It was well into the afternoon when the enlarged party had started moving once again. They knew they couldn’t share anything, but that didn’t mean they could not divide, and each fight their own battles.

There was something strange in the air, Sigmund and Greencliff had talked about the anomalous activity from the forest, and they had both the same impression. A dungeon power movement might be afoot.

Gabriel thought long about the discussion he had with Greencliff.

Dragon curses.

Dragons were enemies of the giant, and it wasn’t rare for them to receive incursion from Vulcan’s inhabitants. They were incredibly powerful creatures that could leave lifelong curses upon the giants, which had the misfortune of living in the place at the wrong time.

Even though Sigmund did not interject in the discussion, Gabriel was immediately sure that Larry had been one of the unfortunate. The curses were random most of the time. And the one hitting Larry, he thought, was of the weirdest kind. Not allowing him to share any of the emotions he felt.

Charlene and Greencliff had been cursed as well.

She had been since she was but a child. The curse, having taken away her ability to emit sound. The one affecting Greencliff, which he shared without any problem, was getting random seizures.

Shaking the thoughts away, Gabriel focused on his notifications; taken by the argument and the danger they were discussing, he had ignored them completely.

You have gained:

Class Level + 268.8%

Helping Hand Tier 4 + 268.8%

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your natural Affinity has increased by 1 through training.

You can still naturally increase your Affinity freely by 9.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Class level 11.

You can increase your Pools by 15 points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Helping Hand reaches Tier 5.

New effect: Increases target’s Recovery by 300% for 1 Mana point. Permanently increases Recovery by 50%.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Helping Hand reaches Tier 6.

New effect: Increases target’s Recovery by 350% for 1 Mana point. Permanently increases Recovery by 60%.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Helping Hand reaches Tier 7.

New effect: Increases target’s Recovery by 400% for 1 Mana point. Permanently increases Recovery by 70%.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You can now choose to evolve a fully mastered Skill.

You lack any mastered Skill, would you like to choose a new Skill instead?

Gabriel stopped in its tracks, adrenaline surging like a filling gasoline gauge, his body hair standing on end.

Holy shit, I get to choose another Skill already. Fuck, I’m excited!

There was no use to witness any of the high-end Skills for now. Gabriel knew he had to take a Basic Skill, and since the only one he could choose from were Stamina ones, his choice was already set, a Skill he had seen used, in the past, well rather a recent past. He still remembered the name.

Built to Fly!

Skills

Skill

Built to Fly (Basic)

Description

Defy Gravity for 1 Mana. Permanently increases Stamina by 10%.

Element

None

Boost

Alacrity +2

Resilience +1

Stamina +3

Slot

Stamina

Type

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

Wow! I get to fly… I really get to fly. I can’t believe it!

“Gabriel, are you alright? We’re leaving you behind,” Olive said, stopping.

He launched a great smile at her.

“I’m getting a new Skill,” his grin enlarged even more.

Olive ran at him, excited almost as much as him.

“Are you... are going to choose a Basic Skill, right? Don’t fuck it up!”

Gabriel hushed her, nodding.

“Already did,” he winked at her.

He sat on the ground, letting her follow the group. The giants had decided to get back to the plains but would first navigate around the edges of the lake to look for suspicious activities they might have to report.

Let’s see where to place my Pool points…

He had fifteen at his disposal and had two Skills requiring Mana plus the consumption his spear required. The choice was only about how many points would have to be placed in Mana and if he had to place some on Energy or Spirit.

Nah, all on, Mana, it is!

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

13 (57.05%)

Class

Striker

Class Level

11 (30%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Lizard

Spirit Level

9 (77.3%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

15/15

10/30

15/15

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

10

2

12

Alacrity

9

5

14

Power

11

3

14

Recovery

16.8 (7)

3

19.8

Resilience

10

10 (5)

20

Stamina

13.2 (12)

6

19.2

Tethers

Bond

Enhancement

Boost

Lizard

Affinity +2

Alacrity +3

Recovery +1

Resilience +3

Stamina +3

Alacrity +2

Power +1

Recovery +2

Stamina +1

Perks

Cost

Type

Analysis

1 Mana per use

First Tier - Active

Enhanced Senses

None

First Tier - Passive

Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Tier

Built to Fly

Defy gravity.

Permanently increases Stamina by 10%.

None

Stamina

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

1 (00%)

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 200%. Permanently increases Recovery by 70%.

None

Power

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

7 (51.4%)

Helping Hand

Increase a target’s Recovery by 400%.

Permanently increases Recovery by 70%

None

Recovery

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

7 (29.2%)

Choosing a Basic Skill was really a blessing to his stats, so it was for those of Liz, which grew another inch, getting her to 2 feet 4; probably the Resilience enhancement derived from it.

Grinning like a fool, he wanted to try it right away but no idea how it actually worked.

Let's just see if I can…

Built to Fly! He willed, and with a quivering sensation in his abdomen, he detached from the ground.

Taken by surprise, Gabriel started moving his arms around to stabilize himself, having exactly the opposite effect.

