Slowly opening my eyes, I found myself in the same place as before.
'So it wasn't a dream.'
Although I had already accepted my situation, it still felt so surreal. I mean, who expects to be transmigrated?
I got up and stretched my arms.
I finally had an opportunity to look around.
Scanning my surroundings, I found myself in...
'Another cave.'
Though the waterfall was still ahead, and this cave was a lot smaller than the last, it was more like a slightly large crevice in the wall, or is that what a cave is?
Anyway, I decided to move, I couldn't stay here...
-growl
I was hungry.
'There's probably some fruits or something, if not I'll have to... hunt.'
I had some knowledge about hunting; it came from Jake, or rather, Jake's... dad. Before Jake was diagnosed as terminally ill, he used to go hunting with his father. He was a real father... unlike Cassian's.
'There's no time to think about it, I gotta move.' I shoved away the thought and resolved to leave.
Stepping through the waterfall, the sun shone bright overhead, blinding me slightly again.
'Did I sleep an entire day, or does the sun not set here?'
It wouldn't be unusual for the sun to never set in a rift. In the novel, there was a time when the main character was in a rift, trapped in an eternal night. So an eternal day wasn't that far-fetched.
More importantly...
-growl
My stomach was practically begging for food at this point, so I decided to move, but first...
'I need to set a trap.'
I couldn't hunt with my bare hands, and that bastard Paul had taken my sword with him, probably to use as evidence for my death.
I recalled Jake's father's words. 'If you're ever trapped with no food and weapons, the first thing to do is set up a trap, so watch closely.'
A small smile appeared on my face. 'Thanks, Dad.'
------
The trap wasn't anything crazy, and it didn't take as long to set up as I thought it would, mostly because my body was enhanced with mana.
It was a simple net-like trap.
It was made from plant fibers I had found, which were surprisingly flexible. I connected the net to a rope so that when something came, I would pull the rope, and the net would wrap around whatever was in it.
I found some fruit on nearby trees, and although I really wanted to eat them, I resisted the temptation, who knows if they're poisonous to humans?
Well, I guess you could say the same about rift creature meat...
Whatever, I didn't think about that at the time.
I placed the fruits on my makeshift net, climbed a nearby tree, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
'Oh my fucking god,' I was on the verge of giving up and just eating the fruits, then...
-rustle
My head snapped in the direction of the noise.
I didn't know what the hell it was, but it looked something like a mixture of a bunny and a fox. It was kind of... cute.
Then it opened its mouth, and a long ass tongue came out.
'What the fuck!?'
No, really, it was grotesque as hell, not to mention its teeth that looked like they were designed to rip heads off.
I hid my presence as best I could and watched as the thing noticed the fruit I'd left and approached it with its mouth wide open.
'Come on.'
It was approaching really slowly, and I wasn't sure whether it was being cautious or was just really slow.
I held the end of a rope tightly.
Until...
-thwip
I pulled the rope as hard as I could, and the net wrapped around it.
-ARRFFF
It made a weird sound that was somewhat like a dog.
I dropped down from the tree and took a rock, smashing it directly onto the creature's head, knocking it out.
Looking at my captured... food, I felt really disgusted.
'Fucking hell.' I held back my disgust, trying not to puke.
"Haa..." I let out an exaggerated sigh. "Guess that's... dinner."
I took the creature, leaving it in the net just in case, and began making my way back to the waterfall.
-CRASH
A loud noise went off in the distance, causing the ground to shake under the force.
'Shit!'
I grabbed onto a nearby tree to steady myself and looked up.
My eyes widened.
There I saw a massive creature, the height of a skyscraper, rising from the trees as it stood up. It had a humanoid figure, but its body was covered in red spikes, and its head resembled that of a komodo dragon.
On the other side, another monster of similar height rose from the trees. It stood on four legs, its body covered in dark green fur, and its head was hard to describe; it looked like that of a wolf and had a horn that looked similar to a rhino's.
It felt as though the entire forest had frozen at their appearance; not a single sound came.
It was a battle between two kings.
Their presence covered the entire forest. I felt like my body was being forced down even though I wasn't anywhere near them.
Every single creature in the forest was watching in anticipation or fear. I swear I could smell a distinct scent of blood covering the entire forest.
For a moment, they simply stared at one another.
At this point, I was really lamenting the fact that the previous Cassian hadn't studied up on rift creatures cause I didn't know what the fuck to do.
I stared at the scene in a daze, but I quickly snapped out of it and sprinted as fast as I could to the waterfall.
The massive creatures began to move closer to each other. Each one of their steps shook the ground.
As I ran, I could hear other creatures from behind, but they didn't seem to care about me.
All sorts of noises came from every direction, creatures all around, big and small, running.
'They're running for their lives.'
It was a stampede; they moved without any regard for one another. In fact, they actively pushed and shoved each other trying to get ahead.
Trees were being crushed all around as more creatures were dying every second.
'Damn it!'
The stampede was right behind me as I ran with all I had.
The noise was so loud that my ears began to bleed.
I kept pushing forward, but the monsters were faster, and I was caught up in the stampede.
I dodged the arms, legs, feet, and all sorts of limbs that came in my direction and continued to run alongside the creatures.
I was pushing my body to its limits, but... I couldn't dodge an approaching horse-like leg.
A sharp impact came against my right arm, but I didn't feel it at the time.
It was numb.
My state was critical, but I was still dodging the creatures.
My mind went into overdrive, adrenaline the only thing keeping me going.
I ran toward a large rock and used it as leverage to jump.
I landed on a creature's back.
-BOOOMMM
A massive explosion went off in the distance, and the ground didn't just shake this time...
It split.
The ground began splitting open as many creatures fell into the newly formed hole, but the creature I was riding continued to run.
My sight was extremely blurry, and my mind was foggy.
I realised it then.
My right arm...
Was gone.
'FUCK.'
The pain seemed to kick in then, causing me to grip my arm in pain.
The pain did wake me up, though.
Making me realise...
I was losing too much blood.
In an attempt to stop the blood loss, I took the net, throwing away the bunny creature into the crowd, and tied it around my right arm, or what was left of it.
I ripped my shirt and used it as a cloth to absorb the blood.
Looking around, I was still moving atop the creature, and all the others were still running alongside it.
The sight was terrifying. Every monstrosity in the forest was running alongside me.
There were too many sounds to describe, all overlapping one another, causing my already pained eardrum even more pain.
'Think! Damn it! Think!'
I needed a way out of this situation.
The smell of blood flooded my nostrils.
My balance began to falter as the creature I was on began shakingly running; it was most likely injured.
'Shit!'
I grabbed onto its hide tightly.
-BOOOMMM
Another explosion went off in the distance, the ground split again, and this time it was right ahead.
The creature I was on didn't seem to notice the hole and was running in its direction.
'Damn it!'
I couldn't figure out an escape. If I jumped off the creature, I would be crushed by the others, and if I stayed on it, I would fall to my death.
'NO! Not like this!'
I began desperately hitting the creature's left side of its head.
I was truly out of ideas.
But...
It moved.
It moved to the right, narrowly dodging the massive hole in the ground.
I tried it again this time hitting the right side of its head and...
It moved left.
'Yes! Come on, you grotesque bastard, move!' I cheered.
I began hitting the creature constantly, trying to lead it away from the stampede.
And toward the...
Waterfall.