The Nature of Nature

Day 5: Xeno

Xeno groggily woke from his nap because of the alarm in the room. The loud racket that the alarm caused was enough to wake the dead in his opinion, which is feasible in this world since there are actual undead races…

Xeno rose from the bed and stretched his arms then went to the restroom to wash up. He picked a clean towel and some soap in there and prepared himself for a washing…

[Author’s note: Since I was asked, he washes his body with soap and a towel till his skin shines. In other words: grooming. This is done to sea mammals on occasion if they are friendly enough and not as dangerous. Water does not equate clean, sludge and mud are things that exist you know. So does salt which can make your skin feel strange, no?]

Xeno went into Mc Neel’s office to receive today’s orders or training or whatever it’s supposed to be now. He’s no longer quite sure what to call this Apprenticeship… Regardless, he’s having quite a bit of fun and is pleasantly entertained. Xeno knocked the door and entered.

Mc Neel – “Ah, good! You’re awake early today.”

“Yeah, I managed to wake with the alarm.”

“Perfect, make sure to continue using it; it’s a waste of effort to send someone to wake you up each morning.”

“Sorry” – Xeno scratched his head in embarrassment. So far, his bad sleeping or rather waking habit had been a problem each morn, but hopefully he’ll find a better way to fully awaken soon enough.

“Never mind, boy. Today’s assignment, or to be precise the assignment you’ll be doing for the next three days will be preparing terrain.”

Mc Neel exited the building and swam towards the outer layer of the weed fields, closely followed by Xeno. After a while, Xeno saw a large area of sand that seemed much more elevated than the rest. In addition, it was closed by a week fence that seemed to separate it in portions or segments. Each segment seemed to be around 20 feet squared…

Mc Neel – “Kay, boy, the assignment goes like this: First you’ll be picking up weeds, corals, rocks, trash and other random objects that may be on the surface of one of the plots of land. You’ll finish that day by raking the plot until its surface is at least seemingly smooth. On the second day, you’ll be removing all the sand and dirt in your plot of land until it’s leveled with the rest of the weed field. Make sure to transport the collected sand and dirt to the respective locations so that architects and bricklayers can get their hands on them more easily. On the final day, you’ll receive some Seaweed seeds which you’ll need to plant correctly and have them grow. You’ll be provided some fertilizer, but the best result depends on how well the land was prepared and how well you care for each individual seed as you plant them. Any questions so far, boy?”

Xeno was a bit speechless, he had never expected to have to prepare the plot and plant the crop within a timeframe of three days. He calmed down as he realized that this must’ve been one of the primary reasons for the upgrade to the difficulty of the Quest. Since he demonstrated his diligence, Mc Neel must’ve wanted to test it to see how far he was willing to go. He must’ve given him a free-ish duty the day before in order for him to be sufficiently rested for this enterprise.

“Which tools?” – this is the question Xeno had. Depending on the tool provided, the efficiency of his work would change.

“Whichever you find appropriate, you’ll find a large inventory of tools in the warehouse; just pick the tools you need, place them in a wheel barrel and swim over to the plot of land of your choice.”

“Ok!” – Xeno swam over to the Warehouse as soon as Mc Neel finished talking. If he wanted to finish in time, he had to get started quickly. Mc Neel simple watched him go with a devilish smirk in his face.

Sorry, boy – thought Mc Neel – but I need to see you reach your limits so I can determine just how hard I can make your final test. I don’t expect you to complete this outrageous quota since most would take a full week to realize it and that’s by doing a shoddy job at it. Just do your best without restraint.

Xeno arrived at the Warehouse and started to choose his tools. Since today was basically collecting and removing trash and raking the land, he chose a shovel to pick up stuff and place it in the wheel barrel, a pickaxe to break rocks or corals too big and/or heavy to move, a pair of scissors, pliers and a machete to remove plants, an axe in case there were logs, a bucket so that he can carry it and place objects within instead of pulling the wheel barrel constantly along, a hoe to deal with tough dirt and sand too compact to move and a rake in order to level the plot. He refrained from bringing a hammer as its poor water resistance would lower the striking strength and its overall damage. He placed the tools inside a wheel barrel, and looked around to see if he had missed something else that might be useful. Some rope caught his eyes and thinking it might be useful somehow he picked it and swam towards the plots to choose his.

Once he arrived, he saw that most of them were already picked by other Maomer, most likely they went to pick up the tools before coming here unlike him. Xeno looked at the remaining unclaimed plots; they were all filled with plenty of trash of all sorts, unlike the ones picked by the others. They must’ve chosen the ones that were easiest to prepare, leaving the hardest ones for others.

