Rather than visiting the grove of tree fiends Robin told me about, I fly toward the floating islands he'd indicated. As much as I'd love to acquire some more arcane wood right now, I want to check out the flora and fungi Robin mentioned. Acquiring things I don't already have is always nice, especially if it's a rare magical item.

  Soaring above the Mistwood is also nice. Whatever magic allows me to fly when I have my wings also prevents me from feeling the chill of the winds at high speed, nor does it allow me to feel the resistance of the air. From how high above the forest I am right now, I can see for almost a hundred miles in any given direction.

  The forest stretches on and on, though I can make out where it changes types here and there. Most of its trees are thick mist oaks and mist elms. To the north, where it borders the barrens, are mist pines for a decent bit. Mountains stretch all along the northern border, at least within my view.

  To the south, there's where the Mistwood connects to the rest of the southeastern edge of the continent. Even without the sudden shift in the forest there, it would be obvious for another reason. The southern cost suddenly turns almost ninety degrees to continue southward at the Mistwood's start. Overall, the Mistwood itself is about thirty miles from north to south there, and only grows larger the further west it travels.

  Of all the Mistlands on the continent, this particular one is the largest. Many are only between thirty to one hundred miles at their narrowest to longest. This one stretches several hundred miles from east to west and its widest from north to south is around sixty miles, according to what information on it I have. It was likely the result of an Ancient Noble and several noble spirits choosing the area as their death locations.

  The mountains eventually end, but I don't fly far enough to see that. The floating islands I was recommended are only about a hundred and sixty miles away from Robin's tower.

  Upon nearing them, I stop soaring and hover in place, the magic of my wings allowing me to do this with minimal bobbing as long as I perform steady flaps. There are thirteen of the islands, each of varying sizes and elevations. Some of them float over others, waterfalls cascading down their sides and onto the ones below. More waterfalls cascade down to the Mistwood below, forming a few different lakes.

  Despite their elevation, the islands still have Mist on them, low to the ground and not too dense. Stone ruins dot a few of the islands, ivy creeping up their bricks and pillars. Where the ruins are close to water, moss and algae cover some of the stones.

  Golems made from pale tan stones wander in a few areas, and there are even tree fiends with pale wood touched with gold here and there. Floating islands like these should have some aerial creatures aside from normal birds, but I don't see any.

  Wait, there. That tree fiend has a white-grey tint to its wood, which indicates air magics. It might possess the ability to fly, though that's not a guarantee. Plant-type beasts rarely can.

  "Oh," I realize something about the hares I can see.

  They have wings tucked against their bodies. Magic beasts, which may or may not be hostile. Winged hares tend to be iffy on whether or not they're peaceful creatures or hostile ones. Whichever one they are, however, they're always delicious. These ones seems to come in earth, air, and light varieties, too.

  Except for the ones on that island. Their fur and feathers are more golden than yellow. Sun-type? They'll have a mixture of fire and light, and those birds on that island over there… I've never seen those before. They're not big enough to provide an immense amount of meat, but they do have good feathers for arrows. And the fluff on those ones there… could make for a nice pillow, or for the stuffing in a blanket.

  I doubt Robin will have sent me somewhere outside of my ability to handle, so I soar in closer to one of the upper islands. Specifically, the one with geese with cloud-like down. We've still been using furs for our beds and blankets, and there's more than enough on this island for all three of us to upgrade. With the sheep I saw on another of the islands here, I can get us wool of the same quality to use for the cases.

  Rather than going straight for landing on the island, I draw close to it and watch the reaction of the goose-like birds. Some of the nearer ones take flight to a different island, some of them just look at me, but most just keep doing their thing.

  Non-hostiles, then.

  I walk near a spot where there aren't any of the geese and kneel down, picking up some of the fluff and feathers. It's mostly white with some faint grey to it, and is rather soft to the touch. Some of the other down matches the more golden color of the other type of bird on this island.

  Their softness levels are worthy of the claims in their descriptions. I've never felt down as soft and fluffy as the cloudgoose down before despite all of my travels. There is a Mistland that's in the sky, but it's far enough away that I've never gotten the chance to check it out. That might be one of the few places where I can find softer down than this.

