It was nearly 4 pm by the time Darren and Samantha had finished a shelter for him and put together a plan for the boat. Just talking to her with her experience as a captain and a lifetime on ships had increased his Shipwright Proficiency to 8%. He was thrilled that the study could increase Proficiency, so he didn’t just have to build a hundred ships to max the skill.

  Now Darren made his way back to the cove to find Wilson. Hopefully, the surly coconut would be smart enough to stay where he knew Darren would come find him.

  It was dim in the cove, the cliffs blocking the late afternoon sun. It took Darren a few minutes for his eyes to fully adjust. Eventually, he spotted Wilson sitting on a piece of Boaty, staring out to sea.

  Sand crunched underfoot as Darren walked up to him and sat. Wilson ignored him.

  “Found something for you.” Darren removed the slightly worse-for-wear bowler from his inventory and held it out to Wilson.

  Wilson gave him a side-eye, then took the bowler, brushing it off before setting it on his head. “Fanks,” he said, his voice quiet.

  “Look,” Darren said, “I know you don’t like Samantha, but right now she’s our best shot of making it to Isla Cascadura.”

  “I know…” Wilson said. “I jus’ don’t trust her. Who knows what schemes she’s up to. You saw her level, you’re only level 5. I’m only level 2. There ain’t nothin’ we can do to stop ‘er if she turns on us.”

  “That’s rich, you worrying about schemes.”

  “Exactly. I knows a schemer when I sees one.”

  Darren shook his head. “And what does she have to gain by ‘turning on us’?”

  “I’m a coconut! I’m literally a walking snack!”

  “And me?”

  “I dunno know. Maybe she’s a cannibal? Your toes look tasty. Well, they look filthy. But maybe that looks good to a cannibal.”

  “Really? That’s your concern, she’s a cannibal?”

  Wilson punched the wood they sat on, and Darren smothered a grin at the strikingly adorable action.

  “Fine,” Wilson said at last. “Maybe she’s not gonna eat us. And… I’ll allow her to join us. But don’t expect me to like it!”

  “At this point, I don’t expect you to like anything.”

  “Smartarse.”

  Darren grinned and stood. “Yup. Come on, you want a lift to camp?”

  Wilson hesitated, then, without looking up at Darren, held his arms up. It took everything in Darren not to make babying noises as he picked up the coconut. He knew he’d wake up one day with a missing kidney.

  “Oh,” Darren said, “one last thing. Don’t tell Samantha I’m not from this world. Let’s keep that between us.”

  “You’re da boss.”

  “Then maybe you should listen to my wise leadership.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Didn’t say yous was a good boss.”

  ***

  Dusk had a firm grasp of the island by the time they made it back to camp. Samantha had a fire going by her tent, and she waved them over. She’d relieved Darren of the fish earlier, and now several were prepped and cooking on sturdy sticks.

  The smell slunk up his nose, teasing his senses and whispering sweet nothings to his taste buds, which instantly started salivating. It’d been days since he’d had fresh food.

  He eased his weary body onto the grass by the fire, setting Wilson down next to him.

  “While I remember,” Darren said, “we should party up so I can share my quests with you, Samantha, get you a bit of extra experience.”

  Samantha looked up at him, sceptical. “You get quests? Those are rare.”

  Crap. “Well, not many. I have one to get to Isla Cascadura. I could do without the attention of the gods, personally.”

  The hard look in Samantha’s eyes made Darren sweat. Had she figured him for an interloper just from that? Far out…

  Finally, Samantha nodded. “I’d be a fool to say no to extra experience.”

  Hoping this wouldn’t come back to bite him too hard, Darren sent her a party invite, which she accepted, then he mentally selected which prior quests he wanted to share with her. There was only the one so far, but any future quests he accepted would be shared with the two of them, now. He’d need to be wary of accepting more in case she got suspicious and realised he was a player…

  None of them spoke for a while, Darren trying to shut his mind down and enjoy the crackle of the fire and the sizzle of cooking fish.

  The fish finished cooking, and Samantha removed the skewered fish, handing one stick to Darren. “I don’t know what the coconut eats, but there’s enough fish.”

  Darren looked at Wilson. “What do you eat?”

  “Limes,” Wilson said, deadpan. “But seriously? You’ve known me my entire life, and you dunno know what keeps me going?”

  “Besides bitterness, sarcasm, and a desire to take over the world, no.”

  Samantha snorted, and Darren caught the hint of mirth crinkling the corners of her weathered face.

  “I don’t need to eat. I’m sustained”—Wilson gesticulated—“by the ambient magic of this world.”

  Darren nodded. “Convenient.” He blew on the fish, waiting for it to cool enough to eat. After a minute, he pulled off a piece, the steaming fish flaked and nearly fell apart in his fingers. He shoved it in his mouth before it dropped.

  He groaned with pleasure. So. Damn. Good. Everything here tasted amazing. Even bare-bones fish tasted like a five-star meal. Smokey, slight hint of char, excellent fish flavour, and, like the panther meat, tasted like it was also seasoned.

  Samantha eyed him with amusement as he did a happy food dance and continued shovelling hot fish into his mouth. “One would think you hadn’t eaten in weeks.”

  “Nah,” he said around mouthfuls of food, “I just really enjoy a good meal. But putting my love of fine dining aside, there is one question I have: how were you planning on getting off this island? I can’t imagine a cunning woman like yourself could be here even a day without coming up with a plan.”

  Samantha kept chewing slowly as she studied him, her face blank. She finished her fish and carefully dried her fingers.

  Darren ate in silence, letting her take her time, hoping Wilson would follow suit. Blessedly, he did.

  Finally, Samantha pulled a golden token from her inventory. It was roughly the size of her hand and had complex geometrical shapes etched onto it. “Do you know what this is?” she asked.

  “No,” Darren said and glanced at Wilson, who was staring at it with narrowed eyes. What did the coconut know?

  “I probably shouldn’t be showing you this, especially as you clearly don’t trust me. But perhaps this will help…” Samantha took a deep breath. “You’re not the only one who has a gift from the gods. This is a reskill token. It allows you to remove all levels from a skill and select another. It also removes all Proficiency in a skill, obviously, so it’s not without cost.”

  Darren nodded in understanding. “So you were considering sacrificing one of your skills—which you probably have at a very high Proficiency level.”

  “Exactly,” Samantha said.

  “Lemme get this straight,” Wilson said. “You’d have thrown all your progress in a high-level skill away just to try to get off this island? Couldn’t you have jus’ survived ‘ere until someone showed up?”

  Samantha returned the token to her inventory, safe again from sticky fingers. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you’ll realise that sometimes you have to take big risks to reap big rewards.”

  “True enough,” Darren said. He felt bad that Samantha had decided to put so much trust in him. He pushed that concern down. She was an AI, he was real. He needed to get out of this place; it was starting to mess with his head. He had to hand it to the developers, they’d made a game that felt so real, he was having a hard time distancing himself from the NPCs.

  NPCs like himself…