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There was a flash of light, and then Valentine could smell the saltwater in the air. He could feel the moisture, the tingle of magical energy that ran through the very seas the boat was rocking on. He steadied himself by instinct rather than intention and glanced around looking for threats. [break][break]

A mission prompt came up stating "Task: Eliminate the sea guards that come in packs of 3, each player, and step onto Ender Island to investigate!"[break][break]

It was simple enough, Valentine smiled as he took a knee, letting his eyes fall shut and letting his astral body separate from his physical. His body became relaxed, almost as if he were sleeping, a small musing of air gently falling from his lips as if he was sleeping, because he, in fact, was sleeping. Sound asleep but still aware as if he was looking at his body from a third-person view, at least the immediate surroundings and vicinity of it. [break][break]

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Valentine finally grabbed hold of the strange key that had rested in his inventory. He had his "invitation" to Ender Island, but he had put it off because he felt that he wasn't strong enough to step into some strange land, well even stranger land than what already was present.[break][break]

His trip to Neo Tokyo had been proof of that, he still had the scar on his lower right side to prove it. The small burn scar was nearly gone now, but it was nearly gone, wasn't gone. Valentine knew that he wasn't good enough then, but things were different now. [break][break]

His class was no longer something that was only good for running away, by focusing his stats and intentions he was able to forge it into something that was more combat based but still maintained the aloofness he enjoyed from it. Now it was functional in all-around situations and that's what he needed, what he enjoyed the most.

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He willed his symbiotic whip to attack, it launched out from near his shoulder smashing into the creature's chest causing it to toss and stumble back. Then he let the ice spear form around his physical one before shooting it off at the creature who easily dodged. His attack wasn't fast enough to hit it. The creature rushed toward him against Valentine and leaped back, moving faster in an attempt to dodge and counterattack.[break][break]

As he landed he found himself launching his spear at the creature which once again dodged, Valentine ran toward it, smashing his physical body into it as his symbiotic whip rang out, and it stumbled back again, this time from what he could see it was on its last leg, it slashed at him again. He missed and it was barely even worth its salt, as it could only be used now and then, but that was fine, it was nothing more than a faint so he could gain more distance. [break][break]

Valentine rolled back again trying to catch his breath, he was growing tired and this war of attrition would soon end in the creature's favor if he didn't do something soon, thankfully he could still sense it as his astral body was still out simply behind his physical imitating its movements. He then separated the two having both his astral form and physical form move in separate directions, before piercing the creature and spreading out his hand letting his spear once again become coated with ice before shooting it out at the creature. [break][break]

He felt it would dodge his attack again, but thankfully the secondary effects from his abilities kicked in just in time. The red lightning had lowered the strength of the creature so that it slashed his magic shield harmlessly, Valentine laughed, simply watching as its ragged and torn body blinked out of reality thanks to the after-effects of his rendering spear ability. Then appeared moments later as its body shook violently from the shock of it. Only to find its face come into contact with Valentine's spear.[break][break]

The creature went limp around its spear, and Valentine watched as it began to dissolve offering no resistance. He sighed, energy nearly spent, and moved over toward where the other two children were still left. He saw they were sleeping and offered a gentle nudge to wake them up. Though his eyes were closed as his astral body was still out making sure to watch his back, his skill still allowed him to speak, and his passive allowed him to see around his physical body. [break][break]

He spoke to the kids in a soft almost sleepy tone "My name is Val, I'm here to rescue me, I've killed the creature so you both can follow me, I'll lead you to safety, okay." Valentine said, his expression unchanging due to his sleeping. The kids nodded finding him strange but followed him nonetheless.[break][break]

After a long walk, and some snacks he had taken out of his inventory for himself and the children, Valentine succeeded and returned them to the orphanage. He asked for information about his sister and had heard that a girl matching her description had been spotted in the hub not too long ago, taking his mission reward after getting the mission completion notice he hurriedly made his way back to the hub![break][break]

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A flurry of multicolored pixels fluttered his vision in a split second, and his physical and astral bodies vanished in an aroura of whisp and colors. Then he was in the digital world as he dubbed it, his ability cross over having once again saved his bacon. He merged his physical and astral body together as he watched the shadow children searching around him. [break][break]

He could see them but they couldn't see him and that was just the way he preferred it. From what he could see while in this world was the presence of another undead creature a specter of sorts. Though that wasn't all deep behind it further in the woods were two children. [break][break]

