Abandoned Island South of Serisis

10:25 a.m. 5th Zelyr 1092.

15 Days to World's End.

Whooosh!

Fang Ling stood at the helm of a boat as it washed onto the lonely island's shores. The midi's furrowed brows depicted his frustrated anger. Once again, their search had turned up fruitless. More and more, he began to believe they needed to even deeper beneath the sea. But, unfortunately, that was Kudrick's territory. At the moment, Fang Ling could not think of a way to break past Kudrick's senses to delve deeper to search.

In the end, it seemed he had no choice but to rely on external help. Speaking of which...

Fang Ling hopped down from the boat, and then, after placating the crew, ventured inland. Over the past couple of days, the daeben kid moved further inland in search of stronger earth. He would only emerge when it was time to either eat, or spar. As Fang Ling progressed through the foliage, he came across several smooth, spherical depressions in the ground.

Fang Ling swallowed hard as he walked past these holes. That monstrous kid grew at an astonishing rate. The experienced veteran could tell. In a few months, he wouldn't even be capable of chasing the kid's tail anymore. 'Well, I can always boast of being a monster's teacher.'

Fang Ling consoled himself as he emerged into a small clearing. 'As creepy as always.' Dozens of stone, and mud statues filled the clearing. Initially, they were deformed messes without any discernible shapes, but the further Fang Ling walked, the more definetd they became.

Some statues depicted warriors in battleposes. Some depicted beasts poised for an attack, or laying down. Fang Ling suppressed goosebumps that shot up as he gazed into the life-like eyes. 'Did he have to paint them?' This was the true source of Fang Ling's unease. For whatever reason, Kashi insisted on painting these sculptures.

Unfortunately, the daeben was far too skilled an artist. Kashi's statues ended up looking too realistic, almost like they would move out and attack at a moment's notice.

Splash!

A loud splash by the creek drew Fang Ling's attention. He jerked his head to see Kashi standing on a tiny man-made island. Evidently, the daeben had thrown a giant rock into the creek, and somehow locked it in place. Kashi, however, was not alone on the island. A lauging mermaid sat on the stone platform. Streams of water rose from the creek and arced around her in beautiful spirals.

"What the―" Fang Ling quickly rubbed his eyes, and focused. This time, he saw the truth. The 'mermaid' was another sculpture. Only, this time, it had reached such a high degree of realism, that it momentarily created an illusion. Having regained his senses, Fang Ling walked to the edge of the creek and then called out, "Kashi!"

"Ling-san!" Kashi looked up from the sculpture, paint comically splattered on his cheeks and fingers. "Just a moment!" He quickly applied the finishing touches to the sculpture. Immediately he raised his hand, Kashi recieved a series of prompts.

Kashi examined the prompts with a bright grin. When he started, he had no idea that the combination of sculpting and painting would reap such huge benefits. Sculpting in particular. Kashi's method of 'sculpting' was pulling a stone from the ground, and then gradually breaking it down with Earth Control.

Initially, Kashi could only produce things like balls and cubes. Anything more complex ended up a terribe mess. However, he persevered. 90% of his day was spent sculpting, until he finally reached an acceptable level.

Fortunately, all those 'failures' were not wasted. Kashi painted each statue with Rosario's brush, imbuing them with his spatial (dimension) aura to see if anything interesting would happen. As fate would have it, there were results. Kashi found that the sculptures absorbed the spatial energy, and then locked it within them. Unfortunately, only 'beautiful' or rather, 'well-proportioned' statues could hold the energy.

Statues considered as failures by either Kashi or the system, imploded, releasing terrifying spatial fluctuations around them. The fissures Fang Ling passed earlier were results of similar explosions.

"What do you think will happen if I destroy this?"

"Spare me, kid." Fang Ling looked at the statue with a wary gaze. He'd seen what happened when those ugly products self-destructed. What would happen if a man-sized, perfectly sculpted statue imploded? The midi shivered at the mere thought.

"Heh, I'm just playing, Ling-san." Kashi chuckled as he examined the statue. The paint did a good job of hiding it, but he could make out several defects - areas where he either dug too deep, made an angle too sharp, or chipped off sections. His earth control was still far from perfect, but he was satisfied with the speed of progress.

There was only one problem.

"Ye ready kid? Time fer our spar!"

Kashi looked at Fang Ling. Despite so many days passing, he had yet to defeat the old man. Furthermore, he was yet to reach 100% clarity on exactly what style to pursue. He had, at the very least, confirmed that he preferred close combat to far. He also confirmed that he was not as instinctive as Razznik. He preferred thinking his way through battles.

But, how to convert those ideals to battle? Ping! A sudden notification drew Kashi's attention.

Kashi's brows rose with interest as he closely examined the prompt. Huh... This could be interesting. Rosario's Brush could change sizes? That could certainly come in handy. It was just unfortunate that the brush had zero attack power. In fact, now that Kashi thought about it, that was quite impressive in its own right. Even a stone had some attack power, but Rosario's brush had zero. Almost like its owner detested the thought of fighting with it.

But, Kashi remembered Fladnag mention that Ferulic fought with the brush. The conflicting information left the daeben confused. Eventually, however, he shook his head and examined Rosario Brush's stats. But before that, he chose to rename the brush. "Let's see, it can grow and shrink, and is a brush. Hmm... [Ruyi Jingu Bang Ross]. Nah, that's too long. [Jingu Bang Ross] for short." 

"Well, let's see how this works." Kashi gripped the brush. He glanced at Fang Ling, a muschievous glint in his eyes. "[Grow, Jingu Ross]" Vwoosh! Following his will, Jingu Ross rapidly expanded until it became a nine-foot spear. Only, rather than a blade, a brush was affixed to the tip.

"Hmm..." Kashi played with the brush. He spun it around, and then proceeded to dance around the platform with the Jingu Ross. He rapidly thrusted, parried and pirouetted, going through old spear and bo-staff kata forms Razznik learned.

Whoosh!

Kashi jumped over the creek. Overtaken by the excitement, he charged at Fang Ling and swung down.

"Yer brat!" Fang Ling cursed as he jumped back, barely avoiding the brush as it struck the ground hard.

Puff...

Both Kashi and Fang Ling froze. Contrary to expectations, the ground only let out a little puffy sound like it had been hit with a pillow. Sweat instantly pooled on Kashi's forehead as he raised Jingu Ross. The daeben coughed, and then looked to the side, struggling to hide his embarrassment. "Well, that was not quite what I was expecting."

Kashi wanted to bury his head in the ground. This wasn't just zero attack power, it was negative! With his strength, even a level 1 sword could crack the ground. The sword would be obliterated right after, but the point stood!

Kashi shrunk Jingu Ross and returned it to his pocket. He then awkwardly smiled as he looked at Fang Ling. "Let's pretend that never happened?"

Fang Ling grinned. "Fat chance, kid." 

A/N: Very Short scene... Just highlighting some of Kashi's progress. Keep this chapter in check. Might play a bigger role than it initially seems... :) 

Didn't want to pad the word count with scenes from the next. We return to the real world next, so tonally, it needs a new chapter, not tacked onto the end of this one...