Mari only had a brief moment of gawking at the absolutely massive ship cutting through the waves, before panic shot through her body.
"Not good - Not good, what do I do? What am I doing? Breathe!" Mari had never been very good at social interactions and tests and this felt like both rapidly approaching.
"Breathe! Breathe, in, out, 1,2,1,2," Mari took a firm grasp on her thoughts and focused only on counting her breaths, "1,2,1,2."
When she was young Mari was diagnosed with Autism, anxiety, and depression, it was something she had to struggle with constantly and it was only in the past few years that she felt she had actually developed helpful techniques.
A whine brought her back from her meditative breathing and reminded her that she wasn't alone, "Nuit, I'm scared."
Nuit jumped into her arms and purred, Mari watched the approaching ship and took a shuddering breath. "I can't stand here and watch them get closer I'll just keep panicking. I'm going to keep working- stay busy- till they get here."
Mari moved Nuit to her shoulder and pulled up her quests. "I have two open right now, the 5 warriors one, and to make the second floor. I'll be getting the warriors soon but I guess I could start on the second floor."
The moment she said that new screen popped up simply saying 'Second Floor'. Clicking on it opened two options, Grow, and Create. After pondering the meaning for several seconds Mari frowned and hovered over Grow but didn't click on it, hoping for some kind of explanation.
Grow!
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Instead of crafting a new floor from scratch, simply expand your first floor outward. Of course, those who haven't completed the previous floor won't be able to cross over to the new floor's area, but they will be able to see it.
This does mean, however, that the new floor's environment will be the same as the floor it is growing from.
Mari grinned, this would be perfect for some of the future plans she had. But for now, she wanted to choose a different environment, she had an idea she wanted to play with.
Clicking on Create, brought up a familiar screen.
Choose the environment of your Second floor!
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Owned:
Nature - create a beautiful thriving forest filled with potential.
Credit:
Ocean - create a seafloor spotted with mysterious islands, who knows what hides in the depths? 50% discount for ocean surroundings. 500c
Dessert - create a vast expanse of sand, heat, and danger, within the dunes lie treasures unknown. 800c
Volcano - create a fiery landscape and scatter exploding fire pits everywhere. 800c
Storm - create a heavenly floor with cloud islands, filled with storms, nothing is certain here. 1000c
Enchanted Forest: create a magical forest filled with wonder and mystique. 1000c
Echoing Canyons: create vast canyons of haunting echos, don't trust anything you hear. 1200c
Haunted Kingdom: create a vast kingdom filled with long-forgotten memories. 2000c
Heavenly Kingdom: create a vast kingdom filled with the beloved mementos of a historic land. 2000c
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Current Credits: 1,545c
Although her eyes landed immediately on the Ocean option, Mari kept reading and was surprised to see the new options. Though they were out of her price range they did make her curious.
Mari shook her head, she didn't have time for this. Clicking on the Ocean option made the table shimmer as the hologram seemed to sink down into the table until she had to lean over to see the tips of the trees.
Then a black sheet covered the top of the first floor and water began to fill the space within the floor. Mari watched in awe as the new floor was created, while still clearly a hologram it had more depth and color this time.
Once the water levels reached the top of the table three islands appeared randomly scattered across the table surface and a small image of a pen to paper hovered over each island.
___
New Affinity!
+Water Affinity
___
"I guess I should have expected that," Mari mused, "With that much water an affinity would be expected. I wonder if I'll get a new one for every new environment?"
Before she could really consider that or explore the new floor, a new screen prompted her to choose the spawning point, where the warriors would enter when they finished the first floor. Mari moved the screen to the side for the moment, she needed to get more familiar with the floor before she made that decision, it seemed important.
Mari stared at the new Ocean floor and smiled, this was definitely helping keep back the panic. First, she wanted to check how big the floor was so she checked the measurements on the side of the table and was intrigued to notice it had grown.
She had expected it, but what was intriguing was that it grew based on the stretched-out Space Affinity version, and not the original size of floor 1 as she had worried it might.
Mari's second floor was 10 feet long and 7 feet wide, an additional foot -or mile technically- in both directions compared to the previous floor. Once again staring hurt her head so she tried not to focus on how it worked for too long.
Mari paused for a moment and thought back to yesterday when she had expanded the table using her Space Affinity. Back then she had just pressed a button and it grew, but what would happen if she tried by herself?
"What do you think Nuit? Can I expand the table without the forge's help?" Nuit seemed to perk up and barked, so at least her assistant thought it would work out. Then again she was still a newborn and possibly had no idea.
"Okay, let's see. First I'll try the simple 'imagine it working' way, and if that doesn't work I'll try 'meditating', and after that, I guess magic words? Spells? I don't know we'll see." Mari put Nuit back onto the ground with a soft scratch, it would probably be safer that way, just in case.
Not even remotely sure what to do, Mari held out her hands and hovered them over the table, then closed her eyes.