Seeing that there was barely any difference in the surface of the plots remaining, Xeno swam to one of them at random. The others gave him astounded looks for some reason, but he ignored them as he started to work. He took out all the objects within the wheel barrel and placed them neatly near the center of the plot of land. Then he inspected the plot more closely do determine his course of action.

As he realized his plot had plenty of plants, he picked his scissors, machete, pliers and bucket and started to work.

“Let’s see… This is a Hydrangool Algae which can be used for stomach aches, better place it separately… But this other one is Coollera Bloom grass, which is a fine ingredient for aquatic mana potions…”

As Xeno prepared to remove the plants, he began to notice the value of most them where quite good even though he was simply supposed to remove them from here. So instead of placing the plants in his bucket he began to place them in his inventory after carefully removing them in order to not reduce their quality. While he picked plenty of plants, they weighted next to nothing, and being underwater made such light objects even lighter. This in turn allowed his inventory to pick much more than he would be able to if he were in the surface.

Just as the sun reached the summit, he began to deal with the corals and stones. While he simply crushed the stones and placed them in the bucket, he dealt with the corals differently by digging the surroundings of the coral before pulling them up and placing them next to the wheel barrel. Corals can be more useful that common stones underwater and while he wasn’t an expert with them he was sure he could find some book to give him some more information about them.

Amongst the corals, he also found some that bore berries upon them. These ones he moved more carefully and placed them a bit farther away from the wheel barrel. He’d move these one’s later as their berries could be a good source of food or passive money if the need arose.

Finished collecting the stones and separating the corals, Xeno began to move the stones to the appropriate disembarking area. There he saw a bunch of piles of corals, stones, plants, and dirt mixed up in horrifying proportions. Xeno realized that the others simply cleaned up the area blindly, but let it go for the time being. He went to the area that was reserved for his piles and dumped the stones. He used two additional trips in order to move the corals, with the exception of the fruit-bearing ones which he left alone for the time being.

It was getting late, but Xeno still had work to do. He picked up the hoe and started to tilt the sand and dirt for around two hours in order to leave the surface loose. By the time he picked the rake he was the only one working, but he didn’t let that discourage him. He slowly raked the surface for some time and in no time at the entire loose surface from before was now perfectly smooth. Physically tired, Xeno took a moment to rest by the fruit-bearing corals and ate their berries. As he chewed upon the sweet sphere in his hands, he remembered a skill he learned back when he was in the library… He decided he might as well try it:

“Identify”

“Hmmm… This Ability is as useful here as it is in the other Terminals, though if this much information is obtained at the basic levels, I wonder just how much information is given at the advanced levels…” – Xeno wondered.

The levels of the SSA (Skills, Spells & Abilities) went up to Lv-100, at which point they would transform into the next step of their evolution. For example, Xeno considered the fact of a mana bullet. At Basic levels one would be able to create a number of small projectiles which continuously increase in number until reaching the Intermediate level. At that point, the increase in numbers is lowered and the spell begins to give additional shapes and properties from which the caster can choose from, given the single spell much more variability. Then the Advanced levels would continually reduce the cost of casting while increasing the quantity and quality of the spell, until the one is able to summon thousands of mana bullets of hundreds of shapes and sizes, each with different properties and all this with next to no cost of mana.

In paper, magic seems OP, but Xeno knows that the amount of concentration, knowledge and wisdom, as well as instincts and imagination to pull off such a stunt are all but impossible for human kind in general. He’s sure if some half-assed mage tried to do such a thing all those mana bullets would explode around him like a minefield, essentially causing the player to kill himself…

Regardless, the point is that abilities evolve greatly upon reaching the next stage. Most of the time, the changes are obvious and expected. However, on certain occasions the changes could be different, unexpected and obscured due to lack of knowledge of the ability…

As he was lost in thought, Xeno identified the coral that had provided him food.

“I see, so I can expect 3 daily berries from this one… But the berries these rich are of low quality because of the low vitality of the coral? Didn’t the berry say it was picked up from a healthy coral?” – Xeno considered the possibility that his lack of knowledge on the subject affected the rate of correct information obtained from the ability. If this was the case, then he definitely needed to continue studying about these corals.

He took another bite of the fruit, but as he tasted the flavor with his tongue he felt something else in his mouth. He took it out and found a seed-looking object. Xeno questioned the logic of coral-seeds when corals were not really plants, but let it slide since this was a fantasy world.

