The harbor, such as it was, was already bustling when Rain arrived, Tarny and Ameliah walking beside him. A floating dock was evidence of the progress that had been made, and the sound of sawing and hammering could be heard as people worked to construct basic rowboats, barges, and the like. Fishing had fed the city in the past, and it would again, but it would be a while yet before a fleet of any sufficient size could be constructed.

Rope for nets was the current problem, being in shorter supply than wood, but Rain was already working on that. Captain Bakal had agreed to let Ascension enlist Green for his services, and not an hour ago, Rain had set the Nature Mage to growing flax in the land already cleared of trees through the vigorous logging operation that was going on. Green could make plants grow quite quickly indeed, given enough mana, but even a hundredfold speedup wouldn’t be sufficient to replenish the forest on any reasonable timescale. Trees took years to reach a useful size. Flax, though, could be grown and harvested basically as fast as it could be planted and watered, provided that Green didn’t die from the headache.

To wit, Rain had lent the man ten of Ascension’s standard stat rings, five for Focus, five for Clarity, then crammed him so full of mana he’d feared he might pop and set him to duplicating their small initial stock of seeds. Rain had also arranged for laborers to help with the planting and to haul the city’s refuse up the cliff using the newly constructed pulley system. Though Green could compensate somewhat, soil depletion was still a major consideration. As much as he would have liked to keep the city clean and sparkling, Rain acknowledged that shit was a resource like any other. He also didn’t want people outside of Ascension to become reliant on his colon cleaning services.

“Right,” Rain said, coming to a stop and clapping his hands together. He sent a quick message to Dozer, warning him about the ocean being salty, then grinned at Ameliah. “Ready for a nice swim?”

“Are you sure ‘swim’ is the word?” Ameliah said, adjusting her bow slung over her shoulder. Like him, she was fully armored, though she didn’t have her helmet summoned at the moment.

“We’ll see,” Rain said, holding out his right hand to inspect the set of four—not three—Malleable Rings he wore there. He was wearing his helmet too, but with the visor raised. In lieu of a cloak, he had donned the Double Gamgee 2.0, though the large pack was empty at the moment. Remembering that he’d meant to do so, he triggered an essence exchange.

Progress Report

marker_1: tc_office_hour2 [3061 Seedlings 20 12:46]

marker_2: swim_day [3061 Seedlings 21 09:15]

Span: 20.5 hours

Skills

Suppression: +49,885 exp, 14 -> 15 (+1)

Winter: +2,112 exp

Mana Manipulation: +360 exp

Prismatic Intent: +1 exp