It took another three minutes for the hawk to get close enough for Alan to consider them to be in combat, not that any attacks were used. It was now circling almost right above him, at least fifty meters over his head. From here he could tell that the bird's wingspan was over three meters, and its body was about the same size as he was. Its feet ended in talons whose edges he didn't want to test against his armor.

This was looking to be an interesting fight. Alan didn't have much experience against airborne monsters, so he was unsure how much his being stuck on land was going to hurt him. The hawk should also be disadvantaged because it would have a tough time breaking through the duck's cage to be able to get at the food inside. It would most likely have to land to break it apart, which would leave it in a compromising position if Alan was still alive.

Another possible method for the hawk was if it dove into the enclosure, trying to break it apart with the force of its body. He didn't think it would go that route because it could easily end up crippling the beast. He would have to watch out for such an attack though, because even if it killed the hawk, the resulting crash could also crush some of the ducks he was tasked with protecting as well.

Another minute went by with Alan and the bird studying each other. The delay was fine with him as it meant his mana pool was nearing being full again. He was currently holding his crossbow, loaded, in his hands. He also had his spewn in its special sheath on his hip. He wanted it ready to hand in case he needed to start casting fire bolts.

When the standoff finally came to an end, it was with a cry from the hawk. It gave one mighty screech and then dove straight at Alan. It would take just under three seconds for a human with Alan's stats to cover fifty meters, but the bird had gravity giving it an assist and it took less than a second. This gave him very little time to react, and it was not enough to bring the crossbow up, aim, and fire.

The bird also used some kind of ability because it didn't fly all the way to the ground. While still about ten meters above the ground, its wings opened and it leveled out. While the hawk was now working on returning to the sky, something was left behind. A brownish blur, the same color as the hawk, kept coming and with nothing for him to attack anymore, Alan instead dove out of the way.

Whether it was something physical or magical, a force impacted the ground where he had been standing. The dirt itself wasn't much affected, but the grass growing on top was flattened. He assumed if he had been standing there he would be having a Bad Day. He now knew that the hawk was fast and he could not afford to carry the crossbow casually. Instead, he had to keep it ready up on his shoulder. It was uncomfortable and tiring, his stamina was actually ticking down as he kept it there, but he would never get a shot off otherwise.

The boss bird seemed content to watch as Alan stood there with the crossbow at the ready. It was a standoff that he probably couldn't win. Every moment his stamina was dropping while the hawk was most likely recovering what it used from its last attack. When his pool dropped below half, Alan decided to try and entice his opponent.

He pretended to drop the crossbow, dropping the tip several centimeters before bringing it right back up. The hawk took the bait and the moment the weapon dipped it began another dive. Alan quickly lined up his shot and released while his target was still just starting its dive. With a barrel roll as it dove, the hawk was able to slip past the shot while still continuing its attack.

Once more he was forced to dive aside, the brown force crashing behind him. The hawk climbed to the sky again with a mocking shriek. Unfortunately The attack had cost him a bolt and a ton of energy. Alan didn't have an ability to restore his stamina like he did his mana, but hopefully his fury talent was ramping up because he was certainly pissed. He was forced to wait with his crossbow down, needing to restore his stamina. The hawk seemed fine with the delay as well.

After his pool was restored to full, he decided to switch up his tactics. He could keep the crossbow up like before, but it seemed unlikely the hawk would fall for the same bait again, and it hadn't really worked last time anyway. Instead, he disappeared his crossbow back into his nipple ring and drew his spewn.

When the hawk king saw the crossbow was gone, it began another dive. Alan had the lighter, and easier to maneuver, spewn in place almost instantly. He held off releasing his spell until the last moment, thus giving it less of a chance to dodge. He timed the large fire bolt to arrive just as the hawk opened its wings to turn. Unfortunately for Alan the fire bolt didn't connect with his foe.

When it spread its wings, the force had continued forward, just like before. Alan's timing had been slightly off, and the bolt had arrived just after it used its move. His spell hit the incoming force and exploded in the air. The hawk still got a couple of singed feathers, but most of the energy was spent fruitlessly in the open air. His spell wasn't even able to block the hawk's attack completely and he found himself dodging again. A notification popped up, but he ignored it to focus on his attacker.

Once more it returned to its cruising altitude and Alan was forced to wait. The hawk still seemed to be feeling confident, despite the near miss, because there was no hesitation when it began its dive again. He was also ready this time, and he had come up with a new plan. Instead of trying to aim for where it would break off, Alan targeted the space several meters above it.

