Three plans were made. Six class chosen and an owl were split up. One panoramic ocean was their destination. And a hell of a lot of gravity was their obstacle.

  Zuls and Kumo made up the first pair. Vorin thought they would be best suited to look into what they were calling plan one. Observations were made when they arrived and one big, obvious solution to their problem could be seen from anywhere on the rod. Flying pearl-colored stingrays with two deadly-looking pincers on their bellies were all around them in the air. Zuls and Kumo were tasked with seeing if they couldn’t capture a low-flying beast and see if it was possible to use them as mounts.

  Zuls could use her abilities to calm the creatures and befriend them if they weren’t overwhelmingly hostile. Since they were flying around with ease, it was assumed that they somehow could bypass the gravity or perhaps their wings were just that powerful. Either way, riding them up to the ocean was plan one.

  As the two women ran towards a larger swarm of the animals, they devised their own plan of action. Kumo would use a large gust of wind to push the lowest one towards them and Zuls would use her calming magic before attempting to ground it. Simple, yet effective.

  Plan two would be enacted by Synexus and Shell. The pair is tasked with creating an elevator. Vorin’s idea is that Synexus could potentially build a plant construct that could push them up to the ocean through the gravity or that Shell could create some sort of vertical river with enough force that it could launch them into the water above.

  Synexus immediately decided that they could combine the ideas. He would create some kind of hollow tree or sturdy vine that could hold Shell’s water. It would allow them to simply float up. The only reason it was dubbed as plan two was because it would be the most noticeable solution and seeing that the leviathans were aggressive, it didn’t seem like the best idea to rise from the land in a towering tube.

  That left Vorin and Prith. Originally, they were going to provide defense while the others worked, but Prith brought up the point that there might be some kind of natural gravity well or something that could be found to send them off the rod. The rest of the party thought it was plausible since most people wouldn’t have someone who could create endless things, someone that had an infinite amount of water with them, someone that could tame animals, or someone that could fly. A way to pass the floor using the floor itself.

  That’s how they ended up being the exploration team running from one end to the other and all around the rod taking out any enemies that impeded their mission.

  Gene would ferry messages and updates between each of the pairs. If one was in trouble, the others would go to help. If one pair found a solution, then the others would converge on them. Three plans, but they only needed one success.

  Kumo looked over to Zuls to get the affirmative nod that she was ready before activating her skill to create an incredibly strong downward draft. One of the strange creatures above wobbled in the sky before falling into a nosedive.

  As it flew closer, the two class chosen realized how massive the beasts actually were. From a distance they looked like the size of a bird of prey, from a dozen feet away they could see it was more like three dozen birds of prey. Befriending one would be enough to fit all of them assuming the wings could work with the extra weight.

  Wet cackles came from the circular mouth in between the ferocious pincers. Its wings were desperately trying to catch the air and balance to avoid the eventual crash. A body flailing in panic.

  Zuls felt bad for the beast, but knew it was necessary and knew that Kumo wouldn’t let it get hurt. Her faith in her friend was rewarded when a cushion of air caught the beast and set on softly on the ground.

  The animal tapped on the hard ground and squiggled around likely attempting to figure out how it survived.

  Zuls went to use her calming skill on the odd creature when it did something surprising. The lengthy tail arched itself to stabilize the body and the pincers extended into limbs akin to feet. Wings flopped onto the ground protecting its sides and its nose stayed low to the ground. That didn’t stop her, but it gave her pause momentarily. The whole display was proof that the creatures could land and then take off from the gravity at will.

  Her hand met sandpaper-like skin and mana poured from her into the creature reassuring it that everything was okay and that Zuls was there as a friend. The skill didn’t work a hundred percent of the time. Some animals were simply too aggressive or too intelligent. For the creature before her, that wasn’t the case. He turned to Zuls and let out a softer, dryer cackle.

  “You’re okay you beautiful stingray, bird, crab thing.”

  Her hand looked tiny compared to the body of the beast before her. Its nose alone was wider than her body was tall. Yet she stood there and started to brush the rough skin. She could feel the power behind her new friend as he nuzzled his nose into her hand.

  Communication between humans and animals was still more based on feelings than words. Even a Bond Forger had to have a bond with the animal for a couple of weeks before they could gain a deeper understanding. Zuls would forge a bond with any creature that would have her. The only problem was that she didn’t know if he could physically leave the floor. Still, for a simple task of flying them up, it wouldn’t be impossible to come to an understanding even without a forged bond.

  Kumo watched wearily as the terrifying monster started to nudge Zuls like a cat. Her mana was rapidly spinning within, ready to unleash a storm if any of the strange limbs made a move for her friend. Somehow Zuls looked completely calm and not at all scared.

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  Zuls continued to pulse mana in and feel the connection form between her and the beast. It seemed the creature was naturally docile. A strong urge to discover and travel radiated through their connection. She pushed in her own desires to elevate, to soar. The beast perked up and excitement flowed within their understanding until she also pictured the wall of the ocean’s surface above. The connection shuddered like a flimsy shack in a thunderstorm. Fear.

  Even the denizens of the sky were afraid of the ocean.

  Shell watched the great flying creature fall from the sky due to an invisible force. Her ocarina was at the ready to play a song of healing if it attacked her friends. A measure that turned out not to be needed. Knowing that Kumo and Zuls were safe, she turned back to her own task.