“Identify”

“Hahaha… Oops, I guess that WAS an unsophisticated way to get a seed, huh?” – Xeno remarked with a silly smile on his face. He figured that in the future he would search the berries for their seeds before consuming them…

Xeno decided it was time to pack up as it was quite late now. He placed the corals in the wheel barrel carefully in order to not damage them and placed the tools in his Inventory. He felt weighted down as these tools were definitely not as light as the plants he was carrying, but he continued on his way in this manner.

He went to his room and carefully placed the corals on the side of the room, organized in a way to take up the least amount of space. After he made sure the corals were okay, he went to the warehouse and placed the tools and wheel barrel back in their places.

Back in his room, he went to a chest he had previously bought in order to keep conches in the future and emptied it of the few conches he really had. Then he started to place the plants he had collected that day inside as organized as he could with his weary eyes… Soon after that, he went to sleep.

Day 5: Josh

Josh – “Alright, you promised to help right?”

Phio – “Ye-yes, bu-but…”

“Come on! I need your help, please? I promised to only practice with a friend…”

“Bu-but why m-me?!”

“Because you can make sure I don’t die if I blow myself up!”

“Wh-what?! B-BLOW YOURSELF UP?!”

“Ah, yeah! What I’m going to do is dangerous so I don’t want to die, so help me?”

“Wh-WHY MUST YOU PUT YOU-YOURSELF IN DA-DANGER?!”

“It’s for my dream! I want to be a mage!”

“B-but to put yourself in da-danger… is…”

“Listen, I got some info on some training that is less dangerous that what I usually do, but I still promised I’d be more careful. It won’t be as bad as you are thinking, okay?”

“P-promise?”

“Yes, Phio! I promise to be careful!”

“oh… Okay… B-but remember your promise!”

“No prob! Now let’s get started!”

Day 6: Xeno

Today, Xeno was barely able to rise from his bed when the alarm went off, as tired and stiff as he felt. He had tweaked the alarm so it rang an hour earlier than yesterday, he would need the extra time if he was to complete his task for today. He swiftly bathed and checked the corals for berries which he picked and placed in his inventory for later in the day.

Xeno swam to the warehouse and picked todays tools: shovel, pickaxe, hoe, rake and of course the wheel barrel. He then swam back to his plot of land and compared it to the others. His was amongst the best refined in the area, but not the best out of them all. He noticed though that the ones that seemed more refined than his were only half-way through in their cleaning, so he didn’t felt too bad about it. He picked the shovel and started digging.

By the time the other Maomer came to their plots, he had had to move the wheel barrel to the disembarking area 4 times already, but that amounted to barely 5% of all the sand he had to move today. What’s more, sometimes he found stones imbedded within the sand, causing him to waste time crushing the stones out of the location before continuing.

He was getting tired more easily today as he was doing hard work rather than simply gathering, but he felt that he could continue for much longer than the third day in which he basically collapsed… Xeno wasn’t counting on getting lucky and getting blessed today again, so he was taking a minute long rest each time he went to the disembarking area and ate a mouthful of whale milk and some berries, which he made sure to peel and slice so he could find their seeds. The seeds were then placed in his inventory for future use while the sliced berries were eaten as if they were slices of apple.

As he took his tenth break, he was called by the architects in charge of collecting the materials who thanked him for separating the corals and stones. They were quite curious as to what he had done to the plants and were pleasantly surprised when he explained that he kept them as he thought he could make use of them. They offered to give him the plants that were in the piles of the other Maomer as thanks, which he accepted with a smile before excusing himself to continue his work.

Around noon, he had finished around three fourths of his plot of land and was the one with the most area leveled. He didn’t feel too happy though as he still wanted to prepare the area so he could plant the seeds tomorrow and he still hadn’t finished leveling. Seeing as he was so close to finishing, he decided to pull through and only take a rest every five trips instead of after every trip. He continued like this, but was forced to extend his breaks to three minutes as he didn’t want to neither overexert his body nor waste time resting too much.

By the afternoon, as night began to set in, he delivered the final drop of sand and dirt. His pile of it was quite huge now as it was a mountain’s worth of it. He was thanked for his effort by the architects who presented him with three medium sized piles of plants. The amount of plants here was lower than the amount of plants he had in his room. The architects explained that most of the plants brought by the others were either too damaged due to the rough treatment of their removal and transportation or simply were long dead. Xeno thanked them for the plants which he placed in his inventory.

