I actually hadn’t given any weight to the word moving in the description of our mission position.

I hadn’t even considered that the mountain was actually lying on its stomach when we had treaded on it, and was currently in the process of standing up.

I saw the face of my team members moving away, so quickly that I couldn’t even grasp what had happened.

I was so high that even I couldn’t even breathe properly.

{Breath control has become lv 7}

But as it was standing up, I looked up and past the canopy of those steel towers.

And saw something which I was very familiar with. Though its size looked to be about some thousands time the normal size I see, but in the end, it actually was the same dot that I see on everyone else. The mountain too had a symbol of Appraisal.

‘So this is a living being too!!” the simple thought had so much weight that it ended up increasing my overwhelm resistance by a level.

I gulped and observed the dot, as it zoomed, and became the ever telling status. And it said the thing that I know it would say.

Error: The organism you are trying to check is too, too, too out of your league. Please try again later.

{Appraisal has become lv 8}

I left the status behind and thought about what to do. The thought of going on a killing spree came to my mind, but my mind used veto and voted against me.

Afterall there was no way that I would have been able to return in one piece from wherever this thing was going.

Thinking about what to do led me to remember that I had skill which could help me with the jump.

It took quite a lot of thinking and pondering on my half, but I was able to come to the conclusion to jump, as the being was already in the motion of taking a step forward. My [Fast processing] brain wasn’t for show after all.

{Decider has risen to lv 8}

And I jumped as my foothold flew at the speed of sound to my back.

{Wind resistance has risen to lv 8}

{Feather fall has risen to lv 3}

My speed should have increased with my descent, but the skill [Feather fall] worked and decreased my velocity instead.

And after dropping a whole meter a time came when the faces of everyone became clear thanks to [Clarity] and I fell to the ground like a feather

I got a good look at the surrounding area and learned that even though we had travelled for one hour to reach this place from our mound, these two places weren’t actually that far apart.

{Map2.0 has risen to lv 3}

And there were more of these mountains in the distance. ‘Probably the mission site for other scavengers.’ I thought.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

And as my descending velocity fell to a tortoise crawl, I decided to check out what kind of an option the maximum level of Skill Balance was giving.

{Skill Balance has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Follow or Oppose

I didn’t understand what those words meant. I didn’t even understand how these words could be related to balance.

But like always I listened to my soul, not my heart. That thing had been corrupted. And choose to oppose everything, just like I had opposed that two faced bastard of a commanding officer.

*Ting*

[Skill: Equilibrium gained.]

Equilibrium: Cancels the damage from an explosion and blunt forces. The amount of damage neglected depends upon the stability of your body, and its ability to move freely.

And then my feet touched the ground as the whole team came running and welcomed me back with tackles slams and hugs.

{Wind resistance has risen to level 13}

{Feather fall has risen to lv 6}

{Blunt force resistance has risen to lv 10}

I had seen how worried they had looked from above, and knew that they were actually worried. I thanked god for the skills and rejoiced for being alive even after falling from almost 2 meter height.

{Faith has risen to lv 4}

{Values has risen to lv 3}

The vice captain slapped my back, “Good job by not dying kid. This would have looked extremely bad on our documents. Getting the hero killed on his first day outside. But how did you survive the fall?”

“Yes, why are you still alive?” asked the only carrier, who I thought had some decency.

I looked at the team leader and saw her smiling.

I first thought of calling it a fluke, but then decided to simply tell them.

“I have a skill, which saved me from the fall.” I said and the reactions like, amazing, what? Not possible! ‘Are you lying to me’ came from them.

{Narrator has risen to lv 3}

But only team leader nodded her head in agreement, “Like I thought. Looks like you have the feather fall skill.”

“What and what?” one of the carrier asked to which the scout answered.

“It’s a skill which decreases the velocity of your fall and makes it seem as if you were a feather floating in the air.”

“Okay, let the rookie be. And carrie no need to look so envious. It is not an easy skill to gain. Who knows what kind of stunts he must have pulled to gain it. Now, team lets go before it becomes dark.”

I asked the scout why before dark and he said because dangerous beings own the night. But we didn’t have to worry about it because it still evening. There had enough time.

{Foreboding has risen to lv 9}

{Intermediate knowledge has risen to lv 2}

Ahem. Maybe we should hurry.

“Okay, so I think we shouldn’t go through the grasslands of the chopper family. I don’t want to get kidnapped by them. What do you all say?”

“We’ll do whatever you say leader.”

Everyone yelled collectively and I nodded my head too.

“So how about we go through the trees. Though it will get dangerous if we went through the bee’s territory, but if we don’t, then I think that it’ll be alright.

And everyone’s faces became stiff.

“That…”

“What happened say it?” She looked at the only lady carrier of the group.

“I don’t think we should take the chance with the bees. I still think that our best bet is to go through the grass forest, and hope that we won’t meet the choppers.”

Team leader sighed and replied calmly, “I also don’t want to go through the trees, but you too know the choppers gangs rule right. They will be looking all over the grasslands for us.”

“*Sigh*” the carrier sighed. She had finally agreed with the plan.

Green the vice captain couldn’t control his emotion and lashed out.

“Let’s just go already. Let the bees come…”

And the fire ‘Mage’ ant followed him. “Yes, let them come.”

“Mage will take care of them all!!”

“Yes, yes… wait what?”

“Hahaa… lets go.” Team leader giggled and we started walking again, but changed our direction to the west towards the trees.

----------------------------------------

Some distance behind them two antennas surfaced above the grass, and moved left right.

They stayed like that for a minute or so, and then went down.

“So, is it them? He is with them right?” The one standing at the bottom asked.

“Yes, boss. One of them even confirmed it.”

“Good good. Looks like the information is correct. So where are they going now?”

“Sir they seem to think that the choppers are out for their blood, and have decided to go through the trees.”

“Huh? Out of a choppers grasp and right onto a bees sting. Alright team…” and all the members behind him stood straight up, “the target is here, we’ll intercept them at the trees. Let’s move.”

With his order the 50 member strong platoon stood up and starting marching toward the trees.

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