The first hour of his remaining time was spent finding a quiet space where he could be alone with his thoughts. It had to be somewhere that Synexus could push away all distractions and have complete focus if he was going to make it in time for the departure tomorrow morning. He settled on the roof of the inn. It was solitary without being too far in case he came down to the wire with time. Was he supposed to be up here? Probably not, but he would stay until someone told him otherwise. This spot also gave him an unobstructed view of the ocean. It was a beautiful sight and would motivate him more.
The second hour was spent planning his projects out. He would start with simple edits to get things going, and they would gradually escalate in difficulty until he reached the project that would gain him the last level he needed. This was because the more difficult the project, the more experience he seemed to get. His last project of the time left would be a multi-gene project involving a legendary, a rare, an uncommon, and a common plant genome. That would be what it was all building too, and with the excitement growing, he got started.
The third hour was for basic edits. This included simply changing the genes for color in a plant, perhaps editing in a different scent, or even changing the size at which a plant could grow too. Now, these weren’t technically simple gene edits. No gene edits were simple, but in comparison to what he would be doing later, they were easy. He decided to spend the entire hour doing this to warm up and gain some experience.
The fourth hour of the fourteen was slightly harder edits. These edits were about changing magical properties of plants by editing their genes. One was to take the unique properties of the regret orchid that changed all surrounding land in a six-meter radius to quicksand and edit it into a siren snapdragon which lured people into smelling it before dispersing a gas that made you tired. These were harder changes, but he had practiced with them quite a bit. Another was to take a mirage poppy that would make magical illusions of itself for protection and edit it so it would produce even more illusions. Some of these edits would be helpful, and some would only be interesting. All of these were important, however. He was able to do almost thirty of them in the hour, which was a sign he was getting faster.
The fifth hour was all about taking two previous gene edits and making them into one. This was his crimson-aura oak and his mana maple. He had his new legendary pear tree but wanted something to gain both health and mana on a regular basis. The leaves from the crimson-aura oak could heal and the mana maple leaves could provide mana. He had to focus on this one since they were two different tree species and had two different effects. He grabbed a new maple seed he had in his bag and started editing its genes. This would be the first step of his next project, and he wanted to get it just right. The tree needed to both pull in mana and life energy to create mixed effects. It was complex and he failed once, but after nearly exhausting the whole hour, he got the desired outcome.
Gene Editing Successful!
Crimson Mana Maple (unique): This tree gives off a slight purple aura from the accumulating mana and life energy. The leaves on this tree can be consumed to gain a little mana, and health.
The sixth hour was about relaxing. That change had been difficult and the two hours before were filled with nonstop gene editing. The next few hours would be even more difficult. He sat watching the boats on the ocean and clearing his mind for what was to come. In just a few hours he would be boarding The Windswept. He’d be the one sailing away on one of those ships and someone else would be watching him from the city. What would the ocean have in store for him? And how much would he progress? These questions burned in him until he was ready to get back to it.
The seventh hour was about taking his newest creation and pushing it further. One of the more expensive fruit tree seeds he had acquired while here in Gale was for a tree that produced the yuop fruit. This fruit was special in that it helped to alleviate physical exhaustion, and it provided some stamina points. His plan was to take the combined genes of the crimson mana maple and edit them into the yuop fruit tree to give the yuop properties of restoring stamina, mana, and health points. This was another difficult edit. He had to basically cut some genes of the yuop and then rearrange them while adding in the genes of the other tree. It took five failed attempts before he finally was able to look at his successful seed.
Gene editing Successful!
Crimson Mana Yuop (unique): This tree produces crimson mana yuop fruits. They are rough yellow-orange fruits with a sweet taste that give off a purple aura. Eating one will grant some stamina, mana, and health points. This amount will vary based on how exhausted the resources are.
The eighth hour was when he started on his final project he had planned out. This one was the most difficult and would grant him a lot of experience. He wasn’t sure how he knew this, but he could feel it. It was another multi-step gene edit and would involve four different plants. The plan was to take the legendary plant he had recorded the other night, the Unseen, and push its properties of invisibility into a common seed. The plant granted complete invisibility for an hour if one of its petals were consumed. The edit would be much easier if he could push the other genes into the legendary plant, but he didn’t buy it. After some preparation, the first step was started which was to take the uncommon scent masker herb which would mask your scent if the oils from the herb were rubbed on one’s skin and push it into a common fruit tree. There wasn’t a reason for this except Synexus had bought a ton of fruit trees and the idea of eating a fruit instead of a petal was delightful. After all, he was learning that flavor was important.
The ninth hour was about adding onto the easier change of the first step by editing in the genes of a rare herb he had found in the same shop. This herb was about masking one’s sounds. It would create a field around it that wouldn’t allow any sounds to escape. The edit was difficult, but not impossible due to the abilities not conflicting with one another. After only forty-eight minutes he produced a fruit tree that would grow fruits to give one a silence field, and completely mask their scents with the oils. Now there was one step to go, and it would be the hardest by far.
