-Radiant-
After I stepped into the void I felt a weightlessness and a slight forward moving motion come over me. Then suddenly there was a crack in the void that opened up and spit me out in front of a completely different scenery, and the feeling of weightlessness disappeared.
Taking a quick look around I found myself in a forest environment, standing in a grassy clearing devoid of trees. The trees surrounding the clearing had vibrant orange almost rusted colored leaves, and the grass and flowers covering the ground were dense and full of life. The forest around me was mainly populated by thin aspen-like trees, however these trees were a metallic bronze color and were mostly smooth and vaguely shiny like metal.
However, as I was observing the forest, something felt wrong about the whole scene, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. At first I thought I smelled the metallic scent of blood in the air, but focusing on the smell it wasn’t the smell of blood at all, it was mixed with a hint of woodiness and was probably coming from the metallic trees. I could’ve tried to find out what was wrong if I had more time - with my [Mental Operator] - but I wasn’t in a situation where I could leisurely sit around. Whatever was bothering me, hopefully it wasn't a big deal.
[You have entered a regional dungeon through an unstable portal. If you do not exit through the portal you entered before it disappears, then you will be stranded in the regional dungeon. Time remaining until portal disappears: 673 hours]
I won’t be returned? That’s just fine by me. And a regional dungeon? Even more good news, although I’m not 100% sure about that, I'm at least 85% certain. There’s even the possibility that this regional dungeon isn’t even in Tallen, though that wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.
If this really was a regional dungeon, then that opened up a whole list of possibilities. Because regional dungeons are areas of land within the same domain with their own separate rules, monsters and environment. In the context of a dungeon floor, a regional dungeon would be separate areas on the same floor. However in this case, the regional dungeon was somewhere in Epidas, though it was probably at least on the Main Continent of Waroth, and almost certainly somewhere within Tallen’s borders. If this regional dungeon was powerful enough to open portals to different countries, then I would be in deep trouble, let alone different Main Continents.
Which was both a good and a bad thing for me. It was good because it meant that I was in a separate location, far away from Lonevista. However, it was bad because it could be potentially very dangerous for a weakling like me. But I wouldn’t let that get me down, my entire build was based around adaptation after all, if anyone was going to survive in an unplanned hostile environment it was me.
Finishing my initial observation and evaluation, I turned to look back at the portal I had entered from. You might’ve been my companion for many decades, but I hope I never have to see you again. Hasta la vista, Lonevista.
I turned away from the portal and jogged in a random direction towards the silent forest treeline. As I got closer to the treeline I started to feel uncomfortable, and I could feel the magical markings underneath my skin start to take more of my mana to run. It was distressing, but thanks to my magical physique I was much more resilient against magical environmental effects, so whatever was happening wasn’t a big problem.
As I noticed this environmental effect, I thought that I had figured out what was causing me to feel uncomfortable, but as I entered the forest I was proven wrong. From out of nowhere an animal that was about half my height pounced at me from behind a tree. My mind sensed the threat and made my body dodge out of the way with a pre-programmed response.
What was that and how did it find me!? I should be completely concealed right now! My mind sped up as I pushed my senses to their limits and tried to measure the level of danger this new threat presented. I could hear the sounds of its deep breaths, and as I flicked my eyes over to the creature I was able to get a glimpse of its, frankly, ugly face. There were no eyes on the lizard-like head, but it had four large nostrils that seemed to be continuously sucking in air from one pair and letting it out through the other.
Maybe it smelled me somehow? I wouldn’t say it was impossible, my concealment from the physical senses was currently much weaker than my anti-magical concealment. As I thought that, the creature took another breath and turned its head towards me. Yep it’s definitely able to smell me. It doesn’t look like it’s a major threat, but I shouldn’t let my guard down just yet.
My mental processes sped up even more, and I could feel [Mental Operator]’s energy start to slowly tick down as I began to draw out more energy than I was passively gaining. With all of my minds working together I quickly enhanced my physical attributes, and I felt my body’s reactions catch up with my accelerated mind.
The four nosed lizard wasn’t idle either. As soon as it touched the ground, it took another lunge towards me. I was still fairly close to it and so wasn’t able to see the full body of the creature, but I could tell that it probably had powerful legs.
With my enhanced body I was just barely able to dodge the much closer attack from the creature, and I continued to dodge its attacks as I fired up four of the radiation beam spells I had been using recently. They completed in no time, with all of my minds working together, and I overloaded the spells as much as I could and tried to increase the burning effect of the spell as much as possible.
As the spells were overloaded with as much mana as I could push into them, I fired them with pinpoint accuracy into all four of the creature’s nostrils, thoroughly burning them and preventing any rapid healing the creature might’ve had.
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With its sense of smell now gone, the creature began to screech and flail around blindly, allowing me to get away from it. I had bought myself some time to think, and hopefully take down the lizard, without getting up close and personal. However, as the smell of burned flesh wafted into my nose, I thought that I should end this battle sooner rather than later, lest the smell draw in more of these super smelling lizards my way.
The radiation beams wouldn’t be powerful enough to finish off the four nosed lizard, so I decided to go back to the good old fashioned earth spike. As the lizard continued to randomly attack its surroundings, I used all of my mental resources to complete the spell construct as fast as possible and overload it with mana to be certain it would finish the job.
As I let the spell loose I still had a faint sense of connection to the spell. With this I could feel the spell rapidly unravel as it traveled through the air towards my target, and by the time the spell landed on the lizard’s chest it had no effect.
