The next morning, the crew woke up rested and back to normal. As they went about their morning routines, David distributed more potions to replace those used the day before. “I wonder if David's using his mana to create items, like I was offered? That would explain all the extra bottles,” Scott thought, quickly checking his system.

  **Survive 162 / 180 days left in the tutorial**

  **Find what beast lies on top of Ice drake Mountain**

  **Figure out what happened to Atlar Sharptooth**

  **Learn what it is to be a Gravity Lord, 1 /10 skills unlocked.**

  "That's new," Scott said aloud.

  "What happened now?" David inquired. "Did you suddenly grow wings or something?"

  "No, not exactly. I just have something to look forward to with my new Gravity Lord skills, one out of ten unlocked," Scott explained.

  “Ha ha, cheating the system are we?” David asked.

  “I can't help what the system gives me.” Scott replied, a slight grin appearing on his face.

  The crew packed up and continued heading up the mountain. This time, they were a bit more cautious after their last difficult climb.

  Hours passed until they finally ascended past the clouds. As soon as they emerged above them, Scott could feel the air grow thicker and the temperature plummet. His body felt heavier than normal, and he noticed the rest of the group seemed to experience the same sensation. Looking up the mountain, he finally got a clear view of what lay ahead. He saw a white castle perched high on the summit, blanketed in snow. He also observed the emblem of an Ice Drake emblazoned on multiple shields lining the walls. "Hmm, I wonder what could be occupying that castle," Scott mused.

  "Hey David, do you want to have a good look at the castle above?" Tomas asked, pointing up to the top of the mountain.

  "Yep," David said, transforming into a snowy owl and flying off towards the new mysterious castle.

  They continued climbing further up the side of the mountain. Finding trails big enough for the wagon was a pain, and about an hour later, they dealt with a few more Ice Elementals before David reappeared with some news.

  "So, do you want the good news or the bad news?" David asked, flying around above their heads.

  "Let's start with the bad news first," Tomas replied.

  David continued, "Who chooses the bad news first? I thought for sure you would have chosen the good news, but okay, I guess the bad news first. There are a ton of Ice Giants up there patrolling the walls along with Ice Drakes."

  "What's the good news?" Tomas asked, shaking his head with a sigh.

  "Thank you for asking! The good news is that there are a ton of them up there, all around level 30!" David said with a wide smile.

  "How's that good news?" Osia asked, hand on her forehead, knowing there was going to be a ridiculous answer.

  "Lots of experience points!" David continued, his excitement evident.

  "All you guys want anymore is more experience, don't you? All I want is a nice hot bath and a good nap," Osia said with an exhausted look on her face.

  "Yep, among other things," David replied.

  "Such as?" Osia pressed.

  "Better gear, more levels, and of course, dyslexia—hmm, wait, I already have that. Umm, no, I meant daily sex. I always mixed those two up. But the sex will have to wait until I find my wife," David said proudly.

  Anthony winked at David. "Daily sex, huh? I can transform into a lady, hmm."

  "No, Anthony, just no," David said with a serious look.

  Scott and the rest of the crew began laughing. Scott then added, "Same old Anthony."

  They all laughed some more and continued moving further up the mountain until they were a half-day's walk from the castle.

  Early that night, they rested until sometime before sunrise so they could reach the castle before dawn. They left the wagon further down the mountain, up against a rock wall covering it in snow to hide all the extra gear and their animal companions with enough of a small hole for them to breath.

  The trail up was steep, and they agreed to sneak past a few Ice Elementals. This felt wrong, considering the experience points they'd been getting, but a battle would probably alert the castle guards. They wanted to sneak in unnoticed until they decided to strike. When they reached the wall, no guards watched the base of the castle, only those overlooking the view from above. It felt like they were on top of the world up here; in the distance, they could see a few more mountains nearly the size of this one.

