"NOW!"

Lizzy's form vibrated with Energy as she shot forth toward the flies.

Yeah, the flies there were three of them; Bat-shit crazy luck, right? Though Gabriel.

But the shortsword made that much of a difference; he was fending them off successfully. He had yet to receive one of their venomous attacks.

As it seemed, it was not a mortal venom, if taken in the proper amount; and its effects would fade in just a few hours or based on the infected's Resilience.

That and a few other info he had received by asking around in the city, it would have been silly for him not to ask about the usage of his new gun.

They had said it used Mana projectiles, which meant that after syncing with the wielder's Mana, a process which took roughly half an hour of continuous contact with it, he could shoot projectiles made of the aforementioned substance. When asked what Mana was, though, he received an answer along the lines of, "Is this a joke?" and as a matter of fact, people refrained from answering further questions.

He shrugged, but at least he now could fight at the best of his currently pitiful abilities.

One of the flies was hit square in the ugly mouth, and it flew over to him; Gabriel had to take the chance; once already, he had wasted it, trying to shoot it off the air, miserably failing in the process.

He charged his arm, wielding the shortsword this time, and brought it down in a descending arc.

Burst Attack!

The fly took the full brunt of the attack; however, it did not cut it in half as he had hoped; it cut into it; and sent it crashing on the ground, dead all the same.

No notification appeared of its killing, though, so Gabriel could not be sure; however, the fly would not get up again; one of its wings had been entirely cut apart.

"Yes! That's the spirit! ...Spirit!" He received a yap in response, almost happy. But the danger had barely diminished; the threat to their life hadn't ended; in fact, the flies became more aggressive.

They spread apart, waltzing around them and focusing on Gabriel in a pinch maneuver.

Sons of bitches!

He had to move and turn like a mad wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man to keep them at bay.

"Again, Lizzy hit one in the guts."

Lizzy was excited. She charged and released her own Burst Attack Skill, shooting forth; only this time, the targeted fly evaded it.

"Ouch!"

She ended up hitting Gabriel right in the guts.

"I didn't say hit me! Oh, fuck!" One of the flies shot forward, impaling him in the left shoulder.

Fuck you, little… But Gabe had an intuition, as the insect retreated, he took his chance to grab it by the tail; it was still connected; doing so, he had to drop his shortsword, but it was the only sure way of getting the creature in one hit.

He pulled her tail end from his shoulder and slammed it on the ground; then, with the, thankfully still working left arm, the venom had yet to take hold, he aimed his gun and "Bang!"

The monster exploded everywhere.

Shooting, once again, he felt like something was being extracted from his chest. He had already guessed it before, but Mana was connected with his heart, or something near that location as it seemed.

Three shots remaining, four skill activation, I can do this!

The other fly changed its target; it pointed for the lizard.

"Watch out!"

But Lizzy knew what to do. She wasn't as clueless as her partner.

Liz waited for the fly to close in, and then she evaded to the side; but before the fly was entirely out of range; the lizard spun on herself, her tail vibrating with Spirit energy and connecting with the fly's head; the fly fell to the floor, confused.

"That was Iron tail! Holy shit Lizzy!" He exclaimed before taking his sword through the little monster with the help of Burst Attack; maybe he did not need it, but using Skill would level them up, or so people said.

The end of the battle signed the appearance of the recap from the Anchor Page.

 

You have killed (3) Level 3 - Flies of the Lower Tree.

 

You have gained: Level + 14.4% Class Level + 18% Spirit Level + 21.6% Burst Attack Tier 1 + 18%

"This little!? There were three of them! Come on! It's really gonna take years like this!"

Gabriel's arm was becoming numb.

"Guess I can't continue like this… What do you say, Liz? Do we go back and wait for the poison to disappear, or do we venture forth? Though we run away if we encounter more than one fly."

Liza pointed, hound-dog style, at the deeper part of the fields.

"Alright, you're an interesting little fellow, you know? Didn't make you that much of an adventurer, with your peculiar character and all."

She answered, raising her minuscule brow, her tail tapping on the ground.

"You want to know what I mean by that? Nothing, I was just saying." He answered with a smirk.

The Spirit answered in kind, instead, biting him on the ankle.

"See! That's what I was talking about! Crazy bitch!" He said before dashing forth, lizard at its tail.

The next encounter with a monster happened right away but was soon dealt with, it was just a single fly, and Gabriel removed it from existence by swinging his empowered shortsword; he wanted to test the amount of experience he would receive with a clean kill; as a matter of fact, he received 1% of its base level for a Level 1 fly; they continued ahead after that easy victory.

The couple did not encounter a single monster in the next twenty minutes; even his arm was starting to recover some of its original sensibility.

But after that, they found a depression in the ground; the grass thinned out, getting closer to it; dry soil, almost sand, appearing in its stead.

