THEOS

When Luke woke up, he was substantially more comfortable than he was when he fell unconscious. He took a deep breath, and just enjoyed the smell of food in the air. Of freshly baked bread, spices, cooked meat, and sliced berries. Feeling lighter than he had in a long time.

If everything panned out according to the quest, then that means Arke is gone. Maybe even for good. He grinned. Unable to keep the expression off of his face, no matter how hard he tried.

“Are you awake?” Lukeus suddenly asked from the bed next to his. Luke blinked in surprise.

“I am…” He flipped over to his side and saw the freshly advanced warrior propped against the headboard of another bed three beds down from his in a row of them. “Why are you here? Where are we?” Luke frowned. Not recognizing his surroundings at all. The fully wooden floors, walls, and ceilings felt both cozy and alien, and even the lighting– brass lanterns spouting a continuous stream of smokeless yellow-blue flames were entirely new.

It’s definitely not the castle, that’s for sure. Or if it is, it’s some kind of infirmary that I haven’t seen before. Not having any windows is an odd choice though. Are we underground? How long was I even out? Did Zeus teleport us?

Lukeus laughed out loud. “Did you think we were dead?”

“What… No, I fell unconscious after you did. Did you think we were dead?” Luke asked.

“No.” He said unconvincingly, shifting slightly in his own bed. “What’s the last thing you remember”

“I‘m pretty sure I remember Rex hitting Zeus with an arrow after he rescued us.”

Lukeus paled at the mention of a god. “Zeus! Zeus rescued us?”

“Yeah,” Luke shrugged. “It was a surprise to me too, he kind of just showed up at the end there. Saved our asses”

“What was he like?”

Luke shrugged. “He seemed normal. Arke was super scared of him though… Do you know what happened to her? I think I heard something about Olympus but it’s a little fuzzy.?”

Lukeus shrugged. “I woke up a few minutes ago myself. Don’t even know where we are.”

“Oh.” Luke shuffled back into his bed, and pulled the blanket tight around his neck. “It’s probably fine. It's warm, it smells good, and nothing is attacking.”

“Yeah probably… I’m sorry.” Lukeus said suddenly.

“For what?”

“I should have set off the talismans like you said, blown the metal right off of us. Giving up–”

“Oh… that.” Luke interrupted him. “It’s fine. We’re alive so it’s not really worth thinking about. Honestly, it might have been what Arke wanted us to do.” Besides, who knows how long Zeus was there, and if he was listening to us. If anything, Lukeus’s reluctance to put Heracles at harm might have been what made him step in.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. She obviously didn’t want to kill Heracles herself, but what if it was us who did it, and she just didn’t save him? Would she have been able to get away with it then?”

“Maybe. She seems a little dumb for something that convoluted though.”

Luke snorted.

Lukeus grinned. “I can’t believe you told her that her plan was dumb. I didn’t dream that right?”

“I don’t think I actually called it a dumb plan….” Luke protested.

“You might as well have. What were you even thinking?”

“I don’t know. I was just trying to get her not to kill you.”

“What? By getting her to kill you instead.” He guffawed, before cocking his head to the side in confusion. “Did you say Rex shot Zeus? Like with an arrow?”

“Mhm.”

“That idiot.” Lukeus shook his head. “We should go and find him before he shoots another deity.”

“We should probably find out where we are too.” Luke sighed, as he reluctantly rolled out of the bed. Only to panic when he realized that both his shoes and his weapons were missing. Cursing under his breath, he shot to his feet, his eyes widening when an accidental bump of his hip sent the bed loudly skidding through the room and into the bed next to it.

Oh right. I’m a warrior too now. He frowned, recalling the rest of the madness that had occurred.

Numbly, he opened and closed his fist. Taking a moment to just get used to his new strength, and just meditating on both how different and abundant his mana felt.

I feel good. Strong. He grinned. Really strong.

