Following Momo for quite some time, I finally began to see new terrain expand in my vision. Looking forward, I see these massive mountains, their tips protruding through the clouds, but invisible to my eyes, and a layer of pristine snow cascading down the mountains. Looking downwards, the feet of the mountains are covered by yellow grass-a stark contrast to the pure white snow, but not much vibrant life could be seen. This new biome gave me a sense of foreboding, as if something was slowly sapping the life out of this landscape.

As we approach the edge of the tutorial land, I encountered just a slight issue.

There was a 1000 foot wide chasm wrapped around the main land, and looking down into it, all was just void.

As I was pondering about how to get across this gap, Ranko woke up in my arms and yawned. I look away, telling myself to stay calm before looking back towards her. Before I could turn back around, I hear her small voice say,

"S-Sir, do you need any help?"

I instinctively turn around, but upon seeing her face I seem to freeze up.

"Uh--N-no...I-I mea--y-yeah--no...?"

I curse the world.

MAN, I'm only thirteen years old, how could you attack me like this?!

Unable to string together a full sentence, I instead look away, and just point towards the canyon, and she seems to understand.

"Don't worry, I-I can fly you o-over..."

With that, she starts glowing, and yellow light begins being emitted from her body. Slowly, she begins to take the shape of that orchid mantis boss, except a lot smaller and cuter.

It also turns out that I was able to speak a lot smoother to her in this form, as the allure of her face and body slowly subside from my mind.

I asked,

"Can we climb on your back?"

The mantis nods its head, and with that confirmation, I climb onto her back.

Surprisingly, it was very comfortable sitting on her mantis form. Her back was soft-unlike the mantis boss-and was very comfortable to lay on. I unconsciously stroke her back which caused her to shiver a little bit, bending down from my touch.

I realize what I have just done and force myself to stop admiring her body. I get prepared to take flight, grabbing onto small hedges in her armor to keep my grip.

The wings beside me fluttered quickly, and the speed of ascent rapidly increased. Ranko starts to glide forward, and we begin traversing across the chasm but while crossing the chasm, I begin to hear sharp rasps, and looking around me, I discover that we are surrounded by some birds.

I grab out my pistol, and begin shooting the birds one-by-one, eventually knocking all of them into the chasm. My menu recognized the birds as , which is the scientific name of a Northern Mockingbird. These birds are known to be aggressive, but they don't really cause much danger-at least that was what I thought, until I was faced with a group of these mockingbirds that looked a lot more dangerous. Quickly analyzing these birds, they turned out to be , which were poisonous and also camouflaged themselves to its surroundings. Looking at the birds, their weak points seem to be some sacks hanging from their stomachs, but hitting these were very difficult if I was fighting right-side up.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

How to I kill them?

Flip upside down.

I tell Ranko to flip180 degrees, and during the time it takes for her to do the 180, I use my left hand and grab onto a ledge, hanging from Ranko, with my right hand holding my pistol.

Ranko also seems to notice the danger, and the mockingbirds that were dumb enough to rush forward were cut in two by her bladed forelegs.

Now it was time for the smarter birds. I shoot one of the sacks hanging from the birds, and sure enough, the birds explode, leaving behind purple feathers gliding into the chasm. Ranko and I glide down to catch these remains, and they turned out to be . I had no idea what that means, but I still collected all the feathers from the dying birds. Soon enough, all the birds were dead, and Ranko flipped back right-side up with me safely landing on her back.

It was quite the exercise, but definitely not as bad as the tutorial boss fight. After the fight, I see the edge of the main land come into sight, and prepare to jump onto land, but was blocked by a sudden gust of wind. Ranko lost some control over her flight and flew backwards, but quickly regained control and prepared for another fight. Looking up, I see a shadow loom above my head, and a much larger animal seems to glide downwards.

Is this another boss fight?!

I compose myself, dejected by the fact that another boss fight was incoming, but just as the animal was about to break through the clouds, it disappeared, and I only caught a glimpse of its figure.

But that one glimpse shocked me to the core, as the creature emitted a chilling presence that caused me to break into cold sweat. My hands were shaking, but frozen by my side, and my body would not listen to me. It was after a couple minutes when I finally regained back my body, but that feeling of intimidation still held strong in my heart.

Ranko tries the fly back onto the mainland again, and this time, was not blocked by any wind. We approach the ground and land safely on the bed of deep yellow blades of grass, their tips reaching up to my knees. The landscape was just as I anticipated, alive, but somewhat in a hollow state, with little signs of life.

Momo continues forward, and eventually we reach a mountain with a cave carved into it. It seemed to be a cave going downwards into the core of the land, with railroad tracks running along the ground. I walk into the cave, noticing that the cave goes a lot deeper than I initially thought, and conveniently, an old minecart lay against the wall of the cave, so I brought it out and placed it on the track, ready to ride it into the cave. Momo was able to disappear into the menu, but I had to carry Ranko on the minecart, since there was only one.

My body was in slight pain, but luckily, Ranko fell asleep during the ordeal in the air, allowing me to move more fluently and quickly. I push the minecart and hop into it right as it gains momentum, and I began to speed down the tracks. Using lumus bullets to light up the way, the only things that surrounded us were rocks and old wooden structures scattered in the cave, almost like a mineshaft. After waiting for a couple minutes, a light started to shine at the end of the tunnel and a notification appeared,

Looking out, a massive cavern appeared, but the cavern was not empty. It extended downwards to darkness: buildings were attached to the walls of the cavern, pathways were built across the hole, and stores were built everywhere. Pulleys and elevators can also be seen, with people bustling around lively just like a regular city. There were farms, domesticated animals, and even mines everywhere, showing how self-sustainable this town was. The people seemed to have lived down here for a long time, but while I was busy feasting my eyes upon this site, the railroad tracks stopped.

Eh?

I find myself flying out of the cart with Ranko in my hands, and land in a net. The net was surprising soft, but right as I hit it, I fell unconscious, and the last thing I saw were people hoisting the net upwards.