We decided to call the beast Maned Jaguar. Its slender body moved and lifted off the ground. Supported by its four legs, it slowly traced the edges of the lake, walking toward the prey that was reflected off of its pair of crimson eyes.

Its gaze was targeted at Rose.

She was currently in the water, swimming toward the bank. The Maned Jaguar was steadily prowling toward her destination.

The plan was simple. Rose will act as bait. She will pretend to swim toward the shore. When the beast’s attention was on her, I will swim toward a different location then circle around the Maned Jaguar.

At first, Rose denied the plan. She did not want me to put myself in danger. Looking from a different point of view, the plan I thought of was truly ridiculous and stupid, but I knew that was not the case.

I have discovered something that I could use in this situation.

My body was filled with boundless strength. This was not just my imagination. I could truly feel every fiber in my body bursting with energy. I know I could stand my ground against that beast.

I told Rose to trust in me. We could not stay in this place forever. We had to think of a way to get out of here sooner or later. There were only few other options like relying on the chance that the Maned Jaguar would get tired of waiting, which seems unlikely. If that was the case, it would be better to risk it and have at least one of us survive, or we could both die here in hunger. That was what I told her.

In the end, she finally gave in and accepted.

Before she left, she told me, “Make sure you live.”

I nodded and answered, “Of course.” I will not be giving up on this life until I figured out what had happened to us. There were still a lot of questions unanswered. If we make it through this, we have to make our way back to where we started; on that hill with the stone obelisk.

I dived into the water and swam as fast as I could toward the shore. As I started to climb the bank I heard a shout, “Watch out!”

Quickly, I pulled myself out of the water and jumped forward. Rolling on the ground, I caught a glimpse of a black shadow pouncing on the area of where I was earlier. The shadow landed and slid a few inches while turning around, leaving trails of loose soil and grass. It was the Maned Jaguar.

Without giving me time to rest, it began its next flurry of attacks. It took me all I had just to dodge. Cold sweat rolled on my back and forehead.

Did I over estimate myself?

“Be careful!” Rose’s voice came from behind me. I took a quick look and saw her attempting to get out of the water.

“Stay in there!” I shouted at her. If she was up here on dry ground, there’s a possibility that the Maned Jaguar would change its target to her. Although I could try to save her again like earlier, but I would like to avoid taking chances like that for now.

Unable to check if she had obeyed my order, I felt a searing pain on my right shoulder. One of the beast’s attacks had grazed me. It didn’t rip the robe, but still left a wound on the skin underneath. From what materials were this cloth made from that it could resist a sharp attack like that?

No time to think about that now!

I placed all my concentration on avoiding the Maned Jaguar’s attacks, trying to observe its attack patterns and seeking for a weakness.

The Maned Jaguar leaned forward and swiped with its left claw quickly followed by the right. I was able to dodge the first attack, but the second one hit my chest. The robe was immediately stained with blood.

As I lost my balance, the black beast pounced and tried to take a bite off my neck. I managed to dodge to the side, but it quickly made a follow up attack with its right claws. I tried to block it with my left arm.

“Gahh!” I screamed in pain as the claws buried and ripped my skin and flesh. I could hear frantic cries behind me and the splashing of water. Was she swimming toward me? I glanced to the back and saw the lake’s shore nearby.

“Stay back!” I yelled.

The Maned Jaguar dashed toward me and attacked with both claws. The dark-red paws were like blood-soaked weapons eagerly thirsting for my flesh and blood.

Now!

Mustering all the courage and strength I had, I grabbed the paws that were aiming for my head. Holding on to them firmly, I put force into my legs, my feet dug into the ground. I twisted my hips, and pulled the beast into the air.

Its heavy! This beast truly was a mass of powerful muscle dedicated on hunting prey!

With a grunt, I swung the Maned Jaguar around. Our eyes met, and in its fiery red eyes, I could see a glint of fear. It seemed to have figured out my plan.

Letting go, the beast was thrown into the lake!

Splash! The Maned Jaguar landed right into the deepest part.

It thrashed around wildly, spraying water in all directions. It looked like it was unable to swim. Aside from that, a sizzling sound came as the water around it started to boil. Its shiny black fur started turning gray.

The beast’s cries were truly pitiful…

I felt a wet hand coil around my right arm. Looking to the side, Rose was already there, holding on to me while watching the scene. Her eyes were intently gazing at the dying creature.

“For something so terrifyingly powerful, its end is truly pitiful,” she whispered.

After a while, the Maned Jaguar had stopped moving beneath the water surface. Its entire body had turned white as ash. It was a strange death.

“Whew!” I fell on my butt. With the adrenaline out of my system, exhaustion and relief hit me at the same time. The tension of walking on the fine line between life and death truly took a lot out of me.

“Are you okay?” Rose asked while kneeling beside me.

“Aside from the ache and sore all over my body, I think I’m fine…” I said. My wounds have stopped bleeding already and were already clotting. Aside from my increased strength and durability, it seemed like my recovery speed have also increased.

Thinking back on the fight, a normal person would have been torn to shreds already. Does that make me far from being normal?

With a sigh of relief, Rose turned to look at the corpse under the water.

“How…” she started weakly, “…did you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked while pretending to be oblivious.

“You know… that…” I looked at her and tilted my head questioningly.

“Never mind!” she pouted. I laughed at the sight of her cutely pouting her lips.

“I’m just kidding… I know what you’re talking about.” I stood up and strode into the lake. “I’ll tell you about it later. Maybe you can do it, too.”

“What are you doing?”

