Taking a day to secure a good place to rest. Jessica found herself in an unfamiliar place. From everything she saw, it was not much different than the first layer.
Adventuring into the second layer was a different experience in the atmosphere of the forest itself. The outside of the forbidden zone. At the first layer was a sparse, natural looking treeline. The air was the largest difference.
If mana sense could be seen, it was similar to lightning an incense in a room. Smoke would fly up until met with air flow. From breathing or outside sources. Outside everything was normal, only once you stepped inside did things change.
With just a single step, the air felt thicker as there was air flow without wind. Giving the entire forest the feeling of breathing. As mana was flowing from air to plants. The sheer volume of the movement caused a change, possible to sense, without the need to even enter a meditative state.
As one went deeper, the forest thickened. This wasn’t the trees growing more sporadically. Instead, the trees grew larger. Only once one moved towards the boarder of the second layer were there more trees.
This gradual progress took an almost shapeless disguise, as the number was hard to notice until one was at the boarder. Once inside, it became very obvious that the trees grew thicker in concentration from the first layer.
There was a higher level of mana. Jessica could feel that it took less time to process the mana as the purity had increased to a level it would be comfortable for her to meditate here. As very few places outside without interference had this type of mana.
With this increase in trees, the sky became harder to see. A darker and gloomy air filled the expanse in front of one’s vision. With the thicker mana came a more eerie feeling of the world being alive. As if the entire forest had started to morph into a living being.
Sleeping at the moment, she felt that if the mana got thicker. With more plants that were absorbing mana creating this artificial air flow. She might develop psychological problems if she remained in this place long term.
While different, there wasn’t such a change in the first layer. Now, with every plant, from grass, flowers, to trees. All having a new prospect of being alive. If it became more vibrant, she had the feeling it would adversely play on her already tense nerves.
In the second layer, there was danger. If pushed, she could possibly go to the very peripheral of the third layer. Being a strange land, she had no confidence of truly entering the third layer and being able to survive.
This was because while the layer connected to the outside world, both the human and goblin kingdoms had to have boarder cities that defended against stray beasts and graded animals that exited the forbidden zone.
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Without the cover, if she ran into danger, it was almost guaranteed to end badly. Inside, this second layer, she was expected to meet anything from Grade F to a very rare sighting of Grade D.
Sightings of any non-graded animals were scarce. By this point, the majority were graded beings. With beasts being the minority. While oval in shape, the second layer on, was closer to a very large crescent moon. The next layer would hug the previous as the edges had a tendency to start eating the previous zone.
Those places were well known for housing predators that liked to prey on the ones that strayed too far from safety. For this reason, Jessica found a decent spot near an edge of the first layer to return and rest.
A large tree had an opening that had been charred by a strike of lightning. Inside was another tiny opening enough to comfortably situate herself while the edges closed in a bit, offering a bit of cover. From there, she traveled into a diagonal line into the second layer.
By doing this, she could have an easy route out. While it was rare for something from the forbidden zone to bother going through multiple layers for prey. The first layer held the least resistance, combining the fact that the only danger was not just things that lived in the forbidden zone.
From the first week on, she had already discovered the original camp had been gone. With her not venturing too deep. She had a lot of time to think, seeing as she only used a few hours a day to explore.
As time passed, she slowly introduced more time as she got more familiar. Being able to navigate with the lower amount of light. Using paths she had previous ventured to allow easier access to deeper places.
Today, she was sitting on a tree near the top. A hole was below her as the branches grew in such a way that it allowed those above to see below. With the foliage blocking light, the thickness caused the tops inside the branches to be dark as night.
Below was the view of a trap. Only this trap wasn’t Jessica’s. Nor was it of another person, no, Jessica had run into a scary beast with ties to ancient times. Feline like shape, this creature stuck to a tree.
With its claws digging into the bark, it was as standing as if it was on the ground as it hung without moving. Because it was currently not at the top, there was shade that offered enough light to see it from the right angle.
With brown fur, it had black straps and was staring at the ground. If not for the fact that Jessica had seen it move, she would have believed it was part of the tree itself. Only once seen, it was obvious. A quick glance, it would be easily overlooked.
However, if she hadn’t been in this spot to rest. Using it as a rest stop before heading back into the first layer. She would have likely not even seen it. Down below was a fat turkey like groundless bird.
As if a normal fat turkey wasn’t large enough, this one didn’t just have more meat on its bones, with a longer beak, legs, and talons. It almost looked like an entirely different animal.
Having found a snake slithering below. It was eating with relish. Completely oblivious to the danger watching peacefully from above.
With bated breath, Jessica watched as the feline like creature launched itself off the tree. Flabbergasting her, while the turkey below had just noticed something was wrong when a noise escaped, it was barely audible over the loud sound of collision.
Jessica watched the feline drag the turkey away. Rooted to the spot, she had known there were beasts that had blood of ancient animals. Being so strong that they were non-graded beings with graded being strength.
Having never seen on in person before, she had been skeptical. Only the amount of pressure it had created with its physical strength without any mana had rivaled her launching an ambush with a lot of strength. Obviously, the difference was that she would be using mana.