  The wall looked to be fifty feet high, so scaling it would be hard but doable. David first flew up, observing the guards and their patterns. He tied off a rope and threw it down when the coast was clear. Tomas went up the rope first, followed by George, Osia, and Anthony. Meanwhile, Scott used his gravity control to float straight to the top of the wall.

  It was still dark, so once they were all up, they got a good look at the castle. Scott noticed tall double doors under each tower leading into the castle through the open corridors on the castle wall, obviously big enough for the Ice Giants to walk through. The stone looked like white marble, and snow covered the tops of the towers, making the castle blend in with its environment. Snow on the walkways revealed large footprints from the giants and smaller webbed ones walking beside them. At the moment, it was snowing lightly with no breeze, and the outer wall wrapped around the main part of the giants' castle. Eight towers covered just this one side of the outer walls, with no windows at this point.

  Sneaking up to the castle's first tower felt too easy. The guards seemed more relaxed, likely because few would dare attack this place. With no guards in sight, a flicker of worry crossed Scott's mind, hoping they weren't walking into a trap.

  "Hopefully, we're dealing with dumb giants, and this will all be over fairly quickly." Scott whispered, a hint of worry in his voice.

  They crept to the door and listened for any sign of movement. Footsteps approached, one heavy and rumbling, the other lighter, presumably a drake.

  Each of them moved into position, and Scott floated up to the tower's roof for a vantage point. The door opened, and the drake lumbered out first. Scott heard a low rumble from the giant, a grunting command for the drake to move outside. “Must be a stubborn drake,” he thought. “Like a dog that doesn't want to go outside when its master tells it to, which tells me the drakes are either forced pets or just stubborn.”

  A few more deep grunts, and the drake appeared below Scott, moving out from one of the corridors followed by a blue frost giant. Scott felt the cold radiating from its massive body the moment it emerged. He leaped onto the back of its neck, scissoring his swords outward to create a huge gash, disorienting the giant. He slid down its back, dragging his blades, until he was about to hit the ground.

  The giant spun and backhanded him in the chest, slamming him into the wall. Out of the shadows, both Rick and Anthony aimed for the back of the giant's legs, while Tomas, George, and Osia kept the Ice Drake busy. Scott rose to his feet, launching himself off the wall with both swords pointed forward. In mid-air, he increased his weight to a higher percentage, hitting the giant like a spear through its leather armor into its chest, forcing it to stumble backward and fall off the wall.

  With both swords still impaled in its chest, Scott planted his feet on the giant and kicked off hard, sending it plummeting faster to the ground. He flipped backward, and floated up before landing safely back on top of the wall.

  George stopped the drake with flurry of flaming punches to the head, rendering it unconscious. Then Tomas approached and delivered the final blow, driving his sword through the drake's skull.

  They hurried and pushed the dead drake off the wall, directly onto the dead giant below. Then, they began circling the castle, looking for more patrols. David flew back towards them, having completed his circle of the castle to pinpoint the guard locations.

  "You must have caught this one during the guard change. More will be coming around any minute now, so we need to get moving," David whispered.

  "Hey, Shadow Twins, do you want to go on a rampage and take out these guards?" Scott asked with a cheeky smile, referring to both Rick and Anthony.

  "Uh, sure," Rick replied.

  "Heck yeah!" Anthony exclaimed.

  "Do you think you can handle it with the four of you?" Scott posed the question to Tomas and the others.

  "Yeah, I think that will work," Tomas replied.

  Rick, Anthony, and Scott turned left and started moving, while Tomas, David, George, and Osia went right. Scott moved by jumping from tower to tower above, while Rick and Anthony jumped from shadow to shadow below. Just as they were about to reach the corner, the door behind them opened, and an Ice Giant stepped out with its animal companion, an Ice Drake. Right after that, another guard turned the corner directly behind Anthony and Rick. Both of them stepped back into the shadows, and at that moment, the sunrise rose high enough to make the shadows disappear, locking them away. I stood alone on top of the tower, listening and hiding out of sight.

