A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 7 Shadows on the Ship

A moment later, the door was pushed open.

Jiang Shuzhou walked out of the door, his gray linen clothes now stained red, and if you looked closely, you could see drops of red liquid falling to the ground.

Inside the door was a pile of pirate fragments. After all, Jiang Shuzhou didn't need the pirates' services, so he could only reluctantly dismantle them into pieces and use them later when he needed to upgrade his star rating.

"Sigh, how come these pirates are so poor! I searched for ages and only found 5 silver coins."

With a long sigh, Jiang Shuzhou casually stuffed the spoils into the small cloth bag he had taken from the first mate. He had no intention of exploring any further to find the captain.

He had just casually interrogated one of the pirates and obtained basic information about the pirate ship.

First, there were eleven people in total, but only three of them held positions of authority: the captain, the first mate, and the cook.

He has already dealt with the first mate.

The chef is in charge of logistics and should not be a combatant, so he can be basically ignored.

He had already killed seven of the eleven people, leaving only four, one of whom was a cook who was unable to fight.

In other words, the only threats to him are the captain and the two monsters.

Jiang Shuzhou returned to the deck mainly because he couldn't stand the unpleasant smell emanating from his body.

"Wow, this game is so realistic! It can even simulate the smell of blood."

Previously, when he committed the murder in the rain, Jiang Shuzhou didn't smell such a strong stench of blood because of the heavy rain. But now that he's inside the cabin, it's a different story.

Taking three steps at a time, Jiang Shuzhou quickly ran out of the cabin and onto the deck. The strong smell of blood and the screams from the four men he had dealt with had already given him away.

However, this does not mean that Jiang Shuzhou's stealth attempt failed, after all, a great assassin master once said something.

As long as everyone who sees me dies, then the stealth will not fail.

The situation is obvious: Jiang Shuzhou is fighting three opponents at once, and the remaining chefs, who don't have much fighting ability, are also easy to deal with. Now both sides have revealed their cards.

It's better to fight on the relatively open deck than in an unfamiliar cabin.

While the person on the other side is coming out of the cabin, we might be able to steal another person.

That's what Jiang Shuzhou thought, and that's what he did.

He hid in a blind spot near the cabin entrance, listening intently, ready to give the people who came a big surprise at any moment.

The ambush is in place; now all that's left is time.

------

"What the hell is going on! A bunch of useless trash! They're all like they're on steroids when they're robbing merchant ships! Now they can't even beat a novice mage who can't cast spells? I'm so pissed off..."

Captain Jayne was furious, and with a hint of fear in his eyes.

Four people ganged up on one and got killed in the process?! Do you guys even know how to fight?!

Despite his anger, Captain Jayne was not blinded by rage. His most important task now was to gather the remaining three men and, under his command, search the ship room by room to find and kill the mage.

Unfortunately, he thought he had three more subordinates, but in reality...

The three people beside him now are his last remaining men.

"What's going on? Where's the first mate? Baker! Baker!"

Captain Jayne is now in a panic. The four of them searched the entire cabin, but apart from the four corpses, they couldn't find the other three.

They were nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead.

"Boss, I remember First Officer Baker was on deck directing the guys to move supplies."

One of the underlings said to Captain Jayne.

"What? Why didn't you say so earlier! Let's go, let's go to the deck right now and meet up with Baker. That mage..."

Captain Jayne sneered twice. He had caused them such great losses. If he caught this bastard, then they would be in for a beating.

"I know quite a few punishments!" Captain Jayne thought to himself as he led his three men toward the deck.

"Boss Jayne, what's that thing?"

One of the henchmen seemed to have spotted something and quickly walked towards the deck.

"Boss...it's...it's First Mate Baker..."

What the hell? Shouldn't you be happy that it's First Mate Baker?

What kind of tone is that? Is this how I've always taught you?

Just as Captain Jayne was about to start cursing, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, a person appeared from the shadows, holding an axe in his hand, raising the axe high and then bringing it down heavily.

