In Pursuit of a Manuscript (A Buccaneer's Due Book #2): LitRPG Series Read online

  In Pursuit of a Manuscript

  a novel

  by Igor Knox

  A Buccaneer’s Due

  Book#2

  Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C-Publishing

  A Buccaneer’s Due

  Book #2: In Pursuit of a Manuscript

  Copyright © Igor Knox 2021

  English translation copyright © Andrew Schmitt 2021

  Cover Art © Ivan Khivrenko 2021

  Art Designer Vladimir Manyukhin

  Published by Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C-Publishing, 2021

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-7619-480-9

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Table of Contents:

  Prologue

  Chapter 1. Mutiny

  Chapter 2. Pirate Hunters

  Chapter 3. The Island of Saba

  Chapter 4. To the Shores of South America

  Chapter 5. My Pet Parrot!

  Chapter 6. Pinos

  Chapter 7. Night Watch

  Chapter 8. Maroons

  Chapter 9. Slave Uprising

  Chapter 10. Mines

  Chapter 11. Problems

  Chapter 12. Fort

  Chapter 13. Miguel Marquez

  Chapter 14. Havana.

  Chapter 15. Negotiations

  Chapter 16. Chase

  Chapter 17. Underground

  Chapter 18. Shenli Longshanks

  Chapter 19. The Inquisition

  Chapter 20. Carnival

  Chapter 21. To Sea

  Chapter 22. Over the Waves

  Chapter 23. Nassau

  Chapter 24. Blockade

  Chapter 25. Sounds Like a Plan

  Chapter 26. Line Ahead Column

  Chapter 27. Into Hell

  Chapter 28. Going to Cartagena

  Chapter 29. The Rising Sun

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The ship sailed unhurriedly toward the island. Birds circled over the masts, glimmering in the rays of the morning sun. A light breeze wafted in from the southeast. The Rapier turned into the wind to avoid running aground in the sandy shallows, exposing its broadside. Sailors clewed up the sails then dropped anchor, hauled in the spritsail, and lowered rowboats into the water.

  The last time I saw the Rapier was two weeks before. And it looked different. There was a figurehead under the bowsprit in the shape of a black skeleton. The hull had been reinforced and the cannon ports painted black. Its interior had probably been no less transformed, but that remained to be seen. I couldn’t yet see its level or characteristics, either.

  The ships stopped two cable lengths from shore – my crew was wary of running aground. Even though the bottom sloped gently away from Saona’s coast, I also knew the brig had low enough draft to drop anchor much closer. The crew lowered a pinnace, whaler and two skiffs into the water and soon enough they were gliding over the waves toward shore.

  Adrian’s dinghy was first to arrive. When it slid up onto the pure white sand, my first mate hopped overboard.

  “Well hey, captain!” he ran over to embrace me. “It’s been so long.”

  “How happy it makes me to see all of you!”

  I greeted my people with handshakes and slight nods. There were lots of new crewmembers though, for the record, I wasn’t able to remember all the old crew either. Adrian was dressed fancier than the last time I saw him. Now he had on a black tricorn hat, a dark red frock, leather pants and shiny boots. By comparison, my relatively basic outfit made me look more like a sailor than a captain.

  After the long voyage, the crew was probably tired. I’d have liked to suggest giving them leave on the island, but there was no time. The only thing holding me here were the five chests packed full of treasure. For now, the crew had no reason to know what was in them. All they needed to do was load the chests onto the rowboats and bring them up onto the ship.

  “I don’t think we’ll be hanging around on Saona,” I turned to the others. “We’ll make east. We need to go to the Lesser Antilles. When the dinghies get back, load the remaining boxes and barrels and let’s raise anchor before this gusty wind lets up.”

  Only then did I notice that some crewmembers were downright ignoring me. Looking around the island, they were chatting to one another without so much as coming over to say hello. One should always greet one’s captain. And there’s no etiquette rule against hiding such grumpy faces, either.

  “Adrian, do you remember what we agreed on?” a man by the username Dexter said sharply.

  Clearly a newcomer. While some lugged cargo, he wasn’t even considering pitching in. He was surrounded by a group of hearties, who looked just as gruff as him. When did Adrian find the time to hire them into the crew?

  There seemed to be a mutinous air on the wind, but I couldn’t yet wrap my head around it.

  “Rudra, I need a word,” Adrian turned and took me aside. “Well, how should I put it...? These guys want me to talk to you, and I’ll be frank. The crew changed while you were gone. Some left, others joined. As you may have noticed, there are still plenty of familiar faces, but... well, some of the crew doesn’t want you being captain anymore.”