Back at the plot of land, he picked the hoe and began to soften the earth with calm and patience, thus taking him an additional hour than yesterday. After applying the rake to smooth the surface, he packed the tools and left them at the Warehouse.

In his room, he tiredly picked the plants from his inventory and tried to classify and organize them with the ones he had already collected. He considered placing the seeds inside as well, but decided to first buy some bags in order to keep seeds of the same plant/coral together and separate from the rest.

Thinking the word rest, Xeno collapsed upon his bed and fell into deep slumber…

Day 6: Phio

Phio was still greatly worried about her friend as he tried to use his so called magic. Phio had always known he wanted to be a mage, but she had never considered he would put himself in danger by pushing himself to become one.

Josh was concentrating as an orb of energy appeared slightly to the side of his target location. He was concentrating so much that veins could be seen if one looked closely to his soft blue skin.

Phio was alarmed at this, but calmed down as she remembered the description Josh had given her of the way he had been practicing before he was told of this method. She shuddered as she wondered just how close she had come to having to go to her friend’s funeral. She was truly thankful to the man who had helped Josh out.

Suddenly, Phio’s skin turned slightly brighter as she remembered the man who so diligently cut the weeds the other day and even spoke amicably to the others in the barn the very next day. She was curious as to this fellow, as she didn’t expect anyone to put so much effort into a task that most play off as simple work without any drive.

As she had seen him about to falter due to his fatigue, she was surprised to see him stand back up and continue slashing and hacking at the weeds. At that moment, Phio had been compelled to help him and blessed him with her magic. The next moment would be etched in her memory as the man seemingly lost himself in his task to the point that he didn’t stop even once until his task was finished, her blessings keeping up with his effort to the point that she only managed to fully heal him when he stopped completely.

Afterwards, she was too embarrassed to talk to him for too long and swam away when he looked the other way. Once she was far from anyone, she cursed her timid personality half-heartedly and sighed. She wanted to apologize, but when she found him he was already asleep so she couldn’t. The next day when she saw him enter the barn she followed to say it, but whenever she got close and he looked her way, she hid herself. She was mad with herself and escaped the barn and spent the day thinking about what to do…

The next day, Josh had come to her in order to get her to help him practice his magic. She was reluctant both because she didn’t want him to get hurt and because she wanted to see what that guy was doing, but decided to help him as he explained what had happened to him.

Now she watched as her friend tried to master the basics of magic. She was amazed at his progress though, yesterday he had trouble keeping the manifestation in check, but today he was simply trying to move the spell to the exact location he wanted it. It may not be moving at all yet, but she felt the surge of mana within Josh changing as he concentrated. She knew it would not be long before he could move it, if only slightly.

Phio began to compare the magic Josh’s manifestation with her own. Her magic’s controlled by her voice, which she sent to others via telepathy. Her favorite method of magic wielding, the Song method, was usually used by Bards, Singers and Divas of various kinds. When she was young, she was blessed by the mother sea with a song that could cure as per her deep wish. She was truly thankful for this gift which she could help others with, but sometimes she wishes she had wished to be less timid…

“YES! I DID IT!”

Phio looked at the spell dissipate as Josh celebrated his success. Seeing that the spell had dissipated, Phio slapped Josh’s head with one of her tentacles.

“Ouch! Why…?”

“You let the spell go poof…”

Josh looked dejected as he now noticed his folly – “Aww, man…”

He began to concentrate once again, trying to repeat what he had just managed to accomplish. Phio continued to watch his progress that day, feeling slightly elated that her friend would be closer to achieving his dream…

Day 7: Mc Neel

Mc Neel hadn’t seen Xeno the past two days, but figured that he was still working on his plot of land, most likely trying to dig up the entirety of the earth so he can quickly plant the seeds. Mc Neel expected this as the bare maximum and minimum that Xeno would be able to achieve according to what he had seen already of him. He had no doubt that Xeno would try to complete his quota at any cost, but he knew it was quite hard to actually complete it.

Nevertheless, Mc Neel had sent the seeds over to his plot of land through one of the workers of the establishment. He had sent high grade Seaweed seeds in order to make up for his trick. These would grow into normal-sized seaweeds once planted, well… normal-sized for this village anyways.

Though if he seeds were kindly planted in specially prepared earth, then their growth would be incredible, most likely reaching half-way to the surface of the ocean. Now, you might think this would be a waste of high quality seeds, but the village had more than enough seaweeds to go around as well as many chests full of seeds of this kind. No one would miss them even if he took a million of them, let alone a measly 300.

