Minya

I was tired. So very tired. I had been looking for my teammates for over 4 hours, but I still hadn’t even found the slightest clue of where any of them may be.

As I was walking I started to think. Kent and Emily were further ahead of the rest of us in terms of stats and dao. Because both of them helped each other. The more stats you had the easier it was to get dao. The more dao you had the more stats you got from them. It was a never ending cycle.

I just needed a couple more dao and I would be closer to their level of power. I was pretty sure that Kent was currently our ace but Emily was a close runner up.

I stopped. What was I supposed to do? I was all alone. I didn't know where anyone else was and I was one of our weakest members.

That thought hurt me, deeply. The thought of being the weakest in our group made me want to curl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep.

I wanted to be strong but no matter how hard I tried Kent, Emily and Drake were constantly outpacing me. I wanted to just leave all my worries behind and run.

So that's what I did.

I sprinted off into the trees running as though my life depended on it. I just wanted to get away from it all. I wanted to prove to myself that I was not worthless. Even if I lost everything I would still have my legs. My speed.

I used double jump to bounce through the trees only touching the ground whenever I absolutely needed to. I just wanted to leave all of my earthly desires behind and just run. I felt as though I was flying. Going from tree to tree, practically weightless.

Double Jump has evolved into Minor Flight.

Minor Flight: You can affect the airflow around you to make platforms of air at will. You can also use air flow to jump as though gravity is lessened to a great extent. This power grows in power with the user's understanding of air manipulation.

Traits gained! Air manipulation: Drastically affects all Skills related to it and lets you precisely control air. The more you understand it the more you can affect air. Air manipulation relies on your mana but doesn’t ever use it.

I almost cried in relief. I wasn’t being left behind. All I had to do was run and I could become stronger. Running was my passion, my reason for living. Without my legs my life would amount to nothing.

I continued to run. I was faster. I almost never touched the ground now, and only used the trees when I couldn’t make air platforms fast enough. Minor Flight was leagues ahead of Double Jump; it was hard to even compare the two.

I laughed as the wind rushed by me. I felt like all of my worries were just sliding off of me and being replaced with joy. So I was behind everyone else. Who cared? I was faster, and that's all that mattered to me.

I was like the wind, weaving back and forth between the trees dancing among the leaves. It was pure bliss. As I was running I was training both of my skills. Becoming more adept in Minor Flight and gained more control over Air Manipulation. Now that I thought about it, it was similar to Emily’s Mana manipulation.

It was times like these that my dao made sense. Dao of boundless speed. I truly felt boundless as I ran to my heart content creating a tapestry among the stars as I pumped my legs. I felt like I could be using my dao for something though and I tried to will it into my legs, much like stat points.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

I suddenly shot off, more than doubling my speed and getting faster the longer I ran. I was truly boundless running off into the moon with nothing stopping me. I was like a leaf dancing in the wind using it to my advantage.

I was like the wind.

Dao of the Wind comprehended!

Dao seed of the Wind. +10 AGI +10 WIS +10 WILL

I wanted to shout for joy. I had finally gotten another dao seed! I was no longer super far behind everyone else!

I could finally look at all of them and feel like I was equal to them. Like I was worth something. Just as I was relishing in my newfound dao seed I saw a shape hurtling into the sky. I sped up and made a staircase up to it. When I got close enough I was very surprised at what I saw.

It was Drake. He had leaped straight up and was now falling down to his doom. I sighed and wrapped air in a cushion around him, slowing him down. I caught him in a princess carry and flew down to the ground, landing softly.

I set him down lightly and sighed at him. “What in the world were you doing?!” I half questioned and half yelled at him.

He winced. “I had just figured out how to use the minimap and saw you going away from me, so I uh…” He trailed off, looking at me.

“So you jumped as high as you could to get my attention.” I finished, grumbling about his sense of self preservation.

He just nodded. “Yeah… But hey! It worked didn’t it?” He asked me smugly.

I just glared at him. “If I hadn’t noticed you, you would have plummeted to the ground and potentially died!” I screeched at him. “Not to mention that if I hadn’t recently gotten a powerup I would have never been able to catch you at all. Making it even worse.” I growled at him.

He just shrugged. “But you did, didn’t you?” He asked me, with a smug look on his face. I wanted to punch him. But… he was right. I did catch him.

I just grumbled at him about him being irresponsible and stormed off, before whipping my head around suddenly.

“Wait! How did I forget about the minimap! It was one of our first rewards! How do you activate it?” I asked him, going from mad at him to wanting to know all of his secrets. “Please, teach me your ways!” I begged him.

He smirked. “Well young padawan, it will be difficult but I can do it. You must believe in the force and shoot. It is the only way.” He said suddenly acting very weird.

I tilted my head at him. “... what?” I asked him.

He just sighed and waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. Just say “pull up minimap.” and a small screen will appear in the top right corner of your vision. If you focus on it you can make it bigger. It will only show you places that you have been or certain places that have been marked. For example, we have the bosses and all of our team members marked on our minimaps. Neat, huh?” He asked me, flashing me a grin.

I nodded, not really paying attention. “Pull up minimap.” Suddenly a screen appeared right where he said it would. I opened it and saw that Brock was on the other side of the island, Emily was all alone close to where our camp had been, Layton and Kent were together a few hundred miles away from us, and me and Drake were the final two.

I noticed that the other bosses were here too. The Night-Mare was currently a few miles away from our base, the Beetle overlord was in a mountain not too far from Brock and the Deafening Treant was between us and Kent’s group.

It was nice to know where all of the important things were. I closed out of the screen and looked over at Drake. “Now what?” I asked him.

He smiled at me. Not unkindly. “Now, we have to bring the Nightmares of Earth back together.

Minya's Stat Sheet

Minya D. Flores Level: 22 (F-Grade) Race: Human-Thunderbird Bloodline: Human 10 pints, Thunderbird 1 pint Class: Speedster Stats: Body: 185 Mind: 157 Spirit: 81 Traits: Evolution(Human), Legs of Lightning(Thunderbird), Air Manipulation(Thunderbird) Skills: Dagger Mastery(Thunderbird+Human), Minor Flight Thunderbird) Spells: Weak Thunderstep Path: Path of Lightning Dao: Dao Seed of Boundless Speed, Dao Seed of the Wind