"Liz… that's a dungeon, isn't it?"

And yet, without waiting for confirmations, which he already knew would not come from the lizard, he hurried forward, Spirit in tow.

Gabriel prepared both long pistol and shortsword, at the ready; if he knew his game, and he knew at least a little bit, and this world was surely shaped like one, he would be encountering a lot of beasties.

So he started descending the not too steep tunnel toward the dark unknown. It really wasn't that dark, though. Someone had slipped torches in the wall, he had no idea how long they could hold, but at least there was light for them.

I wonder if entering this world hasn't changed me somehow? I'm here, two days, maybe three since I've almost killed myself in descending that mountain, and I'm giddy with anticipation for wanting to kill the next thing that comes in my face; there's something surely wrong happening here.

Shuffling of little steps could be heard in the distance. However, actual boots pounding the ground could too.

"We might not be alone in here, Liz, better be ready and make smiley faces."

As the tunnel opened into a dark hall, the light started fading away. Only a patch of it remained, it was in the distance, and it moved about in no precise pattern.

Focusing on it, he could see someone holding it up while a couple more figures moved about, as if dancing, their attention seemingly centered on where they stepped, and every once in a while, they smote the ground with fervor.

Darkness was all around him, though. He didn't know if it was wise venturing forth, the people seemed to be on edge, and they had their hands ready with doing... whatever it was they were doing, I might rub them the wrong way if I appear out of nowhere. Let's wait for them to fi- "AAAARRRGH!"

Pain on his ankle, actual pain, not paralysis, he jumped away, trying to look at his feet; the lizard climbed on top of his shoulder as fast as she could; she had seen something.

"What is it, Liz? What is it?"

In the distance, he could hear an exclamation in response to his shouting; the adventurers might have taken notice of him.

Fuck! Maybe we should bolt.

"Ouch! Fucker!"

His arm vibrated as his sword came down, in the direction in which something had hurt him again; in response, there was a squeal.

 

You have killed (1) Level 2 - Ant of the Upper Abyss of the Lower Tree

 

You have gained: Level + 2.2% Class Level + 1.9% Spirit Level + 0% Burst Attack Tier 1 + 1.1%

 

"Insects again… it seems they've got a grudge against me, but you eat those too, don't you, Liz? I wonder when you'll get big enough to- Ouch!"

Gabriel got mad this time; he pointed his gun and shot.

The blue light of the projectile of Mana exploding against the walls of the cave's rocky pavement shone light everywhere, and the sound reverberated through the entirety of the gigantic hall, and probably beyond, the projectile had produced a light much stronger than the adventure's torch was capable of.

For a second, the whole of the cave was bathed in gentle azure light, and he could see the sparkling stones affixed to the cavern, the stone pillars holding it up, together with the majestic see-through stalagmites and stalactites, but most importantly… the dozens, upon dozens of ants which had stopped in their chores to turn their heads and focus their attention on him.

"Fuck…" He managed to say, an echo he wasn't expecting resounded with him, maybe the adventurers.

"Run!" Came a voice, a high-pitched voice. But Gabriel was already running, even though the exclamation did not address him.

Shooting out of the cave with a sprint sent jolts of pain on his bitten ankles. The ants had managed to bite both of them, probably the boots had stopped them in parts, since judging by their size, they could deal quite a lot of damage to him, maybe more than he could have normally handled.

Following him swiftly were the three adventurers, which only once they all had managed to hide behind a thick branch of the roots from the Cradle's tree, he could study.

The tallest among them was definitely an elf; he had thick robes and staff, a flame was still manifesting on top of it; the other two were two kids, one accompanied by a sparrow, the other by a hedgehog, a freakishly huge hedgehog.

What kind of hedgehog gets that big!

"How can your hedgehog get that big?! I mean, look at my minuscule lizard! I'm Gabriel, by the way," he said, extending his hand.

The elf looked at him in a stupor.

"Are you sane in the head?" Asked the elf, a taller than average, thin-looking fellow with pointy ears and silver hair; they were really short and gelled; his eyes darted quizzically to the little lizard, then back at him, confused. "Well, I guess you might not be, sorry for asking...."

Elves, yeah, why not...

Then he turned toward the children; they both had two similar haircuts and looked quite alike; he couldn't help but chuckle while looking at their body language. Scared yet excited, all the same, they breathed heavily but with a freak smile on their faces. "See children, this one is an adult who has failed in life, please, but he must be paid respect nonetheless, so present yourself."

"Wait a little, I-" Gabriel started, only to be interrupted by the little girl with the sparrow.

"Hello, Mr. Gabriel, I'm Veronica of the Nilantic. I'm a Tier 1 Archer, and this one is my little brother, Bartholomew. He is a Tier 1 Tank."

