Sensing the danger of the situation, John shot up from his resting position and jumped into the air. Larang was summoned under his feet and started lifting him upwards, but the wind was pushing down with unusual force.

‘Damn! Is the air falling down into space with the rest of this forest? Won’t that mean that the planet will lose all its air soon?’

Despite the grim outlook he predicted, he had more pressing concerns. Larang was pushing with its full force, slowly but surely letting him climb out of the hole in the planet’s crust.

But the air was getting thinner the higher he reached. Soon, it would even be hard for him to breathe.

‘Fucking hell, this planet is out to get me! But my speed is increasing as the air is getting thinner, so it should be fine! I’m getting closer to firm ground!’

His speed increased dramatically as he climbed, surpassing the speed he had during his escape from the bird. But now he had to hold his breath, unable to get the oxygen needed from the surrounding air.

‘Just a bit more now! Ah, my lungs are already burning! There’s no oxygen in this air! Will there even be enough air when I reach the surface?’

His thoughts were approaching desperation, but he knew the air of the entire planet would take a long time to leak out if that was what was happening. Only a hundred meters remained between the edge and him.

And that didn’t even take him a second. He hurtled through the air above the treeline of the solid ground and hit a wall of air, knocking him off Larang in an instant.

‘What the hell?! The air here is unchanged?! Not even a breeze?!’

The immediate kickback from the air resistance caused him to brake harshly, blinding him with air. He needed to get his bearings back before landing on anything hard. Larang was already back in his core after continuing to fly past him, nearly unaffected by the air resistance due to its shape.

But John summoned the shield instead, planning to shield his eyes from the air so he could see again. Right away, the suffocating wind disappeared from his face, allowing him to take a proper breath again, and to see what was going on.

‘Oh, I’m still way up in the air. Well, this is fine unless Mister Bird is somewhere nearby.’

His velocity was still significant, but summoning Larang allowed him to slow down to a more reasonable speed. The gravity enchantment had already saved his life twice by now, and it was more than welcome to continue that trend.

After a quick glance around to look for the black bird, John went down to the trees again. This time he refused to be disturbed by anything life-threatening. He just wanted to rest in peace, and not in a permanent way.

‘The tyrant of this planet is getting a stern talking to once I find it! Can’t have the place fall apart like this! Nothing will remain if it keeps this up.’

With his legs back on the ground—or, rather, tree—he sat down to take a breather. He assumed the cracks in the planes he had seen outside the forest were just as present inside it, only hidden by the trees.

That would mean that any part of the planet was in danger of suddenly falling into space. As John looked up at the rest of the planet, he had a sinking feeling that he had been part of the first fall. No other obvious holes could be seen, and he assumed they would be visible even from this distance.

‘I’ve got the most incredible luck in the world, don’t I? Is the Lady of Fate fucking with me?... Wait, could she actually be?’

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At first, the thought seemed like a mere joke, but the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. She had the ability to influence chance, and he had already been on the wrong side of it several times so far. But he had also had some incredible strokes of luck, particularly the meeting with the sage.

If she was influencing his fate for the sake of the world, it made perfect sense for him to meet the sage. But if that was the case, she must have more control than she had let him know.

‘... No use worrying about that now, I guess… It’s getting dark soon, so maybe I should dig into this tree and go to sleep for the night. Or maybe–’

A sudden knock on the tree beside him interrupted his thoughts, scaring him out of his wits. He hadn’t heard anything approaching, and he was sure there had been nothing there before. With three rapid knocks in a row, the knock also sounded very human—or very monkey-ish.

But neither was completely correct. As he looked over, he saw a girl sitting on her knees, completely naked. But the most surprising thing was the antlers sticking out of her head, seemingly growing right out of it. The addition of the dark brown hair and brown eyes gave her a deer-like appearance.

She looked at him curiously, completely unbothered by her own lack of clothes. But John was bothered, in several ways.

‘What? Are those an aspect of some kind? Why is she naked? Did she come from the base we were heading to? How is she so young if she has an aspect? I’m among the youngest breakers, right?’

“Uhm, hello?” he tried, hoping to get some answers.

But the girl only looked at him, tilting her head slightly. It almost seemed like she didn’t understand him. Or even cared to. Her expression was strangely neutral, given the situation.

“Ehh, are you deaf? Do you have bad ears?” He tried gesturing to his own ears to make her understand, but her reaction remained very muted. Instead, she started pointing in a direction up to the sky while still keeping her eyes on him.

John followed her finger, unsure of what he might find. But nothing in that direction stood out to him, except that it was part of the same continent they were standing on right now.

“... Is that where the portal is? Do you know the way back home?”

She blinked at him before looking up at the sky herself, letting her arm fall down. Then she leaned back and lay her back on the tree, closing her eyes.

John was getting annoyed at the challenge of trying to communicate with this girl, as well as her lack of clothes. He tried not to stare, but it was constantly gnawing at his attention.

‘Fine, guess you can have my outer clothes then… I have the armor, after all.’

Without speaking, he started removing the dirty uniform he still wore and tossed it over to her. He let his shirt remain since she wouldn’t be able to wear it over her antlers, but his jacket and pants were thrown over to her, landing beside her feet.

‘What the hell is with those antlers anyway? Should I be more wary of her? I’m not sure she’s human, but I doubt there are any beasts capable of shapeshifting that would skip the antlers. Also, she’s completely calm around me—weirdly so, even.’

“Hey, put the clothes on, will you? They're probably too big, but you can rip the pants to make a makeshift belt. The jacket… Yeah, can’t help you there. Just put it on, please. You’re distracting.”

She looked over at the clothes as he spoke, but she didn’t seem eager to wear them, or even to understand what they were. Her gaze drifted to him, looking curious again.

“Ugh, do you really need me to help you? Did you lose your memory or something? Can you at least let me know you’re human?”

Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked closer at the clothes, moving to pick them up. She brought them to her face and sniffed before looking back at John, still furrowing her brows.

“Yeah, I know they smell, alright? I’ve been out here for a week already, and there is no nearby water source. I just want you to cover up, at least if you want to come with me.”

There was no way he was leaving her behind now that he had finally met another human, but he would absolutely have preferred to meet someone else. This girl seemed as knowledgeable as the monkeys he had fought—and they were somehow easier to read.

Still looking skeptical, the girl looked down at the jacket again. She tried opening it, and turned it from side to side, seemingly trying to understand it.

‘... Wait, is there a beast that can eat memories around here? That would explain a lot of her behavior, but not the antlers. And I can’t sense any power coming from her, so I don’t think they are an aspect…’

Seeing her struggle with the jacket, he extended his arm to her, hoping she would give it back so he could show her how it was done. But once she saw him, she pulled the jacket into her chest and glared at him, as if it were now precious to her.

“... Oh, right, you’re a woman. No wonder I can’t understand you. You guys are more alien than anything on this planet, that’s for sure.”