Kenny looked around as he suddenly appeared in a brand new area. The sky was dark, but the light of a full moon shined down giving him plenty of light to be able to see his surroundings.

A light breeze blew over and around him, making him shiver for a brief moment. He didn’t shiver because he was cold from the breeze, but rather from the damp clothes he had washed a bit before leaving the first area. After changing into his new vest he had turned around and saw a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a table had appeared out of nowhere.

He wasn’t sure how it suddenly appeared, but he wasn’t going to complain. He took some time to wash his clothes and dry them as he cooked his food. As he cooked the can of soup, he contemplated how he could send mana into his vest.

At first he thought all he needed to do was focus hard on thinking about his mana and will it to move to his vest. After a couple of minutes of nothing happening he stopped. He then thought maybe he had to think about the ability attached to the armor and that would do. Again, nothing happened.

Getting slightly frustrated, he then asked himself what mana was. He really didn’t know. In school the way they described it was like it was some magical force that was within everyone. He didn’t remember much after that since they were going to learn more about it the next day.

He tried to think about why he couldn’t remember what they taught him the next day until he realized that was one of the few days he had to take off due to being stuck in bed after a bad fight he was in thanks to his two siblings. He had broken an arm and was woozy from the medicine he was on so his dad had him stay home along with his siblings.

He was annoyed that they got to stay home even though they were perfectly fine only because their mother was afraid someone would hurt them without Kenny being able to protect them. During his short recovery period, they both went in and did their best to irritate him by bringing him water and food, but placing it in the farthest spot they could put it so he would stare at it but couldn’t get it. Now that he thought about it, he missed a lot of school because of their bad attitudes.

While most of his classes gave him makeup homework and notes to study for tests, the teacher teaching the class on the Tower had basically told him he wouldn’t get any information on what he missed. That it was his fault for fighting and getting hurt so he would be punished for his stupidity.

His best friend wasn’t allowed to give him any notes either or talk to him about what he had missed. He wouldn’t explain why, but from the looks he kept giving him he believed the teacher had a hand in it.

After failing to move his mana into the vest and activating the ability, Kenny decided to think more into it as he moved on. He changed back into his armor set, still slightly damp, and stared at the three options he had.

As he stared at them, he tried to see if he could feel anything from them. No matter how hard he focused nothing came to him. Once again, he was left with guessing where to go. After a few seconds he let out a sigh then did what he felt was right.

He pointed at the one on the far right and said, “Eennie.” He then moved to the next and said, “Meenie.” He moved to the third. “Miney.” He then went back to the far left. “Mo.” He then continued as he recited, “Catch. A. Tiger. By. The. Toe. If. He. Hollers. Let. Him. Go. Eenie. Meanie. Miney. Mo.”

When he ended with the last word his finger landed on the middle portal. He let his hand drop and he sighed. Sure, it wasn’t the best way to figure out which way to go, but he didn’t have the time to take his time to think it through. He needed to get back on the move.

And now here he was. Standing outside in a wide open field with grass that came up to his ankles. To his left was nothing but the same scenery as was to the right. Straight ahead, off in the distance was some trees that spread out like some kind of forest. He wasn’t sure where he needed to go and since there were no halls to guide him down a path he was a bit hesitant to start moving forward.

If he had to make a guess the forest looking area looked like his best guess, but again he wasn’t sure if that was correct. For all he knew the forest was a border of some sorts, like a wall that stopped people from going further in that direction. However, he felt something in his gut telling him that he should head that way. Not really having anything else to go on he started in that direction.

After walking for some time and not seeing any progression with the trees getting closer, Kenny decided to stop and think. His gut was still telling him to go that way, but with the lack of progress, he was starting to doubt himself. The other thing that confused him was how empty the place was. He hadn’t come across any monsters since he came into this new area and that was starting to bug him.

It didn’t bug him in a way that he was getting annoyed that there was nothing to fight, but rather in a way that the monsters could be hiding somewhere waiting for him before striking. Thinking that his nerves was starting to get the better of himself, Kenny took several more steps before hearing something dance upon the wind.

