Day 1:

  Synexus had done nothing but rest the day before, so he was ready to start focusing on his progress. The root sharks had bitten off quite a chunk out of one of the corners and that was his first job when he woke up. Using Extreme Growth to regrow the roots wasn’t difficult and it provided him with a reason to use his skill for experience.

  Once the raft was fixed, he sat down and decided on a plan which was to focus on his new skills. They were holding his class back from leveling up and he wanted his skills to be even. Some people might like to get one of their skills as high as they can before working on others. That one skill might be powerful from multiple skill upgrades or evolutions, but they often fell behind in class levels. His plan was to spend each day working on a different skill and then the last day would be extra if any skill needed additional focus.

  With the plan made, he sat down and started working on Material Database. This made perfect sense to him as a starting point since the more materials he had logged, the more he had to play around with when doing manipulation. The way he would do this stranded in the ocean on a floating forest was by using all the random things he had in his thief plant.

  Synexus was happy that he had spent all his time buying all those supplies in Gale. They would finally come in handy now. He had gotten a few ropes whether it was just bundles or in ladder form. Luckily, all had a different mixture of fibers. He was able to add manila, hemp, cotton, linen, sisal, jute, and coir to his database just off those. Some of the items had different kinds of leather to add. The echoes of skills he had collected, and the remnant magical items were made of interesting materials too. His guins let him add gold and silver to his database. Everything was being used to advance his skill.

  One of the benefits he was finding with this new skill was being able to tell the difference between materials. Before he would look at leather and, beyond the look, he wouldn’t notice any differences. Now he could sense that one was softer than another or one was tougher. It was interesting to collect all this information into his mind. Not only would it help him with manipulating materials, but it would help him in life too. Now when he went to purchase armor or clothes or anything, he would be able to understand the materials used.

  Ground Aether: 22%

  Air Aether: 34%

  Sound Aether: 18%

  Some of his magical items even had various types of aether in them. It wasn’t enough for him to complete their entries, but it was still helpful. He wasn’t going to mess with aether or magic just yet. Gene promised him magic lessons to explain some aspects before Synexus took on the challenge of manipulating aether.

  Every fifty entries or so, he would have to take a break due to mental exhaustion. His practice with understanding genomes helped a lot to prepare him for this, but there was no sense in exhausting himself. Normally, a quick ten-minute break would be enough. That was long enough to walk the perimeter of their temporary home. It was interesting to see how everyone went about making progress with their classes.

  Prith and Vorin were dueling. The clang of sword on scythe could be heard across the forest. The former was giving his captain pointers on his technique. Vorin’s scythes were hard to use in combat which is why he normally only used them to make shallow cuts for his plagues. This couldn’t be a possibility every time though and so they worked on his dueling techniques. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help progress through his class, but it would help his combat prowess immensely.

  Shell was helping Kumo focus her skills more. Right now, neither of them could use their skills all that much if they wanted to stay on course. Even Kumo’s storm cloud would disrupt the waves too much. Shell, however, could use some of her skills by focusing and controlling the output. If Kumo could learn to control and focus her skill to come out at pinpoint accuracy, then it would be devastating for her opponents. The training was basically learning how to sharpen her cloud blades even more.

  Minily and Drackenn were also dueling, but theirs looked like a dance. It was amazing to watch the mastery they had. The rapiers looked like liquid metal with the way they moved. Synexus sat and watched them through an entire bout. He could learn a lot simply by watching them. Their agility must have been high to have that much dexterity.

  Zuls had a couple of her animal companions out and was talking to Gene. The owl had some insights into her class by explaining how to deepen existing bonds. Some of it went over Synexus’ head, and a lot of it he didn’t even hear, but the gist of it was to have her companion become her body for the day. Gene was saying that she should spend the next couple of days not using her arms for anything or blindfolding herself and having her companions fill in for her without saying a word. This would deepen their bond by intensifying the mana connection between them. It was fascinating; however, it had nothing to do with his class.

  It ended up being a nice day where everyone found focus, and a good rhythm for the next four days. Synexus would only move when he needed a break. The rest of the day he spent logging every material he had available. Some of the other class chosen even allowed him to use his sensors on their stuff. It turned out that Kumo’s spatial bag was made of cloud aether, space aether, lightning aether, and some rare fabrics that he had not heard of before this. Overall, it had been a great day for progress.

  Material Database Has Leveled Up!

  Material Database Has Leveled Up!

  Material Database Has Leveled Up!

  Material Database Has Leveled Up!

  Four levels on day one. That was more than he would have imagined. Drackenn had a lot of different loot in his dimension bag. A lot of them were rare materials from other parts of the world. Synexus couldn’t wait to get to land and log everything on it. Tomorrow it was time to focus on Material Manipulation.

  ***

  Day 2:

  If he was being honest, Material Manipulation was a scary skill to him. He wasn’t quite sure exactly how it worked yet. It was like his Genome Refinement in that he could alter the properties of whatever he was working on, but this was quite different with varying materials. His first real experiment with the skill was to make a thread that was strong enough to withstand a slash from Prith’s sword. Something he had thought of while trying to rest the night before and instantly decided it was his goal.