Mc Neel continued searching through his documents, but his thoughts were still on the boy who had surprised him with his diligence and attitude for work. He sometimes wondered just how was his life in the other world for him to end up as such a good worker. He pushed the thought away, as he didn’t want to pry into the boy’s personal business…

Day 7: Josh

Yesterday I made a huge advancement in my magic! I can now maintain my spell for as long as ten minutes without it exploding! Not only that, but I can now move it around the circle too. Even Phio was impressed! I don’t think I’ll be able to create a second spell as I control the first one though…

Maybe I should talk with Xeno to see if he can think of a better way to train my “dual casting” as Phio called what I was trying to do… I wonder what he’s doing now... I haven’t really seen him recently in the barn and last time I saw him was three days ago. Where could he have gone to? I guess I’ll have Phio accompany in searching for him!

Day 7: Phio

Phio was taken aback when Josh suddenly decided to go look for Xeno, but she complied as she was curious as to what he was doing now. Also, she was worried that he might be overexerting himself again…

She didn’t tell Josh about this though as she had yet to mention what had happened between them to Josh yet. Surely Josh would berate her from running away after helping him, right? She didn’t want that… That’s why she decided to say sorry before telling Josh a word about it!

Still, in order to say sorry she had to find him first… So she told Josh that they should ask the Maomer if they knew where he was. Josh liked the idea and quickly swam towards the first one he could find, at a speed that would be considered antonymous with a slug.

The first few Maomer didn’t seem to understand who Josh was asking for, and without wonder as he was barely giving a description of the man that sounded sort of like this:

“The Maomer guy with black eyes and blue skin that knows about magic and helped me learn it!”

Honestly, Josh can be quite infantile sometimes… - and so Phio decided to ask herself.

“Errr… We’re l-looking f-for a Ma-maomer with b-black hair with a w-white stripe. Th-the new one th-that works hard…” – Oh, splendid Phio… You’re no slouch with words either… - she thought.

“Ahhh… You meant Xeno? Yeah, he’s working over at…”

Day 7: Rupert

“Oof! Thanks Doc, ma back was killing me today.”

“No problem, Mr. Rupert. Please remember to take it easy?”

“Gahaha, you know that won’t do Doc. I’m a Maomer and the Head Librarian at that; I can’t go down any time soon!” – he replied in a joking manner.

“Sigh, I suppose so…”

“By the way Doc, have you heard from the lad?”

“Not so far Mr Ruppert, but the full week will be completed tomorrow so it stands to reason that Mc Neel would send the young one here on that day.”

“True true…”

The Doc looked at the librarian with suspicion and asked him – “What are you planning to do now?”

Innocently, the librarian answered - “Oh, nothing much. Just see how the lad is doing his job and all that…”

“You know it’s terribly rude to meddle in the apprenticeship of others…”

“Aye, I know… But I’m just curious to know if he is as diligent in his work as he was in his studies…”

“Ah… Having second thoughts about letting him go to Mc Neel instead of turning him into a Lythomath?” – he asked knowingly

“Mayhap…” – he answered evasively – “Though, deep down I believe him to have the take of a Polymath rather than Lythomath…”

“Oh? And the difference between these two are?”

“Sigh, a Lythomath is a lover of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, he would obtain the knowledge in order to be able to pursue other types of knowledge. On the other hand, a Polymath learns so that he may use that knowledge whenever he may need it, not just for knowledge’s sake…”

“And this assessment is because?”

“Once I saw the abilities he learned while he studied, I had an inkling about it, but after searching the conches he had read while he waited for me I was convinced…”

“Curious, and pray tell what book convinced you?”

“Aye, he was fishing fer information about the ocean, about the city, about the ecosystems close by and what could be found in them… Everything he might need to know if he were to travel to those locations.”

“I see… This does seem to go with the definition you mentioned before… It is very likely that he searched for that information because that’s exactly what he pretended to do…”

“Aye, that’s why I sent him to Mc Neel; he needs a strong body to go along with his knowledge… Else he might run into trouble.”

“These things considered, you have piqued my curiosity… Perhaps I’ll accompany you and see if the youngster is healthy along the way, no need to wait an additional day!”

“Won’t that be problematic for your patients?”

“Nonsense! My apprentice needs experience dealing with clients on his own, so this marks a good time to give him that experience. This is especially true since the only client he might receive would be soldiers with a sprained muscle or torn bone, both of which are quite simple to handle.”