His new idea didn't involve casting a fire bolt, instead he cast a series of prismatic orbs. The first one exploded in its dazzling display of colors a full meter from the bird's head. It was enough to momentarily distract it, and the second one went off a split second later, right in its face. The third orb was wasted as the hawk was already completely dazzled.

In its panic it furiously flapped its wings, trying to stop its dive. The problem with that was in its disoriented state, it had no idea which way to go. Some instinct let it know where the ground was, but that did nothing to warn it about the cliff rising above the back of the hill. The hawk plowed into the rock face at over a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.

A sickening crunch indicated that something inside the hawk was Not Happy. It collapsed to the ground, falling another fifteen meters which probably didn't help it any. Alan sprinted over, hitting it with a fire bolt as he did. Its feathers burned furiously, but briefly, as the hawk king's aura was able to douse the magical flames after only a moment.

While its aura was working just fine, the bird's body was not. One of the wings was twisted into a horrifying shape, broken in at least two places. Its skull was also fractured with blood pouring from its head, and its feet were kicking feebly, but he thought that was more instinct than an actual attempt to attack him.

Three more steps brought him to the boss's head and a single swing of his spewn was able to sever its neck completely. The head rolled on the ground while the body kept twitching for a couple more seconds. Alan spent a few seconds regaining control of his breathing and taking in what had just happened.

That fight had been both harder and easier than he thought he would get from the creature. In the end, he was glad his luck had been working and the hawk had flown into the cliff instead of to safety. But as he had heard from his Army trainers, luck follows the prepared. He now had two notifications, including the one from before, to attend to.

Talent Upgrade: Dodge → Dodge I

Quest Completed: King of the Hill

[You managed to eliminate all of the predators in the area without losing any of the ducks. Reward: one Opal. Further rewards can be collected at the nearby village of Elstree Town Hall.]

The second notification was expected and he stored the stone that appeared before him. It didn't even come in a pouch, just a sparkly gemstone about the size of a bouncy ball. The first message was both self-explanatory and confusing. Nothing he had ever seen, read, or heard had indicated that upgrading talents was a thing. Granted, he had only read the wiki, which was frustratingly light on details and yet full of topics, to the point where you pretty much had to know about what you wanted to find. As for hearing about it, he could mostly only talk with Tamee.

"Hey, I just got a talent upgrade. What's up with that?"

Tamee must have been keeping busy doing something else, because it took her a bit to respond. "Oh yeah, you probably have not learned about those, huh? Talents and class abilities get upgraded the more you use them. You must have hit a threshold and one of them moved up, congratulations. Which one was it?"

"Dodge. You know how you call me an idiot a lot, but I feel like maybe you're not so good at your job either. I thought you were supposed to tell me about stuff like this." Alan felt it was only fair to bust her chops when he could.

Tamee wasn't going to take any of that. "My official job is just to observe, this whole party chat with a recruit thing is pretty rare. That means there's no handy guide to tell me how to properly help. Also, this is one of those things that everybody in the Network knows about, so it never occurred to me that you would have no idea."

"Don't try and put this on me. You were the one who said you would be my mentor. Is there anything else that 'everyone knows' that you should tell me about?"

"Probably about a million things. Should I start listing them now?"

She had a point, if someone had no experience with something that was such an integral part of everyone's lives, how could you possibly explain everything. Either you tried to tell them everything all at once and overwhelmed them, or you tried to share just before stuff came up, and something ended up getting missed. At least this time it didn't affect him negatively, and now he knew about it going forward. There was still one thing he didn't understand, though.

"Why would it upgrade to Dodge I and not Dodge II?" Alan asked

"Those numbers designate what tier it is. When you first gain a talent it is tier zero, now it is tier one. Duh." Tamee replied with an abundance of snark.

"Like that's supposed to be obvious. How much of an improvement is upgrading a tier?"

Tamee thought for a moment before answering. "It is hard to quantify, but you should be able to notice a difference. The first tier is usually more of an improvement over tier zero than gaining the talent originally."

That sounded like a big deal, he would have to try and improve more of his talents and abilities. Talents were a little tricky to focus on, but abilities he should simply have to use more. Mana lode had been getting a lot of use, hopefully that would increase soon. Thinking about all of his other abilities and talents he realized this opened up a whole new pathway to gaining strength. That was for the future, time to deal with the present.

Alan was unable to take anything from the beasts he had fought in the dungeon. That was unfortunate because the hawk's feet looked like they had a lot of uses for making a weapon, and he had just recently been thinking about the lack of feathers for the town. Also, there was a ton of meat and pelts lying at the bottom of the hill. Since none of that could go in his spatial storage, he decided to focus on what he could get from the boss, it was the highest leveled opponent. He could stuff some of its feathers in a mundane bag and carry them around, but since he had been asked not to return to the village, Alan wasn't sure what he could do with them.

