Dexter fell from two inches above the floor, canceling the absorption of vital wind energy. He hadn't nearly absorbed enough to gain a level, but that did nothing to ruin his current satisfaction. It seemed, under every stone, there was a surprise in this new world. How many more wondrous abilities would he acquire? He already felt superhuman without acclimating to his new stats. How would he feel once he solidified his current potential?

Looking out into the distance, where the night sky beckoned for him to join it, Dexter recalled the vision of him flying over the mountains and basked in how wonderful it felt. Over the past two days where he strengthened his connection to the element, the vision had grown in strength and felt more real with every passing second.

Since his first levitation, a deep yearning blossomed in his stomach, but by now he could recall more details of him soaring through the sky than in his actual memories. Was the Nexus changing him, altering his memories? He could feel a connection building inside him and knew it was only a matter of time before he dared to walk among the clouds. But that time would have to come later when he had a strong grasp over his new ability.

Reseating himself, Dexter got lost in the song of the wind once more. It pushed him to the side, threatening his stability, but he allowed the next current to recenter himself, slightly positioning himself to ride the wave. Instantly, the weightless feeling returned, signaling disaster if his concentration wavered. The stone pillars surrounding him were razor sharp, and if he slammed into either one, he could kiss a limb goodbye. And that was only if he got lucky. Tumbling head first brought a conclusion he wanted to avoid thinking about.

Higher and higher, Dexter rose into the air, lifted by competing air currents that fell under his control. When his eyes opened, he saw he had surpassed the five-inch mark, doubling it. But the test of the stone array wasn't a measly twelve inches. Success demanded he control his ascent, and rise above the highest and sharpest pillars.

The higher he rose, the harsher the song and thus the winds became, jostling him around in the center. He had to push against the currents or find himself thrust towards a pillar before it was too late. In his mind, Dexter envisioned a dozen warriors surrounding him, each with their blade drawn, ready to impale him after one wrong move.

The streams were hard to navigate the higher he got, and he found himself starting over rather than pushing into the front of a storm. Certain notes he realized were best to avoid unless he had the proper tools to deal with them, and his current manipulation skills wouldn't cut it.

Dexter stared up at the towering structures, realizing a perfect ascent to the top would be impossible for him. The levitation trick he had learned was cute, but it wouldn't work in a dance of blades. If he pushed further now, his rise would be chaotic, sending him around in circles like debris in a storm.

"I suppose I should stretch first," Dexter said, looking towards the cliff he had climbed over with a frown. He was unwilling to leave the stone garden and head back down the mountain. There was an awakened cannibal down there that he didn't want to meet, let alone discover how the man became the way he did. For all he knew, the guy was carrying a virus. But he also couldn't continue into the mountain without pushing himself. Besides, the faster he ascended, the faster he would find the treasure that made the compass tick.

Sending energy to reinforce his armor, Dexter walked back into the center of the pillars, eyeing the indistinct shapes at the top that hung like an executioner's axe. He had confirmed a path, and was ready to walk it.

As the energy coursing through his body mirrored the surrounding winds, he floated towards the sky, battling the currents altering his trajectory. Each current was met with a corresponding chord, ringing like a symphony in his ears. And as he climbed higher, the energy he transmuted danced to a deadly tune, far exceeding his past record.

He was now five meters in the air, soaring with a confidence only found in raptors. Briefly, Dexter wondered if his last name wasn't a coincidence and the Native side of his heritage had a secret they needed to tell him. However, his confidence was cut short as the path he had chosen, split into intersecting avenues. He was about to drop out of the sky like a falling stone.

Pushing all of his energy forward in a gust of wind aura, Dexter was propelled back into the vortex, where he had his first brush with death.

He got thrown over four meters into one of the smaller sets of pillars, where a stone sword arced into a rising slash. Instantly, Dexter knew he was heading towards a direct impact, and used his new understanding to alter his trajectory. But at the speed he was moving, his energy barely had enough time to exit his palm, and he ended up with a long scar traveling up his vambrace through his right shoulder. Pain echoed throughout the entire limb, causing him unbearable agony. But there was nothing to do but get up and brush the pain away, failure was part of the lesson.

The more he failed to maintain a stable ascent, the more he understood how to use the surrounding air currents to defend himself. Each blast of air he pushed forward to defend himself, clashed with the stone blades ready to take his life. The encounters tempered his wind aura, honing it into a peerless blade. It was entirely different from Iron Shroud, which vibrated as it grew stronger, increasing his crit chance and damage the more volatile it became.

On the edge of the arena, haggard breaths could be heard. They escaped Dexter's lips after biting into two ration bars, recovering his health and vital energy. But the song never stopped, he listened from a distance, then became the conductor once more when his wounds had healed.

