My eyes slowly dozed off, closing a second longer than the last.

Sleep was a luxury I couldn’t afford for the past two days. In the up and above, an activity such as sleep was just asking to get attacked. And with the bark of the black trees that surround me being as goddamn hard as it was, making a shelter or at least a poor excuse of one was simply impossible.

So here I was, sleeping under a collection of leaves that I gathered, hoping that nobody notices a living creature under it.

Down below, strength and power may have been the focal point, but numbers, camouflage, and mobility were the game up above. Someone who neither had the numbers to protect him or mobility to stay out of reach of most things that can kill me. Camouflage was the only option.

Thus, after two days of sleepless nights, in this place that seemed to not have a night, I was goddamn dying to get some sleep. I wanted to test my camouflage out for an hour, check if anything out there can notice me. But my eyes were planning treason against me, slowly closing against my control.

3 hours later.

My eyes blasted open with a pang of fear and trepidation. I jumped out of the gathered leaves with a cold sweat and vitality burning. The surrounding nature, in contrast to my turmoil, chimed a calming noise of birds, insects, and the slight drizzle of rain.

My eyes danced around, looking out for anything that was there to kill me. It took me a moment to get a hold of myself and realize that nothing was happening.

My eyes slowly relaxed, as well as my posture. My stomach churned with hunger along with a noise of displeasure.

I..... right... I haven’t eaten anything proper except the rain. I exhaled and calmed down. OK. Plan- hide or die is a success, so today’s objective is to find food. In the worst-case scenario, I’ll have to go full barbarian and eat raw meat from what I kill, but...

There’s gotta be something to eat in a forest, right?

..........

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My hair dances around my face as I pass through the treetops so high up that a slip up was most likely fatal. My feet and hands grab firmly into the branches as I cross the forest, the aspect of changing the nature of my aura just before I land my feet or grab a branch drilled into my head from the countless times I had to run away or fight in the past days.

With the rain slowly losing its power, the land has slowly started to win against the water and regain its territory. And at this rate, the land was scheduled to rise again in a few days, giving me an actual surface to walk on again.

Still gonna stick to the trees though. As harsh as this place was, I still had yet to find anything bigger than me in size because of nature’s self-imposed weight limit. Compared to the aquatic leviathans and sabretooths down below, this place was more suited to someone my size.

But still... I know I’m searching slowly since I’m being careful and all, but I’ve been crossing trees for the past 30 minutes now. Going by the same old black trees without a hint of anything edible other than the animals themselves.

They can’t all be carnivores, right...... There’s gotta be some fruit, veggies, or anything right.... right? Breaking my thought, I kicked the branch off and jumped to the right, dodging a dive bomb from an Eagle of some sort.

It flew—no; it hovered in the air in front of me after its unsuccessful attempt. Giving out a ghostly green trail.

Its wings later half ended with green ghostly color, having the texture of something in the middle of physical and intangible. Almost like a physical manifestation of wind.

I would have appreciated it more, weren’t it for the fact that the bird's head was covered with its skull. Its head looking very similar to the Komodo lizard I fought before. It also had the same yellow-slitted eyes peeking out of the white skull.

Is there some sort of relation between the two?

Its eyes considered me, the intelligence behind it clear to see. IT definitely isn't a normal bird.

I need it to get closer to do anything, but the question was whether it needs to get closer to damage me. Hopefully, the glowing part of the wings doesn’t give it anyway to attack me in range.

Who am I kidding? Of course, it can do that.

But contrary to my expectations, with no prior movement, it dived towards me at a blinding speed. Aiming to pierce me with its beaks.

With a smile of confidence, I reinforced my fists with twice as much as vitality than normal and punched at the oncoming avian. But just moments before we collided, it stopped instantly, barely out of my fist’s reach, going from hundred to Zero, and spread its wings out, which shined in luminescent green along with its body.

I tried to back off, but it was like my strength was sapped out of me. My body moved backward slowly as if stuck in slow-mo.

