Ethan awoke from a dreamless sleep, and he was grateful for that. He had enough of the dreams, and didn’t think he would miss them anytime soon.

All three of his essence bars were full, suggesting that he slept more than necessary, but he really needed it. He first changed his clothes, then fetched a lump of roasted meat from his ring and started eating. His cooked meals were enough to feed him for another week, while the raw meat and other dishes were almost a month's worth. After all this time, his ring became his most prized possession, surpassing even his cloak. Whoever invented these spatial artifacts without a doubt had Ethan’s eternal gratitude.

He also needed a bath but didn’t think there was anything but magma on the eighth floor. After eating to his full capacity, he felt ready for whatever awaited him and passed the ninth floor's door.

As a good difference, he found himself in a forest once again and this time, it was quite a lush one. No black trees or some sparse eerie bushes but a forest screaming with life. However, he didn’t see anything alive even after traveling for half an hour. It was late in the night but thanks to the moon that was shining brilliantly even at the end of its task, he guessed that it won’t be dark anytime soon. After some night hiking, he found himself more relaxed and was very curious about his enemies, but there were just more trees and more plants without any paths toward the next door.

Working his [Mana Sense] over time, he inspected everywhere, especially the underground as he was expecting something like the rock worms, but there was nothing. Giving his back to a tree, he took out some water from his ring and drank it. Could it be a flying creature? Maybe I should climb th–

A sharp pain spread from his back, and he tried to [Blink] but found that he couldn’t. Using [Long Jump], he made some distance and turned around to look at what the fuck just made a hole in his kidney without even alerting him.

What he saw was a giggling female figure, covered with woods and leaves, standing where the tree which he just leaned was supposed to be. A dryad? I thought these were friendly.

The answer came immediately as another tree turned into a dryad. Its fingers changed to wooden claws and even got longer with a crazy speed, aiming for Ethan. He used [Void Wrap] and [Blink] in succession before appearing behind the first one. With full power, he cut the neck of the dryad and sent [Shadow Spikes] toward the other one.

The good news was the one who lost its head was dead, but the bad news was that the other one sensed the [Fabric Tear] and dodged the spike with ease. Ethan blinked a few more times to engage with it in close combat but found out it was even more agile than him. The wooden claws weren’t exclusive to its hands. Even at its foot, wooden parts appeared for speed control and disappeared once it changed the move. Only after using [Void Wrap] and [Blink] more than once did he manage to give lethal hits.

It took him almost 5 minutes to kill it. He was left with half of his health and even less than that in the mana department. This is too troublesome. I have no way to find them and no way to kill them quickly unless I use my mana without any care. Then I’ll have to meditate for hours which wouldn’t change anything, he sighed. At least they are at the peak of tier-4 and not tier-5.

He sat down to meditate and thought about a solution while being alert with his [Mana Sense]. Burning the forest was always an option, but Ethan was a wildlife lover. No matter how he hated the evil dryads, he couldn’t be cruel to nature itself, pocket world or not. And surely, the dryads wouldn’t just die in the fire, if they were to gather after the forest was gone, it’d be even worse for him. The other option was to use himself as bait and finish them as quickly as they appeared. But running with [Void Wrap] wasn’t an option as they would instantly recognize his location from the grass below. He had to blink around and confuse them from the angles he appeared. This also meant a lot of blinks would’ve been used to drain his mana even faster. If [Blink] was rank 2, I could’ve attracted a large group to my domain and blinked around them randomly while giving lethal injuries with the occasional use of [Void Wrap].

Once again, after more than a month, he started to think hard about his skill. The range of the [Blink] was fixed. When he was willing to be anywhere in this range, the void-aspected mana carried him through the space dimension and changed his material body’s location in reality. In order to modify this range, he had to understand the fundamentals of the skill and then think about the limitations.

He spent more than an hour on it, but it didn’t get him anywhere. Frustrated, he was staring at the ground with annoyance, then his expression slowly turned into determination, and a decision was made.

‘’Fuck it,’’ he muttered and started his long sprint in the forest while shouting with all his might.

‘’I wanna be an airborne ranger,

I wanna lead a life of danger.

Before the day I die,

There's five things I wanna ride.

Bicycle, tricycle, automobile,

Dryad's mother, and a Ferris wheel!’’

Risking his life for possible advancement in his skill was never something Ethan would do. In his opinion, it was utterly pointless since he didn’t even have any skills a little more than half a year ago. His life was more precious than any reward. But this time, it wasn’t just about him; it was also about his companions. At some place else, they were fighting with all they had, and likely struggling to survive because of the lack of skills and tools. And risking his life for who he deemed dear…well, he was born for that kind of shit.

The trees he was running toward turned into dryads before starting to attack and chase him. He was running full speed, all the while singing loudly. A funny idea came to his mind, and he used [Mana Connection] in his domain. Some of the dryad’s giggling turned to outright laughing while some even clapped their hands with his rhythm. But it seemed their enthusiasm turned them even more deadly. A spear-like wood aimed for his hearth, and he had to blink at the last moment, but his voice got even louder. ‘’I wanna be an airborne ranger!’’

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After half an hour of running, he saw that more than a dozen creatures were on his tail. Deciding that it was enough, he abruptly turned back and jumped into the center of them with a savage smile. ‘’Let’s play!’’

The dryads were hopping around excitedly but looking closely, Ethan realized they were also closing his escape routes. They were well-coordinated, agile, and keen observers. This was not a group he could take advantage of. Without his [Blink] and [Void Wrap], it would’ve been a suicide to confront more than a dozen.

