Chapter 343: Man Versus Dinosaur! The Survival of the Unluckiest!
"Time to see where the hell I have landed."
With that thought, Alden walked out of the cave, his body was completely naked but the chilly breeze barely felt anything against his now enhanced skin.
As soon as he stepped outside, a breathtaking sight greeted him. He currently stood at the edge of a small cliff where the cave was situated, below him was an endless dense green forest, its trees towering higher than anything he had ever seen before.
Even the sky looked completely unfamiliar with pure blue expanse stretching endlessly alongside three enormous suns hanging like the eyes of some celestial being.
"Where the fuck am I?"
No matter how many times he looked around, the scenery felt unrecognisable. The trees, the landscape and even the sky didn’t seem like Eryndor but at the same time the mana, although far denser than usual, carried the same familiar feeling.
"Am I in some other world with mana similar to Eryndor? Or is this some isolated space within Eryndor itself?"
He couldn’t tell.
But then a deafening roar echoed through the air as a shadow fell over him. Alden instinctively raised his head and froze almost immediately as he saw a massive dragon, an actual living dragon flying across the sky.
The crimson beast was enormous with two obsidian horns curling around its head like a crown, its presence alone making the air tremble in reverence and then Alden noticed the second one.
It was high above the crimson dragon as if it owned the sky itself. Its pristine white wings were spread wide across the heavens as it was locked into a fierce battle against the red dragon.
Moments later, the white dragon opened its mouth as a concentrated beam of dark energy short forward, cutting through the air before engulfing the red dragon completely, making it collapse onto the ground.
A thunderous shockwave exploded across the area.
"What the fuck is this now?"
The scene was as unreal as it was confusing.
The white dragon floated in the sky for a few seconds before its body rapidly began to shrink as a humanoid figure appeared in its place.
The distance was way too much for Alden to make out its face clearly but he could see long white hair flowing behind it as it flew toward the spot where the red dragon had fallen.
"Okay... so that direction is a no-go!"
Normally, he would have headed straight toward it to see the free show as the energy he had sensed from the dragon was only at Ascendant Rank, the same as his current rank.
But his body was currently far too unstable for a proper fight. Not to mention the other presence he had sensed in the same direction, carrying more or less the same level of power.
So, he decided against going in that direction.
Rumble!
Just then, his stomach growled loudly.
It felt as though he hadn’t eaten in days, which might very well have been the truth considering he had spent who knows how long locked in the process of breaking through to Ascendant Rank and although the mana nourished him and prevented him from dying of hunger or dehydration, even it had its limits.
"I need to find food and water before figuring out where the fuck I am."
He made a mental note as he spotted a lake some distance to his right. It was far enough from where the dragons had fought and being a lake, he was sure he could find at least some animals or edible plants nearby.
With that in mind, he looked down.
The forest floor was hundreds of feet down below the cliff he stood on as Alden took a step forward without the slightest hesitation.
The gravity did the rest of the job, pulling him toward the ground below as he reinforced his body with his unstable mana at the moment of impact to avoid turning himself into a blood stain on the forest floor
But even that small action sent a sharp pang of pain coursing through his body as he landed heavily on the ground and immediately cut off the flow of mana.
"I really need to do something about my unstable mana as soon as possible!"
The pain was bearable but it was too annoying for him.
Still, Alden shrugged it off for now and started walking toward the lake he had spotted earlier.
Along the way, he gathered several large leaves and, using methods of his ancestors, he made a set of makeshift clothes to preserve what little dignity he had left.
The leaves barely concealed his assets but at least they spared him from the wind which seemed far too eager to get play with him.
The forest was alive with sound.
Alden could hear countless small creatures rushing through the trees and bushes. He could also hear the heavy footsteps of much larger animals moving through the undergrowth and then there were the predators, waiting and stalking their prey from the shadows patiently.
A few had even locked onto Alden at the start but the moment he released a trace of his presence, most of them immediately scattered while the remaining ones became cautious.
Alden’s eyes narrowed.
Even the animals are far smarter than normal beasts!
After several hours of walking with his enhanced body, Alden finally arrived near the lake he had spotted earlier but he didn’t approach it immediately and instead, he closed his eyes and willed his [[Spirit Domain]] to activate so he could properly inspect the area.
"..."
But nothing happened.
The familiar sensation of his senses expanding, the ability to perceive everything in great detail and the strange feeling of euphoria that always accompanied it was completely missing.
The ability didn’t activate!
Alden immediately focused his attention inside himself as he could still feel his Supreme Ability resting within his soul just as it always had.
And yet,
The Spirit Domain hadn’t responded to his will.
"What’s happening?! Why isn’t my Spirit Domain reacting to my will?"
"Did it break because of my sudden power-up?! No... no, that shouldn’t be possible!"
"Then what changed?!"
He muttered to himself, his voice barely above a whisper as he stood there in thought for several minutes and only then did he understand.
His body had changed, his mana had changed and even his soul had changed but something else had changed even more, something he had almost forgotten among everything that had happened.
Alden’s eyes widened.
The Status Window!
His mother had severed the strings of fate controlling him, successfully removing the Status Window but along with it... The ease of using his abilities had vanished as well. If his body had been a fully automated vehicle before, it had now become a manual one.
That explained why the ability wasn’t activated.
Previously, the Status Window handled the process for him. It bridged the gap between intent and execution, sensing the ability and manifesting it in the real world.
Now, with it gone...
He had to do everything himself manually.
However, before that realization could fully settle, something massive emerged from the trees near the one he was hiding in.
Alden froze.
Its eyes were nearly level with the branch he was perched on, despite it standing on the ground as it opened its mouth.
ROAR!
The deafening sound shook the surrounding forest and nearly burst Alden’s eardrums.
It was a dinosaur.
An actual fucking dinosaur.
A massive one at that.
Looking at the colossal creature, Alden had only one thought.
I am fucked, aren’t I?
