Sitting cross-legged on his perch, Rylan frowned, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to sense the tingles.

  They’d covered quite some distance over the week since he’d had his dream-vision, but their forward progress had been impeded when they’d come across a sheer downward cliff.

  They were all understandably weary of that particular geological feature.

  Still, they’d found an oversized mushroom nearby that grew a decent distance from the edge, and spent the night hidden beneath its cap. And after breakfast, they’d started walking along the edge, carefully- looking for a reasonable path down.

  It took up most of their morning, but they’d eventually found one. The problem was, along the way down, the sporadic tingles in Rylan’s spine—that had steadily been growing stronger over the past couple of days—had grown weaker until they vanished. He hoped that meant they’d moved down into a ravine, somehow making it harder for the being to reach him, and not that they were too late to fulfil the request for help.

  The problem was further compounded by what they found at the bottom of the cliff: a forest of tall, thin spires of rock rising from red clay that, for some reason, were topped by rocks with a slightly bigger circumference than the spires themselves.

  It led Rylan to wonder how an area like this came to be; his companions didn’t seem to know either. Anyway, being forced to weave a winding path made it significantly harder to keep track of their heading.

  So now he was up on one of the rock spires, trying his damnedest to feel something, and it wasn’t going very well.

  “You get anything, yet, Ryles?” Soren called up from the fog below.

  Rylan let out a sigh. “No. And you’re not helping!”

  “Sorry!”

  “Just be quiet, please. I’m trying to focus.”

  Unfortunately, Soren wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t helping. There was an actual breeze flowing down through the suspected ravine, giving him goosebumps, and there was an ominous rumbling in the distance that he didn’t like one bit. When moments later, a fat drop of rain fell on his head, he let out a groan.

  It’s so cold... When I shiver, how am I supposed to even know if it’s—

  Rylan opened his eyes abruptly. A tingle had just gone up his spine, weak, but unmistakable.

  With his eyes firmly fixed in the direction the tingle had seemed to indicate, he scrambled backwards, lowering himself to hang from the edge of his seat for a moment before he let go.

  Weightless, he fell slowly through the fog, drops of rain speeding past him. Thanks to the floatiness, the thirty-foot drop was barely anything, and with his soles covered in mana, he easily landed on the dense red clay.

  Getting up there had been a lot harder in comparison, but his mana had helped there, too.

  The top of most of the spires was too high to reach with a simple jump, and having Soren and Tamina try to boost him up hadn’t worked very well either. Mostly because they’d had a hard time aiming him. In the end, Soren’s idea of jumping back and forth between two nearby pillars had worked best.

  It had definitely helped that he now spent a decent portion of his evening training time hopping side to side, from foot to foot, using mana to catch himself and push himself a little further each time.

  During his attempts to work towards Running during the day, he’d realised that moving fast in the cloudsea was more about long strides than quick ones. Thus, it was more useful to try and get more power and distance out of every step than to try and alternate between his feet really fast.

  He just hoped Ethereon would eventually recognise his efforts as running, but considering the way Soren had achieved his second Skill, he wasn’t too worried about it.

  Dusting off his hands, Rylan walked around to the other side of the pillars towards his companions. “That way,” he stated confidently, pointing ahead, a decent bit off from the direction they’d been travelling.

  “You got it, oh glorious whisperer of spirits,” Soren replied, hopping to his feet with backpack and all, before grimacing up at the increasingly heavy rainfall.

  Tamina stood as well. “He’s not really whispering at them, though, is he? They just make him feel all tingly inside.”

  “Please don’t phrase it like that,” Rylan said with a groan.

  Naturally, Soren ignored him. “Good point! He’s more like a spirit senser, or something... Yes, he’s a very sensitive boy, who gets shivers down his spine from the mere presence of a spirit!”

  “Not better!”

  Tamina bit her lip, clearly trying to hide a smile.

  As they walked and bantered, the pillars thinned. Soon, the strange columns were gone altogether, and the red clay they were walking on started to slope down, until they reached a sudden transition where it took on a significantly smoother texture.

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  Rylan stopped before stepping onto the wet, almost polished-looking material, hesitant. “Why does it look like this?”

  “I’m not sure,” Tamina admitted, a slight frown marring her face as her eyes roved over the clay in front of them.

  Rylan caught himself staring at her features, something he’d found himself doing more often lately, and shook his head to stay focused.

  “It’s weird, huh?” Soren mused. “You’d think there would be some wildlife tracks here, but it’s all smooth.”

  Rylan carefully put his foot forward and tested his weight on the surface, but it was hard-packed and sturdy despite the thin film of rainwater covering it. He stepped onto it with some more confidence and glanced back at his companions with a shrug.

  They kept moving, until they were surrounded by a plane of smooth red clay on all sides, without a rock pillar in sight. Though, actually, Rylan could see a couple in the distance, sticking out from a slightly elevated spot in the otherwise bare landscape.

  A flash of light from the left stopped all of them in their tracks. It was followed swiftly by a loud crack that seemed to echo all around them.

  “Lightning and thunder!” Tamina hissed. “We better find some shelter, before...”

  The pitter-patter of the falling rain swelled to a crescendo as it started coming down harder and faster, but there was a deeper sound beneath it. Something that made the ground itself shake and tremble.