The bird seemed to be also stuck in its pose, making me slow down in exchange for it being pinned down.

With the problem and my solution to the current predicament right in front of me, in arm’s reach. I burned my vitality to the limit, intending to punch through it rather than back off and get hit by something else I don’t know about.

Leveling up to 3 seemed to have removed some sort of safety cap within me. My hands moved a lot quicker than last time. Not as fast as my normal vitality, but a lot quicker than the Slow-Mo speed.

But at the current rate, I would be spent and dry in under a minute.

To compensate for the speed, I changed the nature of my aura in my fist as well, to push and shred away, just like what I did to the spider webs.

My fist, which was moments away from shredding the bird’s exposed chest, got knocked out violently by a strong wind. The bird used that opportunity, brought backs its wings along with the color, and went from 0-hundred, diving into my exposed chest with its beak. My body flew back and landed a few away back from where I was with blood flowing freely from my chest.

The slow-down effect was gone the moment it dived, so I was barely able to avoid getting my heart pierced by jumping back. My eyes scanned the area, searching for the one who caused the burst of wind.

And there it was. Looking faint and transparent, almost like the wind itself. The transparent bird had a green hue to its body, which gave it away but also blended its body into the forest. It looked stunningly beautiful, looked like something you would imagine when you read books of magical animals. Pity I have to kill it.

The instant that I locked eye with it, the bird changed its stance. Going from undetectable to gathering green wind around it as a defense. The first bird dived again, not giving me a moment to think or attack the ethereal one.

But a loud piercing cry resounded in the air, stopping both birds in their attack.

Both birds hovered in the air for a moment, as if contemplating. Then, without looking back, flew off into the air along with a third bird, which was sitting somewhere close to my right all this time.

What...... Just happened?

………………..

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

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Brushing my mind off the event, I ventured further, paying extra attention to the environment. The place seemed to be slightly changing the further I go. The land elevating further and further with the water level decreasing in correspondence.

Eventually, I reached a place where the flood had yet to put its mark upon. The land appeared solid and dry, except for the slight wetness of the rain. The shrubs and small plants still lively and rooted along with small blue rocks scattered around the land.

That’s a good sign.

I slowly and carefully scouted the area. First, from above; circling a small radius and checking the ground. Checking if there was anything that could attack me down below when my eyes stopped at a particular place. It wasn’t fruits or shrubs or anything like that, no; it was something much better.

I saw an area devoid of the charcoal-colored trees, and in the middle of it, a giant crystal floating in the air.

Holy shit!...

I jumped down and walked closer to the crystal, forgetting my earlier caution. The crystal wasn’t covered in a field of fog like the last time, but still gave off a feeling that inspired awe and amazement, signaling that what was in front of me was something out of this world and truly magical.

The air felt thicker and heavier as I got closer to the crystal. Being drawn by it. My raised hands felt pleasing and glued to the surface as soon as I touched the icy surface.

The giant stone hummed in power and the words magically appeared in my vision again, a lot faster than last time.

DESIGNATED TITLE INITIATE #737790 HOMEWORLD SPECIES

CORRUPTION LEVEL 25% - BASELINE CROSSED

SOUL STRENGTH LOWER LEVEL 3

LIGHT 65% VITALITY 30% EDOS CONVERSION ~ DISSOLUTED

QUEST [ALLOTED TO ALL INITIATE] KILL 100 INVASIVE LIFEFORMS 61/100 ASSIMILATE 3 ARTIFACTS 1/3 KILL 10 UPPER-LEVEL SOUL 1/10 SLAY 1 LORD LEVEL SOUL 0/1

GRAND QUEST [ALLOTED TO ALL HOMEWORLD SPECIES IN AREA] KILL THE WITCH PYRUS THE CORRUPTED ONE (1/1) SLAY THE MINOTAUR THE LOST SOUL (1/1) DESTROY THE CLUTTER OF WEAVERS 7999/7999

PROVISIONAL QUESTS [DUNGEON] KILL 100 DUNGEON CREATURES 26/100 ASSEMBLE THE COMPLETE KEY - CLEAR THE DUNGEON IN 64 DAYS - SLAY THE 1ST LEVEL KEEPER 0/1

TEMPORARY FURTHER DIRECTIVE CAN BE PROVIDED TO INITIATE #737790 IN THE AREA OF THE DUNGEON

Y/N

There were a few changes when compared to last time, but my eyes were more focused on the last part. Further directive? Assistance?

