[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 50: Rainy Day

Leaning back, Sam mentally swiped over to the next [Swordsman] skill in the list. One that had been probably the opaquest out of all the skills.

[Switch]

(Swordsman Ability) (F-Class)

(☆Primitive)

Through your experiences and training, you’ve stumbled upon a fundamental truth earlier than most and uniquely suited to Swordsmen. Where others must stay committed to singular stances, you have learned how to [Switch] from one stance to the next while keeping all relevant resources and buffs, granting you greater fluidity in combat. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Dexterity, and Agility while using any Stance.

A basic, although useful, ability that would shine later when he attained more Stances.

For now, with just [Power Stance], it didn’t provide much aside from a “minuscule” bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Agility. Which, although clearly not huge, did improve [Power Stance], even if it was the only Stance he had access to.

I wonder if this minuscule bonus thing is locked to a specific rarity or class? Were all F-Class skills minuscule?

[Armored Aura]

(Swordsman Trait) (F-Class)

(☆ Primitive)

Swordsmen are more than fancily armored fighters. Their techniques and abilities guide their compatriots through the thickest fighting, so they all come out the other side. Armored Aura shares a portion of your defenses with your nearby allies, shielding them from harm and enhancing your own defenses at the same time. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Vigor when using [Armored Aura].

This was the ability that he was hoping to get. One that set him apart from Barbarian. Rather than being penalized for wearing armor, he not only received a greater effect but also extended a portion of that armor to his allies.

This [Armored Aura] trait, combined with [Battle Tactics], improved his utility and synergy when fighting in a Party. Komachi’s healing would be that much harder to shut down too, being protected by both his armor and the [Armor Aura] trait. Whatever stopped her from taking damage was ideal.

With Vigor as his highest stat, [Armored Aura] was boosted even further.

[Max HP Up]

(Swordsman Trait) (F-Class)

(☆Primitive)

Swordsmen are known for their strict, esoteric regiments of training that provide them with superb health and hardiness. By inheriting the Job of a Swordsman, you now share in their secret. Increases your Maximum HP.

And here was the final addition to his skill set. It may not be incredibly informative, but it was surely responsible for his new 269HP and the nearly 100HP jump from his [Fighter] Job.

With that much more HP to soak up damage, he could potentially take on even higher-level monsters and endure their harder hitting attacks in exchange for a greater yield of Experience and superior loot.

Regen would be all the more effective too with that much more HP to work with, though Komachi’s MP was likely going to be stretched a bit thin until she got herself a better Job.

And hopefully, losing chunks out of his HP over the course of battle wouldn’t be quite as painful. There was no telling for sure though, not until he got into another battle.

Though maybe I’ve just brought myself onto a level playing field with First Layer monsters, Sam thought.

Another peal of thunder shook the tiny island, reminding Sam uncomfortably of a raft at sea during a storm. At least a floating island can’t capsize.

Right?

Sam shuddered and opened the flap to his tent to see what Raiko was up to. Maybe they could rig a sail together with some of the spare tent material and aim for her Skyshard before they starved.

“At least there’s plenty of water,” Sam said as he stuck his head out and was immediately drenched.

Glittering [Storm Crystals] coalesced alongside the floating island’s edge, growing before Sam’s eyes. Lightning struck the crystalline mass, rocking the bit of land side to side like a boat on choppy seas.

The jewels of what appeared to be concentrated mana attracted lightning and rain, causing what little land Sam and his group had to turn muddy and begin to flood.

Most of it ran down the sides. Sam was glad the tents came with a sturdy and waterproof ground cloth.

The benefit was that the lightning strikes were recharging the island with mana. Turns out, and in hindsight, it really wasn’t that much of a surprise to Sam, that mana was the number one ingredient to making an island float.

The downside to the lightning strikes, aside from all the rain and noise, was the real threat of one of those lightning strikes throwing somebody off or just breaking apart the whole thing.

Every once in a while, Raiko went out to harvest the mana crystals and deposit them into her Inventory. The space of which fortunately increased sometime after the Dark Vault.

Without dedicated tools to harvest the crystals, it was slow going and extremely hazardous. A lot of the crystal yield was wasted as well.

As a spirit that didn’t have to worry about falling to the endless clouds below, Raiko was more suited to the task of ineffectively mining than anybody else, especially since Matt and Kai were still down.

And with what she was working with being primarily compromised of mana, the crystals were a much easier medium for her to interact.

“I miss Alchemy so terribly,” she muttered. “I could transmute materials, siphoning them straight from their resource point. Actually, scratch that, I just miss my body. I don’t feel hot, or cold, just… nothing.”

That sounded horrible, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. That would just make her feel worse.

Sam wiped the rain from his eyes and watched Raiko land back on the island. “We’ll get you back to your body,” Sam assured her.

Komachi poked her head out of the tent, saw the rain, then immediately—and against Standard Cat Protocol—leapt out of the tent and began to play in the puddles.

Sam watched her fondly for a moment before motioning to the crystals Raiko was dumping into her Inventory. “What’re those for?”

“Lots of things, all of which I’m hoping to find out.” By how engrossed she was getting, that seemed to distract her from her current ghost-like state. “They’re concentrated sources of elemental mana, so they could conceivably feed something that needs energy. Could be refined through some kind of crafting process, maybe?”

“I can’t wait to give that a try,” Sam said. “Crafting, I mean. Although testing that out sounds interesting, too.”

“Honestly, me too.”

Just thinking about trying out something entirely new was exciting, and with the knowledge the Shard distilled into his brain whenever he picked up a new skill or Job, it made the prospect feel all the more possible.