  The two Ice Giants talked in their native tongue. Scott couldn't understand what they were saying, but from the changes in tone, it sounded like one was discussing a lover back home. The other seemed to get upset after the first spoke in a light voice and reverted to his old, grunty one. Scott didn't think he could take on two Ice Giants and their Ice Drakes all at the same time. While he knew he could be faster than the giants if he boosted his speed, he doubted he could move faster than the Ice Drakes.

  The first giant looked up and said something while pointing at Scott, still hidden on top of the tower. Both giants pointed up and issued what sounded like a command. Their Ice Drakes reacted, immediately scaling the wall and tower to reach Scott's position. At that point, Scott pulled out both of his shortswords and activated the fire in his Ancient Short Sword of the Burning Sun, hoping that would give him an edge.

  A drake scaling the tower reached Scott first, unleashing frost breath. Reacting quickly, Scott narrowly evaded the attack with his Gravity Lord skill by floating up. Simultaneously, another drake leaped from the castle wall from behind him, aiming for a bite. Feigning ignorance, Scott deployed a mana platform at the last moment, spinning to meet it with a flaming sword. Despite the deep cut, its momentum carried it off the tower. The first drake then lunged, canceling its breath attack. Scott countered by using gravity to increase his weight, plummeting towards its open jaws, twin blades extended. He pierced its brain, creating a large impact that cracked the tower roof below him.

  He received the notification for the first drake's death, but he knew the second one, which had fallen over the wall, was still alive. One of the giants climbed onto the broken tower, standing directly in front of Scott, while the other ascended the opposite side. The first giant in front of him hoisted a two-handed heavy mace high above its head and swung it down with such force that Scott had to jump sideways to dodge. He slid towards the edge, almost falling, but managed to regain his balance and stand. He instantly conjured a mana block in front of him to halt his forward momentum as the hammer pulverized the center of the tower's roof where he once stood. The impact further weakened the structure, sending cracks spider webbing all around them.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The second Ice Giant struggled to get up, hindered by the first one's strike to the roof, giving Scott more time to deal with his current opponent. He bolted forward and slid under the first Ice Giant's feet, slicing into its left ankle and taking out its Achilles tendon. This forced the giant to drop to one knee as Scott himself dropped to the wall below.

  The second giant couldn't see Scott below, so Scott took his chance and shot forward, striking its stomach with both swords as the giant was still struggling to get up onto the tower's roof. The blades didn't pierce the armor, but he did cut a strap or two, loosening it enough to get a solid strike to its side before the giant let go and dropped down in front of him, landing on its feet.

  This second giant held a sword and shield and blocked Scott's next attack, shoving him backward onto his heels. With one step forward underneath the tower into the corridor next came its sword, as the shield shot back and the blade revealed itself, swinging down towards Scott's head. He rolled backward, waited for the sword to strike the ground, and then ran up the now vibrating blade towards the giant's face, aiming to stab it in the eyes.

  The giant dropped its head forward, protecting its face below the helmet. Scott decided at that moment that if he couldn't get the head, he must go for the open side where the armor was loosely hanging creating a good opening for his blades. So he leaped towards the wall and launched himself back towards the giant's right side, shoving both blades in this time, sinking them a little deeper before he held himself there.

  The Ice Giant raised its sword and shield so fast that it didn't think to stop once it hit the tower's roof, making the tower collapse. Scott pulled both swords out and leaped clear, dodging the collapsing tower just in time, landing on the wall as he slid to a stop. He could see the second giant get crushed underneath the tower and noticed a second notification pop up in front of him. The first Ice Giant landed on top of the rubble and fell backward towards the wall's floor. Scott stood up and moved for the last giant, while he could see the giant using its hammer to get back to its feet.

