Chris summoned his Beastblade as he ran, using it to probe the ground ahead of him once he suspected he was near where the hole was. He was already slowing his place when his weapon hit empty air—well, not quite empty, but filled with cloud, normal cloud. He glanced back, the gryphon was striding leisurely toward him, with a look …

The spear rose to meet Chris’ hammer, and Chris saw the spearhead was made of a golden metal that shimmered in the sunlight. Bright blue gathered around the blade and Chris could almost feel the notion of sky in the energy condensed around the gryphon’s weapon. His enemy had a Dao! Too late to counter with his own Dao his …

Chris sprinted forward, muscles straining to reach top speed, before he even got a good glimpse of the intruder. White plumes of feathers crested their head, and as they circled the spiral leaves of the vine, an eagle face was revealed. The eagle faced creature rose higher and now he saw chainmail draped over its shoulders and two large wings …

Chris’ arm devoured the last of the Skill Gems. He missed out on Aerosolization, but he did get a trait from one of the Skill Gems, called Extraction. The trait gave the ability to better separate out reagents within materials. It was a simple skill, but one with broad utility. With those absorbed, for better or for worse, Chris picked …

Chris looked deeper inside the ruined construct. The internals were no longer as dark as before and he thought he could see the glimmer of crystals far ahead. Still, he didn’t for a moment consider crawling through the golem’s stone gullet to retrieve them. Had he been under the effects of mana, absolutely. As it was, it just didn’t look …

Chris jumped back as colorful clouds billowed in front of him. Dodging another bolt flying his way, he ducked behind a nearby pile of rubble. Nearby he heard the spider golem grinding and hissing toward him. Curls of bright smoke wafted around the corner, tugged into tendrils of airborne poison by a light breeze. He bolted to another pile of …

The ruins were cobwebbed in thin vines that blossomed hundreds of vibrant flowers along their filamentous lengths like gunshots of color. He screened the path in front of him for more Devil Pitchers, then tapped at the vines to make sure they weren’t some terrible predator. They weren’t. They brushed aside, easily revealing odd stonework and strangely stacked columns and …

Chris hung by his feet, but he didn’t know how long the adhesive of the plant would last—not long, judging by the withering filaments of sticky plant hairs around his feet. He felt his arm indicating the presence of a Skill Gem within the cat monster beneath him, which had just moments ago met a particularly gristly end to the …

Chris continued on the path through the jungle. He’d killed plenty more of the cat monsters. About half of them had Skill Gems, but all of them felt incredibly niche. They were all fed to his arm, to no effect. The Assimilation ability failed to activate. It was only when the jungle closed around him further like a humid green …

Chris bounced over the spongy clouds, his pole sweeping in front of him like a blind man’s cane. The tower grew in his vision, but it was still unnecessarily far away. Probably because the System wanted to be… wait for it… a dick. What a surprise. If anything, it firmed his resolve to continue progressing at a measured pace. The …