Pulse!
Sollivan’s closed eyelids fluttered before he slowly opened his foggy eyes. With difficulty, he raised his hand, clutching his head, which throbbed with a sharp pain, causing him to furrow his brows in agony.
After a few moments of suffering, the foggy vision gradually faded, and the ringing and whistling in his ears subsided, allowing him to think more clearly.
He shook his head slightly, rubbed his face, and then looked ahead. But his eyes widened in shock, his features froze, and he was left speechless before muttering in a hoarse voice:
"Where am I?"
Everything he had known before was gone. His home, his city, the cold winter snow... everything had vanished, leaving only a vast plain covered in strange, dark blue plants stretching endlessly.
A few scattered trees here and there barely broke the monotony of the scene, making him feel as though he were trapped in a strange dream.
With great effort, Sollivan raised his head and stared at the sky. His widened eyes grew even more bewildered, and words caught in his throat. He wanted to take a deep breath, but he couldn’t.
Above him, the warm yellow sun he knew had disappeared, replaced by a massive, faint orange orb, despite its enormous size and close proximity. It looked like a full moon, so close that he could see solar waves dancing on its surface like joyful fire dragons.
Shock, confusion, fear, awe, and sorrow... Sollivan couldn’t pinpoint the emotions he felt in that single minute of clarity. But he was sure of one thing: he wasn’t dreaming.
The refreshing breeze that caressed his cheeks, the faint rustling of the grass that delighted his ears, and the warmth of the giant sun that heated his skin... all these sensations were undeniably real.
He held his breath, shook his head filled with chaotic thoughts, and calmed himself with difficulty.
Then he stood on his feet and took a step forward, turning his head left and right, searching for anything other than the blue grass and distant trees.
In his daze, he realized something that made him freeze in place once more. Slowly, with wide eyes, he lowered his head and looked at his feet, standing straight.
Thud!
He moved his right foot and took a step forward, crushing the blue grass beneath him. Despite seeing it clearly, he couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
He took another step, then another, then another... Before he knew it, he had taken ten steps, but his eyes remained fixed on his feet. His shocked heart raced wildly, sending a tingling sensation that made his limbs tremble involuntarily.
An indescribable excitement, inexplicable joy, and deep fear... He reached out with his trembling hand and pinched his leg hard, feeling a sharp pain that unleashed the flood of emotions trapped in his heart.
"I can walk... I can walk!" Sollivan smiled with pure happiness, repeating his words like a madman as he ran wildly, like someone who had lost his mind.
"I can run!" He reveled in the wonderful feeling he had lost for years, filled with happiness and joy, and felt a deep calm in his heart, as if a heavy mountain had been lifted from his body.
The gentle breeze played with his black hair, and the soil and grass flew with each step he took.
His pulse quickened, and he began to feel some fatigue, but he didn’t want to stop and lose this intoxicating feeling of bliss. Moreover, he felt a deep fear that he would wake from his dream the moment he stopped.
After running a long distance, he felt exhausted and fell to the ground on his back, gazing at the strange blue and golden sky. His eyes seemed to smile from sheer joy.
Despite his calm demeanor, polished by years of suffering, at this moment, he couldn’t control himself, and his emotions fluttered with overwhelming happiness, like butterflies experiencing flight for the first time.
Roar!
His body suddenly shook, and his smile froze. The overwhelming joy turned into deep fear.
Quickly, he stood on his feet, his muscles tense and ready to unleash all their strength to run or fight at any moment. But his mind, which had regained its calm, prevented him from taking any rash actions.
At that moment, for the first time in a long time, memories of hunting with his father and grandfather returned to him, and he remembered all the experience and guidance he had learned.
Calmly and very slowly, he bent slightly, his sharp eyes scanning his surroundings like a hawk, searching for any strange movement.
But he found nothing, even though the air around him felt thick and suffocating. He tried to calm his rapid, shallow breaths, but his racing heart refused to give him any peace.
’The beast that roared didn’t take any action or attack? Is there a reason for that, or is it just far enough not to sense my presence yet? If I try to run now and escape, it might sense my movement and find me.
And even if I don’t move, the wind might carry my scent to it. In either case, I’m doomed.’
