Two days later Kevin was standing at the perimeter of the Cluster, Cameron standing next to him yet again. He would have conducted the second half of the experiment the previous day but there had been a morankai attack at the trio. Four abnormal morankai had attacked. Eleven people had died, all of them second wave chosen.

Kevin, Cameron, Tammy and several other of the powerful combatants from the first wave had handled the abnormals - one of which was a powerful energy blasting type that took Kevin and Tammy working together to bring it down. After they abnormals were brought down, they had mopped up the rest of the normal type that had tagged along.

After that, Kevin hadn’t wanted to do an attempt without being perfectly fresh, so he opted to farm the golden morankai for points with Lee, who Cameron had told. Lee, as it turned out, had a secret of his own, a powerful artifact. He had promised it to Cameron once he left the first layer - the condition for his learning the secret.

“How are things in the cluster Godfather?” Kevin said.

“About what you might assume.” Cameron said. “That attack has the people scared. It made the first layer more real than the hunts, but us handling the abnormal morankai so efficiently was a beacon of light to some of those people. Lee and Tammy and some of the others went and talked to the second wave chosen, encouraging them to fight together, grow together.” Cameron sighed. “Your nickname is starting to stick by the way. Godfather.”

“Really? Nice.” Kevin said with a grunt of amusement and a smirk.

“It makes me feel like a Don Corleone.” Cameron said with a chuckle.

“That's funny because I always thought you looked like the guy who played Sunny. What was his name again?” Kevin said with a look of distant contemplation.

“James Caan,” Cameron said. “What?” Cameron said responding to the look Kevin gave him, “I used to like movies. Anyway. I think we should increase the hunting parties. There are thousands of skyscrapers, and we can field hundreds of groups.”

“That is sensible. If this doesn’t work Cameron, I’m going to start my search along this southern edge. My mom is still east-ish from here. Katie south-ish. If there is something to find I’ll find it here.”

“Does that mean you won’t take a hunting group with you?” Cameron asked.

“I will, but volunteers only, and only those willing to fight the hard fight, top to bottom all the way to the street. It will be dangerous for them, Cameron.”

“OK Kevin. There are parent’s in our cluster who are eager to find their children, or at least try to look. Many of them want to accumulate points as fast as possible for this Soul Tracker ability, or one of the others. I’m sure some of those people would want to look with you. Did you know we have a tracker in the second wave? “

“I hadn’t heard. The same one as me?” Kevin asked.

“No. His ability evidently works more like a hound, only much much farther. One woman, who came to the first layer with her purse still in hand, was able to pass a scent off from her husband's wallet. That tracker can tell which direction he is in too, generally, and also that he is still alive.”

“Damn, that one is handy too.” Kevin commented.

“Yes. Evidently cheaper than your ability too. Less effective as most people do not have effects from loved ones they can use as markers, but all the same very handy.” Cameron said.

The pair sat in silence for a while, looking out over the grasslands south of the cluster. Some time has passed.

“Alright, I’m ready.” Said Kevin.

“Good luck Kevin. I’ll see you back at the Trio.”

Kevin nodded and activated Light Heavy and started running. Unlike the previous day where he had just jumped up as high as he was able, this time he ran using the Cloud Step shoes, running on a steep incline. A normal runner would never have been able to maintain that incline, let alone the pace but Kevin ate them up. In the ten or so minutes he ran, he likely covered two miles, climbing to just above the cloud layer that persisted over the grasslands.

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He tapped his ring and suited up in the gliding suit, he tilted his body forward and began to fall, picking up speed before activating Light Heavy again at what he felt was the optimal weight distribution. He started to glide forward, the wind buffeting him. He had to modify his weight constantly to regain control. It was taxing but he endured.

The wind was not constant in direction or strength. One moment it would be coming hard from Kevin’s left, the next it would switch directions to coming from behind him, pushing him forward, the next from the front a gentle breeze, and then the left hard again. Kevin constantly had to adjust his body and his weight to keep from losing control and falling out of the sky like a brick.

Kevin guessed he made it not more than two miles before he had to pull a parachute and ‘land’ as he had before.

That’s when things went wrong. The ‘chute was buffeted by the heavy winds. It failed to open. The lines got tangled and Kevin pulled the release. He had opened the chute low; he didn't have time for this. He pulled the reserve and it too failed. Kevin stored the parachute and tapped his ring. This was going to be close. He tapped his ring and put on the wing suit again. He activated Light Heavy making himself as light as possible as he angled his body to catch the wind and try to gain some altitude or at least not land in the grass.

A gust of wind caught him, throwing him violently into the air, but at least he gained some altitude while he lost control of the glide entirely. The margins were slim but he had one more chance.

He tapped his ring and pulled a spare parachute out into his hands rather than his back. He pulled the cord a second or two before colliding with the grass, holding onto the pack with everything that he had. Kevin blacked out.

He woke and jerked awake. He wasn’t sure how long he had been out. He was wearing the wingsuit, grass wrapped around its bulk. He tapped his ring and put the suit away, the grass clung to him less. He wasn’t as far out as he had been before, the grass wasn’t as tall, but he could still barely see the light from the sky above him.

He pulled out a recovery potion and a mid-tier healing pill and gathered his bearings. Despite having made himself as light as possible before he hit the ground, he could feel bones resetting and ligaments reconnecting as his healing pill took effect. The pain vanished, leaving Kevin with a disorienting feeling of being in Shock but not having a reason to be in shock.

He had managed to hold onto the second parachute well enough, it hadn’t opened all the way, but it had opened enough to get caught on the dense grass, preventing him from falling all the way through. The gliding suit prevented him from getting wrapped up too tightly.

He activated Light Heavy and made himself as light as he could. He pulled himself up to grass level, tapped his ring and pulled out the same bench seat he had used the last time he had been out this far. He pulled himself up onto it and rested for a moment, letting his body heal as he gently extricated himself from the few bits of grass that clung to him.

After a while, just laying there staring up at the blue sky with billowing white clouds, he tapped to store his parachute and began running back on his cloud step shoes, pulling the bench seat up behind him and storing it too. The morankai horde was running towards him but he ignored it this time.

One abnormal shot a spine from his forearm at Kevin, he dodge the spine on cloud platforms, tapped to retrieve his bow, tapped again for an arrow and returned fire almost directly down from the top. The arrow entered the morankai’s neck and entered its chest.

— Points Obtained: Points 332 —

Kevin returned to the Trio. Utterly defeated. It was time to start searching for an exit. He’d start at the south east of the cluster, checking every single skyscraper, top to bottom until he had checked every single one. Every floor. Every room.

That day, Kevin entered the Trio, went to his room and spent the rest of the day meditating and centering himself.

Status: Name Kevin Moses

Points: 92,765

Race: Human

Age: 35

Stats: Strength: 147 - 149

Endurance: 124 - 126

Recovery: 84 - 86

Soul: 20 - 21

Abilities: 5/7

Soul Tracker

Ki Cultivator Earth Tier (Middle)

Basic Shield Mastery (5/5)

Basic Axe Mastery (5/5)

Ceaseless Mind