Zuls whistled as she peered across to where the mountain pass continued and then turned her head down to the valley created between the two mountains. A thick, white fog covered the ground making it impossible to get an accurate gauge on the distance.

  “We could just fly across if we don’t want to waste a day.” She vocalized what some people in the group had been thinking since coming to a complete stop.

  “No worries, Zuls. It shouldn’t take me more than a few hours to erect a new bridge. We can’t simply ignore this if we have the power to help.”

  “Synexus is right. This is the plan. Two people will guard Synexus as he makes the necessary preparations. We will swap out every two hours to make sure we all have time to work on our skills while we are stopped here. I’ll take first watch with Shell. Kumo could you give us some cloud cover to hide our presence while we are at a standstill?” Vorin stepped up as usual to solidify a plan.

  Without hesitation, Kumo started to form a cloud above them and conjured a slight fog to hide them from sight. If anyone looked too closely it would be fairly obvious that it was someone’s skill as the cloud looked unnaturally low, however, to anyone’s first glance it wouldn’t cause any questions.

  Vorin and Shell assumed their positions on either side of Synexus. Unfortunately, while they were under the cloud cover, they wouldn’t be able to see anything approaching, but Kumo would be able to even if she was in the middle of training.

  Prith and Zuls walked a bit away from the group out of the fog to start their training. Gliya was summoned to keep a bird’s eye view on things while soaking up the sunlight. Sovereign was teaching Hyren how to fly better a distance away. The rest of Zuls’ bonded were released to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. Their thought process was if something bad flew over then it would see some activity a bit down the path instead of focusing on the unusual cloud.

  Gene was helping Yu gain more knowledge to level up her Keeper of Knowledge class. The owl had almost unlimited information to share and this was a common occurrence. It was one reason they had become quick friends with each other.

  Synexus was already sitting near the edge of the cliff. His mind was naturally in his Progress Garden working on plans for the bridge. Instant Repair wouldn’t be able to fix the bridge as the damage was just too extensive. He would simply have to design a new bridge and use his gifts to create once more.

  After building his ship, and then helping with construction in Slate, he realized that it was one of his favorite parts of his class. Being able to create and experiment brought him happiness. He was leaving his mark on the world by building objects that would hopefully stand the test of time.

  When he really thought about it, he wasn’t certain if it was his class influencing him or if he always had a bit of architect in him. It didn’t matter either way because he couldn’t see himself stopping, but it was an interesting thought to ponder. Does the class chosen make the class or does the class make the class chosen?

  That was neither here nor there in the current moment as he went deeper and appeared in his garden. Everything was relatively how he left it. The queen chicken had pulled some plants up again which Synexus instantly fixed with a sigh.

  “Again! I know! I told her!”

  Synexus walked over to the pond and looked down at Splash.

  “I know. It’s just her nature. I should probably alter the roots of the plants to enhance the power it takes to pull them up.”

  “That would be clever. Or simply poison them all. I’m sure the big cluck would stop real quick.”

  That got a laugh from the Zaxillian.

  “All good options. How are the new trout doing?”

  “Great! I’m working with the newly born smarties to get them up to speed.”

  “Smarties?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s what I’m calling the ones that followed in my footsteps. Some are already showing increased intelligence as well as some of the other genes from the gene pool. A promising batch overall. We may be running out of space though.”

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  With a thought Synexus widened the river and pushed it deeper.

  “That’s better although I believe you have a finite space in here.”

  “You’re correct. Perhaps I should work on buying some sort of land or getting a dedicated spatial bag for all this.” Synexus gestured all around him with his arms.

  “That would be one fix to the problem; however, you would lose the ability to visit whenever you wanted. Can you not expand this space?”

  “Perhaps. I would have to work on leveling it up and maybe I can upgrade it even further. Problems for the future! I actually have a project now. I must create a bridge.”

  “What’s a bridge?”

  With another thought a bridge grew over the river.

  “Ah. Well, what’s the problem?”

  “No problem really. Just figuring out what kind of style I want for it and what properties I should grant the material.”

