"Alright. I will be right there to take a look."

I quickly climb out of the bath, exit the castle, and head up to the ship's bridge. The elves manning the bridge seem a little tense, but not scared as far as I can tell. However, when I look outside I can't see any ships, or anything for that matter.

"Athena, how many ships are there? How far away?"

Athena says "I am detecting ten ships. They are heading straight for us and at our current speed we will meet them in about twenty minutes."

"How big are the ships? How many humans on each?"

Athena says "Each ship is about one quarter of my size. They have around fifty crew on each one."

"They sound a little on the small side. Alright, I am going to fly ahead and take a look at them."

Athena says "Understood, master. I will be prepared for combat."

I walk out of the bridge, return to my normal form, and take off towards the west. It is dark, but that isn't really a problem for me and I spot the ships in under five minutes. To my surprise, the ships are not using sails to move, they are being rowed.

In fact, the ships don't even have masts, they are only meant to be rowed. They look like ships from the era of the roman empire, not something I expected to see here. I think they were called galleys or something, but even compared to those these look primitive.

Thanks to the dark sky, I am able to circle and observe the ships without being spotted. As I am staring at the ships and the humans on them, I get a strange feeling. When I switch to mana sense to try and figure it out, I sense demonic mana coming from the humans.

The demonic mana is really weak, otherwise I would have noticed it sooner. I quickly fly over one of the ships on the outside of the formation and cast the detection spell. To my surprise nothing changes, they aren't disguised demons, they really are humans.

I don't detect any demonic spell on them, so they aren't being controlled. Does that mean that they are willingly serving the demons? If so, then I will feel no guilt at all when I kill them. In fact, I can probably destroy the entire fleet of ships with one spell.

However, I decide not to do that since the humans don't look all that strong. I doubt that they would provide me with much experience, better to let the elves do it. Come to think of it, does Athena have the ability to gain levels?

Just to be safe, I fly over all the ships and cast the detection spell on each of them. There are no demons hiding among the humans, so I turn and fly back to the ship. When I get there, I land, shapeshift back to beastman form, and walk into the bridge.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Athena, they are enemies. Go ahead and destroy them."

Athena says "As you command, master."

"By the way, I wanted to ask if you can gain levels?"

Athena says "No, master. I don't have that ability."

"In that case, let the elves do most of the work. I will talk to Seronia and see if it is possible to grant you the ability to gain levels."

Athena says "Thank you, master. I would appreciate the chance to grow stronger and be more useful to you."

"You are already plenty useful. Without you I would still be stuck on the main continent. I am more concerned with you being bored."

Athena says "I am not bored. I have come to enjoy watching the lives of those on the ship."

"That's fine then. I will let you know once I have talked to Seronia."

With that, I leave the upcoming battle to Athena and return to the castle. I have Jarvis turn off the time dilation and open up a soulscape before I forget. I invite Seronia and fill her in on what has been going on since we last spoke.

Seronia says "You summoned someone from your world just for these tattoo things?!"

"Um, yes?"

Seronia says "Why did Lin allow that and even help you?!"

"Because the magical tattoos will make our people stronger and give them a better chance of survival. With the enchantments, it is not just simple decoration."

Seronia says "You are going to send this Bella back to your world when she is done, right?"

"If she wants to go, yes. If not, I will let her stay and live in this world."

Seronia says "I would prefer it if she went back and you didn't summon anyone else. People from your world have dangerous ideas and knowledge. We wouldn't summon anyone if it wasn't our only option."

"Don't worry, I get it. Bella isn't the type that would want to alter this world. We have already discussed it."

Seronia says "Well, alright. She probably isn't as bad as you. Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, I was wondering if it was possible for Athena to gain the ability to have levels?"

Seronia says "Athena? Isn't that the natural born spirit of your ship?"

"I don't know how natural it was, but yes, that's her."

Seronia says "I can't do anything for your artificial spirit, but I can grant Athena the ability."

"Great! Thank you."

Seronia says "No problem. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Not really. Everything has been going surprisingly well lately. Oh, we are about to reach the island of Agardia, do you know anything about it?"

Seronia says "Not really and my knowledge is limited to its history. I don't know anything about its current situation."

"Alright. I will figure it out once we arrive."

Seronia says "Okay. Try to stay out of trouble. I will contact Athena directly."

Seronia gives me a fairly serious kiss, then she laughs and vanishes from the soulscape. After I end the soulscape and the time dilation is back on, I exit the castle again. I am pretty sure the elves and Athena can handle the ships, but I will watch just in case.

As expected, the humans don't really stand a chance, they don't even have siege weapons. Their only way to fight would be to board us, but Athena and the elves don't give them the chance. All ten of the ships end up sunk before even getting close to our ship.

However, there is a bit of interesting information that comes from the fight. According to the elves, when they got experience from the humans, the system called them cultists. That should mean that they are demon worshipers or something similar.

"Athena, can you tell where those ships came from?"

Athena says "Based on the direction they came from and their limited range, I would say from the island ahead of us."