Sollivan took one last look at his surroundings, glanced at his feet for a moment, and pushed aside all the joy he had felt earlier. Then he muttered in a low voice:
"I’ve regained my ability to walk, but my training is nonexistent, and even the basic skills I know won’t help me much. My body seems too tense."
He crouched completely to the ground, pressing his ear to the soil, trying to sense any vibrations or signs of approaching danger. But there was nothing, which gave him a slight sense of relief, which he used to calm his heart and steady his breathing.
After ensuring that his mental and physical state had improved, he got up from the ground and began to move very slowly. Every step he took was calculated carefully, trying to avoid making any sound that might attract attention.
His sharp eyes, like those of a hawk, scanned his surroundings incessantly, and his ears were alert for any sound, no matter how faint.
Despite all his caution and the quiet surroundings, the oppressive feeling of danger didn’t fade; on the contrary, it grew stronger.
From his past experience, he was sure that this fear wasn’t just a fleeting feeling but something deeper and more mysterious, as if the air around him pulsed with hidden warnings.
But despite that, he pushed himself to continue, heading toward some dense trees that seemed like a safe haven that could provide cover from prying eyes.
Step by step, his goal grew closer, and the suffocating feeling he felt began to lessen.
But despite that, he didn’t lower his guard; on the contrary, his senses became sharper, and his expression grew more stern. After a few more steps, he reached his destination and suddenly increased his speed, running into the small forest.
Huff!
After moving away from the edge of the forest, he fell to the ground, leaning his back against a thick tree trunk, and exhaled heavily as sweat dripped from his forehead.
’This place is very dangerous. Everything around me is strange and unfamiliar.
I visited the Black Death Forest with my father, and it wasn’t this quiet. There are no sounds... no birds, no insects.
If I hadn’t heard that roar earlier, I would have thought I was in a barren, dead land.’
He raised his head and looked at the sky through the dense leaves, muttering with confusion and fear:
"The sun above me isn’t the sun I know, and even the sky is a different color, and the ground seems to lean toward blackness... as if I’m in a world different from the one I know."
Sigh!
He stood up quickly and raised the caution he had lowered during his short rest.
He looked left and right with sharp, wary eyes, then sniffed the air around him for any strange smells. But he found nothing.
’I need to leave this place.’
The more time he spent in this place, the more his anxiety grew, and he began to feel uneasy.
Only thirty minutes had passed since he woke up, and during that time, he had experienced things and emotions more complex than anything he had felt in the past five years.
After gathering his courage and steadying his breathing, he began walking through the forest, which wasn’t too dense.
Occasionally, there were wide gaps between the trees, but they still provided good cover amidst the vast plain around them.
Whistle!
Suddenly, Sollivan stopped walking abruptly.
He turned his head suspiciously and began listening closely to the faint sounds that reached his ears. The sounds weren’t close, but they gave his heart, filled with fear and despair, a bit of calm and hope.
Then he began walking again, faster this time, following the source of the sounds. His silent surroundings began to regain their vitality. The birds that sang lively returned, and the annoying insects filled the place.
Gurgle!
Among the various sounds, he heard a familiar one that made his heart tremble with joy.
He changed his direction, and without walking far, he reached the source of the sound, which was a small stream with clear, beautiful water that shimmered in the sunlight. After looking in both directions of the stream and ensuring it was empty, he knelt and looked at the reflection of his face in the clear water.
But at that moment, he frowned strangely. He brought his face closer to the water, and then his reflection became clearer. His pale face, with dark circles, had become clear and healthy.
Also, his brown eyes had become pitch black. But the strange thing that made him feel some anxiety was the appearance of strange shapes on his forehead that resembled black scales.
’What happened to me?’
He touched his forehead gently and felt the slightly rough texture of the non-protruding scales, muttering, "I don’t understand... everything is strange, even myself."
Growl!
A faint gurgling sound came from nearby, making the confused Sollivan stand quickly with a tense body. He looked around cautiously, and then he noticed a vague shape hiding behind some tall grass.
Only a convex back with a dark yellow color was visible, but it was enough for him to realize that it was a beast lying in wait for him. His eyes remained fixed on the hidden shape, and he slowly stepped back.
