Akira was still for several moments as he read the messages that popped up. He quickly put the bonus skill points into his usual three stats.

“Sir are you all right?” asked one of the mermaid warriors as he swam past the dead monster towards Akira. In the short time that Akira had stayed in the mermaid city, he had now gotten used to speaking and listening underwater.

Looking up from the messages Akira saw that it was Chatterbox who was talking to him.

“Yeah I'm fine,” said Akira waving his hand in the water as if to say the fight that just finished was nothing.

The water above them was slowly being dyed red from all the blood that was leaking out of the large sea monster.

“You and your companion should come with me. The Queen will want to talk to you about this,” said Chatterbox pointing to Varbu who had stayed behind to help Akira and the mermaid warriors hold off the giant sea creature.

Akira and Varbu left the training ground as the mermaids started to butcher and dispose of parts of the large sea monster while gathering its leather, bones, and meat for future uses.

***

Unlike the previous time when they entered the throne room rather quickly without a problem, the doors to the throne room were now heavily guarded by over twenty royal guards.

The Guards stopped Chatterbox, Akira, and Varbu before they could reach the doors to the throne room and made sure to thoroughly disarm them before escorting them into the throne room.

Mileena and Maya were already inside the throne room standing to the side of the throne where the princesses sat on her mother's lap crying into her mother's bountiful chest.

Seeing Akira enter the throne room Queen Octoperssy left her throne and with Cora in her arms and swam over to him with several royal guards following after her.

“Thank you for saving my daughter. I don't know what I would do if I had lost her as well,” said Queen Octoperssy as she gave a short elegant curtsy to Akira.

Her face was full of pain at the thought of how close they had been to having such a disastrous thing happen. Luckily it had been averted due to the help from Akira and his companions.

“I was only one of the people that helped,” said Akira not wanting to take all of the credit.

“Nonsense I was told by both Cora and a few guards that you were the one that cut her free and used your special skills to allow her to escape and you dealt the killing blow to the monster,” said the Queen.

Cora after hearing Akira's voice stopped crying and turned her head to look at him. her eyes were still red from crying. Without a second thought, she leaned over from her mother and hugged Akira.

“Thank you for saving me, big brother! You really are strong,” said Cora still trying to sniff back a runny nose.

A few low cries of shock came from the guards as they watched the princess hug a land folk stranger. She even called him brother! The shock only lasted a second before the guards began clapping.

Akira placed his hand on her head and pat her a few times before replying, “Any time.”

Ding!

+4 to honor

This brought even more applause from the guards who loved the princesses very much and thought Akira's actions were very manly. They also wanted to pat the cute princesses head...but that was out of the question for them.

“Your majesty, here are the item's you requested,” said a guard carrying two boxes.

“Bring them here,” ordered the Queen.

Opening the box she pulled out a silvery scale mail shirt that seemed to change colors as it moved under the water.

“Please take this as a sign of my gratitude for saving my daughter,” said the Queen handing over the scale mail to Akira.

Ding!

Nine colored deadly Meep fish scale armor (Rare):

Durability: 80/80 Defense: 40

+20% to underwater movement.

Requires level 35 to wear.

Hidden stat reach Lvl 40 to unlock

“Go ahead and put it on,” said the Queen.

Akira took off his soaked and heavy Gambeson and Hauberk and put them back into his bag.

The scale armor slid right into place without any problems, It was almost a perfect fit a little big but it would allow him to have some breathing room when he transformed.

He moved his body testing the feeling of the new armor and was surprised at how lite the scale armor was compared to his previous armor.

As he buckled his sword belt the glimmering scales caught his eyes causing him to be hypnotized by the beautiful sight for a few seconds.

“I am honored to receive this outstanding armor,” said Akira with a bow to the Queen after coming back to his senses.

“I hope you will put it to good use very soon,” said the Queen as she opened the second box and pulled out a large white bone Bow along with a quiver of special arrows.

She turned to Maya who was watching everything with great interest.

“I heard that you're skilled at using the bow but due to the nature of being underwater your current fighting power is lacking. With this, one of our special bows, you will be able to help your companions. If you ever need more arrows you can always come to the city of Nepttis and ask for them we would happily supply you with replacements to the ones lost or broken,” said the Queen handing Maya the bow and quiver of arrows.

“Thank you!” said Maya her eyes wide with excitement as she bowed to the Queen.

“As for gifts for the rest of you we are working on that right now you will have to wait a short while before we can get it to you, all I can give you now is my thanks,” said the Queen speaking to Varbu and Mileena.

“It's not a problem,” said Mileena.

“I am honored to hear your words of thanks,” said Varbu thumping his chest in salute before bowing to the Queen.

“There is no more time to speak pleasantries with the current events. I don't know exactly who was behind this attack but I have a feeling that it was our mortal enemy the sirens,” said the Queen.

A few gasps could be heard from the guards.