Deciding it would only cost him a little time, he plucked more than fifty feathers from the boss' wing and placed them in one of his bags. The entire time the ducks in the cage were quacking, as if protesting his treatment of another bird. That reminded him that since he had already finished the quest, they were now fair game.

The idea of ringing their necks made him a little queasy. Snapping an enemy's neck was nothing, but these were simple animals. It also caused several moments of moral doubt, but in the end he decided they were part of the reward, and they were going to cease to exist as soon as he left the dungeon. The Corellians had harvested corn from the last dungeon, and at its core this was basically the same thing. That's what he told himself as he walked through the enclosure's gate in the back.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The less he thought of the next ten minutes the better. He had seen a farmer put chickens out of their misery when he was younger and he mimicked the method as best he could with the ducks. It was mostly bloodless, and nearly instantly fatal for the affected bird, but the others had to watch and the whole thing made him nauseated. When it was all said and done, however, he had twenty ducks which he used rope to tie in a line, like a stringer of fish.

Unfortunately, while they might be part of the reward, they still counted as dungeon creatures, unlike the corn. That meant he couldn't store them, so he would have to carry them, hence the rope. After tying all of the bodies together he found one more reward. There were two nests full of eggs in the enclosure.

In total the two nests contained fourteen eggs. Each of them was significantly larger than the chicken eggs he had already acquired. He wasn't sure if these were fertilized eggs or not, so he first tried to store one in his pouch. He got a Network message warning him about storing a living thing in a spatial device. That meant these eggs were viable, he now had the ability to breed ducks in addition to chickens! As he placed them all in his nipple ring he thought about how he was turning into a walking farm. Too bad there wasn't a way to get baby cows into storage.

Now it was time to leave and to deal with his collected goods. If he brought them back to the campsite, then he would have to come clean to Lyonel and he wasn't ready for that yet. He was still trying to learn more about them as individuals. If he was going to risk exposing himself, he needed to be sure about them. This whole thing would be so much easier if he just killed them, but that was a last resort, and even if it came to that, Alan wasn't sure if he could do it. While the group was technically his enemy, they had tried to help him the best they could, returning the favor with blood didn't seem right.

Storing the feathers and dead ducks away somewhere wasn't an option either. There were wild animals and monsters roaming around and they would likely be able to track the scent of blood unless he put a lot of effort into hiding them somehow. He would really prefer to bring them to the mayor for some more goodwill, but Roger had asked him not to return and he would do his best to honor that. It did mean missing out on his reward for clearing the dungeon, at least for now, but he didn't really need the money.

In the end, Alan decided to bring everything to the village, but not to enter himself. That's how he ended up sneaking up to one of the fences around a recently planted field and laying the string of ducks over the top rail. It ended up taking up a good chunk of the fence, twenty ducks was not a small number, and he left the bag of feathers there as well. Struck with a sudden inspiration, he left one of his spoons sitting on top of the bag. It wasn't silver, but it was close enough that it should let whoever found it know who had left it all.

He debated waiting around and seeing who discovered it and what they did, but that was just vanity, he still had work to do. The smoker had probably long ago burned all the fuel left behind and there was plenty he could do around the camp. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to experiment some more with his exploding missile spell. The fact that he had to overcome the target's aura when sending his pulse was a problem, he needed to find a way to get it to explode on its own.

Once back in the forest, Alan spent some time collecting more bounty items and testing out his exploding rocks on any animal he came across. The smaller the animal the less energy he had to send for his pulse, which told him that if he wanted the spell to remain useful, he needed a new trigger. Wild beasts had relatively weak auras for their size, so if he was going to use it on a sentient creature he would need a giant pulse of energy, and that was assuming it was even possible to do remotely.

Thinking back to the mayor lamenting how most of the ingredients he was collecting were useless, Alan thought he might also try some alchemy while sitting around camp. Yet another thing to add to all of his free time. Too bad he didn't have a cloning spell so he could do ten things at once. That got his brain chasing the idea of what type of mana might go into such a spell form, but he quickly shut the idea down. Yes, the Nivex leader had used such a spell, but Alan had no idea of how to even begin conceptualizing such a thing, and that version had just been an illusion. It was unlikely it would have been able to accomplish tasks independently.

