Ray was correct to be confident. It did indeed take just about as long to kill the Vilewyrms as it took the guard to get back to the village.

Although Ray wouldn’t say it was easy.

As the monsters rushed in as a group, probably to take advantage of Pack Hunt, Ray rose into the air on Soaring Wings. Despite being the offspring of drakes, according to their description, they had no wings. Ray had a clear advantage over them that he would be a fool not to exploit.

Ensconced in his aerial safety, Ray decided to pelt shot after shot of Mottling Spiritguard. This wasn’t like Spiritsorb, where he actually had to aim and cast directly by himself. All Ray did was simply cast the spell to summon up the fourteen orbs and have them turn offensive. Then he zipped over the battlefield, allowing his orbs to target the nearest monsters he passed by.

There were two main benefits to this approach, aside from the fact that staying airborne trivialized dealing with the monsters.

One was the fact the sparking orbs of True Mana could change their shape depending on the application. In this case, where the targets sported hard scales that even protected them against attacks like the laser breaths, a better attacking approach was needed. Specifically, an spear-like approach.

That was why Ray made the sparking orbs turn into long, pointed javelins that stabbed into the tiny gaps between the monsters’ scales. It worked marvellously.

Ray wasn’t at all surprised to see the hides of the Vilewyrms breaking apart with welters of blood. The Vilewyrms turned into living pincushions of ruptured flesh in no time at all. It was gruesome, but oh boy was it effective. The monsters began falling one by one in rapid succession.

It had been a good idea to raise Mottling Spiritguard’s Tier.

The Vilewyrms themselves couldn’t retaliate easily. Ray had noted no effective long-ranged attacks in their repertoire, which proved to be true. Most just screeched and shrieked at him and his two constructs as they all flew over the flightless lizards.

There was that Mana breath that several flung at him, but it was never a danger. They all failed to even come close to hitting him. The majority of the blasts petered out within twelve to fifteen feet from the monster’s mouths, whereas Ray could climb up to thirty feet with his wings. They also had no tracking at all, so it was easy to treat them as projectiles and swerve away.

Of course, the monsters got desperate. Several used Rampage before attempting an Enhanced Charge. That threw them several feet into the air. Fourteen meters was far higher than Ray could reach on his wings even, so he was in some danger of being hit by a cannoning monster.

Soullife Cloak made sure that wasn’t too much of a problem. Ray dodge the meteoric monsters without difficulty.

The annoying bit was that it made hitting the monsters harder too. His orbs kept missing when the Vilewyrms simply charged straight into the air. Their motion was too fast, too sudden. Hmm, unless…

Ray tried a different tack. He pushed extra True Mana into Mottling Sphereguard to take it to Tier 7. Then he cast it three times in quick succession, creating over forty of the orbs spinning rapidly around him. There were so many now that his vision was almost completely obscured. But it worked. That was all that mattered.

When the monsters charged at him again, Ray made sure that the outer layer formed defensive barricades. Because they were at the same Tier as the Enhanced Charge, the Vilewyrms didn’t break through.

Instead, they hit the defensive wall created by the orbs, losing their momentum entirely before crashing back to the ground.

Which was when Ray manipulated his orbs to open up holes within the defensive wall. Small holes that were nevertheless just big enough to let the sparking orbs squeeze out and attack the now stationary monsters. Like before, they stabbed and speared into the Vilewyrms to end them.

In that manner, Ray managed to kill all the Vilewyrms in the area after almost twenty minutes of effort since the guard had left.

[Enemy Defeated—Vilewyrm]

Tier 9 Monster: Vilewyrm [Level 23] x8

Essence: +16,560

Knowledge: +24

True Mana Restored: +1,840

Essence to Level 27: 21,580/45,300

Knowledge to next Threshold: 873/1,000

Good thing the guard had taken the second raptor along with him. That meant Ray could zip along with his wings to reach the village just in time.

“Told you I’d get here by the time you started telling everyone that the road’s clear,” Ray said.