  “Hm, well it looks like it is for transport, so I’d imagine it would need to be wide enough for you to pull things over. It would clearly have to be strong enough to support the weight of you bipedals. Maybe something that someone increases speed while on the contraption?”

  Synexus loved seeing Splash with his thinking cap on. The gears would always turn, and the fish enjoyed having more puzzles to solve.

  “You’re correct on the first two parts. I was also thinking about making the material have quite the traction as well to ensure safety. That thought about increasing speed is interesting. When I was in my trial, I did witness stairs that moved on their own for quicker traversal. Perhaps I could make something similar here? Although, I still haven’t unlocked the last part of my class which would help with that sort of thing.”

  “Ah yes, traction. I always forget about that one. Making it move would truly be a challenge while also keeping it safe. Could you perhaps make it a river that they would get in and then a wave would push them to the other side?”

  “Fascinating idea. That is really out of the box. Unfortunately, that would get all their wares wet if they didn’t have a dimension bag.”

  “Right. Being wet is bad for land walkers.”

  “I wouldn’t say it’s bad. It can just be unfortunate. That did make me think of an idea to have the bridge be covered though. It could perhaps be used as shelter for weary travelers to get out of the rain.”

  “But then they wouldn’t be able to see out of the contraption, correct?”

  “That is true. The view is breathtaking even if it is quite the drop. I could make it out of something see through to have the best of both worlds. Shell, I believe I’ve told you about her, told me a story about her home where they lived in see through domes at the bottom of the ocean and she loved watching the whales through them.”

  “The ocean. I sure would like to see that one day.”

  “Next time we are near it, I’ll pull you out of here so you can see it. Maybe a quick edit to your genes would allow you to live in salt water. I’m not sure the ocean is ready for you yet though.”

  “I’d whip all those sea creatures into shape!”

  Synexus chuckled again at the thought of Splash confronting Abyss or Nihil.

  “I’m sure you would, my friend. Now the question is, how would I go about creating this bridge. I don’t have enough material on hand to build it by hand. Unfortunately, I can’t create materials from mana yet, so I would have to grow it. See through materials are tricky. I suppose I could use moss for that part. Then use titan trees for the support. Finally, I could alter bamboo seeds to grow together into a flat surface to make the main structure. That seems like a lot of moving parts, however.”

  “Why not make it all one plant?”

  “Because that would involve me making extremely complicated edits to a seed and making sure it grew in a very specific way at very specific times.”

  “Okay, make a smart seed then. You made a smart fish.”

  “You’re talking about making a living bridge?”

  “If they are plants, wouldn’t they be living regardless?”

  “Yes, but you’re talking about making an intelligent living bridge.”

  A million thoughts flashed through Synexus’ mind as he began to think of the logistics of such an undertaking. If he had access to the technological side of his class, then he could make a machine which would technically be able to think without being alive. This would be making a living architectural masterpiece. It would be able to shape itself. Grow in ways suitable for the circumstances. Even move in some way to assist those crossing over it. But could it be done with his current knowledge?

  Essentially, they were talking about growing a plant that could grow to meet the needs of the user. A plant with code like a machine. Some plants follow simply instructions like leaning into the sunlight or closing when certain criteria are met or to react to the environment in specific ways. This would create a plant that would follow way more complex instructions, but the potential is boundless. Synexus could think of endless possibilities for such a creation.

  “Splash, you really are a genius. Zuls is going to be so mad, this is definitely going to take way more than a few hours.”

  Even though he hadn’t reached the point in his class where he could create technology yet, he could make living technology. Using the growth potential of plants while tapping into the intelligence of animals and implanting his understanding of the relationship between the will of the user and code from learning to mana weave, he could attempt to create something truly unique just like Progress Matter or Soul.

  With that thought, he raced around his Progress Garden gathering as many materials and plants as he could. Next, he pulled up his physical manifestation of his collection skills. Like a mad scientist, he got to work with only the help of his assistant, the intelligent trout.