Kenny stopped once more to try and listen better to see if he could figure out what the sound was. It was faint at first, but as several seconds had passed, it started to get louder. He wasn’t sure what it was he was hearing, but whatever it was it wasn’t made by a single thing. He could hear two maybe three similar sounds accompanying it.

He knew it had to be a monster making that sound, but since it wasn’t super close by he wasn’t sure what it could be. He waited to see if he could solve the mystery as he focused as hard as he could on listening to the sounds. After a couple of seconds he finally realized what it was. It was the sound of flapping.

Kenny swiftly turned his sight upwards towards the sky right in time for three birds to divebomb right at him while screeching just moments away from impact. Kenny activated the ability in his Spring Step Bracelet and was able to dodge the strike just in time as dirt and dust exploded from the spot he was once standing at. He turned his focus on the area to see what he was dealing with and got an answer as the dust started to settle.

[Ariel Gyrfalcon. Level – 4. Stat Talent – Agility.]

[Ariel Gyrfalcon. Level – 4. Stat Talent – Agility.]

[Ariel Gyrfalcon. Level – 5. Stat Talent – Agility.]

These Ariel Gyrfalcons looked like falcons he had seen at zoos back on Earth, but instead of having a tannish brown color they had a white feathered body speckled with grey along their backs and some light green across their wings. Their legs were the familiar yellowish color and their talons were black. These creatures were slight bigger than the Grey Haired Rats, but smaller than the Feral Felines.

Kenny groaned as he saw what their Stat Talent was focused on. Again with Agility based monsters. While he inwardly complained about their Stat Talents, he was also a little curious to see how different these creatures were compared to the Grey Haired Colony Rats. The Rats were land based creatures while these birds were air based. The difference in speed had to either be the same or completely different. Not only that, but he had never fought something with wings before.

A loud screech came from the Ariel Gyrfalcon that was standing proud in the middle and in front of the other two. This one was the level five monster and looked to be the leader of the pack. After the loud screech finished, the monster flapped its wings and got airborne once more. The other two followed it, but instead of all three going up into the air, they just hovered a bit less than two meters off the ground, roughly around his chest or stomach height.

Kenny watched them, waiting to see if they would either fly away since their surprise attack failed or would try to attack him again. Something they so happily answered without pause. Without any warning, the leader bolted straight for him. The other two followed seconds later, either out of strategy or ignorance.

Kenny jumped to the side not too far to try and dodge the attack. He was able to dodge the leader of the birds, but the lackey bird that was on the side he was moving away from was able to slam its claws right into Kenny’s stomach. The impact made Kenny slide backwards and caused him to let out a hiss of air out of his mouth, but he was able to still remain standing.

Kenny grinned as he felt he was given an opportunity since the creature had its legs and claws extended and placed against his chest. He swiftly grabbed both of the thin legs. He swung the bird as hard as he could against the ground causing it to squawk in surprise then in pain as Kenny brought it up and then back down as hard as he could into the ground.

The level four Ariel Gyrfalcon tried to flap its wings as hard as it could, several feathers falling off of its body after each flap it did when Kenny brought it back up into the air. It let out short, panicked screeches, almost like it was calling for help. After the fifth time he slammed it on the ground he felt a powerful force suddenly slam against his back causing him to loosen his grip and stumble forward.

The bird he had gripped in his hands on flapped furiously and freed itself. However, after being slammed so hard a few times, instead of going up into the air it fell to the ground, wings spread out in a threatening way as it breathed heavily. Kenny quickly turned around, but then swiftly brought his arms up to protect his face as two pairs of taloned feet started furiously scratching at him.

He felt the sharp claws rake against the skin of his arms as sharp pain echoed throughout them. He knew it would have been dangerous if he allowed them to scratch his face, possibly poking out his eyes. He took a step back to try and get out of the barrage of furious swipes, but instead of getting relieved of his assailants, he felt them follow his movements.