“So it would seem,” the guard said, not even bothering to sound impressed.

At least the villagers were a lot more appreciative, Ray got a round of thanks from almost everybody who heard the news, and several went off to confirm it. When they returned after about half an hour, they thanked Ray even more profusely and began preparing carts and dinosaurs.

He had learned a bit of the context about the whole thing. It was supposedly an important route. The only real road linking the village to the rest of Cliff Three. Ray had done them a big favour.

“Why didn’t you and the rest of the guards get around to killing the monsters?” Ray asked. He already knew why, having asked Caleb. But he was wondering if the answer would be different from the guard. “It looks it was pretty important to these people.”

“We would have, had we been able,” the guard said. “You arrived around the same time we received the distress call from the villagers. As such, we struck down two birds with one stone by allowing you to handle it.” He looked back. “Why, do you mind?”

Ray shook his head. “Just curious.”

And slightly disappointed, for the man had said the exact same thing Caleb had told Ray. He had hoped for something a little different.

They journeyed on. The next monsters Ray had to take care of were some flying wolves. Apparently, the shepherds out on the pastures didn’t just deal with regular predators. Oh no, they had to contend with massive canine monsters dive-bombing their sheep from up in the clouds.

Not literally clouds, which was good for Ray, because he could fight them aerially.

“For once,” he said as they reached the location where the wolves were preying on the surprisingly mundane sheep. Not even dinosaur sheep. Just regular fluffy animals. “I can see why you’d want me to handle this thing.”

The guard only grunted.

Observing the cloud-studded sky reminded him of the strangeness of the Floors again. Those half-tornado clouds seemed perpetual. Though, despite seemingly lacking a sun, at least the clouds allowed in enough light for a day and night cycle.

Then there were the gargantuan spires too. Spires that might just be eggs for monsters within…

After a bit of talking with the poor, harried shepherd, Ray got to work. The pasture was wide. With all the sheep having been brought in, Ray didn’t have to worry about protecting any of the animals. So instead, he focused on taking down the monsters flying far above.

They were still a little too high, but Ray solved the problem easily. He took some recently sheared wool with him. The scent of the sheep still etched into the wool attracted the predators.

Ray had his Greater Windbane Maw ready on his arm with Primal Spiritcraft. As soon as the first monster got close enough, jaws opened wide and wings spread out as it charged at him, Ray waited. And waited. And wait—now. He fired off the laser breath right as the huge wolf was only a couple of feet away.

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The only reason to wait that long was because Ray didn’t want to miss. Only once the monster was fully committed to the charge, unable to second-guess or do anything but attack, did he blast out the compressed fire.

Of course, the wolf’s onrushing momentum meant that it could still crash through the flames and get to Ray. If he had remained still.

With a jerk, Ray rose above the monster, sending it careening forward, immolated in chaotic flames. The winged wolf had no defences like the last monsters he had faced, so it wasn’t a difficult endeavour. Another blast of compressed, fiery chaos upon the burning wolf as it lost control of its flight ended the monster.

[Enemy Defeated—Winged Wolf]

Tier 8 Monster: Winged Wolf [Level 22] x1

Essence: +1,760

Knowledge: +3

True Mana Restored: +220

Essence to Level 27: 22,640/45,300

Knowledge to next Threshold: 876/1,000

Ray quickly turned around. More wolves were dashing in like sharks drawn to blood. He grinned. Time to take them all out.

The exercise went about as well as expected. Ray used Mottling Spiritguard to take advantage of the fact that flying wolves appeared to have next to no sense of self preservation, even after watching several of their comrades falling to Ray’s spells. They just wanted that sheep wool.

In fact, Ray used a similar tactic that had worked so well against the Vilewyrms. The ring of the Spiritguard orbs blocked the monsters’ onrushing charges, stalling them in the air. Ray took advantage of that stunned state and struck out with Soulstrike.

One blow with the True Mana arm was enough to end most of the wolves. With keening howls, they fell out of the sky, their bodies burning with chaotic, black-red fire.

