Throughout the canyon intense rumbles could be felt all around along with loud booms echoing along the canyon walls, the source of all this could be seen somewhere within, a lone man fighting fiercely against a gigantic beast that most would feel dread just laying their eyes on.

Looking up at the wyvern Damien could be seen with a crazed smile seemingly enjoying the intense clash against the beast. The wyvern however was anything but happy and was the complete opposite, it was fuming.

Raising its gigantic claws the wyvern swiped at Damien intent on turning him into a paste on the canyon floor. While the beast was fast in the air on the ground its speed was nowhere near what it had been while flying meaning Damien could dodge the attack with little effort.

At the end of the day, the wyvern was an animal that evolved into its current state and had very little intelligence, its thoughts were like that of a toddler and its attacks were even worse as it relied mostly on what its instincts told it.

However, even though the wyvern was quite stupid it was starting to realize that it would not be able to beat the ant in front of it mainly because it could not land any attacks, it had tried attacking with its stinger, claws, mouth, tail, anything, and everything it could think of but the ant dodged all of it with ease.

This had been extremely frustrating to the beast and it also did not help that the ant was able to land attacks on it easily as well, since its body was so massive the wyvern had no way of dodging the attacks… if it were not for its extremely robust scales absorbing most of the damage it would have long died by now.

Suddenly the tiny being ceased its attacks and backed off from the wyvern giving it space to breathe, looking over at the ant a questioning look could be seen in the beast's eyes wondering why the ant had ceased its assault.

“It would be a shame to kill you so how about we end things here?” the beast hearing these words was unsure of what to make of them, as an animal it obviously did not understand Damien’s words so it could only tilt its head to the side in confusion.

Damien seeing the beast's head tilt laughed out loud at its actions, ‘It's almost like a dog except a lot bigger and more scary looking.’ after having fought it for a bit Damien had decided he did not want to kill the wyvern and would rather leave it alive to see what it could become in the future maybe it could even become a true dragon… the thought of that truly excited him.

“Listen wyvee, that's what I am going to call you. We will meet again one day, until then stay alive and get stronger… the next time we meet I want a true battle.” With that Damien disappeared in a flash greatly surprising the beast who immediately raised its guard and looked around with caution expecting the tiny ant to jump out at it.

After waiting for almost fifteen minutes the wyvern finally relaxed before taking flight and heading back to the geyser it was previously on seemingly unconcerned about what had just happened.

As the beast flew away Damien could be seen watching it from a distance concealed in the shadows, once the beast was out of sight he turned and decided to continue with his journey having had enough fun for now.

Since he and Ela had decided to meet at “Owlshire” before the next event he had about a month and a half to do whatever he wanted and for his next location he decided to look back at the map since he was a shade and had perfect memory being unable to forget anything Damien did not need to pull it out but instead just thought of the maps imagine in his mind.

The current place he was just within was called “Beasts Canyon” a rather boring name but he himself could not say he would be able to do better. Not only were beast markers shown on the map there were also stuff like towns, roads, or even monuments that had popped up after the system arrived but none of this caught Damien’s attention for some reason on the map there was an area extremely close to the canyon he had just been at that was unexplored.

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This seemed rather strange to him because the map showed an unexplored area as a giant circle, with everything outside explored but the inside remaining untouched. Intrigued by this Damien decided to check it out.

After heading in the direction the area was in Damien eventually arrived at the spot where the map just became a gray area, looking around everything seemed normal, and it was just your average forest.

However, that could not be the case… something had to be dangerous or weird about the area otherwise there is no way the map would display it as an unexplored area.

“Damn it,” Damien thought to himself as he made his way into the forest. After wandering for a bit, he ventured deeper and deeper into the dense trees, closely watching his surroundings for anything that might attack him.

As he moved further in, something felt off. The deeper Damien walked into the forest, the weirder he felt; he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. It didn’t take long for him to realize the reason. After walking another ten feet, he suddenly felt his body become ten times heavier.

His limbs grew extremely heavy, and just taking a single step felt like running a marathon. Struggling to breathe, Damien understood why this area remained unexplored: most people could only venture as high as level twenty, which was nowhere near enough to tackle this part of the forest. As an E rank, he was still struggling to withstand the increased gravity. Walking back a few hundred yards, the pressure on Damien began to ease, allowing him to drop to his hands and knees as he gasped for air. “Holy shit, that sucked,” he thought, glancing back at the forest with a sense of dread.

If he hadn’t been strong enough to withstand the increased gravity, Damien would have been reduced to a puddle on the forest floor. Shaking off the lingering sensations, he stood up and faced the forest ahead.

While the area was dangerous and he knew his current condition wouldn't allow him to venture too deep for long, it also presented an opportunity. If he continued to enter the forest in short bursts before retreating, it could serve as a form of training. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time before he needed to meet up with Ela; he could only spend about a week training here before having to leave.

Suddenly, Damien realized something: If gravity was so strong within the forest, then the entire area would be affected as well, even though he was standing in a place where the impact was less severe.

Enhancing his senses to the area around him Damien was able to confirm this was true he just had not taken note of it before and shrugged it off as a weird feeling. Damien began throwing out attacks and was able to notice that it was a lot harder than usual, seeing this a big smile appeared on his face.

If Damien could become accustomed to launching attacks in this area, he was confident that his battle prowess would significantly improve. This would enable him to withstand stronger attacks while also delivering more powerful blows of his own.

***

“I'm sorry sir, we tried everything but at this point, it's out of our control and the grade x cannot be captured by the men we have on hand.”

BAM! The sound of a hand slamming against wood could be heard within the room, “You had the entirety of our organization on this planet providing you with resources to recapture the grade x but you still managed to fuck it up.”

The man let out a loud sigh before leaning his chin against his hands, “Tell me Emma why should I allow you to keep your position instead of having you replaced? If you do not give me a convincing reason then...

Emma looked up with an expressionless face, “With all due respect sir the resources you're referring to are horrible. The men we have on the planet can’t even be called a resource in the first place, not a single one of them is competent, otherwise, how would the grade x escape that day? Even though my plan failed he was still surrounded by tens of our men but those incompetent fucks still managed to mess up and were forced to run with their tails between their legs.”

“So by all means, if you would like to replace one of your only competent people on this planet with one of those dumbasses be my guest.” Emma finished her words while looking straight into the man's eyes almost mocking him.

Surprisingly however the man did not get angry and instead smiled, “This is why I chose you in the first place for this position. You have backbone, alright I won’t be replacing you but you better start showing some results as if you don’t the ones above me will force my hand you understand this right?”

“Yes sir,” Emma responded while bowing her head before turning to take her leave. “Also stop calling me sir I told you to call me by my name Emma.”

A sneer appeared on Emma’s face for a split second before she turned back around and said. “Ah, I forgot sorry about that Orson.”