The wolf charged, jaws wide open to snatch at my arm. I held my right arm out, bent, acting like I was going to catch the jaws on the wrist. When the wolf got closer, I slid across the ground, moving out of the way. The wolf tried to stop, but couldn’t and then caught my twisting kick right in its chest. I’d added kinetic energy and force to the kick.

  With a yelp, the wolf skidded across the clearing. It fell into a roll, coming to a stop. The wolf struggled up, turning to clear at me. It limped a bit as it moved toward me. My kick had seriously hurt it but I was running out of stored energy. After whatever special ability the wolf did, I was having to use my Arcanum to buff my Resistances. That cold was vicious.

  The wolf approached slower with more caution. I’d hurt it and it had measured my speed, now having a better idea of the threat I posed. Crouching low, the wolf snarled. My fists glowed green as I infused them with Force. The wolf rushed at me.

  I shifted to the side, the monster passing by, missing by inches. My kinetic field absorbed some energy, which I redirected to strengthen the field. Just in time, as the wolf twisted sharply, the jaws closed in on my arm. I hadn’t expected it to move that fast.

  The beast tried to savage my arm, the jaws wanting to rip the flesh and muscle apart. I’d seen a wolf rip someone to pieces, grabbing the arm and shaking until the pain made the person fall to the ground where the other wolves tore into it.

  Poor thing was caught by surprise in a couple of ways. The first was that the jaws couldn’t close in on my arms. I was using my Resistance Essence to reinforce the kinetic field, making it semi-solid. I had no idea how it worked, and was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been able to in a non-System world, but it worked and that was all I cared about. The second surprise was that it couldn’t move me with its greater strength.

  The wolf tried to yank my arm and I didn’t move. I was stopping the inertia between me and the ground, effectively locking myself in place.

  As the wolf kept trying to chew my arm, I punched it in the head. It had a hold of my left, so I slugged it with the right, hitting it right in the temple. The bone shattered, the wolf yelping and falling back. I kicked at it as the monster tried to jump away. The kick connected with the shoulder, spinning it around as it struck the ground.

  Struggling to get up, making some pitiful whines, I quickly walked over and slammed my fist into the wolf’s head, pulping it. Would think that after all these years spending my days punching things, I’d be used to the mess those punches made.

  Nope.

  YOU HAVE SLAIN ELITE WHITEMOSS WOLF

  YOU HAVE GAINED +15 TOWER POINTS AND +15 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  An elite, that would explain the special abilities.

  I shook my fist, bits of brain, skull, muscle and flying through the air. Gross. I really wanted to get a pair of full-fingered gloves with the metal knuckles.

  The temperature rose as the wolf’s ability faded.

  I walked over to the dead monster, touching it and getting my loot.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 WHITEMOSS WOLF HIDE, +5 WHITEMOSS WOLF FANGS

  No Essence Crystals. I’d gotten hide from the Ursaspine and the Whitemoss Wolf, but only the wolfhide was part of the Biome quests. Did that mean I couldn’t bring it back to Earth with me? That would suck. With the wolf’s frost abilities, the hide would probably have some frost resistance or bonuses to frost abilities. Guess I’d just have to kill more of the damn things past the 75 hides I needed for the quest.

  ***

  The next two wolves were far easier. They still radiated intense cold but didn’t seem to have any of the other abilities the Elite had. Evaluate had told me that the things were probably Level 105 or so, getting the feeling they were a bit stronger than me. I hadn’t used it on the Elite, which I probably should have.

  I needed to get back into that habit again. It had been so long since anything on Earth had really posed a risk to me, that I just hadn’t used the System given Ability that much anymore. There were a lot of habits I had to break myself of.

  I’d been the apex predator in the area for so long, that I had gotten used to it. A lot of the more cautious stuff that I had done when I’d first started Leveling were things I’d have to start doing again. I was no longer the apex predator. Those two Felitrans, Zire and Lauris, were running the third floor which probably put them around Level 120 or more. Far stronger than me. And they were only running the third floor. What about Adventurers on the twentieth floor? What Level were they?

  Strong enough to smash me with just the flick of a finger.

  It was pretty humbling.

  Looting the corpses got me more hides and some other stuff. Not a bad start for only a couple of hours work.

  I started to continue down the random direction I’d pick but stopped. Something was nudging at me, a strange feeling. Looking around I didn’t spot anything but there was definitely something there. Concentrating, I focused on the energy I was feeling. It wasn’t an energy, not quite, but a feeling that tickled at the Arcanum in my Core. I moved over to a couple of trees, they looked like oaks. Down on the ground I saw a couple small acorns. Crouching down, I picked them up.

  They looked just like the acorns back in the forest around Solace but were a pale orange color and heavy. Very heavy. Relatively anyways. I mean acorns had virtually no weight, but these had some. It was odd.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +6 OAKEN ACORNS

  I wondered how many I had passed and didn’t realize the little things were just laying on the ground. But I also had twelve acorns in my hand. That meant not all would qualify.

  It took me a couple minutes to figure out which were which. I saved both, just in case the other acorns had some special crafting property. Quickly I scanned the area finding another dozen acorns, only four of which qualified for the Tower Quest.

  ***

  I bit back a scream as the Horrisleaf Elk’s antler pierced my shoulder. The damn thing was sharp. My Kinetic Field was great at blocking bashing attacks, some of the force still coming through but most absorbed by the field and turned into energy I could use. Slashing and piercing attacks penetrated the field, even though I didn’t take full damage as the field did absorb some of the attack power. It did nothing for stopping the actual sharp edge or tip.

