down through generations, as that is what the owner would have truly wanted. You will find that this is less common than you would think. Typically, when the owner dies, the item becomes useless. However, I have heard of a couple of items that wanted to be bound even to their owners’ killers. Those things you don’t want, though, because there is usually malicious intent behind them. For example, a knife that makes the next wielder unstable and start attacking others. You know crazy people and crazy intent.”

  I hoped that wasn’t the intent behind the sword that bound me. Since I hadn’t used it, I was hoping I was in the clear. If not, I didn’t think I had any malicious intent in the back of my mind. Pushing thoughts of the sword Sophia took aside, I focused back on the crystal. “So, how much is this thing worth?”

  Kaylie looked up, as if deep in thought, before saying, “I have no clue, as it’s probably priceless. As far as I know, no one would openly trade something like this.” She paused for a moment, shaking her head. “If you haven’t noticed, enchanted objects aren’t common, but soul-bound objects? They’re on a whole different level. And one customized to the wielder? I don’t even know how much that would be worth.”

  In my head, I began to wonder, How was that sword a soul-bound object? If they’re so rare, it seems odd that I’d come across one.

  “You didn’t just come across one,” Rabbit replied in my head. Apparently, I was thinking louder than I intended. Rabbit couldn’t hear my passive thoughts, but more of my projected ones. Usually, thoughts didn’t come out as actual words, but when I was working through a problem, I often voiced them in my head so he could hear without me realizing it. “Remember that Ancient who told you about that weapon? I’m certain there’s great treasure everywhere. The problem is that people don’t know exactly where to look because the world is so vast. She just narrowed it down for you.”

  “Why would there be something so valuable on board?” I questioned Kaylie.

  She shrugged. “I wondered about that myself. Something like this isn’t sold between nations because it’s so rare. Sometimes they’re traded to heads of state for political reasons. You know that mage I fought who was strong? I doubt he’d be on a ship like this under normal circumstances. My best guess is that he was a dignitary making a trade for someone or something.”

  I cocked my head and asked, “What do you think the trade was for?”

  Kaylie giggled. “I have no clue. You might be able to ask one of the prisoners if they’re willing to talk, but I doubt they know either. But I do think I know who they were trading with. The Cooler is a prison, and what type of magic do you think they favor?”

  “Ice,” I responded automatically, seeing as the place was called the Cooler and that mage had frozen someone to death.

  “No. Ice is just water.” She put her hand to her face and smeared it as if she was exasperated. “Anyways, they favor Water Magic.”

  This only put in stark contrast how little I knew about the world. I didn’t know who these people were, and I didn’t even know that Ice Magic wasn’t a thing. I had question after question, but there was only so much I could learn in one sitting.

  “How do I activate this thing?” I asked, focusing on the present moment.

  At those words, Kaylie smiled again. “Good choice, I am not sure what you would do with that kind of money anyway. Most likely, you would be killed for it before you could sell it anyway. Okay, grab the crystal in both hands. You know how you cast spells? Just let the mana flow as if you were casting a spell.”

  Kaylie’s explanation was not very good. I had two spells that were considerably different. “I only have Alteration Spells, so there is no casting on either of them.”

  “That will make things more difficult. Well, you can wait until you get another type of spell…” She trailed off for a moment. “Which doesn’t seem likely with your little problem.”

  My little problem she was talking about was the fact that I was a Grey Elf and was unlikely to get any more spells in my lifetime.

  “Or maybe you can train and be able to move your mana. Jack has a hidden ability that allows him to do it, but I doubt he would teach you. Even so, that would take a long time to learn.” She was thinking for a moment, and I didn’t interrupt her. It seemed to me she was thinking out loud rather than directly talking to me. After a minute, she snapped her finger and said, “I got it. Something that might work or might destroy the object, or maybe it will do nothing.” Apparently, she wasn’t aware that those were always the choices. “Why don’t you try using your Alteration Spell on it? It might work.”

