DOTM: Chapter 442/443

Chapter 442: Come and Have Fun

Returning to the Prinz Eugen, Ethan and Tony exchanged glances. Both felt the trip had been a bit underwhelming.

Leaving aside the lack of danger, Tony mainly felt this trip was less interesting than his previous space travels with Ethan. After all, they had gone to an Earth a few years earlier than his own time. Fortunately, that world had a magical race like the Transformers, so it was not entirely without gain.

"Of course, it doesn't compare to your gain."

"Huh?"

Ethan did not feel he had gained anything. The energy of the AllSpark, based on his examination, could only serve as a reference and broaden his ideas. He could not possibly research energy that could bestow life upon electronic and mechanical devices.

Of course, this was not absolute. When Ethan's strength rose higher, he also hoped to gain abilities like granting life to ordinary objects with a wave of his hand.

But for now, unless he abandoned all his current foundations and changed his life form to some extent, it was best not to try to grasp the power contained within the AllSpark.

So this was not much of a gain. As for the Star-Killer device, its help to him was also limited.

As his strength grew, Ethan focused more on the nature and growth of energy, and his collection targets were more diverse forms of energy. No matter how high the technical content of such equipment was, it could not directly help Ethan.

"What did I gain?"

"That little beauty named Mikaela!" Tony secretly gave Ethan a thumbs-up. "I was wondering how you were going to explain it to Diana. I didn't expect you to just keep her outside. That's a brilliant move!"

Ethan's face was covered in black lines at Tony's words. So, in Tony's eyes, all his efforts in the Transformers world were just about getting an outside house?

Of course, he could tell Tony was joking with him, so he did not argue that his relationship with Mikaela was a very pure superior-subordinate one and not the kind of relationship Tony was imagining.

However, looking at Tony's expression of "We're both men, I get it," Ethan had an urge to punch him hard.

Taking a few deep breaths, Ethan regained his composure and decisively shifted the topic to other matters.

"How about it? If you're not satisfied, how about resting for a few days and then going to other worlds?"

Tony seemed somewhat interested in this, but in the end, he shook his head and refused.

"Let's skip it this time. I've been out for quite a while, and I should go back."

For the people in the Marvel world, he had only been away for a short time. He had even disappeared from the public eye for longer periods when he used to hide in his lab doing research.

But for Tony, he had genuinely been out for quite some time, and he was feeling a bit homesick.

His relationship with Pepper was becoming more stable, and with his parents resurrected, he was even more eager to return to his own world.

It was not surprising that Tony was preparing to leave. Apart from Mordred and Galahad who had just joined, everyone else on the ship knew that Tony had only joined temporarily and would definitely return to his own world.

What surprised everyone was that Diana was also leaving, preparing to return to her own world to continue protecting it from evil forces.

"I originally just wanted to see Arthur. Now that I've seen my old friend, I should also return."

"I thought you weren't planning to leave this time."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ethan knew such a thing was impossible. Diana was not an ordinary woman. She would not abandon all her responsibilities and only want to be with him just because they had a relationship.

Diana was not the kind of woman who would just find a good man and then stay by his side forever.

She bore the responsibility of protecting humanity and Earth, and she worked hard to fulfill her duty with her own strength. Especially knowing that there were many terrifying enemies in her world, she could not possibly abandon her homeland, Themyscira, and Earth, and live a carefree life alone in other worlds.

"You have your goals to strive for, and I have responsibilities I need to bear."

Diana gently reached out her arm and put it around Ethan's shoulder, just like she used to do in a very buddy-like manner. Only, unlike before, she would now also pull Ethan closer and give him a kiss.

"Besides, shouldn't you be happy that I'm not staying by your side?"

Ethan always felt something was off with the scene. Hearing Diana's words, he did not think too much and casually replied:

"Why should I be happy?"

"With me not by your side, you can have fun with Ada and Selene."

It was not strange to suspect Ada. Diana had considered her her number one rival since meeting her.

But who the heck was Selene? He did not seem to have shown any special attention to Selene, did he? Although in his previous life, he had watched a certain scene from the second Underworld movie many times.

Did Diana possess some special ability and even know his memories from his previous life?

