Pandora suddenly sprang out of the valve with a gasp, startling Linley. Once he snapped out of it, he excitedly grabbed her hand and asked, "Are you alright?"
Pandora looked confused, "Why would anything be wrong with me?"
Linley, feeling a bit awkward, quickly made up an excuse, "I just remembered, there were man-eating sharks spotted near the shore recently."
Pandora laughed it off, "I'm not scared of man-eating sharks, I swim faster than they do."
Linley added, "There are other monsters in the sea too."
Pandora replied nonchalantly, "It's just a few hundred meters, what kind of monsters could there be? Besides, there are plenty of monsters on land too."
Linley was speechless. He felt safer on land because he was more familiar with it, but his lack of knowledge about the sea made him think it was more dangerous. However, in this mythological era, the land was teeming with monsters, making long journeys unsafe, while sea routes were actually safer. This led to the formation of a closely connected trade region around the Mediterranean.
Linley said helplessly, "Alright, you win." He picked a bunch of grapes, "I'll use these Dionysian grapes to make wine and name it after you as a gift."
Pandora covered her face in surprise, her cheeks turning red, "What? Name the new wine after me?"
Linley smiled and asked, "Yeah, don't you want that?"
Pandora shyly said, "I, I do!"
However, most people hearing Pandora's name would only think of the mythical figure who brought disaster and hope, not knowing she was actually a mermaid princess. How about calling the wine Mermaid Princess? But that wouldn't be appropriate either, as there were many mermaid princesses, not just Pandora. If it were called Mermaid Princess Pandora, it would be too long.
"Let's decide it that way then." Linley used the naming rights to muddle through and breathed a sigh of relief, "Do you guys drink wine too?"
Pandora nodded, "Of course we do. Didn't I tell you my father often invites the priests of Dionysus to the palace for drinks?"
Linley asked in confusion, "But wouldn't drinking underwater mix with the seawater?"
Pandora explained, "We can drink the wine and then filter out the seawater."
Linley found it hard to imagine and immediately took out a wine jug, saying, "Can you demonstrate?"
Pandora picked up the wine jug and took a gentle sip, saying, "Just like this."
Linley didn't see clearly, "Take another sip."
Pandora took another sip, her face turning even redder.
Linley still didn't see clearly and urged, "Drink more, drink more."
Pandora drank several more sips in a row, her face as red as fire, leaning closer to grab Linley's hand, "Lord, you're not Greek, are you? Where are you from?"
Linley replied, "From East, but not the East of today..."
Pandora pondered, "I see. I've heard that in the East, one can marry many wives, is that true?"
Linley explained, "Not entirely." Marriage systems are complex. In Greece and Rome, monogamy was practiced, stemming from their aristocratic republican city-state system, where all citizens' political status was equal, and the numbers of men and women were roughly equal. Only monogamy could ensure every citizen had a spouse. If polygamy were allowed, many poor citizens wouldn't be able to get a wife.
Later, as the state expanded, this practice persisted and was fixed by law. Nobles and the wealthy could only seek pleasure through other means and couldn't take concubines home.
Persia and the Middle East did not have such a system. The Persian monarch's harem was famous, and later the Turkish harem became a popular subject during the Renaissance.
In China's marriage system, it's not exactly polygamy but rather monogamy with multiple concubines. The husband and wife are considered equals, while concubines are just seen as tools to help the wife bear children, holding an extremely low status.
Linley had some understanding of this, but he wasn't sure if his knowledge was completely accurate. After all, the situation in the East during that era might have been totally different from what he knew—maybe even with deities roaming around.
Pandora suddenly asked, "In your world... can you marry mermaids?"
Linley was momentarily speechless. He had no idea if there was reproductive isolation between mermaids and humans, and if they did marry, what kind of offspring would they have? This question left him completely at a loss.
While Linley was still pondering, Pandora had already closed her eyes and fallen asleep, leaning on his back. On closer inspection, Linley realized her alcohol tolerance was indeed poor; she had gotten drunk so quickly.
At that moment, a prompt sounded in Linley's ear, and the system notified him, "You have gained a new believer."
Linley was very surprised, "There's a prompt for that? I've taken in many believers before, why wasn't there a prompt then?"
The system explained, "Only believers with potential above C trigger a prompt."
"What does 'above C' mean?" Linley asked curiously.
The system replied, "The stronger the potential, the easier it is to learn skills, and the higher the skill level cap. Without potential, one can't learn any skills, no matter how much they're taught. Believers with weak potential learn slowly and have low skill caps, making them not worth training."
Linley couldn't help but wonder, did this mean the fishermen he had taken in before had no potential? Even so, he had brought back over a hundred priests and apprentices from the Temple of Athena—did they also have no potential?
So, this new believer with potential, could it be... Linley entered the divine realm and found an additional screen, densely displaying the names of his believers. Sure enough, the latest believer's name was Pandora. He focused on Pandora's name, and the screen immediately displayed Pandora's detailed information.
On the left was Pandora's portrait, which could be rotated and enlarged to show her beauty. On the right was her name and identity, indicating she was indeed the princess of Atlantis. Further information included Pandora's basic attributes, where her strength was ten, and her speed was eighteen, though in parentheses it noted this was her swimming speed in water.
Additionally, Pandora's intelligence was eighteen, and her vitality was twelve, showing she was much smarter than the average person, with intelligence reaching the level of a Nobel scientist, and her vitality was also slightly higher than that of ordinary people.
The data also showed that Pandora's potential was S-grade, indicating she had very strong potential, likely due to her high intelligence. In this era, high intelligence meant easier learning of spells and greater power when casting them.
Linley couldn't help but ask, "What is my intelligence?"
The system answered, "Twelve."
"Only twelve?" Linley felt somewhat inferior.
The system comforted, "The average person's intelligence is ten, you are a bit smarter than the average person, which is already quite good."