As Dan fell back into his bed, he released a long breath. He was still a bit stressed about what might be awaiting them on the last stretch of the journey to the Sticky Reefs, but they were as prepared as could be, and the Voyager wasn't even that far from their destination.

  He was so worried about being watched by someone that he even took the Voyager's dark oppressive aura into his body again, trying to see if anyone under some kind of magical invisibility, or whatever skills there existed out there, was after them. With a headache and another appointment with the floor, he was happy to see that no one was keeping an eye on them. With that piece of information, they finally began their journey.

  Dan threw aside the fear that they might be met by pirates or the navy on their trip as he took his phone and opened his gallery. He wanted to read more of the book he started before, Ships and the Ocean. The next chapter of that book was one he had been looking forward to ever since he read its title, It was called Ocean Dwellers, A Brief Introduction.

  Ocean Dwellers were something he had been interested in for a long time, ever since he read the Titles he had. Two of them, Sea Dweller and Kin of the Abyss both mentioned that Ocean Dwellers would feel a certain closeness to him.

  The term was also brought up by the natives of that world. Corgan had mentioned them once before, saying that the Dynasty didn't have a strong fleet, and instead relied on Ocean Dwellers to keep their waters safe. And Roy, the young father they met at Windy Cliffs, also said that Fallen and Ghost pirates were kept at bay by the Empire's Navy and Ocean Dwellers.

  All those instances made Dan quite interested in the term, and he was finally about to get an answer for those questions.

  The author began that chapter by saying that one couldn't talk about the ocean without mentioning Ocean Dwellers, it was in the name after all.

  Ocean Dwellers were the only other sapient species in their new world, Talia. They were also the undisputed authority when it came to the ocean, humans were only guests on it, while Ocean Dwellers lived in it.

  The author mentioned that the Ocean Dwellers made their first contact with humanity almost a thousand years ago, which was already ancient history for the author, only mentioned in old tomes and folklore. It was said that before they came, the shores of the continent were too monster-infested, that even getting closer to the shore was a danger in itself.

  After their appearance, they made some deals with the kingdoms of that age, who paid them and traded with them for the service of keeping the shores safe and stopping the rare Behemoths, which weren't even known by that name then, from closing on the shores from time to time.

  Dan found his surprise rising the more he read, those Ocean Dwellers were turning out to be way more fascinating than he had ever thought. The fact that they were another sapient species was already surprising enough, but that they had ways to deal with Behemoths, push them back at least, that truly put them on another level.

  He did consider that that might just be words of mouth being thrown around, after all from what the author said, it had been centuries since the Ocean Dwellers made themselves known to the people of the land, and that no Behemoth attacked after that. Who says that that was mostly just people making the legend way crazier than the truth?

  Dan threw that aside as he focused on reading. The author went on to explain how a species could survive and thrive in the ocean despite all the horrors in it. Before Dan even read the reason, he came up with two general possibilities that anyone would come up with, they were either too strong, or they had a special characteristic that helped them with their survival.

  The answer, to Dan's amusement, was a mix of both. The Dwellers were both strong and had a characteristic that set them apart from any other creature in the world. For their strength, it wasn't hard to realise that living in the ocean gave one quite the rich hunting ground, they never ran out of prey to hunt and grind for levels. And as for their special characteristic, it made Dan raise an eyebrow, they were the only ones capable of taming ocean monsters.

  "Well, that's news," Dan murmured.

  He wondered how the natives would react to Sam being able to tame ocean monsters.

  As Dan read on, he was met by more and more interesting bits and some clarifications. Saying that Ocean Dwellers were the only ones that could control ocean monsters wasn't a mistake, but it might lead to a bit of confusion if you link monsters to all the creatures in the ocean.

  Some taming skills might work on some of the creatures in the oceans, like fish and other normal-looking and behaving creatures. But anything that had special abilities, weird distorted visages and bodies, those were ocean monsters, and those were impossible to tame, except by Ocean Dwellers of course.

  Dan concluded that Sam was still able to tame ocean monsters, he doubted something like the Swarmers were normal creatures and not monsters after all. While the author was mentioning how even Ocean Dwellers couldn't control everything in the ocean, he mentioned a few examples, and Dan paused once he noticed that Swarmers were part of them.

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  Wondering just what in the world Sam's skill was, Dan continued with his reading.

