Ryker didn’t move immediately, but his eyes never left the portal.

Slowly, the beating of his heart calmed and he thought about exactly what he would be facing.

Regardless of what the answer was, there was bound to be danger. But he had likewise already decided that he had to go no matter what.

Ryker was a cautious person whenever he could afford to be. He might seem brash and arrogant, but he always had contingency plans and he never did anything without thinking. Of course, the exception was if he was experiencing one of his episodes. And that clearly wasn’t the situation now.

‘Only one way to find out.’

No matter how Ryker stared at the portal, he couldn’t get any clues.

The view to the other side was far too obstructed, and his soul couldn’t seem to see through the other side either.

After some thought, he summoned Prometheus, allowing the little guy to wrap around him.

Prometheus was at ease in both Fire and Water, so Ryker wasn’t worried about it regardless of whether what was on the other side mirrored this current situation or not.

With that thought, he stepped through, his body on full alert.

Ryker felt as though his body was being stretched thin. It felt like his feet were miles away from his head, and the solemnity of the matter got to him.

It seemed that even beneath all his caution, he had neglected one very important matter.

What if the danger wasn’t hidden in the world on the other side, but rather in the transportation between these two lands in the first place? What if he died in the portal itself?

Ryker didn’t get to think about this much because in a WHOOSH!, he found himself awkwardly trying to regain his balance.

He suffered a bout of vertigo and he couldn’t quite see straight for a long while. By the time his eyes had cleared enough to understand what was around him, what must have been at least half a minute had passed.

Once again, he was at the bottom of a deep trench and it didn’t even look like he had moved from his original location. At first, Ryker really questioned himself. The last few minutes had been too disorienting, so he wasn’t even sure himself.

Had he stepped through the portal? Or not? Or maybe he had and he failed to walk through that barrier and make it to the other side?

Ryker’s gaze suddenly sharpened.

No, that wasn’t the case at all.

He felt around with his senses and could just tell that this place was different.

The moment he had this thought, the waves of pressure hit him and he suddenly felt suffocated.

All of the thoughts and realizations hit him at once and he realized that his last guess had to be right.

Another location on Planet Rivarius or another Iteration couldn’t possibly pressure him like this, not with the current state of his Dao of Water.

Like he had said before, only a place with complete Daos could pressure him to this extent. Now he felt like his body was being crushed from all sides.

‘Prometheus!’ Ryker called out in his mind before the waters came crashing down around him.

A pulse came from Prometheus and at that moment, the unruly waters seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Ryker let out a shuddering breath. This little guy was really a bit too slow. He didn’t even realize that his master was about to die.

Shaking his head, Ryker couldn’t help but chuckle, but inwardly, he was also a bit shocked.

His Dao had reached an unprecedented level, at least compared to before. It had reached the pinnacle of what he thought was possible for a Tier 1 Dao. And yet, it couldn’t accomplish what Prometheus had just done with a great amount of ease.

Finally, Ryker had the time to look around, his heart filled with confusion.

Was this place really the other side? Was escaping the prison so easy?

Ryker was skeptical, but the fact before him couldn’t be ignored. However, before he confirmed, he still had a great deal of investigation to do.

If this was really the other side, he would take his family and escape. If he didn’t have to face these people head-on immediately, then he wouldn’t.

Ryker wasn’t a fool. He knew how foolhardy it was to expect himself to grow strong enough to battle it out against these people in just a few more months. Who knew how many centuries or even longer they had cultivated for?

But unless he could confirm that this place was what he needed, there was no point in taking such a chance.

He took a deep breath and settled himself down. Then, he began to move his way up the trench, being cautious.

If the Daos in this place were so much stronger than Rivarius, to the point that they could almost crush him, then it was likely that the beasts in this place would likewise be far more powerful. If he wasn’t cautious, he could certainly lose his life without knowing how.

He finally reached the top and peeked over, trying to check if the coast was clear.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

His senses didn’t seem to go as far in this region, so it seemed that he might have to predominantly rely on his eyes.

‘It’s unfortunate. This place would be an excellent one to progress my Dao in. But I can’t get distracted right now…’

He could afford to take Planet Rivarius lightly because the Dao gave him such a huge advantage. But that obviously wouldn’t be the case here.

He leapt up and began to move. What Ryker didn’t expect was that he would run into danger so quickly.

Relying on his eyes so deep into the ocean felt like a fool’s errand. There was hardly any light at all after he had left the region of the geothermal activity.

So Ryker almost didn’t notice until it was too late that a large turtle had appeared before him.

It had a shell of black and its skin was a leathery dark green.

Ryker was stunned. Turtle beasts usually didn’t come anywhere near this deep into the ocean. At the very least, he had never heard of any.

What shocked him more was that he somewhat recognized this beast, and yet not at the same time.

‘Isn’t this the Tidal Fall Sea Turtle? But it’s not like it at all.’

The Tidal Fall Sea Turtle would at most be at the middle ranges of the ocean. It was a 6th Circle beast known, ironically, for its speed in the water. Its acceleration was slow, but when it really got going and built up a current, it could travel faster than the speed of sound in water even before it reached the Ascension Realm.

This, though, was all a fancy way of saying it was a good transportation beast. Though, only the richest of families would use a 6th Circle Beast for such things.

However, while this beast seemed similar, it wasn’t quite like it either.

For one, it was much larger. A Tidal Fall Sea Turtle would at most be two meters or so long, but this turtle was a behemoth at over four meters long, and that was just its shell from end to end. That didn’t incorporate its tail or its head which easily added another two meters together. It was practically the size of Phoenix.

