They were easy as hell. Is this simply the difference between unranked and Bronze rank? I guess my stats also got a drastic boost, too.

  Alex could feel his friends approaching. The mana in the air was being disturbed by their steps, and he could feel it shifting with his [Eyes of the Cosmos] ability. He turned towards them as they neared.

  “That's one way to make an entrance, especially with the new black hair. What happened to the silver? It was just starting to grow on me.” Derek said, still patting off his smoking shield.

  “Hah... yeah. Sorry about that fire, I didn’t expect it to do that. I was testing some new stuff out. I’ll explain the hair some other time when we can talk.” Alex replied. “And don’t think I forgot about you lighting me on fire!” He added while he turned his gaze to Sam, causing him to flinch, as his eyes went wide.

  “I don’t know what you're talking about, buddy. That definitely didn’t happen. Did that commander give you some brain damage?” Sam said, trying to act like his relaxed self.

  “Yeah, yeah. Let's loot everything and get out of here before reinforcements show up. If one group found us, another might too.”

  Korgrith patted Alex on the back. “Glad you woke up when you did. We were not going to survive much longer.”

  “Me too,” Alex replied, nodding to him.

  They all moved and quickly looted the goblins. Alex told Derek to start with the commander and see if there were any upgrades for him. Since both were tanks, there might be something he could use.

  "Show me those the core and coins from the commander later, I'm curious if they're different," Alex added.

  After they had finished, Alex cast his Wind enhancement on everyone. It was much easier this time around. Since he had evolved to Bronze, there was a lot less strain. It was still a bit mana hungry, but with his stat increase, it was much more manageable.

  They moved farther away from where they were ambushed, looking for a new spot to rest. Most of the group were still injured in some way, and their resources were low, so they needed time to recover. Once Alex led them to a new location, they collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. The fight had drained them, and when the adrenaline wore off, their fatigue deepened.

  While the group rested, they kept glancing at Alex. He noticed but didn’t say anything.

  This reminds me of when I met Derek, Sam, and Sarah again after I escaped the cave. They kept staring at me.

  He made a game of it and waited to see how long it took someone to ask. Eventually, though, Korgrith won, being the first to bring it up.

  “How did you get so much stronger?” he asked, breaking the silence.

  Alex gave them a wide smile. “You all see that I hit level 10, right? Well, apparently, there is a tier system, and each time you evolve to the next rank, your power skyrockets. Level 1-9 is unranked. When I hit level 10, I evolved to the first, Bronze. Which is part of the reason my hair is different now, it goes along with my class. My stats and power are on another level now. That's why that commander was so strong, too. He was already ranked up.”

  Sam spoke next. “Since the name is Bronze, I assume there are other ranks with metal names or something?”

  “Yep. Bronze is the lowest, then Silver and Gold. Those three are called the planetary ranks. But I don’t know what level we need to evolve to them, only Bronze. I heard there are higher ranks, beyond Gold, but I don’t know what they are yet. You all also need to be careful about running into someone of a higher grade. I was told that fighting someone above you is nearly impossible. Especially the higher ranks after Bronze.”

  “Told? By who?” Sarah said, catching Alex's slip-up.

  He didn’t really plan to keep it a secret; he just didn’t want to discuss it all right now. Which seemed to be the recurring theme of Alex’s time here in the tutorial. His secrets were piling up. Afterall, they still don’t know that his race wasn’t human anymore, or anything about his class.

  “I won’t give you all the details of how or why, not yet anyway. I’ll tell you that when I evolved from unranked to Bronze, my mind went elsewhere, and I spoke with someone of a higher tier. He explained a lot of this to me.” Alex said to them, hoping it was enough for now to satisfy their curiosity.

  “That’s fine, Alex. You’ll tell us when you feel comfortable. The information won’t help us, right? So, don't worry about it. You haven’t let us down. But what you're saying is that we all need to rank up to Bronze quickly. We’re going to need the power boost to fight against all these goblins.” Derek said, adding to the conversation.

  He nodded at Derek. The man never pushed anyone and was always patient. “Exactly. If we can grind some more goblin groups, we should be able to get all of you to level 10 today or tomorrow. And then if we’re all ranked up, we’ll be strong enough to protect our camp and kill all these assholes. But I was told that all of your evolutions will be a bit different than mine. So if someone is ready to evolve, don’t do it immediately. Wait until you're somewhere safe. You can’t do it in the middle of a fight.”

  “How different?” Rykos asked.

  “You will be given class options to choose from for your upgrade. So you’ll need time to read over them and carefully pick which path you want to take. Some options will be drastically different than what you expect. It will also be painful, and you’ll go unconscious. So again, we need somewhere safe and to give you time to do it.”

  “I see. So our goal right now is to rest and recover, and then go kill more. I can do that,” Korgrith replied.

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  Everyone rested awhile, even Alex. He hadn’t had a chance to look things over and just relax since his evolution. He sat there for a few minutes, eyes closed, and just breathed. His body felt so different and yet so much more familiar. It felt nothing like his old body, and yet it felt like he had always had it. It was a weird conundrum for him. It was both new and old, familiar and foreign. He didn’t know what to think. All he knew was that he loved the changes.