  Grabbing the Elk by the antlers, I used my Abilities to lock myself as the momentum of the monster had been pushing me back. I struggled against the strength of the Elk as it pawed at the ground, trying to push me back and I was trying to not move. The antler in my shoulder hurt like hell. My Regeneration Essence wouldn’t help with the wound until the antler was removed.

  Pushing the stored energy into my hands, I pushed back against the elk. It was no good, the creature was just too strong. Elk, deers, all that kind of creature never looked as strong as they really were. Thin legs that looked like they would snap like twigs but nope, the animals were extremely strong. The legs were all bone and muscle. This Horrisleaf Elk was magically strong as it started pushing against my inertia absorption that kept me locked in place. My feet slid back a couple inches.

  The tips of the antlers glowed blue, a tip pretty close to my face. Too close as the Elk moved forward a bit. This Elk would have been a history-making trophy back in old Earth. Twenty point buck. A beautiful rack of antlers. The Elk itself was tall, up to my shoulders, the head lowered so it could spear me. Brown and white, with streaks of gray. The legs were all gray, the hooves had sparked blue when it charged me.

  We’d both stepped out from behind trees at the same time, surprised as neither had sensed or knew the other was there. The Elk reacted quicker. It charged at me, kind of surprising me because I’d expected the thing to react like other deer back home and turn to run. Nope, it had attacked.

  I couldn’t push the Elk off me, so I did the opposite. I unlocked my feet and pushed myself back. The pain as the antler’s prong pulled out of me was intense. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I landed hard on the ground, quickly rolling to the side as the Elk charged past me. My bleeding shoulder slammed into the ground, causing more pain, but at least the motion was giving me energy.

  Jumping up, I ran a couple feet before turning, wanting some space between me and the Elk. The thing was fast and strong. The creature had turned but hadn’t charged at me. Yet. It pawed at the ground, making those deer noises. I didn’t even know what sound it was. The rack was like three feet wide, forming basically a barrier from the Elk’s body. Those antlers were going to be a problem, especially with the speed of the Elk.

  I flexed my shoulder, feeling the sharp pains. It was already better than before. Thank the System for Regeneration Essence. I moved so my back was to a tree. The Elk pawed at the ground but it wasn’t stupid enough to charge me with the tree.

  So much for that idea.

  I charged the Elk, catching it by surprise. It moved its head back and forth, waiting with those glowing antlers. The head lowered, ready to skewer me. No way was I going to let it. Pushing energy to my feet, I leapt up into the air, twisting as I flew over the antlers. The Elk lifted its head, trying to spear me, but I was too high. I’d make my arc high, not covering much distance. I’d also adjusted the angle.

  I landed to the side of the Elk, punching out into its chest. Bones were shattered, the Elk crying out in pain, the head whipping toward me. I grabbed the head by the antlers, twisting with all my augmented strength. I heard a snapping sound, the Elk crying louder. I stepped back, holding a couple of prongs broken off the rack. I lunged at the Elk, slamming the broken prongs into its own neck. The thing cried out and fell to the ground. I gave it a swift kick, snapping the Elk’s neck and ending its life.

  YOU HAVE SLAIN HORRISLEAF ELK

  YOU HAVE GAINED +10 TOWER POINTS AND +10 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  How many of these things did I need to kill? One hundred? Great.

  Touching the Elk, it disappeared and left behind the loot.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 HORRISLEAF ELK HIDE, +1 BROKEN HORRISLEAF ELK ANTLERS

  Broken Antlers? I looked at my Quest Log and saw that I hadn’t gotten credit for the antlers. Apparently they needed to be in one piece. I’d have to be more careful next time. I tossed the two items into my Spatial Storage, figuring someone back home would get some use from the antlers. They were sharp and had some kind of Arcanum infusion to make them sharper.

  I found a couple more acorns. That was probably going to be the first quest I finished.

  I probably should have done some more research before just jumping into the Biome. So far each of the three different creatures had their own quirks and special abilities, which made facing off against each a unique challenge.

  I’d do that before I came back the next day. I was already here and really wanted to check out the Dungeon.

  “Idiot,” I said, smacking my forehead.

  Why hadn’t I thought of this before? Unlike Dungeons on Earth, the ones in the Biome were registered with the obelisk. I’d gotten a sense of the acorns when I passed by them. The Acorns were part of the Quests so it made sense that I’d get a sense of when and where to find the items. Why couldn’t I do the same with the Dungeon?

  Concentrating, I focused on the Dungeon. Each Dungeon was really a portal into a pocket dimension. Since the Biome was a giant pocket dimension, the Dungeons off it would be similar right? I knew what the energy around a Dungeon portal felt like, so I focused on that feeling.

  And just like that, I knew what direction to walk in. Even could feel how strong the energy was, which would indicate how close I was.

  I really felt like an idiot. I had to be smarter about how I approached the whole Infinite Tower. I was going in blind but I didn’t have to remain that way.

  Kat would have rolled her eyes and smacked me in the back of the head. Something she really enjoyed doing. Sadly, she did it a lot.

  Jack would have laughed his butt off, probably calling me a name.

  My random walking hadn’t been that far off. I had been heading northwest and the Dungeon was more to the west. I started walking that way.