On his way back, he collected fresh branches for his fire. Lyonel and Hector would probably get suspicious if all of the small branches around the outside of the camp were cut off, it would be better to spread out his efforts. Finally nearing his destination, and thinking back to his last return to camp, Alan carefully approached the entrance.

He needn't have worried, however, there were no wild animals rummaging around camp. He had been correct about something else though, the fire powering the smoker had gone out. He checked the meat before getting it going again. There was definitely a change in its appearance, but he couldn't say if it was done or not.

Smoking meat was something he had talked with guys about at barbeques, but it wasn't something he had first hand experience with. He was finding there to be a considerable gap between his understanding and the experience. The venison strips were not warm, simply the same as the surrounding temperature, but that was how it was supposed to work anyway. Shrugging, Alan used a small firebolt to get it running again. As far as he knew, you couldn't really over smoke things.

He still had the morning's dirty breakfast dishes, so he took some time to wash them off and then set them out to dry. It was after lunch, but not by too much. It was unlikely that the Corellians would return in time to expect a meal, so Alan had some fruit as a snack. It had actually been a little bit since he had dipped into his strategic stockpile, and he savored the burst of flavorful juice as he popped a handful of blueberries into his mouth.

With his tiny hunger pangs taken care of, it was time to see what he could do around camp. The walls that Samson had created were going to need replacing soon, the rock was getting thin and brittle, but that wasn't something 'Pebble' should be able to take care of. A check on the larder showed that it was still full and the fragrant needles on top were doing a good job of disguising the smell.

The only thing he could see improving was taking care of the natural clutter on the ground. Another quick trip outside of camp netted him a well shaped pine branch. Using it as a broom, he swept the whole area until the ground was simply dirt. All of the leaves and branches ended up in a pile in the back. When that dried out more, it would be a terrible fire hazard, but for now the rest of the area looked fresh and clean. As clean as dirt can look anyway.

With some more time on his hands, Alan debated working on more spells. Unfortunately, the same problems he had before were still an issue. Both his idea for new wall types, and a better bigger fire bolt, were not things he could do around camp. He had just been thinking about trying out some of the ingredients he had collected, so he took out his alchemy cauldron.

Alan began to set up the special heat enchanted stones he had for maintaining the temperature on his pot, when his ears alerted him to trouble. The party was returning and from the sound of it, things hadn't gone well. Quickly stashing all of the items he had just taken out, he got a fire going in the second pit, anticipating their need for a good meal.

When they arrived, the entire group looked run down. Their armor showed new damage and there was blood matting their fur. It was unlikely there were still injuries underneath, but their new natural healing didn't do anything about cleaning up the mess left behind from wounds. Lyonel looked angry and the others had expressions ranging from troubled to downright scared.

"What's for lunch Pebble?" the hamster man demanded.

Alan was taken aback. That was delivered with a brusqueness he had never seen from Lyonel before. He was saved from trying to come up with a response by Hector.

"That was rude, no need to take out your foul temper on him."

"Well I can't take it out on anyone else, now can I? Samson looks ready to faint at my mere glance and I swear Gerry is going to soil himself!"

The two aforementioned party members did indeed look rather skittish. At Lyonel's mention Samson flinched and the giraffe man looked away in shame.

Hector acted as peacemaker again. "Maybe we can finally talk about it? Making the trip back in silence was the most uncomfortable journey I have ever made."

Lyonel muttered something to himself before barking out angrily, "Fine, but we talk over lunch. I need some food to help me recover."

Tamee had often teased Alan over his obsession with learning to cook, but she had finally admitted that it wasn't a bad skill to have. While their bodies could go without food, simply absorbing sustenance from the mana in the air, using their abilities and healing their bodies taxed their aura in a way that placed more of a burden on their system. Food was an easy way of dealing with the issue, and if the party had gotten as beat up as it looked, they probably were in need of a good meal. Not that Alan was all that inclined to give Lyonel one after his imperious demands.

Back on Earth it was a common trope that servers or cooks would spit in rude customer's food. Several different people he knew in the restaurant business assured him that never happened, but a few others also admitted to doing it themselves. For the first time he could say he truly understood the urge himself, but he respected his own culinary efforts too much to denigrate them in that way.

While spitting in the food wasn't an option Alan was going to take, he also wasn't going to go all out over the meal. Instead he grabbed a couple of pieces of venison from the larder and grilled the party up some simple steaks with no sides or extra seasoning. They were so shaken and in need of the food that none of them complained. Hector did try to quietly apologize on Lyonel's behalf, but Alan pretended not to hear it.

Based on how fast they were consuming their meal, he put another round of steaks on the fire. Lyonel saw this and did suffer a twinge of guilt. He resolved to find a way to make it up to their mute cook. While they finished their first serving, the story started to come out.

