After his encounter with Finnegan the bull shark, Pete began to doubt himself. His HP hadn’t recovered from that battle; it remained at under twenty-five percent. Did that mean if Charybdis was 25% stronger, Pete wouldn’t be able to defeat it? He’d need a better strategy. He considered figuring out a way to level up before the fight. If he could do that, an attribute boost might help him. These were the thoughts running through Pete’s head as he stood before the king.

Then the king began to speak. “Impressive how you handled Finnegan. That was some world-class slapping. Also, thank you for not killing him. I appreciate that.”

“It’s no problem,” Pete answered. “It seemed like Finnegan was smiling; I wasn’t sure if he was sentient.”

“Sentient?” The king repeated the word. “What does that mean?”

Pete considered how to answer for a few seconds before he spoke. “It means that he can think, talk, has hobbies, and stuff. Also, I thought he might be a dad with baby Finnegan’s swimming around his home; his wife takes care of them while he battles in the Call’isuem…something like that.”

The king began to laugh. “A bull shark having a family? That’s a good one. Your sense of humor is almost as good as your slapping.”

Though it wasn’t a joke, Pete pretended to act as if it were and offered a fake laugh to accompany the king’s. When the laughing stopped, Pete decided to clarify, “but bull sharks can’t talk, right?”

This time the entire room began to laugh with him. As they did, Pete realized it was unlikely he’d learn about bull sharks that day. As the laughter slowed a second time, the king began to speak. “As I was saying, you did an excellent job all around. I’ve never seen anyone defeat Finnegan. I doubt I’ll see it again. That said, if you are to defeat Charybdis, you will need to raise your swimming proficiency. For the time being, where is your swimming proficiency?”

“It is at a solid zero.” Pete hung his head.

“At zero,” The king stroked his beard, considering. “I have some gear. It should be able to help you. Should you defeat Charybdis, you can keep it.” The king turned to his guard. “Before I get it for you, I have one question.”

“Yes?” I hope it isn’t a tricky question, Pete thought. I hope he asks me something like my favorite color. After watching Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, he’d practiced answering his favorite color. He wouldn’t want to answer the wrong color by accident and have a higher power throw him into an abyss.

The king asked. “What is your favorite color.

Jackpot, Pete smiled. “Blue.”

The king turned to his guard. “Get Pete the Pizzaman a set of natation armor. Get him one in blue.”

The guard’s eyes widened. “A full set? Boots and everything?”

“Boots and everything.” The king confirmed. Then the king turned back to Pete. “As a secondary prize—of course—I will allow you Aqua’s hand in marriage.”

Speechless, all Pete could do was turn red. He wasn’t ready for that. If he got married, Zoey would kill him. How could he turn down the king’s offer and be polite about it?

“I’m kidding.” The king and his guards laughed for a third time. “We haven’t done arranged marriages for centuries. You can marry who you want. Aqua can marry anyone she wants. Wow, I didn’t know someone could turn so red. You must think Aqua is pretty, huh?”

All Pete could do was turn redder. Lucky for him, the guard returned with the blue natation armor. It gave him somewhere else to focus his attention…something else to think about other than the fatal consequences of marrying Aqua.

The guard rested the armor at the foot of the king’s throne as if it were on display. He placed it down with unique care, putting down one piece of the armor after another.

First, he laid down the main piece. It looked like a wetsuit: one piece, form-fitting, covering from ankle to neck to wrist. Aside from dark blue protective plating on the arms and legs, the material was black. The plate mail interlocked at the knee and elbow joints, providing complete protection around the arms and legs. Pete guessed the plate material was a high-density plastic or a light metal. Until further inspection, he wouldn’t know for sure.

Second, the guard set down a vest. The armor’s vest was one-hundred percent plate. It looked thick and heavy. Pete hoped it was high-density plastic and not metal. If it were metal, he’d never be able to swim with it.

Next, the guard set down armored boots. They looked like medieval knight boots, except the water boots had long fins coming off the feet.