  She had gone over some preliminary plans with Synexus even though the idea wasn’t going to be elaborate—well it didn’t need to be, that is. The Progress Architect often added a little too much artistic flair. He had immediately gone inside his garden to work on the base plant they would work with to do their part.

  Essentially, he was going to grow a big tree that was shaped like a ring with a hollow center big enough for the whole party to stand in. She would then pour water in from her dimensional bag under them to quickly shoot them up to the top of the tree which would stop close to the ocean above but not quite touch it. The only real struggle would be to make the tree strong enough to grow in high gravity and hold the mass amount of water.

  She had time while her partner was doing his part, so she turned to see how her recording quartz were doing on the nexus. While walking along the mountains, she had recorded hundreds of thousands. Almost eighty percent of those had already been sold and she hoped they would find downtime again soon so she could record more. Her people never put much effort into making money or spending it. The ocean provided all they needed. Now, she found enjoyment watching the progress credits tick up each day. She was even starting to rival Synexus in wealth although no one truly knew how much he had made in gold from the bamboo variants.

  Lying back on the hard rod of earth and staring up at the wavy ocean made her think of home—of her family. She wondered what they were doing right now and what they would think of all she accomplished. Since being at home, she had seen so much and grew even more. She was styling her hair a bit differently to mimic the way Radia had worn hers when playing on stage. Even the clothes she wore were drastically different in both material and style. At heart, she knew she was the same person, but she had added so much on to that person. She watched the fish swim in the ocean above until Synexus stirred from his meditation.

  “Hey, Shell! How long was I out this time? It wasn’t like two months or something, right?”

  “Only one actually!”

  Synexus face went ghost white.

  “I’m so sorry. For me it felt like an hour at most.”

  Shell laughed before standing up and walking over.

  “Actually, it’s been about twenty minutes.”

  “Oh good! Lately, I’ve been wondering what would happen if I went into my garden and woke up a year later.”

  “We wouldn’t let that happen. Pretty sure you would have woken up in the ocean above while we were dragging you through it.”

  “That would be an unpleasant way to wake up.”

  “It would. Now, did you succeed?”

  “Of course! Working with higher gravity was the tricky part, but I basically told the seed to grow in compressed layers to fix that. Then I stole genes from the thief plant once more and incorporated some space aether to create a spatially expanded center for us to use.”

  Shell shook her head back and forth then sighed.

  “This was supposed to be simple and instead you experiment with condensed mana?”

  “Only way to keep leveling the skill up.” Synexus said with a shrug. “Have the others had success?”

  “Zuls and Kumo have been hanging out with one of the flying beasts for nearly half an hour. You may want to offer your services to inspect it.”

  Gene landed seconds later with a gust of wind. The owl was breathing heavy.

  “The gravity is hard to fly in.”

  “Well, we won’t have to fly out of here.”

  “You already accomplished the task? Are you sure?”

  “I was surprised too. And get this, he experimented with space aether.” Shell tittered.

  “Truly? Synexus, aether is hard to work with. I would advise caution especially with spatial aether.”

  “We won’t know until I try to grow it. Let’s go see how Zuls and Kumo are doing.”

  “Well, I came from Prith and Vorin. They found something interesting.”

  Vorin and Prith darted off from where the plans were devised to get to work. Their job was to explore the rod of earth for any sort of natural gravity well or means to get to the ocean.

  Monsters on the surface were unbelievably hostile, and all-out brawls were happening wherever they looked. A few apex predators stood out, and others seemed to know it. The two humans wove in and out of fights to avoid getting themselves into a bigger fight than needed. Even with being careful, several beasts came at them anyways and quick slashes of sword and scythe cleared their path.

  Expectations from where they came into the world were that the surface was completely flat with little vegetation, but that didn’t prove to be true. After walking around the rod, they found that the underside held an entire forest. Dark and foreboding, it grew thick. The air around it felt stale like that of an old person’s home.

  Vorin suggested they sit and watch for a bit before entering. Prith agreed and they sat down with a little lunch to see what they could see. Creatures went in or were dragged in from dangerous phantom limbs, and they never came out. Vorin stood to say they should come back to the forest with the whole party once they checked everywhere else, but some dark mist shot from the forest and wrapped around his ankle. His fingers dug into the hard ground and left trails as he was dragged back beyond the tree line.

  Prith ran after his captain desperately, slashing at the mist even though it was no use. A friendly voice came from above and he didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

  “Use mana!”

  The swordmaster didn’t hesitate and used his mana blade to slash the mist. Vorin immediately scrambled to his feet, and they backed away from forest. Gene landed moments later.

  “Thanks, Gene. You saved me.”

  “It is my duty on this mission. That was some sort of skill. A powerful creature must lurk in the ancient forest.”

  “I’m so tired of forests.”

  Vorin and Gene laughed with Prith.

  “Well, it’s not simply a forest. Those trees are completely made of mana.”

  “What does that mean?” Vorin was still wearingly staring at the forest.

  “It means that whole forest is some kind of skill. An illusion.”

  “You’re saying that beast that almost got Vorin is using a skill to hide itself in a forest? That’s clever. Food comes in seeking shelter from the hostile openness of the surface only to find itself walking into the maw of a greater threat.”

  “Yes, Prith. I agree. It’s quite the masterful hunting tactic.”

  “How would we kill a beast like that?” Vorin turned the owl for the first time in the whole conversation.

  “You go into the forest.”