Kynos deftly trimmed wood in the dead of night. He was putting the finishing touches on the bowspirit of the Leviathan Mk. I, which Himi affectionately called the 'Levatan.' He had been reluctant to go with Mith's naming sense, but she shot down all of his suggestions for being too childish and made him carve her selection into the side of the hull.

Kynos hadn't bothered counting and the villagers had no real way to keep time in the first place, but according to Mith, it had been almost a year. With no means to travel a long distance across open water, the two had been stuck on the island with Himi's tribe for that long.

At first, Mith had been excited about the tribesmen's ability to clad themselves in mana, but it turned out that the rock structure was a shrine, and it was a tribal divine magic. The bad feeling Kynos had manifested when Mith had tried to dissect a recently dead tribesman a few days in. Unfortunately for her, Mith could not use divine magic due to what she called a 'curse' from god. Kynos was also unable to use divine magic, as he was already compatible with other elements. Divine magic couldn't be used by mages at all.

After the feast, Kynos had tried to fit into the village life. He joined the men to fish, hunted small animals and birds with the women, and eliminated any crabs that showed up with extreme prejudice. Mith had sat around for a week as the women unsuccessfully tried to coerce her into helping with village tasks. Instead, she watched the men practice fighting, and taught Himi the common language. She also learned the tribal language with astonishing speed, which Kynos was still struggling with, and had started designing what looked like a ship by placing small rocks and bits of wood into a blueprint under the tent they slept in.

When the looks of the tribe started changing from curiosity to contempt, Mith gathered all of them and taught them the wheel and axle. Three weeks after that, she taught the women to peel the vines into thinner strands, then weave them into a braided rope after drying. Three months in, even the sage was deferring his seat of leadership to Mith, who had more or less taken over the tribe with her wisdom. They still all called her Mitan though, and she had reluctantly accepted the fact.

The village looked quite a bit different now. Hand-drawn carts were littered around, and the shacks had become small wood and stone houses. The women no longer worn slings, but hunted with bow and arrow. The crude and leaky fishing rafts, once merely logs bound by thick vines, were now made with even planks and thin rope, waterproofed with pitch made from dry distilled wood. The tribe's fishing range was much wider, and they fished with strong nets made of woven rope. Mith had even made them befriend the nearby merfolk, who they had avoided from fear before. Kynos was able to see a mermaid with their long fish tail for the first time in his life, and he was able to taste the sweet ocean fruits that he had missed out on.

Mith had never ceased her tutoring sessions for him, and she had also made him learn the warriors' way of hand-to-hand combat. While his strength was still low, being eight-years-old and all, Kynos was now able to move his body smoothly in a fight while still controlling his shadows. He often sparred with Himi's father, compensating for a lack of power by using magic, and lately, the alpha warrior was often seen encouraging Himi to serve Kynos at all times. Kynos himself had adopted the attitude of being aloof, and Himi was generally seen following Mith around, mimicking her actions and style as she ordered Kynos around. Himi was also being tutored by Mith, who found the young girl cute and intelligent.

The villagers had great hope for their young princess in the future.

They also made a dry dock over the water with vines and rocks, and Kynos had built a ship according to Mith's specifications on it. She was calling it a 'sloop,' and had him go through great lengths to smooth coral and rock into nails for sturdiness. She taught the villagers about waterproofing with sticky pitch, and had them make an ample amount for curved hull as well. The ship had been lowered into the water recently, and it was looking downright majestic.

The tribe had cheered the day they helped Kynos erect the mast, and they had made sails with sturdy, cloth-like leaves stitched together with string made from vines for it. The store was loaded up with dried fish, shellfish, and fruits. The armless bust of the woman with flowing hair had been added to the prow by Kynos, with approval from Mith, as the finishing touch. They were ready to sail.

The villagers held a feast for the departure, and as Kynos finished a spar with the alpha warrior for the last time, the tribe burst into tears. They would lose their most promising warrior and their de facto tribe leader; for these people, it was going to be a sad day indeed. Mith seemed like she was about to ask them to go with her, but held her silence as a distraught Himi wept in her arms.

The villagers were mostly peaceful folk, and they would be nothing but baggage if pirates or monsters were to attack. Himi wanted to go alone, but was made to stay by Mith, who told her that if she wanted to stay at the side of Mith and Kynos, she would have to grow her tribe into a large country, capable of fielding thousands of warriors on hundreds of ships.

The burning gaze of the young girl, freshly educated in mathematics, carpentry, and on a whim, small unit tactics, followed the Leviathan as it disappeared into the distance.