Chapter 7 To Swim or Not To Swim?

"So, what will you choose to do first?" Bob asked, extremely interested in what their first move would be, after all the options were endless, and Bob was curious what route they'd choose to take. "We'll be heading to Marley." Annie declared, she was the most cool headed out of the 3 and while she wasn't a master tactician by any means she could act appropriately when required.

"Oh? Are you sure?" Bob continued his questioning, in his opinion the only way victory could be truly achieved would be going to Marley, after all staying on Paradis would only result in a war of attrition which in Bob's opinion would be supremely boring.

"Yes, we'll save our families and then retreat to Paradis, we'll decide the rest from there." Bertolt continued the explanation. While Bob understood the logic, if he was being honest he wanted everything to be wrapped up relatively quickly, this was simply a test at the end of the day.

After that, the group of 4 began heading to the shore, and naturally they ran into a few titans along the way. "Water blade." With a simple wave of her hand, Annie decapitated an approaching titan before they continued their journey.

A titan was strong but unless it was one of the 9 their power would be around E at best, so not only did the children outclass them stats wise, but they even held elemental abilities which far surpassed anything the titans were capable of.

Some time later the group arrived at the edge of Paradis. The ocean sparkled under the light of sun as it crashed against the shore. Bob was quite impressed by this sight, so he understood why Eren and the group were so amazed once they saw it. 'Also they had obviously never seen such a large body of water before.'

"So how are you going to get to Marley?" Bob inquired. "I say we swim it there." Reiner blurted out almost immediately. Hearing this Bob, Annie and Bertolt looked at Reiner weirdly. 'Well actually with their stats that's actually viable.'

"Idiot! We're going to wait for the ship obviously. We'll defeat the soldiers then force them to take us to Marley." Annie replied shaking her head dismissively at Reiner. "Ahem... ya that's probably smarter." Reiner whispered embarrassedly.

The group then waited, and waited and waited, and waited. Until finally, Bob had enough. "You know what you're swimming it there." Bob declared. He wasn't going to wait multiple hours just for some ship to arrive.

Bob had time yes, but patience he did not.

Annie and Bertolt weren't exactly excited hearing this, but they sucked it up and obeyed. Reiner on the other hand felt vindicated so he happily jumped into the water to begin swimming. Seeing this cause Bob to immediately face palm.

"Here are your swim suits, Reiner come and change fool." Bob sighed as he threw out some clothes. He had just bought them with the system interface and chucked them towards them. "Ah and Annie you can go change over there." Bob continued pointing to a tree some distance away.

After a few minutes the trio were done getting dressed and began their swim to Marley, which actually, was quite fast. What they had forgotten was that D level stats were already extremely strong, to the point were most technology couldn't really compete.

'Even if the boat had arrived immediately it would have still taken longer to reach Marley.' Bob thought as they reached the shore. He was thoroughly impressed by their swimming speed. Especially Annie, it seemed as though due to her water elemental abilities the water actually propelled her forward even faster.

Now that they had arrived at Marley, the group began their plan to save the Eldians. While in Bob's dimension, they were given a few hints by Bob himself such as the Tibur family being a key element to win this. Bob would also step in once they had gotten into the appropriate scenario.

Frankly Bob didn't want to spend too much time doing this, because in his opinion for him to step in would be too unfair. Massacring the Marleyans would make no sense and would solve nothing really, and he was too lazy to solve the Eldians problems for them so this seemed like the best solution.

The group then moved towards the Marleyan city and once close by the children made a request. "Is it possible for you to give us some disguises and maybe some form of identification?" Bertolt requested as they were close by.

"Sure." With that Bob brought out some bracelets and a few cards and papers. "I don't know how exactly the system here works but this should be enough according to my abilities." Bob replied handing them their respective equipment.

He then explained that the bracelet was placed on the hand, obviously, and then could be turned off or on according to the will of the user, allowing for an easy and effective disguise without a bunch of hassle.

Arriving at the City gate the guard looked at the 4 curiously. "Who are you people?" He asked annoyedly. "Ah, we were travelling here from down south and got lost on the way, I hope you can understand." Bob chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I see, do you have any proof that you aren't Eldians?" The guard asked cautiously. It was unheard of for those "demons" to pull these schemes. At least that's what the guard thought. "Is this enough?" Bob replied before showing him their papers and cards.

"Yes, have a nice day... Sir Bob was it?" He said before letting them through. Once in the trio immediately let out a sigh of relief. Bob found this funny, after all these 3 could only kill each other in this world.

They then found a place to stay, using some money Bob got out of the system, and then slept soundly. The next day their true challenge would begin.