Chapter 385 - 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, 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.

Stolen story; please report.

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.

He didn't get as high as the first time, but it was enough that he went above the treeline and he made sure to explode a little more kinetic energy to keep getting more height. He made sure to be gentle with it though. He also made sure to keep an eye out for attacks this time around.

He didn't want a repeat of what happened. And he was glad that he did because not long after he was in the air, he was spotted by a large bird perched in the trees. His size must have made him look very tasty because it quickly took off while activating some kind of stealth skill.

Unfortunately for the bird, Julius saw right through it, and its ambush failed when he blasted himself out of the way. The bird's sharp claws barely grazed him as it went by in a whoosh.

Despite being careful, his little maneuver had unbalanced him, and he was left scrabbling to recover, tossing and turning in the sky like an idiot. The bird must have spotted this and decided to go in for another attack, forcing Julius to evade its attack again.

However, this only served to further unbalance him, and he started to spiral downward into the forest. He tried to correct his trajectory, but the only way to do so involved slowing down. This decrease in acceleration made him a much easier target for the bird, who was making a third attempt.

However, he also realized that this could work out in his favor, so he protected his body as he waited for the bird to arrive. Its claw snatched him out of the air like a kitten getting picked up by its mother—only in this case, the bird was trying to eat him.

Thankfully, this was all according to his plans. Without waiting for too long, he released his kinetic field and pummeled the monster with the kinetic energy he had infused with his Sharpness Concept.

The creature didn't have enough time to defend itself as the sharpened kinetic energy blasted it from all directions, shredding its feathers from its body and shearing large hunks of flesh from its chest.

The bird cried out and started to flap around in panic. It reflexively let him go in its desperate flapping, and as he was let go from its grasp, he sent a needle with a bunch of sharpened kinetic energy at its face. It was so distracted by the pain of the kinetic field that it didn't notice the needle until it was buried into its skull.

The needle then detonated, and he saw the skull disappear in a mist of red blood.

He smiled at a job well done and mentally patted himself on the back. However, that smile only lasted for a few scant seconds as he belatedly realized that he once again was falling out of the sky.

He quickly tried to blast kinetic energy at the ground to keep himself afloat, but just like the last time, it didn't work. He could only close his eyes as he approached the trees and brace for impact.

After plucking off the branches from his clothes and dusting himself clean, he still wanted to try flying again. So once again, he launched himself from the treetops and started to make his way toward the fortress.

This time around, he managed to cover a lot of distance before he found himself under attack once more. It wasn't a bird, at the very least. It appeared to be from a flying insect monster, and he took care of it without too much issue. The problem was that some of its wind magic still connected with him and destabilized his flight.

This, unfortunately, led to him slowly falling into a downward spiral for the third time. However, he had an idea this time around. He had thought about it during the most recent fall but had been too unsure to try it at the time.

But after seeing how well his body fared that last fall, it gave him more confidence. He had a feeling that trying to stop midair and change the direction of his acceleration was too difficult. It required a lot of steps and careful usage of kinetic energy. He wasn't able to just brute force his way like he sometimes did.

However, he got the idea when he watched the flying monsters fly after him. They didn't halt their movements in midair. He could see that they simply shifted their momentum in another direction. They would use that downward force to accelerate closer to the ground but then use their wings to swing back up.

It was much more energy efficient and seemed to be what he needed to do.

The main issue he had with the idea was that it required him to accelerate closer as he approached the ground, which was scary and completely against his natural instincts.

Despite those feelings, he still tried it. As he fell, he positioned his body so that it pointed downward and then boosted himself with more kinetic energy. The speed was increasing dramatically, and as he was going downward, he used some kinetic energy to help propel himself up toward the sky.

And he smiled as he felt the momentum start shifting in the other direction. However, he overlooked one massive detail. He didn't have wings like those monsters did and once again found himself smashing into the forest with way more force than either of his prior crashes.

He was like a meteor falling from the sky and completely eviscerating the forest below. He was quick enough that he managed to cover himself with multiple layers of mana to protect his body before impact, so he was relatively unharmed except for two mangled arms.

But he winced when he saw several dead monsters blown up around the area of impact. It would also appear that the other monsters were scared enough by his landing because they were all making a run for it.

He looked toward the dead monsters he had accidentally killed and bowed at their bodies, silently apologizing for his actions.

With that being said, that didn't deter him, and he dusted himself off once more, already prepared to try it again. He was stubborn and didn't want to give up quite yet. Plus, he had another new idea, one that he was confident would work this time around.

He purposefully ignored Drasil, who was reminding him that it was the exact same thing he had told himself before the last time he fell.