His job while the others were poking around the library for answers would be to solve their biggest problem. This was of course the fact that they didn’t have a ship to leave this island. They could hop back on the floating forest and probably make it to land; however, one storm would bring ruin to them all. No, he had to build something sturdier.

  It was possible that they could ban together and build a ship from all the aether enhanced wood on this island. This would be the most straight forward solution, but it would take much longer. He was sure Drackenn or Minily probably had some shipbuilding skills. He just wasn’t sure if Vorin wanted to wait around that long. His solution was to alter the genome of the castaway tree to grow into the form of a ship.

  There were a few problems with his solution, however. First, it would be intensive genome refining to get the shape they wanted. Second, it wouldn’t be just one tree. The castaway tree had a limitation on how much the roots could carry. This ship would need to carry all of them on top of being comfortable and durable enough for a multi-week trip across the perilous ocean. The final issue was that Synexus wasn’t sure if he should leave it living with the roots underneath the ship propelling them along or if he should simply make it grow into the desired shape and then use Material Manipulation to solidify the wood as a material and not as plant. At what point would it become a ship and not a plant?

  It was funny. He had killed countless monsters at this point. Even some animals and humans, but the thought of taking a seed and growing it just for the purpose of dying and becoming their ship seemed wrong. This was obviously where most ships came from. He just felt weird about pouring his mana into a living plant and then using it as an inanimate material. Sadly, he knew he really didn’t have a choice. It was impractical to leave it as a living plant. If he grew it out and then dried out the wood, he could use Material Manipulation to make the ship much better. The safety of everyone was paramount.

  Pushing his personal ethics to the side, he began to focus.

  ***

  Back in the library, the class chosen and some of the class expected were combing through books. It was impractical to read every book. Instead, they were looking for key words that could lead to them possibly being about the lock downstairs or the dungeon in general.

  Gene was having the time of their life. The wings of the owl were flipping through pages, the fastest of any of them. They knew most of the knowledge, but the personal accountings were fascinating. There was always more to learn. No one entity was omniscient. Not even the Living System.

  It seemed that multiple groups had taken refuge in this place over the years. Some of the journals were ancient while others were similar to what modern journals might look like. Earlier books spoke of magic and creating their classes. The first classes. The classes that most other classes were some altered version of.

  Newer journals spoke of the System as some god that had granted them the power and insight to become enlightened. This made Gene chuckle a little. It was always funny to see how history was changed over the years. People found things to believe in no matter what the situations.

  Some of the journals were written in the language of the goblins. Some were written by the Sky. Others were written in the ancient language of the Gear Elves that were forged in the Sands of Time. This was all fascinating. Synexus would enjoy learning all about these species. The owl happily researched like the others to figure out what this place was.

  So far, the theory was that most of the people who lived here found it by accident as they did. Castaways probably stumbled upon this place, built this mansion and then others found their way here and added to it to fit their needs. It would certainly explain the different elements of architecture. Gene believed that the first ones who built the main mansion were here for the dungeon and then everyone else that followed were washed ashore. This island was Long-lost Isle after all. It couldn’t be lost if it hadn’t been known of at one point.

  Either way they were on the right track. They had found twelve books so far that had mentions of the lock or the dungeon in the basement. Vorin expected them to find hundreds by the time they were done. The problem was finding the right book for unlocking the door. After throwing another on the pile, he took a minute to hope that Synexus was having an easier time.

  ***

  Back outside, Synexus was meditating in front of the glistening waterfall. The sound of the water was soothing. It was the sound of nature. Music that he was familiar with. Every now and then the breeze would whistle through the trees to join in. Birds would chirp as if they were providing the lyrics. He took a deep breath to draw it all in.

  His thoughts had led him through the genome of the castaway tree. It was much easier to alter the shape this tree would grow in than it was to change the shape of Gene into an owl. The issue was getting all the seeds to grow into their respective parts and become one ship. So far, he had refined the genome of eight seeds. He needed ninety-four more to make a ship large enough with all the right features. It needed rooms, three large masts, a raised area for the wheel, stairs to the wheel, a captain’s quarter where they could look at a map, and an area to store the supplies. It was a tall order.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  After he refined the genome of all the seeds, he would need to grow them all simultaneously and have them fuse with one another to create one solid ship. Once that was done, they would need to remove the roots and let the wood dry. This would be the part that would take up the most time. Ships needed to normally dry for at least a year. If he was correct, he could use Material Manipulation to speed this up a bit. His idea was to give it a fast-drying property of some other wood he had added to this database awhile ago. Then he would manipulate it further to be more buoyant, be stronger, and be more thermodynamic since it would be one solid piece of wood.

