Antonio sat on a rock within a bubble of air. He and his party had gone back underwater to work on the things Mike had mentioned they could improve on. He had been told that his biggest downside was his lack of mana control. If he could just figure out how to recreate a few of those powerful skills that Mike wielded with such ease, maybe he could become a truly formidable fighter. He knew that was far easier said than done, but it wasn't entirely his fault that his mana control was sucky.
Ok, technically it was, but his lack of control was not due to his inability to direct the energy. He glanced back at his group, seeing that nobody was looking directly at him. Turning his back to all of them, he crushed a small purple stone in his hand, inhaling all the vapor that was released from it. The nervousness that had been eating away at him dulled, though it still didn't entirely disappear. The mana in his body began bouncing around inside of him, and his authority over it lessened significantly.
“You know you are just making things harder on yourself, right?” Sam said, making Antonio jump. He looked back and frowned at her.
“You said you wouldn’t judge me.”
“I’m not judging, I am just telling you the truth.” She said, shaking her head.
“Still, not feeling a lot of positive vibes coming from you.” Antonio muttered.
“I’m not exactly happy seeing my friend get addicted to that stuff.”
“I’m not addicted.” He said sharply, taking a moment to breath and calm himself. “I just need it to calm down a bit. Fighting monsters for such long periods of time is starting to get to me.”
“You can go back to the town. Nobody would be upset with you for taking a break.”
“I’m fine. Just give me a few minutes and we can go hunt some more.”
Sam sighed, walking away from him. “Just let us know if you want to go back to town.”
“Will do.” He said. He knew he wouldn’t be telling anybody he wanted a break. He couldn't stop fighting, he needed to keep leveling up. He enjoyed the feeling of being strong, and being seen as strong. Several people in the town had surpassed him and his group, and he longed to join them up there. The only problem was that he wasn’t like them. He wasn’t strong or super talented, but he did have one thing. He was determined. He wanted to be strong more than anything else, even if just to make people like him.
That was part of why he had raised his charisma stats so much. He figured it would make people look at him more favorably, but the more he dumped into the stat the more he felt that wasn't really what it was doing. Instead it gave him more “authority” over his magic. Not in the sense that he could control it better, but that he could command it to do what he wanted.
It was all that kept him from losing access to his magic entirely when under the effects of gemlock. He looked out into the water, past the barrier that kept the air still for them to breathe. He looked back at his group, who were having a lively conversation with one another. He took a deep breath, walking over to Sam. He whispered in a low voice in her ear, telling her that he had changed his mind and would be heading back to the village.
She offered for the team to take him back to the shore, but he assured her he could make it back on his own. He walked up to the edge of the bubble, stopping just at the edge. He felt the nervousness begin to bubble up again in his stomach, and he almost felt queasy from the anxiousness that overtook him. He crushed another rock in his hand, inhaling the fumes. It made him a bit better, but not as much as he had been hoping.
‘I have to do this.’ He thought to himself, taking a step forward. Instead of the feeling of water engulfing him, he felt the air around him shift as he commanded it to get out of the way.
*Trait evolving! Your trait, Born Leader, has become Singular Authority!*
The air bubble he had willed to open up followed him as he walked deeper into the lair of sharks, and he spoke softly to himself once the others were too far to hear him. “They will all admire me. If they don’t, they at least will never forget me.” Determination filled his every step, and he felt as if nothing could stop him. Come hell or high water, he would walk among the strongest, whether it be in life or in death.
___________
Mike flew through the air with glee as his wings flapped behind him. Seeing the harpy fly had made him realize he had been going about it completely wrong. This whole time, he had been attempting to imitate the manner a bird would fly in, using nothing but his wings to maneuver himself around. He didn't know how he hadn't thought of it before, but now it felt as if it was so obvious. He darted towards a rock formation with a hole much smaller than his wingspan going through it.
Just before he flew into it, he pulled his wings in, using the motion to spin his body in such a way that he could make it perfectly through the hole. Scratches and scars were in the rock from where he had practiced the maneuver dozens of times. He had known what he needed to do in order to improve his flying ability, but that didn't mean he could just instantly figure it all out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Maybe I’m ready for the full course now.” Mike said to himself, rubbing his hands together as he flew up towards the clouds. He didn't fly through them, instead landing on a flat part of the mountain just below the clouds. He took a few seconds to recall the path he would be taking. Walking up to the edge of the flat portion and putting his toes over the edge, he was slightly disappointed by the lack of an adrenaline rush. Maybe it was due to knowing he would be jumping in just a few seconds that kept him from getting the rush, but he didn't really care.
He kicked off the mountain, keeping his wings tucked in as he entered a free fall. He held his hammer in hand and infused it with mana to make it heavier. He accelerated to ever higher speeds until he reached a quarter of the way to the ground. Mike then let go of the hammer, extending his wings out to their full breadth.