  With a gesture of my hand, I conjure wind to gather up all of the down around. The soft feathers soar toward me on the magic wind, then vanish as they near, stored safely within one of my spatial pocket bracelets. My Magic is high enough that I can cover a wide stretch of land with the conjured wind, and I gather up as much as possible. Some of the geese take off from my magic, but most of them ignore it.

  Once I finish, I use [Arc Slash] to kill a few of the geese, then quickly loot them into a stasis pocket bracelet. I want to try their meat to see how they taste, and there are more than enough of the creatures for me to take some without affecting things too much.

  Even if I did, the floating island is part of a Mistland. I could kill all of the geese here and find more if I came back in a week. I cast my gaze across the island for a few minutes, and find some flowers which look interesting.

  They're in patches of around five to ten flowers growing close together, their petals somewhat pointed at their tips. There are three layers to the petals, creating a sun-like pattern, with a small orb of golden light at the center, where the flowers connect.

  An actual orb of golden light. They're solid to the touch despite seeming intangible and warm as well.

  It probably doesn't actually contain a fragment of the sun, but I can already think of several uses for the core, and maybe for the flowers as well. I'll need to do some experiments with the flower to figure out the specific properties it holds, aside from the obvious light and fire magics. Those are all in anything with a sun aspect, but they may have different uses depending on the item itself.

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  I collect a few solcore flowers from each of several patches, storing them in a stasis bracelet. Then, I spread out my wings and head to one of the islands with sheep. Some of them have yellow wool, some have golden wool, and some have white-and-grey wool.

  These aren't new varieties of sheep to me, so I get straight to work. Rather than being timid or scared, the sheep are unbothered by my approach. Predators must not come to this island often, if at all. I slay a few of each type and store them in a stasis pocket bracelet, then use force magic to shear some of the others.

  The magic of the Mistland ensures they never have too much wool, but also that they'll grow more if it's sheared. Their quality is worthy of needing my level of magic to damage, so I know the bedding will last. Fortunately, one doesn't need 1,000 Strength to clean and spin wool into thread and cloth. I might be able to ask Elias and Samantha, Cedric's parents, if they'll do that for me.

  Processing the wool is easy enough to do with magic, but it can still be time-consuming to spin and weave it.

  I fly to an island with some of the tree fiends and watch them from above and to the side. There are a few sheep on this island, and they're a little bit more skittish for sure. They're nowhere near any of the trees here, which means they know that some of the trees are less than friendly.

  As I near the island, one of the light-based tree fiends attempts to attack, sending roots toward me. I immediately fly backwards until the magically-extended roots reach their limits. It looks like they can stretch to about a hundred and fifty feet, so I know the range to keep at if I don't want to use too much magic for this fight.

  Which I don't, because light-based arcane wood isn't a common thing. Most tree fiends within the forest will be ordinary ones. I'm fine with acquiring their loot through drops because of that. Something like these, however, I want to acquire as much as possible from each.

  The only way to do that is to let their corpses remain behind after they die. I'll try to acquire the wood from three of each variant here, as that should be sufficient for my goals.

  Before doing anything, I conjure shadows in front of me, darkness tinting everything on the other side as if they've been cast in shade. That's just in time, as the roots of the tree fiend begin to glow brightly right after.

  I pull a spear from my storage, its shaft made of sturdy wood, its head made of pale yellow orichalcum. There's no magical affinity to the spear, which means that killing a monster with it won't trigger the conversion.

  After testing the spear for a moment, I pull my arm back with the spear aimed at the tree fiend, then I throw it forward with as much force as I can. As it soars forward, I use a little bit of force magic to boost its speed, though make sure there isn't any left on it by the time it reaches the monster half a second later.

  My spear pierces straight through the tree fiend in an instant, the beast jerking back from the impact. That's not enough to kill it due to the sheer amount of HP the monster has, but I think I hit it in its core zone, which means it should be decently low now.

  Enough that my second spear kills it.

  A spear's natural category is [Bladed Weapon] for Skills, but using it this way turns it into a [Ranged Weapon] as well. Bows are the only one naturally both, as far as I'm aware, but they only count as ranged in the System with regards to Skills.

  I wasn't aiming for boosting those Levels… I'd just forgotten that they're low enough that a tree fiend as strong as this one would give me more than enough Skill Experience to gain a Level.