The sun had risen as Dexter looked down from seven meters in the air. He slowly realized his fourth day in the new world was about to begin, but the delight at passing the first set of pillars had garnered all of his attention. He was almost a third of the way off from completing the trial now, nothing else seemed as important. But as he solidified his ability to maintain that first step, the second set of pillars proved eager to dash all of his hopes. They sent him careening to the side, towards a nasty set of spikes darkened by what could have only been dried blood.

For the first time, the cloud of Iron Shroud billowed out, reinforcing his burgeoning blade of wind aura. The clash sent him into an entirely different direction, where he had to face the same fate, encumbered by a whirlwind of blades.

Dexter spun end over end, desperately lashing out, while trying to orient himself. The combined effort of the two techniques drained his energy supply to dangerous levels, forcing him to abandon flight. But as he did so, he had to brace for impact, tucking into the fetal position on his descent to earth, no longer a part of the sky. But there was meaning in the descent he learned, and the insight would only carry him further.

Sprawled across the ground in utter pain, Dexter reached into his satchel as usual. He realized that at the rate he was going, he would consume all of his health bars. He had started with twenty and was almost down to half by now. But his grievous wounds demanded attention, and it was all he could do to feed them.

Another week passed where Dexter hovered in the center of the arena, mastering the basics of aura control. By now he was at an impasse where the second tier of the trial demanded more skill and energy reserves than he had available, even after the bonuses from his Titles were taken into consideration.

Over the week, he had split his time to gain 2 levels and assigned the free points to support his energy reserves. Currently, he was pushing for another free point, which would require him to reach level 10. He knew the meager 3 points would only have a marginal effect, but as he reached level 10, he would gain an additional free point by unlocking his Strength attribute skill slot.

To make up for his skill at controlling energy, Dexter worked on becoming more in tuned with his body after absorbing ambient energy. The key lime bars kept his stamina high while he trained with his spear, both physically and mentally, to draw on the Mastery skills insights. Now the energy in his body resonated with the Mastery skill more than ever, and the aura he controlled had a slight edge to it.

The final key to pin it all together was his attunement. It would up his strength to redirect the air currents before they pushed him onto a treacherous path.

As the vital energy in Dexter surged, signaling a level up, he wasted no time placing all 4 points into Magic. Immediately he shot forward into the next tier, getting blown towards an edge that, from the angle he was about to hit, looked to be a pair of vicious axes. Before impact, Dexter dropped the song with bated breath, and watched as gravity acknowledged his weight, pushing him down into a rising air current.

The brightest joy highlighted Dexter's smile as he spiraled into the air, bypassing the axes in an updraft, and used centrifugal force to align himself and stabilize his momentum. The next pair of blades he encountered, he met with full force, no longer in a desperate scramble to defend in a haphazard manner.

Higher and higher, Dexter rose, using less energy than the days prior. He was now double the smallest pillars, over twenty meters, tumbling in the air. A bit more and he would reach the beginning of the storm, where the harshest notes reigned. But to Dexter it was all the same, each note could be fine-tuned until they hit a resonance point and shattered glass.

Each air stream he encountered met its reflection in his aura, and that kinetic clash fueled his rise. The ones he didn't know caused him trouble, but those were soon copied as well, written into his wind song. At times, Dexter felt a cloud drift over him in a similar manner to his Mastery skill, where insights corrected his form. Mind, body and soul aligned as if it had already walked the path before him. It was an odd sensation. But without letting it distract him, Dexter kept a tight control over his aura, and at those times he soared the fastest.

Nearing the beginning of the tallest pillars in the arena, Dexter charged Iron Shroud, preparing for his breakthrough. But as he entered a side stream, gravity threatened to crush him under its force, steering him down towards the crescent of a brutal looking scythe. Dexter actually began to panic at the sight of the pillar, as it was the first shape he had seen completely different from all the rest. He had no clue how the air would function around it and had to come up with a note on the fly.

But he had failed to do so.

In a desperate struggle for survival, unable to control his descent towards the reaper, Dexter smashed every chord he had learned, simultaneously wrapping it all in a sheath of Iron Shroud. The sky thundered all around him as he desperately pushed out everything he had until it fractured, and for a brief instance, he hovered above the world in control of the bladed vortex.

[ Iron Shroud proficiency has drastically increased! ]

[ Hidden Trial: Trial of Heaven's Fury: Fail! ]

Reward: Wind Scythe (Bronze) Reward: First Art of the Ozkaari Sky Priest - Bladed Vortex: Incomplete (6%).

He had failed the test, yet managed to fashion a naked blade.

[ Wind Scythe (Bronze): The fallen sky ends all. ]