[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 53: Signs of Life

Sam sailed through the air, wind and misted rain blowing through his hair. It felt freeing.

And, as it turned out, with his higher stats, the gap was easy to leap. In fact, he had overshot it by several feet. Sam traced the makeshift rope back to the tiny Skyshard and cursed.

Komachi was running along its slackened length with the graceful ease of all cats across the multiverse.

“Don’t leave Komachi!” she wailed, leaping onto his shoulder and diving into his armor.

Sam sighed and shook his head. “I just wanted you to be safe, Komachi.”

“I keep you safe with healing.”

Sometimes there was no arguing with her.

Sam turned to look at the progress of their Skyshard. It looked so pathetic and small. The tents that Kai and Matt were still sleeping in seemed the largest thing on the island, aside from the small cluster of boulders taking up valuable real estate.

But the oddest thing was how the Skyshard slowed down as it came closer to the outer Isle that Sam was on, almost as if there was a sort of attraction between the two. Not enough to stop them completely… but maybe the mana currents, or whatever was dictating their movements, were somehow synchronized?

Raiko eyed the outer island and theirs. “Hmm, they’re not drifting away from each other?”

That was another concern. Whether the cluster of isles and their Skyshard would continue to float in opposing directions. He was going to use that excuse to get Komachi to stick around on the other end, but she wasn’t having it.

“Eh, who knows how long they’ll stay like that,” Komachi said.

Sam slipped off the safety tether and, finding a suitably sized stone, looped it over it. Now the two islands were, very tentatively, moored together.

There was no telling how long that rope would last, but seeing as it was still slack between the two Skyshards, Sam figured they had a little time before the theory was tested.

Raiko went to test the rope, but her hand just passed through with no resistance. She sighed in annoyance.

“I’d pat you on the back, but… y’know.”

“Maybe your hand will go through my back and out my boob. Or you’ll sorta touch me like before.”

Curious, Sam reached out a hand to her shoulder. As soon as it got within a hair’s breadth, they both received a nasty shock.

“Sonnuva—!” Sam hissed.

“Hate this new development,” Raiko whispered.

“Let’s see if I can stake my claim on this island,” Sam said, disgruntledly.

“Ya gonna pee on it?” Komachi asked.

“No,” he said, kneeling down and pressing his hand to the stone, trying to bring up the notification. “Not getting anything.”

After several minutes of trying, Sam eventually got fed up and walked over to the edge of the Isle. This was just one of several little rocky islands that encircled the lush tropical paradise of the central Skyshard.

The thick ropes of vines nearly made a dangerously swinging bridge that even Sam could easily traverse, so long as he didn’t look down into the emptiness below.

The main island was little more than a large waterfall, a surprisingly deep lake, and another waterfall that roared over the edge of the island and probably made some poor bastard’s day worse down below.

Assuming there was a below.

Repeating his attempts, Sam inevitably realized that either this place didn’t qualify as an attainable Skyshard—which meant he couldn’t claim it with a Settlement Core—or it was already taken by someone or something.

But after drinking his fill of water, and refilling the empty potion bottles he received as part of his first quest, Sam had seen no sign of anything.

If there was something living on the island, it was either very reclusive or simply did not exist.

There were animals, colorful birds mostly, and fish, but he had no means of extracting them from the water. He had no fishing rod, and he knew if he tried to swim after the fish, they’d just get away.

He had enough experience as a kid with that to know the futility of it.

Kai, had he been awake, could have waded into the water calm as could be and scooped up a fish the size of his bicep as simple as anything.

As much as Sam and Kai didn’t see eye-to-eye, it was a thoroughly impressive trick that Sam had never been able to replicate.

Kai, of course, had used that as yet another reason why Sam was a haole and nothing more. Had Sam been a true son of the island, he would have been able to do what Kai did.

Or so the man had reasoned.

Sam figured Kai just didn’t like his little sister doting on him, which was fair enough that Sam didn’t try to antagonize the large man, as was usually his nature.

Still, he was curious what he could do, and so after Sam stashed the bottles of water, he unsheathed his sword in a shower of sparks.

Never gets old, he thought with a smile.

He made his way up the hillside to where the waterfall poured out and tried to visualize a weak point in the island itself. It clearly was not a claimable Skyshard, or else he could have socketed his [Sourcestone], but maybe it had something he could Break out of it.

The first weak point was nearly right below his feet. The next, however, was a few dozen yards to the side. Sam wandered from one to the next. Each strike shook the entire island like some angry volcano god.

When Sam got to the last one, the ground around the hidden font of water shattered and threw up clods of debris and dirt like somebody had buried a stick of dynamite.

As the dust cleared, Sam found a shimmering crystal. It flexed in his grip and felt like water turned semi-solid. Almost like gel, but it was perpetually wet.

