Jaycee jumped through the trees of the forest while throwing spears of fire at monkeys that chased him with great agility. He dropped from the branches and shot an array of condensed grenades of fire. They exploded after the timer went off and shook the trees around it.
Jaycee crossed his arms as he was blasted faster toward the ground. Dahlia was a white blur while she soared through the air grabbing Jaycee cleanly. "Oh shit." He said as a larger muscled monkey burst through the smoke. Dahlia set Jaycee down and readied her rapier. "Big guy or little guys?" Jaycee asked her.
"I'll take the big one." She said, seeing it as a more difficult opponent. Jaycee nodded and activated his movement technique which blasted him through the forest. He went up the trunk of a tree and chucked spears of flame that exploded against the level 27 little monkeys.
It only took two spears to at least disable the smaller monkeys. Dahlia's face was skewed in concentration as she dodged the gorilla sized monkey's attacks. Its arms were loaded with muscles and scared Jaycee quite frankly. Her silver rapier danced with her as she used an opening to stab into the beast's shoulder.
It roared in rage as it started to slam the ground around it. Dahlia was thrown off her feet. She had underestimated it's strength and was vulnerable to its swinging fist. She activated a skill that turned her body to an almost after image effect that allowed her to slip through the attack.
She stumbled as she raised her rapier to deflect the fist. They traded attacks and blocks. Jaycee danced in the air looking like a moving jet as he killed his 30th monkey of the fight. There weren't many left and they were beginning to lose confidence. As the other monkeys ran Jaycee watched Dahlia fight the buff monkey.
It was level 28 but was a mutation beast of this monkey species. Their day had been somewhat eventful. Jaycee had woke up in the morning to Dahlia waiting for him at the fire. They then began to push deeper into the forest where their relationship evolved.
They began to work together when the group was too big for Jaycee to handle. Most of the time Jaycee would just handle the beasts by himself, but sometimes he would let Dahlia participate in one of the weaker fights.
Soon, she would start participating in each fight as he began to trust her. She struggled against the dense muscles and couldn't pierce through to any vital organs. Sweat covered her brow as the fight dragged on. The beast couldn't land a blow with her heightened caution. Each attack his fist was either redirected, or missed completely.
As blood seeped out from the beast it began to weaken. And finally a large opening showed itself and Dahlia spun her rapier piercing the beast's eye. It roared in anger as it swung wildly. Her speed was too great for the beast as she ducked under the muscled arm and stabbed her rapier upward.
It pierced straight through its soft under jaw, and went through its mouth and into its brain. As the beast fell to the ground Jaycee dropped to the ground from the branches above. "Good work. Remember beasts are starting to do more than just animal stuff. It's good to be careful. I'm just gonna cut this guy up real quick." He said.
They were nearing the end of the day and he hadn't harvested anything yet so he decided to get a look at this mutation. He was curious where the valuable parts would come from in it. So he set out his tools and got to work. He couldn't sense a beast core in this beast.
As he began cutting, Dahlia who was still winded from the fight, began talking to him. They had started talking again more naturally in the second half of the day. At first she was very serious and focused but quiet. Like all she wanted to do was watch Jaycee but he got her to loosen up.
And they actually made a decent team. "How many days do you think until we reach the castle?" She asked.
Jaycee who had his arm elbow deep inside the gorilla thought for a moment. "Uhh, maybe like 5 days. I'm sure we could rush through but that would be way more difficult." He said while grunting. He was feeling around for any material that could be used for crafting.
"Oh I see. What's your attitude to meeting random people?" She asked.
"I mean you saw it yourself. Just ignore them and walk away. Unless they wanna try and physically stop me I'll most likely leave. But maybe I should switch things up." He said as he felt what he was looking for.
It was the tendons and bones in this beast's body that had the most use. But mostly the strong but still flexible tendons were its most impressive feature. Of course its muscles were big but they weren't very useful for anything crafting wise.
But he could take this beast's large arm bones and the tendons in its most important parts. So he spent 10 minutes with his knife properly cutting through the ends of the tendon while using his internal energy control to imbue higher concentrations into the tendons.
He used a conservation skill where he cauterized the ends of the mana paths he was cutting. Each mana path had to be closed at the exact place of severance. It was like taking a welding torch with his mana and going down the cut, sealing off the mana paths from leaking energy and screwing the materials quality.
Instead he was raising the quality and records of the materials. He fit the large arm bones that shone with energy and the tendons into his satchel which could somehow store the much longer bones. Jaycee and Dahlia stood side by side. Jaycee still carried the air monks' staff with him and although he had learned a lot of air mana theory, he had not tried to implement it into his offense yet.
He decided that now, while the enemies weren't too difficult, was the best time to do it. He had gained two class levels in the past couple days and was now class level 32. He felt like his offense was getting a little repetitive and had grown fairly tired of all the simple fire spears. That means it's time to develop a new skill.
Yeah he had spear ultima but that wasn't technically a skill he had finished creating. And thank goodness because of the info he had learned recently regarding the quality of skills. Spear Ultima was essentially just a big ass fire spear. It didn't use any interesting magic or exploit strengths of the element. It was just big.