  “Too used to you, is that it?”

  “Pretty much. They want me to gently suggest you give up the post. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware it’s your ship, your rules, but...”

  “Indeed,” I cut off my first mate. “If they aren’t happy, they’re free to leave next time we’re in port.”

  “They don’t wanna hear it, Rudra. It’s... Everything will be okay as long as you give up the post. We’ve been through so many fights, quests, and adventures recently they think of the Rapier as their home. Every last crewmember spent their own money to repair and even soup up the ship. Not to mention the money we’ve saved together. See, people don’t like it when their captain disappears for so long.”

  “And what percentage of the crew is unhappy?”

  “At least half of them. It’s all Dexter and his buddies egging them on. A lot of people are just on their side out of inertia because they don’t want to lose the Rapier.”

  “Dammit, Adrian! What kind of people are you hiring for my crew?”

  “Sorry. I tried to pick good guys, but somewhere along the way...”

  “Alright, and what do you suggest?” I interrupted him.

  Actually, I should not have said that. Decisions are made by captains. If they have to rely on others for advice, what kind of a leader are they? I had to come up with something fast. If I get thrown overboard during our upcoming voyage and lose my ship, I might as well kiss my whole share of the treasure from Saona goodbye.

  But should I just give up my post and stay on the ship? Go before Ilya’s clan emptyhanded? That would be ridiculous.
Either I embarrass myself again or get barraged with questions about where the whole reward ended up – and meanwhile I was already planning to tell them about the Beheaders and Anneli very delicately.

  “You just stay back on the island and...” Adrian suggested timidly, but I didn’t let him finish.

  “Cram it.”

  What I wanted to do was smack him right in the forehead and not say another word. Then let things sort themselves out. Back down and let a gang of thugs get away with my Rapier? After everything I’d been through on Saona? If Brodar Smith were standing in front of Adrian right now instead of me, would he be scared of the possibility of mutiny? No, he’d threaten to stuff an anchor up their asses and that would be that.

  The still fresh memories of the bearded man kept turning over in my head. He died to save me. I can’t deny the possibility that I might never see old man Smith again – it wouldn’t cost the developers a dime to simply replace him with a hundred new NPC pirates. In that case, what’s the difference between Brodar and a real person who died? Every event connected with him ran through my head. My fingers clenched into fists.

  I tried to give Adrian a slap on the back of the head, and I pulled it off okay. The tricorn went flying off his head, and he didn’t have the courage to retaliate.

  “Never forget this if you want to stay on the Rapier. Don’t even think of suggesting we run at the first sign of danger again. I don’t keep a first mate on my ship so he can turn chicken. I need a right-hand man who can help me solve problems, not evade them. Got it?”

  Adrian nodded dejectedly. The players turned. A few of them were about to reach for their weapons. They were almost done loading up the vessel. The last dinghy of treasure pushed away from shore.

  “Captain, there’s no more room,” one of the men sitting on a cross-board came ironically.

  “No problem,” I called back and grabbed the sailor by his shirt collar, tossing him into the water.

  The others, including Adrian sitting next to him, feigned a sudden interest in the dinghy’s floor.

  Then, using winding tackle, we were brought aboard along with the dinghy. I forbid anyone from opening the boxes and chests. There was no need for anyone to ogle my silver just yet. Let the crew think they’re full of plain old cane sugar or something – chests are quite common in the Caribbean, but there’s no guarantee anything of value will be found inside.

  I stood on the quarterdeck, leaning on an old railing and, when the crew was about to depart, I shouted:

  “Heave ho! Take a very broad reach!”

  The sailors on deck put their backs into the mizzen braces and the Rapier slowly tilted in the wind. The ship, catching the cross breeze with its sails and taking advantage of the tide, turned toward the high seas and, leaning more, picked up speed. I had a few things to take care of that could not be put off.

  Chapter 1. Mutiny

  THE ISLAND SLOWLY FADED into a tiny speck. From aboard the Rapier, we seemed to be drifting in place while Saona sailed off into the distance. Now, it looked like a typical tropical islet but, in my memory, it was ablaze with the flames that had taken down several dozen ships, and the whistling of shot, which had dropped hundreds of bodies. The island had made me my first few friends in the game, and possibly future partners. It was also where I lost old man Smith...

  I took one final look at Saona, turned around and surveyed the ship, strolling around its top deck. The cheap cast-iron cannons had been replaced with copper ones of slightly higher caliber. Instead of the standard linen sails, paper cotton ones now fluttered in the wind. On the quarterdeck, there was now a binnacle, a ship’s compass. The lower decks were packed full of all kinds of supplies, chests, and clothing.