Step by step, the distance between them increased, but the hidden beast didn’t make any movement, which increased his confidence and quickened his steps.
Slash!
His foot suddenly slipped due to a misstep in the stream, making him stop in place for a moment with a stern face.
He watched the convex back of the beast and found that it was still in place. Very quietly, he lifted his foot from the water and took a step back.
But at that moment, suddenly, the beast jumped from behind the grass and ran toward him at high speed. The hyena-like beast opened its mouth full of sharp teeth and growled with a screeching, metallic sound.
"Damn it!"
Without any hesitation or moment of stillness, Sollivan turned and began running at full speed.
His steps were strange and carried a steady rhythm, making his movements very smooth. With great agility, he avoided the trees in his path, using them as a natural barrier behind him.
Although the distance between him and the beast was very short, the beast couldn’t shorten it; on the contrary, every time it got closer to Sollivan, he suddenly changed direction, causing the beast to stumble and sometimes crash into the trees, making them shake violently.
Sollivan’s hair danced in the wind, and his clothes fluttered.
His muscles were tense and full of energy, and his breathing was steady and harmonious. Every step he took was smooth, as if he were sliding on soap over a smooth floor.
This movement technique was called Light Steps, a very common technique among Arcane masters and those who had strengthened their bodies. It increased their speed while reducing the physical effort they exerted, allowing them to run longer distances with less effort.
Sollivan continued running desperately. Although he had maintained his physical strength for as long as possible, his body and tense muscles began to tire. His steady, harmonious breathing became chaotic, and even his smooth running began to show signs of strain.
He turned his head slowly and looked at the beast running behind him, seeing it open its mouth strangely, as if smiling maliciously.
" Mother F****!"
All he could say at that moment was a few hateful curses before looking ahead. Then he tried to increase his speed, but his body had already reached its limit.
’I don’t have much stamina left. I need to lose this beast, or I’m dead.’
Sollivan quickly changed his direction toward some distant trees intertwined with each other.
But he didn’t realize that the beast had reached him at that moment and swung its sharp claws at his back.
Sollivan felt a cold chill on his back and jumped to the side quickly.
Slash!
The beast’s claws grazed his back superficially, causing small wounds and tearing his clothes.
This made Sollivan, who had intended to land on his feet, lose his balance and fall to the ground. But the techniques of his family, which he had trained in the past, didn’t leave his mind.
Quickly, he rolled strangely like a cat, making his fall smooth, then stood up quickly and continued running toward the intertwined trees without losing momentum. The beast stopped for a moment and growled in frustration, then chased him at an even greater speed.
Sweat poured profusely and soaked his clothes. At this stage, his breathing became completely chaotic, and his steps were no longer fast.
He could no longer maintain the Light Steps technique and began running normally, relying only on his willpower, as his physical strength had long since run out.
His eyes remained fixed on the group of trees that were only a few dozen meters away. Using the last of his strength, he increased his speed. But despite that, the beast reached him and pounced, wanting to kill him.
Using the same method as before, Sollivan jumped, avoiding the beast’s saliva-filled, ferocious jaws, and rolled on the ground, filling his body with scratches and bruises caused by the stones on the ground. Then he stood up, exhausted, without hesitation, and ran.
Every step he took was filled with despair and a deep desire to survive.
He looked left and right, but he found nothing he could use to lose the beast chasing him except the intertwined trees ahead. Although his steps became stumbling and slow, and his breathing became irregular, while his eyes began to blur from exhaustion, he succeeded in reaching his goal.
He was only a few steps away from his destination, but at that moment, he felt the ground beneath him shake and the air around him ripple. Faintly, he could sense a suffocating feeling of death. But he didn’t lose his composure.
With the last of his strength, he used the Light Steps technique again, jumped forward, and turned around before landing. Then he saw the ferocious and terrifying face of the beast in front of him, with only a few centimeters separating them.
With a mocking smile, Sollivan raised his foot and kicked the beast’s ugly face hard, causing its saliva to fly and several wrinkles to distort its already hideous face. Then he pushed himself back and entered through a small hole in the intertwined trees.