What was that all about? First the lizard is able to sense me, and now my spells are decaying in the air? Just what is going on here? I thought about doing some experiments to get down to the bottom of it, but I was currently in the process of trying to get as far away from the portal as possible. I didn’t have the time to mess around.
I was about to turn away from the lizard and run deeper into the forest, when I saw something rush towards the lizard and take it down with a swift strike to the neck. Holy Jilly what is going on!? The new attacker was almost the size of a small car, and looked like the cross between a wolf and a tiger except with two pairs of feline ears. Do all animals in this place have twice as many of one sensory organ or something?
The lizard stood no chance against the new massive challenger, and quickly succumbed to its fate. However the wolf-tiger didn’t immediately chow down on its quarry, it looked alert with its four ears turning every which way, searching for something. Hopefully it won't find me.
Not wanting to have anything to do with this new foe, I checked my concealment magic to make sure I wouldn’t be found. It was just a nervous glance at first, but I was surprised by what I saw. My concealment magic was unraveling at a rapid pace just like my earth spike spell had, and unless I did something I wasn’t going to remain concealed for much longer.
Desperate to avoid any more hold ups and fights, I span and cast a new concealment spell faster than ever. With my presence safely hidden once again, I started to back away from the wolf-tiger that still seemed on edge for some reason.
With my attention so focused on the threat in front of me, it was no surprise that I kicked a small branch as I was backing up. It made no noise when I kicked it, but as it rolled away it went out of range of my concealment spell and made the faintest of sound as it disturbed the grass. All of the wolf-tiger’s ears swiveled in my direction, and my heart nearly stopped as I froze in place, not daring to move.
Dang it Radiant, you couldn’t have spared even a little attention to where you were walking?
Maybe I had triggered a flag, or maybe the universe was feeling a little ironic. In any case, the wolf-tiger failed to react to the massive figure that fell from the sky and crushed the wolf-tiger under its claws, as it had been so focused on the sound I had made.
The ground shook under the new arrival’s massive weight, but I was able to keep my footing as I observed and calculated my chances of escape. The large claws that had crushed the wolf-tiger, connected to vibrant colorful wings, and the wings belonged to a creature I could only describe as a Quetzalcoatl.
The long serpentine creature had two pairs of multicolored feathered wings, with its front pair functioning similar to arms, and its head had a colorful display fanning out behind it. Its green, red, and yellow body had diamond patterns on its scales, and its length from tail to head must’ve been at least 20 meters if not more, and its body was almost as thick as a semi trailer container.
The creature wasted no time swallowing everything whole before casually glancing around to see if there was any more food nearby. Thankfully it didn’t check too hard, and moved into the nearby clearing after only a couple minutes. Then it took off into the sky with more grace than seemed possible for a creature of its size.
I didn’t wait around to see if any more creatures wanted to check out the area. I ran with slightly shaking legs into the forest, and constantly refreshed my decaying concealment magic as I looked for a place to hide.
Does the world hate me or something!? At this point I think there’s some kind of cosmic joke being played on me that I don’t know about. I mean, I’m ambushed almost as soon as I come through the portal, then when I’m almost finished dealing with that a larger predator shows up and almost finds me. If that wasn’t enough then a Quetzalcoatl falls from the sky! Is this place some sort of Radiant hunting grounds or something…?
Wait a minute. There’s a portal that connects to a place like Lonevista that has weak animals, and I’m ambushed as soon as I exit it… This is totally a feeding ground! Argh, why me!?
As I bemoaned my cursed luck, eventually I came across a small cliff as I was running through the metallic forest. The cliff was maybe 10 meters in height, and I liberally used magic to make a small entrance in the cliff face and hollowed out a place for me to hide.
I crawled inside the entrance with a rock before laying my tired, almost mana depleted, body on the floor of the tiny cave. As I was running through the forest I noticed that the new changes to my body - caused by the concealment relic - were still not used to physical exertion, and all of the wires running throughout my body were now sore from overexertion.
When it rains it pours huh? I doubt I’ll be able to move around much for another day or so, but even if I could I wouldn’t want to. I have no clue how big this magic unraveling forest is, and there’s no guarantee that I would make it out before my mana runs out. If that happened then it would probably only be a matter of time before something as strong as that Quetzalcoatl found and killed me.
I sighed as I bemoaned my fate of running and hiding from the extremely powerful. Why couldn’t I just enjoy a comfortable life in the city? Haaah… oh well, it is what it is. Might as well spend my time trying to come up with a solution rather than complaining.
It would take some time to find out where exactly I was and how to escape from here, since my scrying magic was rendered useless within this forest, but I would still be able to search through The Archives and hopefully find out there. Hopefully this forest wouldn’t be too large, but knowing my luck it was probably ginormous. It would probably be a while before I would be able to return to civilization. Hopefully Mystdell wouldn’t be mad that I wouldn’t be seeing her in the near future, but I would try to mollify her anger when I sent a message to her through Genesis.
On the bright side, I would be able to advance my stats for the first time in a while. Me being stranded here wasn’t what I had planned, but maybe a training montage was just what the doctor ordered. The desire to increase my personal power was starting to burn within me, and it wasn’t like I had anything else to do. Plus I had so many new things to familiarize myself with. My rewards from the Dungeon of Tribulation weren't going to learn themselves.