Each day began with a morning mist settling over the mountain. Sunlight could be seen like a light veiled behind fabric.

  As the sun rose in the sky, the mist would dissipate leaving behind a breathtaking view of the horizon. Small villages in the distance could be seen. Black dots moving about their lives. Forests, hills, and fields of grass outlined the villages. A backdrop of pure nature.

  The party walked along to this sight and often got lost in thought looking over their beautiful planet of Motholo.

  Mid-morning was when they would start their daily run to try and make good time along their path. If they wanted to, they could run indefinitely with Zuls’ skills, but these months were meant to be about working on their skills to level up before getting to the land of the sphinx.

  When the sun was directly above them, their run would come to an end, and their tempo would drop to a brisk walk. This was the time most of them retreated into their heads to work on their skills or research anything they needed. With all the books that they grabbed from the island, shops in Goldhill, and the Progress Nexus, they were all able to gain more knowledge about their path or other matters. Synexus specifically learned from the codex that his predecessor had gifted him. He figured if there was a known way to unlock Yu’s flight skill then it would be within the codex. Of course, he had looked before and learned a few things, but nothing concrete. Now, however, he was learning more about will pathways in general hoping there would be something he could use.

  Throughout the afternoon they each took shifts practicing combat skills if needed. Only one person at a time was allowed as not to draw attention and to ensure that majority of the group was full on resources most of the time.

  Once everyone had their turn with combat skills, they would embark on another two-hour run as a group. Normally when that was over, it was getting dark and they would stop to make camp and dinner.

  That’s when they would settle around the campfire and chat about anything on their mind between bites of whatever they were eating that day. Synexus would provide fruits and vegetables. Soon he would be able to provide eggs. Shell provided fish from her ocean dimension bag. Vorin had stores of meat he bought from a butcher in one of his bags that prevented spoilage.

  Overall, their new daily routine was a time of improvement for all and healing for some. Good times were made. Good stories were shared.

  King Drawgdar hadn’t been lying when he told them it was a relatively safe passage. That didn’t mean they weren’t attacked every so often. Almost every other day, a monster would descend from the sky or burrow up from the hard ground to fight the party.

  Some fights were difficult, and people were left with wounds, while others were too easy to the point that the class chosen were left wanting more. Combat skills only improved quickly if they were used in combat after all.

  Still, having peaceful days where they could enjoy life and the company of each other was still rewarding.

  ***

  Synexus was inside his Progress Garden with a boulder he had brought in from the outside. On the boulder’s surface were circuit-like lines. They were, of course, will pathways matching those that made up Yu’s flight skill. A part was darkened further to show the magical block. He stared at this boulder every day. Before he had an idea of how he could fix the block but never tried it because when he attempted the method on the Nothing Stone, it blew up. Yu’s soul blowing up was clearly not something he wanted.

  During his skill improvement time, he would try different methods to get the flow of mana working correctly again. Piles of rubble filled his garden with his failed attempts. He left them in there on purpose to remind himself of how many methods he had ruled out already.

  His body started to gather in mana once more. It filtered through his soul and started to flow into the boulder. This time he was trying to see if he could work the broken part into the skill and have it work for the will pathway instead of against it. For a moment the mana started to flow once again, and the boulder hovered several inches off the ground until the mana got choked up again and a storm of boulder shards scattered across the garden.

  He sighed before bringing another boulder in and gathering mana to engrave it with the flight skill once more. Something had to work.

  In between attempts, he would sometimes work on his other skills to take his mind off things. He even started working on growing a leaf big enough, and strong enough to act as his flying option. Once he created one, he would mana weave the flight skill onto it with additions for him to control the enchantment. It was between a magical flying leaf or a plant bird hybrid. That would be another project, however.

  When they were on their run, his mind would be split between watching where he was going and going through the listings of The Progress Nexus to look for any potions that could unlock the skill as well as any technology he was interested in.

  He was able to find some equipment from a more technologically advanced planet that allowed him to record and play the video fictions from the codex and from his memories. It kept them entertained during the downtime at night. Kumo and Zuls enjoyed the romances they had access to. Gene, Shell, and Synexus leaned more towards science fiction. Prith was all about action. Yu found historic fictions fascinating and when it was her turn to pick, she just made her way down the list. Vorin claimed he didn’t mind watching any of them although he did seem to get more into the romances than anything else. Synexus was convinced that he just didn’t want to admit it for some reason.

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  Another item that he couldn’t stop buying from the nexus were watches. Clockwork fascinated him to an almost unhealthy degree. In his inventory, he had several hundred watches or clocks. Some he would buy and take apart to learn how they worked. He could sit there and watch a movement for hours enjoying every second. Due to his trial, he knew that later in his class path, he would get a skill to log machines and how they worked. When that time came, he was going to log every watch he had. Theories already filled his mind on how to build the perfect movements, and he even started using Element Modifications to create the perfect materials for the job. Horology was quickly becoming his favorite hobby.

