It’s funny how time can simply wash away the past in its ever-flowing current. One moment the party is fighting a mythical beast of incalculable power and then it gets washed down stream. Another moment comes by and it contains them walking along the mountain pass once again. Continuing their journey to get Yu back to her family after centuries of being away.
Months passed down the stream as they went ahead with their normal routine of training each day as hard as they could while making ground towards the Shadow Labyrinth Mountain.
When nothing happens. When there is no event to impede the flow of time, it often slips on down the stream without notice. Then suddenly, there’s a dam. An event that causes time to stop and forces you to face the present.
This impassable event could be anything from an exciting celebration to a heart-wrenching death. These events are how we mark the passage of time. These are our memories.
With a perfect memory, Synexus could recall the most boring day running on autopilot across the mountain pass, but it would feel distant. Almost non-important even though every single day being alive is just as important as the last.
No. When Synexus remembers the past few months on the mountain, he recalls his numerous conversations with the ever-advancing Trout, his friend who resides in his Progress Garden. His mind settles on the miraculous growth of the Queen of Chickens that he created accidentally and how all the other chickens follow the massive chicken around in deep admiration.
Memories of Kumo and their conversations are especially potent. Her mouth forming into the grin she makes right before combat is one small detail in an infinite collage that his mind attributes to his friend. Over the last few months, he has seen that grin 48 times before she ascended into the air and rained death upon their enemies.
Zuls jokes and general positivity have a special place in his memories acting sort of like a cushion against the negative thoughts that sometimes form. Her bonded have their own spot and he likes to recall their moments of happiness and devotion to their friend quite often.
Yu’s constant stream of knowledge keeps him busy as he logs away the important information. Everything she can teach him is new and exciting. He especially enjoyed the 35 moments they sat down together during rest breaks to trade various bits of information.
Synexus’ memories of Shell play through his mind like a tune you just can’t get out of your head. Each note softly flutters about in his mind as he recalls her newest masterpiece or the growth that he’s witnessed in his friend in the months that he’s known her.
Vorin’s moments are a bit complex. Sometimes Synexus’ mind gets flooded with the memory of holding his friend’s corpse or at least he thought it was at the time. Fear that it’ll happen again except stay a reality riddles his mind like a plague. Then it gets washed away as he remembers the warming feeling of Vorin’s healing and the strength their leader exudes through every decision the party has to make.
Memories of Prith are sharp and often slash through his mind in an instant. They never linger. Much like the swordsman himself, his memories are far and few between. Mostly they are of the man’s sharp comments or the training sessions in the way of the blade they have together. In the past few months along the mountain pass, they had 21 training sessions, and his handling of Progress has considerably heightened.
Gene flies through his mind while memories of all the things the owl has taught him seem to fall over his mind like stray feathers. Accompanying them are flashes of the powerful System and their creator. A strong feeling of obligation to live up to his class origins is ever present in these memories. Ever since facing Plague, that feeling has been driving him to improve even more.
That desire for progress anchors the memories of his mom, dad, and people turning them into a constant thrum at the back of his mind. Every second spent on leveling a skill. Every thought of a new creation. Every step towards their goals. All of it is drenched with that constant thrumming. In the past few months, he remembered that every single day.
***
Progress Garden has leveled up!
You have levelled up!
Progress Garden has leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Progress Garden has leveled up!
Enemy Transmutation has leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Mana Perception has leveled up!
Body Transmutation has leveled up!
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Mana Perception has leveled up!
Element Database has leveled up!
Genome Archives has leveled up!
Genome Perfecting has leveled up!
Instant Growth has leveled up!
Soul has leveled up!
Even simply walking along the mountain pass has been beneficial especially for a class like Synexus’. Through constant work within his garden on various projects like expanding the gene pool of the fish and chickens, experimenting with new materials from the Nexus, and growing his creations to new heights he has leveled up almost all his skills and gained class levels to get to level 29.
His combat skills such as Enemy Transmutation made their own progress on each attack and targeted use had resulted in a few levels. Body Transmutation leveled up when he experimented more with the limits of the skill on his own body.
Through his experimentation he has been able to become more precise. Now he could summon scales or hardened skin for defense right at the point of contact. When he was attacking, he found that he could do minor transmutations to increase his speed in bursts to constantly keep his enemies on the back foot. Once he discovered that, he found ways to do the same with power. Now he is lethal in melee without completely relying on Progress.
His practice with Soul has grown their bond even more and now it is even better at protecting him just in case his own defenses with Body Transmutation fail. Constantly sparring with Kumo and the others has helped him work on the small holes and flaws in his combat. It also led to new team tactics that Vorin has devised.
Now that months have passed, he looks at the outcome of all the training by pulling up his status for the first time in a while.
Name: Synexus
Race: Zaxillian
Class: Progress Architect
Level: 29
Health Points: 3075/3075
Mana: 6585/6585
Stamina: 3075/3075
Stats
Intelligence: 500 (+150)
Strength: 240 (+72)
Endurance: 230 (+69)
Vitality: 230 (+69)
Agility: 240 (+72)
Perception: 324 (+97)
Skills
Race: Sensing Touch, Enhanced Cognition, Perfect Memory, Silver Blood, Devour Sunlight
Class: Genome Archives LV 32, Genome Perfecting LV 32, Instant Growth LV 33, Body Transmutation LV 33, Element Database LV 33, Element Modification LV 32, Instant Repair LV 33, Mana Perception LV 33, Enemy Transmutation LV 29, Progress Garden LV 29
Achievements
Slayer of Monsters: You will now be able to see the remnant magical material of slain monsters.
Ullashtt Hunter: You bested one of these massive, fabled beasts taking some of their vast power for yourself. +20% to all stats.
Evolved: All resources have risen by 100.
Mana Weaver: You’ve learned how to diverge from your initial class path to create your own. You can now read and understand will pathways of yourself and others. Your ability to manipulate mana outside of your body has significantly increased.
Triumph of Oneself: You have completed a trial dungeon and triumphed over what was weighing down your soul. Through knowing yourself better and cleansing your soul, your resources have benefited. Stamina and Mana will now regenerate at double the rate.
Creator of the Progress Nexus: 100,000 Progress Credits have been added to your Nexus account. 10% boost to all stats.
Among the Divine: You’ve created a Divine skill without ascending past the rank of Class Master. You will now be able to sense Divine mana.
Equipment:
Soul, Armor of Progress LV 3
It was always getting longer thanks to his achievements. The major changes took place in his stats though. Along with all the stats that came from leveling up, he also had an increase thanks to the two 10% increases he got from obtaining the Creator of the Progress Nexus achievement and upgrading to the Ullashtt Hunter achievement. All in all, he was impressed with his own growth. His amulet letting him pick his stat point allocation had helped him to start rounding stats to make them even out. A big focus went into physical stats due to all the training on his melee combat this time around.
The party still had a few more months on the mountain pass and if the past few months were any indication, then there was more progress to obtain not just for Synexus, but for his fellow members of the party. Kumo is keeping up with him, and they are going hand in hand towards level 30. It’s still unknown if either of them will get a new skill or perhaps a skill evolution at level 30. It’s always hard to know with their unique classes.
Synexus looked up and cleared away his status after his thought finished. His gaze fell on their next dam in the river of time. Their next obstacle to overcome in order to move forward with their quest.
Before them there is a vast distance between their mountain and the next in the chain. Small pieces of debris connected to either side is all the evidence that remained of the bridge that once connected the two sides. A bridge vital for trade to communities making the mountain range their home. A bridge that needed to be fixed and fortunately Synexus is the perfect person for the job.