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The tenth hour is where the ultimate project began. This common seed had now taken on the properties of both an uncommon and a rare. The legendary would make this creation truly special, but you couldn’t simply shove the genes of a legendary plant into that of a common seed. As the ranks got higher, the complexity did too. If he wasn’t determined to get the skill to level 10 tonight then he wouldn’t even attempt this tonight, but it was important.
He began by filling his mind with the genes of the legendary plant and isolating the ones that specifically dealt with the invisibility properties. This helped him think more clearly since it simplifies the genome from a mass of information to one specific part. He then grabbed the seed and started to search for where it would have to go. Where would it fit, and how would it react with the other genes were important pieces of information. Once he had done that, it was time to start editing. He knew he would fail over and over until he found just the right way to fit the puzzle piece into the puzzle.
The eleventh hour was already underway, and he had failed nineteen times already, but he wouldn’t give up. There had to be a way to get this to work. He looked at everything again and decided to rearrange the genes of the fruit. That led him to another failure. The final time he opened himself up further to truly feel the genes. He could feel what they did, and how they would react. This made him realize that two of the properties were conflicting. Instead of scraping the project he wondered what would happen if he simply condensed them all within the legendary plant’s genes. It took another few minutes to figure out a way to do this and then it clicked. The puzzle was complete.
Gene Editing Successful!
The Untraceable Lychee (Unique): This tree produces sweet fruits that when consumed hide you from all senses. You will be invisible from light on all points of the spectrum. The oils from this fruit will be secreted from your skin causing your scent to disappear. While this ability is active the fruit will produce a field of silence surrounding your body. This ability will take five minutes to activate and will only last for thirty.
Warning: This fruit carries too much magic for your current level. Using one will leave your resource pools nearly depleted as your body will have to expend resources to digest the fruit.
Gene Editing has leveled up!
Gene Editing is now level 10!
Gene Editing has evolved to Genome Refinement
Genome Refinement: Editing can get you positive results, but refining will bring perfection. You now have the ability to refine the genes of both plants and animals in your Genome Library. This skill is a gift and an ethical liability. Use it well.
Synexus stared at his new skill and considered how right the system was about it being an ethical liability. All he had to done for Snowfall was activate a dormant gene and she was in pain even if it was only a few moments. What would changing an animal’s genes do? Would the pain even be bearable?
He thought about the implications of his skill as he walked to his room in the inn to try and get a couple hours of sleep before they had to depart even though he knew that there would be plenty of time to sleep once on the ship.
Hour twelve was spent lying in bed with the excitement of his upcoming journey and the fact that he would finally create a vessel for the Living System in the morning while they were departing the port. They all wanted to be there to watch, so it would be a perfect time to do it. The whole day he had been activating his Body Transmutation skill whenever the ability wore off and it had just worn off again. This time he chose to activate a more complicated gene which was one from an uncommon plant that produces some heat. It was a bit cold in his room, and he thought it was a perfect opportunity to make use of his skill when suddenly he got a welcome notification.
Body Transmutation has leveled up!
You have leveled up!
40 stat points available
The original plan was to get his class to level 10 before departing, but Body Transmutation was a hard skill to level up. The cooldown of waiting for the effect to wear off slowed down progress greatly. The more complicated genes he copied to his body, the more experience he seemed to get, but more complicated genes often came with walking around with an arm glowing like the sun or producing weird sounds. The new plan was to work on it the first few days of the voyage. It was disappointing, but there was nothing he could do about it. This level, however, was a welcome surprise! This meant he was only one level away and that was a good feeling.
The thirteenth hour was spent dividing up his skill points which wasn’t too difficult. He first decided to put six in all of them which would use up 36 of the 40 available. Then he put one more in agility and one more in endurance because those had been where his random points went the past two days and they were only one behind intelligence and perception. The last two went into vitality and strength since those were his lowest now.
The rest of the thirteenth hour was spent with Kumo getting ready to leave. They had left the lady who ran the inn a tip for being so kind. They got breakfast and Synexus caught her up on what happened with Zuls. She was surprised about how their new friends had also been attacked by an Ullashtt and listened without interruption. He then told her about how he hit level 9 in his class and level 10 in Genome Refinement. When he was done, she told him about how she had also hit level 9 in her class by leveling up Cloud Cover. They talked about how they divided their stats and then about how excited they both were to finally get moving again.
Finally, the fourteenth hour arrived as they arrived at the dock. The Windswept was swaying on the ocean. It was white with grey/silver accents. It was a medium sized ship with three large masts. Synexus had learned that most of the ships had power to maneuver into ports, but most of the time out at sea the sails would be down, and they would be riding the wind. The crew were aboard moving supplies below deck, and they could hear Captain Vorin giving directions.
In seconds they would board and start their next adventure. The ocean was calling to them and what lay beyond held the key to their progress. Synexus looked back while on the boarding ramp at the city that had treated him so kindly. He had made friends here, somehow had gotten rich here, and learned much about what lay beyond the Branch settlement. This city would always be in his memories, and he would return.
The ship would leave for open water once everyone was boarded. This could be an hour or so as people were often slow moving in the morning. In this time, Synexus had a plan to take care of one last order of business from Gale. He needed to finally make a vessel for the Living System.