  "Just stay down," Scott said with frustration, charging forward to attack. Out of the corner of his eye, the drake charged in from the side and headbutted him into the side of the castle. With a thud, he hit the wall and fell to the ground, raising his gaze towards the drake. He noticed it was pouncing towards him. “Right now I'm in a tough spot.”

  Plan A: I could drop to the ground and possibly be pinned by the drake. Plan B: I could use my gravity to go up, which may allow the drake to slam me into the wall again. Plan C: I could just dodge to the side and allow the drake to slam into the castle wall.

  "Fuck it, I'll go with Plan D," Scott thought, "Because this is a dick move." He went incorporeal and allowed the drake to pass through him and slam into the wall with its mouth wide open. Scott immediately began running for the giant again; the giant was just about to get up, and fighting them both seemed like a bad idea. He hoped the drake hit its head hard enough that it would take a moment to get its bearings before coming for him again.

  While rushing towards the giant, Scott jumped up to run off the door and leap towards the giant's good leg. He flew in between the giant's arm—planted on the ground to steady itself—and its good leg. Then spun around in mid-air like a helicopter with both blades outstretched, putting a good gash into both the forearm and the good leg's calf muscle. Landing while spinning like that wasn't easy; he ended up hitting the ground behind the giant with his shoulder and slid a few feet.

  The giant struggled to get up after that. It turned around to come at him on both knees and began crawling towards him. “Ha, never thought I would see that happen.” Scott got up fast and saw the dang drake run up the side of the wall and lunge towards him, flying through the air. This time, he pushed off the ground with all his might and lowered his gravity so he could get higher than the drake. “Now if I can maneuver myself towards the edge of the wall, I could maybe lure the drake to jump over the side again, leaving me and the giant to finish the fight.” Creating a step out of mana, Scott moved forward kicking off the mana platform, and spun around. The drake took his lure, used the wall to run up, and jumped towards him once more.

  "Of course," Scott thought, “These drakes are smarter than I figured.” Scott flew up higher and watched the drake fly under him over the wall once more. He turned to look at the giant and didn't see it coming. The giant swung its hammer hard and hit him like a human batting a fly from the air, sending Scott flying. He ricocheted off the castle wall and hit the ground before sliding about twenty yards coming to a stop. At that point, he could feel that he had two broken ribs, and the pain was already setting in.

  Slowly getting up, Scott noticed both of his blades were missing from his hands, lying between him and the crawling giant. “Well, fuck, that kind of puts me in a pickle.” He cried, using his mana as a rope he pulled his fire sword towards him as he got up, running and catching it in mid-air. Next, the giant lifted its hammer once more and swung it towards him. “Not this time.” Scott mumbled, setting his sword on fire.

  Scott dodged by sliding under the hammer as it passed over him. Once he slid far enough, he chopped his flaming blade into the fingers holding the hammer, cutting the index finger clean off. With the giant's backswing, he used his gravity once more to jump up over the giant and landed on top of its shoulder. The opposite hand rose up to grab him, but Scott wasn't going to let that happen, so he dropped down behind the giant and sank his sword into the right calf. With both hands, he twisted the blade to get as much flesh as he could.

  The giant roared in pain and spun around to sit on its butt, while Scott pulled at the blade, but it didn't budge. “I must have gotten it wedged into the giant's bone.” He let go of the blade, dropped down to the ground, and ran around the giant, dodging its right arm in search of his other short sword.

  As soon as Scott spotted the sword, he ran for it, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the drake was already back and lunging for him once again. “Come on, die already. This drake seems like it never gives up. This time the drake dies.” He jumped up high and used his mana to pull the sword towards him almost like a slingshot, blade first. Scott knew if he grabbed it, he would have been bitten by the drake, and he couldn't imagine what the bite would do to him, so he did the next best thing. He sling shotted his sword using his mana strings up into the underbelly of the drake, killing it in mid-air as he got the notification confirming it was dead. Once he landed and turned around, he noticed the drake had landed on its belly, and so the sword was sunk into the belly, hidden from his sight. “Well, fuck, both swords are out of commission. What should I do now?”

