Ball of Nothing

While the experienced shipwright made the necessary preparations, Zero and Truen found themselves engaged in a high-level discussion with the Sea Hand brothers. As promised, Docky would help them narrow down Indra Seagloo\'s possible location using Pocky\'s findings.

"These are old sightings," Docky grunted, and Pocky shot his brother a glare.

"Shut up! If you don\'t want them, then just burn it!"

It hasn\'t even been a day since they were reunited, but already, they were fighting. Zero couldn\'t help but wonder if family was like this. It didn\'t matter how far or how long they were apart. When they were together, it felt as if time never changed. Zero was a little envious of how close they were.

With the help of the globe and a lot of bragging on Docky\'s side, the Sea Hand brothers started to analyse the positions of strange activity sightings. The information might be outdated, but with Pocky\'s observations and Docky\'s analysis, they quickly saw a pattern.

"Here are the observations you have from more than ten years ago," Docky said and pulled over a new map.

"Here are the observations I made over the years by watching the stars and reading the wind. If we cross out the new spots that do not match this route, we can safely say that Indra Seagloo is like a migratory bird. It travels to avoid certain conditions."

Nobody knew what those conditions were or why Indra Seagloo shifted locations so frequently throughout the year. However, it was safe to say that the underwater city did not travel very quickly. Wherever Indra Seagloo went, there would be a huge decrease in seafood in the area and some reports of missing people. Often, there will be sightings of strange wave patterns and even whirlpools.

"There are similarities from the observations a few years back and the present moment. We can follow a few routes to determine Indra Seagloo\'s next possible camping spot."

Docky\'s assistant came into the room with new copies of the maps and left quickly. Truen looked at Zero, who seemed deep in thoughts. Lately, Zero had more moments where he would space out. He didn\'t know what was going through Zero\'s mind because the doctor would normally pretend that everything was alright when he was asked. The Great Gods were also slightly concerned, but nobody did anything about it. If Zero didn\'t want them to help, there wasn\'t much they could do apart from being there for him.

The possible routes were drawn on the new maps, and Docky explained that he didn\'t know where the real underwater city was. Yet, his explanations for the three possible routes made a lot of sense. Even Mii was impressed by the shipwright\'s explanation.

"You gathered all that from watching the stars, sea and wind?" Truen couldn\'t help but be impressed. Pocky wasn\'t joking when he said his older brother was a brilliant navigator.

Docky blushed. "It\'s nothing. Master Malik would be able to find out at once where Indra Seagloo truly was. He wouldn\'t need to analyse route patterns like me to give three closest guesses. Compared to him, the rest of us sea otters have a long way to go."

As strange as it sounded, the routes were very different from what Zero initially thought they would look like. He knew for certain that Indra Seagloo\'s monsters would often attack those residing near the sea. Monoman\'s village was a victim of that. However, not all of the routes Docky made covered these areas.

"What about Lycantopia?" he asked. "Does Indra Seagloo not pass by Lycantopia?"

Pocky shook his head. "You may not know this yet, but the werebeasts don\'t have a good relationship with the merfolks. Due to the story of many merfolks falling for marine type werebeasts, Queen Leah stopped coming near Lycantopia. We used to have a good trading relationship before that."

Zero was impressed by how different things were a few centuries ago. It was such a shame the werebeasts couldn\'t maintain a good relationship with the merfolks. Imagine the success they would have over maritime trading!

"How do we navigate in the ocean?" Zero asked.

It was a skill that Mind\'s Eye couldn\'t accommodate for. Neither Zero nor Truen knew how to operate a ship even after commissioning one. Hopefully, steering a ship wasn\'t as difficult as learning how to fly. Zero didn\'t know if he had that much time to spare. Even with every single sea otter working on it, the building of their ship would take at least two months before the Marissa can set sail.

"That," Docky smiled. "We have good teachers to teach you what you need to know within two months before you set sail. I only hope you\'re not prone to seasickness."

Satisfied with the arrangements, Zero looked over the three maps. Judging from the three different routes, Zero found the easiest to deal with to be the one closest to land. There were no specific spots to check in each route for Indra Seagloo\'s residing position, but Docky told them to keep their eyes and ears peeled for any information within these two months. Any sign of strange marine activities could be an indication of Indra Seagloo\'s movement.

When the Sea Hand brothers left to oversee the shipyard\'s progress, Zero and Truen started memorising the routes. Zero sent information to Mitchnew and Desert Lily while Truen tried to contact the gnomes.

Two months sounded like a long enough time, but it certainly wasn\'t enough when it came to learning how to survive the sea. Their teacher was an experienced sea otter werebeast, and the first lesson started tomorrow. Truen didn\'t know how ready he was for it. After all, he didn\'t know how to swim.

"Zero," Truen whispered, a little too ashamed to be heard by the sea otters. "Can you make a batch of seasick pills and maybe an underwater breathing potion?"

The doctor looked up from the maps. He stared at Truen for a very long time before grinning widely.

"Of course!" he agreed and started transferring the available stock from his mindscape pharmacy to their shared inventory.

Finally, Zero knew his best friend\'s weakness. Indeed, creations shouldn\'t be made perfect. He had been worried over nothing.