The sea comforts

My request was easily fulfilled and as soon as we woke up, Odysseus brought forth everyone announcing that we'd leave as soon as possible.

"Make sure to buy everything we need! We will depart after a few hours."

Two excited kids clutching at my pants were nudging me restlessly, clearly demanding my attention, but I had other plans.

"The Captain has given you permission to join the crew, this means you are to act as such."

They stared at me, clearly confused.

"Sigh… this means: no more cuddles and work hard. I have other issues to take care."

I left hurriedly, needing to talk with Merlin, unaware of a smirking Eurylochus locking on the kids. His smug almost violent.

"You can't have brother Dimitris for yourselves can you? Hahahaha!"

"SHUT UP UNCLE!"

_______________________

The greenhouse truly was a place of healing and therapy.

As soon as I entered, the fragrance of flowers, earth and water invaded my senses, releasing me of all the stress from the conversation I had with Apollo the day prior.

Merlin was, as usual, sleeping like a log. Clearly adverse at the simple thought of waking up early morning, but I needed the sleeping beauty to get up.

Is he nocturnal or something? I swear I only see him sleeping if he's not teaching.

"Merlin."

"Zzz…"

This bastard.

I tried nudging gently, calling repeatedly and even removing the blanket covering him.

"You leave me no choice."

Manifesting a water ball and letting it float above his head for a little, I decided it was time to give this bastard a little trauma.

"MERLIN!"

As soon as I called, I let the water all fall, drenching the half incubus in the meanwhile and finally obtaining results.

"WHO THE FUCK?! DIMITRIS!"

"Finally."

"DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?"

"If you woke up when I called the first time I wouldn't have had to retort to this."

Should I train him? Associate me calling him to a water all to his face?

"Remove the stupid thought of training me like a dog Dimitris. There are lines you don't want to cross."

"Lines like you not reading my mind?"

I swear I need to develop some mental protection of find a skill.

"Fair enough, what's the issue?"

Finally, I started recounting what had happened with Apollo and get to the point of the issue.

"Am I also a traveler? But I didn't receive any quest."

That was my issue.

What if my soul (Klaus) was always meant to be a traveler, but since there was no mana in my world I couldn't complete my fate. And what if coincidentally just second before my soul left my body after death, the advent of mana made the completion of my fate possible however since I didn't have a living body I just inhabited the first body I found without even realising?

I didn't find any quest waiting for me, but what if there really is one and someday I suddenly disappear?

"Dimitris, your paranoia is useless. As you know yourself: the traveler has a month."

Yes sure, but isn't everything about me some weird kind of an anomaly? Also I didn't have a fate until a couple of weeks ago? What if suddenly a quest appears and it's something I can't ignore?

"Haaaa, let's leave this issue aside. You are not a traveler. There are a lot of fates in the Records, but don't worry too much about it, let's just focus on getting back to Itaca and then discover America WAY ahead of time hahahaha!"

"What kind of fates?"

"Uh? You're really persistent. Well… the most known are: the traveler - that cannot be made aware of his fate, the invader - that is born with the knowledge of another world and the regressor - who loses his memories at every cycle until he fulfills his calling."

What the fuck? I why would a regressor lose his memories? Doesn't it break the purpose of regression in itself?

I left the greenhouse more confused than when I entered it, but Merlin didn't have anymore patience and shooed me away saying I've been training too much magic and that I should focus on my body for a couple of days.

He's just being petty for how I woke him up, but it's true that I couldn't work a sweat.

I reached the training grounds in the ship only to find Odysseus with the kids and the rest of my men.

Allegedly, Odysseus, who had been studying array formations, had strengthened the hall too support damage up to B rank and auto repair. He had never look sexier.

The kids were also following Eurylochus and the others for basic training in view of their future awakening, under strict orders to not overdo it.

I on the other hand, was finally able to continue my training. Wasting no time I conjured the necessary thornes to effectively paralyse my body and block my Archana circulation.

It was time to really put in the effort.

"What is Da- Dimitris doing?"

"Where you just about to call Dimitris Dad?"

"Uncle! Don't be stupid. What is he doing?"

Eurylochus looked at Xander suspiciously but decided to let it go and informed the kids about my training while I was well able to answer myself, but didn't bother.

Can't have them attach to me too much, these kids almost call me dad on the daily basis.

"Brother is currently fully paralysed and has completely blocked the paths of his mama and aura to efficiently train his muscles. This way, since there is no were to go, the mana in the circuits spread throughout all his muscles and his aura makes his body absorbs it all."

"But he's clearly not paralysed…"

Hali entered the ground at that moment, looked at me and sighing signaled for me to paralyse her as well.