Unlike back on Earth, where he didn’t have much spare time to devote to new hobbies, he could fully explore whatever he wanted to do and learn on Il’dran.

Even though he was stuck on a tiny island in the middle of a vast sea of clouds, he felt freer than he ever had on Earth.

“Some pieces of equipment have imbuements on them,” Raiko continued. “So how else would you start making one of those, but with a reserve of elemental mana? Sticking these back into the island would be better than sinking, if it truly comes to that.”

“And that’s… safe to have around?” he asked, as tiny bolts of lightning arced from each of the crystals.

“In my Inventory, probably.” Raiko shrugged. “I’d rather stuff them in there, which should be its own functional pocket dimension, than drop them off the side. Who knows if that would make the storm even worse.”

Komachi hopped from one puddle to the next, then rolled over, slathered in mud, onto Sam’s boots. He reached down and rubbed her belly, though it was quite a lot like touching a slimy fish with all the caked-on mud.

Standing upright again, Sam shielded his eyes from the river of water washing over him and the tiny island. “How are we ever supposed to find this place of yours in this storm? Aren’t we going to get blown off course or something?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Raiko explained, closing up her Inventory. “Mana is what keeps this place afloat more than anything. You think that the island, several thousands of pounds, is just lighter than air somehow?” She motioned to one of the crystalline outcrops. “Magic.”

Sam looked at it just in time for a lightning strike to hit the crystals and blind him. When his eyesight recovered, the tiny cluster of crystals had grown several times larger than they were before.

“At least we’re finding something useful,” he said. “But, all right I get it. My idea of rigging up an impromptu sail wouldn’t work then, I’m guessing?”

“Not very well with what we have, I think.”

“Then what are our options?” Sam gestured expansively. “There is a whole lot of sky out here, and this island is hilariously small. Eventually Kai and Matt are going to wake up, and I’ve got nearly no rations left. We have water, but no way to store it.”

It was still an improvement on being cooped up in that Dark Vault, or having the ogre breathing down his neck, ready to scoop him up and eat him the moment he appeared on the starting island.

Sam still had the sneaking suspicion that the ogre was making its way to him. How… he had no idea, but he couldn’t get rid of that prickly sensation between his shoulder blades, as if somebody was watching him.

A quick check showed that he was still under the effect of [Uneasy Gaze] from the Hoary Golem’s eye.

Sam wasn’t sure whether he was happy or upset about that. Eventually, he’d have to face the ogre. A larger part of himself than he wanted to admit looked forward to it.

“We’re not the only floating islands out here.” She drifted closer to the shelter of the tent, where it was considerably easier to hear her. “Likely some are already passing us by, but we just can’t see them through the downpour. If our senses were better, we wouldn’t need to see them, but….”

“Then… what, we hop off on a nearby island, hope it has food within easy reach, then hop back onto this island before they drift apart?”

Raiko had to realize how insane that sounded.

“Well, yes,” she said, as if Sam had just suggested the most mundane shopping trip and not a suicidal gambit. “These islands are laden with resources, some are wild and untamed, and others are fragmented sections of what used to be Islegard and Earth. We can, quite literally, find anything and collect what we need. Ore, fruits, crystals, probably Tiles too.”

Sam remembered seeing a Starbucks floating on a chunk of land when they had first appeared on the Shardrune. He had thought it was a passing thing, some remnant.

“You’re telling me that we could, quite literally, find a McDonald’s or some other fast food place, fully intact, and then raid it for food? It hasn’t been that long since the initiation. Besides, McDonald’s hamburgers technically classify as jerky. They’ll probably outlast the people who used to work there.”

“Maybe.” That maybe sounded more like a yes to Sam’s ears. “I’m not sure how well those buildings will hold up to atmospheric mana, or if they were somehow transformed in the Ascension. There’s also a considerable chance of monsters swarming such locations, whether from creature lairs or what-not.”

There was no stopping the mental slideshow of seeing a fast-food restaurant turned into a Dungeon. Would the counters be operated by the monsters, or would everything be themed like the restaurant?

Not that it mattered, because Sam had no intention of going into an In-N-Out Dungeon.

“Have you checked the island out?” Raiko asked.

Sam looked around. Even with the downpour, he could see the entire island without any trouble. “Yep, just did. Again. We barely have enough room for our 3 tents, much less sight-seeing, Raiko.”

“No,” the Nomad said with a shake of her head. Her hair, unlike what Sam might have thought, was just as sodden as if she were here physically. “I mean the stats of the island.”

Sam hadn’t thought the island had stats, and he said as much as he concentrated and examined the island.

[Tiny Floating Island (Level 5)]

(Skyshard) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Attributes

Mana Reserves (74%)

Mana Density (First Layer I)

Sockets

Settlement Core (0/1)

Tiles (0/0)

“Somehow that feels about right,” Sam said, looking at the depressingly weak stats. “This is considered a Skyshard? I thought those were supposed to be huge things, not….” He gestured.

“I suppose anything that’s called a Skyshard is a floating island that can be controlled. And technically, this fits.”

“But we’re not controlling it.”

Raiko shrugged her ethereal shoulders. “I don’t mean direction. See how it says it has a socket for a Settlement Core? That’s what I mean by control.”

As soon as Raiko mentioned a Settlement Core, Sam felt an odd buzzing sensation, and from his Inventory of all places.

Reaching into the bag at his waist, he pulled out a glittering blue shard, surprised beyond belief at what he saw. He’d nearly forgotten about it.