Once everyone finished cleaning up and our camp broken down, we pulled out our bikes and rolled out. The morning was fairly quiet. New splashes of blood adorned the sidewalks and roads, but no body parts or corpses remained.

Well, we all started off on our bicycles, but because of Rowan’s lower physical stats, he couldn’t maintain a higher base speed than the rest of us could. Cody and rowan stayed on their bikes while Magnus and I jogged alongside them. Our jogging speed was still faster than Rowan could maintain thanks to our cultivation and unlocking the Bone Meridian, but it was easier to slow up on foot than it was on a bike.

“Yo, did you know our smart watches can track our speed too?” Cody piped up. “With the extra functionality on the UI, it can display apps on the watch like with the new messaging. Sweet right?”

“Huh, it really can. No more going off of mile markers or my stamina drain anymore.” I replied. It was a cool feature that I immediately set up in the bottom center of my vision, just like it would be when I was driving.

It looked like we were all maintaining almost nine miles per hour, three times the average human walking speed. If we maintained the same speed and traveled for close to ten hours a day, we could make it to the springs in just about a week. Of course, I doubted we could just travel with no delays, monsters being a thing and weird environments cropping up everywhere. So probably closer to two weeks unless Rowan can increase his strength and agility more, and Cody ups his agility.

We rode for about an hour with nothing much occurring. A few beasts tried to encroach on us, but they were weak. A judicious application of my aura drove them away.

As we were rounding a bend on highway eighty-four, we all came to a screeching halt. A massive lion-like roar echoed off the hills to our left. I pulsed out my Spirit Sense as hard as I could.

Congratulations, your skill Spiritual Sense has increased.

Spiritual Sense Rank 7

I could just barely feel its presence. It was a magical best, stronger than anything I’ve faced yet. Its aura pulsed with hunger and malevolence. I looked around; the sense was too far out of my range to pinpoint its position.

“LOOK UP!” Magnus shouted.

I looked up. Just barely, I made out a huge winged beast through the glare of the sun.

It let out another thundering roar, and I could feel it rapidly approaching. “EVERYONE SPREAD OUT, IT’S DIVING” I shouted. I leapt away from the others as I triggered my Grace in Combat technique. Ice covered Rukia’s fur as she activated her own movement technique.

Cody already formed his Paladin Armor and had his mace and shield in hand. Malakai flew around him in circles with that glowing shield of his, ready to block the incoming attack.

Magnus stood balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to spring in any direction. His war hammer crackled with purple lightning around its head. It was the first time I saw his bloodline's ability activate. Despite the beast diving at us, I couldn’t help but admire how badass it was.

Manticore

Dive Bomber Level 10

HP: 225/225

Stamina: 396/396

Mana: 156/156

Defense: 26

It only took a few seconds for the beast to come into range of my spiritual sense. At about the same time it shifted far enough out of the sun’s glare that I could Identify it. This thing put the snake I fought in the pocket jungle to shame. It tripled any of our health and almost doubled my stamina.

It was a level ten magic beast, with its own advanced class. And it was about to strike one of us with its own namesake, a dive bomb. In the briefest of moments, it took to enter my range and pull up Identify it was already on top of us.

The lion-headed, leather-winged, spiked-tailed beast had its claws outstretched in front of it as it aimed directly at Magnus’s chest. Magnus was already in mid-swing, muscles rapidly expanding as they both roared at each other.

Magnus spun around, showing a lot more grace and balance than I had seen since I met the man. With more grace than a Russian ballerina, Magnus brought his crackling war hammer around and smashed it into the side of the Manticore. It was a moment of beauty, but it wasn’t without its cost.

Blood and sundered bronze rings sprayed in the air as one of the beast’s claws scored Magnus as he hit the Manticore.

The hammer hit the beast in the ribs; I could hear bone snapping under the boom of lightning striking its flesh and the concussive explosion of Ki based Kinetic force. Magnus screamed in pain and fury as the Manticore beat its wings furiously to pull up out of its dive and circle around.

Right as it passed Magnus, its tail violently lashed out, thick barbs flew from its tail as quickly as any fired arrow. Three of the six quills hit Magnus. The others flew past him and slammed into Cody’s armored body. They staggered Cody, but didn’t penetrate.

Magnus received one in his thigh. One glanced off his helm, and the third penetrated through the deep gash in his chest.

He dropped to his knees, screaming in agony while the Manticore roared in triumph.

Magnus Thomson

Cultivation: Body Rank 4

HP: 34/105

Stamina: 145/156

Ki: 75/150

Defense: 36/29

Status Effect: Poison of Agony –partially resisted.

Effect: Speed -25%, concentration -38% Duration 2.5 minutes

Holy shit, that damned thing took away over two thirds of his hit points.

Manticore

Dive Bomber Level 10

HP: 165/225

Stamina: 296/396

Mana: 156/156

Defense: 26

At least he took a quarter of its hit points in his counter strike.

Cody rushed over to Magnus as the monster circled overhead, preparing to make another pass. Magnus Glowed briefly as Cody restored twenty-eight of his hit points. It didn’t help the poison, but at least he wasn’t as close to death. Damn, we really needed to get some poison cures once we find another settlement. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of getting any.

I triggered stage two of my grace in combat; then I raised my hand up, making a finger gun as I pumped thirty points of Ki, forming my Ki Bullet. I only tried this once before in combat. I didn’t have any other ranged options. The fifty percent increase in cost while using my movement technique meant I could only deal out forty damage with this shot. Before its defense.