He did not need to think hard to know it was impossible. Ethan was just overthinking and going off on a tangent.

However, looking at Diana, whose eyes were narrowed into slits and who wore an expression like "I've seen through everything," he seriously suspected that this sudden thought of his was the truth.

Of course, Diana could not possibly know Ethan's memories from his previous life. This was purely intuition. After staying with the team for a while, only Ada and Selene gave her this feeling.

If Ethan knew this, he could only lament: a woman's intuition is truly terrifying, and this was a goddess.

Suddenly, he did not know how to respond. It seemed he could only awkwardly deny it, swear, and then add some sweet talk.

Diana was not an ordinary woman. She would not dwell on these things too much. After a soft hum, she dropped the topic and continued standing there enjoying the sea breeze with Ethan, as if they had only just discussed how nice the weather was today.

The matter seemed to have been brushed aside just like that. However, the next day, when everyone saw Ethan, they noticed the captain's eyes were vacant, his eye sockets were dark, and he would occasionally lean against a wall.

Stating that they could leave on a different day, the worried-looking Tony and the triumphant Diana were successively sent back to their own worlds by the visibly exhausted Ethan, without any special farewell ceremony. These two worlds had been locked by Ethan, and they could visit anytime if they wanted to meet.

However, the Marvel universe and the DC universe had a slight difference.

The time point in the Marvel universe was locked by Ethan, so the next time he went, it would not be too far from the time Tony returned, at most not exceeding half a year.

The DC universe was different. Ethan only locked the spatial coordinates but not the temporal coordinates. Although it would not have a difference of decades like the very first time, it also would not be as short as only a few months passing each time he visited.

This situation occurred because Ethan knew that the Justice League storyline in the DC world would not begin for decades. He had specifically discussed this issue with Diana, considering whether to directly take Diana to the DC world decades later.

Diana refused Ethan's suggestion. She asked Ethan to send her back to the time point as close as possible to when she left, the shorter the interval, the better.

As a demigod protecting humanity, she had to fulfill her responsibilities.

As for her emotional life? She could temporarily put it aside, focus on fulfilling her duties, and then continue the relationship when Ethan came to her world.

Would not seeing each other for too long weaken their feelings? Neither of them was overly concerned about this. Diana even felt that a moderate separation, allowing them to do their own things and meet occasionally, could actually help maintain the relationship in the long run.

If they were always together, conflicts might erupt quickly.

Items that can be held in hand anytime and items that can only be touched occasionally, the latter are definitely more missed.

Ethan suddenly thought of Leon and Ada in the Resident Evil world.

In the storyline, these two could not be together often, but their feelings were incredibly stable and lasted for many years. Leon went from a young fresh-faced man to a scruffy uncle, and was on the verge of becoming an old man, but Ada was always on his mind.

Thinking of Ada, Ethan also remembered that he had already cut this emotional line short. Leon definitely would not have any special impression of Ada now. Instead, he would have more entanglement with Claire. After all, in the illusion Ethan left him, he escaped Raccoon City fighting alongside Claire.

Ada was just an ordinary passerby in his memory. Later, he knew Ada had a rather special identity, but that was all.

Of course, it was also possible to more thoroughly utilize his talent and become a winner in life, freely traversing countless flower patches.

"I don't know how many girls will be tragically poisoned."

Coming out of the teleportation room, Ethan did not know what to do for a moment, so he came to the training room.

He did not know what day it was. Even Hill, who usually guarded the bridge, was here. It seemed everyone was diligently training.

After watching for a while, Ethan finally understood.

These guys were not training at all, they were clearly bullying the newcomers, Mordred and Galahad.

He did not know if there was some restriction, but Selene was not using any special abilities, relying only on her physical strength and martial arts to spar with Galahad, who held a long sword.

Mordred was sitting on the side with a depressed look. Judging by her bruised and swollen face, she had probably already received a round of careful guidance.

Just as he was wondering who had guided Mordred, Galahad's long sword was knocked away, and Selene's short sword was held against his throat.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 443: Lucky Galahad

Galahad came from a world with the legendary mage Merlin. The power ceiling in that world is very high. Ethan has not even touched the ceiling of that world yet.