So he needed some things to spice up his offensive portfolio. "Hey you wanna stop here for the day and spar. And do you mind helping me come up with new ideas?"Jaycee said.
She nodded. "Whatever you want, you're the leader. But may I ask we don't settle next to the cut up monkey." She said.
Jaycee smiled. "Yes."
Jaycee and Dahlia stood across from each other as they talked. "So what kind of attacks do you think I can do? Should I really dive into mana ropes and chains and stuff?" Jaycee asked as he began experimenting with his magic. He started with creating a rope of air and a chain of air.
She inspected them and said, "Yeah I think that's an option although I'm sure it'll be difficult to make it efficient. You need something that can cut." Dahlia said. Jaycee nodded while dispersing the ropes and chains.
He raised his hand and created a plate sized saw blade in front of him with a little focus. He spun it and narrowed his eyes in focus. "Yeah I think this is good but, it's so hard to make things sharp with magic. I haven't gotten it and I don't even know if it's possible." Jaycee didn't think he could create a construct that has sharpness beyond the shape of the construct.
Sharpness beyond shape has to be forged onto, for example, a sword. There's only so much angle Jaycee could squeeze out before he had to learn some things about sharpness theory. Even his spears couldn't pierce well. He manipulated the saw and threw it with an umph and watched it imbed itself just a couple inches in a tree trunk.
He racked his brain. He could make the saw blade from a flame construct. Or he could add fire edges that would burn very hot for an almost cutting like effect. But he had a feeling there were other theories of magic he could apply that would do a better job.
So he decided to just wait until more ideas showed themselves. And then he would try and create a spinning saw blade that used a bunch of different ideas to be a powerful weapon. "Hmm maybe you can try and use that staff you carry around." Dahlia said. That was true.
The staff from the monk woman in the dungeon had surprisingly come out of the dungeon. A part of him thought it would be forced to stay as it wasn't a specific reward. He did say he would use it. But what skill could he create that would complete his fighting with a staff.
He could throw around air magic fine. But he lacked the skill to make him more than a wannabe air bender. The staff was more of a fighting style rather than a skill. "I'll try and use it more." He said simply before beckoning for her to attack him.
He raised his hand as she shot forward. A shield appeared in between them. Her rapier tip tried to pierce through his shield but failed as she was pushed back by its repellant nature. Jaycee was surprised though.
She wasn't far from breaking it, which was a real testament to her piercing ability. Piercing was the shields weakest area by far but it was still very strong. He bet that with her full power, she could pierce his shield. A spear of flame immediately shot from his shoulder and began swirling through the air.
She deflected it, but watched as Jaycee took control of its flight and forced it to turn around to strike her. She had seen him fight enough times to see that coming and deflected it once more. But just when she deflected it another spear had entered within a foot of her.
She quickly moved her feet to avoid the spear but saw as now two spears were being controlled. And then a third spear entered the equation. With each one she deflected, another one had been cast and was being controlled in different fashions by Jaycee. It took at least three deflections for the magic to lose energy in a spear but then another one would replace it.
Jaycee's incredible skill in operating these spears separately was what made him so strong against fighters like Dahlia. Still, her skill and speed were great as she beat back the spears until she was within striking range. Immediately, seizing Jaycees 50 percent effort, she lunged forward her rapier shooting forward and back almost like there were multiple hands with rapiers attacking him.
A shield appeared in front of him but was broken at the third point of contact. Jaycee danced backward narrowly avoiding each strike. People who were really fast were not Jaycees best match but he had a potential way to match their speed. Now was the time to see if Dahlia was faster than Jaycee at his fastest. As she began to close in on Jaycee he smiled. He hopped slightly to allow the air pockets to be created under his feet. Then as he skated backward Dahlia chased him, her rapier almost skewering his shoulder. Suddenly flames blasted from his chest and his toes flooding Dahlia in flames.
She yelped and dashed out of the flames. They had gotten her good and she was a little burnt. She looked around confusedly as Jaycee had disappeared. When he blasted her, the energy had sent him speeding backward into the forest. She had a few burns on her but things weren't over yet. Something that sounded like a jet engine was moving through the forest around her.
In fact she could hear it circle around the little clearing they had stopped in. She spun in a circle confused on what Jaycee was doing. Suddenly the sound faded as it was moving away from her. She stood in silence for a few moments until the jet engine came back. It roared louder than it was before as it shot straight through the forest. Jaycee, with a concentrated wall of fire behind him suddenly turned into a blur as he avoided each tree adeptly.
He rocketed toward Dahlia as he skated through the foliage. She had her rapier ready and faced the direction Jaycee was coming from. All she saw was a flash of red break through the treeline and pass by her. Her sword was taken from her grasp as Jaycee appeared behind her, a broad smile plastered on his face.
Air from the raw speed and power pushed the hair into Dahlia's face. He shoved her rapier into the ground as the skill was canceled.