  He had logged many different fibers yesterday. Some with natural and some were man-made. The plan was to take the best parts of all the fibers to make the ultimate thread. He wanted it strong enough to withstand a slash of sword, soft enough to be comfortable, water-resistant, and light enough to be worn in the heat. It was ambitious to say the least, but the only way he knew how to learn was by diving right in.

  The base material was some silk that Drackenn had given him. It came from a rare spider monster. Apparently, it was quite expensive. Synexus hesitated to take it, but the pirate king said he would never use it or sell it. The reason he wanted to use this was because it was known as the softest silk in the world. That meant one property was already done.

  Next, he pulled up the database entry for this magic wool that would adjust temperature based on the weather and was nearly waterproof. It would be hard to incorporate the magical quality of the changing temperature. Luckily, he only wanted it for the waterproof property. He isolated the parts of the material make-up that made this possible and started to adjust the silk. It required precision. Silk is a natural fiber and inherently absorbent. This wool had evolved in a way to get around that. It had developed a hydrophobic property in the material itself. Synexus simply looked at what the wool did and attempted to copy it. Wool and Silk are both protein based, but they are different proteins. It took him nearly two hours to figure out how to make the base proteins change to be inherently waterproof.

  He decided that the spider silk was light enough. That first change took longer than expected and he wanted to get to the main change. This silk was already pretty strong, but he wanted something that Prith couldn’t cut through. He had researched all his materials to find the strongest ones. Then he took notes on what made them strong. His findings were the material make-up, and the structure. This is what he was focusing on. The problem was changing the structure of the spider silk by altering the proteins again to make it strong while keeping it soft. After all his practice with the earlier change he had an idea on how to do it. The structure of the protein for strong materials and soft materials weren’t opposite like some people would think. If you could manipulate the base proteins like Synexus could, then there was a middle ground to be found. It only took him an hour and sixteen minutes this time.

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  Material Manipulation was Successful!

  Unbreakable Weaver Spider Silk (unique): This spider silk has been manipulated to have enhanced strength, and waterproof properties. Long exposure to water will cause this thread to absorb some moisture. This thread is nearly unbreakable, but still as soft and light as silk.

  Material Manipulation has Leveled Up!

  He was sweating from the mental focus it took, but as soon as he saw the notification, he couldn’t help but smile. That was always a good feeling. The levels tended to come when you deserved them the most. His work wasn’t done, however. The next thing was to weave the spider silk into a rope and have Prith try to cut it.

  Prith was hesitant. He insisted his sword was much too sharp for any fabric no matter how magically enhanced it was. Synexus pushed him to swing his sword anyways. Prith prepared and Synexus held up the rope. The sword came down as fast as light itself and then it stopped. The rope held up. Some of the threads had been sliced through, but the sword couldn’t move any further and there was a look of pure shock on Prith’s face. Synexus was just glad he didn’t get sliced in two.

  “What in Motholo is that thing made of?”

  “A spider silk I got from Drackenn. I used my skill to enhance its strength.”

  “That’s incredible! It feels so soft still. I bet a seamstress could make amazing armor out of this.”

  “That’s a good idea. I was just going to throw it in my thief plant and forget about it.”

  They both laughed and Synexus went off to get back to work.

  The rest of the day he worked on random projects that came to mind. He wanted to get an all around feel for his skill. His first project was a moldable metal. It was soft enough to shape, but if it sat in one state for more than ten seconds then it would harden again. Synexus used it to make little sculptures before moving on. After that he made one of his knives ridiculously sharp by changing the inherent properties of the metal. The biggest project of the day though was making the wood of the castaway trees more buoyant. This made them move even faster.

  His last project of the day was to make the blankets he brought softer and warmer for the class expected. It wasn’t a difficult one after his practice with the spider silk. It amazed him what he could accomplish with his class. People were impressed by the results and he was happy that his skill could do that for them.

  Everyone else had made plenty of progress as well. Kumo was getting the hand of precision. She was able to shoot out piercing gusts of wind and mini cloud blades. They were piercing straight through fish and monsters from a good distance away. Zuls had followed Gene’s advice and had said she felt more connected with her hawk than ever before. She even leveled up all her skills except the new ones she got at level 20. Prith was working on parting the sea with one of his skills and it seemed to be coming along nicely. Vorin was concocting plagues all day which was much like Synexus manipulating materials or refining genomes. Minily had leveled up some as well but didn’t share much. Drackenn was the same even though he didn’t get any levels.

  Material Manipulation Has Leveled Up!

  Material Manipulation Has Leveled Up!

  ***

  Day 3:

  Today was all about Accelerated Repair for Synexus and he knew just how to do it. He went and found Kumo. His plan was to have her practice her newfound precision by putting holes in the planks of wood they were using for rowing. He would then repair them. At the same time, Prith would be using the spider silk rope from the day before as practice for his sword swings. Synexus was jumping back in between the two of them to keep up with repairs. He would definitely need a break to restore his mana at some point though.

