Dravin felt his world turn upside down, a nauseating sensation as if his entire being was being stretched and compressed at the same time. The chaotic swirl of colors and energy seemed to want to reduce him to atoms !
.just as he thought he was about to be turned into nothingness, the feeling vanished, and his feet slammed onto solid ground.
In the next second, his entire body shook as reality snapped back into focus, the alien image of the dimensional zone gradually making sense.
Before he could even begin to process his new surroundings, his stomach churned violently.
"Blergh!"
He immediately doubled over and vomited onto the strange, purple soil.
Gasping for air, he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his cloth.
'It seems the rules about multiversal travel is the same.'
Dravin murmured as he glanced at the pile of yellow bile on the grasses.
Only then did he have time to truly check where he was.
The sky was pitch black, without a hint of stars in them.
Hanging in this void were three moons. Two were silvery in color while the other was blood-red.
They were arranged in a perfect triangle, giving the impression that a cosmic god with three eyes, slowly stared at the world below.
The void energy was even thicker than the outside world. If one were to practice here for a year, it would be equivalent to three years of cultivation in the outside world.
The surrounding trees were monstrously wide, each one requiring three grown men to circle its trunk.
They were also impressively tall, their thick canopies blotting out what little light the three moons provided, casting the forest floor in a perpetual twilight.
The grasses on the ground were like a sea of green blades, many of them almost as tall as Dravin himself.
If a dangerous creature were hiding in these bushes, it would have more than enough cover to ambush any unsuspecting prey.
Dravin also realized the gravity here was heavier, perhaps 1.2 times that of his home world.
While it didn't affect his physique much, he knew it would be a constant, draining pressure, slowly draining one's stamina.
He glanced at a massive, low-hanging branch on a nearby tree, bent his knees, and leapt.
He shot five meters into the air with ease, landing silently as he began to observe his surroundings from a higher vantage point.
"Sniff!"
Dravin sniffed the air and immediately noticed the difference.
The smell of the vegetation was thick, but underneath it was a sharp, metallic after-smell, like blood.
Before he could observe any further, every hair on his body stood on end. As a hint of danger struck his spine.
In an instant, he stomped his feet against the tree branch.
"Boom!"
The thick branch shook violently under the force, and Dravin transformed into a blur, launching himself backwards off the branch and landing on the ground below with a heavy thud.
He had moved just in time. The exact spot he had been standing on the branch was pierced by five dark blurs that moved almost as fast as bullets, embedding themselves deep into the wood with a series of sharp 'thuds'
"Whoosh!"
Dravin's arm became a blur as he unsheathed his cleaver.
He didn't have time for to observe as he activated his `Basic Cleaver Technique`, channeling the insight from his Level 7 mastery into his every muscle. His reaction speed, already formidable, became instinctual.
Five more blurs shot from the canopy, aimed directly at his vital points.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
A shower of sparks erupted in the dim light as Dravin's cleaver moved in a silver arc, deflecting each projectile with the flat of its wide blade.
The rapid sound of metal colliding against metal rang out.
As their kinetic energy faded, the objects clattered to the ground, revealing themselves to be black needles, that were five inches long, even longer than Dravin.
Their tips coated in a sickly green, bubbling toxin.
Dravin didn't spare them a glance.
His eyes, now cold and hard, were locked onto a particular dark spot in the canopy above.
The muscles around his thighs suddenly expanded and contracted as he stomped his right foot against the ground.
"Bang!"
The tall grasses around him bent flat as he vanished from his position, leaving a small crater in the dirt where he once stood.
"Whoosh!
Another volley of five sharp needles stabbed into the empty ground he had just vacated.
But Dravin had appeared seven meters above the ground as he brought his cleaver down in a devastating chop, aimed directly at the dark spot on a high branch.
"Pssssh!"
A spray of dark, viscous blood erupted.
The creature hadn't even had time to register his counter-attack. Dravin's cleaver, infused with the full might of a Rank 4 Super Soldier, sliced cleanly through its neck, detaching its head from its body in a single strike.
The two halves of the creature tumbled from the tree and hit the ground with a wet smack.
[Rank 2 Primitive Monster: Shadow Porcupine slain.]
[Dimensional Crystal detected within the corpse.]
Dravin landed silently, his eyes flashed as he scanned for any more threats.
The trees moved softly as wind blew, the only sound the dripping of the imp's blood onto the leaves.
Dravin let out a slow breath, his adrenaline beginning to subside.
His first kill. It wasn't a Rank 3, but it was a start.
He was surprised by the system's ability to know if there were dimensional crystals within a dimensional creature.
He approached the corpse, using the tip of his cleaver to turn it over. The creature wasn't as full of needles as he had thought.
The creature wasn't also round chubby but muscular with leathery skin. A few bones jutted from its arms. It was then he realized that it wasn't needles that were shot at him but tiny bone spruts.
Dravin opened up its chest with his cleaver.
Just slightly above its head was a small thumbnail-sized crystal, glowing with a faint, grey light.
It was a low-quality crystal, likely containing a small boost to either speed or physique.
But Dravin was still excited as this was the first time he had seen a crystal
Just as he was about to reach down and remove it, he heard a faint rustling in the nearby bushes. His face changed as he grabbed his cleaver, his muscles trembling, vibrating in a particular frequency.
Suddenly, the grass divided and a small, furry creature, no bigger than his fist, timidly popped its head from the tall grass.
It looked like a cross between a mole and a squirrel, with a long, twitching nose, large black eyes, and an oversized front paws. It seemed utterly harmless.
It looked at Dravin, then at the Shadow Porcupines corpse, and let out a series of high-pitched chirps.
Dravin remained still, his hand still in his cleaver as he observed.
The creature, seeing that he wasn't moving, cautiously scurried towards the dead creature.
Dravin watched, curious about what it would do. To his surprise, it ignored the flesh and blood entirely.
Instead, it used its powerful claws to dig directly into the creature's chest, its long nose twitching as it sniffed around.
A moment later, it emerged with the grey dimensional crystal in its mouth with a satisfied look in its eyes.
Without a second glance at Dravin, the small creature turned and happily scurried back into the dense grass.
Dravin was stunned as he blinked his eyes rapidly.
"W-what the hell?"
"Was I just robbed?"
"Dammit! Where did this fellow come from? To actually dare to rob me?"
Dravin didn't know whether to cry or laugh. He just settled on anger.
He immediately moved, chasing after the little thief!