I lead the things flight path, feeling more confident in my aim with the bonuses I got. I let the shot loose and clipped the monster’s wing.

Malakai launched one of his holy strikes and hit the Manticore right in its center body mass. It didn’t seem to do much to it, but every bit helped.

After being hit twice at range in quick succession, the Manticore flicked its tail out again and launched another barrage of quills. This time, though, they curved in the air and sought specific targets.

Two of the quills swerved towards me. I tried to dive out of the way, but they auto course corrected and followed me into my tumble. With the increased proprioception and body control, I flipped onto my hands, spin around and just barely avoided getting a piercing in my belly button.

The quills deflected off of my armor, saving me from having to deal with the poison.

Cody used his shield and armor to deflect the two barbs aimed at Magnus again, and the other two barbs were stuck in the asphalt, Rowan standing thirty feet further back than he was a moment ago. A bluish ripple flowed over his hands as he cupped them before thrusting forward.

The arc of translucent blue energy resembled a javelin. It was several times bigger and brighter than the arcane bolts his Familiar was throwing at the Manticore. I needed to ask about that once we all survived this fight.

The blast of arcane energy ripped through the beast’s wing, snapping it at the middle joint. The wing couldn’t support the air pressure it was generating, and it folded back on itself.

The Manticore roared in pain, its next dive involuntarily aborted as it suddenly swerved to the side. The creature hit the road with a meaty thud. It almost seemed to stick the landing, face first, for a moment before its forward momentum pushed it further, tumbling end over end before coming to a stop in a tangle of limbs.

Rukia was looking frustrated since she couldn’t reach the best while it was in the air. Once it hit the ground, she let out a joyful bark as she sped over to get her licks in. Before the beast could untangle itself, Rukia was there. She sank her ice covered fangs into its exposed belly, ripping it open and spilling its intestines all over the road.

As the Manticore, the beast that nearly killed one of our party in its first strike, shuddered and died, Rukia let out a chilling howl of triumph and dominance over her prey.

Your Soul-bound Spirit Beast Companion, Rukia, has learned a new technique

Howling Arctic Wind: a Ki infused howl strikes fear in your enemies, reducing reaction speeds and grants a chance of an enemy fleeing the fight.

With the Manticore slain, I ran over to Magnus. He stopped screaming after a minute and slowly sat upright. His eyes were closed, and he had a look of fierce concentration. I pushed my spiritual sense into him and realized what he was doing.

I could feel his Ki circulating through a meridian that passed through several internal organs, probably his spleen meridian. I pulled up his information through Identify and could see in real time as his debuff reduced in duration. It was dropping multiple seconds on the timer for each actual second that passed. In no time at all, the poison would be clear of his body and he would be fine.

While he finished clearing the poison, I walked over to the dead Manticore that Rukia was still eating. She dug out the creature’s heart and was happily munching down on it, blood covering most of her face. I shook my head and let her have it. I knelt down and touched the outstretched wing and selected the loot option.

You received:

Manticore Fangs x4

Manticore Claws x16

Manticore Hide x12

Manticore Wings x2

Manticore Poisoned quills x12

Manticore Meat x199

Magic beast core lvl 10: x1

c190

It looked like the credits given per level changed once the magic beast got its advanced class. It was normally ten credits per level of the creature. With this giving one hundred ninety, that must mean that each level after nine gives one hundred credits each. I wondered if, after the next threshold level, it would increase by ten times again, giving a thousand credits per level after twenty-five.

Anyway, we should get close to ten thousand credits for the loot pieces if the market prices stayed the same, attest for the crafting components. No idea what we could do with the wings, though. I put all the loot into my storage ring for now.

I took a minute to take stock of everything I had in my storage ring. Even with a hundred slots, each unique item took up its own. I only had forty-two empty slots left. I still had two hundred twenty pieces of cooked snake meat, but that only took up one slot. How many pieces could each slot hold? I had assumed it would be something like ninety-nine originally, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

Realizing I had never actually used Identify on the ring, I did so now.

Storage Ring

Quality: Average

Rarity: uncommon

Durability: 49/50

Slots: 100

Items per Slot: 999

Weight: .3 oz.

Traits: Weightless storage, Stasis

Ok, it took a tiny durability loss; probably from all the fighting. It could hold nine hundred ninety-nine items per slot. That’s an absolute fuckton of items. The more monsters we kill and the more unique parts we loot, the faster my ring’s capacity will fill up. But for now, I had plenty of room. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get another storage ring when we get the next opportunity. At least the others had fifty slot rings each, and Magnus had a twenty-five slot ring as well. There was still plenty of storage available to the party.

Once I was done, I looked over at Rukia. She looked absolutely pleased with herself. She was licking the blood off of her muzzle with relish. I took out one of the hand towels from my inventory and soaked it with water.

“Whose a good girl?” I said to her. Her ears perked straight up and gave me her best doggy grin. “That’s right, you are. Now let me wash that blood off your face, then I’ll give you a good belly rub.” I rubbed the wet towel over her face and head. it got most of the blood off easily. That was the good thing about husky fur. The outer layer shed water and cleaned easily. It was the undercoat that acted like a sponge.

I spent a good few minutes rubbing her belly and, in general, giving her a good scritch all over. I hadn’t been giving her enough attention over the last week and I felt bad about it. She had been a very good girl, even with all the changes and the fighting. Neither of us had to fight for our lives before the System Initialized, Rukia was adapting to it far more easily than I was.