Animal genomes are more complex than plants. If we talked about them in terms of mazes, a plant’s genome would be a two-dimensional maze on paper where you can see the beginning and ending but must figure out the path. An animal’s genome would be like a labyrinth that you’re in the middle of. You have no idea where the start or the end is, but you must find a path to succeed anyways. This makes what Synexus was about to do extremely difficult, especially for his first time.

  “To be honest, my skill allowing me to edit skills isn’t ready for animals yet because it’s still level 8, however, I don’t believe I need to edit any genes here. My hope is that I can interact with the dormant genes that grew the original eyes, to grow a new eye. This is my first time, so please do not get your hopes up.”

  “You trying means the world to me. Please be careful though.” Zuls said with a bit of hesitation in her voice.

  Synexus looked through the genome he had just recorded in his Genome Library and searched for the dormant genes. He figured they had to be there because all animals have them for when they are developing. Normally these are pretty much useless genes later in life, but if he could push his mana in and reactivate them, then perhaps the fox would have a new eye.

  It took him a couple of minutes to locate them, and he spent some extra time studying them. His inherent knowledge from his class told him a lot about how to read genes, which is why he could accomplish what he could accomplish, but this was something new for him.

  After he got himself as prepared as he could be, he activated Extreme Growth. The first thing he noticed was that his mana was burning fast which must have scaled with the complexity. Bamboo was easy, but a fox was on another level. He channeled all the mana into the genes he had isolated, and he felt that they reactivated like he had planned. The next thing he noticed was the yelping from the fox. This apparently was not a pleasant experience for the majestic animal and Synexus could see why.

  The mana was searing away the skin that had grown over the eye socket and was rapidly growing a new eye. It looked painful and made Synexus wince that he was causing this. He had never intended for Snowfall to be in pain, but it was working, and he knew he couldn’t stop now until it was done.

  The final thing he noticed was that Snowfall was growing. He didn’t have perfect control over this, and his mana must have been activating growth genes as well, but it would have to be an unexpected consequence.

  It took the whole process about forty seconds or so from start to finish. Still, Synexus felt bad for the pain he had inflicted. When it finished, he apologized to Snowfall who was now staring at him with an incredible look, but with two eyes.

  Extreme Growth has leveled up!

  He almost fell over from mana exhaustion. Zuls caught him and helped him sit on the bench. She had tears streaming down her face, and she was thanking him repeatedly. He tried saying it was no problem, however, the mental exhaustion had hit hard, so instead he leaned into a hug.

  Zuls got him settled onto the bench and then ran over to Snowfall to give her a big hug too. The fox was elated and was showing it by jumping around on two massive legs. She had grown nearly two feet taller and on her hind legs she looked as tall as the buildings around them. Zuls joined her in jumping around while she was mixing a laugh with her tears. They were both so happy.

  Synexus smiled as he watched them. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever truly be that happy. It brought him joy that he was the cause of this celebration. It took him a few minutes to recover enough to stand and walk over to them. The fox that had growled at him moments ago was now brushing its face against his. Zuls brought him into another hug while wrapping one arm around the neck of the fox or trying to at least.

  The celebration finally died down and Zuls said, “thank you so much. This really is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I know I can’t repay you, but please let me take you somewhere in the morning. I help at a place in the city that brings injured animals in to rehabilitate before releasing them again. Come with me, and you can add more of them to your skill for experience.”

  Synexus was going to turn her down because he really didn’t need any sort of payment. He wanted to do this, but it could be beneficial to him leveling up his skill. “Okay, that sounds like a good plan. You don’t owe me anything though. I’m glad I could help.”

  “You’re way too modest. Don’t think of it as me repaying you then. Think about it as us spending some time together before we set off on the voyage. I’ll pick you up in front of the inn at dawn, which is in like four hours. See ya!”

  With that she jumped onto the back of Snowfall, and they happily went down the street towards her home.

  Synexus was ready to sleep at this point, so he walked the short distance back to the inn. He went up the stairs and right when he got to the top, he noticed that Kumo was waiting for him in front of his door.

  “Wow that you took you awhile. What did she want to talk about?”

  “One of her animal companions lost an eye, and she asked if I could use my skills to grow it a new one.”

  Kumo eyes widened. “Were you able too?”

