Ocean Master

A few days later, inside the laboratory.

"Good morning, Sergeant Barnes".

"Good morning, Sergeant Raila".

Doctor Statham greeted the esteemed guests that visited his library smilingly as his apprentice mage doctors and their assistants hastily echoed after him.

"Doctor, how have you been?" Sergeant Barnes floated forward with his hands behind his back in a dignified manner as he asked the Doctor with a faint smile on his face.

"I've been terrific Sergeant; I think I'm close to the point of another breakthrough in my research. This Megalodon is truly a treasure trove, I told you that capturing him was striking a good deal, right?"

Seeing the Doctor's enthusiastic and excited smile that was asking for acknowledgment, Sergeant Barnes slightly raised his brows, surprised. 

He had known Doctor Statham for a long time and it was extremely rare to see this Doctor so excited, his excited days were mostly when he dissected a new test subject.

"Is that so? Tell me more".

"Yes". Doctor Statham's smile widened. "Recently, I've been brainstorming over the complicated set-up of the Megalodon's body, most especially its heart, and how the body could pack so much power inside it".

"By studying the chemical makeup of the Megalodon's blood and heart, and how its blood is pumped through the veins, I got an epiphany and mixed the blood with one of my special mixtures to form a new mixture".

"Alone, the purple mixture that is formed from the combination is useless but I created a mechanical device to harness it".

"This device is like a replica of the Megalodon's unique heart structure. It took me a lot of time, but I finally got a prototype".

"Inside this device is the special purple mixture that was obtained from the Megalodon and my drug".

"Due to the unique structure of the device, when in a soldier's hand, all he/she has to do is infuse their magic power inside it. The circuits inside would be activated, stimulating the purple mixture".

"With this stimulation, the purple mixture would turn back to red, and would be pumped into the soldier's bloodstream through their veins".

"According to my research results, this is a strength serum".

"The greatest theoretical value is that it can increase a soldier's strength by half. In our Crimson fleet where we are not entitled to strength serums, this is of extremely high value".

When the Doctor started, Sergeant Barnes' eyes were neutral with little interest but after the Doctor finished, his eyes widened in surprise.

A strength serum that could increase a soldier's strength by half, this was some seriously good stuff.

"Doctor, are you sure?"

"According to my statistics, it's feasible".

"You said you created a prototype, let me try it out".

Doctor Statham immediately revealed an excited expression, this was what he wanted from the beginning. In the whole fleet, there was no soldier more suitable than the Sergeant to test and know the effects of the serum.

Sergeant Barnes took the mechanical device and observed it curiously. It looked like a complicated cube, while inside it looked like a beating heart.

Curiously, this Sergeant attached it to his arm before injecting his magic power in. Instantly, he felt changes then he received feedback, he could feel the foreign blood pumping into his body.

His eyes flashed, turning red for a moment as his face showed a look of surprise. Though it was far from a half-strength increase like speculated, he indeed felt an increase in his strength.

His eyes glowed in a pleased and surprised manner. "Doctor, you created some nice stuff, well done".

"Haha, thank you, Sergeant". Doctor Statham laughed stiffly, a little disappointed that the serum's effects were far below his expectations.

"This is a good starting point for you, I believe you can improve on it". Sergeant Barnes added at the right moment, already guessing what was going through the Doctor's head.

"Yes, Sergeant, I definitely will".

Throughout the conversation, Sergeant Raila and the entourage of 4 soldiers were silent. They calmly followed their leader as he floated through the laboratory.

This was his weekly inspection.

Sergeant Barnes' nodded to himself repeatedly as he inspected, everything was in order. The white background laboratory was still as clean and hygienic as possible, the records were intact, and the relics were perfectly preserved.

Overall, the laboratory was in great condition.

After inspecting the other parts of the laboratory, he finally led his entourage to the sturdiest chamber of the laboratory where the beasts were held.

Clang!

The heavy iron gate opened after the guards inputted the code.

"Good morning, Sergeant Barnes".

"Good morning, Doctor Statham".

"Good morning, Sergeant Raila". 

"You look even more beautiful today". One of the guards did not fail to flatter on time, and the female Sergeant indeed smiled slightly at him.

After they all entered this chamber, they stopped as they looked at the 5 dangerous beasts that were all docile and silent.

"How have they been adapting?" Sergeant Barnes asked as he looked straight at the Megalodon who was resting with its eyes closed".

"They've been adapting fine, most especially the stubborn toad. The Megalodon understood its circumstances pretty fast, but the toad was much more stubborn. No worries though, it's now tame".

Hearing that, the 5 guards at the back snickered as they directed disdainful glances at the 2 strongest beasts. "Vile beasts!"

Sergeant Barnes didn't talk again after the Doctor replied. He kept on looking at the beasts for 2 minutes, then he finally turned to leave.

"Doctor, I need to have some private time with you".

"Yes of course Sergeant".

With the remaining entourage staying behind, Sergeant Barnes, Doctor Statham, and Sergeant Raila entered a room that was blocked from the lab.

Inside, both visual, auditory, and magic senses were blocked.

This room was plain and small and was on a white background just like the main laboratory. It comprised of a single white table, and 2 mechanical chairs. 

The Doctor had to bring another mechanical chair in to accommodate the female Sergeant. After this, they all sat down.

As soon as they all sat down, Sergeant Barnes looked straight at the doctor. "Doctor, we just received a priority mission from headquarters".

"Hmm!" Hearing those two words 'headquarters' and 'priority mission', Doctor Statham immediately perked up.

Priority missions could only be issued by the headquarters of Atlantis, and it must be personally approved by her highness, Queen Auralis which showed how important it was.

And to any fleet that a priority mission was issued, it meant that they should abandon any other priorities and focus completely on this new mission.

Seeing the serious look on the Sergeant's face, Doctor Statham knew that this mission was probably extremely important. Immediately, his face became solemn as he waited for the Sergeant to continue.

"Our mission this time is to assist the Black Mamba Division fleet".

"What?" The Doctor blurted out in shock.

Sergeant Barnes and Raila were not fazed by his actions, they would have been even surprised if he had no reaction to it.

Unlike the puny Crimson Fleet, the Black Mamba Division Fleet was a tyrannical fleet worthy of being called a hand extension of Atlantis.

The next military units after the fleet were the Brigade Fleets, the Division Fleets, and the Mega Fleets. This alone was enough to tell how powerful this Black Mamba Division fleet was.

With an allocation of 30,000 soldiers and over a hundred warships, this was a force that could cause earthquakes and level mountains in any Sea or region across Oceania.

After his short outburst, Doctor Statham finally noticed his breach in etiquette as he immediately apologized and sat down. At this moment, he was as serious as serious could get. 

Sergeant Barnes continued. "That is the mission, and that is all that I came to tell you about, so I want you to start preparations".

"We don't know what the mission of the division fleet is, and we are not qualified to know. All we have to do is to focus on fulfilling our mission to the best of our activity, which is to support them".

"I want the hound pets to be ready, we'll be dispatching them all to scout. My first order in this new mission is for a newly revised map of this volcano region to be drawn at the fastest speed possible".

"The location of the Black Mamba Division fleet's mission is this ocean volcano; they need to come and see a blueprint to start their mission with".