She too had made huge progress. While I was able to make a relatively normal workout for this world standard, she was now able to walk completely fine and at the end of the session even awkwardly jogg.

When the kids saw Hali's reaction and noticed how the thornes in our bodies were the exact same, they paled.

"What the fuck?! How can he so effortlessly do it while the queen is struggling so much?!"

"Now now! Hali is your aunt! Not the queen, and for Brother… he has been doing it for a long time now, so it's not too TOO hard on him."

Is that fool Eurylochus actually trying to make me a father?

The session continued and after the basic work out everyone but Hali Eurylochus and the kids left to buy supplies. They were adamant to stay and watch at mine and the others sparring, but I chased them away to Merlin saying that we don't know if they will awaken as mages or warrior and they needed equal education at least at the beginning.

"Now, how do we do this?"

Hali was eager to fight after the gruelling torture of not being able to feel her aura and similarly, Eurylochus was euphoric.

He had stagnated at C rank for some time now, but confirmed that every time we sparred he was able to chip away a part of the bottleneck he felt.

It seems B rank is for warriors what the C rank and territory creation is for mages…

I looked at them and it was clear they didn't want to be second to the other.

"Let's do a free for all. Everyone together."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"I'LL KILL YOU BOTH."

______________________

"It's strange, isn't it?"

Odysseus broke the silence. We were watching the starry night after finally sailing from Delos. Our stay had been delayed too much, but I felt we left nothing else to do, or fix.

And most importantly, I had a string of fate.

"How so?"

"Even if we should feel the safest on land… the sea at night has a strange way of comforting me. It makes me aware of all the things we still don't know."

"Doesn't that scare you?"

"That's why I said it's strange. It grounds me, reassures me that even in this infinity of knowledge, our seemingly worthless existence, still holds importance."

I didn't answer. What might be one of the scariest concept for everyone else, gave Odysseus solace.

I stayed there, wordlessly holding him to my chest. Whatever issue I had faced the moment I got in this world, this man had never wavered. He wasn't forced into it, he chose to do so.

"How should we go around going to your homeland?"

Haaa…

"I don't know, I think our best bet is by land to be honest, I don't think we can built a boat strong enough in time."

"Will your knowledge be enough?"

"Well… it's about 3500 years too early but it should be fine… just be ready for extreme cold."

Alaska might even be still attached to Russia in this day and age, but even if it's not, the cold will be enough to have the sea in between frozen solid. After all, global warming is not a thing right now.

It'll be the exact opposite of the known Odyssey… instead of a journey through the Mediterranean, it'll be a journey through the continent.

"Now that I think about it, I still have the recipe for Nimbus I got after defeating that Raijin… if it's not to hard we might be able to fly there."

At the mention of flight, Odysseus heart spiked a little and I smooched his earlobe.

"You know, that technology of flight was truly absurd."

"And I'd like for it to never develop if I'm being honest."

"Why?"

"Forget Yellowknife and it's beautiful woods, do you remember Toronto? Well… most of the cities are similar to that building upon building…"

"Is that what causes the pollution you talked about?"

"A part of it."

"So you don't want it to endanger nature… well, we have magic, I'm sure we can find a clean way."

I smiled at the naive man in my arms.

If all humans thought the same way.

"We can think about these stuff later, let's get to bed."

He didn't oppose me in the slightest and sprinted towards the cabin.

Hahahah horny bastard.

_____________________

- Atlantis -

"You didn't expect your daughter to travel with His son, did you?"

"Shut up. This is good as well, it just means we can't exactly torture those guys on the way home."

A beautiful mermaid stood afloat in front of the constellation, her hair a continuous flow from azure to green and violet, features so entrancing that any living being would gladly lay for her to do her bidding, yet the existence in front of her was not impressed.

In his true form, Poseidon's appearance were on another realm altogether. His ginger hair looked like pure fire underwater, yet nothing felt wrong. His deep blue eyes seemingly controlling every millimetre of his domain, but he too knew, that even if he was the constellation of the sea, his domain over it was not absolute.

"Well, I can't exactly let them go smoothly, even if it's my daughter is there, challenges should always come to our children. How are they going to get strong enough to not shame us after all?"

"That's right, so what should we do?"

The mermaid and the constellation stood in silence, almost as if communicating through telepathy and then, at the same time, they started smiling.

A smile that felt way too vicious for existences talking about sending people to challenges.

"I have this son I have not checked out in a long time, should we sent them to the Shepherd?"

"Ohhh dear that's brilliant! Let's send them to the mind diggers first! Their island should be very near to the Shepherd."

And just like that, the next challenge Dimitris and the others would have to surpass was decided.

"It really has been a long time since I heard about him though, should I send someone beforehand?"

"Oh dear, don't worry, I'm sure your daughter Hali will be enough."