Hero of Rome

Following Arthur's "oops, I found Excalibur" moment, Merlin, seizing the narrative, hastily arranges a dramatic meetup at Stonehenge. There, with the newly acquired legendary cutlery in hand, Arthur swears to send the Saxons packing, as if destiny had nothing better to do than wait on him and his shiny new toy.

Blessing Removed! Curse Removed.

Blessing Accepted! Curse Added.

My invisibility was gone the next morning. In its place was an extremely parched throat that ached for water. True to Neptune’s word, my new blessing and curse took effect by the following sunrise. It seemed I couldn’t abuse the System by switching blessings every second, so sleeping in the shrine room was my only option until it activated.

Blessings of Neptune:

Aquatic Mastery: Allows underwater breathing and 50% enhanced swimming speed.

Water Dependent: Requires triple the amount of water intake to avoid fatigue. Decreases the recipient's Strength, Stamina, and Health attributes by 25% when dehydrated.

Unfortunately, my dehydration curse took a wrecking ball to those attributes. I would have to be careful making my way to the Mediterranean Sea if I wanted to survive.

“Thanks Neptune,” I said, pushing my way happily out the door to be free of being stared at by hundreds of naked statues of a god. “And thanks for the loot, Medusa. I don’t think you’ll need it anymore.”

Wealth (+8,055): 20,603 Denarii

It felt a little wrong to plunder the shrine room from a god I just asked for blessings from, but I needed the wealth considering my recent expenditure to get here.

Navigating carefully through the maze of statues, doing my best not to make eye contact with those forever frozen, I quickly looked over my new quest for Neptune.

Siren’s Song: Investigate the disappearance of ships in the area of the Siren Isles. Discover the cause and negotiate peace with the Siren Queen or subdue the threat.

Reward: Neptune’s Blessing Rank 2/10: Increases your overall swimming speed by 70%, allowing for rapid movement through water. Additionally, receive the ability to communicate telepathically with marine life.

Dealing with sirens? No problem, I thought, emerging to the morning light outside of the cave. I sighed. Of course I would have to deal with Sirens. Why not? Sirens and mermaids were the most beautiful and deadly creatures of the sea. Given my recent caving with Medusa, I was sure to have an easy time resisting their allure.

I gripped my Pilum of Ares for strength. “I have a feeling we’re going to have to kill some mermaids soon.”

Despite the quest I was very much not looking forward to, it would be essential if I were going to get to the gladiator tournament in time to save my friends. Especially the perk of calling upon marine life to aid me. I might be twice as fast swimming now, but that was no match for a dolphin. It would also be useful given I had spent another skill point on my glory multiplier via Philosopher's Gain, giving me twice the amount of glory per achievement. I couldn’t go any further though given my wisdom had not progressed from the second level. I would need to read more books when I got back to Rome.

Stopping at the mouth of the cave, I took a careful survey of the beach, looking for any signs of crabs. I sighed in relief. No crabs.

Let’s do this.

My feet tore through the descending path and through the sand once I got to the bottom. And of course the familiar sounds of claws clicking together sounded on either side of me as those stupid crabs emerged from the sea.

The Pilum of Mars rocketed through the air, splitting into three and skewering just as many crabs to the shore.

Stamina: 80/140

Strength (+30): lvl 8 (50/90)

Glory (+60): 2,890

Level: 22 (170/240)

Time to test out my new ability, I thought, diving headfirst into the salty waters. Immediately I felt an overwhelming sense of relief in being submerged, and not just because there were no crabs directly in front of me. Oddly, it felt like I was coming home, even though in my entire life I had only casually enjoyed swimming at hotel pools and the occasional lake. All dehydration vanished as my skin and freakishly enough my lungs soaked in all of the water as I gasped in the sea against my mind’s natural affinity for survival.

“Oh wow, this is amazing!” I said, my words surprisingly clear despite having a mouthful of water and having zero air. Even the sea was clearer than it would have been had I been without the blessings of Pluto.

