The return to silence gave Midday a chance to get situated a little better. One people on a nearby raft, a young man probably no more than a year older than Midday, tossed over a rope and asked him to tie his raft into the chain they were building to connect the boats. Midday took it and, a few moments after beginning his awful attempt at knotwork, addressed the individual—who had a very distinctive blue hair that Midday thought had to be dyed and an even more distinctive long nose that protruded more than a foot out of his face.

“Stop me if we’re saving introductions for after everyone gets here, but who might you be?”

“Ablute Xun Jin of Yuxzi Ridge.” The man grinned, revealing a mouth of sharp, jagged teeth almost reminiscent of a shark. “Take a good look at me, because this is the face of the future world’s greatest bath maker.”

“Bath maker?”

“Right on! I will someday become the founder of the world’s greatest bathhouse!” Ablute had a sparkle in his eyes as he turned his attention to Midday’s shoulder. “Cool beetle! Is it related to your Ability? Let me guess: Bug Catcher? Vermineer? Or could it maybe even be full-fledged Entomancy?”

“He’s just a pet.” Midday sighed, not sure what to think of this person’s stated goal in life. He failed to see how could there really even be that much to baths in the first place. All the bathing he had partaken in throughout his life had consisted of wading out into a river and maybe rubbing some sand around to loosen up the dirt. It was hard to fathom that there could be much more to it than that and, in any case, he was far more interested in the fact that Ablute had so casually assumed he was an Ability user. That probably meant Ablute himself was at least level 10—and thus had an ability of his own.

“I getcha! Still cool though. What kind of beetle is it?”

“Something called an Emperor Rockjaw. Mister Potatoes is supposedly quite exotic.” Midday sighed. “Say, do you mind if I ask your Ability?”

“Currents,” answered Ablute, “I’ll give you the rundown on it after everyone else gets here!”

“I see.” Midday sighed again before tossing the rope to Honey and asking her to link her boat up with everyone else. Honey was still preoccupied with her handgun, a piece of machinery she evidently had no experience with, but she stopped for a few moments to heed his request.

A few minutes later, another raft arrived. Jenjo gave them their greetings, they naturally freaked out a tad upon realizing who he was, Jenjo tossed them their guns, and then they settled down like everyone else. After another ten minutes of unrewarded waiting, Jenjo stood up on his raft and sighed:

“Looks like the others aren’t going to make it—if there were more people than just us to begin with. I think it highly likely that Mulberry lied to us about how many people she intended to recruit in the first place. Raincoat Rings may be easy to get for someone with the Ringsmith Ability, but they are still not so commonplace that she would be able to carelessly hand out a dozen of them. Moreover, I can tell from looking at the lot of you I’m the only person here above level 15. She promised that there would be at least three level 15s, but none of you look strong enough to be that level. My Duelist Ability gives me a good sense for this sort of thing.” He sighed. “I should add that I’m not concerned about what anyone’s level is right now. Mulberry gave me a few things that’ll help with the leveling process. More on that after we meet with Solomon.”

Midday raised an eyebrow at that last part but said nothing.

“So you don’t feel like waiting anymore?” The person who had been last to arrive spoke up over the rain. Her face was hidden under a leather hood stitched onto an ordinary worker uniform. “There are only nine of us. That’s not enough. Also, what gives you the right to act as the leader? Why do you think we should believe that nobody is better suited to the role of captain?”

Jenjo chuckled at the questions. “The undead—if that’s actually what they are—will find us if we spend too long lollygagging here. I might be strong enough to take on maybe a dozen at once, but even I have my limits. Protecting you guys adds an additional burden.” He grinned. “And the reason I’m the leader, by the way, is because I’m the only one guaranteed to survive through the end of the month. The rest of you are squishy meat sacks that’ll die from just about anything.” He grinned even deeper, reveling in his importance relative to everyone else. “Adding onto that is the fact that Mulberry gave me, not you, the backpack of goodies that’ll help us survive. Fact of the matter is that she wanted me to be in charge.”

Jenjo looked to Ablute.

“What level are you? I overheard you mentioning your Ability earlier.”

“I’m level 10,” answered Ablute.

Jenjo sighed. “Your Ability lets you manipulate water currents, correct? Are at least proficient enough with it to propel our boats toward the old growth?”