On top of that, its shell was much thicker and seemed to exude a mysterious pulse. And, it didn’t have the fin-like arms of a normal sea turtle, but rather walked on legs across the bottom of the ocean as though it was taking a leisurely stroll.

The turtle beast didn’t react to Ryker’s appearance at first, and Ryker soon realized that that was because the pulse coming from its shell was a form of cultivation.

‘What?’

Ryker was shocked once again. Beasts didn’t cultivate, not like this. Even with their strength, most just ate, slept, and battled. That was how they improved.

If beasts could actively cultivate…

Just how much more powerful than humans would they become?

It was a heart-shuddering thought.

Ryker wanted to take immediate action, but he froze again.

This turtle was a First Elevated beast and it was a 7th Circle talent. If it could survive down here, its strength definitely wasn’t so simple at all.

Ryker’s gaze focused and his Dao reached out.

Since his soul wasn’t enough to sense his surroundings, he would just have to use water as his conduit instead.

The water began to send tendrils of feedback toward him and his mind elevated in sharpness.

A hundred meters… two hundred… a thousand…

He stretched out further and further until he reached his limits. At least within three kilometers, there didn’t seem to be anything else.

Ryker sprung into action.

The eyes of the turtle beast snapped open. Its eyes carried an ancient and majestic feeling. Ryker actually felt like he was falling into an abyss just looking at it.

But that was when something that left him stunned happened.

The ancient gaze of the turtle beast twisted and changed, suddenly becoming one of panic.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Don’t eat me!”

Ryker froze.

Because of the waters, his action almost seemed quite comical. His body slowly fell through the waters until he hit the wet sand of the bottom of the ocean. But he never stopped staring at the turtle beast for even a moment.

What the hell?

It wasn’t as though Spirit Beasts couldn’t talk. At a certain level, their intelligence was no less than that of humans. This was especially so the more talented they were.

In fact, he had already met Phoenix’s family once before and they wanted nothing more than to shred him to pieces.

But… he had never met such a cowardly beast.

Ryker landed on the ground, but the turtle had already retreated into its shell, hiding.

After some thought, Ryker called out. “Alright, I won’t eat you. But I want some information.”

“… Really?” The turtle opened one eye.

Ryker shook his head speechlessly. This beast had such an imposing aura and mighty potential hidden within it, so why was it so timid? Those eyes couldn’t possibly come from a weak beast, no matter what their lineage was.

“Yes, really. Now, first question, what are the powerful beasts in this region, what do you know about them?”

The turtle blinked in surprise but eventually answered.

“… There’s the Titan Turtle Race, the Boiling Heart Whales, the Cyprus Seakings, and the Crimson Vine Octopi. They’re all 7th Circle Foundation Clans with 9th Circle potential.”

Ryker was listening casually until he heard this. Then he froze.

“What did you say?”

The turtle suddenly retreated back into his shell, fearing that he had said something wrong that pissed Ryker off.

“No, no. Come back. What do you mean 7th Circle Foundation with 9th Circle potential?”

The turtle peeked back out and looked at Ryker with confusion.

“Are you… not an old monster who took human form…?”

Ryker blinked and he suddenly understood why it was that the turtle feared him. It wasn’t because it was truly so timid, but because it had mistaken him for something else entirely. However, Ryker had never heard of a Spirit Beast taking human form before. He wasn’t even sure if he liked that idea at all. He preferred his Contracts to remain beasts. If they became humans, things would get messy. What would he do if one of them turned out to be a beautiful woman? That much was fine, but wouldn’t it be weird if he had raised them from childhood?

Ryker shook his head. No. Absolutely not.

‘I’ve spent too long without a woman in my bed. What kind of from-the-abyss thoughts am I having? As soon as we get back, I’m going to see Jaana.’

Ryker had never done much more than hold Jaana’s hand and make out with her a few times. Though, that was because he was still hesitant about their marriage. But now that he wasn’t, would he even still be a man if he didn’t have a taste of his own wife?

Soon, Ryker got all the answers he wanted out of the beast.

It turned out that this world was truly a different one. Whether it was outside of the prison or not still had yet to be confirmed. But what was certain was that things worked differently here. Spirit Beast Clans were a lot more like humans in that they had a varying range of talents. But unlike humans, they had a foundation that they couldn’t be weaker than.

Clans with a 7th Circle Talent would be born with 7th Circle Talent at worst no matter what. However, there was a chance for these talents to be 8th Circle, and an even smaller chance that they would be 9th Circle.

In addition, it turned out that the taking human form aspect was just something that beasts did in this world from time to time in order to spy and blend into the human world. It wasn’t a permanent change, nor was it even something they liked to do. There were a few eccentrics who went all in with it, and the turtle had thought that Ryker was one of them. But in the end, they were still a shocking few. After all, beasts lost at least 50% of their strength while in human form.

Ryker suddenly grinned. If there were true 9th Circle Beasts here… didn’t that mean that his search for a Contract had suddenly gained new life?

He was especially interested in two. The Titan Turtle… According to the timid turtle, it was a Race of Turtles that were the product of the union between the Tidal Fall Sea Turtle and the Draconic Whale Race, plus generations of evolution. They were Water and Combat Types, and were known to have the strongest defenses out of all oceanic creatures.

Then there were the Cyprus Seakings.

They seemed to be an evolution of the Blue Seakings.

And from what Ryker heard… he was far more interested in the latter, not just for its strength, but if he was going to bed his lovely fiancee when he returned, shouldn’t he give her a gift? Helping her Blue Seaking to evolve to a new level might be precisely the gift that made her forgive him for slipping onto her planet without going to see her first.