Chapter 383: Experimental Flight

He groaned as he pulled himself from the wreckage. There were so many wood splinters in his skin, and he even found himself completely impaled by a branch the size of his arm.

“Rude,” he muttered, looking up at the sky where he had fallen.

Thankfully, he was able to siphon a lot of the force from his fall before he hit the tree, but that still didn’t mean he was able to nullify everything. Despite his best efforts, he hit it with enough force that it hurt like a bitch.

He used his healing skill and winced as small pieces of wood were pushed out of his skin. He then ripped the branch from his chest and let that heal. It didn’t take very long, which was a good thing because he sensed the beast that had so rudely attacked him during his little practice session blitz toward his position.

He was barely able to sense the monster’s mana. It was almost like it had some kind of stealth skill that prevented its mana from emitting from its body. It was only because he had already been attacked by it that he was able to recognize it.

Of course, [Absolute Spatial Perception] helped out as well. The skill let him track the monster as it made its way down to Julius, tracking him through the dense treetops.

He let it come to him. He had something special in store for it. He didn’t like being sniped out of the sky like that. Not when he was busy learning how to fly. How could a monster be that inconsiderate?

The audacity.

That was why the moment the monster flew past the treetops, he was already launching himself at it. Kinetic energy was fueling his charge, and by the time the monster spotted him, it was too late for it to dodge.

He didn’t even bother to punch it or use any form of attack. He simply tucked his head in and made his body as tight as possible. He did cover the crown of his head with some mana to protect it and to make him a little more aerodynamic. His entire body was shrouded in mana and his new Sharpness Concept.

He reached impressive speeds, considering he was jumping upward and not falling. The creature’s flight toward him helped, too.

Regardless, the monster panicked when it saw a Julius-sized spear heading right at its face. It could do nothing but close its eyes as he blasted it right through the chest. Like most flying monsters, this one wasn’t as sturdy as other monsters of the same tier. He shattered the monster’s ribcage with ease and blew it into fleshy little bits, only taking minimal damage from the head-on collision.

The addition of kinetic enforcement on top of the skills previous powerful enhancement from mana and aura made his body stronger than ever.

He got up and dusted himself off before giving a small kick at the monster’s remains.

“Maybe, next time, you shouldn’t be so rude,” he muttered.

However, this experiment emboldened him, and he already knew what he was going to do. So, with a really big grin on his face, he climbed the nearest tree to get to the top of its branches.

During his climb, a weak Tier 3 monster who was hanging out in a nearby tree spotted him and threw a small blast of mana at him. He didn’t pay it much mind and sent a small dart of sharpened mana at its head. The dart pierced the skull like it was going through wet paper and the monster was dead before its corpse hit the forest floor.

It wasn’t just this monster that he felt around him. It was weird, but he sensed a large number of monsters in the area.

He wasn’t being swarmed yet, but the density of monsters that his perception skill picked up on was higher than the other floors and higher than what he experienced in the Endless Forest so far. Perhaps this was one of the challenges of the floor. With that being said, it only gave him more motivation to continue testing out his flying ability.

He didn’t mind fighting monsters, but honestly, this rift was already taking a while to complete. He wanted to pick up the pace. As much as he wanted to practice and hone his abilities in here, he wanted to be the first one to complete all ten floors.

If he dillydallied too long, another person might finish it before him and get the rewards for the first clear. Although, that was still contingent on there being a reward in the first place.

Regardless, this little flying experiment might just be a great shortcut. He only needed to get to the fort he saw in the distance. There was nothing mentioned about defeating any monsters or how he needed to get there. Thus, he continued to make his way to the top of the tall tree.

He made sure to keep his body enforced around, as much as he liked taking risks. Being pierced by dozens of shards of wood wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

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Just before he was about to launch himself off the tree, he spotted a monster staring at him from one of the other trees. For some reason, it was looking at him with a judgmental look on its face.

He ignored it since it didn’t seem to be aggressive toward him and focused back on the task at hand. He took a deep breath, and just like he had done when he speared himself at the flying monster, he took off into the air, using kinetic energy to rocket himself forward.

He cheated and used some fire mana to help as well. He imagined two little booster rockets attached to the soles of his feet as he detonated the fire mana and kinetic energy. He let out a laugh of surprise as he took off with impressive speed.