“Quack!!”

“{[A-Asteroid Belt]}!”

Under the presence of the forever shining sun, under the endless sea of clouds, in the midst of the blowing wind, the shout of a girl resounded through the air. The sounds of splashing water softly played in the back.

On one island, where a blue flame once rose, Marie activated her skill as her eyes followed the enemy flying above. A group of 10 small asteroids formed and orbited around her. Nervously, she commanded the asteroids to move, orbiting around her.

“Quack?!”

The bird like monster above quickly noticed the sudden change in movements, and stopped its descent and quickly flew back up. Turning around, its eyes stared straight at her, carefully observing her.

And then, just some distance behind her, the bird noticed the figure of a young boy, his right index finger stretched out. “Quack!” Showing a wide grin, it closed its wings and dove down towards him.

“Alex!”

Marie tried calling out to him, but he didn’t listen, his focus directed at his magic. The bird happily took the chance and sent its sharp beak at him.

“…Hmm?”

Still deep in thought, Alex noticed the bird quickly charging at him. With ease, he stepped aside, letting the bird’s beak peck right into the soil.

“Q-Quack!!!”

In a rage, it took out its beak and pushed its beak towards him. But,

*Pak*

“Q-Quack?!”

Just as it was getting close, a bright light shined between it and Alex. By instinct, it tried to pull away, but its beak wouldn’t budge. The light slowly faded away, and the bird soon realised its mistake.

And that this was its last mistake it will ever make!

Seeing that the bird’s futile struggle to escape, Alex silently laughed at the fact that the word ‘Sticks to objects when touched’ somehow managed to trap this guy in one go. Although the MP consumption after he used that word was oddly high…

“Gotcha.”

With the bird’s beak, and his right leather glove stuck to the ceramic slab he conjured, he swung down his arm like a hammer, smashing down the slab onto the soil with terrific force. The bird’s body was crushed under his incredible force.

*Krak!*

The bird’s beak was easily crushed as he pummelled the ceramic slab repeatedly onto the hard soil. With every smash, and with every shockwave, the bird’s body became slightly more deformed than before.

Soon enough, its whole body was misshaped. Its beak was bent and broken in an unnatural way, and its eyes was completely white.

“…Did I go too far…?”

He asked sullenly as he tried to let go of the ceramic, only to realise that it was still stuck to his gloves. Sliding off his leather glove, he picked up the leather glove together with the ceramic slab, and the dead bird, and threw it away.

“Alright, that’s done.”

Taking off the other glove, he threw it away and turned around to Marie. Seeing that he was alright, she sighed in relief and stopped her magic skill, her asteroids slowly crumbled away into dust.

“…C-Can I ask something?”

“Hmm? Go ahead.”

“W-Well…I’ve watched you fight…but I still don’t understand your unique skill…”

“…Huh?”

Alex quickly activated his magic and traced a small cube. Letting go, a white light shined, and out of it came a small stone cube. “This, is my skill.” He said as he picked up the cube and gave it to her.

“So…you can create things…?”

“…Yeah, somewhat.”

“T-That’s amazing! It’s much better than mine at least…”

“No, your skill’s much better.”

“I-I don’t think so…”

This conversation continued on for a while, before Alex simple got tired and mentioned Jake, saying that his is probably much better. Marie stopped speaking after that.

“Phew…Anyways, do you mind waiting near the lake?”

“E-Eh? Why?”

“I want to look around.”

With his words said, he turned around and left. Watching him walk away, Marie awkwardly sat there for a while before she too left the area.

“Alright…”

After he had walked several meters at a random direction, he stopped for a moment and looked around. Luckily, there wasn’t that many trees, allowing him to see farther. Although, this island he had landed on was oddly massive, probably around the size of a modern city.

And that in itself is insane!

But that wasn’t the only insane part. Right after he awoke drifting inside that lake he landed in, he stepped out and decided to look around. After about an hour of walking, he reached the end of the island, and there, he saw other islands!

He immediately went back to the lake and had a nice shower under the waterfall to ease up.

That was nice.

But now that he realised that he wasn’t alone, the mission to find the exit to this place just became even more important. Not that he was lonely in any way, especially not with that little crab sitting by the lake, but he needed to find a way out.

“Hmm…”

After some time spent deep in thought, Alex shrugged his shoulders and continued walking forward, letting his legs take him somewhere else.