Giving it a squeeze, a trickle of water dripped out of the bottom.

Remembering that he had mana and was not a meathead, Sam threaded a thin stream of his mana into the crystal.

The trickle turned into an inch-wide stream of fresh, cold water.

“I think I just solved our water problems,” Sam called over his shoulder.

Two old potion bottles didn’t hold much water. Not for three people and a cat. But with this, he could refill the potion bottles as many times as they needed.

[Water Concept]

(Tile Component) (F-Class)

(☆Primitive)

Concepts are the basis for every Tile. An idea given form. [Concepts] act as modifiers on [Mana] and [Materials], shaping and organizing these components to resemble the idea that is being birthed. [Concepts] mold the base materials, providing a blueprint for the raw matter. Through them, all Tiles are made possible.

Woah, did I just get actual information from the Shard for once? And in an item description? This is better than I could have hoped for. Not only do I have a source of fresh water, but it’s also a component in creating a Tile.

Though the Shard was, of course, vague on how he would actually go about creating a Tile. But that was something he could learn and fail at later.

For now, Sam was more than happy with the source of endless water. He stuffed it into his Inventory, sheathed his sword, and climbed down from the waterfall.

Only then did he realize what he had done.

By removing the waterfall, the lake was no longer filling up.

Water still flowed along the short river to the edge of the island, where the rest of the water flowed into the ether. Sam wondered how long it would take for the lake to empty, or if it even would.

It’d have to evaporate eventually, right?

Eh, not my problem. Nobody’s here anyway.

And if there was, they’d probably be running out and cussing him blue right then for getting rid of their one source of water.

Raiko called out for Komachi’s assistance, who in turn poked out her head out of Sam’s armor and looked at him questioningly for approval.

She wouldn’t go over unless he said so. The Sage was their ally, but it seemed that Sam was top priority in Komachi’s book.

He nodded, and the cat scampered over to the nearby piece of land.

Looking over, Sam saw Komachi eagerly digging at various spots under Raiko’s direction. The cat unearthed things of vibrant color. Bright red plants that starkly stood out against all the other greenery.

Sam hoped they were something useful.

Like food.

Really, he’d just settle for edible, filling, and as close to decently tasting as possible. If he had to eat something that basically tasted like nasty green beans, he’d do it to survive.

But he wouldn’t be happy about it.

Figuring Raiko could watch out for Komachi’s safety, he looked around the central island for anything of use. He could try Breaking some more, but he felt oddly exhausted despite his HP and MP being relatively fine.

Breaking didn’t seem to take up much MP, but it took some vital source that tired him out like crazy. The larger or more difficult the Breaking, the more taxing it was.

“C’mon, Komachi. Let’s go back,” he called to his cat.

The little British Shorthair scampered back to his side in a blink. She had always been a good cat—insofar as any cat can be loyal and endearing while still knocking over any and all cups of water on the counter—but now she reminded Sam of a little kid.

One he adored and loved tremendously. Which was a shock to him, because he absolutely hated kids.

You would too if you grew up in a place where an hour of work hardly bought a gallon of milk. Meanwhile, tourists with their bratty kids littered and spoiled the natural beauty of the island with zero attempt at respecting the aloha spirit, much less the islands themselves.

Sam ventured back to the outer isle he had moored to their Skyshard.

By now the line was taut and quivering with strain as the larger set of islands dragged his Skyshard along in its wake. Sam heard the twanging snap at the same time as he reached out and grabbed the knotted rope.

He glanced at the other tattered half, looped around the rock and fluttering in the breeze. For a brief moment he imagined himself grabbing the other half like in that Spider-Man movie. No, not that one, the other one. Nope, older, the one with the L train.

Yes, that one with Tobey Maguire.

However, seeing as Raiko was the only person on the island, Sam let the dream die and hung on for dear life as Komachi huddled into his armor.

With his superior Strength, it was actually quite a lot easier to climb up the knotted rope and pull himself up onto their small Skyshard.

Raiko was already there waiting for him. I’d love to be able to fly, or at least see how she acts when she can’t just float around wherever she damn well pleases.

Taking a bit of a breather, Sam coiled up the remains of the rope and put it into his Inventory. The Shard registered it as [Makeshift Rope] but didn’t deign to give it a Class or rarity rating.

Probably doesn’t have a rarity low enough, Sam thought.

“So that island was a bust,” Sam said.

“Are you going to try for another one?” Raiko asked.

Sam looked around the Skyshard, wondering if it would be worth it. After all, it felt like a substantial commitment to place the [Sourcestone] here, but then… what option was there?

If he picked a bigger Skyshard, would it really be better or would it just be big?

Just as Sam was about to answer her, the screaming started.

It began low, almost imperceptible, but it gained in strength and terror as it went on, until it reached blood-curdling levels and still it rose.