He could see them, he could detect their location with ease which meant they all had a lower WIL start than him, creature included, though he wasn't sure if it was his skill or his ability that let him do such a thing so clearly, perhaps it was a combination of both. [break][break]

Valentine ran, toward the creature, and the creature simply floated around aimlessly, as the shadow children rushed back to their position around the larger creature to tattle perhaps. That's what Valentine wanted, he moved closer keeping in toe with them for the most part. Valentine could see the menu prompt of the creature's name and level pop up in front of him, Shaded Specture, Level 20. [break][break]

He let his astral form come back out then. Letting his physical body fall asleep. Then as he took position and aimed his spear Valentine saw what assumed was the one in command start to move, he was probably going to tell them to fan out but Valentine wouldn't give the creatures that chance. [break][break]

He willed his cross-over the ability to stop especially as he felt his ability nearing its end. He made sure to stand behind the specter as he launched his ice spear at the creature, and it dodged, turning invisible. It was trying to get away but what it didn't know was that thanks to his passive, Valentine could still sense it. He simply faked as if he couldn't he could tell the creature was moving, circling around him to be exact. Probably to make some sneak attack.[break][break]

Valentine ran toward the children letting one of the ice spears fly out at one of the shadowy children, the hit rang true and turned it into a shadowy mist before dissolving in black ice crystals. Then Valentine used his other ability, his rendering sphere as the shadowy children all leaped for him at once, he rolled back to dodge their pounce, and as they came crashing down he lifted his body up, and let his spear fly loose as a counterattack.

He only expected one of the shadow children to perish from his attack in his risky move to attack the specter that was now closing in on him, instead, he saw that the shadowy children had all been absorbed into his sphere, increasing its size which meant that they were probably just one of the abilities of the creature as opposed to individual monsters. However, that meant he couldn't give the damn thing time to summon more. He hefted his sphere and tossed it at the creature, the spear landed before his sphere did. Then after his sphere hit it and the creature was launched back spiraling through the air, before phasing through a nearby tree.

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Valentine, crept through the woods, making sure to walk with a practiced step, hill to toe, short steady bursts of motion and long strides. He wasn't quite a master at it yet, but he did hear the difference in how it lowered his footsteps, and it was either once he astral projected and could see ahead. He waited until he could hear the sound... Was that, children?

[break][break]There did seem to be two more missing after all, though one could never be too certain in the forest such as this, at least not with how the world was now. Valentine knelt quietly in place and let his eyes lids close shut.[break][break]

He felt the familiar tingle of his astral body leaving his physical, and then he lifted his astral body up and took a step forward but his feet never touched the ground, instead, they hovered there, a few inches from the forest surface. He lifted his physical body up next and dusted the dirt off his pants with his free hand.

[break][break]Spear still clutched tightly within his grasp. He figured that maybe it was due to his high WIL stat or that he had just been exposed to so much from the start of his tutorial. He also thought it could be because he had just been through so much. After fighting at every turn in New York, scary monsters in enclosed buildings, being out in the open was an upside at least when he had some cover still around anyway. [break][break]

He moved his astral body faster than his physical, after all, he was trying to scout ahead while bringing the most minimal amount of danger to him, and then he heard children against, louder, it was joyous almost. Strange... After, letting his astral body advance further he saw them, as they come into view. Shadows in the shape of laughing children. So much for that break, he leaped away from them with his astral body and started moving toward one of the far trees to the right only to see that the children were moving with him. They could see him, they could see his astral form, which meant they were either ghosts themselves or something similar. [break][break]

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With his five items, Valentine wrapped himself in his blanket and began his initial scouting, letting his astral body flow free of his physical. He began to search the forest, it didn't take long before he found the first child wandering the forest lost and scared for what seemed like a day, torn clothes, mattered and dirty hair, scrapes, and bruises, the usual tell signs of a lost child in a wood. [break][break]

At least from the movies and TV shows he had seen. He didn't have much experience finding lost children in the woods, well none at all really, but his abilities made him a damn good scout and it was already paying off. [break][break]

He lifted his kneeling body off the ground and made it jog toward the child, he was sure the child seeing a grown man with a blanket wrapped around him, running with his eyes clothes was probably strange.[break][break]

Especially as he held some wicked-looking spear in his hand but the kid seemed thankfully a little out of it and was willing to go with Valentine with the simple offer of "follow me if you want to live," it was probably a little traumatic for the poor tike but Valentine felt this was better than wasted conversation, well that and the fact that he just always wanted to say that. Even if the recipient wasn't even old enough to know where the reference came from. [break][break]

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