The underling who was behaving strangely just moments ago is now decapitated, without even a scream.

"You must be the captain? Tell me, why did you arrest me?"

Jiang Shuzhou found himself becoming more and more skilled at killing monsters. At first, he would miss his attacks, but now he could decapitate them directly.

"Who are you? Put down your weapon now, and I might spare your life!"

?

Isn't this what I'm supposed to say? Why is this person stealing my lines?

"Alright, enough talk, take this axe!"

There was a loud "bang"—it was a flintlock pistol.

Jiang Shuzhou fired the gun; after all, he has his own mouth, so he can say whatever he wants.

"You...despicable, shameless! Coward! Scoundrel!"

The bullet pierced Captain Jayne's calf, blood gushing out, his life slowly slipping away.

"No, are you really a pirate? You believe everything I say?"

As expected, it's still a human-machine interface. Even with the help of AI, which has greatly increased its intelligence, it is still essentially a human-machine interface.

They believe whatever they are told, they have no ability to think critically, what else can they be but human-machine interaction?

Only at times like this did he feel like he was playing a game. This game was so realistic, Jiang Shuzhou exclaimed again.

After taking cover on the deck, Jiang Shuzhou did not act rashly, after all, he had just observed that Captain Jayne also had a gun.

He was tall and robust, clad in leather armor. He wore a pair of gold rings on his fingers, carried a pirate scimitar in his hand, and had a flintlock pistol at his waist.

This is the Captain Jayne that Jiang Shuzhou saw.

With so much equipment on him, the first mate only had a leather armor and a gun. Besides the gun, this guy also had two ornaments on his body. If it weren't for Captain Jiang Shuzhou, he would have been eaten alive.

Jiang Shuzhou originally planned to aim for the body, since the hit rate would be high, but Captain Jayne's leather armor dispelled that idea.

Jiang Shuzhou conducted a test using a pirate.

He threw the axe away. The weapon, which was supposed to be as sharp as mud in his hands, failed to cut the pirate in two after he threw it away.

Through experimentation, Jiang Shuzhou discovered that his talent seemed to only amplify melee attacks, and the bonus would disappear as soon as he was out of the hand.

It seems impossible for me to work part-time as a marksman.

Jiang Shuzhou and Captain Jayne remained locked in a stalemate. The two underlings had already bandaged Captain Jayne's wounds, but it was of little use. Bandages could only slow down the bleeding from a penetrating bullet wound; they could not completely stop the bleeding.

Originally, Jiang Shuzhou was at a disadvantage in a one-against-three situation, but this shot completely turned the tide.

Just wait and see; Captain Jayne's fighting ability has been halved after being shot, even though he has a gun in his hand.

As we all know, rainwater can take away a person's body heat, causing hypothermia. Although Jiang Shuzhou didn't know if this debuff existed in the game, he guessed it did.

Because he feels a bit cold right now.

But it's okay, there are people who can't take it anymore.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Captain Jayne was now ice-cold and pale. He had been shot in the calf and was bleeding profusely. The rain made him even colder. The only reason he was able to stand in the rain and confront Jiang Shuzhou was because he was an apprentice-level warrior, strong and healthy. Anyone else would have been lying on the ground long ago.

The two sides stood facing each other in the rain, neither of them exchanging a single word.

Captain Jayne doesn't talk because it's a waste of his energy, so he keeps quiet to conserve his strength.

Jiang Shuzhou felt that talking was useless, so he might as well not say anything, since the other party wouldn't listen anyway.

Although Jiang Shuzhou couldn't see Captain Jayne's face clearly because the other person was white, he could see that Captain Jayne's hands were trembling more and more.

This means Captain Jayne is out of energy.

Sure enough, the "hawk-training" tactic works everywhere.

"Bang!"

"clang!"

They fired!

No, that's not all!

Someone had reached behind him! Jiang Shuzhou was startled.