I don’t know if Drain Touch will work on trees or if I can absorb that kind of life force. There is only one way to find out, so I try using it on the tree that I just cut down. Unfortunately, it has no effect whatsoever on the tree, meaning I need to think of something else.

  For now, I keep harvesting trees and just pile them up until I can come up with another idea. In the end, I harvest all fifty trees and still haven’t come up with a decent idea. So, I use a crystal to open and maintain a gate back to the island and just start throwing trees through.

  It isn’t really efficient, but I would probably waste more time trying to come up with something clever. I throw all of the trees through and then go through myself, but by then the crystal is almost completely drained. Once the gate is closed, I leave the crystal out so that it can start recovering its mana.

  I should probably find somewhere safe to leave it, they take a long time to charge up. I don’t feel like having to go to the ship every time one of them needs to recharge. I can probably just put a platform on top of the lodge once it is built, it should be safe enough here.

  Speaking of, I start stripping the branches off of all of the trees and stacking them neatly. The trunks I will use to build the building and the branches I will use to make furniture. Normally that would take a lot of time and effort, but magic is an amazing cheat.

  The first thing I need to do is build the foundation out of stone, which is fairly simple. That is, until I change my mind and decide to add a basement, which makes me start over. Luckily, I am manipulating the stone rather than doing things the normal way.

  I also add a hidden tunnel that leads into the chamber I made for the gate platform. There is no real need for it, but I decide to do it anyway just for fun. The next thing is to start laying the tree trunks and shaping them into the frame and walls of the building.

  My experience in working on the ship comes in real handy for this part, but I still make some mistakes. Luckily, being able to manipulate the wood with mana keeps me from having to start over. I make the main floor and the second floor the same size, but the third floor I make a little smaller.

  This is going to be the suite for me and the girls, so I want it to be more special. I plan to have a covered balcony surround the suite so that we can enjoy the view. Although, I plan to add an enchantment to make sure we can’t be seen from the outside.

  Just in case we end up having some fun on the balcony, which will probably happen at some point. We will be alone on the island during the honeymoon, but I don’t plan for that to be the only time we use this place. When we use it to relax later, the chances are that there will be others on the island.

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  Later, I plan to build bungalows all around the beach so people can have some privacy if they want it. I haven’t decided who all I am going to give access to the island, but there might be more than a few. Besides, it's an enchantment so it's not like I will be wasting valuable materials or anything.

  Speaking of materials, now that I have started I am thinking that fifty trees was too much. Not that it really matters, I am sure that I will find a use for all of it as I work on the resort. By dawn, I have mostly completed the structure of the main lodge and I haven’t even used half of the trees.

  I will be able to finish it fairly quickly and it will only use one more tree, maybe two. However, now that the sun is coming up it is time to go back to hunting dragonfish. First, I have some breakfast from the pouch, then I head out and start swimming around.

  Much like with the underwater obelisks, I have found that scanning with water mana greatly improves the range. So, even though flying is safer, I plan to spend the day swimming around while scanning. However, I am staying close to the surface as I swim so that I can escape to the air if needed.

  After a few hours with nothing to show for it, I change directions and head away from the land bridge. I am hoping that I will have more luck if I head out to deeper waters. The dragonfish are obviously carnivores from their teeth, so they have to hunt something.

  They didn’t seem fast enough to hunt smaller fish, so they probably hunt bigger things. Alone that wouldn’t be possible, but with their numbers they should be able to hunt some things. If that theory is correct, then deeper waters where there are more large creatures might be their preferred hunting grounds.

  Since I only found one group in the shallower waters, it is worth checking out. Although, that also means there are probably going to be more things that want to try and eat me. I am tempted to switch to my Meg form, but I would lose out on gaining exp if I did.

  Not needing to surface to breath would be nice, but not worth the loss of experience. It would be easier to fight in the Meg form, but I can manage in my normal form. As long as I don’t run into an adult leviathan or something along those lines, I should be fine.

  About an hour after changing directions I finally detect a school of dragonfish. The only problem is that they are beneath me, at a depth that I might have some trouble with. I can probably hold my breath long enough to get down that deep, but I don’t know about the pressure.

  There is only one way to find out, so I surface and fill my lungs then I dive down. The light fades quickly as I swim straight down and before long I start feeling the pressure. At first I barely notice it, but then it starts feeling like my entire body is being squeezed.

  By the time I get to the depth close to the dragonfish it has turned to pain, but it is still at a level that I can handle. However, surfacing again has me slightly worried, I don’t know if I have to worry about the bends. This body isn’t designed to handle the pressure changes so I probably do need to worry.

  At this depth, there is no light at all, so I am depending entirely on my mana to see. I get close enough to the dragonfish to snare them with water magic and then immediately start surfacing. I know I should probably surface slowly to let my body adjust, but lack of air won’t allow that.