To the side of the boots, the guard set down a pair of gloves. The gloves appeared to be the same material as the wetsuit, with armor to protect the back of the hand. They were fingerless, aside from some stiff, black material that ran up and down the edge of each finger. Webbing connected the rigid material, making the gloves look like frog hands.

Last, the guard placed down a hat, one which looked much like Pete’s armored M&P’s Cap. Someone had even painted an M&P symbol on it. “We had the head gear special made. Aqua says it resembles what you use under normal circumstances?”

“It is,” Pete shook his head. Despite his concerns about the weight of the armor, he had to hide his excitement at receiving new gear. Getting new gear in real life was way more exciting than getting some in a game. He couldn’t wait to try it on.

* * *

After he’d left the palace, Pete had reunited with Aqua and Kai. Together, the trio returned to Aqua’s house. Once there, Aqua showed Pete to a guest room. For privacy, the guest room had a tunnel that connected to the hatch above and the hatch below. The tunnel had a door that opened to its floor. The privacy design made sense to Pete. The tunnel served as a hallway would in a house on land. Once in the guest room, Pete finally had an opportunity to try on his new armor.

When he held it—it felt lighter than he had guessed—and he read its description. The description explained the plate was some type of plastic polymer that classified as light armor. It had a higher base defense and magic defense than his M&P Combat gear. Though, it was the passive traits that set the armor apart.

While wearing every piece of armor, Pete would lose seventy-five skill points in every category that involved land mobility: jumping, running, walking, climbing, so on and so forth. Though he would gain two-hundred-fifty swimming skill points. Once he saw these passive traits, he couldn’t dress fast enough. He had tired of swimming around with less skill than the newborn merpeople.

Dressed in his new armor—hat atop his head—he swam into the tunnel and then the living room. Aqua waited for him there. “Wow,” she said, looking him up and down. “You look great. How does it feel.”

He swam right next to her, face to face. It felt easy and natural…like walking. With a two-hundred-fifty swimming skill, he could swim up and down without a thought. He could hover in place without any extra effort. He spoke with Aqua, maintaining the same height above the floor as her. “It feels amazing. Aren’t I a great swimmer? Look at that. I can swim.”

“That’s…” she paused, trying to keep any awkwardness out of her voice. “…great.”

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Why doesn’t she sound excited for me? He wondered. Then he realized that—to a merperson—bragging about swimming was like bragging about walking. On land, people didn’t go around bragging about how well they walked. Her reaction made more sense. “Anyway,” he said. “What happens now?”

“The king wants you to get used to swimming and moving around in your armor…so we’re going to spend the day together.” She smiled, inching closer toward Pete. “It’ll be fun.”

He tried not to blush. “Fun…sounds great…umm…uhh…” he struggled to think of something clever to say. “Fun is…uh…fun…”

“Right,” she giggled, taking his left hand in her right one. “Fun is fun. Come with me.” She swam up toward the front door hatch of her home.

Instead of dragging him, he swam alongside her as they exited the home and began toward the town. At a calmer pace, Pete could focus on the surroundings better than he had. He noticed how some tunnels ran between the buildings, like sidewalks. Though, he didn’t notice anything resembling streets. This caused a question to come to his mind. “Aqua,” he asked. “Do merpeople have vehicles?”

“Not in Greenlake,” She said. “In the oceans, there are cities which are big enough to require vehicles, though.”

“What do you call the vehicles?” Pete asked.

“Submarines.”

“That makes sense.” Pete lifted his eyes as a tall pillar came into view. “What’s that? It’s the tallest one I’ve seen.”

“That’s the mall.” She explained. “I figured you’re hungry. There’re a few restaurants there. I figured we could get something to eat.”

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“That sounds great,” Pete agreed.

As they swam into the mall’s main entrance, Pete recognized how the mall was a broader, taller reproduction of the houses. A merperson’s home was big enough to have one room per floor. The mall was big enough to have four or five stores on each floor. That, of course, depended on the size of each store. Instead of one hatch connecting the floors, there were four separate hatches. Plus, the hatches were wide enough to let many merpeople pass through them at once.

