37 Atlantis (Part 3)

I woke up to the sound of the guards opening the cell. "His highness wishes to speak with you" The guard said.

I got myself in order and then followed them, as I left I glanced in at Hila's cell. She was curled up in the fetal position asleep. I smiled upon seeing the drool coming out of her mouth.

When I arrived at the throne room again. It felt a bit somber and had less guards than before. "How did you know"? Aquaman asked, getting straight to the point.

I had plenty of time to think about his possible questions and my answers to them while I had been sitting in the cell, so I answered right away. "Orm had dealings on land and I happened to have caught wind of things, it was by chance. I knew he was wanting to cause bad relations between the people of Atlantis and the people above and it's wasn't in either of our interest to let him, so I brought the information to you".

Aquaman seemed satisfied with my answer before speaking again. "Orm and his followers have been taking care of and their plans have been thwarted. I told you I would reward you for your help, is there anything you want? I hear you have taken a liking to Hila, maybe a political marriage between our kingdoms? I have a feeling it won't take much to convince Hila. or is there something else you want"?

I laughed, Hila probably sees me as nothing more than a friend and I'm not looking for marriage at this moment. So I'm obviously going to decline that. "I think Hila is great and so is Atlantis and it's people, but I do not want anything from you aside from good relations between your kingdom and the world above. I would like to invite you to speak with the Justice League in the near future and I figured we could go from there".

Aquaman smiled for the first time since I first met him. "I knew you would say that, but what you ask for is too simple, is there anything else you might desire?"

I looked at a nearby court guard, more precisely his armor. Although I had thought about forming my own guards for Moonlight city that would protect the citizens if I was ever away like Ive been the last few days. I doubted Aquaman would give me 50+ atlantean armors, so I figured I should just get that out of my mind for now and ask for something else. "How about a future favor"?

Arthur stood up and strolled down towards me from his throne. "Although I'm a little ashamed it seems I don't have anything that interest you right now, I am happy to owe you favor as long as it is something I am comfortable with agreeing on later."

"I'm going to head out now, i'll be back later this week to pick you up and introduce you to the league, tell Hila, i'll see her around when she wakes up." I said as I stuck out my hand to shake his.

Arthur took my hand in his and shook it adding strength, I added more upon feeling his grip/test. Aquaman looked at me shocked. He had just figured out that I could have escaped from the cell at any time if I had wanted. As I walked away he speak up one last time "I'll see you later this week then"

I nodded without looking back and then swam to the surface. I'm sure they will treat Hila well, she is family to them after all. I felt no need to worry about her.

I was happy to to be out of the Atlantis and flew to my house. Today was finally the day of the orphanage competition, I had put it off for too long and the kids were upset with me. Before that, I had one other thing to do that I had also been putting off till now.

Once I was inside my house I opened my systems inventory and took out the black, clear, and purple gemstone ring that I had gotten from the Pirate ship not long ago.

I examined the ring with my eyes and saw nothing extradentary about it aside from it's beauty. The only thing that really made it seem like more than a typical ring is the fact it had a slight 'hum' that you could hear if you took the time to listen.

Placing it on my finger, the rings humming stopped and the rings colors seemed to look more alive and dance within the ring. I tested it in all sorts of ways and found nothing strange or exciting about it.

Done with the test, I figured Id pass the time a bit more with some training in the holodeck as I waited for the Orphanage competition time to come around.

I recently was able to beat the League of assassins recruit ten out of ten times and so I was now moving onto a mid rank league assassin. Right as the battle began the assasin lunged at me, his speed at least 2x faster than the old recruit I used to fight before.

I panicked a bit because I wasn't expecting him to get to me so quickly and so I stuck out my hand in habit to parry the attack. Only instead of parrying his attack, the assassin slowed down to a snails pace for what seemed like 5 seconds before things went back to normal.

It was immediately apparent to me that it was the rings doing. I trained with it a bit longer to try and understand it more. After around one hour of using it in a fight, I found out that it activated on it's own when I was in danger and could only be activated once every 5 minutes while lasting only 5 seconds each time. It didn't slow time, but instead seemed to quicken my thinking and speed. Giving me a window to react better to an incoming attack.

As a Saiyan I was already incredibly quick and so not much was faster than me, but if I ever encountered a speedster or someone that was faster than me, this would come in handy. Considering it was a passive ability that activated when I was in danger, it was now one of my best defensive abilities.

Looking at the clock, I saw that it was time to start heading to the Orphanage and so I got ready to leave and then headed out the door after tossing the ring back into my inventory.