A murder of crows suddenly appeared in the air, disturbing three monstrous creatures of inhuman origin.

“Hoo?” One of the Ogres reacted, not as if its life was threatened, but as if a source food appeared.

“Bir-dee!” The Ogres stood up and clambered toward the descending flock of dark birds.

They were in no rush as that sauntered forth and they began to move apart from each other. The closest Ogre reached out toward the flock in hopes of grabbing a snack, but the crows suddenly morphed together and a human shape appeared with an ivory weapon in hand.

“Ooh?” The Ogre managed to mutter before his throat was slit open and a torrent of blood came gushing out. It collapsed weakly while grasping at its throat that poured with blood.

“One down!” I shouted before I touched the ground and rolled.

When I recovered my footing, Jameson was already moving toward the next Ogre. It was to be expected from an experienced fighter, he quickly found the right timing after my initial attack.

The surprised Ogre duo wasn’t able to properly comprehend what happened. It was good for me since I didn't want them to wake up from their daze. Jameson swung his sword and performed a slash that audibly cut through the air. The skin of the Ogre was tough, but he had left his mark. I jumped forward with an increase of strength and speed from Soul Siphon and soared through the air for a brief moment before stabbing my war scythe into the wounded Ogre’s chest. I didn’t let go of the war scythe and instead planted my feet against the Ogre’s body and used it as leverage to jump backward.

Without hitting the ground, I shifted into a flock of crows and flew toward the final Ogre who had finally come to its senses. It was commendable as everything had transpired within a few seconds.

I flew above the Ogre who tried to swat at me and switched back, becoming human once more. I swung my war scythe downwards and barely grazed the back of the Ogre’s head.

‘Damn it.’ I cursed my inaccuracy as I landed.

“Watch out!” The shout came from the tall grass that blanketed the marshy area.

A torrent of ice crystals came flying toward me and the Ogre, but I had already leaped back to avoid them while the Ogre-

“Oohaa!” The Ogre cried as the chill crawled into its body.

Jameson had arrived behind the Ogre while it was focused on the direction of the magical attack. He drove his sword clean through its leg, causing it to alter the subject of its attention once more.

“Hoo- Ahk!”

Human, it probably wanted to say, but I had stabbed my war scythe through the back of its neck before it could finish. As I retrieved my weapon, the large imposing body fell onto the ground and its soul came rushing into my body.

“Hot damn!” Grant shouted as he, Emma, and Sophia emerged from the grass.

“That was…something.” Sophia’s looked at me with wide-eyes.

“You sure you’re a Class-2?” Emma asked suspiciously.

“I’m with her, you need to get reclassified immediately.”

They were praising me, but I didn’t feel too happy with the result. The benefits from Soul Siphon still affected me during my Crow-Shift, meaning I would fly faster for a period of time. That was good, but it caused me to underestimate my speed and I just missed what would’ve been a fatal attack on the Ogre.

“Casper?” Seeing me deep in thought, Jameson tapped me on the shoulder.

“Ah, sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Emma appeared in front of me.

Grant had already moved to stab syringes into the deceased Ogres, collecting their blood. I’m sure it was worth quite a lot in the pharmaceutical market.

“I messed up my first swing on the last Ogre,” I replied, ignoring how close she was.

I didn’t lose momentum coming out of Crow-Shift so I would have to adjust for that. I bent down to check out the Ogres memories and saw a flash of what I already knew, there were two more groups to deal with.

“Did you really miss or are you just nitpicking?” Jameson asked in a skeptical manner, lifting up the head of the hairless Ogre. A line of blood could be seen on the back of its head, but the cut was-

“Too shallow,” I answered with a sigh.

I spun my war scythe around before planting it in the loose soil and leaning my weight onto it.

“You’re a weird one, Casper.” Emma inspected my face closely.

“Talented too! I’m surprised you’ve only recently become a Gifted. There are people who spend years training to fight like that. Hell, even I couldn’t think of doing what you just did.” Granted added before grunting as he stabbed a large syringe into the eye of an Ogre.

“Yeah, yeah.” She said, keeping her eyes on me the entire time. “Say… do you wanna go on date?”

“Hmm?” My head slightly tilted on its own at the sudden question.

“You know what a date is, right?” Emma laughed.

“I know, but it’s just...-” A straightforward girl with green hair suddenly appeared in my mind.

“What? Is there someone else?” Emma inquired..

“I wouldn’t really say that.”

I had only met Sunny once, so it’d be a bit weird to think of her as a romantic interest. For all I knew, her interest in could've been spurred on from her fight and a few beers.

“Good, then it’s a date!” She proclaimed as if she had achieved victory over something.

My lips curled into a wry smile.

“...Why not?”

It wouldn’t hurt to go on one date, though it had been a very long time since I went out for fun.

“How about after we’re done here? I’ll go home, shower, and meet you at this fancy restaurant tonight. Oh, I’ll get your number from Jameson too so don’t worry about that.” She seemed to want to seize the opportunity so she pushed more.

“Alright, but I won’t blame you if you’re too exhausted by the end of this.” I shrugged but I was grinning inwardly.