  "I guess back to the basics," Scott thought. He grew his teeth and claws, then marked the giant for death, giving him an extra boost on the attack while it was still turning onto its knees to face Scott. Scott bolted forward with his claws out, noticing the giant lifting its hammer once again, waiting to strike. Of course, he gave it what it wanted but jumped clear over the giant as it swung wildly above, before landing behind. That's when he went for his ancient sword and held onto it once again. Scott decided to try out one of his new abilities and bit down onto the giant's leg. Energy surged through his body as he absorbed its life essence and mana alike, giving him what seemed like an adrenaline rush. The giant almost leaped up to its feet that instant, nearly forgetting it couldn't walk, and fell back to the ground face first. The sword came free when the giant moved, and Scott released his bite, pulling the sword out just in time to dodge backward as the giant rolled over and swung its hammer around to where he'd been hitting the castle wall with a huge crack.

  “Man, these giants are strong but dumb.” Scott thought they would be a bit harder to deal with, but after sucking some energy out of the giant, Scott felt more energized, and the bite repaired his ribs in just a short amount of time. “Imagine if I did that all the way, would I get extra points above my normal stats? Or do I become more like a raging vampire and crave blood?” Even his mana, stamina, and health were replenished part way. “I better not make that a normal thing.”

  The giant looked frightened and more fatigued than before, but it wasn't going to give up its fight, so it turned to swing.

  Then, the doors behind the rubble began to rattle, and Scott could hear more giants on the other side. “Well, that's my cue; it's time to leave.” He moved in, diving towards the giant's throat with his sword to the side, slashing it in one good, solid swing, severing the head from the body. As he landed and sheathed his blade, the head hit the ground and rolled towards his feet, with the body hitting the ground not soon after. “Man, these guys are ugly, and blue, but they have these large, amazing blue eyes.”

  Moving over to the drake, Scott flipped it over and pulled out his other short sword from its gut, cleaning it off. A blue light began to glow on one side of the [Shortsword of Fire and Ice], and as quickly as it came, the light faded away. A loud boom hit the door, and the rubble began to move as the door flew off its hinges over the wall. “So do I stay or do I go now? If I stay there will be trouble, but if I go there will be double. Man, that was a good song.” Scott started humming the song and floated up off onto the tower in front of him.

  Leaping from one tower to another, he gained some distance from the giants. The doors below him began opening as many giants funneled out. “Well, I guess it's time to go up and get away from this mess I've made. I hope the crew is alright.”

  Floating up towards the top of the castle was quick and painless, but oh so fun. The giants didn't find him, thank God, because that would have been a crazy fight to the death—more or less his death, but who's counting? He had just literally taken out two giants and their companions and still lived to tell the tale.

  Once Scott got up to the top of the castle, he did a little peek over the wall to make sure nothing was waiting for him there. He could never be too cautious when dealing with giants in their own castle. He didn't find any giants, though he did find something most interesting.

  Giants came swarming out of every door, with drakes galore. The crew had just taken out another guard and were caught between multiple massive Ice Giant guards, flanked on both sides with weapons raised.

  David made a run for it and took flight into the snow. Multiple shots went off from the giant-sized crossbows, flying right past him as he soared away. One arrow hit his right wing, wounding him, as he plummeted down into the snow below.

  The rest of the group laid down their arms and surrendered, knowing this wasn't a battle they could win. Multiple guards moved in and began hog-tying them, taking them off inside the castle.

  Some time before this—a week, to be exact—a group of three elves, a fairy, and two humans walked out of a dungeon.

  "That was a good haul," Cat said.

  "I agree," said Anastasia, who goes by Ann.

  "That was fun!" said Christy.

  "Uh, no it wasn't. You blew off my arm," Hunter said.

  "Don't be a baby. Mom said you should have a new one in three days, and besides, it was your forearm, not your upper arm," said Christy.

