“[That sounds... Like a giant pain in the fur],” growled Ember as both of them stared out into the agitated cave. The loud roar had finally begun to abate, but no sooner than it did, the call was picked up by the frenzied water monitors. Their screeching was sharper. Frantic. As if the first call had made their blood boil.

  Ember had her ears flattened in annoyance, but Ethan didn’t agree. As he watched and listened to the increasing clamor of battle and savagery up ahead, he found himself leaning forward, claws itching for a test drive.

  To him, it actually sounded like a lot of fun. Those unable to handle the monsters should stay back and maybe retreat higher, but for Ethan, it sounded like a great opportunity to get out there and test his new capabilities. Especially the wings. Though at the moment, he couldn’t have both the wings and flames and so, he had to pick. The scales and claws could not be taken out. Same for the heart, which meant he had to choose between the unique trait allowing for an extra form—aka the wings—or revert back to the newly upgraded [Wand of the Fire Elemental].

  I’ll have to switch out the trait after that, though… Unless I can do without the fire spells for a short bit?

  “What was that? Wait… are those wings?”

  Ethan glanced back into the tunnel and saw Amelie was stumbling up to her feet, hair jostled as she squinted at him. Gerald was sitting as well, but both Audrey and Liz were still out.

  Amelie stepped closer, and as she took in the dark gray wings, her eyes seemed to shine. “They’re gorgeous. Can you fly? Have you tested them yet? I’m so jealous…”

  Ethan would be jealous too if he’d seen someone else with them. Amanda’s insectile wings didn’t count. “They’re a bit hard to control but I’m about to test them out. Can you three keep an eye on the others?”

  Gerald nodded vacantly as he slowly got up to his feet, while both Amelie and Ember—who was summerly picked up by the girl—followed after Ethan.

  When he gave them a questioning look, Amelie raised a brow at him. “Why are you looking at me like that? I gotta see this! If you can actually fly, I’m picking enhancement-spells non-stop until I get wings as well. I mean, I already saw a levitation general spell, but wings are so much cooler.”

  Ethan couldn’t argue with that.

  Stepping closer to the ledge with Amelie and a mildly protesting Ember in her arm, Ethan stood above the boiling, glowing mushroom forest ahead, and unfurled his wings out. He felt the joints and tendons stretch comfortably. He felt the well of strength within them as he moved them about, testing their limits and range of movements.

  After a few seconds, Ethan was ready to give it a shot. He was giddy at the prospect. He might fall, but if the few hours before had told him anything, it was that he could handle a fall just fine. Might hurt a bit and it might break something, but he had his own healing, and Amelie could patch him up if need be.

  Moment of truth, he thought, as he lifted the wings. Ahead, water monitors began streaming out of the forest, agitated and gnashing at each other.

  Ethan flapped the wings down, hoping he’d lift himself an inch or two off the ground. Instead, it was as if the wings had moved in the most efficient way possible, and Ethan rocket upward, instantly shooting up close to twenty feet up in the air with a shout.

  Air rushed through his hair and whistled in his ears as he laughed and shouted all at once. Instinctively, he beat the wings once more, but the angle was off and he propelled himself right into the cave wall.

  Ethan landed on the rocks with a grunt and, and barely slid down a couple of feet before he drove the [Draconic Claws] through the stone as if it had been made out of styrofoam, then he frowned back at the large wings.

  That was a lot more force than I expected.

  They were as tall as he was and their wingspan was at least twice his height. Ethan adjusted his stance and readied himself to jump once more, but this time, he wasn’t underestimating the wings. At this point, he was almost sure the thrust wasn’t just from their physical shape and strength. There was a bit of magic happening. Now that he was past the shock and surprise, he felt the soft drain and knew it would increase significantly once he pushed off.

  Ethan inhaled, primed his wings into a half extended form, then jumped.

  The wings snapped wider, and the mana drain increased, but it was worth it. Because Ethan was flying. Gliding, to be accurate, and he was still jittery and barely stable.

  But he wasn't free falling.

  His heart hammered as he took in the clearing below him. From the tunnel’s lip, Amelie, Gerald, and Liz were watching, slack-jawed, while Audrey was elbowing them to get ready for the monsters coming out of the forest and heading toward them. In fact, it seemed like every single tunnel leading up was being targeted by the agitated monsters.

  Ethan beat his wings once, gaining some altitude, and took in the scene as he floated above it all.

  This was the right call.

  If he had had any regrets about not picking the weight option, they were already gone. Ethan angled himself downward to get closer to his companions before they were swarmed, but he didn’t intend on pulling them out of the fire unless their lives were at stake. They had just gone through their body upgrades, and they needed a lot of fragments to start unlocking their wand’s forms. Plus, sooner or later, they would part ways and they had to be ready for it.

  He turned his attention back at the monsters below him and began making plans.

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  I’ve got my forms, and though I have no [Small Fireball] and no [Scorching Flames], this’ll allow me to get some practice with the wings.

  Summoning the lance, Ethan dove down toward the largest monitor, a giant nearly twice as large as any other. Air rushed around his wings, and he marveled at the speed and sensation of flight. Which might have been a bit distracting.

  Ethan missed his target by nearly ten feet, but he still broke the spine of another large monitor.

  The beast under him screeched, and all around him, the monitors’ gleaming jaws snapped in his direction, throats glowing with blue magic for a beat before countless concentrated jets of water shot at him from all directions but thankfully, wrapping himself with the wings was a lot easier than trying to control his decent.