His wings cut through the air, and with a slight adjustment to his body’s orientation, the air pushed him forward. He ripped through the air as he followed the path that he had practiced several times before. He flew close to the mountain, close enough in fact that moving just a few feet closer would cause his wing to make contact with the rock.
He reached the next obstacle in his, well, obstacle course. He flew through a small valley in the rock, soaring over various monsters that had an average level of about 70. The fit was so tight that his wings nicked the occasional rock, but not hard enough to throw him off course. He held his breath as he reached the end of the valley, where he needed to flap his wings to give himself slight upward momentum before pulling them in to keep them from hitting the rock walls on either side of the exit.
He laughed as he made it past that portion, as it was where his first 6 attempts had all ended. He had considered cutting it from the course, but after his first successful attempt through the valley he decided to keep it.
The next part was a cave that wove through the mountain for about a mile before looping back on itself and leading towards the entrance again. He flew through the cave, with the opening being large enough that he had a larger margin or error than the valley had given him.
Unlike the valley, the cave featured various twists and turns, as well as him not being able to just fly over the monsters. He had needed to retract his wings for a split second several times as he passed them by, and had needed to dodge various swipes from earth elementals that had noticed him before he passed them.
He emerged from the cave less than 2 minutes after he had entered, faster than any of his previous attempts. He headed for the last part of the course, which was two rings he had made through various parts of the mountain. He had been practicing the second of the two rings just before he had started this attempt, and he felt confident in threading the needle through both of them.
Wind whipped against Mike’s face as he screamed through the air at nearly 300 miles an hour. Conserving his speed had been the biggest challenge Mike had faced while learning, but he had gotten a pretty good hang of it by now. Mike perfectly flew through the first ring, before eyeing the second ring. He had just a second to make the necessary maneuver. He twisted his body, performing a textbook barrel roll while pulling in his wings. He squeezed his eyes shut as he passed through the hole, cheering when he emerged out the other side.
He landed soon after, taking a moment to catch his breath after the excitement. Something about the freedom of flight had spoken to him, and he reveled in the experience. After calming down, he turned his eyes to the objective he had first come to the mountain to achieve. He set out to look for his first fight. Mike didn't know what part of the mountain to start at, so he started about two thirds of the way to the clouds.
He was in the valley that had been a part of his obstacle course. A few of the inhabitants of the valley clearly remembered the man who had flown over their heads at high speed, and it didn't take long for monsters from all over the valley to start trying to overwhelm him. They were all around level 70, but Mike didn't have trouble fighting several of them at once. They may have been high leveled, but they weren’t particularly strong.
He did run into the occasional enemy that he would need to lure away from the main group in order to slay, but those were few and far between. Mike did need to drink a health potion after a particularly nasty hit to the face from a level 75 earth giant, but other than that there weren’t any major hiccups thanks to nothing being able to overcome the defenses of his new armor.
After the valley was almost entirely empty of monsters, a loud roar echoed out that made the rest of the monsters run. Mike looked towards the source, ready to fight whatever had clearly been challenging him. A lumbering figure stepped out from behind a rock formation, and Mike took in the tall form.
Earthen Goliath (level 79)
Mike knew right away that this wasn't a weak monster. It was four levels higher than the giant that had injured him, and stood at over triple Mike's height, being 20 feet tall just as the tarantula matriarch had been. Mike didn't have time to reflect on why that was a common size for boss monsters, and he dodge a large rock that had been thrown at him. Small bits of shrapnel bounced off his armor, but none did any damage.
Mike charged the beast, using blast step to accelerate quickly in an attempt to bash in its knees. The monster was deceptively fast, and swung its massive arm. It made direct contact with Mike's side, sending him flying into one of the valley walls. He groaned in pain as he extracted himself from the wall. His armor had once more proved its durability, having not a single scratch on it. That didn't mean he was uninjured though, as he had been rattled quite badly within the metal confines of his protection.
The goliath ran towards him, and Mike made a hasty decision and hurled his hammer at the monster. The hammer caught the ankle of the giant, its immense weight causing it to trip. It recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. Mike summoned his hammer into his hands, smashing it into the side of the goliath's head.
The fight went on for another ten minutes, with Mike being thrown into several more walls and in one case even getting slammed through one. His armor held up to all of it, remaining just as shiny as when he’d made it.
Eventually the goliath was dead, and Mike stood over the beaten corpse victoriously. He thought about trying to find useful parts of its body to use in crafting, but the monster looked far too human for him to comfortably do that. It may have been extremely large, but it still resembled a dumb looking gray skinned human. He checked his notifications for the gains from all of his fighting.
*Class level up x2! Mighty feller of Giants (level 57)*
*Race level up! Human (level 56)*
Mike felt that his class name was getting more and more appropriate every time he fought, as he was facing larger and larger enemies. He sighed as he added all of his free points to strength, making it once more his highest stat. He sighed again, knowing that leveling up enough to start fighting monsters above the cloud layer would take a while. He sighed one last time just because it felt good, then he began traveling up the mountain to the next portion of it, ready to face down some more powerful enemies.