Kenny bent his knees and leaped away to the right side to get away from the angry birds, but the moment he landed they were upon him once again, taloned feet scratching and beaks screeching.

Kenny was getting annoyed now. He shifted his left arm over his eyes, brought his right hand back and then threw a powerful hook punch.

He felt his fist make contact against one of the birds, but as the creature followed the force of the blow he heard flapping noise move telling him the other monster had gotten away.

Kenny felt the bird move with his fist as he moved it to his left side. He removed his left arm away from his face and brought it down before throwing a left uppercut that slammed into the struck bird’s smaller body, causing it to let out a pained screech before falling to the ground.

Before it could reorient itself and fly away, Kenny reached out and grabbed both of its legs and then swung it into the air, barely nicking the other bird that had gotten out of the way from his attack.

The small strike wasn’t enough to make it fall to the ground but instead caused it to move back and slightly higher up in the air out of striking distance. Kenny focused on the bird, irritated that it was out of reach and there was nothing he could use to get it to come down. He then turned his focus back on the flapping, frightened bird in his hand and went to slam it on the ground. That was when he felt a sharp pinch on his right butt cheek.

Kenny let out a yelp of surprise as his lower half flew forward. His hold on the Ariel Gyrfalcon had loosened enough for it to break free and get away from him, allowing it to join its higher leveled kin up in the air. Kenny narrowed his eyes as he rubbed his butt cheek. He then heard several short screeches that felt awfully a lot like laughter.

Kenny turned and looked down to see the third Ariel Gyrfalcon on the grass with its chest out and letting out the laughter-like screeches. Anger mixed with annoyance filled him. He swiftly stepped forward with his left leg getting him close enough to be within striking distance.

As he stepped forward he brought his right leg up as far back as he could. When it was as far up as it could go, he used the momentum of stepping forward to football kick the flying bastard as hard as he could. Feathers exploded from the creature as his foot made contact right before it sailed backwards and dropped to the ground, no longer moving.

A screen flashed before his eyes allowing to know he didn’t need to worry about that one monster anymore. With a grin he turned around, right in time for both of the other Ariel Gyrfalcon to whiz right by him. He felt the back talon of the lower leveled monster graze his right arm where the vest stopped protecting as the stronger of the two ran one of its talons across his left cheek.

While the cuts weren’t deep, he still felt a small bit of heat appear where the thin cuts were made. He quickly turned back around just in time to have it happen again, but this time on opposite sides. This happened three more times. The speed and swiftness these creatures were showing off not only started to piss Kenny off, but it was also starting to make him unsure what to do.

During the next fly by, Kenny tried to punch the area where he thought one of the birds was flying through. The trajectory and timing were perfect, at least he thought it was, but then the two birds did something he wasn’t expecting.

They both stopped dead in their tracks, making his punch miss entirely. Then, with a powerful flap of their wings, a gust of wind shot out from their wings and slammed right into his body.

The sudden gust of wind took Kenny by surprise. He wasn’t sure how they were able to do that. Their wings shouldn’t have been powerful enough to send a gust like that out. It made no sense to him. The only answer his brain could come up with was they had to have been using magic.

The next surprise was the gust itself. Although the gust was strong and was able to get him off balance, that’s all it was capable of. The blast of wind did no damage to him. Whether it was because the attack was negated due to his Endurance, or it was because it wasn’t supposed to do any damage, he didn’t know.

Either way, him being off balance for that brief moment was enough for the two birds to strike again. They landed four more successful strikes causing Kenny to step back with each one. As his foot came down on the last attack, it touched something. Kenny glanced down to see the dead Ariel Gyrfalcon he had punted.

His irritation, getting the better of him, he swiftly reached down and grabbed the dead bird by the leg and swung up as fast as he could. The two birds tried to stop again and shoot a gust of wind at him. However, they didn’t see what he had grabbed and miscalculated when they should have stopped.