“We need to drink water, so I’m taking the corpse out. If it rots here, the water might go bad.” I dragged the dead Maned Jaguar out of the water into dry ground. Looking at it, I said, “Do you think it’s possible to eat its meat?”

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“Raw?” She looked at me with wide eyes.

“No, no! We cook it first, of course.” I then knelt down and touched its body. Its fur was soft, but the skin underneath was pretty tough. We’ll need something sharp to skin it and take the meat. The skin might also be useful if dried and treated properly.

“Let’s look for things we can use as tools,” I told her. She agreed by nodding her head.

Together, we went into the forest and collected things that we can use like dry branches, twigs, and leaves, fruits, herbs, and some rocks varying in shapes and sizes.

We quickly set up a campfire by the side of the lake. While Rose sorted out the fruits and herbs we gathered, I sharpened some of the stones and used them to skin the Maned Jaguar’s corpse.

It was tiresome work. The rock chipped a lot, and I had to make new ones. Finally, after the long arduous task, I was able to gather some meat and skins. I had no way to treat the skins so I could only wash them with water and dry them in the sun.

We had a coconut like fruit. Its shell was tougher and didn’t burn when placed over fire. It was used as a makeshift pot and bowl. We boiled water in it, along with the meat and some herbs.

Rose watched over the food while I went back to the forest to gather more materials. The danger we experienced earlier had told me that we couldn’t survive in this world as we are right now. Although I have discovered this strange power, it is not enough. The dragons I saw this morning, what if they attacked us? Thinking about it left chills on my spine.

I returned with a lot of wooden branches, sharp stones, and vines. We need weapons to protect ourselves with. Sooner or later, we will also need new clothes. Even though the ones we are wearing right now were strangely resilient and durable, we’ll still need something to change with for hygienic purposes. Looking at Rose, I can’t imagine letting this girl wear that single piece of cloth all throughout our time here together in the future.

Makeshift spears, hatchets, and knives were the best I could make with the current materials. I returned to the corpse of the Maned Jaguar and looted its fangs, claws, and some bones. They might be useful later on. I then buried its remains.

The sun had already passed its peak when we were finally able to eat. The soup was tasty, but the meat was hard to eat. It was very hard to cut and was like eating rubber. At first we feared that the unknown herbs we used were poisonous, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The fruits were also good. This meal really was us throwing caution into the wind.

Finally satisfied with the meal, we rested for a while. After that, we packed the rest of our supplies by rolling them inside huge and thick leaves, then secured them with vines. Each of us carried one pack, with mine the heavier one.

We decided to return to the stone obelisk above the hill. It might hold some clue to why we were here.

Tracing our way back wasn’t hard. I climbed one of the trees and searched for the hill. From there we walked straight. We could still see the traces of our chase earlier; broken twigs, grass that were stepped on, and footsteps on the soil. Sometimes we would get carried away and ended up tracking some animal trail. I would then climb up a tree again to reset our direction.

Soon, we arrived at the hill. I haven’t noticed it earlier, but there seems to be a divine aura surrounding it, and the center appears to be that stone obelisk.

Excitedly, we rushed up the hill toward the landmark on top of it.

“Wow,” Rose muttered under her breath. This was the first time she saw the breath-taking sight from beyond the hill.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked, the corners of her lips slowly rising, forming a smile. I was looking at her. The sight of her hair being swayed by the wind, while her pale blue eyes intently gazed at the horizon, made my heart skip a beat.

“Yeah…” I whispered while still looking at her. She turned to look at me after hearing my answer, but when our eyes met and that she realized where I was looking at when I answered her, she turned away swiftly and fixed her hair behind her ear. She was slightly red.

I could only shyly laugh and said, “Let’s check the obelisk.”

We gathered around the stone monument and inspected it. The images drawn on each side seem to tell a story about a cup and a world. The scribbles might be text describing what the images meant.

“See any clue?” I asked Rose.

“It seems to be telling about the creation of this world…” she answered.

“Can you read it?”

“A little…” Her answer surprised me. I gazed intensely at the scribbles, and for a moment it seemed like I could vaguely understand what they meant.

“Me, too…”

“It’s weird, right? I’m sure I haven’t seen this kind of writing before, but for some reason, the meaning sorts of jumps at me when I stare at it long enough…”

“Same here… let’s see…” We spent almost two hours inspecting the obelisk.

It was indeed about the creation of this world. It said that the one who made this world was the Goddess of the Chalice. The Chalice was a divine artifact that contains within it a special form of divine energy called Aether. This Aether can be used to form anything. It was the element of creation.

The Goddess used the Chalice to pour the Aether into this world, which was once an empty barren land.

This started the creation of the world up to its current state.

The Chalice was then placed into the heart of the world, forever pouring its content, creating new things after the previous ones have died or disappeared. The creations that have died or disappeared are once again turned into Aether and taken by the Chalice to be reused for new creations.

This in turn introduced the cycle of life and death, where the souls of those who have died are returned to the Chalice. This means that all living beings actually came from one source, and will return to the source after death.

“This still doesn’t explain why we are here…” Rose murmured. We were sitting on the hill, our backs on the obelisk. We were facing toward the sea.

“Yeah. It doesn’t explain why we have knowledge of another world.” I pulled some of the grass from the ground then threw them away to be blown by the wind.

“What should we do now?” Rose asked the question that have also been bothering me for a while now. I sighed, not really sure how to answer her question.

“I don’t really like to just give up, so how about we keep on trying to figure things out?” I looked at her to check her expression. She was just blankly staring at the horizon, then a smile formed on her face.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” she said.

“Let’s rest here for tonight.”

“Sure.”

And so, we decided to begin our adventure in this new world starting tomorrow…

Or has it already begun?