There was a small subgroup within the pack of flying wolves that weren’t as easy to kill. These ones hung back, looked larger and somehow wiser than their smaller brethren. Ray immediately understood that they were a slightly superior kind he’d need to put more effort into dispatching.

Since they weren’t obliging him by charging and dying, Ray was the one who had to go after them. He had to charge after them.

This led to an actual dogfight as they zipped through the air, both sides focusing on dodging while also trying to get hits in. If Ray focused too much on any one of the larger Winged Wolves, a couple of others would swoop into claw and bite him. He had to stay on his toes. Figuratively.

It was getting a little frustrating, so Ray evened the odds by summoning three Greater Windbane Maws. That helped turn the tides.

Of course, Ray had to be smart about deploying them. He couldn’t just send them all out to harass the flying wolves. At the same time, just keeping them close to defend him wouldn’t work either. Both would make his opponents too wary. So instead, Ray applied a mix of both.

Two of the maws chased down the Winged Wolves one by one, while the other one belched fire from a distance. But when one of the wolves got too dangerously close, it also made sure to quickly change its stance and defend Ray with gusto.

Allowing him to take pot shots at the wolf monsters with a draconic maw grafted to his arm.

It took a while. Maybe almost another half hour. He had to dismiss and reapply Soaring Wings a few times and even crush another True Mana shard. But after some time, Ray had finally knocked the last Winged Wolf out of the air.

[Enemy Defeated—Winged Wolf]

Tier 9 Monster: Elder Winged Wolf [Level 24] x5

Tier 8 Monster: Winged Wolf [Level 22] x14

Essence: +35,440

Knowledge: +57

True Mana Restored: +4,280

[Level Up!]

Reward

* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.

* 10 True Mana shards

Essence to Level 28: 12,780/49,600

Knowledge to next Threshold: 933/1,000

Excellent. Another level. Even if it wasn’t a new spell, Ray would accept the reward of True Mana shards graciously.

“There,” Ray said when he descended and met the guard who was riding back into the field. “All done.”

The man surveyed the wolves with minor distaste, before nodding and heading off. They spoke a bit with the shepherds and convinced him that everything was now alright. He believed them. Apparently, he had watched the whole battle from some private vantage point.

Ray received some more thanks before heading off to his next source of Essence.

This task turned out to be a bit more emotionally involved. A few children had been taken from a different village by a monster.

Terrible as the news was, Ray would have told them that a rescue sounded like a hopeless cause. Monsters wouldn’t normally kidnap anyone, would they? The children had to have been killed.

Still. The tearful parents of the missing children were hoping Ray could defeat the monsters in time. No harm in trying, he supposed.

Ray noticed that the guard’s face continued to look impassive. That asshole hadn’t even looked sad for the parents’ plight. Was he some kind of emotionless monster?

Deciding to keep his complaints to himself, Ray got going.

The culprit of the case was a Treant. Ray was sure he had heard that name before. Wasn’t it a popular monster from somewhere? At least, it had to have existed in some cultural folklore from back on Earth. Maybe he had heard about it from a myth.

Whatever the case, the main point was that it was a wood-based monster. Having dealt with the Wood Elementals, Ray was well-versed on how he was going to handle the encounter.

A guide from the village took Ray and the guard to where the monster had been spotted in the nearby woods. Afterwards, it was just a matter of using his mimic and eyeball constructs to scout around the area until they located the target. The guide had already run off to safety, the guard following the young boy along with the two raptor mounts.

Leaving Ray alone to kill the Treant.

But where he had expected a giant, sprawling, treelike monster, he discovered that the Treant’s name was a lot more… literal.

Ray did find a tree, but it looked more like a huge anthill made of wood. Relevant, because the monsters awaiting him were gigantic ants. Wooden mandibles and rootlike legs, bodies that looked like bristly, thorny bushes. No doubt there was some sort of debilitating, if not fatal, poison involved.