  ***

  Zuls loved being on the road again. Each day she would send out her bonded and they would get their fill of the fresh mountain air.

  Claw, Element, and Snowfall would chase each other up and down the mountain like they were walking on flat land. Zuls would smile as they ran around playing and testing out their skills with each other.

  It was the same for Gliya and Sovereign. They would fly high above and enjoy the freedom of the open sky. Sunbeams would strike through illusions and deadly claws would make the hawk fly in new patterns.

  Fort and Siz would slowly walk beside the group. The former would graze on the grass while the latter would shoot fire up towards the two flying around just to mess with them. A squawking laugh would follow each time.

  Whimper, Blink, and Ghost would take the night shift. Each of them liked the dark and the cool night air. They would patrol camp with whomever had the night shift.

  She would often sit in her tent and watch the beautiful colors of the Hydragon egg. Her mana would course through it, and it would continue to feed until she took her hand away. Somehow, she could tell that it was close to hatching. A strange heartbeat could be felt when it was feeding.

  ***

  Shell worked on new songs while they marched forward. Some would even unlock a skill along her path when System determined it would be magically beneficial for those that hear it.

  The others would help her record her songs and then she would put them up on the nexus as listings. To her surprise, they would be sold almost immediately, and she would have to record more.

  In between creating new songs and recording her music, she would work on manipulating her water. She would sometimes play with Zul’s bear, Element. They could both manipulate water, and it was fun to stream it between one another as they walked.

  Whether it was music or water manipulation, her skills were levelling up nicely. She was proud of herself making the right decision to adventure with her friends.

  ***

  Kumo constantly had a breeze blowing from behind them to help keep up the pace of their march. The altitude and freedom felt amazing to her, and she would breathe it in every chance she could.

  A cloud would hover above them or to the side when she had Cloud Cover active to try and level up. She worked with it every day to improve her control over the cloud summoned. Sometimes it would be bigger while other times it would fit in the palm of her hand. Somedays she would make it almost translucent while other times it would be almost solid.

  During her combat skill time slot, she would let loose up in the air with her Cloud Walking, cloud blades, and Tempest Surge skills. Sometimes she would summon a storm cloud targeting some monsters they could see down on the ground, but most times she let the sun shine down on them.

  When it was her turn to take the night shift, she would always summon a fog to envelop their camp for an active camouflage. She loved when the morning would come, and her fog would mix with the morning mountain mist. It was like the world was fading into a dream.

  ***

  Prith finished reading the swordsmanship tome on the second week walking. Then he started it again while putting it into practice during his combat skill time slot. He would fall back and slash deep gashes into the mountainside. Synexus would sometimes fall back with him to use his repair skill to fix the destruction.

  When everyone was watching the shows that Synexus had, he would spend the time sharpening his collection of blades the old-fashioned way as it said to do in the tome. He truly had learned a lot from reading it.

  Then when it would get quiet in the night, he would stay up in his tent and check on his family with the scrying diamond he obtained as a reward from his trial. They seemed to be doing great, and Prith had even bought some fish from his dad off the nexus to support them.

  ***

  Yu and Gene spent most of their time together learning from one another. Synexus would buy them books on topics they both were interested in and they would sit and read them to each other.

  It was surprising to both of them how good of friends they had become in such a short time. Maybe it was because they were the only non-humanoids in the party or it was their shared love for knowledge. It didn’t really matter to them.

  She would practice her fire and wind skills looking to refine her control even further. Gene would watch and give pointers on the way her mana would move.

  That was when the owl decided to start giving everyone the training they had put Synexus through. The rest of the party wouldn’t have ten years of focus to get it, so it would take much longer to learn, but it would certainly help them to improve their skills to understand mana better.

  Gene also thought it might help to fix Yu’s skill if she was able to mana weave like Synexus. It had always been a possibility that only she would be able to fix her own skill.

  ***

  Vorin spent most of his time creating new plagues within his skill.

  That was the downside to his class, he needed enemies to improve.

  The others would volunteer for him to infect them and then heal them immediately to help him level up his skills, but it was slow going with that method.

  He almost needed sick people and enemies for his class to operate which were things he never wished for. It did leave him with a lot of time to work on his technique with his scythes, which Prith helped with quite a bit.

  Since he had a lot of downtime, however, he did pick up a bit of an obsession. He started to purchase fiction novels off the nexus to fill his mind with different worlds and adventures. His addiction had even spread to romance novels which he hated to admit.

  Late at night when everyone else was sleeping, he would often borrow the video projector to watch a romance fiction from Synexus’ collection as well. It just took him away from his world and life for a bit. He even got some ideas for new plagues while watching them interestingly enough.

  He was hoping their daily runs would make their trip much shorter even though the daily bonding was doing wonders for the group as a whole.