As the weeks continued, Jessica had officially reached her first month in this strange place. Since it had been mentioned, and she had seen it for herself. She decided to have a small rest stop in the second layer.

Using the ambush spot. After multiple days, she had failed to find even traces of the creature from before. Too much time had passed. Only having read about the creature in a tattered book speaking of creatures from past epochs.

As ancient beasts, their bones were still around, even though they had no mana to sustain them like high graded beings. As with most ancient beasts, they had bloodlines that are said to trace back to the first epoch when the only person alive was said to be the Will of the World.

Before, she found this interesting. Having met said person, Jessica no longer thought it was a neat anecdote. Seeing and believing was not the same as reading things spoken of as nearly fantasy. When fantasy became reality, it was a world that up was no longer up.

All rules were thrown out the window. With no structure to stand on, it gave raise to a feeling akin to free-falling in a dark abyss. Having experienced something a little similar while having those emotions dredged up occasionally, she was not interested in experiencing it anymore.

Without being able to find the creature, she had discovered the location it had stayed in. The reason for this was that, the entire area was rather devoid of other creatures. While Jessica was unsure if it was a beast from the third layer, she was, however, comfortable using this spot after long consideration.

With two places she found a sense of safety, she was able to move forward with more aggressive investigation. Staying from morning to night, covering a larger area.

By now, she had mapped out at least 10% of the second layer. While sounding impressive, this took an entire month of roaming around. Using mana to move for long periods of time in a somewhat hostile environment.

While the harvest was beneficial, she had made very little progress on the task. Though by now she had a hint of an idea. Unfortunately, it was not good. After gaining a deeper understanding of the second layer, Jessica made a startling discovery.

Similar to the first layer, there was a sense of suppression lingering over the second layer. With little need to think, Jessica understood why a fast-growing community of ravenous hunters caused a strain on the ecosystem of the first layer.

Not having a clear understanding if this was significant enough. She did believe that sooner, rather than later, there would soon be people coming to deal with this. Though she didn’t have enough understanding of the forbidden zone, this might have been a common thing.

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This was what she believed heavily at first. Seeing as the monkeys had higher grade monkeys in their community. Them leaving the second layer showed that the importance of the first layer was still enough to deal with the wild dogs.

What had caused her confusion was why they had failed to do so. One reason she had believed was that, this was a trial by fire. Seeing their surprising intelligence, Jessica believed this to be the case.

Only after exploring the second layer, growing a bit understanding of its fundamental atmosphere. At this time, she started to wonder if there was a reason they couldn’t help. After experiencing a run in with a Grade D monkey, she didn’t believe it was wise to try and investigate.

The crystal had her moving in a different direction, seemingly unrelated to what was going on there. Still, being stressed. Dayo had spoken a lot about the monkeys. Cassie had even brought it up. This clearly indicated that there might be more to the story.

Slowly, thoughts of things she tried to ignore had become more prevalent. A massive change had taken place further into the forbidden zone. With Cassie’s normal behavior of doing multiple things at once. This seemed to have been foreseen.

If that was the case, her coming prepared and still seemingly being unprepared caused a change in her plans. This indicated that the change was indeed massive. So large, in fact, Jessica started to think they might be related.

Going along this way of thinking, Jessica thought about the cat she had seen the other day. Whatever it was had scared not just her, but the beings in the second layer. Without enough information, she was unsure if it was a top predator of the second layer.

At the back of her mind, there was a voice asking what if that creature was not from the second layer but the third. Thus, a long string of if questions were asked.

If a massive change had caused some creatures to retreat into a previous layer. An obvious power struggle would follow. Those from deeper layers would find it easier to deal with all but the toughest creatures of the previous layers.

Being territorial, these creatures might just avoid trouble even if they were from a deeper layer. Only as more creatures started to move. The atmosphere that was present would explain why there was this invisible pressure that seemed to be weighing down on everything.

Her only evidence was the behavior of the monkeys and smaller creatures she had come across. Which was not nearly enough to go on. Everything was just a product of her wild imagination. Pushing towards the south, away from the territory of the monkeys.

Jessica continued to follow the crystal's more refined arrow. Possibly being a good or a bad thing. Having a foothold, she had failed to predict that the arrow would only lead her into the second layer from the first.

Only once she entered did she realize that the crystal only found its target, once she entered the second layer. As if the layers had a protective barrier blocking its tracking abilities. By that point, she had already found footing. Weighing her options, she found it inadvisable to give up her current, stable, foothold.

She would slowly explore from her current foothold. There was still plenty of time, while there was said to be a penalty for not completing the task on time. That could be a ploy to see if she could stay level-headed under pressure.

Without further thoughts, she left the second layer to find some food to keep her reserves stocked.