Knocking on Gregory's door as he passed it, he invited Gregory and Sariah to his room for dinner so that they could talk.
"What are we eating?" Sariah asked as she skipped into the room.
"Sky hunter's soup, I convinced the kitchen to give me some of the bird monster's bones this morning and I simmered them until they were a broth. With the vegetables I picked up in the market it'll be quite good." Lyla proudly said.
"While Lyla's putting the final touches on dinner, I need to tell you that we'll be diving into several tears over the next few weeks. I need system points for a project I'm working on and convinced Micheal to change the ship's course some." Chronos informed them.
"I refuse." Gregory immediately responded. "If they are anything like the ones in Dracon Fen then we won't be making it out without serious injuries."
"You don't need to worry about that. Micheal only agreed to let us into the weaker tears, and they spent half the day adjusting the ship's equipment to scan and categorize them. We'll also be clearing black beasts where we can and warning the local populace about them as we head for the capital."
"Hm, that's not too bad then. How long is this side trip going to take?" Lyla asked.
"We'll be in the capital in three weeks at the latest. Did you need to arrive earlier?"
"No but The Triumvirate sent me a message through the Dragon church. They are going to hold some sort of festival when they spread the system in the capital. They can't really do that if the people with the system aren't around can they." She replied.
Oh, that was impressive.
The Triumvirate were the second highest authority of the Tri-Goddess church and handled the day-to-day operations of the church. The only ones with greater authority were the chosen matriarchs and patriarchs of the three Goddesses but they rarely took action unless their god ordered them too.
"Oh, is it going to be a big festival? I hope they include a martial arts tournament; they're going to need it with all the hot heads amongst the younger generation." Chronos said.
"From what I was told it'll cover the entire city and last a full week. I don't know whether they'll have a tournament, but I certainly hope so." Lyla replied while planning to start a tournament herself if the church didn't.
"They'll need several different tournaments. One for magic, one for martial arts, and one for crafting... probably several for crafting." Gregory pointed out.
He was right, with how varied the skills the system provided were they could hold a tournament for nearly anything they could think of. Even knitting could become a tournament.
As dinner continued, they started listing off different tournaments that could be held with the determination to send them to the temple before they left. It would be much easier for the temple to set them up before they arrived.
The next morning Chronos was woken up by the door to the room closing, opening his eyes he saw that Lyla had just returned.
"Good morning sleepy head. It's strange for you to wake up so late, everything alright?" Lyla asked as Chronos sat up from the bed.
"You know those strange dreams I was having before?"
"The one where you're hunting some black creature in a space with gray floating balls? Yes, was there more to the dream?"
"Sort of, this time it went on for longer and the entire space was torn apart and shattered by a battle. After that it looked like there was a building? Or maybe not, that part of the dream was too vague for me to see much but it felt important to me." Chronos said in confusion.
Lyla held her chin as she considered what a building in a dream might mean.
"You know the gods sometimes contact their followers through dreams, maybe the voice you heard is showing you these images for you to follow."
Chronos sighed, "If it is, I wish it would show me the starting point. My dreams only start halfway through and are too fragmented to follow. I don't even know of a layer or place that only has gray floating balls in it. Besides, these feel more like memories than something I'm being shown."
Seeing the tired look on his face Lyla said, "If you're still tired you should go back to sleep. I'll take care of everything until we arrive at our first destination."
"Thanks for the offer but I need to organize the ship's guard for training before we reach a tear. Before that let's have breakfast."
Getting up Chronos enjoyed a pleasant breakfast with Lyla after which he found himself being glared at by the young guard captain on the main deck.
"What do you mean you're going to be training my men?"
Was he still upset about Chronos ordering his men during the previous battle? It hadn't been that big of a deal. But now that he thought about it he was a new captain, Chronos's actions might be seen as insubordination by the men if he didn't put on a strong front.
"I've been asked by the captain to train your men so that you can fight effectively while the ship is flying. From what I saw in the last battle you and your men are skilled but lack balance and coordination, in other words you don't have sea legs." Chronos chuckled.
"And you can help us with that?" He skeptically asked.
"Maybe, my family's training methods do include balance training under all sorts of circumstances, but the Gray Fang Discipline is all about working together as a unit instead of individually. At the very least I can promise that all of your men will be working as a single cohesive unit by the time I'm done training them. Instead of whatever you called that disorganized mob during the last battle." Chronos gently mocked him.
"You..." He looked like he was going to explode for a moment before closing his eyes and calming down. "Hah, you're right. If we had been more organized, we wouldn't have needed your assistance last time. Please take care of us today."
Chronos looked impressed with him.
"Good job, I might be a bit young to be saying this, but the best leaders set their pride down when their men's lives are on the line."
"I certainly hope I can become a good leader." He responded. "Now what do you need us to do?"
"Each of you team up with two others, from now on you will eat, live, and sleep with them. They are your family and your only job is to keep them alive from now on. Taking care of the rest of the ship comes after that."
Since Chronos didn't know anything about these men he had decided to let them choose their groups on their own as long as they hurried.
There was shuffling on deck as they arranged themselves into units of three, but the guard captain remained standing next to him.
Looking at the guard captain Chronos said, "You too."
"But I'm the guard captain."
"And you'll be fighting in combat as well, so you need two companions to protect your back."
The guard captain glared at him for a moment before responding.
"Right, I'll work with my lieutenants."
He walked over to two men who were waiting for him with smug smiles. They bumped his shoulder as he approached, clearly longtime friends.
"Now that you're in units of three you need to decide what your designated roles are. One will be the forward guard, one will be the center guard, and the last will be the rear guard. The forward guard's job will be to engage the enemy first and prevent them from reaching those behind you. The rear guard will use long range combat to kill the enemy whenever the forward guard makes an opening. And the center guard will move to assist the forward guard or the rear guard as needed."
"Isn't this just basic guard training?" One of them called out.
"Yes, but we'll be adapting it for combat while on a flying ship."
"Aw come on, we've done plenty of this type of training back in the capital." They started complaining.
"Some great teacher he'll be." Another mocked him.
"These are just basic lesson's." A third shook his head.
"Silence!" Chronos's voice roared over them with that tone of voice that sounded like a drill sergeant again immediately causing them to stand straighter.
Once he was sure he had their attention he continued.
"Yes, you have done these drills before, but you have never done them while on a flying ship or any ship. Have you?"
They shook their heads.
"Say Yes, sir! If you understand." He yelled.
"Yes, sir! We have never trained while aboard a ship!" They shouted in unison.
They really had only trained while on solid ground in the past. It was a major oversight on those that had given them this assignment, perhaps they had just wanted to get the ship up and running as soon as possible.