  "Does that make it any better? Next time, warn me when you decide to blow the whole ceiling up!" Hunter yelled.

  "Shh, we don't want any unwanted fights on the way home. Let's keep it down," Cat said.

  "At least you got another one of those boom disc thingies," Christy continued.

  "Yeah, that's nice and all, but how am I going to throw it? With my magical teeth? Or do you prefer my toes?" Hunter asked sarcastically.

  "Yes, that would be cool. But like I said before, stop being a big baby," Christy says while punching him in the wounded arm and turns into a bird to fly away.

  "Hey, quit it, you two," Cat says with her Mom voice.

  "You know these bags will come in handy," Ann says to change the subject.

  "Yeah, they're nice and all, though I'm not sure how I'm going to hold one with my wings," Cat replies.

  "Maybe hold it like a baby carrier," Ann says.

  The six of them continue back to their camp and rest for the night.

  The next day, you could see Hunter's arm starting to grow back, with little fingers wiggling out of the stub of his still damaged arm. Hunter sits near the fire and tosses his disc in his good hand to keep himself occupied while periodically looking at his growing arm.

  "Are you ready for some more healing, Bug?" Cat asks Hunter, using the nickname she has called him since before he was born.

  "Yeah, if it will help. You know, it itches a lot when you heal it?" Hunter says.

  "That's good, that means it is healing. Besides, we need you back at your max strength so we can venture up into the mountains," said Cat.

  Ann and the boys come walking in, dragging a cougar that is partly roasted.

  "Mom, what's for dinner?" asked Victor.

  "What does your father say?" Replied Ann.

  "Food," Victor says in a low, disappointed tone. "What kind of food?"

  "Food that you can eat," Ann answered.

  "That's not helpful," Victor said in an annoyed voice.

  "Shut up, Vic," Rieley said.

  "You shut up, Rieley," Victor said.

  "Boys, be quiet and go grab some water to clean yourselves up so we can have dinner," Ann says.

  "Okay," both the boys say as they walk out, hitting each other in the arms.

  "And be quiet, unless you want to deal with another jaguar?" Ann said.

  "Okay," Victor says, now chasing his brother out of the cave entrance.

  "Kids these days," Ann said.

  "This whole tutorial has to be hard on them, and it's hard on us. But if I have to hear Victor cry about not having his Switch one more time, then he's sleeping outside with the cougars," Cat sighed.

  "Cougars would be too nice," Ann replies. "I could go for a few rounds of games myself. But he is starting to get better at his magic and, on top of that, complaining less about his loss of electronics. So I call that a win."

  "You too? How about we work on some training and let the kids cook for once?" Cat asked.

  "That sounds great! I could use some more practice with my new dragon-forged great sword," Ann replied excitedly.

  "And I could practice with my new wand," Cat added with a huge smile.

  David got up and crawled away behind a rock. "Fuck, fuck, shit. Well, that went to hell in a handbasket. I need to find Scott after I heal up from this nice flesh wound those giants gave me," David mumbled to himself. David began to heal himself, and a little paper began moving inside his pocket. He stopped healing and looked inside to see what was going on.

  The paper phoenix flew out and landed on his leg, stretching its paper wings and moving its stiff paper neck. "Well, hey there, buddy," David said with a smile as he petted the paper phoenix.

  Seconds later, the paper opened up and lay on his lap. Black letters began to form, stating that to create a bond, he needed to sign the contract with blood. "I don't really care for contracts, little buddy, but if you could find Scott for me, I will sign it." The paper folded back up into the phoenix once more, nodded its head, and then opened itself up to a paper once more, showing the contract.

  David reached into his cut where there was still a little blood, dipped his finger into it, and began to write his name on the paper. Once he was done, the phoenix formed and flew off to find Scott, and David began healing once more. "I think I'll call it Penpal," David said.

  Moments later, he transformed into an owl and took flight towards the castle once more.