There was a little bit of excitement welling up inside of me but I tried not to show it. I guess it really had been a long time since I went out.

“Okay, if you two are done flirting, could we get a move on?” Jameson chimed.

“Sorry.” I gave an apologetic smile while scratching my head.

“Don’t blame me, I just wanted to get ahead the droves of women that’ll be coming after him.”

Sophia simply shook her head with a sigh while Grant gave me a thumbs up.

“Hey, how about I bring my girlfriend and we make it a double date? It’ll be less awkward if you two run out of things to talk about.”

“The more the merrier,” Emma easily accepted.

“Seriously,” Jameson started to frown.

“Right, let’s go for the eastern group next,” I said in a bid to calm his rising annoyance.

Judging by his sort nod of agreement, it worked. We departed while leaving the drained corpses of the Ogres behind.

“Casper, why didn’t you raise a skeleton from the corpse of the Ogre? We could use it in the next fight.”

“It’s too weak and too slow right now,” I replied.

I decided to upgrade the general knowledge of the nameless book, but I was tempted to level up my poor skeleton soldier. As of now, he didn’t live up to his description of protecting me and instead was slapped around each time he showed up. It was a pitiful sight and the skill completely useless in most situations, so I didn’t get to us it as much as I wanted.

While we walked through the marsh, I was able to recover from the mental fatigue that came with use of Crow-Shifting. The air was thick was moisture and our surroundings were quiet. Since the environments in Class-3 ruins weren’t exactly real, they weren’t equipped with wildlife. But as you went up the ladder you’d find that it felt like an entirely different world.

“You know how far away we are from the next group, Casper?” Jameson asked in a hushed voice.

I surveyed the area and I suddenly realized that I could vividly recall what I had seen while using a crow to scout ahead. I wonder if the artifact improved my memory, or it happened naturally as I memorized more skills from the nameless book.

“I’d say about two minutes away if we continue with our current pace.” I was making a guess, but it was an extremely accurate guess.

“Then we run the same tactic as last time?” Sophia directed her question to me and Jameson.

“What do you say, Casper?” Jameson left the decision up to me.

It made sense due to my role being the initial attack while he and Sophia would follow up.

“Hmm… Taking out two shouldn’t be much of a problem but I’ll definitely need your help with the remaining ones. I’m not sure, but I think it would be good if Sophia didn’t have to use much of her power until the last fight.”

“How kind of you,” Emma remarked.

“Alright, you’ll be leading the charge on this one.”

“Got it.” I took a deep breath and cleared my mind once more.

…

The battle unfolded in the same way, a surprise attack delivered via messenger crow before the Ogres could respond properly.

The first two were taken out in quick succession very easily, but as I approached the third, I missed my attack and had to rely on Jameson to handle it. I went for the fourth Ogre, quickly rotating the war scythe with my increased power.

My opponent swung wildly, leaving some very big openings in the process. I quickly sidestepped its large fist and left a deep gash across its ribs. I transferred the war scythe between my hands with a taunting flourish. It was a stylish move, but it was wasted on someone like the Ogre who couldn't recognize it as an insult. A dangerous right hook was thrown my way and I tilted my body backward while swinging the scythe upward with one hand. A vertical cut appeared on the chest of the Ogre who let out a painful roar.

“I need a little help!” Jameson said in a panic as his opponent mercilessly rained down strikes on his shield.

I kicked off the broad abdomen of the Ogre I injured and used it to propel myself toward Jameson’s opponent. I was happy that my wall jumping skills were showing their use. I landed a sneaky strike on the back of the Ogre who didn’t even notice my approach.

“Aaargh!” The Ogre reflexively clawed for the war scythe in its back as blood poured out like a tide and Jameson took his chance, lowering his shield and thrusting his sword at the Ogre’s neck.

It began choking on its own blood as it keeled over, but before we could celebrate, an urgent look appeared on Jameson’s face.

“Behind you!”

Along with his shout, I could hear something heavy swinging toward me but calmly raised my arm to protect the side of my face. My mind instantly told me that using Crow-Shift wouldn’t work well since the strike was on its way.

With that in mind, I braced and accepted the heavy blow. The shock delivered from the punch was all but absorbed by my body, though I was slightly thrown off balance. I quickly reacted when I was given the chance and body exploded into a pile of feathers as a flock of crows took my place. All twelve crows split around and flew to the back of the Ogre where I made my reappearance. I twisted my body while swinging the war scythe, separating the head of my attacker clean off before landing gracefully.

“Ouch.”

Or, it would’ve been a graceful landing if it wasn’t for the aching pain on my arm. The synthesized combat suit and my Bone Strengthening rendered the punch non-threatening. That being said, it did nothing to numb the pain.

“Aw and you would’ve been so cool if you didn’t say anything.” Jameson seemed to think the same thing as he joked.

“Hey, I helped you, didn’t I?” I tenderly rubbed my sore arm as the pain began to subside. Flesh Mending was truly a godsend.

“I’ll admit, whatever style of fighting that is, it’s pretty cool to watch,” Grant said as he approached with a syringe in hand.