Gabriel was speechless; however, his eyes darted to the sparrow, flying above the girl's head. Do sparrows get that big too?

"A pleasure to meet you, fellas. Anyway, you are one rude elf, mister... whatever your name is! You should not teach children like that. It's not like you know my circumstance or anything!" He said, shaking his head.

Liz, still standing on his right shoulder, was crossing her arms and nodding her head in agreement, her tail swinging from left to right, beating on Gabriel's neck.

"Well, I… alright, maybe you're right, but you ruined both my muffling spell and my lesson. Now we need to change the site, and those ants give a lot of Class experience for their low base Level," he said, trying to justify himself.

"They do? How come is that? Before you freak out, I'm a newcomer. I was not born or raised here," he said, raising his hands as if to stop him.

"Whaaaat? Really?" Said the children.

"Yeah… why? Is that a big deal?"

"Of course it is! You've passed the Testing. You could choose your own Spirit!" Said the little girl.

"Are you a Herald, mister?" Added the little boy, a glint in his eyes.

"Why does everybody keep asking that? No, I don't think I'm any sort of Herald. I don't even know what a Herald is… however, I didn't know you could not choose your Spirit. How does it normally work?"

The elf, clearly impressed, answered, hushing the eager children with a movement of the hand. 

"The Heralds have long since disappeared. Each and every Herald has brought great suffering and yet great changes to both the Den and the other Realms. But even though a few Heralds have manifested in other Realms in the recent past. There has been no new Herald of men for the past millennium. I doubt there is going to be a new one. You've just had the luck to find yourself in the correct spot at the right time. Probably touching one of the Ley stones on a period of ley lines convergence back on your Earth."

"Oh… that's how it is, I think I've barely got half of that, but the core points are clear…" So I'm definitely no Herald. Nice.

"Getting back into the topic," he said, while the excitement from the two children substantially diminished, "what was that about Class level, well raising Level in general, do expand on that please, you are a teacher after all; teach this lost soul!"

"Veronica, explain to the non-Herald how we gain experience. please," he ordered, a little bit flustered.

"Yes! We gain Levels based on the amount of Life, Energy, and Mana we use or lose during a fight to the death; then it increases or diminishes in relation to the enemy's Levels."

Bartholomew continued for her, "We-we gain Class level based on the number of Skills we use in rela-in relation to the enemy's Class Level!"

"The same cannot be said for the Spirit level since their growth is related to Spirit expenditure and use of Skills from our Bonded Spirit," she ended.

"Fi-finally, we gain Basic Skill experience ba-based on the number of times a Skill was used, both ours and our Spirit usage counts!" He stopped before continuing, as if remembering it, "Oh! And, and we can train Class level, Spirit level, and Skills by normal training, without having to kill anything; however, the experience generated is waaaay lower in that way!"

"Wow! You kids are lovely! I hope I can remember that, but thanks!" Then he added, "Thank you, really."

Before deciding to stop and eat something, the elf decided that he needed to venture forth a little bit more, but changing the level field to that of their caliber, he decided to offer Gabriel something to show.

The kids were both level 7, so he saw it was fair to bring them at an appropriate level zone, even though he would have to probably step into the fight himself; it wasn't easy fighting a monster with your same level, as it seemed; the higher it was, the more a monster was dangerous in respect to a sentient.

"It's a question of specialization, you see, we take dozens of years to perfect ours, they are born complete, it's in the idea of the Mana for them to be so. By the way, I'm Varcivald. I'm from the Glade, as you might have guessed", he said, but then chuckled, noticing Gabriel's vacant expression, "or probably not."

He as well has no Spirit with him, Gabriel noticed. I wonder if it is really just something peculiar of the humans… or the humans in here. Gabriel doubted if he had to ask or not.

Until now, he had only seen humans with Spirits with them. If it was something related to the race, he thought it would be kinda racist to ask; but in the end…

Do I really care about it? I just want to leave this crazy place. 

At that, Liz looked at him for a long few seconds.

What? Crazy mind-reader! But Liz didn't care. She went ahead, ignoring him.

As they proceeded forth, with a slow change in the scenery, the sky opened up; the tree's impossibly high leaves and upper crown became almost an illusion in the far sky.

Passing through them, the sun blotted them away from vision.

The branches delimiting the field thinned up, and the grass lengthened and changed in density.

A savannah of the sort was blossoming in front of them.

"I almost forgot! I won't be able to let you in on the party, Gabriel. The kids' parents have booked all the slots, but I shall name the Analysis results. You surely lack a probing Skill or Perk for that matter."

What is it that I lack? But Gabriel could not finish the thought. Liz tensed on his shoulder, gripping his shirt.

A lion with a mane made of glass jumped on a not too distant rock, and they were right away in its sight.

"Lion of Glass, Level 8."