The door swung open, and a man, a single foot tall, old, grizzled, dressed head to toe in steel armor, and carrying an axe that was three times his length stepped in. He took one look at the pair, and the mess Luke had inadvertently made, and stroked his bushy red beard in resignation. Crossing his arms under his chest he mumbled something intelligible and shook his head.

Luke blinked in surprise at the sight. Exchanging an awkward glance with an equally confused looking Lukeus.

Is he a leprechaun? Or a dwarf? Why am I even surprised? If cyclops can exist, so can whatever he is.

“Who are you?” Lukeus asked. Floating into the air, and then gingerly landing on his feet. Luke frowned when he saw that the Emperor’s Grandson still had his shoes.

So they just took mine. Artifacts only then?

“If yer both awake, the Captain wants to see ya.” He said, ignoring his question.

“The Captain?” Lukeus frowned. “Where are we?”

“And where’s my stuff?” Luke asked.

“Beats me.” He shrugged. “All I was told to do was stand out here, and wait for you fancy bums to get your lazy asses out of a stupor. Apparently you lot drank some very high tier healing potions, and went under. Now like I said, the Captain is waiting.” He grumbled, turning on his heels and marching away.

“A stupor?” Luke muttered under his breath. “How long do you think we were out”

“No clue.” Lukeus patted Luke on the shoulder, and followed after him.

Luke rubbed his eyebrows in frustration.

They better give me back my shit… Shit! Wasn’t it Zeus that killed Bellerophon? Did he take my sword? If there’s anyone that would recognize it, it would be him. Luke frowned. What about my boots and other sword then? Cyzicus said he made those. There isn't much of a reason for a god to steal them from me. Which hopefully means that he didn’t.

His eyes traced Lukeus’s frame, and he glanced around the room one last time before following after. Slightly mollified by the fact that the other warrior didn’t have any of his weapons either.

If both of our things are gone, then it’s pretty likely that Zeus didn’t take them. Maybe they were disarming us? But then, who are they? Heracles’s people?

They have to be.

Eyeing the dwarf with carefully hidden suspicion, Luke scanned their surroundings. Carefully making a mental map of the wooden maze they found themselves in, in the unlikely event they had to make a run for it. As they walked by a kitchen, sleeping quarters, and groups of some of the strangest people Luke had ever seen though, he increasingly didn’t know what to expect.

So, he opened his Status. Curious to see how it had changed by his ascent into a higher state of existence.

His heart immediately sank in his chest as numbers, smaller than they had been in ages appeared in his mind's eye.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Warrior

Bloodline: Eyes of Insight

Mana: 351 / 351

Rate: 17% per hour

Strength: 14

Agility: 11

Constitution: 18

Arcana: 39

Stat Points: 9

Charges: 7/10

His attention lingering on his Tier, and his Bloodline. He realized what had happened, and some of the tension left his chest.

The Seed adjusted to my progress in the Warrior-tier and scaled the numbers accordingly. I should have had over four hundred stat points remaining, but I only have nine. What is that a hundred x decrease in relative value, if I adjust for any points gained while I was out?

Hmm… If it's mapping my progress the same way it did in the Mortal-tier, then I have to get all my stats back up to a thousand to advance.

All my other attributes, besides Agility, shot up a little bit too. Probably a mix of the healing potion and recovering from the damage done drawing in a bunch of Aetherial Mana and being crushed.

The gain in Arcana is insane though. If I only increased my Agility by one point, and my theory about a hundred x decrease in value is right, then that means a thousand points in the Mortal-tier translates to ten points in the Warrior-tier. For me to gain that much Arcana then, I basically raised it by two thousand nine hundred points in one sitting– a lot, at least by my old standards. But I also gained like five thousand stat points with the ring, so it’s not that crazy.

