Golden rays of light slip through the gaps in the delicate handmade curtains swaying to the gentle breeze and fall on the floor which looks like wood with slender beams of blue flashing dimly illuminating the room.
The petite figure sitting on a mat surrounded by a mist making it difficult to see through exhaled a long breath with eyelashes fluttering slowly, showing signs of waking up. Opening her eyes causing the mist of aura to disperse, Zera got up from the floor and stretched her waist as she finished morning practice and went to the bathroom to freshen up.
Filling up the tub with hot water and brushing her teeth while waiting to fill up, Zera projected the news as holograms around her as she bruised through them leisurely. Turning off the water as the bathtub fills up Zera slowly immersed herself till her chin as she leaned her head against it and closed her eyes as her muscles relaxed all over her body after her morning exercise and the fatigue gradually decreases as they absorb the aura from the water which is mixed a drop of water from the Aura Springs next door.
'Haa…..This feels so good. I can just lay down for a nap right now if only mom went along with dad to the company instead of pestering me daily to wake up early in the morning to start training.'
Taking a look around the room and looking at the wooden floor with dull pulses of blue lines on it Zera's face blossomed with a smile as she remembered how much effort it took her to make this material that looks like wood but is sturdier than any of the known materials on the planet.
'It looks and feels like wood but who knows that even if you drop a couple of tons of TNT next to it it will remain undamaged, haha. It would be great if that happens sometime in the future and tsk tsk their faces at that moment will be wonderful after they find out the house is not even scratched after the dust settles down.'
'But this material is not something I can afford more at the moment though. I still feel phantom pain on my buttocks whenever I remember the time when dad found out all the mutated metal dad got after smuggling it from countless countries and spent months shipping it too was fed to a plant by me to make my small 250sqm cozy house right next to Aura Spiring.
Anyway, we won't need that material right now to build the outer walls as there are no dangerous animals on the island.'
'I have to thank mom for finding that wonderful Assimilation Tree while it was still in the stage of a sapling when she went around the Island in search of any mutated plants last year.'
Getting out of the bathtub as the water-cooled down and drying herself with the soft towel Zera walked out and wore a pair of jeans along with an oversized t-shirt and walked out of the house heading towards the place where Sylvia lives which is about a hundred meters upfront for breakfast as the door closes behind automatically.
Stroking and watering the Assimilation Tree with diluted Aura Spring liquid Zera continued on the way thinking about using the tree to make clothes later on.
'Featherweight clothes which are highly defended and also look great with aura pulsing through them, must look awesome, but I might have to go behind my dad's back and find grandpa to smuggle the materials under dad's nose. Once the clothes are finished I will just push the pot on grandpa saying that he wanted to experiment if it is possible to make clothes using Assimilation Tree's leaf's fibers.'
'It's amazing that this plant can freaking decompose anything into individual cells slowly and absorb them into its own body without any backlashes at the same time. It's just the amount of wastage of materials when the plant is still at a lower stage of evolution is too high making it quite uneconomical. My small wooden hut required nearly 50 freaking tons of metal! The books never mentioned this when they described the properties of the plant.'
Looking at the buildings in the distance with familial figures training in the surroundings early in the morning making her way to have her breakfast with Sylvia, Zera was satisfied with the development of the base in the past two years.
Zera pushed the door wide open gulping when she sniffed the smell of cheeseburger and fries from the kitchen along with pizza baking in the oven.
"Good morning, mom." Zera greeted Sylvia with a kiss on her cheek as she took a deep breath of the scent of the pizza as it got taken out of the oven just now.
"Good morning, dear."Greeted Sylvia, carrying the dishes from the kitchen and placing them in front of Zera who is now seated and trying to eat her pizza which is steaming hot without burning her tongue.
"You know, even though you can use aura to maintain a healthy physique it's still required to sustain a balanced and nutritious diet during the Human Stage. This is written in the material that YOU provided Zera and now it's YOU who is not following it by having pizza and burgers three times a day over the past week. I won't make them anymore for the upcoming three months, you can only have them once every three days as a snack after that, okay?" Said Sylvia with a serious expression while sitting in front of Zera who now made a bitter melon face.
"Did you hear that mom?" Asked Zera looking sad.
"What? I didn't hear anything." Said Sylvia looking around puzzled.
"The sound of my heart shattering when you said no more pizza and burger!" Answered Zera leaving Sylvia looking at her daughter dumbfoundedly as she savored her last meal of them to remember the taste for the upcoming three-month ban.
Finishing her breakfast with a glass of juice Zera called Zale to inquire about the batch of people or you can say deceived people coming to the Island in a few days.
"Hey, dad. Good morning" Said Zera waving at the handsome man who is wiping his sweat looking like just came out of training.
"Good morning dear. What made you call me so early in the morning? Don't give me sh*t about missing me, I won't believe it anymore." Said Zale, as he watched his daughter plan to coax him using lies as always and laugh at him later on teaming with Sylvia at how easy it is to fool him.
"Hehehe….Nothing dad. It's about the newcomers on the way to the Island. Are there any tigers and wild animals onboard instead of only domesticated ones like last time?" Asked Zera as she got excited at the mention of wild animals.
Looking at his daughter's excitement Zale couldn't help but want to pour cold water on her to wake her up saying," Nope, none in this batch as there are plenty of people on board, and the ship is thoroughly checked midway making it difficult to hide them. If anyone reports by accident, it won't be worth the trouble."
"Aww...okay." Sighed Zera with disappointment as she was waiting to raise a few tigers as pet cats near her house.
"We just told them according to the story we made up earlier as we needed around thousands of people from all sorts of professions this time to build the base in an all-round way from researchers to carpenters covering most of the industries." Said Zale taking a sip of water from the bottle to rehydrate after intense exercise.
"Yeah, okay. Then I will ask mom to explain the real purpose after they reach here and if anyone is unwilling I will just detain them for the next 20 years which they originally signed to." Said Zera checking if the construction of their accommodations is completed.
"Okay, as you find appropriate. I just got information that the government has noticed that the planet's radius and mass has increased by .1% in the past couple of years and they just dismissed it as nothing significant. They found the change rather early than predicted but still missed the signs just as you said. Anyway say hello to your mom for me, I got to go. Take care, I will be back next month."
"You too dad, Bye."