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  The glowing endorsement of her idea left me feeling less than enthusiastic, yet I recognized it as perhaps the only viable solution. Unless, of course, I implored Jack to impart a method that may prove ineffective for me. I extended the crystal, summoning my Teleportation Spell to displace it by a few feet. When it rematerialized just an instant later, it had morphed from its crystalline form into a pulsating, changing shape.

  As it continued to grow, the once sunlight-refracting crystal now emanated a light of its own. With this growth, it lost its transparency, morphing into a texture akin to leather as its light gradually diminished. I had anticipated it would enlarge to the proportions of a sword, but it remained compact, comparable to the size of my two fists combined.

  Once it had fully formed, we all found ourselves transfixed by it. Breaking the silence, Kaylie voiced our collective bewilderment, “A bag? You got a bag?” She cast an apologetic glance my way. “I’m sorry. I did warn that the outcome of an Alteration Spell might not be predictable.”

  I bent over to grab the bag and received a prompt.

  Your transmutation crystal has been transformed through your magical connection to time and spatial magic into The Bag of Holding.

  This bag grants access to a space where time moves at a significantly slower pace compared to the standard space and time of this reality. Consequently, objects of substantial size and weight can be placed within the bag, exerting only 6% of their original weight.

  You are soul-bound to this object. Soul bonds can usually only be broken through an open heart. Be warned, while soul-bound objects do not shape your soul, your soul will shape your bond.

  Kaylie’s hand rested on my shoulder, offering sympathy, as she observed the visible emotions displayed on my body while I knelt, touching the bag. Perhaps she assumed I was distraught, but what overwhelmed me was not sadness but sheer awe.

  The object I held in my hand was the most valuable possession I could have hoped for. In all the games I had ever played, the challenge of sorting through loot and selecting the most useful items was a recurring theme. Games often imposed inventory limitations, compelling players to constantly explore and prioritize due to the inability to carry everything and sell it off later.

  Upon arriving in this world, I was disheartened to discover that looting did not mirror the games. I couldn’t defeat a creature and find it magically holding gold coins and a sword, neatly stored in an inventory screen. Here, reality prevailed, and looting meant physically searching the bodies of fallen foes. What made matters worse was the absence of an efficient inventory solution. Their best solution for this dilemma was a bag, similar to those you would find on Earth. No bells, no whistles. Just a bag you could put stuff into.

  As I inquired around, it became apparent that nobody had ever encountered an object capable of holding a large quantity of items while drastically reducing their weight. It resembled Earth in the sense that magic did not make everything easier. However, everything changed with this bag. It was precisely what I needed. To me, and likely to others, there was no point in embarking on adventures if there were no tangible rewards. Risking one’s life to navigate a dungeon seemed pointless if loot couldn’t be claimed along the way.

  I speculated that either individuals left with whatever they could initially carry, which likely amounted to low-value items, or they fought until the very end, only taking the most valuable treasures. That was, if dungeons existed as I imagined. I realized I needed to ask more questions. Either way, this bag would make exploration far more lucrative. This single bag became the ultimate game-changer for me.

  So when Kaylie saw me holding the bag with my mouth open, I could understand her confusion. She probably thought I was sad that I lost a fortune, but I, on the other hand, was so happy because I had made myself a real one. I finally exclaimed, “This is the greatest thing ever!”

  Looking at Kaylie, all she could perceive on my face was a sense of manic excitement. Yet, after we engaged in a spirited discussion, she eventually acknowledged the bag was ‘unique’ as she put it. However, she did not perceive it as positively as I did. Perhaps because her experiences were limited to our small village, where she had everything she needed within walking distance. To me, it represented an opportunity I was determined to seize.

  Kaylie handed me a small bag, and the weight of it was surprising as it settled into my palm. I glanced inside, noticing the different colors, sizes, and shapes of the coins. “This bag is heavier than I expected. What kind of coins are these?”

