The Skies above the Clouds between Islands

The moment Ethan Silva feels the powerful gaze leaving him through his incredibly sharp, draconic instincts, he pauses in his flight and glances back at The Reaper. And just like when he had seen her fighting the level 100 monster of the island they had both started on, he can’t help but feel curious about the girl.

Just something about her. I can’t quite put my claw on it, but I want to know what makes her tick.

Ethan watches her move further into the island for several seconds before turning around and continuing his flight towards the closest island that isn’t the one attached to his original island.

My personal interest in her aside, I doubt she’ll cause any issues with the dragon clans. So there’s no need to cause problems for her.

He feels certain of this strictly because of the short while he had spent watching her at her base. Without her knowing, of course.

The girl seemed way too laid back to directly look for trouble with users unrelated to her.

Ethan continues flying for several minutes, just repeatedly flapping his wings with the only other noise being that of the wind blowing by.

I wonder if I should tell mother about her? She might be interested as well.

After a few more seconds of flying, Ethan realizes he had just thought about introducing the girl he hadn’t even met in person yet beyond his own spying to his mother and almost halts the flapping of his wings for a second. Then he continues flying, deciding to put The Reaper out of his mind for now.

That large creature from before was no dragon, that’s for sure. It has to be the Cataclysm Class monster. There isn’t any other possibility.

The hellfrost dragon frowns at that thought before sighing and continuing on through the sky.

Maybe I’ll be able to take it on when I reach a higher Tier. For now I’ll just find the level 100 monster on this island.

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Alexia

I tilt my head as I hold the neck of some sort of large horse with two horns that had tried to ram me, clearly not being able to tell the difference in our strengths. Especially considering how the thing – whose eyes are glowing red by the way – is still struggling and trying to bite my hand with no success as I hold it by its throat in the air.

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{Lesser Bicorn – Level 20}

Just a level 20, and by the looks of it a Class E species at that.

A brief thought comes to mind about maybe making the thing a mount, only for me to throw that thought out the window. Along with the bicorn itself after snapping its neck, sending it flying through the air onto the ground, already dead.

I continue walking until I reach the top of the first hill where I put my hands on my hips and look out over the lakes, valleys, and other hills. Then I turn my gaze upwards at the mountains closer to the center of the island.

It’s kinda interesting how the mountains are snowy, and the hills are sunny and completely green, albeit slightly chilly.

Makes me wonder how the climate works here, since the islands are all moving around. Both up and down and to the sides.

Is the climate locked on each island? There supposedly isn’t anything outside of the atmosphere despite the fact that there are, indeed, stars and other astral objects in the sky, so does that mean the location in the Block doesn’t determine the climate? Is it magical?

So many questions, so little time or means of getting answers for them.

Although in the end I don’t really care all that much beyond this brief curiosity. But still.

I continue looking out over the scenery for a bit, just focusing on each of the monsters I see roaming around, including but not limited to bicorns, some sort of large goats with two curved horns, equally large deer, and that’s just in the plains areas. There’s also some monsters roaming across the lakes, and a few I can even spot surfacing above the water for a brief second before going back down under.

Completely different in every way from the other island, which I’m just gonna call our home island now.

I glance at the monsters, identifying a bunch of them back to back.

{Lesser Bicorn – Level 20}

{Lesser Crystal Deer – Level 22}

{Lesser Devil Goat – Level 24}

{Lesser Devil Goat – Level 20}

{Lesser Crystal Deer – Level 23}

{Lesser Lake Dweller – Level 19}

This is only the first few hills of the island, and the monsters are already at those levels. I kind of guessed this would happen, since the monsters on the home island have also leveled up quite a bit over time, but this is going by pretty quickly.

Only a little over a month since the Reset and they’re already up to this level.

If it’s the same as this on every island, then the ones that aren’t settled by people might end up being completely overrun and filled with high level monsters. Some might even end up filled with higher Tier monsters.

I frown at that thought.

Considering how there were only a couple dozen people that Astrid knew about on the home island, that means the Block must be absolutely fucking massive. After all, there has to be billions of people in the Block. And if each island only has a couple dozen people starting on them, then that says a lot about the number of islands there are.

Although I’m sure there were probably a dozen or two more than that at least on the home island. The only people Astrid’s group found were noble groups and those well off before the Reset, so if I had to guess, the others mostly just died, proving to be unable to handle the difficulties of the Reset.

I’m also curious as to where the children went after the Reset. Astrid mentioned that her System Architect’s memory told her about how the children who were under the age of getting a Class, which is fifteen years old. That the children under thirteen were immediately sent to a Tutorial of their own. A much safer one. Meanwhile the children between thirteen and fifteen were given a choice between which Tutorial to participate in.

But after the Tutorial ended, they have to have ended up somewhere.

So where are they?