The dead bird’s body Kenny had swung connected with the lower leveled bird and shot it straight up into the air. The collision was enough to make it drop to the ground. The higher leveled bird was shocked by this and let out a shriek.

Kenny then watched as the higher leveled bird flapped its wings as hard as it could and disappeared off into the distance. Kenny swore at it as he waved the dead bird in a threatening manner. His focus was solely on the higher level bird until he heard a scared screech coming from the direction of the Ariel Gyrfalcon he had knocked down. He saw it trying to flap its wings to fly away with its leader, but as it tried only its left wing moved. The right wing extended a quarter of the way, but didn’t get farther than that.

Kenny slowly started to make its way to it as it tried to hop away from him. With an annoyed tone, Kenny stated, “Your leader isn’t coming back. It left you here to die.”

The now scared Ariel Gyrfalcon let out screeches of protest as it frantically tried to hop as fast as it could away from him. Its efforts were in vain as Kenny swiftly reached it with its dead companion above his head. He then swung the creature impromptu weapon down and kept doing it until he finally received the screen he was waiting for. 

[Congratulations! You have defeated Ariel Gyrfalcon! Exp earned!]

Kenny let out short breaths as he stared at the screen. He wasn’t breathing this way because he was really tired after the exchange, but rather from irritation and annoyance. The creatures weren’t really strong enough to cause a lot of damage to him, but the swiftness they displayed, the screech-like laughter one let out after biting his butt, and the fact it was hard to land a successful strike on them had grated him. He really hoped these weren’t the only monsters in this area, because if they were then he was going to have a really annoying time. Especially if they kept biting his butt.

He ran into three more groups of these damn birds shortly after that. Each group only had three like the first one he had encounter. And like the first group, after he defeated the two lower leveled ones, the higher leveled Ariel Gyrfalcon took off. He wasn’t sure why they did that and it annoyed him. He couldn’t do anything to stop them from running away and he felt that it was a waste of experience points.

After defeating the fourth group in total, he came across a four pack of new creatures. Dark green goats. They were called Grass Thistle Goats. They were all level four and had a Stat Talent in Vitality. He was happy he didn’t have to face another group of Agility Stat Talented Creatures, but at the same time these creatures took longer to kill.

The reason why these creatures took so long to kill was because of three reasons. One, obviously, their health was much higher than the previous monsters. Two, whenever he went to try and attack their bodies, their slicked back fur would suddenly stick up like spikes and hurt just like them whenever he punched his fists into them.

He had learned the only way to kill them was by attacking their heads over and over after getting them to headbutt each other when they tried to pincer attack him. The spiky fur didn’t affect the hairs on their heads or necks, which was a blessing to him since he didn’t like how they felt each time he tried to punch their sides before figuring out what was going on.

He had spent almost the entire night coming across packs of four Grass Thistle Goats until he came across three level five Ariel Gyrfalcons. He recognized these birds as the ones that had gotten away. While he cursed as he fought these three, after spending almost twenty minutes, he was finally able to end their lives without them running or rather flying away.

After he finished the fight, he received a screen that told him he had reached level six. That made him smile. It had been a while and took so many more monsters to kill just to get it which meant that leveling up was going to get harder. He understood that he had an advantage since he didn’t have to share experience points with anyone and was catching up, hopefully, to the others in levels.

This was also good for him since he was fighting the monsters by himself and needed to be stronger if he was going to continue going solo. If he didn’t get stronger and the monsters did then he was going to have an even harder time than he was now. The Gyrfalcons were only difficult due to their speed. Their Agility must have been a lot higher than his, but not too far away that he couldn’t hold his own.

The Grass Spike Goats took so long not because he was really weak, but rather they had great defense and their health was so much. His Strength Stat was lacking in giving him the extra power needed to land powerful hits, but his Agility was enough that he was able to dodge and land swift multiple strikes before having to get out of the way.

His Endurance Stat was enough as well against these two types of creatures, but if their current Talent Stats were any sign, he still would have a problem when facing a Strength Talent Stat monster again.