In the mall most of the stores were like the same ones Pete would find in the mall back in Cheyenne. There were plenty of shops with clothes, stores to meet every age and clique.

There were clothes with hand-crafted souvenirs for tourists. Pete wondered where tourists might come from. The ocean? A nearby sea? Some of the stores appeared to sell electronics. Although, Pete wondered how electricity worked underwater. He guessed that something else powered the electronics. If that were the case, he bet they’d have a name that was different than electronics. For example, if they were magic powered, he’d call them magic-onics.

There were shops that sold video games and anime figurines. When Pete asked why the figurines had legs instead of tails, Aqua explained how the merpeople and humans got the same television channels. They used the same streaming services. People above and below the surface enjoyed the same programming. He hoped some of that programming involved isekais where people from Round went to Earth.

There was an air tub store. Air tubs appeared to function like hot tubs, but the tub filled with heated air instead of water. He wondered how merpeople used the strange contraptions. Did they lower themselves down from above, keeping their upper bodies in the water until their tails were sitting in the air tub?

As Pete and Aqua made their way through the mall. They saw plenty of other merpeople. They filled the mall. There were so many merpeople it was difficult not to bump into anyone. The number of people and the speed of the movement disoriented Pete. Most teenagers and young adults dressed like Zoey, using bright colors and skirts. He noticed some kids using what looked like sports jerseys with numbers.

“What sport are those jerseys for?” He asked.

“Raiderball,” Aqua said.

“Cool,” he made a mental note to look up the rules of raiderball on his smartphone…whenever he got a chance.

Aqua and Pete came to a floor where every business was a restaurant. “Every five floors, there is a food circle.” She explained. “They try to balance out the food on each floor. It doesn’t make sense to have five kelp restaurants next to each other.”

“Kelp…restaurants?” At that moment, he realized that merperson food differed from land-person food. They wouldn’t have hamburgers because they didn’t have cows. They wouldn’t have French fries because they wouldn’t have a way to fry anything underwater. Without fire, he wondered if they cooked anything.

“Yup,” she said. “We have all sorts of restaurants with food from countries all around Round.”

He began to look at the restaurants around them. It was a typical foot court with windows at the front of each restaurant where customers could order food. Above the restaurant windows were signs. He read the signs: Bubbles the Fish’s Sharkburgers, The Kelp Deli and Sandwiches, Sarah’s Sushi and Seaweed Rolls, and Tacos. Upon reading the signs, he asked, “How do you get the bread for the sandwiches and shells for the tacos?”

“We import it from the towns on land. They make the bread and shells with water-repelling flour. It keeps the bread and shells from getting too wet to eat.” She explained. “Everyone here imports from a bakery in Futuretown. It’s called Bob’s Bakery.”

“Do you have a favorite restaurant?” Pete asked.

“I do,” she nodded, pulling him toward Bubbles the Fish’s Sharkburgers. Bubbles is the best. You’ll love this place.”

At the service window of Bubble’s restaurant, a giant goldfish with rainbow scales hovered upright. It reminded Pete of one of those characters from a children’s cartoon. Behind the fish, Pete noticed a grill with some massive hamburger patties cooking. The grill appeared to be over some type of volcanic vent. A dome covered the grill, made from rock or coral. Air filled the dome, allowing the patties to cook. Pete wondered if the grill was a feat of engineering or of magic.

When the fish saw Aqua, he called to her. “Aqua, it’s great to see you. I haven’t seen you since Charybdis’ last attack. I worried something had happened to you.” His voice was like that of a grandfather speaking to their grandchild. But Pete didn’t focus on the voice…not so much. Instead, Pete realized that if fish could talk, sharks could talk…probably… Pete would have to find Finnegan later and tell him it was a good match…do the good sportsmanship thing and stuff. Plus, he didn’t want to be on Finnegan’s bad side.

