In the morning Hiro and Foria moved got their equipment on. Hiro looked at the constrictor leather armor that Foria was wearing.

It was very form fitting but he could feel the power that she exuded as a warrior. This is the woman I love and she is amazing.

“What are you looking at with the silly grin?”

“The most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”

She blushed and then walked up to Hiro, “Keep talking like that and we won’t be leaving this morning.”

Hiro laughed loudly and said, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

She jumped into his arms and pinned him to the bed and the good time began.

A while later the two exited Hiro’s home with Amaterasu and walked to the gates of the city.There he found Caesar, Caesar Gori, and surprisingly Scarlet.

They all said hello and then Hiro asked, “Scarlet, I thought you were making another trip?

“I think I will wait a little longer until the dish I want to eat has been seasoned completely” said Scarlet as she licked her lips.

Hiro laughed hysterically as everyone else was trying to figure out what was going. Hiro told everyone to wait while he went to go and get Leo and Learra. They agreed and in a flash. He was at the home of Leo and Learra’s pride.

“Hey Leo and Learra, you two up for a trip to the city of Atraps?” asked Hiro

With a resounding roar Leo stood and Learra followed. Leo looked a Learra and she nodded in agreement.

“We will go. Give us a little while and we will meet you at the gates of the city.”

“Alright see you then.”

Hiro dashed off and went back the gates of the city, where the group waited for a little while before Leo and Learra arrived. Once they arrived, the group exchanged pleasantries. Once everyone was ready their voyage began.

They left the town and headed south towards the forest known as “the land of darkness”. They walked for about half a day and then Hiro was able to dectect the presence of about 15 beasts about a mile ahead. He could sense that they were not very strong but this would be a good chance to see his group in battle so he could ascertain their combat abilities. As they continued to walk they finally encountered a group of large horse looking creatures that had two large horns on top of their heads. Their bodies were larger than a normal horse by far. They stood about 2 meters tall. Hiro used his inspect ability.

Name: Horned Stallion

Hp: 7,500/7,500

Resistances: Wind

Mana: 0/0

Weaknesses: Fire

Horned Stallion: A horse-like beast that roams the plains. It is known to be extremely fast and when angered it will try to gore its enemy with its horns.

They broke out into formation with Hiro and Caesar in the front while Leo and Learra were behind Hiro. Quickly Scarlet moved the enemy’s right flank while Amaterasu and Foria flanked the enemies on the left.

“Caesar and I will charge ahead. Everyone else push them towards the middle”, ordered Hiro.

They all followed his commands. Scarlet began to fire arrows at the horned stallions. This caused them to begin to run around. They were chaotic but several began to charge at Hiro who activated his Hero’s Charge ability. Once he activated it all of the enemies looked his way he was the target of all their anger. They all began to charge at him. Hiro activated his body strengthening ability and prepared himself to attack.

Instead of attacking them physically Hiro decided try a different approach. Hiro cast his chain lightning spell and the lightning bolt struck the first horse and 2 around him. They fell and were trampled by those that continued to charge. Leo was on their right and opened his mouth to breathe fire at the charging enemies. While Leo breathed fire, Amaterasu was on the other side of them spraying her icy breath at them. The enemies began to drop one by one as they were blasted by the fire or ice.

Scarlet paused for a moment then pulled back her bow and unleashed what seemed to be about 100 arrows. The arrows rained down on the horses killing 5 of them. Now there were 2 left. Hiro took out his blade of evolution and ran towards his prey. He slashed at the closest one and it was decapitated immediately. The last stallion began to charge. He started to run but his body felt heavy.

I almost forgot that I had cast my magic on the weighted bracelets and anklets. No matter this enemy is not strong enough to challenge me.

He charged on as the horse lowered its head and pointed its long horns at Hiro. Leo and Amaterasu ran towards the beast. Hiro charged in and used his agility to dodge the horns of the enemy. Once he dodged it he jumped on the beast’s back and stabbed down into its thick neck killing it immediately. Their teamwork had defeated and large group of enemies.

After the battle, Hiro asked the group to wait while he skinned the beasts with his knife. He cut the hide from them one by one.

It was strange my skill at skinning beasts did not diminish even though I have not done it in a while.

You gained 11 medium leathers and 4 medium animal hides You gained 10 weapon skill points

Leo, Gori, Learra and Amaterasu ate 6 of the beasts while hiro placed the rest of the carcasses in his magic bag and then he lit a fire and cooked one of the beasts for himself Scarlet,Caesar, and Foria. They all sat and ate and rested.

Your vitality has temporarily increased by 5 points for eating a large meal.

Hmm…. We didn’t acquire any new skills after eating these animals. Is it that they were too weak or was it that we already knew all the skills these enemies possessed?

After collecting themselves they left and continued south towards “the land of darkness”. Hiro decided to increase the amount of weight so he said, “75 times gravity”.

The metal pieces began to glow as well as his sword and and then he immediately felt the weight increase. His body felt even heavier. It was so heavy that he was struggling to hold onto his sword.

I will try to keep it like this for a while as we walk as part of my training.

The hours passed and the sun began to set. Hiro decided that they should camp at that spot for then night. Hiro reduced the gravity magic back to one times gravity.

Due to your rigorous training your speed, endurance, and strength all have increased by 25 points.

