The fall took so much longer than he had thought. The seconds felt like hours as the surface grew closer and closer. The only thing he could do was to take a stick position and hope that the water had carved a deep enough area below the edge of the waterfall that he wouldn't just crush against some rock below the surface.

Even though he was just meters away, he could only see white foam on top of the water preventing him from seeing what awaited him below the surface, the element of not knowing what awaited him growing his anxiety. He could only hope for the best.

And soon enough, he didn't have to guess what his fate would be.

He took one last deep breath, and his feet hit the water, punching through its surface, right at the edge where the waterfall hit the water.

His momentum carried him downwards, plunging him into the depths. Immediately he felt how the cold water encompassed his body, closing it in its embrace.

And then, he got a first-hand experience of the violent power of nature. He felt how the waterfall pushed him deeper into the pool, increasing his already fast tumble through the water downwards. To his relief, the pool was more than deep enough, the waterfall had carved at least ten meters into the rock below, creating an extremely steep crater in the middle of the pool of water.

He was like a cork in a river as he tried to control his body, but none of his movements did any good. The incredible force of the waterfall pushing him downwards was unrelenting and unforgiving. Even straightening his body was beyond him.

His mad tumple through the pool continued almost all the way to the bottom of it, before there was finally enough water above him to act as a buffer between him and the waterfall above, giving him finally the ability to be the master of his own movements. He fought his way free from the rest of the water's downward push as he swam to the edge of the crater.

Then he started his mad push upwards, wanting to taste the sweet taste of oxygen once again. He hugged the edge of the crater as he swam upwards, staying as far away from the downward current as he could. He was by no means a good swimmer, but what he lacked in technique, he made up with power and the will to live. He had already jumped off a 50 meters high ledge, so there was no way that he would let the thing that killed him be drowning.

When he started nearing the top, he once again started to feel how the currents were beginning to pick up, as the river continued on its way. But this was nothing compared to the one upstream.

He pushed himself forwards, determined to reach the bank. To his relief, the pool was only 15 meters wide, so he didn't have to struggle for long. When he finally reached the edge of the pool, the water finally stopped pulling him in every which way. And there, a glorious sight awaited him.

His backpack was in the knee-deep water, still in one piece, and all of his equipment kindly waiting for him.

The moment he reached the shallower waters, he realized that the air had reached an all-time high in the mana concentration. It was on a completely new level like all he had felt before had been nothing but a warmup. He was having a hard time breathing. But after he stood there for a while, just getting used to the constant pressure, he started to be able to function. When he got over the overwhelming first impression, all he was left with was a weird feeling. He could feel how his awakened skin was just barely stopping the mana from invading his body.

He wasn't sure what would happen then. Maybe he could use the mana to advance himself? Or maybe not. But it didn't seem like the best idea. As he had noticed how, when the mana was specialized, it had more pronounced abilities. And the mana around him was just a jumbled mess of different energies mixed together with no rhyme or reason. And then again, opening the floodgates didn't seem that smart either, the last thing a drowning man needs is more water. He had learned the hard way not to take in more mana at once than he could handle.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Finally, something positive..." Tom lamented as he checked that all of his gear was still there.

Then he looked at the sheer ninety-degree stone wall rising like an unscalable wall before him, continuing for as far as he could see in every direction. He could just barely make out the point where the wall ended and the sky began.

"What now?"

Once he finally dragged himself and his gear out of the water, he went to the cliff wall and looked at it from closer. It was ridiculously smooth stone, almost like it had been truly built. The stone was also ridiculously hard. He hardly left a mark on it as he hit at it with his pickaxe.

"Well, I'm stuck here... Unless I grew wings..."

Tom quickly ran through his options. Naturally, he could just die and get back to the city, but what would be the point of that? At that point, he might as well have let the wolves eat him. At least then, he could have gotten his gear more easily.

"Nothing to it. I just have to make the most of this. Maybe I will even find a way back?"

Tom placed the backpack onto his back and looked around. Trying to decide his next destination.

He was currently in what looked like a tundra without the permafrost. The river snaked further away toward the forest that started some distance away. From the forest, he could see some lot taller trees punching through the other ones, proudly standing above the rest.

The tundra-like environment continued along the cliff wall as far as he could see before some hills blocked his vision.

He started walking through the tundra along the wall. Who knows, maybe he would find a tunnel or something like that to get out from here. He was pretty sure that more mana in the air meant more dangerous opponents, and he was quite sure that he was currently the smallest fish in this particular bond.

The tundra was a nice change from the forest. Here he could see much further. And he was pretty sure that it would be a lot harder for monsters to ambush him. Of course, if they weren't small enough to hide in among the small runtish bushes that covered most of the ground. They were quite nice looking, and they had a reddish tint to them, which gave the tundra a nice contrast, as it had a greyish-green base layer of something akin to grass.

Then again, here the monsters could see him from much further away, but Tom would choose this deal any day of the week, as his track record on spotting his enemies before they noticed him was abysmal.

He selected one of the hills in the distance that stood a bit above the rest as his target and started moving.

While he walked, his head spun around, looking everywhere at once, trying to notice anything that moved or something piqued his interest.

After walking for a while, he realized that the hill was much further away than he thought, his sense of distance skewed by the massive wall, as everything looked so minuscule next to it.

His track took him thirty minutes, as he didn't dare to run or move fast. He had even managed to spot some movement inside the forest and some bushes moving in the tundra far away, but to his relief, neither of them had decided to eat him.

Once he climbed up the hill, he could see a bit further into the tundra but just like before, there was another hill blocking his view.

However, he did see something interesting. There was a fight going on near the hill. It looked fantastic, he was having a hard time believing that what he saw was real, as two small dots darted around, occasionally crashing into each other. Even from here, he could tell that the speed they were moving at was ridiculously fast. They continued clashing until Tom finally realized that the other one of them was some kind of flying creature. It had apparently had enough and chosen to retreat. It disengaged and started rising at an altitude. But before it got far away, Tom saw a flash, as a tiny line of lighting shot out from the other creature. The next moment was like it was frozen in time, the lighting hang in the air connecting the two, but all too soon, it came to an end, the flying creature fell to the ground, and the other one bounced on it.

After that, Tom could only see a small scuffle before it was over. He saw how the one which had used lighting started dragging the other one away, presumably toward someplace more secure to enjoy its spoils.

Tom was awestruck. He had known that the mana allowed one to perform incredible feats, but this was on completely another level. It was one thing to boost one's body's performance and completely another to transform it into a moving tesla coil canon.

And if his understanding of cores was anywhere near the reality, he was certain what his next goal would be. He just wanted that power for himself.

Even if his chance of victory seemed bleak, but then again, one could never know if they didn't try.