At that very moment, Edard was utilizing his movement skill, Clone Acceleration, which amplified his speed significantly. This technique allowed him to cover a distance of one kilometer every ten seconds. This meant that, by his calculation, he had already traveled approximately twelve kilometers in the span of two minutes. Whatever kind of raven this was that could maintain such a grueling pace, it was certainly no ordinary bird.
Using his Spiritual Sense, Edard had already thoroughly analyzed the creature. It was a raven of the deepest obsidian black, not particularly large, but it possessed a singular, chilling feature: it had only one eye. This lone eye sat positioned right in the center of its face. Beyond its strange appearance, he noticed that no other creature seemed to pay it any mind; even the other wild beasts in the vicinity ignored it. Or perhaps, if they did notice it, they pointedly looked away—likely out of a deep-seated fear.
Edard slowed his pace slightly, though he kept moving in a way that ensured the raven wouldn't realize he had spotted it. A part of his heart screamed at him to drop the corpse and run for his life, never looking back. But Edard knew better than anyone that such a thing was impossible. No matter the danger of carrying this body—even if a thousand such ravens were to pursue him—he knew with absolute certainty that the day he let go of this girl, he would die. Therefore, no matter how great the risk, it could never be compared to the ultimate risk of death itself. After all, death is the only thing truly feared; it is the root of all charms and desperation. So, he gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
What drew his attention next was the realization that the raven had slowed down in perfect synchronization with him. It followed him with a cold indifference, almost as if it were merely playing with its prey. Edard drew a sharp breath and lunged forward with a burst of speed even greater than before. He wanted to push the bird to its limits, hoping it would finally give up the chase.
Periodically, he checked the duration of his Clone Acceleration. When the minute-long duration expired and the skill vanished, his speed would drop. To his frustration, every time he slowed down, the raven would immediately find a spot to hide, acting as if it weren't following him at all. But as soon as he reactivated the acceleration, the bird would reappear and resume the chase.
They continued this dance for nearly an hour. After a full sixty minutes of this cat-and-mouse game, he expanded his Spiritual Sense and realized he could no longer feel the raven's presence. There was a chance he had finally left it behind. Still, Edard refused to relax. There was still no sign of water—not even a puddle, let alone a river. He began to suspect that the water he had seen earlier was indeed a mirage, or perhaps this land was vast beyond his calculations and imagination.
Then, another realization struck him. The corpse on his back was warm. From the very first moment he had touched her, her body had possessed a faint warmth. Now, more than an hour after he had taken her from the cave, her body hadn't cooled in the slightest. Edard was a man well-versed in the lore of death, the occult, and the nature of spirits. He knew for a fact that once a person dies, their body turns cold within a short time.
Finding this woman—a girl who looked no older than eighteen—still warm was deeply troubling. Necromancers who utilize corpses often prefer young women who have never married, as Edard had heard in his previous world that their bodies were more receptive to dark magic. He wondered if the same laws applied here. Her skin was pale, but he had initially attributed that to the lack of blood flow common in the recently deceased. Usually, the skin turns from pale to a dark, decaying hue as the cells die without nourishment. Yet, the skin of this girl, Rusi Kaz, showed no signs of change. Between the warmth and the unchanging skin, he would have sworn she was still alive if his Status Key hadn't explicitly labeled her a "Corpse." He began to wonder if his skill had made a mistake.
Furthermore, he realized he couldn't simply walk into a village or town like this. If the people of this world were anything like those in Kano, they wouldn't take kindly to a man wandering around with a corpse on his back. He knew he wouldn't last a single neighborhood in Kano before being arrested or hauled off to a psychiatric hospital. If their customs were similar, he would be an outcast.
He weighed his options and came to a decision. Why was he in such a rush to reach a town? His primary goal was to find a way to extend his life. Since he had temporarily solved that problem with the girl, there was no need to rush toward civilization. He decided to find a hideout in one of the nearby hills. The wild animals there wouldn't be able to harm him. Once he found a safe haven, he could figure out a permanent way to increase his longevity, then leave the girl in a cave for her owner to find later.
He turned toward the nearest hill. Just as he approached it, he felt a sharp itch on his wrist, right where the clock was. The clock itself showed no change, but the itch was persistent. He began to wonder if time had somehow resumed.
As he kept moving, he realized the itch wasn't about the clock. Just as he looked away, three black claws suddenly lunged toward him.
Edard tumbled to the ground in a desperate roll to dodge the strike. Even as he hit the dirt, his main priority was ensuring he didn't lose his grip on the corpse. If he were separated from her for more than thirty seconds, he would drop dead. It wasn't just claws he was facing; he was being hunted.
The attacker was a massive, pitch-black beast. Looking at it, Edard was reminded of his dog back on Earth, Lorence, but the resemblance ended there. This creature was at least three times larger and was crowned with wicked horns. He quickly triggered his Status Key:
It wasn't a dog at all; it was a lion-like predator with power far exceeding the mammoth he had fought earlier. While the mammoth was larger in sheer bulk, this Level 5 beast was infinitely more dangerous. The lion had been cunning, stalking him and hiding its presence even from his Spiritual Sense by timing its leap from outside the skill's range. It possessed a human-like intelligence. If it hadn't been for that itch on his wrist, Edard would have been a corpse himself by now.
Edard was still only Level 1. While the numerical gap wasn't insurmountable, he was forced to fight with one hand tied behind his back—literally, as he had to hold onto the girl. It was as the Hausa saying goes: "You can't run while scratching your backside." He had to find a way to survive while clinging to his life-support.
He leaped aside, narrowly dodging another swipe. The lion's claws slammed into the hard, sun-baked earth, carving deep trenches as if the ground were made of soft clay. Edard swallowed hard; if those claws had hit him, it would have been over. He balled his left fist, and the dragon tattoo flared with heat. Shards of molten rock erupted from his hand and struck the lion.
Because the beast was so close, Edard didn't need to use his Willpower to aim the strike as he had with the mammoth. However, what happened next shocked him. The molten shards struck the lion's neck, but the beast simply shook them off as if they were mere pebbles. The attack that had crippled a massive mammoth didn't even leave a scratch on this Level 5 predator.
"Level 5," Edard repeated to himself. The gap between Level 2 and Level 5 was a chasm, not a step. He leaped again, narrowly avoiding a pouncing strike from above.
As the lion attacked with its claws, it simultaneously lunged with its horns, aiming for his midsection.
"Meat... meat... meat is speaking," the lion said.
Edard's mouth hung open in shock. He was the one who should be surprised that a lion could talk, yet the beast seemed surprised that Edard could understand it. What truly infuriated him, however, was being referred to as "meat"—nothing more than a meal to be hunted.
A notification appeared:
The lion was clearly either hungry or enraged, for it gave Edard no quarter. It let out a roar and began a relentless assault with claws the size of short swords. It attacked with all four limbs while trying to gore him with its horns.
Edard rolled and scrambled across the ground. He dodged three strikes, but despite his speed with Clone Acceleration, one claw finally found its mark. The blade-like talon ripped through the flesh of his arm, deep into the muscle.
Edard screamed in agony as blood sprayed from the wound. Before he could even process the pain, a status box flashed:
Before the lion could retract its claws from his arm, Edard bit down against the pain and channeled his Dragon Essence. The sapphire-blue fire flickered into existence, and in a fraction of a second, he shaped it into a small dagger. Simultaneously, he activated his Gravity skill—Violet Crush.
His eyes glowed with a fierce violet light, and the energy slammed down onto the lion. The gravitational force intensified instantly, making the beast feel as heavy as lead and slashing its movement speed by 50%.