But this does not mean it is a world where demigods are as common as dogs and true gods walk everywhere.

In reality, the general strength level of that world is not very high. Many of the Knights of the Round Table are just ordinary humans who have undergone rigorous training.

A few people have special talents, such as being able to train magic power and use this mystical force to increase their strength, gaining combat power beyond ordinary people.

Or through some fortunate encounter, they gain special abilities or blessings. Gawain possesses strength far beyond human limits when bathed in sunlight.

Although Galahad is known as the purest of the Knights of the Round Table, his combat strength is only considered upper-tier among them. He is just a trained human knight. What is more, the current Galahad is still very young, far from reaching his peak.

So it is completely normal that he could not beat Selene.

How could an ordinary person, even one with great fame, possibly defeat a vampire who has lived for over six hundred years, possesses extensive combat experience, and is proficient in almost all types of weapons, both melee and ranged?

Furthermore, after Selene left the Underworld world with Ethan, she not only gained more new knowledge and learned to utilize Holy Light and Shadow, but she also used enhancement potions to further strengthen her already far-beyond-ordinary physical abilities.

With strength, speed, and experience all on her side, the fact that Galahad was not instantly killed was due to Selene showing him some consideration.

As for Mordred...

The Mordred before him was different from any Mordred Ethan knew. This was a completely new Mordred from a new timeline, appearing due to his influence.

A crazy girl who possessed an extremely powerful magic talent, joined the Knights of the Round Table at a very young age, and had already been baptized by the fires of war.

But no matter how strong her talent, she had not truly converted it into strength yet. In fact, because her talent was so good, she had somewhat neglected basic training. Before, she relied on magic power to bully ordinary human knights and soldiers. Facing Ethan's companions, her talent was not enough.

"Who did this?"

Ethan also walked over and stood beside the two men, Logan and O'Connell.

Logan always had a cigar in his mouth, and for this reason, he usually found a relatively secluded corner to stand by himself, as not everyone liked the smell of smoke.

O'Connell, however, did not mind this, so after joining Ethan's team, O'Connell became quite close with Logan, often smoking, drinking, and talking about things from the battlefield together.

However, Logan had not lit his cigar at the moment. He usually controlled his craving in crowded environments. Hearing Ethan's question, he simply nodded his head towards O'Connell beside him.

"Oh?" Ethan glanced at O'Connell beside him, genuinely surprised. "You have improved very quickly."

As the latest addition and an ordinary person with no special talents, O'Connell had always kept a low profile in the team. Even in the Mummy world, he did not appear as prominent or outstanding as in the original plot. He was just like a regular guide, leading Ethan and the others to Hamunaptra, and then did not do anything special to highlight his presence.

Although he was a soldier who had been on the battlefield, he was ultimately just an ordinary person. His physical fitness was merely decent, and his combat skills were rough. Even if his relationship with Logan was good enough for Logan to mentor him, he could not significantly increase his strength in a short period.

Few of the potions Ethan created directly boosted someone's strength significantly. They primarily enhanced the user's potential, requiring the user to realize the potion's effects through training. This made it impossible for O'Connell to achieve a massive increase in strength in a short time.

At the same time, Logan, Selene, and others were constantly improving their strength. Their foundations were much better to begin with, and after multiple enhancements, the gap between them and ordinary people widened even further.

Therefore, although O'Connell trained diligently, he could still only do odd jobs on the ship, and it was impossible to assign him any relatively dangerous missions.

It now seemed that O'Connell had not chosen to just coast along because he was not highly regarded in the team. Instead, he quietly and diligently worked on improving himself. This man still had some aspirations.

Ethan liked people with aspirations who were willing to work hard. O'Connell's performance like this could definitely earn him more and better resources.

"It seems you have fully activated the potion's effects. Has your strength and speed increase slowed down recently?"

"Yes."

There were only so many people on the ship, and everyone basically knew the specifics of the potions. People like Logan and Selene were not stingy with sharing their experience, so O'Connell knew this meant his enhancement was complete. To continue improving his strength afterward, he would either need to get a set of powerful equipment to arm himself or diligently practice and master some special ability or simply improve his physical fitness.