Lyonel had calmed down a little and led the discussion.

"So, let's start from the beginning. What did we do right to begin with?"

Hector was eager to get everyone talking so he went next. "Finding the place was easy, and I think we started well. It wasn't our first classic dungeon, so we didn't debate long about which way to go."

"Fat lot of good that did us," was Samson's contribution. A glare from Lyonel shut him up.

"If you have nothing constructive to add, then you should keep your mouth shut."

Gerry actually gathered himself enough to speak. "He's not wrong, we just ended up getting in trouble all the faster. Maybe if we had taken some more time to think things through at the start it wouldn't have gone so bad."

Lyonel apparently felt this was close enough to being a helpful comment and chose to respond to it respectfully. "You know as well as I do that if there isn't anything obvious at the start to guide you, that you are better off just going for it. Remember that one dungeon with the undead horde? If we had waited around thinking things through they would have caught us and killed us there."

It was with a little bit of schadenfreude that he realized which dungeon they were talking about. He had also almost been caught by the mob of zombies and it was nice to know others had to deal with that terror. He couldn't tell them this, however, so he continued to listen as they broke down their experience.

Hector kept the thread moving. "Unfortunately, as Gerry said, after that things soon went wrong."

Then it was Lyonel's turn. "That first trap was certainly nasty, dropping me down into that hole. Although, I might have hoped that our resident Huntsman would have spotted it before I tripped it."

"Hey, at least you weren't impaled by all those stakes at the bottom, they probably would have killed you." Hector protested weakly.

Samson added, "Yeah, falling into that ooze saved you from getting impaled. Who knew there was such a thing as a honey ooze."

"It also looked rather tasty, even if it was slowly digesting you. At least we got you out of there ok, even if it left you covered in goo." Gerry added.

"That stickiness didn't help when those damn chicken terrors attacked." Samson added.

Lyonel shuddered at the memory. "They were fast and those beaks were sharp. I've also never seen chickens who could carry spears with their wings."

"And the way they kinda exploded when they died, there were feathers everywhere." Hector recalled.

Lyonel let out a groan. "I looked like a fool before that fight was over. I was lucky none of you mistook me for one of them and tried to kill me."

Samson's less than cheerful voice chimed in. "I would have rather gotten covered in feathers than stabbed twice with those spears. I had to drink three potions to recover from that."

Alan winced at that. He knew that they relied on potions, but that they had a limited supply. Three potions for one fight had to hurt. And that was if Samson was the only one injured.

Gerry spoke up next. "I thought that next encounter was ok."

Lyonel just stared at Gerry who noticed and shrunk away from the glaring.

Samson smiled with a wicked sort of glee as he described it. "All those mosquitos ignored the rest of us, went straight to you. Who knew that they liked honey too."

Hector had a haunted look in his eyes, "And blood, so much blood." He was remembering the explosion of red liquid from each of the minuscule bugs as they slapped them trying to save Lyonel from death by exsanguination.

Gerry recovered enough to add, "At least it cleared almost all of the honey and feathers off of you."

Lyonel was still glaring at the giraffe man. It was a good thing that looks couldn't kill. Although, maybe the Network had an ability for that?

"That did cost us another health potion though. And lighten up Lyonel, at least no one tried to drown you." Hector said with a glare for Gerry at the end. With all of the hate he was now getting, Alan was impressed the giraffe man was still able to respond.

"I thought I was avenging you. When that bug eyed meatball ate you, how was I supposed to know you were still alive?"

"Well I was, but when you encased it in a bubble of water it swallowed most of that too, and not only was I now being burned by its stomach acid, I was also suffocating. If I hadn't cut my way out of there, you'd have been the one to kill me!"

In Gerry's defense, Alan would have thought that the scout was dead after getting swallowed, so it was hard to blame him for retaliating. On the other hand, drowning by your own friend had to be a hard way to go.

"And then Mr. Big Britches over there made us run away." Now it was Lyonel's turn to get glared at as Samson complained.

"We were still in the beginning of that thing and we had used up half of our health potions. After seeing that horde of skeletons ahead, did you really want to keep going?" He said to defend his decision.

"I didn't use any potions." Gerry pointed out. That got three sets of eyes promising murder. Alan was passing out their second steaks and patted the giraffe man on the back. Poor guy. Since he hadn't taken any injuries in the fighting, but had been pretty upset when they got back to camp, it was likely everyone had been taking it out on him the whole trip back. Yet another thing Alan was able to avoid by being on his own.

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