  “Yes, I used Extreme Growth to reactivate dormant genes to grow a new eye. It took a lot of mana though. I told her she didn’t owe me anything, but she insisted I come with her tomorrow to a place in the city where I can get more animal genomes for my skill.”

  “Well, I’m impressed. You thought you wouldn’t fit in socially, but you already have a date. “

  “It’s not a date, Kumo. She works at the place, so I’m sure I’ll be working too.”

  “Whatever you say, Synexus.” She said it in a teasing tone. “I stayed up to wait for you, so we could chat about what we thought about our new friends. We board a ship with them for two months in two days.”

  “I liked them. We all got along well, and with them being a higher level, I think we could learn from them. What do you think?

  “You are very quick to trust, but I do agree that they seemed like cool people. I think there is more to them wanting to stop the adventures though.”

  “You’re right about that. I think they lost someone. Zuls said they don’t like talking about it, but her fox losing its eye wasn’t the worst thing that happened. “

  “Well, I think you’re right that we can trust them.I would like to know what happened though. What if they left someone behind, and we get into a situation like that again. They won’t hesitate to leave the new people behind.”

  “I can try to ask more about it in the morning, but I don’t know. They don’t seem like the type of people to do that. You should have seen how much Zuls cared that her fox was suffering.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Alright, well don’t push too hard. We don’t want them kicking us off the ship, but if they feel like sharing then I’d like to know. Be more careful around people is all I’m saying. Most don’t have good intentions. Goodnight, Synexus. Have fun in the morning!”

  “Goodnight, Kumo.”

  With that they both went into their respective rooms and went to sleep.

  The sun was barely over the horizon and synexus found himself walking next to Zuls again. She was spouting off random facts about places in the city that he would never have thought about going to. It didn’t surprise him that she knew a lot. This was her home ever since she was born. She had actually pointed out the medical facility she was born at to him. This obviously made him think of his people. Where was he born?

  They made some friendly conversation as they walked, but after half an hour, they found themselves in front of a building named Wildlife Preserve. She had explained that this place harbored injured animals to be healed and then released, but some had to stay long term. It was also used to research the abilities of wild animals.

  Inside the building the walls were a blinding white. Every surface looked spotless. Not a single spec of dust in sight. There was a couple dozen doorways leading to different environments lining the opposite wall.

  “They are all dimensional spaces. Each one contains an environment and within those are the animals best suited for them.” Zuls said as if reading his mind.

  This was incredible. Synexus was mystified by the research that must have gone into a place like this. It was brilliant. He expected to come in and find poor animals in cages, but this blew his expectations out of the water.

  “Ah, Zullany. Welcome back!” A gentleman with finely combed hair and a journal said.

  “Hello, Billow. This is Synexus. He was hoping to see some of the animals for his own research, and I figured it would work out with my rounds.”

  “Sure thing. It’s a pleasure Mr. Synexus. What kind of research are you doing?”

  “Uhh, hello Mr. Billow. I’m researching genomes.”

  Billow looked at him and then scribbled into his journal. “That’s fascinating! Would you be willing to share any insights you get from the animals?”

  Synexus went to answer, but Zuls beat him to it. “Billow, this is his first time seeing the animals. I’m sure he won’t get anymore than you have in your three years here.”

  “Oh, right. My apologies. Enjoy your time with the animals and do be careful.”

  Zuls guided him into the first dimensional space which was a wide-open prairie type of environment. Several species were peacefully walking through the tall grass and relaxing in the shade of the few trees they could see.

  Immediately, animals of every species started walking over. Zuls told him that she had an ability to call animals to her and another to make them docile for a short time, but these species weren’t normally aggressive anyways.

  There were variations of elks, horses, deer, bison, insects, different birds, foxes, rabbits, and several others. The variations made these animals different sizes, colors, and have different features. Some were elemental in nature, while others looked normal, but moved at insane speeds. Synexus saw a butterfly that could change its size at will, and a fox that could teleport like it was walking. He decided it was time to get to work.

  Crown of Blades Deer: 100%

  Mind Trap Bee: 100%

  -

  Cosmic Box Turtle: 100%

  Genome Library has leveled up!

  He felt like he had recorded at least sixty animals. This was a goldmine and would help him a lot in the future. He was excited that they still had a little over twenty environments left. This was going to be a good day for learning.

  The second environment was a frozen tundra which they hurried through because it was freezing. There weren’t as many animals in this one, but still there were some fascinating variations.