  Kaylie glanced over, a small smile playing on her lips. “You’ve got a mix of Thumps, Rings, and Jingles there,” she explained. “Those are the names we use for the different sizes of our gold, silver, and copper coins. Each type has its distinct shape and value.”

  “Thumps, Rings, and Jingles?” I repeated, raising an eyebrow. “That’s a bit unusual.”

  “Let me show you.” Kaylie reached into the bag and pulled out a large copper coin. “This one’s a Thump,” she said, holding it up for me to see. “It’s the largest coin, worth ten copper units. It has a solid, heavy feel, and when you drop it, it makes a deep, resonant sound, which is how it got its name.”

  I nodded as I examined the coin in my hand. “I can see why. It’s got some weight to it. What about the others?”

  Kaylie reached into the bag again, this time pulling out a smaller coin. “This is a Ring,” she said. “It’s a silver coin, worth five units. Unlike the Thump, the Ring has a six-sided shape with a small circular hole in the middle. The outer six-sided shape fits perfectly into the hole of the larger coin, so you can tell they’re genuine. Some people might put this on a necklace or bracelet so it’s not as easy to steal. The center open hole makes this easy, and that’s why it’s called a Ring.”

  “Clever!” I remarked, impressed. “And the Jingles?”

  Kaylie pulled out the smallest coin from the bag. “The Jingle is the smallest and simplest of the three,” she said. “Just like the others, it can be made out of copper, silver, or gold and is worth one unit. It’s a tiny, solid circle without any holes that fits into the ring perfectly, and they usually jingle within a bag. As they are the smallest official coin, you can usually hear people walking around with them.”

  I turned the Jingle over in my fingers, a thoughtful expression on my face. “Official?”

  “Well,” Kaylie replied, “officially, a copper Jingle would be the smallest, but people chop them up. The value is in the metal, not the coin itself, so you might find half Jingles or quarter Jingles. But with the amount of gold you have in that bag, I doubt you’ll need to worry about those anytime soon.”

  As I examined the coins, I took a Ring and placed it into the Thump, watching as the six-sided shape fit perfectly into the larger coin’s hexagonal hole. Then, I slid a Jingle into the center of the Ring, completing the set. The coins nested together, forming a solid, unified piece. I marveled at the cleverness of the design. “Rabbit, why don’t we have something like this, where the coins can be checked against each other by their size? It seems so much more efficient.”

  Rabbit’s response was sharp. “The value is in the metal here. Your previous overlords convinced you cockroaches that it’s more important to chase the idea of value rather than anything real. So it doesn’t matter if someone shaves off a corner of your coins, since they aren’t worth anything anyway. The only thing that matters is the number on the front.”

  Kaylie shrugged and added, “One more thing. The Dwya think you want the ship.”

  “What am I going to do with a ship?” I asked, baffled.

  She bobbed her head side to side and said, “Sink it, so the enemy doesn’t get it. Sail into the great ocean. Find a mermaid to marry. I don’t know.”

  Kaylie didn’t know what a ship was good for either. I would suppose if you weren’t trading with anyone and there were slavers all over the seas, one ship would do you no good.

  “Free our people,” Mason said.

  Everyone around us looked at Mason, and he repeated, since no one said anything. “Free our people.”

  “I don’t understand. You are free. Do you want the ship to go somewhere else to be free? Because that is fine. It’s yours once you drop us off. We don’t want or need it,” I urged.

  Mason shook his head and said, “Our people build their boats.” Talking in common was hard for him, but he was choosing his words wisely. “We are the wick of the Black Rock Islands’ flame. We are slaves, and we are forced to build the ships on which they capture more of us.”

  “You build their ships for them? I assume you don’t mean you personally. You mean your people. I don’t think this one ship could take any other ships and win. We aren’t sailors. The only one here who probably knows anything at the helm is Jack,” I replied.

  “We know about ships. We are from an island,” Mason said, and that surprised me. I guess I never even thought to ask. Darn, these guys didn’t like giving information easily. It was like when they found out I spoke their language, accepted it, and didn’t ask any further questions. They did the same, in reverse, by not providing any unnecessary information.

