- Old man

With a defeated expression I slowly walked my way back to the main area where I once again met up with my mother. "Hey mom, can you teach me how to fly?" I figured I might as well learn how to fly so when it's time to explore the dungeon I can integrate it into my fighting style.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me, grab on." She said with an odd expression on her face. One I couldn't quite put together, but I trusted her anyway. I mean she's my mom, she would never mean to harm me. "So where are you going to take me?" I asked still confused about her intentions. "You'll see." She then took off in the air. We were moving faster than we ever had before. Everything was just a giant blur as we practically reached the ceiling of the cave in an instant which was several hundred feet in the air.

"Woah! warn me next time you decide to go ultra instinct!" I exclaimed still stunned from the speed. "Ultra what? Anyways good luck sweetie!" she said. It was then I realized what was happening. 'I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out!!!' "WAIT PLEASE DON'T- AAAAAHHHHH HOOOLLYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIT!!!!"

'This is it. This is how I die' I thought, accepting my fate as I slowly descended to the floor that would carry my soul to the afterlife... 'I can't die like this!! FLAP DAMNIT!' I immediately started flapping my wings up and down like a lunatic but it was at least slowing my descent to the floor. By now I was only 3 or 4 seconds from my demise. Just before hitting the floor I expanded my wings even further and flapped one final time with all my might and to my surprise, I was flying!

*THUD* "Ow..." I yelped as I lightly landed on my bum. 'Or at least I was. well, I'm not dead so that's a start.' I tried to have a positive outlook on my near-death experience. "OH, YOU DID GREAT SWEETIE! You had a bit of a slow start but you got the hang of it." My mother excitedly said. She then immediately started bragging about it to all the other mothers as I had been the first to undergo this horrid process. 'Surely there's a better way of learning how to fly.' Afterward, I practiced a bit more on my own and after what felt like a couple of hours I got the basics down. Flying is much harder than you would think.

I then started practicing flying while swinging my claws on my feet and arms. I failed miserably the first 20-ish attempts but I got the hang of it pretty fast. It was at this point the other kids started going through the same process I did and miraculously all of them survived. I honestly have no clue how. My mother was still bragging about me after I had started my training and was making considerable progress but during the whole process, I had to take small breaks to regenerate my stamina as flying took a large amount.

By the time I felt content about my flying I figured an entire day went by. I can't keep up with time accurately anymore since my sleeping schedule is way different so I just have to guess. Another thing I wanted to try out was if working out and training my body would give me stats but that doesn't seem to be the case. If it does it's not an amount worth bothering myself over.

'So the only way for me to get stronger is by killing others...' It's something I've been worried about. I've never killed anything before besides insects when I was a kid but this is different. Even if it does feel like a game with my system I'm scared I might hesitate and put myself in danger. Maybe I should ask someone for advice.' I pondered.

'Maybe I should ask my mom. hmm... I've bothered her enough lately. Maybe the old man! What was his name? Something like johee right? No, it was more like joelee, or maybe jonleh??? whatever it won't matter, I'll just call him old man. Problem solved.' After horribly guessing the old man's name I started heading to the dungeon deeper in the cave and once again he stopped me. 'He must guard this dungeon or something.'

"Hey old man, can yo-" *POP* after gathering the pieces of my consciousness from the nether realm from that staggering blow I wobbled my way on my feet while holding my head. "What the hell was that for?!?" I exclaimed as the adrenaline started pumping through my veins although it was quite late.

"Watch that mouth or I'll hit you even harder next time. I have a name and you will address me as so." He proudly said while staring holes into my head. 'What's with old people and their pride?' I thought. "Yeah about that...could you remind me of your name?" I asked. After several seconds of awkward staring, he finally responded, "Jahé.", Before immediately walking away. It was quite obvious he was trying his hardest not to smack me into the next life.

'Wait I completely forgot to ask him!' I screamed internally after settling my thoughts. "JAHÉ WAIT! CAN YOU PLEA-" The next thing I knew the guy who was walking away around 30 feet in front of me suddenly appeared by my side and whispered, "You know our species has incredible hearing, you don't have to scream all the time." I immediately stumbled to the ground confused on the sudden sequence of events. "You must get it from your mother." He mumbled.

'Did he just teleport? No, he's still a first evolution despite being so old so he shouldn't have any skills besides our trait skills. So that means his agility must be through the roof! I should really stop pissing him off.' I quickly got up and apologized, not wanting to push my luck any further. "I was just wondering if you could give me any advice on hunting before the big day." He quickly responded with a simple answer, saying "It's either you or them. If you don't kill it something else will." He then walked off just like before.

'I'm not sure if that helps me.' I thought. I wanted to sleep after my hard training session of flying and getting smacked around by an old man. Nyre usually sleep around 12 hours once a week but only after what felt like 2 days I was worn out. 'Well, it has been an eventful couple of days.' I walked back to the main lobby where everyone was still talking and playing with each other. 'Do they not get bored???' I wondered as I started flying up to my den. My mom was already asleep inside so I quickly layed beside her. 'Maybe the old man was right, I am just as loud as she is.' With these thoughts, I closed my eyes and relaxed.

'I want to go in the dungeon already. Why do we have to wait so long in the first place? If only I had enough mana to morph into an older looking Nyre.'

...

'I can't sleep despite feeling so drained. I guess I'll just lay here until I feel like getting up. It's not like there's a whole lot on my agenda besides waiting.'

'Stats'

[STATS]

Name: Sphar

Species: Nyre (1st evolution)

Level: 1 (0/100)

Hp: 75/75

Stamina: 6/6

Mana: 15/15

Strength- 3[+]

Agility- 8[+]

Dexterity- 5[+]

Intelligence- 10[+]

Vitality- 3[+]

Attribute points: 0

Condition: Tired/regenerating

'maybe I shouldn't be in such a rush to get stronger. I'll just relax until it's time to explore that dungeon.'