“Hohoho, using your apprentice to procrastinate are yee?”

“Quiet you…”

Day 7: Xeno

Xeno was picking up the Aragendo Berries that sprouted today when the door to his room was knocked. He stood and opened the door. Outside was a seemingly deathly thin male Maomer with nerdy glasses, his black hair was messy beyond grooming and his clothes looked to be in tatters. However, he didn’t seem to mind as he scribbled in his notepad furiously.

“Are you the new intern: Xeno?” – his voice squeaked.

“Yes?”

He looked up from his notepad and searched his bag after giving Xeno a superficial glance – “The Boss sent these to you.” – he gave Xeno a small bag filled with seeds. – “He also mentioned that he’ll be around to see your work in the afternoon, just before night falls. He seems to be looking forward to whatever it is you are doing…”

“Really?”

The clerk was furiously writing in his notepad again and seemingly had not heard his reply. Feeling a bit discomforted, Xeno excused himself and was about to close the door:

“Are those corals inside your room?” – he asked in a curious tone.

“Ah, yes. They were amongst the trash that I was collecting before, so I brought them here since they were useful.”

“Useful how?” – he didn’t seem to understand, so Xeno gave him one of the berries he had picked up. The clerk inspected the berry intently from all directions before taking a bite out of it. – “Hmmm… Aragendo Berry Corals? A nice find you got there, those are quite rare. A bit of a shame the quality isn’t up to standard, but nothing some good care won’t fix.”

Xeno’s interest was piqued – “Do you happen to know of a good way to care for them?”

“Not really, but the Coral Farmers of the East would be able to give you some good advice if you truly want to keep them.”

“Oh, thanks for the information!”

“No problems, share some more once their quality reaches 5, kay? Name’s Dio by the way. Now I need to head over to…” – he walked away as he mumbled under his breath…

Xeno considered that Dio was a bit strange, but seemingly easy to get along with once you knew him well enough. He finished picking up his berries, placed the Seed Bag in his pocket and went over to the Warehouse to pick up the tools he needed today: fertilizer, a shovel, a hoe, and a rake…

At the plot of land, Xeno inspected the bag and counted 300 seeds. He figured he had to divide the plot cleanly so that the seeds would grow neatly, without pushing each other, as well as leaving enough space to walk between them. He considered what to do first and decided to place the fertilizer upon the ground and prepare the soil.

Later, he went back to the Warehouse and brought some ropes. He used them in order to cleanly divide the plot of land into segments (30 X 40), each segment being around a foot squared. In short, every seaweed would be a little over a food apart from every other seaweed, giving enough space to move around.

Having finished dividing the plot of land, Xeno decided to take a quick break and took out his milk bottle. But before he could uncap it:

“XENO!”

He looked in the direction his name was being called and saw a bright blue sea slug and a shiny pink sea angel swimming over to him. He smiled as he saw the act of the two kids. The other workers, who weren’t working as they watched Xeno work with unbelieving expressions, were surprised to see the two little kids swimming over to him.

“Hey, Xeno! Guess what?! I can use magic now!”

“Really? You finished the training already?!”

“Well… Not exactly… I finished the first and second parts of the training, but I can’t get the hang of dual casting yet.” – he answered dejected.

“Haha, you finished those parts of the training much faster that you should’ve, you should feel proud about it rather than sad about needing help over something even more complicated…” – said Xeno as he rubbed the sea slug’s head.

“Okay… But what do I do now to learn?” – he asked expectantly.

“Well… I can’t help you right now since I have some work left to do, but if you wait a bit I could figure something out…”

“What’cha doing?” – in an extremely curious tone.

“Well… I’m planting a seaweed field.”

“Oh… Can I help? And Phio too!”

Xeno looked at the sea angel who, inefficiently, hid behind Josh – “Sure, if she wants to?”

The sea angel seemed a bit taken aback in Xeno’s opinion, but said – “O-okay… If I can…”

Xeno then proceeded to explain how to plant the seeds, while stopping the energetic Josh from planting the seeds now in his excitement. After explaining to them the method they would use, they began to work.

First Xeno would use the hoe to lightly move the fertilizer, and then Josh would place a single seed in the location Xeno had opened up. After Xeno had returned the fertilizer to its proper location and moved on to the next spot, Phio would float above the seed and bless the seedling with her powers. This blessing would slightly speed up the growth process; in fact after she finished her blessing on a seed there was always a sprout growing there already.

