Kevin woke up while the sun in the first layer was still set. He got up and spent quite a lot longer than he meant to, worrying about his family and what they thought of him. After a time, Kevin didn’t know how much, he snapped himself into focus. He had an opportunity here. An opportunity to get stronger. He’d already possibly doubled his strength if the Status screen was anything to trust. He didn’t really know what the first layer was going to be like, but he knew he had a chance and if he wanted to help his family, he needed to be ready. He pulled the workout bench he purchased and the weights. He slipped on the vambrace and got to work.
He used Light Heavy constantly. Making the single set of 100 lbs dumb bells lighter for some exercises and heavier for others. He was surprised that 100 lbs dumb bells were so light during his bench presses. He was getting a handle on Light Heavy and guessed he was able to just more than double the weights for his last and heaviest set. He worked himself to the bone spending more than two hours on his full body working out. Future workouts would be more targeted but Kevin wanted to know what his new limits were.
He searched the shop for a protein shake and drank a double portion down and took a low tier healing pill. Kevin felt reinvigorated, the fatigue he would have expected passing quickly under the magical effects. Kevin used Soul Tracker to double check that none of his family was in the layer yet. Reassured that he was safe, strong and ready to leave, Kevin packed up his belongings and left his room again.
Kevin went from the 12th or 14th floor he was on all the way to the top of the 40 story skyscraper he was in. On the roof he looked around for any evidence that he hadn’t killed the only other human on the layer. He didn’t find anything and decided he might as well start walking. While he walked he recalled that his Ki Cultivator ability, and each of his Mastery abilities allowed for growth.
He considered what kind of action they would require. In tv shows, movies and books cultivation always required physical training as well as spiritual or mental or some other nonphysical training usually using some sort of meditation. Kevin decided he would need to remind himself of all those old meditation techniques his ex wife used to make him practice. Maybe one of them would help him.
The masteries might be a little more straightforward, but also maybe harder. Kevin didn’t really know anything about axe combat, and he didn’t really know anything about shield defense. He figured he’d just have to figure it out through trial and error. He seemed to be doing pretty good so far though. Kevin walked through the city, crossing bridge after bridge. An hour into his random meanderings, Kevin had the bright idea to make a map. It was a good thing he hadn’t left anything at the other skyscraper, because he definitely would never be able to find it again.
Kevin heard gunshots. He ducked instinctively, thinking he might be the target yet again. He scanned the rooftops of the nearby buildings and didn’t see anyone shooting at him. Concentrating on his hearing he listened and realized the shooting was farther away than he had originally feared.
He jogged to the edge of the roof of the skyscraper he was on and cautiously peered over the ledge. Below, a few skyscrapers away, on an abnormally short skyscraper, Kevin could make out what looked like three or four people fighting on a roof. It was hard to tell exactly how many from that distance and the fact that the roof was covered in morenkai. There must have been half a dozen bodies dead and double that still standing. Even as he watched Kevin could see other morenkai climbing up the side of the the building.
Kevin had always been a reasonably good shot with a rifle, but hadn’t shot the monster of a rifle he got from the shooter before. Despite that he tapped his ring, pulled out the large .50 caliber rifle, extended the bipods on the front, sighted down the scope and took aim at a morenkai climbing up the side. He exhaled slowly, took aim and fired. He watched as the bullet hit a few feet below the creature. Adjusting his aim, he fired again. HIT. The morenkai fell from the roof, but it wasn’t until several seconds later that Kevin got the Notification.
--- Points Obtained: Points 11 ---
Kevin took aim at another morankai he could see from his makeshift sniper nest. He pulled the trigger again. HIT. A few seconds later.
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--- Points Obtained: Points 13 ---
Kevin looked around again and didn’t see any other morenkai on the building to make for easy targets. He brought his attention back up to the roof where he saw that it was four people fighting a retreating battle against the horde of morankai. They began to fall back across a bridge, a single morenkai was on the roof they were headed to. One man charged it, and though Kevin couldn’t see what specifically happened, the lone morankai suddenly jerked sideways, flew the full 100 plus feet to the adjacent building, crashed violently into the windows before falling to the street below.