Walking past the occasional rocks and trees, he journeyed across the enormous island he was on. On one occasion, as he was walking aimlessly, his eyes caught the sight of a tree dangling with apples.

To sate his hungry stomach, he took the gamble and chewed on an apple he plucked off. Tasting the sweetness of the apple, and smiling triumphantly at the fact that he didn’t die, he happily ate the rest of the apple.

Conjuring a small leather pouch, he gathered himself a nice batch of apples. Because he felt slightly bad, he decided to leave about 5 or 6 apples on the tree and went away.

Now with a pouch of apples strapped to his back, he walked on, feeling the soft wind silently blowing against his body.

And then, just as he was about to somehow fall asleep walking, he reached the end of the island, and the view he got was surreal.

“Damnit…I don’t have a pencil.”

Out farther than where his eyes could see, there was a world of floating islands, floating in the sky with three giant rivers flowing in mid-air.

“…Hmm?”

But just some distance away from him, he could see a small island floating there. The island didn’t look to out of place, if not for the stone altar sitting on top of it.

Squinting his eyes, he also managed to catch sight of a purple shine coming from the altar. “That might be my best chance for an exit…” He softly muttered to himself as he backed away from the ledge of the island.

Going there would probably be his best chance at an escape, but the path leading to it was none-existent. Unlike the other islands, which has at least one or two floating rivers connected to it, that little island had none.

Does that mean he has to fly there?

Yikes!

As he was about to leave, not far to his left, his eyes caught sight of the floating river connected to this island. Walking closer to it, he slowly followed the river to its next stop.

“…Guess that’ll do.”

Although it’s not going to lead him to the altar, going on this river would get him closer to the altar. That was already enough for him.

“I guess it’s time to get to work.”

…………

2 hours later,

“Hm~m~”

Following what he said earlier, Marie went back to where the waterfall was. Deciding to wait patiently, she took off her shoes and dipped her toes into the water.

“Pii!”

Not far from the shores, Marie watched as the little crab Alex introduced her to was surfing across the waters, its claws raised up. It raised a happy cry as it did random spins and jumps on the water.

She giggled softly as she watched it have fun.

And then, from behind her, a voice called out to her.

“I’m back.”

“O-Oh! You’re back!”

Nervously, she pulled her legs out of the water and put on her slippers. She quickly stood up and walked to him, but her legs were still wet, and she slipped as she was trying to walk to him.

“Ah!”

“Careful.”

Noticing her slipping, he quickly closed in and caught her. Bashfully, she broke away from him and looked away. Alex awkwardly watched as she ended up slipping once again.

“Hah…”

Not wanting to watch further, he conjured a warm blanket and gave it to her. Looking at it bashfully, she softly thanked him and dried her toes.

Was this what it felt like to have a little sister?

Meh, who knows?

He shrugged his shoulders thinking that.

“Anyways, once you’re done, we’re going to leave.”

“L-Leave?”

“Yeah. I found something interesting.”

“I see…”

Seeing her agreement, he looked past her and called the little crab. The crab quickly got back to land and walked up to him, who picked it up and put it inside the backpack on his back.

Backpack on his back…That sounds redundant.

Either ways, after waiting for Marie to dry her toes, Alex randomly took out an apple from his leather pouch and gave it to her. “Here.”

“T-Thanks…”

Her cheeks still burning red, she nervously took the apple and chewed into it. She seemed quite happy with the apple.

“Pi!” From inside his backpack, the crab cried out to him. Guessing what it wanted, he took another apple out and dropped it into the backpack. “Pi!”

Wait, does a crab even eat apples?

Wait, how is it going to eat it in the first place?

Questions, questions.

After Marie finished eating her apple, Alex led the way and walked on, with Marie following not far behind.

This time, now that he actually knew where the floating river was, the time needed to reach it was much shorter. Doesn’t mean that it’ll be a short trip, but faster than before nonetheless.

Sadly, there’s no motorcycles here…

Is he even allowed to drive?

I don’t think so…

But moving past the occasional trees and rocks, and walking across the grassy plains growing above this enormous floating island, they finally made it back to the floating river bridge…thing.

There isn’t really a name for it.

But, upon sight, Marie began to question whether his plan was really a good one.

Why, you ask? Well,

“W-We’re going on that…?”

“Yeah.”

“R-Really…?”

“…Yeah.”

