Hunger

A few minutes earlier.

Allan wheezed as he grabbed onto a crack on the stone. "Hey… can we just… you know, take a break?" He uttered between breaths.

"Don't exaggerate. You have 7 in endurance. Flavia doesn't complain, why would you?" Rakna deadpanned while climbing the mountain wall. Nothing about him hinted at the fact that he was tired expect maybe a few occasional sweat drops.

"Shut up, Rak. You know dexterity is more suited for this kind of shit," he retorted. "Also! Of course, teach isn't complaining, she's using her damn cheat to borderline fly!"

Ever since they had started climbing the mountain almost an hour and a half ago, Flavia had been using her telekinesis to very efficiently make her body lighter. Although she wasn't at the level where she could fly yet, it basically made it very easy for her body to perform any activity.

"And you too, Rak! I know you can somehow extend your nails and you're using it to literally grab on anything while I'm over here killing myself trying to find footholds! You people aren't being considerate of ungifted people…" He grumbled and sighed.

His eyes then coincidentally crossed Pronos who was smirking at him from his comfy spot under Sonata. A vein popped on Allan's forehead. "You damn reptile…"

"Stop whining, we're close," Rakna muttered and half a minute later, his hand touched the top. He pulled himself up with a short shout and Flavia followed him. She even somehow sent her entire body over the ledge and very gently landed on the ground on her two legs.

Rakna looked around and saw how the eagles had gotten away from him the moment he got close. But none of them had flown off. All of them were still here and he stood in front of a literal sea of eagles staring at him in an eerie silence.

He also noticed that what laid beyond the mountains was nothing more but water. This Tutorial was actually being held on an island.

Ten seconds later, Allan exhaled as he finally got his head over the ledge. "So…?" He uttered with his arms crossed on the ground. "What do we do now?" He asked with a frown.

Rakna squinted and with a thought, his knife appeared in his hand. He flicked his wrist and it flew straight to an eagle's head before going through it.

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Lv.3 Eagle killed.

Requirement for level up updated.

Current progress: 31/70

You are the first to acquire a Crystallized Soul. The Avian Trial has been initiated.

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Immediately afterward, the ground started shaking and Allan nearly fell off. He hastily climbed up and looked at the forest below with wide eyes. From their perspective, the appearance of the Eagle God's Statue looked even more impressive than it already was.

Then, the trio also got the mission update prompt from the System and the eagles all began to flap their wings and take off. All except the closest to Rakna's group.

Rakna glanced at the wave of birds going down toward the forest then looked back at the ones surrounding him. "I see… coming here was just a trigger. And the reward for it is a bonus of easily attainable Crystallized Souls."

"Is that so?" Allan muttered with an obviously satiric tone and reluctantly took a stance. "Was it worth the climb though?"

"Who knows," Rakna replied as Sonata transformed in his hand. Pronos jumped down and hissed at the eagles.

Flavia waved her hand and made the first move. In the split of a second, two eagles had their neck twisted. The others then started to take altitude but before all of them could get out of range, both Rakna and Allan sliced and crushed six of them.

Then, the golden-eyed birds plunged back once they were high enough. Rakna narrowly dodged one aiming at his head and elbowed it while it was still in midair. Allan casually caught its own and Flavia literally forced it to crash on the ground in front of her.

"I don't wanna sound cocky but… these birds are weak," Allan commented as he looked at the flock circling them in the sky.

"Don't relax yet," Rakna said as he pierced one eagle's head with his claws. This skill of his had hit level 2 while climbing the mountain and now dealt even more damage. "I know that you're not aware but the attributes of these eagles have slowly been increasing ever since the statue appeared. Their average level has even increased by one."

"What? You're kidding, right?" Allan was wide-eyed.

"How fast?" Flavia inquired with a small frown. She herself had noticed that it was getting slightly harder to kill the eagles as time passed. Her telekinesis gave her an unexpectedly good sensitive feedback. The strength she needed to snap their neck had been increased by at least 2 kilos.

"For now, it seems to be around 0.01 every second," Rakna estimated as he pulled back. He grunted as another eagle brushed past him. 'A normal eagle's optimal plunging speed is already near 160km/h. If they keep getting faster, it'll get too hard to dodge,' he thought.

"Shit, isn't that a bit too unfair? They'll become invincible at this rate," Allan uttered.

"However, I don't think it's time-based," Rakna added as Pronos got back on his shoulder. Although the little snake had managed to get a few kills while they were still on the ground, he couldn't do anything else since they weren't targeting him anymore.

"What do you mean? Do you think it's something else that makes them stronger?"

"Their number," Flavia's eyes flashed as two bloodied birds fell at her feet. "The hunt has probably started down there as well. When their number decreases, their individual strength goes up. This is probably what's happening right now."

Rakna nodded. "That would be the most likely explanation." He then looked at the circle of birds above him and suddenly thought of something. 'Alexa, can you tell me what's the range of the spatial ring Kaelith gave me? And is it possible to store dust in it? And if yes, could I take out all of it in one go?'

[The range is 10 meters and the answer to your two other questions is yes. There is no limit to the quantity you can store at once and the ring only needs you to imagine how much you want taken out and in what way.]"

"Allan," Rakna raised his voice immediately after. "Are your gloves charged?"