Kevin took aim at a morenkai as it crossed the bridge, not trusting his aim too close to the other humans. He pulled the Trigger. HIT. The morenkai fell over the side of the bridge. A few moments later.
--- Points Obtained: Points 11 ---
Kevin shot the last round in the magazine. HIT. But this morenkai didn’t fall off the bridge, only stumbled into another morankai tripping them both up. They fell, buying the humans time. Kevin tapped and stored the rifle. He leaped over the side of the building and activated his Cloud Step shoes. As long as he was moving he could use the shoes to run on open air. To lessen the cost of using the shoes, Kevin used Light Heavy to make himself lighter. He angled his descent to reach the bridge the people were fighting on.
Kevin tapped his ring as he got close, pulling out the long handled Obsidian Axe. He pulled energy in with axe mastery as he got close to the back line of the morankai, they hadn’t noticed him yet. He leaped, falling and swinging his axe down like a god of old. As he finished his swing he activated Light Heavy to make the axe many times heavier, with the basic axe energy coursing through the blade, the stacked attack cleaved the morenkai completely in half just before the blade bounced off the wooden planks of the bridge.
--- Points Obtained: Points 12 ---
For a split second, everything stood still as the morankai processed what they heard behind them, and the humans processed what they had just seen. Kevin kept moving though, with Light Heavy active and alternating, he raised the axe up and down, striking another morenkai in the head before it could fully turn.
--- Points Obtained: Points 12 ---
Kevin heard the other group of humans fighting again as the morenkai attention was split. He raised the axe up again and brought it down at an angle directly into the neck of the next morankai. It stumbled back but didn’t die. Kevin was forced to kick the morenkai off his axe, the kick enough to throw the unbalanced morenkai off the bridge.
--- Points Obtained: Points 11 ---
The kick also unbalanced Kevin, those fucking morenkai were so much stronger than him. One grabbed at him. Kevin tapped his ring and stored his axe and pulled out his shield in the same movement. Kevin fell under the assault from the morenkai, he tapped his ring and pulled out the 100 lbs dumbbell. Activating Light Heavy again he wound back then threw a prone punch at the morenkai making the dumbbell at least three times heavier before it crashed into the side of its face. Before he could lose control of the weight Kevin made it light, again. He pushed himself to his feet just as the morenkai did the same. He hit it with a Light Heavy 100 lbs uppercut that sent it flying off the edge of the bridge.
--- Points Obtained: Points 10 ---
Another morankai was headed towards him and Kevin was starting to tire. He took a deep breath, tapped his ring and switched his weight for his maul. The creature came in swiping. Kevin used the shield to glance the blow to the side as he swung the Light Heavy maul into the creature's knee. The blade bit deep but the force shattered the creature's leg forcing it to the ground. Kevin brought the Light Heavy shield back and struck the creature in the face with the edge, stunning it and bringing it to its back, in the same motion he brought the maul up and down hard to the creature's sternum.
--- Points Obtained: Points 14 ---
Kevin looked up for another enemy only to find none left. He instead found the shocked faces of three people with a fourth person looking like murder was in their future. Kevin held his shield at the ready, remembering the first person he had seen immediately trying to kill him, when he was driven to the ground by a morenkai he hadn’t even heard coming. The three people must have seen it and panicked. The fourth person did not. As quickly as Kevin went down, he started to fly up, the morenkai losing its grip on him as Kevin was grabbed by someone. Then, the morenkai flew sideways just like the lone morenkai had before. Kevin looked up to find the older man in front, holding onto Kevin’s vest with one hand and the other hand stretched out in the direction of the morenkai currently plummeting to its death.
“Up you go son,” the man said in a strong voice as he pulled on Kevin, “On your feet.”
Kevin got his balance and found a hand held out for him to shake. “Thanks”
“No, Thank you for the help son, I’m Cameron.”