  It's probably just the large stat increase he received, but he could feel so much power coursing through him. So much more raw strength and speed, and even his brain felt faster at processing things and making connections.

  His senses were heightened too, whether that was just from his perception stat or his evolution, he had no idea. Sitting on the ground, he could hear the wind rustling the trees, the grass underneath him swaying, animals in the distance, the warm breeze on his skin, the smell of the forest, and even hear his friends breathing. Everything felt so much more alive.

  Now he moved on to his magic. He cycled through his skills: earth, fire, wind, and then back to fire. The elements trickled over his fingers, hands, and hovered around his body. None burned or harmed him. It was his mana that changed into elemental form, but still his. The magic felt so much more responsive to his control and willpower. When he had time again, Alex wanted to experiment with combining them to see if it was any easier. He had a feeling it would be, at least a little bit. But he doubted he could truly do it, yet. His new mana instincts were screaming he wasn’t ready.

  Now, for the thing he had been really working up the courage to play with. His new [Space Magic] ability. He had no idea how this ability would work, so for now, he just focused on it, not yet channeling it. He could feel an eagerness from the ability. It wanted to be used, to be beckoned forward and unleashed. But he could also feel his command of it. It was absolute. So much more than his other elements.

  It reminds me of fantasy stories I’ve read. A boy gets a dragon, but the dragon is much older and stronger than he is. As a child, he’s unable to fully use the creature, ride it, or enter into a true partnership. The boy needs time to grow beside the dragon so they can journey forth together.

  I’m the boy. My space ability would be the dragon. I’m too inexperienced and weak to truly take advantage of it or use it as it calls out to me. I can barely even hear the whispers from it… But I know there's more. The power that rests slightly outside the reach of my fingertips. Like an iceberg with most of its body hidden beneath the icy depths. You only see a small sliver of its true form, but you know what sleeps below.

  Progenitors really are one half the coin, with space magic being the other half. There’s a strong bond with it.

  He also knew that he couldn’t do much with the ability right now. It’s not that the ability was limited; it’s that Alex was. He wasn’t strong enough yet to handle it. So he didn’t know what to do with the skill.

  Let’s tease out a little and see what happens.

  He focused more on the ability and slowly started to channel it, just feeling the tiniest bit of spatial mana coming forward. Instantly, Alex got a notification.

  Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Dimensional Storage].

  Dimensional Storage

  This skill is the most basic that all Progenitors learn. Simply calling upon spatial mana for the first time will teach this skill. This allows the Progenitor to store things in a spatial pocket. Time passes extremely slowly inside relative to your dimension. The storage size will grow along with the user.

  YESSSSSSS! Alex thought, cheering inwardly and smiling.

  I have my own inventory space now!! That right there is the single most useful skill I could have ever gotten. Even better than making portals and teleporting.

  WAITT… Can I do that too?!

  After another few minutes of examining his [Space Magic] ability, he sadly realized he could not teleport or make a portal. But it could be possible in the future, he thought. After that sad news, he needed a little pick-me-up… so he pulled his dagger off his belt and tried to put it into his storage skill. The skill was VERY intuitive. All he had to do was push his intent at the item to go into the storage, and it instantly went in. If he wanted to receive it, just think of it coming out of storage. It worked super well for Alex.

  If he thought of his [Dimensional Storage], he could also see the space inside. It was larger than Alex expected. It was cube-shaped inside, and all the walls were the same size, about 10 feet long, wide, and tall.

  I wonder how much larger it’ll get and when. Will it happen when I level up, or only when I reach the next tier?

  His friends were all carrying loot from the goblins they had been hunting, so Alex got up and walked over. “Alright, guys, any items you don't want to carry, hand them over. I’ve got a new storage skill.”

  They all handed over random items they had looted. Weapons, armors, and other things. None were upgrades for them, but they took them for the camp. They all watched as Alex simply touched the items, and they disappeared.

  “That’s going to be handy,” Derek commented. “How much can you carry?”

  “Quite a bit. The space is currently a cube, 10x10x10 feet. I can also store food and items like that, they would take an extremely long time to spoil inside.”

  “Damn. Of course, you get an inventory skill. That's literally all I wanted in this damn monster hunting fantasy,” Sam said, clicking his tongue.

  “Same, that's the first thing I tried when I integrated,” Alex said while chuckling. “But we might be able to find you all some items that could do that. If there is storage magic, there are probably items out there that can do it too.”

  “True, true. Storage items would make sense. Maybe we can make them if we ever find out how to get a profession,” Sam added.

  “I imagine something as complicated as that would require high-tier professions and someone of a higher rank than Bronze. But I guess we’ll find out. Hopefully, we can figure out this profession thing soon. No one has found one yet, right?”

  “No. Even those among the beastkin who were skilled in their trade have not been given a profession by the Universal System,” Korgrith responded.

  “Hmm. We have to be missing something. It seems odd that no one has learned one yet. Anyways, let's take all this equipment back to camp and check on them. We have been away for a few hours. After that, we can do more hunting,” Alex said to them.

  When everyone had gotten up and was ready to go, he cast his wind enhancement on the party. The journey back to camp had only taken them 15 minutes.

  But once they were within earshot of the camp, they heard screaming. Panicked by the sounds, Alex quickly channeled more mana into the enhancement and increased their speed.

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