With a slight pause, he answered so as his eyes fell upon the boat he made, floating on the river while being anchored by a giant, anchor. Yeah, that sounded really redundant, alright.

Design wise, the boat looked exactly the same as the boat he made back when he was back at that archipelago. Just this time, it didn’t have a sail and a paddle, since it didn’t need those.

His plan was, for both of them to get on, cut off the rope tying the boat to the anchor, and said across the rivers. By the time they reached the next island, he would tie another anchor to the ship and throw it onto the island, and done.

Success rate?

About 57% I should say.

The plan could either work, or they could crash and the boat could break, or they could just continue to drift along the floating river.

Did he consider this? Yes, very much so. Why is he still trying to do this?

Because he’s obviously not sane.

But hey, sitting here forever would probably get them killed!

He would rather die trying than die without any effort!

He’s got pride, alright?

“Well, get on.”

“A-Are you sure…….?”

“……Yeah.”

With a slightly longer pause, he answered so as he got on the boat. After staring at it for a while, she simply accepted it and got on. It isn’t like she could do anything herself…

People can’t be too picky in these kinds of situations.

Nervously, she stepped onto the wooden boat, wobbling slightly from the extra weight. After confirming that the whole thing wouldn’t just collapse, Alex sighed deeply and conjured a small steel knife.

Holding it dubiously in his hand, he cut away the rope attached to the anchor. Instantly,

“W-Woah?!”

“Ah!”

The ship was let loose, and drifted along with the river current. Marie couldn’t hold her ground and fell onto the wooden hull, while Alex managed to somehow keep himself standing by focusing his MP onto his legs.

Was this going to become a new skill?

That’ll be great!

Not that he could check right now!

Splashes of water made it into the wooden hull, forming small little puddles of water inside. Hopefully no holes are created, or else their doomed.

*Brak!*

…Shit, seems like a hole was made. Luckily, it seems like it was on the side, so there wasn’t too much water seepi-

*Brak!*

“A-Ah!”

“…Well, shit.”

*Brak!*

More and more cracks and holes were formed as the boat’s wooden hull failed to withstand the crashing waves coming from the moving waters.

*Brak!*

“Oh, come on…”

But, just as another hole was formed on the bottom of the hull, their boat closed in towards the next island, with only about 200 meters of distance left between them.

Mind you, from the previous island, this next island was about 10 kilometres away. So the fact that holes and cracks were made as they travelled at insane speeds shouldn’t be too shocking.

That is, if you ignore the fact that the wooden hull was already half broken! I mean, their lives are on the line here!

“Tch.”

Clicking his tongue, he stretched out his finger and began his magic. Quickly tracing the outline of a typical anchor, he finished it off with the word ‘Lead’. Out from the light, came a large sized anchor, usually used in naval battleships.

Too big for a small boat?

What do you mean?

“M-Marie! Tie the rope there to this!”

“H-Huh?”

Lowering her hands to see, she noticed a small pile of thick rope simply lying there, somehow still on the nearly broken boat. Reaching out her hand, she took the rope and pulled it.

“T-Tie it!!”

“Y-Yes!”

Like her life was on the line, which it was, she tied the rope as fast as she could to the end of the anchor. Alex grit his teeth as he held the anchor above his head, his hands sweating heavily from the amount of stress he was putting on them.

Following his directions, she tied the other end of the rope to the end of the boat, the intact one on the back. The front end of the boat was already crushed beyond repair at this point.

Yeah, they’re gonna die, aren’t they?

Well, not today!

“HaaaAAA!!”

With a strong battle cry, Alex threw the giant anchor straight onto the island. After the small explosion it caused upon landing, the ship was suddenly pulled onto the shore, and crashed.

*Bang!*

“H-Help mee!!”

Marie helplessly cried out as she was flung off the boat, which was further broken apart by the sudden force of the crash. Chunks of wooden planks flew in the air.

“Guh.”

For some reason, his [Blood Hound] skill activated in the middle of his fall, causing his stats to rise. Fixing his posture mid-air, he landed gracefully with a cloud of dust following shortly after.

Marie meanwhile,

“Gua?!”

Landed with a much less than graceful landing. Thankfully, she didn’t land face first, and fell onto her back instead.

“Pi?”

And out of his backpack, the crab looked on in confusion with apple crumbs all over its face.

And so, in the duration of about 10 minutes, they moved from one island, to another island.

Damn, 1 Km/minute? That’s fast!