Feeling elated at their speed, Xeno thanked the two as they worked. Once they were half-way through, Xeno decided to take a break, not for himself, but for his friends who weren’t used to this kind of work. He shared his Arangora Berries and Whale Milk with them, though honestly it is more likely to say that Josh swallowed the berries in gusto while Phio slowly took sips of milk.

After the break, they finished the rest of the seeds in one go. As Josh and Phio rested again, Xeno started to pull the ropes out of the field carefully in order to make sure the sprouts weren’t affected. Once he finished this, he rolled the rope and placed it alongside the other tools in his inventory.

“Okay, Josh you ready for your dual casting training?”

“YES!” – he yelled like an excited puppy wagging his tail for a treat.

“Okay, listen closely. In order for you to master dual casting you need to be able to concentrate on multiple things on an equal level.”

“Wha?”

“Let’s put it this way… Place your left feeler in your head. Ok now place your right feeler in your tummy.”

“I look ridiculous…”

“Come on, just a bit more… Now you have to pat your head while rubbing your tummy.”

Josh tried to do so, but he quickly realized how tricky such a simple thing was. If he concentrated on his left feeler, then he started patting his belly instead of rubbing it. If he concentrated in his right feeler, then he started rubbing his head instead of patting it.

“This… is harder than I thought!”

“Right, this is basic dual concentration; you try to do two completely different things at the same time without committing any mistakes.”

“…”

“I know it seems very hard, but it’s only a matter of practice. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to cast many simultaneous spells.”

“So if I practice like this I can become a mage?”

“Nope, if you practice like this, you can become a GREAT mage.”

“YAY! You heard that, Phio? I will become a GREAT mage!”

“Th-that’s good for yo-you… Josh…”

“I’ll practice hard from now on!”

“Hohoho! It seems you are having fun here, lad! My worries were wasted, were they not Doc?”

“Indeed they were, though even I’m surprised at the youngster’s knowledge about magic… Are you sure he doesn’t want to be a mage?”

“No Doc, No. He told me himself that he didn’t want to become one.”

“Quite a strange world this is, where those with the most knowledge about magic don’t WANT to learn magic…”

Xeno – “Mr Rupert? Doc?”

“Yes lad, it is us! We thought we might as well come see how you were doing working for Mc Neel, but here we found you tending to the young creatures.”

“Indeed, I half expected Mc Neel to work you to the bone. Instead he places you working with animals? I’m quite surprised in all honesty, though it does suit you…”

“Errr… I think there’s a misunderstanding here…”

“HEY, BOY? HOW’S THE WORK COMING ALONG?” – came a yell from afar as Mc Neel swam over to see them. – “Doc? Old Geezer? What are you two doing here?”

“Aye, chap. We came here to check up on the laddie, make sure you haven’t broken him!”

“Oy! I’m harsh, but not a sicko!”

“Tell that to your previous apprentices… Those muscles took days to fully heal…”

“Oy! That was back when I was young and ignorant!”

“That was last year…”

“Exactly!”

The three continued their conversation in this manner, completely forgetting about Xeno, Josh and Phia for the moment… Xeno rubbed his head with the headache that was coming to him as he listened to these guys while Josh and Phia looked between the three arguing adults, barely following their conversation… And understanding none of it…

“Sir Mc Neel, I believe you should stop this so we can get on with business?” – Dio interrupted out of nowhere.

Mc Neel – “AGH! Don’t appear out of nowhere Dio! You’re gonna give the Old Geezer a heart attack!”

Dio – “Then why were you he one yelling?”

Mr Rupert – “He got you there Chap!”

Mc Neel – “TCH! Fine, I’ll get on with this… Seriously… So which plot is yours boy?”

Before Xeno could answer, he was interrupted – “Plot? As in plot of land? Weren’t you making the lad take care of these younglings?”

Doc – “I believe Xeno tried to dissuade this just as Mc Neel arrived, so I would gather that no…”

Mc Neel – “Why would I put a good worker working in only taking care of the livestock? Makes no sense to me…”

Mr Rupert seemed a bit sad that his conjecture was shot down, meanwhile in order to prevent being interrupted again Xeno said:

“It’s that one.” – as he pointed towards his plot.

The three adults turned around to look at the plot of land whilst Dio merely turned his head.

Doc – “*whistle* So Mc Neel asked you to plant seeds now? A bit tamer than I’d imagine, but you really did a splendid job.”

Mr Rupert – “I’ll say, these sprouts look beyond healthy and the spacing between each one is just right to squeeze between each one. I’m sure the animals will love swimming around them once they grow to sufficient size.”