  Using magic to kill a monster isn't the only way to stop their monstrous energies from causing problems in an area. Before I take those extra measures, however, I summon my spears back to me and use them to take out the other four tree fiends near on that section of the island. Only once that zone is cleared do I fly in and land near the center of the group.

  I hold my hands out in front of me, palms facing away, then move my arms so my hands are facing to the sides. As I complete the movement, my hands glow with a golden-white light. The light spreads outward in all directions, seeping into everything.

  As the light of [Purify] seeps into the tree fiends' remains, black and red mist exits them. The mist fades away after leaving the monsters, and I cast the holy magic a second time to make sure I fully purified the corrupted mana from them.

  I store the now-purified tree fiend remains in a spatial pocket bracelet, then repeat this process until I have at least three of each type. Once that's completed, I stop on one of the other islands and examine some of the fungi growing here. Some of them are variants that I've seen before, but one of them, I can understand why Robin mentioned it.

  It grows in direct sunlight, and even needs it to survive. Pale yellow in color for both stalk and cap, it emits a faint glow and is warm to the touch. Dotting the cap are small spots similar to the centers of solcore flowers, as if they're made of light itself.

  I harvest as many of these as I can find without over-foraging. While they might grow back quickly due to the mana of the Mistland, the fact that they absorb mana from the sun means they'll grow back more slowly, so leaving the smaller ones so that they can grow larger for the next harvest is important. The only reason I'm harvesting as much as possible right now is because they can't grow on the ground.

  It's too low for them to absorb enough mana from the sun to still be suncaps.

  Nothing else on the islands catches my attention too much as I explore them and harvest things, though I do use magic to cheat at fishing in the lakes and ponds to catch some of their fish. They'll potentially be pretty delicious and I want to give them a try later. I also collect some of the clay from the lakes – I can conjure clay on my own, but clay with magical affinities is a different matter.

  The golems themselves are fairly easy to take out with my magic, as are the remaining tree fiends I encounter as I explore.

  As I finish exploring the floating islands, I realize that the sun is beginning to set. I stayed out here far longer than intended, but at least it's better than if I went to the mines. There's a good chance I would've gone quite a bit above what was necessary again.

  I stretch out my wings once more and begin flying back to Amberoak Forest. Rather than flying straight home, I land in a clearing and shift so that I'm back to my regular form, then pull on my tunic and upper armor once more. Now that I won't have a thousand questions from Dylan about the wings, I [Teleport] back home.

  Immediately upon arriving, I can tell that Dylan burned something again. His mind is in the kitchen and he's doing something with embarrassment, while Nolan is nearby and full of curiosity and mild confusion. There's also focus in the other man's mind, and I use my magic to peek inside the cabin.

  Right now, Dylan's currently standing in the kitchen with his arms folded across his chest, a small frown crossing his lips as he stares at the food storage room. That's definitely a "will he notice there's more missing than I claim I used?" look he's got.

  "What did you burn this time?" I ask after [Teleport]ing behind him.

  Dylan jumps with a startled shout, then presses a hand to his chest.

  "Scare the crap out of me why don't you?" He asks. "Did you [Teleport] in? Ain't that expensive?"

  "Not as expensive as how much I've used for other stuff," I tell him. "Went to the Mistwood and did some harvesting. So? What was it this time?"

  "Tried makin' wraps with more of the stoneseeker wolf meat," he says. "Since we've got a lot of it still. Since you seemed to be out past dinner, figured you'd be comin' back 'round nightfall, prob'ly exhausted and stuff. Those seemed easy enough when you made 'em, but…"

  His cheeks tint red a little and the embarrassment in his mind spikes. This is probably not the time to tell him that I would've been fine with stew. Nor is it the time to mention that I have some meals prepped and in one of my stasis bracelets. I did that because I know myself well enough to know I might get too absorbed into something to feel like cooking.

  "Give me fifteen to get cleaned up," I tell him. "Why don't you grab the stuff for it while I do that? Then I'll walk you through the process."

  "Alright," he says.

  "And Dylan?"

  "Yeah?" He's still feeling pretty embarrassed over his mishap getting caught.

  "Thanks for trying," I tell him. "I appreciate the effort."