United.

Area 07: on top of Barbarossa:

Dan had just waked up from his sleep, he looked at the hour-glass in front of him and he saw that it was around seven o'clock.

He got up cleaned himself before leaving his room, he headed toward one of the biggest rooms in the ship.

It was the room which everyone in the group was going to be using for their meals.

It was something Dan thought of to give a sense of belong and familiarity between everyone in the group.

He entered that room and as he did he found that almost everyone was there, only some of the crewmen were missing, as either they had things to do or they simply weren't there yet.

He looked around and found the table that Randy and the others were setting at and he headed toward it.

In the table next to them old Frank, Robert, Barry, Mad Dog, the bald middle aged man and the other blood power users were setting.

Barry and old Frank had happy and excited expressions on their faces, and old Frank appeared to be on a better shape than usual, even some of his wrinkles had disappeared.

"Old Frank, Barry, you two seem great, how was the blood bath?" Dan first said good morning to Nero and the others before heading to the table where old Frank and Barry were.

"It was great I really can't say anything except thank you" old Frank said, while standing up.

The experience of going through a blood bath was great, that day when he woke up he felt refreshed and as if he was a new man, something he never felt before.

Barry also thanked Dan as he stood up, his experience was the same as old Frank and the excitement that he felt was even greater.

"There's no need, you two did your best serving us, so of course we have to give you something in return, and believe me that was just the beginning, just do your job well and you will get more benefits." Dan said, his voice wasn't high, but many were able to hear it.

Then he turned his head and looked at everyone inside the room before saying on a loud clear voice:

"Everyone you all should know that old Frank and Barry are now blood power users, and Robert here will also be one as I'll give him a drop of dragon blood later, I will also give those three, another drop of dragon's tonight so each one of them will have two drops of dragon blood, but don't worry I will also give each of you a drop, take it as a gift from us to all of you for believing in us and following us in this journey."

When Dan said that old Frank and Barry had become blood power users everyone in the room showed mixed expressions of envy and admiration, and then when he said that he was going to give Robert two drops, and Barry and old Frank another drop each, they felt even more envy, and started wandering why he was doing that.

But then saying that he was going to give a drop to each of them made the room explode with discussion, they couldn't believe what they had just heard, dragon blood was a precious material in Area 07 and normal people like them had no chance of getting it so most of them never had that idea, but there Dan was saying that he was going to give each of them a drop, made them wander if what they had just heard was true.

"Where did you get all that blood from?" a voice sounded amongst the discussion and made everyone there stop talking waiting for what Dan had to say.

Dan looked at the source of the voice and found, a strong bearded man, the man was almost two meters long with big bulging muscles all over his body, a woman was setting next to him while a little boy was setting in his lap, it took Dan only one glance to know who that man was.

He was the man called Thomas, the one who made the spears that Dan and the others used to hunt the injured dragon, he was able to recognize him because he saw him when he was getting on the ship.

"If I'm not mistaken then you are Thomas right? The blacksmith of the one eyed dragon's gang." Dan asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Yes I am." Thomas said, his voice was strong, and he also seemed straightforward.

"Let me ask you, do you member that yesterday old Frank took thirty spears from you?" Dan asked again.

"Yes I do, old Frank came and took thirty of my best spears." Thomas nodded, he didn't know what that had to do with his question but he still answered.

"And do you know what they were used for?"

"No I don't, old Frank didn't say anything." shaking his head Thomas said.

"Ok then I will answer your question now, we got the blood from an injured dragon that we hunted yesterday." Dan said.

An uproar started in the room after a while of Dan finishing his words.

"We used those thirty spears that you gave us to hunt that dragon, they actually played a major role in the fight against it, and you can say that it was because I was impressed with them that I asked from you to join us." Dan added.

"You... You really hunted a dragon?" A trembling voice sounded from the crowd.