  The next part went into how the Ocean Dwellers were socially and their relationship with the Empire and Alliance.

  The Dwellers were a secretive bunch, little was known about them, how they ruled and how their societies were. There was also no instance of one of them being alone or found somewhere like the mainland, whenever one was found, another would be nearby. They also seemed to stick to the ocean and rarely left it.

  Another point that almost everyone agreed on was how they were a peaceful race, and how they rarely pushed for violence when things could be solved peacefully. That nature of theirs made their relationship with the Empire one of mutual respect, trade and aid

  Knowing all that about them, it became even more surprising, how they had blacklisted the Alliance from their services for some reason hundreds of years ago. It was their biggest show of anger throughout their whole recorded history. They didn't do any trade with the Alliance nor did they protect its waters from behemoths or such other hazardous ocean creatures. That made the Alliance's shore one of the most dangerous on the continent.

  Dan read some more before his tiredness got the better of him and he found his body demanding sleep. Deciding not to push it, the next morning was going to be quite tiring even if nothing unusual happened. Dan put his phone aside and closed his eyes, his mind wandering.

  From what he had read from the book and how his Titles mentioned more than once that Ocean Dwellers would feel a closeness to him, he was looking forward to meeting those guys. They seemed like a perfect power to link themselves to; they were powerful, respected, peaceful and on top of all that, they felt some closeness to everyone aboard the Voyager.

  With those thoughts swirling in his mind, he finally fell asleep.

  ***

  Walking the shore at night had always been a great experience for him. The place was empty and the air clean, and the sound of the waves hitting the beach one after the other was always so calming and relaxing. It did get him in trouble a lot too, the waters at night were dangerous, and heading to them alone was never accepted by his family

  Looking into that dark abyss also put into perspective how so many of the things people cared about were mostly so meaningless. It was funny seeing those people so wound up about their reputation and honour, while in the grand scheme of things those rarely mattered.

  He shook his head at the thought and looked again at the ocean. Even though looking into the ocean from shore never got old, he was finding it even better to take it all in from atop this miracle he found himself on.

  Not only was the ship a miracle, the whole place was full of those. He was finding new things to marvel at every day, and he was enjoying every single moment of it. He would never leave this place before learning all he could about it, only death would manage to drag him away from it.

  "Oh, hi hi!" He spotted one of the crew members at the railings looking into the ocean too. "It's quite the night isn't it?"

  "Hello," the crewman said, "I do love the ocean, especially when it's as calm as it is right now. Though I'm honestly looking forward to what weird weather this place holds for us."

  He tilted his head a bit at the way the man spoke, which reared its head from time to time with the crew. They acted as if they were from somewhere far far away, as if the waters of the Empire were too alien to them and they were still finding things out as they went on.

  "I'm looking forward to that too!" He decided to just go with what the crewman had brought up. "I've seen some of the storms from the shore, but I can't say I've ever been at the heart of one."

  They talked for a bit more, going about many different matters and subjects. He was interested to see how the crewman was that into anything that had to do with the ocean, from the creatures in it, to the weather and all that was in between.

  "Oh, sorry." The crewman suddenly seemed as if he had remembered something. "My name is Arnold, I don't think we've talked before."

  "Nice to meet you." He smiled at him. "I'm happy to get to know you."

  Names were such a fun thing, he saw how much importance people put on them, it's not like he didn't understand that, they were what set you apart from people and what people used to refer to you. He saw them as a bit of a shackle though, the freedom of throwing it aside was quite liberating.

  As expected, watching Arnold's face, he saw it go through the usual shifts he was familiar with. The bit of confusion as they tried to remember his name, the split second after the realisation that they didn't know it, and eventually, what could only be explained as a shrug as they went on with what they were going to say since the beginning, the thought of his name a forgotten memory.

  -Or that's how it was supposed to go.

  "Sorry, I must have forgotten," Arnold, to the young man's utter confusion, asked in a bit of embarrassment. Things weren't supposed to go like this, something was wrong. "I don't believe I got it from anyone, what is your name?"

  He found himself staring blankly into the face of the crewman, he felt that he didn't know what any of those words meant.

  "Sorry?" he asked back in confusion, that was the only word that he could say.

  Since the first time he got his Class, the Nameless Blacksmith got asked about his name.