  Moreover, they needed to find something to use for the sails. Shell could create a current for them to travel on, but that would take them much longer than if they had wind power behind them. Nothing in the mansion was big enough for this task. Minily asked Synexus if he could grow giant leaves to use as the sails which was a brilliant idea, however, his abilities did have their limitations. He wasn’t sure if he could create leaves that big and if they would be effective for a long trip. It was still a possibility.

  He would take a break every twenty seeds or so to go downstairs and touch the omniaether stone. Gene had given him the task of understanding it and he wouldn’t fail his friend. When he got to around 8% he realized that it started giving him bits and pieces of different kinds of aether as well. It was like he started to understand all the aether that had gone into its creation.

  Omniaether Stone: 14%

  Memory Aether: 2%

  Mind Aether: 3%

  Freezing Aether: 2%

  Harmony Aether: 1%

  Creation Aether: 1%

  Life Aether: 4%

  Vast Aether: 6%

  Material Database Has Leveled Up!

  Material Database Is Now Level 10!

  Material Database Has Evolved into Matter Database!

  Matter Database: You have started to understand how materials make up the world you live in. Now it’s time to take it farther. Matter is the building blocks of reality and now you can strive to understand all forms of matter. The level of this skill will increase your understanding of matter you have researched.

  Motholo Air: 100%

  There was a rush of information as everything hit at once. His skill evolved so now he could log all forms of matter. This apparently includes gases now. It turned out the air was made up of oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide mostly. His new skill gave him the percentages immediately and he inherently understood the air around him a little more. It seemed that his skills were moving in the direction of digging deeper with each step. What was more interesting was his original skills seemed to get bigger in scale by starting with simple plants to more complex animals while his material skills started off with solid objects and were now moving towards any form of matter.

  Synexus had to sit down after the rush of information hit. Understanding the omniaether stone was too much on its own. Not to mention how complex each aether was, and the intake of sudden information from the air around him. It only took him a few moments of resting before he felt okay again. Then excitement took over for all the new forms of matter he could log. Liquids, gases, and solids were now in his grasp.

  He went back outside and immediately went to the waterfall.

  Aether Enhanced Water: 100%

  Water Aether: 38%

  A grin formed on his face from ear to ear. He loved progress and the feeling that came with it. Now it was time to make some progress on the ship of Synexus. Hopefully the others were making progress on their research.

  ***

  Vorin was right. After skimming through all the books, there was a pile of 248 that had mentioned something about the lock or the dungeon. Some were firsthand accounts. Some were stories. They would all be read. He wanted to be absolutely certain that opening the lock would be safe to everyone on the island. Once that was established, he would be more excited about being able to complete one of the fabled dungeons they were told about during story time back in Basics School.

  At this point, the class expected backed out to give the class chosen the space to speed read through all the books. They just wouldn’t be able to help. In the time it took a class expected to get through one book, the class chosen would be done with the rest of the pile.

  They had been in the library all day and sunset was going to be upon them soon. Synexus came in a few minutes before to ask about progress and to help with research. He had gotten 87 seeds done and needed to take a break. He grabbed a book and started helping. There were only about twenty books left, and no one had found anything concrete.

  That was until Gene let out a hoot of surprise. Everyone turned to the owl and waited to hear what they had found.

  “It seems that there is a dungeon behind that door. Even better is that it’s a trial dungeon meaning you all would need to enter alone as a test of character. This journal is from a class chosen who entered and passed his trial.”

  “Why is that a good thing? I don’t know if I feel safe letting people go in alone.” Vorin spoke with concern in his voice.

  “It’s a good thing because trial dungeons always came with the best rewards or so I’ve heard. They would form based on an analysis of the soul. People would make breakthroughs with their classes and with themselves inside of trial dungeons. This is a good opportunity.”

  “Okay. I trust you and it really is up to each individual and not me. Does it say how to get through the lock?”

  “No. Unfortunately, we need to still look for that part. It seems we only have thirteen books left.”

  Hearing that they could all gain something valuable to their class ignited the excitement in the room. Everyone grabbed a new book and got to work. They needed to find a key to the lock.