“It’s almost like a ballet performance,” Emma added, hitting the nail on the head. "...If you ignore all of the blood, that is."

I coughed and tried to change the subject when I noticed something was off. The air began to tremble and even the ground under us seemed to be moving.

“Hold on.” My face grew serious as I had to maintain my balance.

“What the hell?” Jameson cursed as he and the others began to stumble from the growing quake.

“An earthquake?” Sophia put the idea out there as the ground grew more violent.

“No that doesn't make sense, nothing like that is supposed to happen here-” As Jameson tried to be rational, the ground began to split open and red mist shot out.

“Watch out!” I pushed Jameson out of the way as the ground underneath him began to open up.

“Hey!” Grant caught me as I was about to slip within the widening chasm.

The landscape began to shift violently as massive swathes of mud began to be upturned by some unknown force.

“I’m slipping!” The moist soil didn’t do much to help his footing even as he scrambled back.

“Hold on!” I dropped my war scythe and dug my feet into the dirt as I hurried to climb.

“Casper!” Emma rushed over and grabbed my free hand as more red mist spilled out of the growing fissure.

I could see them slipping and my foothold wasn’t doing me any good.

“You have to let go.” I said as I released my grip.

“Shut up!” Emma yelled at me with a fierce expression.

Any other time and I would’ve been surprised, but I was dead set on falling.

“Let go-”

“Jameson! Come help!” Emma shouted as she looked over her shoulder.

“Hold on! Just...- Give me a minute!” I heard Jameson shout.

I couldn’t see, but maybe he was in a similar predicament.

“Grant!” I shouted as I wrenched free of Emma’s grip, forcefully prying my arm away.

“Don’t do it!” Emma pleaded tearfully as she tried to assist him.

“Grant!” I could see he was hesitant but we all would fall if they held on to me.

I had already used up my Crow-Shifting in the previous fight. But I wasn’t worried as I had the highest chance of surviving a fall due to my strengthened bones. I also had bone mending which would fix anything that broke or fractured. I just didn’t have time to explain that to them.

“We're all gonna fall! Let me go!” I began pulling my arm away from him.

“I…-” He gave me an apologetic look before turning to Emma with the same expression. “I’m sorry.”

His voice was heavy with regret, so I braced myself for what was about to happen.

“Don’t-” Emma tried to shout but Grant had already let go of me.

I fell into the depths of the red mist with a single thought, why did Emma suddenly seem so emotional? We hadn’t known each other for long. Hell, we only just agreed to go on a date a few hours ago.

I’d have to ask her about it all when I-

I couldn’t finish my thought as I hit something and suddenly blacked out.

…

I woke up sometime later only to find myself hanging upside down.

How much time had passed? A few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, it was impossible to tell at the moment.

“That’s not good.” I was dangling by some thin thread and not in a figurative sense but an actual thread. Unfortunately, my ankle was bent the wrong way and the pain began to slowly announce itself as my consciousness came back to me.

As I swayed back and forth, I began looking around, quickly taking note of my new environment. I was in a forest filled with a bloody vapor that cast a dark red haze over the entire place. The only source of light to be found was the glowing light far off in the distance. Whatever it was, it had enough power for its light to dimly illuminate the edge of the forest that I was located in.

“That’s enough looking around for now.” I managed to groan out.

I turned into a flock of crows and managed to escape from the thread before I suddenly flew into a tree branch and fell to the ground. It was an agonizing fall that made me draw a sharp breath of agony. I closed my eyes, taking short, quick, breaths before snapping my ankle back in place.

“Fuck!” I shouted without an ounce of control. “That hurt.”

Verbalizing my pain gave me the illusion of temporary relief, but it wasn’t a smart thing to do.

The trees around me were all tall and lifeless without so much as a single living branch to be found on them. The bark was blackened like the entire forest had been torched. As I titled my head to look at the treetops, I could make out the glittering of fine threads. It was the webbing from a spider and since this was probably a ruin, it wouldn’t be an ordinary spider.

I checked for my ivory ring and was satisfied to see that it was still on my hand. If there was anything to take comfort from, it was that.

“Alright, let’s go.” I limped forward as my ankle gradually repaired itself.

A sudden thought filled my mind and that was ruin events. It was due to one that I had a chance to get the nameless book. Suffice to say, I was most likely in the middle of one right now, but I doubted it would work in my favor.

I spotted something skittering above and dove behind a tree. I steadied my breathing and stayed as still as possible.

The dark silhouette of an arachnid-shaped entity glided through the trees with quick, rapid, leg motions, arriving at the spot I had only escaped from moments before. It made a quick turn and began looking around, traversing the fine pathway of webs it had already laid out.

‘Calm down.’ I felt my heart rate briefly rose when it passed over me, but I was undiscovered. I could now see the giant spider quite clearly and I estimated it was at least half the size of a bus.

After finding nothing, the huge spider headed off in the distance.

“Shit.” I exhaled as the danger passed.

It was almost if I descended into some sort of hell. I could only hope that the others didn’t fall with me, but something told me that wasn’t the case.