Yes! YES! HELL YES! Who’s gonna say no to that?

As soon as I mentally agreed/accepted it, my vision slowly dimmed out of my body. But I expected something similar, so I didn’t panic this time. My vision flew away from my body, crossing the distance quickly. Travelled towards my right at a blinding speed and reached the foot of a mountain where the hole I climbed out of was located.

My vision went further in, through the hole, going through the slope, through the path, and reaching the end of the cave to a pocked of space where I first found myself in when I transferred to this dungeon. But in that space, which should have been empty, was a giant creature who has squeezed itself into the small pocket of space.

The red eyes of the creature widened as my vision reached it. The creature, which looked nearly identical to the faceless creature, except for its huge size and red eyes, parted its mouth as it made a delightful growl. As if voicelessly saying ‘I found you'

My vision came back to my body jarringly, making me fall into my butt. The vision was long gone, but it was replaced by another.

I could still sense the faceless creature in the cave. It squeezing out of the small pocket where it was sleeping and climbing up the incline to reach me. I could instinctively feel its location and knew that it could feel me as well.

We both will know where the other was, constantly.

I barely stopped myself from kicking the crystal.

"How is this helping me?” This thing had basically put me on a deathmatch!

I wanted to scream at the entity that put me in this situation, but I had no time to quarrel with a stone right now. I had to get back to the trees and into the area of the flood, where it can’t reach me.

I ran around the area and quickly grabbed a few mushrooms, berries, stones, and dumped it in my vest. I could feel it was getting closer and fast. But I also had to eat something to survive tomorrow as well.

Reinforcing my feet and fingers, I quickly climbed the tree and ran back to where I came from.

Shit, didn’t I go quite far from where the water was? Hopefully, it couldn’t attack me on the trees.

Sensing that I was running away, the giant faceless blasted itself off the ground, running at a blinding speed. And within two minutes, I could see the creature with my real vision, frothing from its mouth as it chased after me.

The only reason I wasn’t screaming in fear right now was because I was running in the trees and it couldn’t climb up because of its weight.

The creature, using its creepily long legs, grabbed onto the tree and started dashing through the branches while climbing towards me.

Right. The trees here were hard as a diamond, weren’t they?

I screamed. Running even faster, without a care of falling. The only reason it hadn’t caught me was because of the countless branches that impeded it when it ran. Not even the big monster being able to break it.

I saw the flooded area of the forest, appearing as salvation to my eyes. But the creature was so close to me right now, just barely behind me. I was not going to reach it before it reached me.

I jumped, aiming at the water. My vitality filled legs carrying me into the air in a straight path towards the water as if launched.

My body slammed into the ground after being slowed by the water, putting me half in a daze. Five feet of water not being deep enough to cushion a fall from over 30 meters.

I quickly snapped out of my stupor and waded through the flood which tasted like blood. I’ll have more or less a minute before the big aquatic creatures can sense me. It was in desperation that I jumped into the water. And it would be luck if nothing big grabbed me before I reached somewhere safe.

An eel or something similar hooked on to my leg as it continued to take bites off it.

I ignored it as I quickly reached a tree and climbed it. After climbing a few meters up, I finally dared to look back towards the faceless creature.

It was looking at me with widened pupils. With a face of expectation and joy. It kept its gaze onto mine, making sure that I knew, then slowly turned its head around and walked back. Indenting a promise that it was going to keep.

My legs buckled under me, causing me to fall into the branch. My trembling fingers plucked out the eel’s head that was biting my legs and inserted a reinforced finger in its brain.

I had time till the floor dries up, then... I’m dead….