However, Mc Neel didn’t make any comment. Neither did Dio for that matter, as he at least knew he had given those seeds to Xeno this morning. Mc Neel had a mixture of emotions: pride at Xeno for finishing the job he considered impossible without losing in quality, joyous at his creation of a perfect plot of land for the seeds to grow, mad at himself for doubting the boy, and scared witless at what he guessed what was about to happen.

Mc Neel – “Boy, how long did you plant these seeds?”

“Just finished planting them, sir!”

Mc Neel relaxed as there was still time…

“What do you mean, laddie? These sprouts seem like they’ve been here a few days at the least…”

“Ah, that must be because Phio here blessed them.”

“Oh? A sea angel? It is good to see one with such potent blessing miss. I’ve heard about your talent, but did not find the opportunity to visit a fellow healer.”

“N-no… I-it’s f-fine…”

“I’m a mage!”

oh… holy… crap…

The land began to shake just as Mc Neel finished this thought. The quake grew bigger and bigger, shaking the whole area with great strength.

Mc Neel – “EVERYONE BACK TO THE VILLAGE!!! NOW!!!!!!”

On the surface of the ocean, a pair of fishermen was waiting patiently on their boat for fish to strike. It had been a slow day for the both of them and they only had about half the quota they needed to feed their respective families, as such they had moved much, much farther away than they had dared before in order to find more fish.

“Any luck Tom?”

“Nope, you Paul?”

“Not a snitch… Wonder what’s with the fishies lately…”

“No kidding… No fishies are picking up our rods lately…”

As the two fishermen wondered aloud what was wrong with the ocean, they felt the ocean’s waves change direction for a moment. They looked concerned at each other.

“Was there a storm a brewing Tom?”

“Nope, think it’s a whale Paul?”

“Don’t think so, they feel different than this…”

“You don’t say, Paul…”

They waited for a moment, but nothing happened, so they sat back up and threw their lines back in the water. A few moments later their boat tilted and was washes a great distance as humongous seaweeds sprouted right out of the ocean. They kept growing and growing until they were beyond the sight of the puny fishermen.

“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT TOM?!”

“I… think it’s… seaweeds Paul!”

“SEAWEEDS DON’T GROW THIS BIG TOM!”

“DON’T YELL AT ME, PAUL! I CALL IT WHAT I SEE IT!”

Suddenly, they heard a thunderous sound from up in the sky. The fishermen looked up in time to see the clouds parting, revealing a floating isle over the ocean… was pierced by the seaweeds that continued to grow even more until they are lost from sight from these fishermen.

“Is… that the Isle of the Icarians, Tark Norm?”

“I believe so, Paul…”

The two fishermen stayed floating for a bit in the now calming waters watching the one of the Sky Isles, one of the usually called unreachable locations for land-based races, being pierced by mere seaweeds. Then, they decided to swim towards their ever moving boat which was beginning to get out of sight. These fishermen had a tale to tell and no one was gonna stop them!

Chapter 5: Apprenticeship

And this chapter is finally finished. I hope you found the change of perspective and the way the different characters think to be interesting! I wanted to experiment a bit with changing the point of view of the story so that in the future when there are more characters in the protagonist’s party I can give each one a good role to play!

Those three days of hard work would be murder in real life that much I’ll admit… Particularly that second day; it’s difficult to even imagine the amount of effort he had to put into finishing this ridiculous deadline. And this was merely a pre-test! Just what is Mc Neel going to do to our protagonist!

I’ve also presented Xeno’s interest in wildlife in this chapter in the way he applied his knowledge in gathering those plants and corals for himself, quite resourceful really as now he doesn’t need to pay for food for some time as he has a self-supplying organism in his room!

Finally, related to the story anyways, there’s the mention of two key terms that I threw in there just to keep you all on your toes. The Icarian race and the Sky Isles! Yeah, don’t ask me about these two quite yet. Though they might not be very happy that their Isle is being pierce by 300 ever-growing seaweeds or maybe they are who knows they might like the taste of seaweeds, right?

Anyways, this chap is over 7000 words long, nearly 8000 really. Longest chapter so far and it includes only three days unlike the previous one that included four days of training… Since I wrote this whole thing in one go, I forgot to pay attention to not repeating words, but made sure there were few grammatical errors at least. Regardless, my internet connection is quite bad, same as last week… I’ll promise to post twice a week even if I have to travel to the next town in order to do so, but any more than that will be dicey…

Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!