  Rylan stood as if frozen, not sure what to do, when Soren grabbed his arm and pulled.

  “Come on!” he yelled over the swelling roar. “Let’s hide between those pillars!”

  As the three of them sprinted forward over the wet clay, however, the strangest thing happened. A rush of liquid water—of all things—swept in from the left.

  Caught entirely off-guard, Rylan was unable to react as it pulled his feet out from under him. He smacked down onto the smooth clay and rolled over several times before he managed to get his hands beneath him and push himself up onto his knees.

  The fast-flowing water kept pulling on him as he struggled back to his feet, shaken and confused. Then he looked to his left.

  There, in the distance, he saw what looked like a wall of water, rapidly approaching them, and he finally realised what was causing the ground to tremble.

  “Rylan, run!” Soren shouted at him, craning his neck back from up ahead, but Rylan was already moving as fast as he could.

  Tamina was farther ahead still, quickly wading through the knee-high water, her feet glowing beneath the surface. She’d be fine.

  Rylan pumped his legs, his eyes frantically searching for refuge.

  The ground between the pillars might not be high enough, we’ll have to climb onto them!

  He quickly set his sights on a pair of pillars in the middle. He should be able to bounce back and forth between them...

  Tamina was headed for a thick, squat pillar to the left of that, and Soren appeared to be heading for a series of pillars of increasing height to the right. That was all the attention Rylan could spare for them however, as he had to focus harder than ever on sending mana down to his feet.

  It helped a little, as the extra push made him lift his knees higher, causing the water to not drag him down as much.

  It was enough. He made it to the slightly elevated area just before the wall of water did. There, he sent mana down to both his feet, crouched down, and leapt towards one of the twin pillars. From there, he sent his mana alternatingly to his right foot, then his left, bouncing back and forth as he headed up.

  On his third jump, his right foot slipped an inch over the slick surface, but then caught on a rough patch. With his heart in his throat, he pushed off, and finally reached the edge of the left-most pillar.

  Panting, he pulled himself up, and looked around, taking stock of his companions’ situations.

  As he glanced to his right, he saw Soren perform a Twirling Leap, backpack and all, from the second-highest pillar to the highest. His friend’s aim was a little off-centre, but thankfully still good enough for him to stick the landing.

  Good thing too, considering the massive amount of water thundering past below.

  When he looked to his left, however, his stomach clenched.

  Tamina was clinging to the side of the squat pillar, her metallic left hand scratching uselessly over the rock, and her glowing feet partly in the water. As he looked, a wave hit her, coming up to her waist and shifting her several inches to the side.

  “Fog!” Soren swore behind him. “Hang in there, Tammi! And try to get higher!”

  She didn’t respond. Her metal left hand inched up higher, continuing to scramble over the surface, seemingly searching for purchase, but not finding any.

  Fog, of course; it has no sense of touch!

  It was easy to forget the limitations of her mechanical limb, due to how handy she was with it, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.

  Rylan grit his teeth. Her pillar was about thirty feet out, and it was upwind. He had very little space for a running start, but...

  The fog is thick down here. I can make it.

  Rylan crouched down, sending more mana down his legs than he ever had before. The soles of his shoes lit up, the mana protesting its confinement, but his mental grip on it was iron, unwilling to let a single wisp escape.

  “Blessed Zeph,” he muttered. “Aid me in my time of need.”

  “Ryles?” Soren asked from behind him. “What are you doing? You’ll never make that! Hold on, I’ll come over and—”

  However, in the distance, Rylan spotted another wave approach, bigger than any before.

  Before he could think twice about it, he took two small steps and leapt, pushing off from the rock with his mana harder than he’d ever managed.

  He soared through the fog, his stomach flipping as rather than not making it, he threatened to actually overshoot the pillar. Thankfully, the headwind slowing him down gained in strength at that moment, pushing him back, and he was able to stumble to a halt right before the far edge, windmilling his arms to stabilise himself.

  The moment he regained his footing, he dropped onto his stomach above Tamina, and stretched out an arm. “Tammi!”

  Tamina looked up, shocked, but didn’t let go.

  The wave was almost upon her.

  “Grab my hand!” Rylan shouted. “Now!”

  Finally, Tamina reached up with her prosthetic to clasp his wrist.

  The hand clamped down with painful force, actually causing his Mana Shell to briefly flare up, but he ignored it and grasped onto the cold metal. Right as he did, the wave struck. It came up to her shoulders, and immediately ripped her loose from the pillar. For a moment, her full weight came to hang from Rylan’s arm, and he grunted as the water tried to pull her out of his grasp.

  He slid a couple of inches towards the edge, but held on. Finally, the water went down again, and he started to pull her up.

  Tamina placed her glowing feet back on the pillar, grabbed onto the edge with her right hand, and started to climb. Seconds later, she at last flopped down onto the flat rock on top of the pillar, right next to Rylan.

  Rylan rolled over onto his back, staring up into the falling rain as he tried to catch his breath, the water rushing past down below him.

  That gust of headwind really came at the perfect time... it couldn’t be that Zeph actually—

  《Proficiency requirement met, Attribute requirements met,》Ethereon suddenly spoke.《Congratulations. You are eligible to obtain the Skill: Jumping. Do you accept?》

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