Skydiving

But the feeling in his gut wouldn't dissapear no matter how hard he tried to deny it, so Kai knew what he was going to do for the next few hours.

Practice his innate ability.

Quickly walking away from the cave, to his right towards a dense area of forestry. The amount of space inside the Dome was honestly mind-blowing, and if you were including all the forest outside the Dome... Kai had no idea how big it really was.

The canopy of the forest absorbs Kai, the boy dissapearing into the mass of trees. As he continues to go deeper into the forest, Kai admires the sight of light peeking into the tree tops, something he would never see outside the Dome.

What will happen after this tutorial? This stage seems way too important and well done to just be a middle stage. This has to be the last stage... please be the last stage.

At this point, Kai was slowly losing it, even Nonchalance can't help lessen the stress and fear of slowly forgetting what your parents look like, what a starry sky looks like. It all adds up on the mental duress building up in his mind, he feels as if he could break down anyway, but Nonchalance helps keep him grounded constantly. If he didn't have the skill...

I don't know... I miss my parents, my friends... I miss my bed, and normal foods. If this really is the final stage of the tutorial, the first thing I'm going to do is eat a bowl of pasta carbonara, then go to sleep for a week.

Everything is hard, and it's going to get even worse in the coming weeks. Four armed demons, abominations, the possibility of his teammates dying...

No, not teammates... friends.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was attached to the people he's met so far. Umbra, Sofia, Failure, Aldred... even Noelle, that damn woman. Even though she always beat and made fun of Kai, she was always there for him and still helped him.

The only reason he didn't want to admit it is because he doesn't know if they feel the same about him, for all he knows, they could only see him as a means to an end, or a meat shield in an upcoming fight.

Failure is some all-knowing guy with an extremely powerful wolf as his friend... comrade? Sofia was an undercover cop so she would have to be used to changing her personality to fit in. He knows Umbra would never betray him, his furry friend was the per- being he could trust the most in this hellhole.

Noelle... he really doesn't know what to think about her. On the one hand, she always acted cold and distant towards him, never letting him get too close. On the other hand, Sofia said she went through a lot that caused her to change, she also said Noelle still has some of that trauma welled up inside her. If Kai had to think if she would betray him or not...

She wouldn't, and neither would Sofia, they aren't those kind of people... I hope. Same with Failure and Aldred, they wouldn't even have a reason to do anything to me.

Kai finally decided to stop walking, he was far enough into the much smaller forest so that no one would be near. Sighing, he sits down on the ground and leans back against the tree, said tree being a much lighter shade when compared to the gargantuan trees outside the Dome.

Opening his status, he scrolls down to Will of the Kaiser and reads the description again.

Innate ability: Will of the Kaiser- Impose your will onto other sentient beings below your level or up to 5 levels above you depending on your luck stat. No one should be able to disobey your commands, not even your enemies.

Allows the user to harness otherworldly creatures temporarily in exchange for mana. Mana expenditure rate is based on the power of the creature who's power you're borrowing. Even creatures cannot resist the tyrannical power of the Kaiser.

Failure used a three aspect innate ability as strong, so that means a two aspect one is still pretty strong. But what's the most anyone's ever had though? I'll have to ask him tomorrow.

Twenty minutes passed, twenty minutes which Kai spent sitting still and reading the description over and over again, disecting every word for every possible thing it could mean, or if there's anything he missed, or even if there's just a loophole. And just as he was about to give up and close his status menu... he finds it.

Allows the user to harness otherworldly creatures temporarily in exchange for mana. Mana expenditure rate is based on the power of the creature who's power you're borrowing...

Mana... Mana is the key. What if I were to control the amount of Mana I spend, or I set a timer for myself or something? The answer has to be something to do with Mana...

With some newfound motivation, motivation to mainly not turn into a crazed beast when not using Umbra as the base, Kai closed his eyes and tried doing something that everyone in every form of fiction he's ever read does in order to feel Mana.

He meditated.

... It didn't work.

Minutes ticked by and Kai got more and more agitated by the feeling of nothing, with his eyes closed and his mind relaxed, he was honestly closer to falling asleep than feeling and finding Mana.

Well... no wonder they're fictional stories, I always knew meditation was useless.

Sighing, Kai opens his eyes and looks around again. The same brown trees surround him, the environment-

The environment! It has to be, that has to work, it's the only damn option I have left anyway. Otherwise I'll have to put it on hold until Failure teaches me something I can practice instead.

Possible ideas rush into Kai's head one after the other, all sorts of ideas he wants to test out as soon as he can.

What if I jump off a tree and activate it, would I get a wind elemental, or maybe a harpy, or even a dragon. And what if I did it in water? A water elemental? What about a merman?

Sadly, his train of thought is cut short by one small fact he overlooked.

It has to work like that though, I could just get goblin mode again and I'd have to try and figure out something else. And I don't think it would be possible to get a dragon, it would probably cost too much mana.

With no effort, there's no gains, and if there's no gains then there's no-

Ah, I'm not philosophical, if I try and it works its good, if I try and it fails its bad.