It was so clear that I could see the army of crabs angrily scurrying across the sands to tear me apart.

“Time to go!” I said, kicking my feet in a flurry to escape. Amazingly, my legs pressed me forward with so much more power than they ever had before. It felt like I had a mini propeller for legs as I kicked away from the crabs.

Much to my relief, the gap between me and the crabs rapidly grew until they were no longer a threat. They were landlocked to the sand that descended quickly beneath me. Soon it was just me, all alone again and surrounded by a never ending sea. My heartrate calmed down from the insane rate it beat at as did my swimming pace now that I was safe, but it still was pumping fast from the complete vulnerability I felt.

Given it had taken me five days to sail from Italy to Medusa’s Lair, it would assuredly take me at least three times the amount to swim. Adding in my increased swimming speed, I was looking at closer to ten days of swimming if I kept a breakneck pace. Ten days, I thought with dread. That’ll be six extra days of time that they would have to survive in the gladiator fights. They might be dead by the time I reach them.

That made completing this quest from Neptune imperative. From what I knew of dolphins, they were ten times faster at swimming than humans, which would certainly speed up my arrival time. Every second was precious as I pushed myself to keep swimming while being on the lookout for more mythical monsters that would rather have me as a snack instead.

Time quickly washed away from my thoughts as the minutes stretched to hours of swimming. As I swam, I had to periodically coast in order for my stamina to build back up before I pushed myself again. The day looked practically the same above me as the sun carried on its typical course. The only way I could tell how long it had been was the amount of stamina points I was receiving for pushing myself endlessly.

Stamina (+70): lvl 10 (90/110)

Glory (+140): 3,030

Level (+1): 23 (70/250)

Skill Points (+1): 3

Seven hours? I hardly even noticed the time go by, though when I stopped to think about it, I was immediately slammed by an intense hunger and fatigue that I had never experienced before. My belly growled with betrayal after not having eaten anything for almost a day. Even my stamina was replenishing at a slower rate from not eating.

My body floated in the empty waters as I took a moment to think. I need to eat something. But what is there to eat?

Just to check, I resurfaced to search for any ships that might be in the area. There were a few off at the very distant edges of the horizon, but it would be impossible for me to catch them in time to take me ashore. I also could very likely run into pirates or slavers, both of which I would not fancy joining in fears of being emasculated again, or worse. I made sure to look at the sun’s afternoon position before submerging again, not wanting to go in circles in the sea.

There was the occasional school of fish floating around as I renewed my swimming. Desperate, I summoned my god pilum and tried to impale one. Unfortunately, even my prophetic futures showed me to be too slow in trying to catch one, no matter what I did. I was too tired to be effective.

Perhaps I would find better luck on the sea of the floor.

The water chilled rather significantly as I submerged deeper into the waters, though thankfully I was able to see with Neptune’s blessing. It took me a little over half an hour to reach the bottom. I must have been close to five thousand feet below the surface. Being on the bottom was like walking outside in the forest at night. I could see, but it was nowhere near as visible as before.

Unfortunately, the only food I found were sea cucumbers. It was the most unappealing food I could ever imagine eating, but I was starving. Kneeling to the sea floor, I did the only thing I could think of and took a bite.

Nausea flooded my stomach as I chewed. It was truly the most repulsive thing to consume. But I had to do it. I sucked at fishing, so the more vegetarian approach for a merman would have to do. When I was done, I wanted to throw up. Thankfully I kept it in, but it was no easy task. It was at that moment that I realized I could never live under Neptune’s blessing forever. It was really fun swimming and being underwater, but the taste of cooked meat and fried foods were way better than slimy sea vegetables and fish.

Where do I even sleep? I thought, preparing to kick off back to the surface to resume my journey.

My thoughts and my muscles immediately froze when I saw the silhouette of a man just ahead of me, emerging from the dark depths of the sea like a silent shadow. In his hand was a wicked spear encrusted with barnacles and a menacing pointed tip.

Whoever the dark figure was took a step forward, leveling his spear and launching himself at me to fight.