  Eventually, everyone else got on board had started breaking all sorts of materials with various skills. They didn’t need to worry about harming anything since he could fix it. This led to rapid progress. Before his first break he had leveled up three times.

  Accelerated Repair Has Leveled Up!

  Accelerated Repair Has Leveled Up!

  Accelerated Repair Has Leveled Up!

  It took him about an hour to recharge his mana with his intelligence stat where it is. This was a good thing since about forty-five minutes into his break, the floating forest got attacked.

  Coral-reef Eel (Uncommon): This eel is a living coral reef. They are extremely territorial. Fish wander through its brightly colored teeth thinking it is coral and become its prey.

  The monster was beautiful. Synexus couldn’t stop staring at all the colors. The eel was huge at maybe 20 yards in length and 8 feet in diameter. Its coral was jagged all the way down its body. Like rainbow spines reaching out in every direction.

  Kumo, Vorin, and Prith didn’t even take a second to admire it. They instantly went in for the kill which proved to be more difficult. Prith’s blade could chop through the coral into the beast, but it wouldn’t have enough momentum to get all the way through. Kumo was facing a similar problem with her cloud blades. Her precision strikes were proving more effective except the eel now had small bleeding holes all over its body. Vorin couldn’t make contact with any of the wounds to deliver a plague. Drackenn and Minily stood back since it wouldn’t be good for anyone if they stepped in and instantly killed it. Zuls used the new connection with her hawk. It was like she became the hawk while it was out there fighting the eel when it surfaced.

  Synexus was the last to join in the fight. He jumped off the floating forest and pulled out his katana. As soon as he got close, he reached out a hand and grabbed onto the coral which was quite rough and cut his hand slightly.

  Coral: 100%

  Eel scales: 100%

  Eel leather: 100%

  Using his katana he stabbed into the eel. It was hard to pierce through the coral, scales, and skin. On top of that was the fact the coral was incredibly sharp. He had to use his Body Transmutation skill to change his arms into the Elder Branch’s bark that he was able to log from his armor. The coral slid right off.

  He kept pushing his katana in deeper and then pulled it out when it wouldn’t go any further. Now there was a deep hole in the beautiful creature. Next, he dropped a seed he had made a while back into the hole.

  Explosive Liing Plant (unique): This plant has been refined to incorporate properties of a highly explosive root. When this plant is an enclosed space it will explode and ignite the highly flammable powder of the Liing plant.

  This was a plant he had made with the memory of being inside the worm. He was waiting for a moment to use it and this was it. His mana pushed into the seed as it fell through the hole. Synexus let go of the coral and seconds later that was a loud explosion. Blood and coral flew everywhere. The eel roared. It was still alive but had a nasty wound in the side.

  The eel tried to escape after the destructive attack, but Kumo quickly used her vortex to keep it close. She followed up with a Thunder Surge which broke a lot of the coral off the eel while confusing it momentarily. That moment was all Vorin and Prith needed.

  Prith engaged first and made a giant gash along the side. Blood was pouring out and covering the once beautiful coral. Vorin finished it off by delivering a plague specialized in draining the health points of high vitality creatures like this eel.

  Synexus felt sad for the beast. It did attack them first, but it also was home to hundreds of fish. A lot of them lived in the coral armor they had just destroyed. Being class chosen was a burden sometimes.

  They had gotten some magic coral, scales, and a skill echo from the monster which they distributed evenly. It felt good to win a fight after the run in with the kraken and the sirens.

  Coral Camouflage: This is an echo of a skill of the coral eel. Allows the user to cover than body in coral until they begin to move.

  The rest of the day three was spent much like the morning. Synexus was running around the island repairing everything he could with his skill. For everyone else, today was a good day for combat skills. It seemed everyone except him got a level on one of their skills during the fight.

  Accelerated Repair Has Leveled Up!

  Accelerated Repair Has Leveled Up!

  Day 4:

  Day four didn’t end up being much of a day for progress unfortunately. They did have a big fight with a horde of crabs that each had ten pincers a piece. There was about twenty of them that decided to climb up every side of the floating forest. Shell was able to warn everyone before it happened. It was still a tough fight, and Zuls ended up getting a deep laceration on her arm, but nothing a bit of healing couldn’t fix.

  After that they were going to get back to their progress focus when Drackenn told them they wouldn’t have time. His skill told them the land he had sensed was getting close. With the help of the more buoyant tress and the strong current form Shell, they were able to reach it almost 14 hours earlier than they thought. Instead of going back to training everyone sat on the front of the floating forest to try and get the first glimpse of what they were hoping would be their salvation.

  Synexus was happy they had the last few days. He had made a lot of progress with his new skills. He would continue to work on Material Manipulation to get it caught up. The rest of his friends had made some progress too, so it certainly wasn’t a waste of time. They had to keep that mindset up while they figured out this mysterious piece of land they were about to reach.