“We all know a creature of that size is not dumb enough to enter our city with the unreasonable purpose of capturing the princess unless it was being controlled by someone else. The only ones strong enough for something like this are the sirens. How much longer do you need until you can help the guards take care of the surrounding dungeons so the patrols can search for the culprit?” the Queen asked Akira.

“I need to repair some of our equipment before we can go anywhere and we need to rest before we go in order to be at our best. We should be ready to start tomorrow,” said Akira.

“Make sure the hunting team, as well as the search party, is fully equipped and ready at the gates by tomorrow morning,” ordered the Queen to a nearby captain of the Royal Guards.

“As you command your majesty,” said the captain while bowing.

***

[What's taking so long did it manage to get the princesses or not?] asked the glowing words written by number 4.

It had been several hours since Ursa had informed number four that her pet had arrived at the city. The last thing it had transmitted through their connection was that it had found the princesses. It was surprising at how fast she had been found.

But after several hours of not hearing anything, she was now certain that the faint connection between them had been extinguished.

“I'm afraid that the plan failed somehow they were able to kill Cutie Ten,” said Ursa.

[Didn't you say they would not be able to resist your pet?]

“With their current power unless they had help there is no way for them to have defeated my Cutie, he has already killed hundreds of mermaid warriors and thousands of other creatures.”

[This puts a cramp in our plans. I hope you won't let them interfere with it any more than they already have.]

“Don't worry we've been working on the dungeons near their cities to keep them occupied.”

[I hope you're right, for your sake.] said number four before leaving the underwater cave.

“Who does he think he is talking to me that way,!? I'm the future Queen of the seas!” grumbled Ursa unhappily after making sure he was gone.

***

Akira sat at a table inside a large workroom the mermaids used for crafting and repairing their own armor and weapons.

The others were either sitting or standing nearby watching him.

He had just finished his patching up and hammering out the dents in everyone's armor and had gained a few experience points from it. He was now looking over everything making sure he didn't miss anything.

“Now for the weapons,” said Akira looking at the four weapons on the table.

He quickly fixed and sharpened Mileena's daggers and handed them back to her, and then fixed his own sword.

His hand grabbed Maya's new bow and inspected it. He had a few ideas on how to improve it with his new knowledge but needed to test something first.

“Maya come over here I need you to test something for me,” said Akira pulling out a gem from his bag and extending his hand to her.

“What is?” asked the curious Maya.

“It is a magic gem that has a skill inside it. I think it would be a good fit for you if you could use it,” said Akira handing Maya the wind magic gem.

“How do I use it?”

“I don't know. Ask Varbu since he has one that can shoot fireballs. Just don't point it at us when using it,” said Akira shrugging.

Varbu gave her a crash course and a few mumbo jumbo tips on how to use the gem before she was ready to test it out.

She held the gem in both hands and aimed it at the ground several feet away from everyone. Several minutes past with nothing to show.

Fwoosh! A green blade of wind cut through the water and gouged the stone floor.

“Ah I did it!” said Maya happily. She felt a little winded as if she just finished a light workout.

Akira nodded and took the gem back.

“You're sure it's okay if I modify your bow?” asked Akira.

“As long as you don't break it,” said Maya nervously.

He sat down and using the knowledge he had leaned a few days ago from the books he read in the library he started to model an attachment for adding the gem to the bow.

It didn't take more than ten minutes to finish.

Ding!

Modification complete!

Additional effect razor wind has been added.

All arrows shot from the bow have a power of the wind flying with them allowing them to fly farther and hit harder. The arrows will also cause slice damage from the skill along with the piercing damage of the arrow.

Needed mana to use skill has been lowered.

Pleased with the results Akira handed it to Maya and had her shoot a few arrows.

Each arrow shot from the bow had a green glow surrounding it as it swished through the water as if it were not there.

“Don't overdo it since the skill requires you to use up a lot of your energy,” warned Akira.

“I'll keep that in mind,” said Maya happily shooting another arrow.

“Varbu?” asked Akira turning to the tall Orc.

“I don't mind but I won't be able to put it to use with all this water around us,” said Varbu handing Akira the fire gem.

Another ten minutes passed before he received another notification.

Ding!

Modification complete!

Additional effect Explosive fire has been added.

Fireballs can now be shot from the head of the Quarterstaff.

New special ways to use the skill find them all!

Needed mana to use skill has been lowered.

After inspecting it Akira handed the quarterstaff back to Varbu.

“You should have no problem using the skill whenever you want,” said Akira.

Varbu didn't say anything and just looked at Akira's handiwork for a few seconds before giving a satisfied nod.

“With this, we're all ready for tomorrow. I'm not sure what we'll be fighting but we should get some sleep so we can deal with whatever it is,” said Akira.

“Okay we'll see you in the morning,” said Maya as the two sisters separated from Akira and Varbu to head to their separate guest room.