He waited until one of them attacked before unleashing his [Mana Aura]. Every one of them was surprised and shivered visibly. Without any hesitation, he blinked behind the attacker and cut its head off with a half spin. That woke up the dryads, and they became more cautious. When Ethan blinked for the second time, the creature sent its wooden spears while backing off. The others also helped to trap him and attacked him from all sides. He tried to fight them head-on while trying to [Blink] out of their encirclement with a single leap, but it was futile. The range of the [Blink] was absolute, and even while the wooden weapons were piercing his body, all he could do to get himself out was to use it a few times in succession.

But he refused to do so. The fear effect of the [Mana Aura] waned slowly, and the dryads became bolder. He had more than one place in his mind to use [Blink] and change the flow of the fight, but he failed every time. A sharp piece of wood missed his throat, giving him a shallow wound. Another aimed for his heart, and he cut it with his dagger at the last moment. Noticing that his health was getting close to half, he gave his everything to fight the impossible.

His [Mana Sense] told him there were five spots between 10 and 60 yards away, where unguarded dryads were dancing casually or waiting for their turn. Even in the 10 yards range, there were spots he could’ve at least escaped and taken a breath. Unfortunately, he was obsessed with the range outside of his reach.

Of course, he heard about the notion Evelyn mentioned before; when facing a deadly situation, the process of thought ceased altogether, and the subconsciousness took over to help by any means necessary. All this danger was to stimulate his unconscious mind.

Dancing in the line between life and death, when all the distractions left his mind, it finally came to him. He didn’t need to use [Mana Sense] to find himself a spot in his domain. Hell, that would’ve only gotten him a spot in this dimension of reality. He needed to find a location directly in the space dimension with the help of [Void Manual]. His domain was the manifestation of his soul; if the spot he chose was still inside this manifestation, the concept of range would become useless. He didn’t need to understand how the range of [Blink] worked, because he could’ve ignored it entirely.

It all came to him like lightning, and the next moment he appeared 45 yards away, next to an eager dryad who was watching the show with big eyes. He stabbed his dagger through its ear before even giving it a chance to understand what was happening. Blinking 60 yards more to the back, he gulped a health potion and gave a satisfied smile.

The dryads were surprised by how easily he escaped and encircled him once more but much more cautiously. Looking at the light of the dawn that was gently adorning the forest, a poem came to Ethan’s mind, and he recited it in a low and deep voice.

‘’Out of the mid-wood's twilight

Into the meadow's dawn,

Ivory limbed and brown-eyed,

Flashes my Faun!’’

A mad glint flashed in his eyes as he appeared at the back of the flock, catching a dryad off guard and slashing its neck with a fluid motion. When the other dryads turned their faces back to him, he blinked once again at the one standing on the opposite side, swinging his blades at the same time vertically, he cut its arms from the shoulder before reciting another line of his poem.

‘’He skips through the copses singing,’’

Whenever he finished a line, if a dryad wasn’t dead, then a dryad had lost a limb.

‘’And his shadow dances along,’’

In a radius of 60 yards, if none weren't giving an opening, then Ethan pushed them to do so. Whether with the [Shadow Spikes] or with the fakes he baited.

‘’And I know not which I should follow,’’

Both [Mana Connection] and [Mana Aura] were still open. As time passed, the dryads became anxious and confused. His every move seemed random, and there was no pattern to speak of.

‘’Shadow or song!’’

In the solemn forest that welcomed the new day, the echoes of the screams, along with a poem of a madman, spread through the void.

‘’O Hunter, snare me his shadow!

O Nightingale, catch me his strain!

Else moonstruck with music and madness,

I track him in vain!’’

The volume of the speech slowly increased toward the end, but the tone stayed deep. With complete control over his audience, he thought that he had given them a bloody good show. Alas, no one was left to appreciate, but the alluring dawn itself.

Ethan tossed the body of the last dryad before getting a piece of fabric from his ring and starting to clean his daggers. He looked at the bodies on the ground and saw that there were eleven of them in total. Even with his extravagant use, his mana was still a bit more than half. The odds were pretty good. Even better, he got his ticket to tier-4 so soon that he thought it must be a miracle for anyone with average talent. ‘Ani, give me the update on [Blink], please.’

‘[Blink] rank-2: Move your body’s location anywhere in your domain through space. In addition, you can now change your direction on the X-axis. The mana consumption is still 50.-but decreased to 25 with your cloak-’

He slightly smiled to the new surprise, because he also realized this at his recent massacre. Back then, he was able to teleport anywhere in 10 yards, but for example, if he stood facing the west, he always kept facing the west after the [Blink]. If he appeared behind someone who was looking at him, he had to turn back before attacking. At last, this wasn’t the case anymore. In his fight with the dryads, he saw that as long as it was in his domain, he was able to emerge at any angle. Bringing his momentum with him or making it cease all at once was also still up to him.

This ability showed its worth in a fight against a group, but Ethan knew that even against a single opponent, this was nothing to scoff at. The only problem was that he needed some time to adapt to the new direction. If he got used to that, he could be like a one-man army, appearing and striking from everywhere.

In a good mood, he wanted to try something that he had been thinking about for a long time. He looked up and smiled before blinking three times to the sky, 60 yards at every time. Ethan appeared 180 yards away from the ground and looked at the forest from a bird's view. Only a moment later, he started to fall down, and with a giddy feeling, he burst out laughing.

When he was about 20 yards away from a crash, he blinked again and appeared on the ground like he had never left, except for the ecstatic smile on his face. ‘Ani, once we return to a city, remind me to get myself a wingsuit.’

‘Understood.’

‘’But before the fun, we have some work to do,’’ he murmured, gazing toward the center of the forest that he had just pinpointed. Cracking his neck, he took a deep breath and started running at full speed. ‘’I wanna be an airborne ranger!’’