Treants. Tree ants. Ray wasn’t sure if he had just heard wrong, or if it was just spelled differently. Whatever the case, he prepared to fight.

First step was using Primordial Gauge.

[Primordial Gauge]

Treant [Monster] [Tier 7] [Level 22]

Ants born of the woods. They conjoin trees to form huge, anthills of wood. Despite being made of fauna, their primary diet is flesh. They are known to decompose their captured prey within their anthills before devouring them once softened.

Skills:

Identifying Scent [Tier 4]: Leave a small odour upon a target to determine its main information. Only information up to this skill’s Tier revealed.

Poison Spit [Tier 6]: Shoot out a burst f poison that slowly deteriorates your foes’ health and Recovery. At Tier 6, this skill reduces the Recovery by 6% per minute.

Bullet Snap [Tier 5]: Lunge forward to snap at foes with an overpowered bite. At Tier 5, this skill covers up to 10 meters of distance.

Pack Hunt [Tier 5]: Raise all stats by 13% for every member of the species present in the vicinity.

Woodcraft Manipulation [Tier 6]: Employ the ability to shape and manipulate wood to do your bidding.

Woodcraft Manipulation? That sounded pretty interesting. Ray couldn’t see any useful application for himself, personally, but he could definitely tell it would be a great find for some people.

Hmm… Ray summoned up his Imitator construct. Then gave it a quick command to transform into one of the Treants over yonder before diving into the wooded anthill to find any children.

That didn’t require him to insert a part of his own thinking power into the monster. Ray was starting to realize the difference in situations that required it. It was independence. When the construct would need to make complex judgments and decisions for itself, that was when Ray needed to offload a part of his own intellect to the creature.

When his commands were clearly defined, even if a bit extra, there was no need.

The Imitator Treant charged into the anthill like it had always belonged there. The other ants didn’t seem to mind.

Ray was a bit surprised at that. Weren’t ants supposed to use complex pheromones and other identifying scents to tell each other apart? Had his construct managed to imitate that as well? Maybe it was a lot stronger than he had realized and appreciated so far.

Having also hidden a Scouring Eyeball on top of the Imitator’s head, Ray had no trouble seeing what was going on even after the fake Treant disappeared.

The anthill’s interior was definitely interesting. If he had still been a researcher, it would have enthralled him. As it was, Ray was far from bored as he observed the tunnels of wood, the leaf-wrapped cocoons holding their young, and the eggs that looked like they were made of thin wood.

His focus was on the captured children the Imitator eventually located, however. Hmm. Now how to get them out?

Ray created another Imitator construct, turning it into a giant ant as well. He did the same for a few more constructs. His head began hurting badly again, but that was fine. Ray wasn’t personally and directly involved in the process. He could take a bit of pain.

Those children had to have suffered far worse.

Ray sent out his rescue force. They went and performed their job admirably.

As soon as the next group of fake Treants arrived at the imprisonment chamber, the first Imitator convinced the couple of guarding Treants to go take a break. The new ones would relieve their duty. The actual ants were fooled into doing so. This left Ray’s Treants to do whatever they wanted.

While the first one ensconced one of the children into its body, one of the other Imitators turned from an ant into a child, complete with the digesting cocoon. A perfect replica.

Ray actually laughed a little as the first Imitator returned with the captured child in tow. It had actually worked really well.

Now to repeat the process.

While his Imitators remained busy, Ray focused on freeing the poor child. The kid was alive, thankfully. Ray ignored the splitting headache and did his best to pull apart the cocoon and clean the child until the next one arrived. And then another. Three in total. That was enough.

There was a fourth, but he had already passed away.

Ray stared down at the dead boy’s face. His heart felt like a stone in his chest. The kid’s skin was cold. Clammy. Almost whitish grey, like the underbelly of a fish. Even his blood was sickly now, looking slimy silvery and reflective in the low light where his skin had split.

Plucked from life so early. What a cruel world these people lived in. Ray stood back up, dismissing some of the Imitators and deciding it was time to stop the Treants for good.