After exactly ten seconds, he, suspended in mid-air like an astronaut, fell to the floor, beating his head as well.

"Ouch!" He said, laughing.

"This is not hard! But it's weird!" He shouted at Olive, running toward her.

"What is?" Answered Dikez.

"Look!"

Gabriel propelled himself forward, activating Built to fly. But it was much more than he could handle.

He retained the full power of his jump, soaring through the air both forward and up.

"How do I turn it off!?" He screamed as he ran past them, speeding at roughly fifty miles per hour.

"Just wish for it to stop!" Olive shouted back, and so he did.

Crashing down and rolling for a dozen times on the ground, to the hearty laugh of the giants.

"Yeah, maybe it's not that simple," Gabriel said, applying Helping Hand to himself as he rose from the ground, covered in cuts and bruises.

"Liz doesn't think it is," Olive said, pointing behind herself.

The lizard was floating in the air as if she was born for it.

"You… little shit!" Gabriel jumped and grabbed her by the tail.

"You dare show off, eh! Hahaha! That's what you deserve!" He shouted, waving her by the tail left and right.

Once again, everybody laughed, and even more, when the effect of the spell finished, she bit him on the wrist.

***

"That's one good skill you've unlocked," Dikez said.

"Is it related to your Druidic paths? I've never heard of it." Added Greencliff.

"Yeah, exactly." Thank god they know nothing about it!

"Wasn't it a Basic Skill? Though it's been long since last I studied your people's skill sets, I might be wrong." It was Dustille. The giantess was as sharp as she was beautiful.

There, I thought too soon…

"It's actually the Common path," Olive answered, "we've both chosen the Striker when we started, but I parted from it soon after. Did you decide what to do, in the end, Gabe?" She masterfully changed the focus of the argument.

"Still no idea, actually. I guess I need a little more time to find my path," he answered.

And soon after that, he was floating again, uselessly turning and rolling in the air.

Olive, tired of his bullshit, had him give her the metal latches and wrapped them around his ankle, with a sigh.

The scene had something of comedy in it, as the girl was holding the male human with a thread, and he instead floated up in the air, swimming uselessly like a frog. The giants couldn't help but laugh at them; some had tears in their eyes.

Gabriel couldn't help but notice that the gravity-defying effect lasted for ten straight seconds each time if he did not release it first, which corresponded exactly with his own Affinity level.

Olive confirmed it to him.

But not every Skill worked like that. Magic, be it Hard, Soft, or Higher, had many different rules. And the more complex or high tiered the Magic Skill was, the more rules it had to submit to.

The next thing he confirmed was that he gained 1% Tier expertise for each use, and once again, Olive clarified to him that being it an auxiliary type of Skill, it would not benefit from battle experience.

***

The Giants' enlarged party had descended once again to the plains, there was no trace of a horde of monsters waiting for them, and even if they were still waiting, they chose to obviously get down as close as possible to the forest.

Sigmund and Greencliff had taken to heart the idea of checking for the origin of the problem.

As they reached the edges of the forest, the group, taken by a spirit of preservation for their own Dungeon, decided to do things in a way that allowed them to cover as much ground as possible.

They split up into four mini-groups. One would be made of Dikez and Terry. They would act as scouts, be much faster than the others, and check all around the forest's eastern side, traveling all around it.

Two other parties, one formed by Sigmund, Carla, and Olive, and another by Greencliff, Dustine, Charlene, and Gabriel, would head respectively toward the northwestern part of the forest and the southern portion of it.

The two groups of four were balanced, the first leaning more toward aggression, with Sigmund, which was a berserker, and Olive, which could heal them both. The other, more supportive with a tank that would be healed by two supporters, namely Charlene and Gabriel, and with an archer as the main damage dealer.

It was then decided that they would meet at a place in the forest's center before twilight, before vampire bats and dread wolves would start coming out. Those types of beasts were much harder to deal with than birds, monkeys, or snakes.

Before finally splitting, they ate and exchanged supportive potions and such. Gabriel, which had been designed to stay at the back, was now loaded with potions, and the same could be said about Olive; they would have the task of handing them when in need.

They would have to hurry though, and while shuffling about the contents of the bags…

Oh, this is Olive's stone. That seering salt thing. Why the hell do I have it in my bag?

It took too much space, and he had many potions to carry now; he had to free space.

In fact, he hanged his pistol, shortsword, and throwing knives to his belt. And finally, without having Olivia look at him, he placed the giant piece of salt back in her bag; her's was definitely a dimensional bag, he could see by the excessive amount of things he could see inside of it.

Alright, now we're fine.

"Hey," he whispered to Olive, just to be sure, "people can't scry our position in a dungeon, right?"

"Yeah, Mana distortion is too strong for anybody, so we're fine, don't worry," she whispered back to his ear. Her breath tickling him and bringing him images of cave-mating, but contrarily from her moans back then, her whispers were low enough so that only he, standing so close to her, would be able to hear.

I'm good then, he chuckled.