“Professor, we can move to the next area now.” Yuri’s call pulls me out of my thoughts. I haven’t been able to fully concentrate on their evaluation—my mind keeps drifting everywhere.

  Luckily, I haven’t neglected their safety, just been a bit slow to react to certain things. Their task is simple: collect a few grade-3 cores. This dungeon has grade-2 and grade-3 monsters, so we have to keep moving from one area to another.

  “I’ll walk behind you. Keep leading the way.” I don’t want to affect their decisions. I’m letting them handle everything; I’m only here to correct major mistakes or save them if things get out of control.

  Everything was fine until we reached a slightly swampy zone with a massive blue lake in the middle. It feels odd not seeing green water in what I’d call a swamp. They’re fighting some land monsters, the mages supporting and keeping an eye on the birds that could attack unexpectedly.

  My senses pick something up to my right. I jump down from the tree where I was resting, preparing just in case. A huge monster keeps walking toward us, slowly but steadily. From what I sense, it looks like a rhinoceros—an even bigger one.

  This dungeon is divided into three zones, each with its own leader. This big guy seems to be the leader of this area; he’s much stronger than the other monsters.

  I look at the students giving their all against the monsters in front of them. There’s no way they’ll be able to handle this giant alone.

  “Guys, something big is coming. Want me to hold it until you finish with the smaller ones, or do you want to try taking it down? It won’t be easy.” The giant rhino is now within sight, standing still to observe us.

  All the students look terrified, panic rising. “You have ten seconds to decide.”

  I raise ice walls between them and the monsters they’re fighting to buy them time. At the same time I stare at the giant while releasing my Imra. The monster leader looks cautious when it sees me.

  “Even though the extra points for defeating the leader are tempting, we’ve decided not to risk it!” Yuri shouts from the side.

  “Good. Finish quickly.” I’ll let them see me fight. If they can learn something from me, all the better.

  The monster keeps pacing, and once it thinks it’s far enough, it tries to charge at my students. Two enormous ice walls appear in its path—I’m not letting it run. It growls, fury clear in its eyes.

  By the time the students finish, the rhino’s patience has evaporated. It roars and rushes toward me at full speed. I reinforce my body as much as possible and use gravity to reduce its momentum.

  “Will I survive this?” I wonder to myself as I choose to stop its charge with my bare hands. The monster is faster than I expected, weighing several tons and holding tremendous power.

  I do everything I can to stop its charge. As soon as it reaches me, I grab its horn. The strength behind the impact forces me back several meters before I can halt it completely. My arms break in several places and my legs fracture—I heal everything instantly.

  All the students’ faces are priceless, their mouths hanging wide open.

  I create a Joyeuse while still holding the beast. It tries to break free or impale me with its massive horn, but my ice sword falls fast and cuts off the horn in one clean strike.

  The monster screams in pain. I take a few steps back. This rhino is at the peak of grade 3, but nowhere near grade 4.

  I trap it in my prison—I need to practice this skill since I haven’t used it much these past months. The clash of wills lasts a little while, but eventually I win and stabilize it. It keeps struggling to break free, but I press down on it until it submits.

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  A few minutes later, satisfied with my progress, I create a massive ice sword—almost two meters long—and stab it into the creature’s head. There’s a lot of resistance at first; this species has high defense, but it can’t do anything against so much mana combined with several Laws.

  “Professor Maki, we’ve collected enough cores to pass. We want to return now.” Yuri runs toward me. She looks anxious, while her classmates are frozen in shock staring at the dead giant.

  “Let’s go.” I pierce the monster again with another ice sword to take its core and lift it using Imra so don’t get stained with blood and guts.

  The walk back is peaceful. Only those huge birds keep attacking occasionally—most grade 2, with a few grade 3 hiding among them. They’re extremely annoying, and eventually my patience runs out.

  “I’ll stay a bit longer. Don’t worry about me.” They look at me for a moment, thank me for escorting them, and leave through the platform.

  I pour mana into the bracelets and take off, shooting toward the center of the dungeon. At first the air pressure isn’t too bad, but as I increase speed I can feel my face distorting from the wind.

  I create a thin armor around my body. The overall pressure decreases, but one part still suffers: my face. I could cover it completely and rely on my Personal World to see, but I reject the idea instantly. What’s the point of flying and exploring if I can’t see? And my ability doesn’t cover as much as my normal vision.

  It takes me several minutes to make a thin crystal visor that doesn’t block my sight, reinforced with Imra. I don’t like how it looks, and even my armor feels less aesthetic. So I end up covering my face with a thin layer of pure mana and woven Imra, very close to my skin. At this speed it’ll work just fine and I won’t feel my face distorting.

  I increase my speed as much as possible. The bracelets don’t consume much mana and I can recycle it. I could fly for hours—maybe days—like this.

  Before turning those flying leeches into dust, I decide to practice. Speed is under control; braking is fine. Only sharp turns and sudden movements remain a problem.

  Between giant trees I fly, trying to dodge every obstacle. I’ve never suffered so many injuries or broken bones in one day. Arms, legs, ribs—even slammed my head against a few absurdly tough trunks.

  I got stuck inside a tree at one point and used Dimensional Step to escape. Just thinking about the embarrassment makes my face heat up.

  I spend hours and hours repeating the same exercise. I’m frustrated; improvement is minimal. Controlling sharp movements midair at sapphire-level speed is incredibly difficult.

  I drop to the ground to think of an idea, my brain still a bit foggy since this morning. I check my status, go through my skills one by one, and find a possible solution: Gravity Burst.

  My motivation returns instantly. I float again and resume training.

  First, my speed improves slightly when I boost with Gravity Burst—good to know. The difference is small for now, but when the skill levels up or my control improves, the boost will be significant.

  Sharp turns become a bit easier. If I trigger the burst at the exact moment and place, I can avoid several obstacles. After a few hours the improvement is noticeable. I can weave between trees without crashing… too much. I still break a few bones, but that’s part of training.

  In the distance I see some human-sized birds flying in a group. I use all the momentum possible to intercept them. When I reach them, I sense their Imra—surprised. I create two ice swords, hold them tightly, and throw myself at them.

  I could kill them from afar, but I want vengeance with my own hands—in this case, my blades.

  “Damn it, don’t run!” I only kill two. The others dodge my cuts at the last second. And they also attack—grade-2 claws can’t pierce my armor, but grade-3 ones leave a few wounds.

  I don’t care; I can heal instantly. It takes me almost thirty minutes to kill a bunch of simple grade-2 and grade-3 flying monsters. They only had wind affinity and didn’t even control it well. This proves one thing: Right now, I’m useless in aerial combat. I need much more practice.

  I return late to my apartment, frustrated and sad. I killed plenty of flying monsters and even fought a massive eagle-like one, but I let it escape—it seemed to be a zone leader like the rhino. These bitter feelings come from realizing how poor my aerial combat is. I’ve improved a lot in these hours, but it still feels pitiful.

  A small smile appears on my lips when I see the notifications from the omnipresent voice—my experimental training paid off. I gained two more levels in Gravity Burst! And something else… a strange feeling I haven’t had in a long time.

  After catching some flying monsters with my prisons—once my patience snapped—I felt like I was close to gaining some new skill related to how I use my affinities, Imra, and Laws. I have one empty slot for a new skill. I don’t know if it’s wise to use it on this possible ability or wait for something better. Future Maki will decide.