The island had been irrevocably changed. Whereas before, it was barren - only rock and mud covering its surface; now, lush trees dotted the ground, their cover only interrupted by patches of grass. Aaron took a moment to regain his bearings as he laid on the ground, listening to the sound of the rustling leaves in the wind. His internal sense of balance had been thrown out of whack; the world was spinning slightly.

After a few seconds, Aaron pulled himself up with shaky legs. He couldn’t allow himself to rest for too long; he still had to check whether his friends had survived the disaster. He paused. When had he started considering them friends? Where had his general skepticism gone? Surprisingly, he wasn’t too mad at the new development. He was okay with trusting them. Enduring the literal apocalypse together had been a hell of a group bonding experience.

Through some magical means, the earthquake had cleared away the mist that surrounded the island, allowing golden rays of sunlight to poke through the dissipating storm clouds, while also stopping the constant downpour of rain. In only that regard had the natural disaster been positive. He took advantage of the extra visibility, scanning the island for Jess.

He didn't find her. She had disappeared. It didn’t make sense; she couldn’t have gone too far. With his enhanced perception, he should have been able to see her from a mile away. He glanced down at his feet; maybe she was trapped underground. She could have fallen into one of the ravines.

In that case, he would have to act fast. Even though he could cut through stone easily with Mana Weaponry, she had a limited supply of air; finding Jess would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He focused his ears, listening for any signs of life - for where to start digging.

Above him, a tree rustled, its branches shaking wildly. Deep within the tree's canopy, a blue light flashed then a branch fell to the ground with a heavy thunk. The cycle continued - a blue flash, then a falling branch. An unsteady scream rang out, interrupting the steady stream of environmental destruction. Completely horizontal, a pair of flailing arms poked out of the tree. Like a sack of bricks, Jess tumbled out of the tree.

She crashed to the ground, dislodging some of the twigs that were stuck in her hair. After a few groans of pain, she pointed her arm straight into the air, forming a thumbs up. “I’m fine; thanks for asking.”

“How in the world did you get up there?” Aaron asked his hands on his hips.

“I don’t know; some stupid tree burst out of the ground and trapped me in its branches.” Aaron looked at the tall tree appraisingly. With the speed at which they had grown, he could see it happening. He couldn’t help but laugh; it was just so bizarre.

She lightly whacked him on the head. “Don’t laugh.” she paused. “Where’s Tony?”

His mouth creased into a frown. The old man had been asleep when the shack had collapsed on him. His feet took him to where the shed used to stand. The short walk took longer than it should have; the distance in between them had roughly doubled - a trend he assumed the rest of the island had followed.

All that was left of the shed was a haphazard pile of wooden planks. A wrinkled arm stuck out of the hill of debris. Aaron’s heartbeat increased. He raced over to the Italian, Jess followed close behind him.

Aaron roughly uncovered him, throwing debris to the side carelessly. Bit by bit, his unconscious body was revealed. Light injuries peppered Tony’s form from where things had presumably fallen on him, but they all looked survivable. He looked tranquil laying among the debris with his eyes closed.

“Is he dead?” she asked.

Aaron’s eyes narrowed; he grabbed Tony and roughly shook him.

Tony yawned as his cloudy eyes slowly opened. “What. What happened? Why did you wake me up so early?” he said drowsily. Tony sat up, not really looking at his surroundings. “How long was I,” he trailed off as he finally noticed something was wrong. “What the hell happened here?”

Aaron blankly stared at the old man; how had he managed to sleep through a house collapsing on him? Not to mention the multiple earthquakes. In the end, he could only conclude that: some people were just built differently. “It’s a long story,” Aaron said, not having the energy to explain. He had gotten worried for nothing.

“A tree tried to eat me alive!” The two quickly fell into a conversation.

Aaron let Jess explain what happened. She seemed to enjoy telling the story. Though she did over exaggerate the details a bit. A giant dragon made of lightning definitely didn’t appear, but he let it slide. It was her story to tell; plus, it was revenge against the old man for the countless times he had made up unbelievable stories. In the meantime, now that he was sure his comrades hadn’t died, he checked a blue screen notification that hovered in the corner of his vision.

Phase 2: Mutating Plants and Wildlife 4% | Time Remaining: 4:07:34:29 Intermittent Random Monster Spawns In Low Light Areas 1% | Time Remaining 7:12:57:23 Party System 98% | Time Remaining: 0:01:41:55 World Merge Phase 2 1% | Time Remaining: 7:12:57:23 Town System 3% | Time Remaining: 3:11:09:51 Raising Ambient Mana Levels 1% | Time Remaining: 8:01:01:52

In typical System fashion, Phase 2 had been heralded by some minor weather disturbances. If he ever found the person who designated the earth splitting open as a minor disturbance, he would punch them in the face.

This phase was similar to the last - the System would continue to spawn monsters and raise the ambient mana levels. That was nothing new. However, the addition of the Party and Town systems to the list made him raise an eyebrow.

There was no additional information given, so it wasn’t possible to predict what they were with 100% confidence. But, he had some general ideas for what the System may have in store for them. However much he may have enjoyed it, he didn’t think the System was going to spontaneously create nightclubs, so the Party system was likely more related to its video game definition. A System certified way of grouping up was possibly on the horizon.

The Town System was fairly self-explanatory; it was obviously related to the creation of towns. But, that didn’t make much sense to him; it was possible to make a town without the System’s help - humanity had been doing it for ages.