As of now, no one on the Prinz Eugen was solely focused on improving physical fitness. Even Logan had abilities and had learned some Druidic knowledge, allowing him to use some Druid spells.

By all accounts, the best option was to learn how to use some kind of energy. O'Connell was currently thinking about what he should learn.

It was precisely while he was discussing these things with Logan and Selene that the passing Mordred overheard them. The crazy girl, with a loose tongue, said some things that led to the subsequent competition.

It turned out that after spending two days on the ship, Mordred gradually realized how unlucky she had been that day, having coincidentally picked the strongest being on the ship and Logan, who had incredibly powerful regeneration and was practically unkillable.

If she had chosen a little more accurately that day, she would not have lost face so badly in front of many colleagues.

Out of a desire to regain face and also to ensure these people did not underestimate her too much, Mordred decided to have a manly showdown with O'Connell: no weapons, just a test of fists and feet.

Then, O'Connell, who had not mastered any special energy, relying on pure physical strength and the combat techniques he learned from Logan, gave the magic-wielding Mordred a good beating, severely damaging Mordred's confidence.

As for the match between Selene and Galahad, it was purely a spar. Galahad also wanted to know how big the gap was between his strength and that of the people on this ship. The result was that he found the gap was even larger than he had imagined.

Unlike Mordred, in these few days, he had gotten a pretty good grasp of the situation with everyone on the ship. Because the people on board did not deliberately avoid him, Galahad could easily ask about things he wanted to know.

Diana was the strongest being on this ship. The only one capable of contending with her was the captain, Ethan.

However, considering their current relationship, it seemed Ethan could only be handled by Diana.

Galahad already knew that Diana was actually the daughter of Zeus, the King of the Olympian Gods, a genuine deity. Besides her formidable combat strength, she also possessed a large number of divine artifacts.

These were beings on completely different levels. Galahad could only look up to her and could not even entertain the thought of comparing himself.

However, Diana had her own responsibilities and would not permanently reside on the ship, at most staying for a while occasionally. Therefore, she could not be considered a regular combatant of this team.

Under normal circumstances, the ship's top combatant was their captain, Ethan.

Ethan was a mage. Galahad had known this for a long time.

What surprised him, however, was that Ethan's close combat strength was equally formidable. He learned this from Logan.

Because in his early years, Ethan did not master many spells (he could only create water), and living in this dangerous world while venturing to multiple dimensions, he had to possess sufficient self-preservation abilities.

So, in his early years, Ethan systematically studied various weapons including long and short swords, daggers, greatswords, short staffs, long staffs, and unarmed combat, and had extensive experience in close-quarters fighting.

According to the information Galahad gathered from everyone, their mage captain, even without using magic, could fight against a fully exerting Diana for a while, in a balanced match with mutual offense and defense, not just being unilaterally beaten.

Galahad did not believe it at first, because how could a human possibly contend with the power of a god? Even if Ethan was a powerful mage.

Only upon asking further did he learn that their captain had long since transcended the human level and was, strictly speaking, now also a demigod.

This sounded much more reasonable.

A demigod captain. Galahad suddenly felt incredibly fortunate to have been chosen by His Majesty the King to accompany Mordred to this ship.

After Ethan, the strongest in terms of combat power was the First Mate, Logan.

This burly man, who held the title of First Mate but actually did not manage anything, possessed extremely powerful regeneration, a nearly immortal body, and could extend indestructible metal claws from his hands.

Galahad only learned after asking that Logan's entire skeleton was made of this special metal called Adamantium.

Incredibly hard and nearly indestructible, combined with terrifying regeneration, Logan was simply an unkillable being.

Just hearing about these abilities, Galahad listed Logan as the person he least wanted to make an enemy of. Such an enemy was truly a headache.

Furthermore, Logan had also learned Druidic spells and could generate high temperatures himself, though he seemed to use this ability more for lighting his cigars. He did not know what effect it would have in combat.

In addition, Logan was a veteran who had participated in countless wars, possessing rich combat experience and fighting techniques.

O'Connell, who had soundly beaten Mordred, was trained by Logan.

So Galahad initially wanted to spar with Logan, but unfortunately, Logan had no interest in it and instead threw him to Selene.

This is what led to the scene Ethan witnessed.

(To be continued.)