The beast crashed into the trees and destroyed some of them due to its strength. It shoved its front leg through the hole in the trees and tried to grab Sollivan, who crawled away quickly like a worm.
The branches and roots of the trees intertwined in a strange shape, forming a large network of small, narrow tunnels, where the light was slightly dim compared to the outside.
From the outside, this network looked like a very wide tree composed of hundreds of branches, extending for several tens of meters.
Huff!
Huff!
After moving a considerable distance away from the beast, Sollivan finally stopped crawling. His breathing was very erratic, and his face was drenched in sweat.
But at that moment, he exhaled deeply, and his tense muscles relaxed. The nervous expression on his face faded, and he swallowed a mouthful of saliva to moisten his dry throat.
His mind became foggy, and his eyelids grew very heavy, causing him to close his eyes and fall asleep without realizing it.
Time passed slowly, but the beast continued to scratch the tree trunks with its sharp claws to no avail. After a very long time, it finally gave up and left to search for another prey.
Huff!
Sollivan opened his eyes nervously and tried to get up, but he hit his head hard against a thick tree trunk with a very sharp edge, causing a wound on his forehead.
Hot blood flowed from the wound, which swelled quickly and stained his hair, giving him a strange warmth.
The fog in his eyes cleared, and he regained his composure, then stretched out on his back and stared at the faint light seeping through the holes among the intertwined branches and trunks.
He raised his hand slowly, and then he felt a sharp pain in his joints and muscles.
He touched his bleeding forehead, then raised his hand and looked at it to find it covered in a dark liquid that wasn’t visible well due to the darkness.
"How much time has passed, I wonder?"
He lowered his hand and wiped the blood from his forehead, then moved very slowly and assessed his physical condition.
"Huff, I’m exhausted. My body couldn’t handle the techniques I used. My joints hurt terribly, and my muscles are filled with tears. In my current state, I can’t do anything if I encounter more beasts."
Gulp!
He tried to swallow his saliva, but his mouth and lips were too dry, prompting him to stick out his tongue in an attempt to moisten them. But there was no result.
’I’m so thirsty.’
Sollivan smiled wryly, then moved his exhausted body. After avoiding the trunk he had hit earlier, he turned around and changed his direction toward the exit.
He crawled slowly and without making any sound, like a slippery worm. After a few seconds, he reached the hole he had entered earlier, where faint white light seeped through, slightly illuminating his path.
He cautiously stuck his head out, looking left and right with a stern face, and upon confirming that his surroundings were clear, he felt some relief.
But he didn’t come out immediately and remained lying in the tunnel for a few more minutes. During that time, he noticed that the entrance to the tunnel had widened slightly and was filled with broken branches and claw marks.
’Was the beast trying to widen the entrance while I was unconscious? This beast is very smart. I need to be careful.’
Sigh!
Sollivan emerged from his burrow and stood unsteadily on his feet, then raised his head to look at the dark sky, where a large, beautiful white moon cast its faint light on the dark forest, making it less ominous.
Behind the large moon, thousands of shining stars and dozens of small moons of various colors were visible. Some moons were as small as a pea, and some were slightly larger, the size of a grape.
After gazing at the sky for a brief moment, he lowered his head and muttered with a grim expression.
"This is not my world."
Although he had doubted it when he saw the large, strange sun in the morning, he was now certain of it.
’How... did this happen? And why..?’
Even after thinking about it for a short while, Sollivan couldn’t find the right words to describe what he felt.
But he calmed himself quickly and began to think.
’I’m in a different world, and even my body seems different. Although my facial features remain the same, those scales on my forehead and my black eyes aren’t part of me. Even my body has become stronger compared to my real body.’
’Is this because of the black book? All of this happened after I placed my blood on it.
Is the book some kind of portal, and my blood was the trigger that activated it? But that doesn’t make sense.
The treasures I’ve heard about and read about don’t work so simply. They require many factors to activate, and most importantly, they need Auraxis energy. But my body is ordinary; it shouldn’t be able to support the book’s activation, no matter what it does.’
"Wait a minute?!"
Sollivan’s body trembled, and his features twisted.
"Am I dead? Did the book kill me and bring me to this strange world? Am I trapped here, then?"