  Polar Vortex Bear: 100%

  Singularity Penguin: 100%

  Multi-headed Sea Lion: 100%

  -

  Lacerating Walrus: 100%

  After the sixth environment they took a small break because Synexus had taken in a lot of information in a short time. They sat down against a massive tree in the forest biome to chat.

  “Thank you for this. I’m getting a lot of useful genes. The projects I’ll be able to do with these in the future will be amazing.”

  “As long as you don’t make some apocalypse animal, I’m excited to see what happens.”

  They both laughed. “I can promise you that I won’t do that. I’m careful with what genes I edit and what I interfere with. I felt bad last night that I accidentally made Snowfall grow a couple feet.”

  “Don’t feel bad. She is happy for the growth. Believe it or not, but she was the runt of her family, and you fixed that along with her eye.”

  “Wow her species must get massive then! That’s fascinating.”

  “Yeah, they aren’t a rare variation for nothing. They are feared in the wild.”

  “I can see why. Those claws alone are terrifying. I can’t wait to see what she can do on our voyage.”

  “It’s been a while since she got brought out in combat. I’m sure she is excited to show off a little too. I can’t believe we leave tomorrow morning.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. The time in Gale has been amazing, but quicker than I expected. I am excited for getting out on the ocean and learning about sailing though.”

  “Wait, have you ever been on a boat?”

  “Nope! The first time I saw any boats was when I met Captain Vorin the other day.”

  “Well, I sure hope you don’t get sea sickness. Even with our improved vitality and agility, it can happen.”

  “What’s sea sickness?”

  “Some people feel ill due to the motion of the boat on the water. We probably should have got you accustomed before we officially left, but too late for that now.”

  “Now I’m worried. I hope I’m not one of those people. I’ve been looking forward to getting out on that vast expanse ever since we got our first look of it. It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s beautiful to look at from the safety of land for sure, but you gotta be careful when we are out on it. It claims everyone, even class chosen. It’s unforgiving and will swallow you if you let it have the chance. I’m not saying any of this to scare you. I just want you to be prepared. We can’t lose anyone else.”

  She lowered her head, so Synexus put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry if you’ve lost someone and you certainly don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but you are welcome to.”

  “I probably shouldn’t. We just met yesterday, but I already told the story last night. At least a little bit of it. About a year and a half ago we lost the healer on our team in the same fight that Snowfall lost her eye in. We were too confident. We would walk from city to city taking out monsters or beasts that were causing problems for the people in that area. Every monster fell to us easily. We had a good team and a good strategy thanks to Vorin, but then we ran into this nightmare.” She paused as if re-living the fight in her mind. Synexus stayed silent and waited for her. Finally, she spoke again, “sorry, the image of that thing haunts me. It was this distorted massive, quilled beast. Its face could move to any part of its body even its quills. That meant it never lost sight of us, and anytime we tried to touch it, the mouth would appear to bite us with its gnarled teeth. Its entire body could twist like it didn’t have bones at all. It was horrific. No matter what we did, it kept fighting. The quills were like steel. Prith’s blades were bouncing off them. When Vorin touched it to spread a plague, it would try to bite him. He swore that he was able to infect it, but the thing just wouldn’t fall. Snowfall wouldn’t retreat and ended up getting a quill through the eye. Our healer kept us alive at the cost of her own life. We don’t talk about that day because we failed. We helped those people evacuate. They lost their homes, and we couldn’t even avenge the sixteen children the monster ate. Sixteen, Synexus.” She started crying with her face tucked between her hands.

  “You can’t blame yourselves. That thing sounds like an abomination of nature. It’s the only one to blame. Horrible things happen in this world every day, and all we can do is try our best. Your party gave up their friend, and your fox’s eye. Without you that whole city would have died. I’m sure they rebuilt their homes. They couldn’t rebuild their lives if they were dead.”

  Synexus was waiting for a response, but she was crying too hard. It seemed to get harder when he put his arm around her. They had been blaming themselves for this whole year and a half. They faced a true horror that day, and that does a number on the mind. It took Kumo and himself days to get over being swallowed alive by that worm…that’s when a memory hit him. It was from that story book series he read about the Ullasht. In the third volume there was a beast depicted as a blob with spikes coming from it in all directions.

  “You faced an Ullashtt.”