"Yes we did, if you want to take a look at it, it's in the hold of the ship, the hold will be open for today's morning, you all can go and take a look at it in this period, but after that the hold will become of limits." Dan warned them about that using a serious tone, before smiling and adding:

"That aside, you all should know that old Frank Barry and Robert helped us a lot before the journey started, that's way I decided to give each of them an additional drop of dragon's blood, but don't worry all of you can got more drops if you worked hard, after all we are a team now, and all of us should work hard from now onward."

"Then can I also get another drop of dragon blood." as soon as Dan finished his words a voice rung out from amidst the crowed.

Hearing it everyone in the room turned their heads to where it come from, and when they did they saw Thomas setting there while looking at Dan with unblinking eyes, his wife next to him was pulling his cloths asking him to stop what he was doing as she felt afraid from all those people looking at them.

Not caring about all the people looking at him or his wife Thomas still looked at Dan and said:

"After all you said that you used my spear to hunt the dragon and that they played an important part on killing it, that's a great merit I think."

Dan stood there frozen for a second before he started laughing, then he said:

"Actually you are right, without your spears we wouldn't have been able to catch the dragon that easily, sorry it just slipped from my mind, but yeah you really did a great merit, and you will also get another drop of dragon's blood."

Thomas smiled when he heard Dan's words, and turned silent.

"So as I said, after we have breakfast you can go and take a look at the dragon's corps, and about the blood of the dragon I'll give it to you tonight, so that's all what I wanted to say, thank you." Saying that Dan returned to his seat among Randy and the others.

"An interesting way to motivate them." Randy said.

"We should get them to know that there are benefits in following us, anyway how are you today, did you rest well?" Dan first talked with Randy before asking Robin how he was.

"It was great, sleeping on a moving ship was quite an interesting thing to try." Robin said.

"What about you how was your first night on Barbarossa?" Dan asked the others.

"It was good actually." Randy said, but Dan and the others had already noticed by then that Randy was a lazy person when he wants to be, so for him sleeping in any place was normal.

"I also found it good, I never thought that I would have a chance like this, so I'm quite happy." Anie said.

She actually never thought that she would even leave the city where she was born, not to mention going through all what she had gone through, from meeting people from other worlds to seeing dragons and even sailing in a ship, all of that was interesting and new for her, and she enjoyed it all.

"It wasn't that much of a good first time that's for sure, but I have been through worst." Nero said.

He had gone through a lot in his training to join the royal guard, so even though he didn't find saying in the ship that good, it was still acceptable.

"Not bad at all, and because of being tired I didn't actually feel anything." Katherine said.

"Same for me, here." Leonard added.

They talked and joked for a while till everyone was there and breakfast was served, everyone there had the same kind of breakfast, there was no different between what was served for everyone.

Mad Dog looked at this in surprise, Dan and the others way of doing things made him surprised, it never crossed his mind that something like this could happen.

First it was how everyone had breakfast together, and also how Dan gave dragon blood to everyone and then how everyone had the same breakfast, all of those surprised him, he found that except being the ones giving the shots, there was no different between Dan and his group and the others on the ship.

He looked at the bald middle aged man who was looking at what was served for him, and said:

"They are weird, why are they doing this?" He whispered that because old Frank Barry and Robert were setting next to them.

"... They probably want a team that grows with them, a team that they would trust if the need come to it, not just to group of people they rule, a group that would get disbanded and split at the first chance." The bald middle aged man answered after he thought about it for a while.

"A team that they would trust if they ever needed to..." Mad Dog murmured.

After breakfast ended, everyone on the room headed to the hold to take look at the dragon.

The first thing that they saw when the entered was the face of the dragon which was turned exactly their way, with its frightening appearance many didn't have the guts to take another stop forward till they saw other people move and try touching it.

The first person who got the courage to move forward and put his hand on the dragon was surprisingly Allan, that weird gate keeper, after that it was Mad Dog and the bald middle aged man, then Thomas.

It wasn't till those four people moved first that the others moved forward and started touching and feeling the dragon and its scales, all of them had different expressions as they did that, some were excited, some were still afraid.

Even their actions were different as some only touched it before retrieving their hands in a hurry, while others touched and felt it clearly and some even climbed it and got on top of it, Dan and the others just watched with smiles on their faces from the side.