“Still alive and full of drive.” She said, still holding Pete’s hand as she pulled him so he hovered beside her.

At that moment—for the first time—Pete realized he’d been holding her hand the whole time. It wasn’t like they were dating, though. At first, she was dragging him through the water; he couldn’t swim on his own. After, it was a habit, and he did it without realizing it. He wondered about mermaid courtship rituals. Did holding hands mean the same thing as it did on land? He didn’t want to give Aqua the wrong idea. She was a cool mermaid and all, but Pete liked…someone else…and he didn’t want to hurt Aqua’s feelings.

Taking the chance to release her hand, Pete lifted the recently free hand and waved. He tried to make it look natural, like he was freeing his hand to wave. “Hi, I’m Pete. Pete the pizzaman.”

“I’ve heard of you, Pete.” Bubbles said. “You’re all anyone’s talked about today.”

“Talking about me?” Pete offered an embarrassed smile. He wasn’t a fan of being the center of attention.

“No need to fret, my boy. They say good things.” The fish offered a wide, toothy, goldfish smile. “Good things indeed. What can I make for each of you today?”

“From what are the sharkburgers made?” Pete asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the question.” Bubbles answered.

“Merpeople make all underwater meat from tofu,” Aqua explained. “They aren’t made from shark or anything like that…in case you're worried about that.”

“Ah…cool…” Pete proceeded to order a sharkburger with hot peppers. I do have one question, though.”

“What’s that?” Bubbles asked: removing a spatula from beneath the counter, turning, sticking the spatula into the dome of the grill, and pulling out a patty.

“If they aren’t made from sharks, why do you call them sharkburgers?”

“Because they are big enough to feed a shark…most sharks, anyway… Finnegan will eat three in one sitting.” Bubbles slapped the patty onto the bottom half of a bread bun. Then he began to add toppings: sliced kelp, lettuce, hot peppers, and the like. Then Bubble’s handed Pete the massive burger. Pete thanked Bubbles for the sharkburger. As he sat down and began to eat it, he contemplated how to make an underwater pizza.

* * *

It took Pete over an hour to finish the massive burger. At the beginning of his meal, he was starving. By the end of it, he was more than full. Even so, he didn’t want to offend Aqua or Bubbles, so he finished every bite…at the expense of his stomach.

Though, he wasn’t too worried about it because, at that point, night had fallen over Greenlake. Pete could go back to Aqua’s house and sleep. So long as he didn’t have to go play a football game or compete in some soul-capturing contest, he’d be fine.

“We should go dancing,” Aqua said.

“D…Dancing?” Pete stuttered. “After eating? I’m not sure that’s a good…”

“Don’t be a wimp,” Aqua told him. “Dancing will be good for you. It will give you more swimming practice.”

He had to admit that all the swimming around had helped him. Aside from his suit bonuses, he’d earned several swimming skill-ups. With each skill up, swimming felt that much easier. Those skill points were precious. They’d determine the outcome of his impending battle with Charybdis. “Fine,” he agreed. “Let’s go dancing, but on the way there, can we swim a little slower than normal?”

“Why’s that?” She asked.

Pete didn’t want to be like, because I need to digest that massive burger I ate. At the moment, it feels heavy in my stomach, and if I move too fast, I will puke. That would be a gross thing to say. “To save energy for dancing,” Pete said.

“Oh,” she said. “That makes sense.”

Side by side—but no longer holding hands—the pair took their time and went to Club Shake-a-Fin. From the outside…at night…the club seemed like a different place than it had appeared to be during the day. Lights zipped like tangible lasers around the club. This applied inside the club and outside, where the glass provided no resistance to the light. By reflex, Pete dodged one of the zipping lights.

“They are harmless,” Aqua giggled. You don’t need to dodge them.

“Right,” Pete agreed and followed Aqua to the line at the club’s entrance. The closer they came to the club, the louder the music sounded. The current song had some EDM undertones. Although he could hear some harp and classical strings mixed in with the beat. It reminded him of Lindsey Stirling.