“Hmm…” Ablute scratched his chin. “My maximum range is a radius of about 50 feet, but the current would be really weak if I stretched it that thin. I could compensate for that to an extent by treating it like a sprint and using up all my power to get us going at a good speed, but I’d only be able to maintain that for a few minutes—and then I would be too exhausted to do much besides take a nap afterwards.”

“Looks like we’ll have to get you up a few levels. Making you stronger will be a top priority. Can you manipulate the shape of your range of influence to better maximize it for our purposes? Or have you not learned how to do that yet?”

“I didn’t even know that was possible.” Ablute stared at Jenjo with a blank smile.

“Technique-related stuff like that isn’t tied to level. You just have to practice.” He shrugged. “But no worries. Save your strength for later. We’ll just paddle our way there in the standard fashion.”

Jenjo turned around and hopped out the backside of his raft toward a tree. He then drew his sword and, with a few quick slashes, cut off a few chunks of wood that everyone immediately understood were to be used as oars. He did a few more slices to improve the shape and then tossed them out to everyone.

“Let’s get a move on.”

Midday obediently started paddling but was quick to notice that Honey and the girl with a hood over her face weren’t doing anything. It didn’t matter especially much to him—the force being generated from Jenjo and the other people near the front was enough that all the rafts started moving forward through the trees.

Now entering into the forest, the leaves above provided much-needed respite from the rainfall. Rain still filtered down through the leaves in enormous quantities, but it was much quieter in doing so—with the majority of the noise having been absorbed by the treetops. All he needed now, thought Midday, was a way to warm up a tad. He had been shivering so long that he had lost track of it.

“So how about we go around and introduce ourselves now?” Jenjo, whose raft was at the front of the chain, called back to everyone else. “I’ll start.”

Jenjo cleared his throat for effect and began: “My name is Jenjo of Harriseppu. I’m level 20. My Abilities are Duelist and Phantom Slice. Duelist is a passive Ability that boosts my proficiency in all dueling-related endeavors; Phantom Slice allows me to cut things without actually running my blade through them. My most relevant skill to this expedition is combat. That’s all I’ll say for now. Let’s go down the chain.”

Jenjo pointed to the person directly behind him—a chubby middle-aged man with a hairline so receded that it began closer to the back of his skull than his forehead. The man squinted at Jenjo upon having been called upon.

“Bell Bellson at your service,” said the man with the raspy voice of a heavy smoker, “My level is 15 and my Ability is Sandeater—which allows me to gain XP and nutrition by eating sand. It has no other uses. Much to my chagrin, I am unable to claim that I have any relevant skills to the expedition.”

The next three people were all strong carpenters without Abilities. Two of them were level 9 and the other was level 8—and they all knew each other, as evidenced by the fact that they all shared the same well-built raft—but, besides that, Midday saw nothing else noteworthy about them for the time being. Jenjo seemed quite pleased upon learning that the expedition had so many carpenters coming along for the ride though. Next up was Ablute of Palython, the weird-looking youth with too big a smile for the situation:

“My name is Ablute of Palython, and take a good look at me, because this is the face of the future world’s greatest bath maker!” Ablute paused as if to make sure everyone really did have time to take a good look at him. “My Ability is Current, and I can use it to manipulate water currents. I plan to make to use it to make something called a ‘Lazy River’ after I escape the plantation! My most relevant skill to the expedition is water purification. I’ve got a three-pronged approach to it! Filtration, distillation, and refrigeration!”

With that out of the way, it was Midday’s turn.

“My name is Midday Sunson. Level 5. I have some knowledge of the old growth.”

A few people flinched. Level 5 was low. About as low as one could reasonably expect to find. How had Mulberry managed to find someone this weak? Nobody knew for sure—as it had seemed until then that everyone else was at the very least above average—but nobody especially cared either.

Honey went next, declaring that she had two currently had both a passion for beekeeping and a goal to kill Jenjo. At only level 7 though, no one thought that she would be able to succeed.

The final person was the hooded girl. From her voice, Midday guessed that she was about the same age as himself. “Call me Braulia. My Ability is Pyromancy and I’m level 13. Having someone capable of starting fires at will be invaluable to the group.”

With that, introductions were done. The group paddled quietly through the forest for a while. At the present rate, thought Midday, it would not be long before they arrived to the old growth.