  Meanwhile, the crew’s behavior had turned threatening. Sailors walked freely around the top deck, unashamed to check me with their shoulders as they passed. My orders, even the most basic, they carried out reluctantly and sluggishly. The very thought of mutiny aboard the Rapier made me clench my teeth.

  “Adrian, who’s quartermaster now? Send them my way!” I peeked out of my quarters.

  A minute later, Lilith entered.

  “So, you’re still at it.”

  “You bet I am!” she called back. “You’re the one who appointed me.”

  Indeed. On my second day in the Caribbean, I had given the quartermaster post to Lilith. It is commonly believed that quartermaster is practically second in command after the captain. But there’s also the boatswain, who leads people in battle, and the first mate. In the Caribbean meanwhile, the only things left for the quartermaster are finances and ship maintenance.

  “You doing okay?”

  “Absolutely! I just unlocked the Calculator skill. That means I don’t have to tabulate everything by hand anymore. The interface just takes care of it for me!”

  “Good. Say, Lilith, tell me how things went for you while I was gone.”

  I sat back in my chair.

  “Just a minute.” She grabbed the ship’s log from the table, opened it to a bookmark and flipped a few pages back. “We attacked a pearl diver flotilla. We sold the booty for four thousand reals. We got into a scrap with a French fluyt. We lost that fight and ended up having to spend six hundred reals fixing up the ship. Then we attacked a clan called Soulless as part of an English flotilla. One brigantine captured for a profit of three thousand Spanish pesos. After that, we went to the Yucatan as part of the Old Miner quest – we completed the chain for a total of around six thousand pesos. We had a run in with an English ship of the line from the Sails of Light clan – losses to the tune of...”

  The look on Lilith’s face was extremely serious. Particularly in the narrow pair of glasses she’d gotten as a trophy from one of the hostile vessels. In actuality, she was a cheery and impressionable woman in all matters unrelated to her demanding line of work. I didn’t care what she was like in the real world. It was none of my business. I only knew that her husband was also in my crew – if I’m not mistaken, he’s a musketeer and sailor.

  “... We managed to shake them down for one thousand two hundred livres, which were then converted into English pounds.”

  “That’s enough, thank you. Say, how much do we have in the ship’s coffers right now?”

  “One thousand six hundred pieces of eight and three hundred reals.”

  “Is the crew getting paid on time?”

  “Always.”

  Every crewmember getting their share of the plunder is my North Star. As it was in the real pirate era of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so it is in the present-day Caribbean. Who would agree to work as a sailor for nothing in return? Even playing on their enthusiasm, everyone expects a reasonable share of the profits.

  “And who is boatswain right now?”

  “Still Menestrelius. But tomorrow, it’ll be a week since he last showed his face. He said he was going on vacation.”

  “I see.” I took the ship’s log from her hands and spent a little while flipping through it. “You still seem to like me. So, tell me, why is the crew planning to get rid of me?”

  “Uh, can’t say I’m too sure,” Lilith replied. “When Adrian announced we were making for Saona, the crew didn’t much like the idea. Many of them had forgotten the Rapier even had a different captain.”

  “And whose side are you on, if it’s no secret?”

  “No one’s, Rudra. Parsik and I joined this crew by coincidence, but we do like it here. We’re used to it now. And these squabbles for the captain’s seat... They’re not my thing! I don’t like that kind of stuff. I just want the Rapier to have a good captain.” Lilith sighed.

  “And it will,” I replied.

  We went back up onto the top deck together. The crew was already assembled, clearly waiting for me. Some were hanging off the shrouds and yards, others stood on the aftercastle, but most of them were probably only staring out of curiosity. The real problem was Dexter and his buddies, who stepped out in front on the quarterdeck. All of them were armed. r />
  “So cappy, you figure out who’s the odd man out here?” one of the guys spoke up.

  Meanwhile, Lilith tried to walk past, but she wasn’t allowed.

  “Do you really not care what happens to him?” Dexter stood in her way.

  “Leave me out of it,” she waved him off.

  “But we need you, my sweet. The fate of our captain is being decided here and now. Or former captain, rather. Isn’t that right, former captain Rudra?”

  I shot a glance and Dexter and the other decidedly hostile people. So, here are my mutineers. He was wearing a dark blue frock topped with a wide purple belt. Pistol on a strap and an expensive looking broadsword. A black bandanna. We met eyes. In his I saw a sinister challenging look. In mine, seething rage.

  “So, how many of you would be eager to get rid of me?” I took a look at everyone gathered there. “Not even gonna ask me where I’ve been? What I got for my crew?”