The grouped traveled on for about 6 more days as Hiro continuously raised the weight of his cuffs while they walked 1 times gravity per day. He was now up to 80 times normal. They found some relatively weak monsters and killed them for food and battle experience. Hiro continued to improve his speed and strength each day as he made the cuffs heavier and heavier. By the end of the firs 6 days Hiro had gained over 100 weapon skill points and gained 35 medium hides and 64 pieces of medium leather.

On day 7th of their trip Hiro could begin to sense stronger enemies ahead. He could sense a large number of enemies comparable to the strength he saw in Learra.

This is good. These monsters would be excellent for us to learn from. This concentration of enemies must be in the forest. It was not within view at this point but I can feel that it is close.

They stopped for lunch and pulled out the carcasses of some of the horned stallions that they had killed along the way. Amaterasu, the ligers, and Gori ate 4 whole carcasses while Hiro and the rest of the people at about a half.

Hiro sensed a strong presence overhead. He looked up and saw something flying high in the sky. It appeared to be some sort of bird. Hiro used his improved sight ability and saw that it was a large bird that looked similar to a hawk. Its feathers were midnight blue. It looked to have a wingspan of about 4 meters. It had a large hooked beak that made it understood that it was a carnivore. It talons also looked to be razor sharp and very powerful. Hiro analyzed it.

Name: Dark Hawk

Hp: 7,500/7,500

Resistances: Fire and Wind

Mana: 4,000/4,000

Weaknesses: Lightning

Dark Hawk: A fierece sky predator. It uses it excellent eye sight to find prey for high in the sky.Then uses its powerful talons to swoop down and grab the prey.

Hiro decided to fight this predator. He tried his taunt ability on the bird to see if he could get it to attack. Once he activated his ability the bird immediately focused its attention on him diving down to attack.

The bird’s speed was incredible. It came down in a flash. When it finally got close it flapped its wings and a gust of wind came out blowing the group back. They all fell on the ground hard as the wind came at them. Then it began to dart in and out scratching at the group with its strong talons. Learra and Amaterasu were both wounded. Hiro was able to block the attacks with his sword but the hawk pecked him in the head with its powerful beak. Blood began to pour from his head.

How strong is this thing? My resistances to piercing and slashing attacks is really high and it still caused me damage? We better be careful.

Hiro motioned for Scarlet to shoot at it with arrows. The hawk dodged them easily. She continued to fire arrows while Hiro cast his chain lightning spell. The lightning shot out from hand and hit the hawk. It was rocked but still managed to fly high in the sky. Hiro was amazed at the bird’s ability to take the blow from the spell and keep flying. Hiro decided to continue to watch the hawk as it flew in the sky. It was obviously wounded because it was flying erradictly.

Hiro and his group continued to run after the bird as it began to lose altitude. Scarlet started firing more arrows at the hawk. They did not hit the target but they kept forcing the bird to expend more and more energy to fly higher. The hawk’s flight continued get worse. It was no longer able to maintain its altitude and began to fall from the sky. The hawk continued to plummet as the group followed. As the hawk’s altitude got closer to them Scarlet and Foriawere both able to strike the hawk with arrows through its wings. This caused the hawk to immediately fall from the sky. The hawk hit the ground and was badly wounded. Its wing had an arrow stuck in it. It was bleeding from several places from the impact with the ground but it still continued to fight.

“Hey Scarlet would you like a companion like us?”

“I was just thinking that same thing. This beast would be a great fit with me as it seems just like me, majestic but still ferocious.” Replied Scarlet

Hiro nodded and they continued to attack.

In order to tame this one we are going to have to knock it unconscious.

He reduced his gravity equipment down to 1 times gravity. His body felt so light that he could almost fly. He decided that he would have to end this with one blow. He charged his dashing slash. He charged his ability and flew at the hawk. His movements were so fast that no one really even saw him move. He struck the hawk with the blunt side of his sword immediately knocking the hawk unconscious. He then motioned Scarlet to come close as he laid his hand on the beast’s head and used his beast tamer ability.

Scarlet now has a pet.

“I think I’ll call him Taka”, said Scarlet.

Hiro then cast his group healing spell on everyone. Then he removed the arrow from Taka’s wing and cast his group healing spell again on Taka and Scarlet. Hiro felt weakened as his mana drained by using so many spells.

If I continue to use spells like this I will have to improve my capacity for mana so that I do not experience this physical weakness in battle which will put me at a great disadvantage.

They decided to rest there for the night as Hiro needed some time to recover from the use of his ki. Learra and Foria cuddled up next to their mates while Scarlet slept wrapped in Taka’s large wings. Gori and Caesar had blankets that they fell asleep in and Amaterasu laid behind Leo next to his warm fur. The night passed uneventfully.

The next morning everyone woke up and began to walk south towards the forest. Scarlet decided to try and fly on Taka’s back. She mounted up on his back and Taka flapped his powerful wings. A strong gust of wind came from the wings and they lifted up into the air and began climbing. Hiro watched them rise up and fly through the sky. Foria mounted on Amaterasu’s back and the two of them along with Leo and Learra began to run as fast as they could towards the forest. Hiro left as soon as everyone was moving. Foria could barely believe that Amaterasu had gotten that fast. Everything seemed like a blur as they moved. Learra was actually keeping up as well too but by a large margin Hiro was faster.They continued to run for a while until off in the distance they saw a forest. Amaterasu slowed down and Foria dismounted. Taka and Scarlet touched down in front of them and they decided to take a rest before entering the forest.