  “Let’s go talk to Jack,” I prompted, and we walked over to the helm.

  I explained what the Dwya said, and instead of arguing, Jack agreed. “Yes, much of the Black Rock Islands’ strength is from its navy. The Dwya are an important part of that strength, but not all of it. Even if you killed all of the Dwya, they would just build ships themselves. They wouldn’t be as strong, but it wouldn’t change anything.”

  “If Dwya didn’t build ships for the Black Rock Islands but built them against them,” Mason said.

  Jack thought for a moment. “That would work. However, you would need a lot of Dwya, and you would need the Black Rock Islands not to harass you while you are building up your naval strength. I doubt either of those would happen. If they saw someone building their forces, they would mobilize everything to stop their dominance in this region. They rarely lose a ship like this and are likely to send several ships after it to teach a lesson not to mess with them.”

  “Even though it’s a merchant ship and not a military vessel?” I inquired.

  “Yes, this is just a merchant ship, but they have a contract with the government, and those in power pay to use the military for their own means. Trust me, I know this stuff,” Jack added.

  Mason wasn’t saying anything. He stood there, staring at me. I didn’t know what to say. One ship couldn’t fight a fleet. What could we even do?

  “He said that this has rarely happened before. Ask Jack if that can be used to our advantage?” Rabbit asked.

  I thought about it and smiled. Rabbit was right. If our adversaries didn’t know we were an enemy, then we might be able to launch a surprise attack. The problem was that this was a merchant vessel and wasn’t made for warfare.

  “If it’s so rare, don’t you think they wouldn’t be expecting a captured ship in the heart of their power, and they aren’t expecting this to be an enemy ship?” I replied.

  “Yeah, so it’s still a merchant ship. We could probably sail right into their port without a problem and slam it into the docks as hard as we could. It would take a while to repair, but I don’t think that would make a big difference,” Jack said.

  “What if, instead of slamming our ship into their docks, we park all nice and quiet?” I asked. I honestly didn’t know anything about the place, but Jack was our expert, and asking questions never hurt.

  “You do know the Black Rock Islands have several islands and several docks?” Jack clarified.

  “I don’t know anything about them. Don’t worry about that. There probably is a main port or an easy port or a port with a lot of Dwya,” I said confidently, knowing that while all three might not be true, at least one had to be true.

  “The main port of Ancore is not easy, but it would house the majority of the Dwya. That is the port where they build the large vessels,” Jack added.

  “And?” I pried because I didn’t know any details.

  “And I think they would let us sail right in,” he mentioned. “You know I hate you. If you didn’t save our lives, I would kill you for what you have me plotting right now.” I wondered why he was going along with my plan. Was it simply gratitude for saving him? Did he have something to gain from sabotaging the Black Rock Islands? Whatever the reason was, I was glad he was on our side.

  I smiled at him and said, “What are friends for?”

  He looked back at me and didn’t smile. Jack had to explain several things for us to formulate a holistic strategy. The main thing we had to understand was that the Islands had a single king, but under that ruler were different houses fighting for power. The king liked that dynamic because it allowed no single house to get strong enough to oppose him.

  Why was that important for the task we had? It was because it had led to a large amount of corruption within the government, based on which house was willing to pay more.

  To shed light on this issue, we considered the acquisition of slaves as an example. Most people naturally resisted the idea of becoming slaves, leading them to establish defenses and fight back. However, if one resorted to bribing government officials, a different scenario unfolded. These officials concocted excuses, such as claiming that the targeted individuals posed a threat. Consequently, the government took charge, eliminating the defenses and killing those who refused to yield. Amid the chaos and dispersion, a house could conveniently capture easier targets for slavery. From a cost-effective standpoint, this method proved highly advantageous.

  The problem and advantage of this was that bribes were a regular part of life. We planned to abuse this system for our benefit.

  With everything in place, we had a way in. The problem was, there was no easy way out.