  The jets of water slammed into his wings hard, but through his connection to the spell, he knew it was just fine. There was only one area that was taking a beating, and it was the one coming from the large monitor he’d just missed.

  [Water monitor (I) - Level 51]

  Ethan waited until the brunt of the attacks was spent, and as soon as it did, he dismissed the lance and flapped his wings as he leapt forward. He flew at the car-sized monitor, his feet barely a yard off the ground and with his clawed hand pulled back. The creature screeched, sending foamy spittle as it ambled toward him, its magical scales shining, and Ethan swiped at its throat.

  The [Draconic Claws] tore through the manifested scales and the flesh below like scissors through yarn, but the creature refused to go down. Blood surged out of its throat as it roared, eyes crazed, and its sharp, dagger-like teeth clamped on the wings.

  Shit.

  Ethan hadn’t been aware his new enhancements were so close to the monster, so before it could drag him and throw him around, he dismissed them and watched as the creature gnashed its jaw and wrenched its head back, only to realize there was nothing in its mouth. It almost seemed confused for a moment, but Ethan was being swarmed so with a quick leap, he drove his right claws through its neck and wrenched whatever he could grab out, then turned his attention to all the creatures around him.

  Ethan clawed, sliced, and stabbed with his shortened lance every so often—all the while, he considered the next steps.

  Work on the wings and mobility. Test the new elemental trait. Get essence.

  That was his to do list for the next few hours. After that, he’d go looking for the rift.

  Main Quest: Gain access to the second floor within 4 days, 13 hours, and 41 minutes.

  Ethan cut the head of a monitor, then jumped up and summoned the wings. He beat them once, dodging the new jets of water as he flew up, and glanced toward the others for a second, then grinned.

  They were handling themselves well with the crazed monsters, and he was happy his companions were keeping up. Even Ember didn’t seem to want to laze about anymore. She was like an orange blur, stepping over the air and blasting the lizards while the others used the chaos to cut, shoot, and kill anything that got near them.

  Ethan had explained the next steps to them. They had to collect fragments through their body—not their regular wand—so they could use them for the Prime wand’s upgrades.

  Lots to do. Lots to test.

  Ethan hovered over the monitors, ignoring the shots that barely missed him, then dove back down.

  This time, he only missed his target by a couple of feet.

  ***

  After the fight between Ethan and Savannah had concluded—if you could even call it that—Amanda had retreated deeper into the cave and checked on her small camp. Her followers were doing well, leveling and gaining in experience and fragments, but once more, she came back to find one or two individuals missing and this time, it hadn’t been a casualty.

  He—a store-clerk turned ranged fighter who had been doing fairly well with his crossbow–had cracked under the pressure, and had decided to retreat back up to the safer layer, which left her with eleven warriors. They were all barely above level thirty, with only one having unlocked all of his Prime forms.

  Amanda eyed the tired men and women, and noticed the vacant stares on some, the pale and gaunt features, and she knew a few more would crack soon.

  She tried encouraging them for a bit, even had a bite with them and offered some advice, but as she flew off toward the rift, she wondered if she should delay building her faction until she was out of the tutorial and if she should just focus on powering-up, just like Ethan and Diego were doing.

  And where are the others?

  Amanda had been roaming and exploring ever since this had all started and from the data she’d collected, there should be at least nine hundred people in this tutorial group, considering the highest participant number she’d found was in the high eight hundreds. Quite a lot had passed, sure, but from everything she’d seen, there couldn’t be more than three to four hundreds in this stretch of the cave.

  So where were the rest—

  Amanda saw the shift in the world first. There was a ripple in the air, then a green-tinged hue spread out, quickly encompassing all of the space around the rift. Before she could understand what was happening, a roar filled the world.

  Her heart screamed in her chest as she dove down, terrified out of her mind, and it took her too long to realize that even though the fear was well placed, it had been empowered. The roar had not been normal.

  Amanda crept closer to the source. She knew it had come out of the rift. The wave had spread from there. So she made her way closer to the cave wall and after camouflaging herself, she climbed up to her usual perch and looked out toward the rift.

  Instantly, she found the culprit, and the words tumbled out of her mouth in a single, low breath. “… What the fuck is that?”

  Barely a hundred yards away from the rift was yet another monitor lizard. But while the ones she had seen had been ranging between deep blue and black, this one was a deep, murky green. Its scales caught the light and did not reflect it back, and Amanda quickly realized it was covered with moss. All around it, more water monitors—and a few green tinted ones—poured out of the rift and around the behemoth, barely reaching its shoulder, while the largest monster she had seen yet stood there, black tongue flicking and tasting the air.

  [Lord of the Swamp (II) - Level 70]

  Amanda watched, dazed. She tried to jump-start her brain and figure how they were supposed to take on this creature and as she tried to digest this new variable, minutes went by, while the forest under her lit with battle. At which point, something became clear.

  I have to tell the others to head back up. This is too much.

  Her little new team couldn’t handle this kind of threat. She wanted to push them, but not crush them.

  Amanda began turning when another shrill roar tore through the air and this time, she found that it wasn’t fear that filled her chest. But numbness.

  She couldn’t move her limbs.

  It lasted seconds, but when she turned back, another head had pulled out of the rift, and the Lord of the Swamp was not happy about it. Not one bit.

  Another giant lizard stepped out of the rift. But while its sibling had been covered with moss, this one was studded with crystals and gems, shining with otherworldly purple and pink lights, and Amanda, for the first time since this all started, wondered if this tutorial was setting them up to fail.

  [Lord of the Cave (II) - Level 70]

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