Part 1: The Week of Silence
For seven days, the Sapphire Crag was quiet. The roar of the Aether-Stream was the only sound accompanying the rhythmic hammering of repairs. The Dynasty had gone silent, likely terrified of the "Monsters of the Stream," giving Eclipse a precious window to breathe.
The crew recuperated, but they didn't idle.
Kael spent the week reinforcing the Obsidian Leviathan's hull, welding the melted scrap metal from the Dynasty's arrows into jagged armor plates. Titan expanded the rock walls, turning their makeshift barricades into a proper fortress.
Lyra became the heartbeat of the camp. She spent her days sitting on the highest point of the ship's bow, legs dangling over the clouds. She didn't play battle anthems. She played soft, complex melodies—the Song of the Mending Spirit.
The music drifted through the camp like a gentle breeze. In a world where death meant permanent deletion, the psychological weight was crushing. Lyra's music kept the nightmares at bay, lowering the crew's hidden [Stress] meters.
Inside the captain's quarters, turned infirmary, the air was still.
Seraphina barely left the room. She worked in exhausted shifts with Luna.
"His mana core is stabilizing," Seraphina whispered on the fourth night, her hand glowing with a soft diagnostic light over Caelum's chest. "But his physical heart is weak. The strain of the Dimension Travel nearly unraveled his biology."
She wiped Caelum's brow with a damp cloth, her eyes heavy. She hadn't slept more than two hours a night, constantly feeding him life-force to ensure the mana recovery didn't stop his heart again.
On the morning of the fifth day, Caelum's eyes opened. The milky blindness was still there, but the grey pallor of death was gone, replaced by the faint, ethereal glow of a High Elf.
[Status Update: Caelum]
[Mana: 40,457 / 50,000]
[Condition: Stable.]
"I am... whole," Caelum whispered, his voice raspy. He turned his head toward the woman sleeping in the chair next to him. "Thank you, Priestess."
Seraphina jerked awake, a smile breaking through her exhaustion. "Welcome back to the living, Caelum."
Part 2: The Cartographer
On the seventh day, Elian gathered the officers in the war room.
The team looked sharper. Their armor was repaired, their stamina bars full.
Elian, Valen, Jax, Isara, Roger, Luna, Seraphina, and Lyra stood around the central table.
"We are rested," Elian said, looking at his team. "The Dynasty is licking their wounds. Now, we plan our expansion."
He nodded to the High Elf. "Caelum, show us the world."
Caelum stepped forward. He placed his pale hands flat on the wooden table.
He didn't use a pen. He released a pulse of mana—a Grand Sensory Wave—that expanded outward from the Sapphire Crag. It traveled through the Aether-Streams, bouncing off rocks, trees, and waterfalls, mapping the entire floor in a three-dimensional echolocation grid.
Blue light materialized on the table, forming a stunning, rotating holographic map of Floor 26.
"Thirty-one islands," Caelum announced, his voice steady. "Floating in a chaotic archipelago."
He highlighted thirteen of them with a faint blue glow.
"These thirteen are rich in general resources—wood, stone, water. Good for basic survival."
Then, the light shifted. Four specific islands located on the outer rim of the map glowed with an intense, blinding white light.
"But these four... they are anomalies. The mana density there is extreme. They contain finite, but highly concentrated deposits of Orichalcum and Spirit-Wood."
Elian kept his face neutral, but his heart raced.
There they are, he thought. The Four Pillars.
In his past life, these islands were the backbone of the "Golden Age." If Eclipse secured them now, they would have enough materials to upgrade the Leviathan to a dreadnought class and fuel their crafting needs all the way to Floor 75.
Just enough to build the Citadel on Floor 76.
Part 3: The Anomaly
"However," Caelum interrupted, breaking Elian's internal victory lap. "There is something... else."
He zoomed the hologram in on the fourth resource island—a lush, jungle-covered landmass with massive floating waterfalls defying gravity.
"I detect a heartbeat," Caelum said, frowning. "Thousands of them. Not monsters. A civilization."
The hologram shifted to show faint outlines of figures moving in the trees.
"They are humanoid. Tall. Slender. Their mana signature feels like the wind itself."
Next to the humanoid figures were winged beasts—large, reptilian creatures with four wings, soaring through the air. The humanoids were riding them.
"Blue skin," Caelum murmured, interpreting the mana waves. "Bioluminescent markings. They share a soul-bond with the wind-drakes."
Lyra stepped closer, tilting her head as if listening to a distant radio frequency.
"I hear them too," the Bard whispered, her eyes wide. "It's faint, carried on the wind... sounds like drums? And hollow bone-flutes? It's not a monster roar. It's a song. They are a tribal culture."
Elian froze. A cold chill ran down his spine.
He searched his memory of the past timeline. In the original history, this island was uninhabited. It was just a resource node that the Vanguard Guild eventually strip-mined. There were no natives. There were no dragon riders.
I don't know them, Elian realized.
The Butterfly Effect. My actions... saving the Turtle, stealing the ship, breaking the records... it's rippling. The Tower is evolving. It's generating new content to counter us.
Part 4: The Plan
"They look strong," Titan rumbled, looking at the dragon-riders on the map. "Are they hostile?"
"Unknown," Elian said, masking his uncertainty. "But we can't afford a war with a native species while the Dynasty is hunting us."
He made a strategic decision.
"We leave the Sky-Kin (as he mentally named them) for last. We don't engage yet."
He turned to Lyra.
"When we do approach them, you will be our diplomat. We can't speak their language, but music is universal. If they are riders... maybe we can gain companions for the skies."
Lyra nodded, her fingers twitching as she imagined the melody. "I'll start composing something peaceful. A 'Song of Greeting'."
Elian then pointed to the other three uninhabited resource islands.
"For now, we target these three. We strip-mine them."
He looked at his two mages.
"Luna, we can't sail the ship back and forth for every crate of ore. It's too slow. I need you to set up Teleportation Waypoints linking these islands to the Sapphire Crag."
"Seraphina, you will lead the safety team. If we are mining in the wild, accidents happen. Prepare a stockpile of high-grade antidotes and healing potions. We don't lose anyone to a cave-in or a poison spider."
Part 5: The Execution
Luna sighed, looking at the massive workload, but nodded. "I'll need to go to each island physically to anchor the runes. It will take time."
Seraphina bowed. "The medical bay will be ready."
"The plan is set," Elian declared.
Preparation (3 Days): Stockpile food, craft better pickaxes, and let Caelum recover fully.
Phase 1: Sail to the three uninhabited Resource Islands. Secure them.
Phase 2: Establish the Teleportation Network to funnel resources back to base.
Phase 3: Contact the Sky-Kin.
"The Tower is changing," Elian said, looking at the map where the unknown race lived. "So we have to change with it. We aren't just following a walkthrough anymore. We're writing the guide."
He looked out the window at the endless, floating archipelago.
"Three days. Then we claim this sky."