"Huh?" Allan was startled. He kicked the eagle near him and glanced at his glowing gloves before turning toward his friend. "Yes? Why?"

"Punch the ground as hard as you can. The more destruction the better."

Allan scowled but complied nonetheless as he prepared to deal out the strongest punch he could muster.

"Flavia, support his momentum as he punches and at my signal, focus your telekinesis under my feet," Rakna instructed and she nodded.

A second after, Allan inhaled and his fist collided with the mountain top. He grimaced a bit because of the pain then his gloves released a shockwave. The stone broke apart into pieces and a cloud of dust was raised.

The eagles screeched and flew up to avoid it. "Now!" Rakna shouted and felt a certain power gather around his legs. He ran right into the middle of the dust cloud and crouched before jumping as high as he could. At the same time, his ring flashed and both the rubble and the dust disappeared in an instant.

The eagles watched as a human jumped high enough to get above them and before they could react, a layer of dust and rocks suddenly appeared above them. But it wasn't over a large area, one could even say it was quite compacted. At best, this improvised 'meteorite' would only kill a few eagles.

However, while still in midair, Rakna used his lighter to trigger Sonata a second time. The Guandao glowed and changed shape to form an azure arc. Then a blue string emerged from one tip and as if it was alive, went for the other tip

The string flickered and Rakna pulled it toward his shoulder. A cyan arrow then flared into existence on his newly created bow. It was made of pure energy and was causing full combustion with the air.

When Flavia saw that, her face grew pale. "That's reckless!" She shouted and ran away. "Allan, get on the ground!"

Rakna squinted and released the arrow before the cloud of dust could disperse too much. An azure trail of light was then shot and reached the cloud under a second.

Flavia jumped behind a boulder with Allan and they covered their heads and ears as a deafening explosion resounded. The mountain's top was struck by a powerful shockwave and the eagles, if not killed on the spot, plummeted toward the ground and died.

Rakna grunted as the shock blew him away and Pronos clung to his neck. He rapidly dropped from the sky and could only curse when he saw that he was not going to land back on the mountain top but go straight down toward the ocean.

He spun during his fall to get his momentum back under control and put Sonata back around his neck. His nails became sharper without extending, his fangs grew longer, and then his tail and ears reappeared on him as the illusion gave out.

While free-falling, Rakna did his best to steer himself back toward the mountain and when he reached it, he planted his claws in the stone to break his fall. He growled unconsciously and some faint traces of fur appeared on his skin.

It took him nearly a hundred meters of distance to completely stop his momentum. When he was completely safe, it was Pronos who sighed in relief for him. After that, Rakna's features returned to normal as Ulvia's Veil was activated again.

The semi-transformation he had just used was a certain quirk he had managed to make out the day before. He could somewhat control the process of his Werewolf transformation and stop it midway. In that case, he could retain a human figure but his power boost fell from 50% to 20%.

"Rakna!"

He looked up and noticed that he could still see the top and Flavia standing on the edge. He waved his hand to tell her he was fine.

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Back on top of the mountain, Flavia sighed in relief while Allan sat down with a tired face.

"The heck just happened?"

"Dust explosion," Flavia answered. "Though it's weird, that wasn't combustible dust. It couldn't have exploded unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless the 'spark' was strong enough… How hot was that arrow?" She muttered then got an idea. She went back toward the area Allan had destroyed. She touched the ground with her finger but nothing got stuck. Not even a single speck of dirt.

"I see… he somehow collected every small particle around here and compressed them into a small cluster. I guess if you gather dust, dirt, even the very small dead plants here and there, and then account in the abnormally hot arrow… it might be feasible."

"Well, that arrow was probably made out of Eion, right? I saw it turn back into a scarf when he was falling. Maybe he got to upgrade Sonata with the shop or something. Eion can even combust concrete. It would make sense," Allan remarked and Flavia tilted her head.

"Sonata?"

Allan chucked. "Yep, Azure Sonata. He never told you? That's the name of his weapon. The old master made it for him last year. It can repair itself, release heat, and change form. Damn, I was so jealous at the time."

"I see… Looks like there are a lot of things he doesn't tell me," Flavia said with a wry smile. "Even before all of this."

Allan blinked at her. "Well, don't get too sad. Even I don't know everything about him. I have no idea how he lived before getting adopted, and, heck, I don't even know who the old master actually was or even his name! All I know is that he was a very important person, a martial master, and an old man who somehow had access to restricted Eion materials."

"Trust me, you don't want to know who he was," a voice said and both Allan and Flavia shuddered.

They looked back to see Rakna crouching next to them with a blank expression.

"Ha…hahaha," Allan scratched his head sheepishly. "You climbed back up pretty fast…"

"Um, what you did was very impressive, you know?" Flavia also tried to change the subject.

"It's fine. I don't care if you're curious about my past or the old man. I'll tell you one day if it ever comes to it," he said and stood up. He then looked at the Eagle God's Statue and the creature that was perched in its head.

His eyes met the eagle's and Rakna felt something stir inside of him. His vision blurred for a second and when he blinked, he saw red lines all over the giant eagle that all led to a specific spot in its chest; a beating heart. With each beat, Rakna felt more and more agitated.

"Let's quickly go back," he said and walked toward the cliff. "I'm getting… hungry."

His two friends looked at each other with a perplexed expression before following him.