The Smith could hear the fierce howling of the wind echoing around in his helmet, but the wind itself felt like nothing more than a gentle breeze as he walked.

And walking itself was a joy. He had settled on a design for his armor set that he was happy with, and Green Iron being lighter than any other magical iron, the total weight he was carrying was less than half what he had been carrying since he prepared to cross the snowy passage.

He walked along, avoiding the bush monsters, over shallow hill and vale, vision restricted by his visor, hearing obstructed by the wind.

WHAM

A force collided with his back, hard, driving James armor and all into the rising hill before him, digging a furrow in the grass and dirt for several yards before he came to a stop.

James was rattled, but he hadn't lost his wits.

Immediately he rolled over, confirming his Earth War Hammer in his grip, but his hand hesitated as he reached for his magic bag to pull out his round shield.

His hand hesitated, but his eyes scanned, searching for what had struck him. Dirt had gotten into his visor, and he scraped it off with the bracer on his right arm and saw a large hawk spreading its wings and zipping off into the sky, riding the gale winds.

James had never seen a bird so large.

His hand stopped hesitating and he pulled out a shield.

His first shield.

The large slab of iron that didn't even [Appraise] as a shield appeared, and with the brute strength of a level 7 Smith, he muscled it over most of his body, lying on the hill, gazing up at the sky.

Nothing happened for a long minute. He put his hammer away for a moment and cleared the dirt from his visor; lifting it only allowed the wind to blow in his face so strongly he couldn't keep his eyes open anyway.

SHRIEK

Suddenly there was a scraping impact and a tremendously loud noise as a hawk monster raked its talons along his iron shield before soaring back into the sky, gone from his sight. The hawk monster was grey colored, blending into the overcast-looking sky, only barely visible because the clouds this close to the rainstorm were darker than itself.

Smith Class Skill [Sound Resistance] has reached level 4.

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James' ears rang for a moment, before the ringing suddenly decreased along with the intrusive thought, but James paid it no mind.

The decision to flee was instant and easy. James couldn't even see the hawk monster when it swooped in on him it was moving so fast. There was no chance of knocking it out of the air like he had with the smaller, much slower bird monsters on the second floor. But how to execute the retreat, and where to retreat to?

James was no Woodsman. Nor Hunter nor Birdkeeper nor even a Bird Watcher.

But he didn't think birds liked rain.

And he was concerned about the ward around is base camp. Sure, monsters stopped approaching as they reached the edge of the ward, but he'd never seen one launch itself at the ward.

He moved as fast as he could, while moving carefully. Staying under the incredibly heavy shield, weighing nearly as much as his entire set of Water Armor, he crawled first to his knees, then standing hunched over, shield draped across his back like a mantle, or a tortoise's shell.

SHRIEK

Again a hawk monster raked its talons across his shield, forcing James back to his hands and knees.

But he wasn't hurt.

He stowed his hammer in the magic bag, got back to his feet, and plodded on, now buffeted by the winds blowing against his iron shield, now weighed down heavier than he ever had been, struggling to lift his feet as they sank into the moist earth, periodically attacked by the persistent hawk monster.

As he walked, occasionally stumbling, the attacks somehow grew more frequent as he approached the rainstorm. Either there was more than one hawk monster, or it was growing more desperate to kill him before he got away.

The Smith, empowered by his Strength, Endurance, and Willpower, carried on regardless.

Smith Class Skill [Stubbornness] has been acquired.

James paused a fraction of a second at that before continuing on. He could see a raindrop falling every now and then, driven nearly horizontal by the winds. Stubborn? As a skill? What would that even do?

Setting aside his confusion and mild indignance, he entered the rainstorm proper. There was one last scraping tackle from the hawk monster and then it was over. Even as he kept walking, rain water pouring down his helmet and the iron shield on his back, there were no more attacks.

He breathed a sigh of relief. He would need to think of some way to deal with the hawks, at least for the distance between the storm and his camp.

Now inside the rainstorm proper, it was dark—dark as any storm James had lived through in his entire life. Not so much as darkest night, but it rivaled the dim light of the cavernous first floor. Water dripped down his visor and into his helmet, further blocking his sight, and now on top of the howling wind there was the staccato of sheets of rain blowing hither and thither as the wind changed direction chaotically.

James couldn't say how long he had been lost in thought, half his mind scanning around for threats and walking along, and the other half thinking about a shield design that he could put on his back, or perhaps just reinforcing his back armor significantly, when he was tackled yet again.

Slap!

With a wet slapping noise, a smaller mass collided with James' side and fell to the ground. He grunted and stopped, fixing his footing as his hand reached toward his magic bag, ready to pull out a hammer.

Unlike the incredibly fast hawk monster, this monster was flopping about on the ground.

"Is that a fish?" James asked aloud, his words carried away on the wind and drowned out by the rain.

A large blue fish with extraordinarily large fins flopped around on the rain-soaked ground. It was a little over a yard long, with fins a bit longer than even that, and it was jumping several feet into the air.

Before James' eyes as he stood stunned, it spread its fins at the height of a jump, catching the wind like sails, and rode away on the wind.

The fish flew off.

James just stood there, mouth hanging open, for a few seconds as he tried to process what he had seen.

A flying fish monster?

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