He stopped his speculation; it wouldn’t help anything. He’d find out the specifics when the timer hit 0. The only thing he had to worry about was the random monster spawns. Unlike last time, they wouldn’t come in one huge wave. Which was good, but the fact that they spawned in low-light areas was concerning. That meant they would have to assign someone to stay on the lookout for monsters during the night. It wasn’t something he was looking forward to. He needed his beauty sleep.

He looked up at the sky as Jess and Tony’s conversation was nearing its end. The endless expanse of blue seemed to stretch on forever - its edges were shallower and less distinct than he remembered. It didn’t make much sense, but the sky was larger than before. He tracked the few grey clouds that floated through the sky. He was certain they would come back with an even more powerful torrent of rain before the end of the day.

When that happened, he didn’t want to be stranded out in the open. With the collapse of their shack, they had no shelter from the elements. That was unacceptable. He didn’t want to sleep in the mud. He picked up a shard of broken glass; the building was thoroughly destroyed. He didn’t know if he could fix it. Repair had its limits. He couldn’t magically reconstruct a building, though if he took Assemble at level 10 instead of Mana Shield, he probably would have been able to.

“Any ideas on how to fix this?” Aaron asked once Jess finished telling her story.

“Actually, I do,” she responded. She walked up to the tallest tree in the area and paced back and forth, measuring the distance. She stopped 12 feet away from the tree then, she crouched down and touched the ground. A thick brown root shot out of the dirt at a diagonal angle, stabbing into the tree. It stayed there, stuck in place, forming a right-angled triangle.

Another thick root emerged, right next to the other one. It wrapped forward unevenly, but it followed the same general angle. Ultimately, it stabbed into the tree, creating a slanted roof about a foot and a half wide. Aaron could see her plan. With enough roots, she could form a rudimentary house.

Another root repeated the process, widening the roof. However, Jess paused before continuing. There wasn’t much tree left to work with. “I need something for the roots to lean up against; I don’t know if they can support themselves forever.”

“I’ll go get some wood,” Tony said.

Aaron joined him. Together, they sifted through the pile of debris, searching for the most intact pieces of wood. A couple managed to survive the ordeal with only minor cracks. They were perfect for his purposes. With a quick application of Repair, they were ready to use.

He hefted a stack of them over his shoulder and easily carried it over to the tree. Lifting that much weight would have been difficult in the past, but with the System enhancing his strength it wasn’t that difficult. He stabbed the board into the ground, using it to dig a hole. The first couple of inches were easy to remove - the constant rain had made the topsoil loose and mailable. However, after that, the process became slow and painstaking as he encountered drier ground. His muscles burnt; digging a hole with a wooden board wasn’t easy. He couldn’t imagine there were very many worse tools.

He paused. He was an idiot. He didn’t have to use a wooden board to dig when he had Mana Weaponry. He entered the mental space the Skill provided and visualized the outline of a shovel. The mental space shifted as cast formed; it turned out lumpy and lopsided - only slightly better than his first attempt at using the Skill.

He found it hard to imagine an item with the precise details that the Skill required. If he was off by even an inch, the weapon would be completely unusable. That wasn’t the hardest part. The problem was, he wasn’t used to keeping the small details in his imagination consistent. The small fluctuations in how he envisioned the shovel, from moment to moment, were what caused its lopsided and wavy appearance.

Instead of relying on Improvised Weapon Mastery to help him, he took the time to refine the cast on his own. Piece by piece, he visualized the mold smoothing out. It was the same method he had used to heavily modify Mana Bolt; things were easier when broken into chunks. In exchange, they took longer to finish, but they didn't matter right now; he wasn’t under some great time crunch.

The malleable molten edges of the cast hardened as he finished his design. In the end, the improvements were minor, but he was happy with them. He had improved his ability to use the Skill, and that’s all that mattered. He knew the next time he made a cast, it would be even better.

He slowly filled the cast with mana, taking his time to observe how the Skill reacted to his. A neon blue shovel filled with dense mana formed in his hands. He was ready to dig.

Congratulations! Mana Weaponry Lvl 2→4. 4 Skill Points Awarded.

Like the most dedicated Californian amateur hole digger of all time, he ravenously cut into the ground, sending dirt flying everywhere. Improvised Weapon Mastery sensed his desire for battle and activated, making adjustments to his form. They were small - moving a leg back a couple inches to make a more stable stance, or using his back in a certain way to generate more power, but they added up.

Before long, Aaron had dug four deep holes in the ground. With a sense of pride and accomplishment, he placed the wooden boards in them, then filled the holes with dirt, locking the walls into place. They weren’t very sturdy; someone could knock them down if they tried hard enough. That didn’t matter; he didn’t intend them to be sturdy. They just had to be strong enough to hold up Jess’s roots.

Congratulations! Improvised Weapon Mastery Lvl 27→28. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

With bated breath, he watched as a root shot forward. The wall wobbled slightly, but it held strong, holding the chunk of wood up. Jess continued filling the roof with roots till she ran low on mana.

“Looks good, right?” Jess said.

Aaron nodded; it definitely didn’t look good, but it would keep out the rain. Probably.

Tony dropped a pile of mostly intact boards at his feet. Aaron smiled; they still had work to do - more holes to dig. Right now, they had half a roof and no walls, but it was a start. He was looking forward to working more on the project. Using magic to make a house was a hell of a lot more fun than being set on fire. Even if it looked terrible, the building held a soft spot in his heart.