Like last time he put more into his Endurance Stat when allocating his Free Stat Points. Two in that one, one in Agility, one in Vitality, and the last in Willpower. After adding the percentages in the stats that had them as well as the equipment bonuses, he now had twenty-eight in Strength, twenty-seven in Agility, forty-three in Endurance, twenty-seven in Vitality, thirteen in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception, and thirty-one in Willpower.

He wasn’t sure how that stacked up compared to the others in the Trial Grounds, but he was hoping his Endurance and maybe even his Willpower was above theirs. Albeit, he wouldn’t know until he came across anyone else…if he ever did.

Either way, he was starting to feel comfortable with what he was doing. His Endurance Stat was definitely putting in some overtime saving his butt from taking too much damage. He felt bad that his Willpower was now so far behind his Endurance stat since it was originally his highest when he awakened, but there was nothing he could do right now.

The Stat was an enigma to him. Until he fully understood it he would give it some love but wouldn’t fully invest into it. He just hoped it wouldn’t come back to haunt him. As for the three stats that were so far behind…until he had proof they were needed for his build he would continue doing what he was doing.

After the fight he laid down on the cool grass panting while looking up at the sky. While catching his breath he found it odd that this group of Ariel Gyrfalcons were the level fives that had ran away from his earlier fights.

Did their actions have some purpose? Were they supposed to run away if they weren’t killed first and meet up like they did? Was this a sign that he was almost at the Mid-Area Boss? Who knew. If that last one was true, then he needed to rest for a bit before continuing so he would be in better shape. Something he decided to do.

                        

---

 

Vesely peered through the small orb she had in her hand as she sat in her chair. There had been a lull in everyone’s progress since it was late night early morning and the other participants were asleep.

The other people in the room were either talking to one another, resting their own eyes for a bit, or watched their favorites guarding their group or sleeping themselves. That last part was only Estrella. Only she would be that creepy.

Vesely reached out for a small bit of her food that was starting to get cold due to her watching Kenny and his fights. A small smile sat on her face as she thought about his fights so far. She was impressed by his reactions when things didn’t go his way. She had to fight laughing when the Gyrfalcons bit at his rear, which was hilarious. Especially the way he reacted each time.

She silently cheered him on when he figured out the trick with the Grass Spike Goats. Those prickly little buggers were a pain to deal with for melee fighters who didn’t have any weapons. Something Kenny learned, although not so quickly. She was going to question his mind set when he kept trying to attack their sides until he finally figured it out.

All in all his progress was going much better than she had thought it would. She did have faith he would succeed, but there was always some doubt lurking around. She had to give his father some praise for at least giving him some training in the basics of hand to hand combat. It was really helping him here. If only he would adjust it to a more monster killing fighting style than a people fighting one.

Movement from the door opening stirred everyone causing them to stop what they were doing and give Ayla all their attention. As the teenaged girl made her way to her seat she announced, “We have the next fight about to happen.”

“Oh? Who’s still awake at this hour? What will they be fighting?” Gunnar asked as he yawned away the sleep he had trying to grip a hold on him.

Ayla waved a hand and revealed Kenny getting up and slowly walking as he scanned his surroundings. “Our solo participant. He’s coming up to the Mid-Area Boss of the second Area.”

“Already?” the strict and trained sounding man asked. His voice held a smidge of approval. “He’s already gotten past all those birds and goats?”

“Not really something to be impressed about,” Estrella stated with a bored expression. “My Vic…”

“Yes, he did,” Ayla stated, cutting Estrella off before she could stir up any trouble. “It was quite impressive that he was able to learn the trick to fighting the Grass Spike Goats all on his own. It would have been even more impressive if he had learned how to activate the effect of his vest, which would have made attacking the goats a lot easier and killing them faster, but nonetheless, I am quite pleased with his progress.” Before anyone could say anything else, Ayla quickly added, “Now Let’s see how he does with this creature.”