Considering that boiling myself alive only gives– gave, like fifty-ish, that's pretty solid. Even though boiling myself alive is honestly a lot more pleasant than that. He thought grimly, remembering the mind breaking pain, and idly rubbing the finger he had worn the manasink on, he frowned. Unsurprised to find that it was missing as well.

They really took everything. He glared at the back of the dwarfs head and giant, relative to his size, axe bobbing with every step he took. And they better give it back.

His mind flashed back to the flying serpent he had killed with Nel’s help over a month ago.

If I remember right, that thing gave me like three hundred points. It felt like a lot back then, but if I were to kill it now, I would only get three points. Which puts it at the level of a harpy or any of those other low mortal stage monsters.

Except, that thing didn’t die like a Harpy. Not at all. It was nowhere near as strong as that first giant I saw, but it could take a beating. And turn invisible… Which, speaking of.

He searched through the Seed’s interface looking for a description of his bloodline. Frowning slightly when nothing showed up anywhere.

Still. Eyes of Insight…

The dwarf threw open a door. Beams of sunlight shone down the pair of confused warriors, as they stepped into the open sky.

“LUKEUS!” Heracles came barrelling towards them, and caught the emperor's grandson in a bear hug.

Luke relaxed slightly at the familiar face, glad to have his suspicion confirmed and his eyes wandered his strange new surroundings. Darting from the brass railing along the edge of the crowded deck, milling with activity, to the massive array of at least fifty sails loudly flapping in the wind behind them.

A giant wooden wheel mounted imposingly on a raised platform was in the center of the deck, and a giant holographic map of what he recognized as Sylcra floated above it. On it thirty tiny red boats were shown scattered around its western edge– each one marking the position of a ship in the fleet, with nearly all of them save the ship they were on, were sitting near the mouth of the giant river that split the island in two. Hundreds of miles behind their own position.

Captain suddenly makes sense. We’re on a ship. He realized. A big one at that.

“Kejhh.” Luke wheezed as Heracles let go of Lukeus and pounced on him, the man's great strength catching him entirely by surprise. He struggled in his grip for a second, before giving up. Like with Yjarn was all those months ago, Luke was too weak to even wiggle in his hold.

As Heracles stepped back, and beamed at him though, Luke found that it didn’t bother him quite as much.

“Glad you're alright.” Luke grinned back at him, genuinely happy to be in friendly company.

“Ahem.” Someone coughed loudly, drawing their attention.

“Where are my manners?” Heracles stepped back and slung his arms around the pair. “Lukeus. Luke. Meet my good friend Jason. He’s the Co-Captain of this fine vessel.” He nodded to a tall, brown haired man, leaning against the ship's rails. He was dressed entirely in white, accessorized entirely in gold, and strangely enough wearing a single sandall on his right foot.

Jason…Co-Captain? Luke cocked his head to the side. A faint memory tickled his brain.

Jason waved. “Captain, just Captain.” He corrected him quickly, and completely ignored the chagrined frown on his face. ”Rex tells me that you’re the ones responsible for getting this oaf free. You have my thanks.” He bowed down to them, and his face stretched into a wide grin. “Welcome aboard the Argo.”

Oh. Luke grinned as he looked around the legendary ship with renewed wonder. His mind, alive with thoughts of what the future would hold and finally free of the constant fear and paranoia that Arke had haunted him with.

“Where are you taking us?” Lukeus asked, wincing as he stretched away the pain of Heracles’s hug.

Jason quirked an eyebrow. “He didn’t tell you?”

“I told them we came to kill giants.” The son of Zeus shrugged. “What, did you think we’re going to leave Sylcra without doing so, especially after all the trouble we went through to get here?”

Luke looked between the three of them, and raked his eyes across the deck of the ship. You know what, this might actually be fun. He thought,taking a deep breath and just enjoying the feel of Theos's nine suns shining gently on his skin.

It really might.

“Hey guys? Where’s my stuff?”

Jason and Heracles shared a brief worried glance and looked at him with gazes full of sympathy.

Or maybe not.