Slowly, Kai starts to climb up the tree he was leaning on, his fingers digging into little gaps in the bark as the branches are too high to just reach off the ground.

Careful not to fall backwards, the boy tenses his body and calms his breathing as he continues to climb further and further up the tree. Even though the trees in the Dome are much smaller when compared to the ones in the actual forest, they are still much taller than the ones on Earth.

How far would I have to fall to die?

About twenty feet? How tall are these trees? If I'm 5'9 and I go off that to measurement, these trees would be about...

*crack*

The piece of bark which Kai had his right hand gripped onto peels away from the tree, the sickening crack of the wood enough to completely stop worrying about how tall the tree is as his face pales.

His right foot slips at the loss of balance and Kai is left dangling off the tree with only his left hand, his left leg already dandling beside his right.

Shit! How high up am I?

His head starts to spin as Kai looks downwards, the whole world seems so far away. The ground beneath his feet seems to get closer and further away with every breath, taking turns as if to bait Kai into letting go.

I...I'll die if I fall, and if I survive it will hurt like fuck. Shit, this was a really bad idea. Why the fuck didn't Nonchalance stop me?

Sadly, Kai already knew the answer. Nonchalance only calmed him in stressful situations, it had no effect on someone's will to climb a tree.

His left arm started to burn as he desperately tries to grab onto anything with his right hand. Sadly, it's to no avail and the grip his left hand had on the piece of bark falters enough for him to lose his holding completely.

A cry escapes from his lips as he falls backwards through the air. The feeling of the air parting around him would almost be relaxing if not for the fact he was either about to die or break every bone in his body.

The feeling of your heart beating so fast you can hear it is not pleasant to say the least. Panic overrules every other emotion in Kai's mind and his body starts to swing wildly, trying to grasp at anything. The ground gets closer and closer and only one thought registers in Kai's mind.

I'm going to die...

As soon as that thought breezes through his mind in an almost relaxing manner, all that's left for him to feel is...

Calm.

Nonchalance kicks into overdrive, calming Kai's nerves and rationalising his thoughts. The skill soothes his panicked mind to the point where instead of falling through the air at increasing speed, he's sunbathing on the beach.

No!

The effects of Nonchalance weaken. As before, an uncommon skill is not enough to completely get rid of his fear of death. It still helps though, and there's only option Kai has to get out of this alive.

Will of the Kaiser

With only a few moments left before he hit the ground, Kai clamps his eyes shut and prays to The Ever-changing that he gets some sort of flying creature. With his prayer said, he activates his innate ability.

Wraith mode activated

+10 Mana

+5 Stamina

-6 Strength

Skill gained: Incorporeal

Well, I'm done for-

A cold feeling envelops Kai as he hits the ground, full force-

As he hits the ground...

Opening his eyes, it's the exact same as keeping them closed. Pure darkness is all that can be seen. Kai tries to move, but his movements are successful, the only problem being his arm sliding through the darkness.

What the hell is happening?

Even more panic rises in his chest as he tries to figure out what's going on, but it's no use. He has no idea what the hell is happening, he was about to die and now all he sees is darkness.

Wait... did I die? I really died because I wanted to test my innate ability while falling. I don't believe it...

Resignation, sadness and acceptance. Those are the three emotions Kai feels the most as he gazes into the darkness, nothing looking back.

All those months of effort and surviving the white room were for nothing. I died falling from a tree. And I thought my innate ability was strong, but it got me killed. Damn innate-

Realisation hits harder than the ground could have. He quickly opens his status menu and scrolls to his innate ability, reading it as quick as he possibly can.

Skill gained: Incorporeal

Incorporeal: You have no physical body. Allows you to phase through objects and renders you immune to physical attacks.

Ha...haha... I'm not dead! I'm just...

Surrounded by darkness, the ghost of Kai really has no idea where he is.

Damn, now I wish I kept my eyes open when I hit the ground... Wait... Did I hit the ground? I don't have a physical body now, and there was no splat or bone breaking...

Looking up, Kai still sees darkness, but it almost seems brighter somehow, as if rays of light are seeping through miniscule cracks in the darkness.

Kai tries to walk, but not having a physical body makes that kind of hard.

Okay, so what do I do? What if I...

He wills his body to go upwards... And it does! He flies towards the cracks of light, said cracks getting brighter and brighter.

With absolutely no warning to the surrounding area, Kai burst through the earth with no disruption. No hole, no breeze, just an hazy human figure floating through the air.

Kai stops and floats in the air, nearly doing a tumble from not being used to being in the air. Steadying himself, he looks down at his body and realises...

I can see through my legs! I really am a ghost. This is kind of cool though, and I didn't even lose my mind when using my ability this time.

Wanting to test this new form, Kai flies over to one of the trees surrounding him and tries to touch it. His right hand phases right though it, leaving his arm without a hand.

With a wide range of possibilities and many things to test before he runs out of Mana, Kai grins and starts his ghostly experiments.