Elemental Cats

Since they had hit a roadblock in their development of Scrael's prosthetic leg Toz and the others decided to take a break. They also needed to wait for the wooden legs to grow to see if that would improve the mana flow through the leg.

And Toz knew just what they had to do.

Hods had already cleaned up the catfish and the shark that they had killed the day before. And since no one had eaten for quite a while, it was naturally time to have a feast. Though, it wasn't a full-blown party since Joshua was still comatose. But since they had no idea when he would wake up, it wasn't possible to wait for him.

Toz wasn't the only one who was hungry. It had been quite some time since they last ate, after all. And when they had last eaten, it had been very small portions. Not to mention how they had exhausted themselves fighting the three void beasts.

Thankfully they still had a lot of food stored, even without the impressive amounts of void meat that the massive bodies of the catfish and the shark had granted them.

Everyone aside from Joshua gathered in the center of the island and feasted on the void meat of the ninth level beasts.

Although the meat was a far cry from being delicious, it was significantly better than the meat they got from the lower level jellyfish and void fish, which they encountered most often.

Toz savored the springy feeling of the shark's meat when enlightenment struck him.

"Springs!"

At first, no one understood what he said since he shouted with his mouth full of void meat. But even when they figured out what he said, they still couldn't make heads or tails of it.

The others around the clearing looked at Toz, waiting for him to explain what he meant. But he didn't say anything else. He continued chewing the meat in his mouth as he roused his mana and began using his magic.

Toz made the latest prototype of the prosthetic leg they had designed for Scrael. It was the one with the ball joint that left the paw dangling loosely. However, even after he finished making the model, he continued modifying it.

Toz added minuscule spiral springs around the joint, connecting the paw and the leg. The springs made the leg slightly bulkier, and the joint would have looked inflamed if Toz were to cover it with a layer of metal, but Toz didn't let the aesthetic aspects bother him.

He fine-tuned the strength of the springs until they kept the paw steady in a flat position with the underside facing the ground so long as the leg was upright.

Toz tested the prosthetic by pressing it against the ground, and he felt the paw and the springs push back, giving the leg the flexibility and stability that they had sought after.

But he didn't stop there. Toz continued modifying the paw by removing the toes and then connecting them to the paw using even more springs. This time the springs were shorter and slightly sturdier since there was only one spring per toe and because the springs would have to be able to withstand the impact of Scrael clawing at her prey.

Toz held up the finished construct with pride. He immediately asked Scrael to try it on.

The leg connected to Scrael's stump just like every other leg had done. It wasn't until Scrael took a few steps that she felt the difference in what Toz had done.

Although the springs didn't adapt to the surface of what she walked on and always sprung back with the exact same strength, she could almost walk normally with the leg Toz made.

Scrael tried jogging a little bit as well, and while the paw swung back and forth a bit due to the springs getting pushed as far as the joint would let them and then springing back, Scrael still managed to pick up the pace and run a lap around the island at a decent speed.

There was a limit to how fast Scrael could run without using magic, and she wasn't quite as fast as she was with her original leg. But if she got used to her prosthetic, Scrael could possibly run almost as fast as she did previously.

But it was definitely the best prototype Toz had made so far, even if Scrael couldn't use magic. After she finished trying the prototype, Scrael dashed and jumped into Toz's arms.

Scrael hugged Toz, but she soon found the public display of affection slightly embarrassing, so she calmed down and replaced the hug by saying thanks.

She was still overjoyed at the prosthetic, however.

But they weren't yet done since she couldn't use mana with it. And if she tried using mana on the rest of her body, the prosthetic couldn't withstand the impact of hitting the ground when Scrael ran around.

Toz and Nil worked together to enhance the prosthetic even further and make it better in all the ways they could think of improving.

Aside from Stitches, who looked over and helped Joshua recover, the rest of the island's inhabitants started training while waiting for Scrael's prosthetics to finish growing.

The first prototypes wouldn't take too long to develop since they weren't made with extensive care and abundant mana, but it still wouldn't be so fast that they could simply sit around and watch them grow.

Especially not after everyone was burning with motivation to grow stronger.

Taienra and Asilean because if they had been strong enough, they wouldn't have been captured and gotten their star crystals harvested or been completely powerless to stop their friend's suffering.

The cats' reason for wanting to become stronger didn't even need to be discussed. They had all felt powerless during the moment that Scrael lost her leg.

Even Hods, who had never been very motivated to train, got an urge to grow stronger. he felt like he had been more useless than anyone else during their encounter with Taienra, Asilean, and the void beasts chasing them. He had been the only one who could only delay one of the catfish for a few minutes. And even that was with the help of one of the cats.

Everyone else had done something else aside from delaying the catfish. Toz and Mindle kept the swarm of void beasts at bay. Lucy restrained the void beasts several times, and he also hid the entire island from almost every single void beast in the swarm. There was no need to mention Nil and Scrael's feats since they kept the most powerful of the three void beasts at bay.