No sooner had the pair taken their place at the back of the line when one of the bouncers approached them. “The queen says you can come in, says it wouldn’t be right to make the pizzaman wait.”

“That’s awesome,” Pete said. “Back on Earth, everyone made pizzamen wait. Sometimes, I’d knock on a door, and it would be minus twenty out, and they’d make me wait three minutes in the cold. Then they’d come to the door and act surprised to see me there. Then they’d say, ‘sorry, I was playing video games downstairs.’ And they’d be in their boxers. Then I’d wonder if I’ve been playing video games wrong my whole life. Then I’d give them the pizza and return to the pizzeria…” Both the bouncer and Aqua stared at Pete with blank expressions. “So…the queen, huh? Sounds great. What I meant to say with that story before was thank you.”

“Right,” The boxer spun and waved for Pete and Aqua to follow. “This way, please.”

They followed the bouncer until they reached the entrance hatch. At that point, Pete realized there was a VIP entrance hatch next to the main one. The guard opened the VIP hatch and entered. Pete and Aqua followed.

Inside, merpeople danced a lot like land people do, shaking their hips back and forth, swinging their arms, and spinning. Within the crowded space, they’d move to different levels in the water—some higher and some lower—to not bump into one another. The special awareness seemed uncanny to a land person like Pete. He’d have to practice his swimming skill before he could dance like that. It would take a lot of practice. Not to mention…he’d need a dancing skill above that of a common house plant.

“Before you get to dancing,” the bouncer pointed to a woman next to the disco ball at the center of the room. She had giant headphones over her ears. She floated in front of a turntable, seeming to control the music. “The queen would like to speak with you.”

Upon hearing the woman was the queen, Pete took a closer look. She had a youthful face. Though Pete guessed her to be in her thirties. Her hair was long and red, her eyes a dark brown. Pete turned to Aqua and asked. “That’s the queen?”

“That’s her.” Aqua nodded. “The king rules the day…and the queen rules the nighttime. It’s kinda their thing.”

“Cool,” Pete said, and he and Aqua began toward the queen.

When she saw them, she waved a nearby guard over to her. When he arrived, she pointed at the turntable, removed her headphones, handed them to the guard, and left him to handle the music. With her DJ responsibilities accounted for, she moved toward Pete and Aqua.

With masterful grace, the queen maneuvered around the dancers at the club. With each movement, her long, green dress billowed behind her. When she reached Pete, she asked, “you are the pizzaman named Pete, yes?”

“I am,” Pete nodded. “Am I supposed to bow or kneel or something?” He hoped he didn’t have to kneel before the queen. If he did, he would sink, remaining in a kneeling position. It would be embarrassing. Aqua was still next to him. Would Aqua kneel? Wait…can mermaids kneel without knees? Knee is a part of the word kneel. It’s the first part of the word…four of the five letters.

“No need for any of that,” The queen said. “I wanted to thank you for not killing Finnegan. To be honest, none of us thought you had a chance against him. As such, we’d told him not to kill or maim you. Once he defeated you, we’d use it as justification to send you back to land.

“When you won, we had to reconsider your abilities. I’ve never seen anyone with an attack-based skill at your proficiency… To be certain, no one with so low a level. It is awe-inspiring.”

“Thank you,” Pete said.

“I wanted to ask you a question.” Her eyes met his.

“What’s that?” He struggled with keeping eye contact, so he chose to look at the spot between her eyebrows instead. It was a trick one of his high school teachers had taught him.

“Did the king make the joke about you marrying Aqua? It was my idea that he do that. I made him promise to do it. He said he did, but did he?”

Pete blushed and nodded in the affirmative.

“Oh, good,” The queen smiled. “That was all I wanted to know. Please, enjoy your time dancing in the club.”

“Thank you,” Pete said, and he and Aqua found a space in the club and danced. Rather, Aqua danced, and Pete tried to dance, and Aqua laughed.