Deep underground, Lake stood in front of the massive rift that had formed.
The space was twisted and distorted. The sound of wind howling caused by the constant shifting of the air echoing inside the cave.
The rift was located within a cave system connected to the subway station by a small crack in the wall that led deep underground. If Lake wasn't paying attention and didn't have the memories of the Empress, he would have had a hard time just finding it.
Looking at the blue tear in the fabric of reality in front of him, Lake's curiosity was ignited. All this time he had heard news about the opening of new rifts and the various rewards and resources hunters acquired from the exploration of them but not once had he seen what it was like on the inside.
However, he didn't let it distract him from his current objective. The Empress has already entered the rift more than an hour ago. If Lake wanted to catch up to make sure he didn't miss out on the perfect opportunity, he had to move fast.
Walking closer, Lake could feel a force pulling him towards the rift. When he sensed the force, he didn't resist as he let himself quickly fall into the rift.
Soon a nauseating sensation struck him as he felt the space around him start to shift and twist as he felt his body deforming. He felt as if the ground and sky had changed places, giving him the illusion that he was in freefall.
When Lake finally hit the ground, his senses returned to normal and he found himself in the middle of a small clearing in a vibrant forest. The rift had disappeared behind him after spitting him out on the floor leaving him groaning as he tried to regain his bearings.
However, the nauseating feeling from going through the rift was still affecting him even after he left it. He barely managed to get up from the ground using the support from a tree before the nausea worsened. Lake couldn't take it anymore and threw up.
"Hah... Hah..."
After he threw up, Lake turned himself over as he leaned against the tree. While he tried to catch his breath, he muttered under his breath, "I… heard that going through a rift can be a little rough for first timers… but that felt like I was on a roller coaster… from hell."
As Lake was recovering, a large feline figure was hiding in a bush nearby. It was crouched down low to the ground and its fur blended in with the green shade of the leaves. Its sharp green eyes were completely focused on Lake's helpless figure resting against the tree trunk.
This creature was known as the Green Panther and it controlled a small territory in the vicious fighting grounds of the "Garden".
A few minutes ago it had been quietly resting in its territory when it suddenly heard the loud noise of what sounded like a dying creature coming from nearby. Since the sound came from nearby, it had greatly startled the Panther from its sleep.
Normally, no creature dared to enter its territory willingly unless it came looking to "challenge" it for territory.
In the Garden, thanks to the abundance of mana, no creature had to worry about food or water so there was no reason to fight each other for survival. However, this didn't change a thing for certain creatures. Although there was no reason to fight each other, some creatures still chose to seek out battle.
Some did it as a test of strength or for sport while others did it to satisfy their primordial instincts as predators. The Green Panther belonged to the latter of this group and thanks to that it would often find itself hunting or fighting other creatures.
Thinking that another predator had invaded its territory to fight it, the Green Panther immediately became vigilant as it seeked out the dying creature.
Staying low to the ground and moving with silent steps, the panther slowly made its way towards the source of the noise, blending into the surrounding foliage.
Eventually, the Panther found the sorry figure of Lake who was resting against the tree trunk.
When the Green Panther saw Lake's weakened state, it felt a deep desire beginning to well up inside it. As an ambush predator, weakened prey that was found resting was far easier a target to hunt than a healthy one at its peak.
A ruthless glint flashed in the Green Panther's eyes as it slowly made its way through the foliage, rotating its position to be both behind and closer to Lake.
When the distance between Lake and the Panther was less than 10 meters, the Green Panther couldn't hold it in any more and released a loud roar that shook the leaves on the trees around it.
As it roared, the Panther's large body dashed out of the bush, covering the distance of over 10 meters in less than a second. With practiced movements, it raised its two large paws into the sky, ready to press down on Lake's body to prevent him from moving while its mouth full of sharp fangs was aimed at Lake's neck.
Its vibrant green eyes glowed ferociously as it stared at Lake's back figure. A feeling of euphoria went through its entire body like an electric shock. Excitement welled up inside it as it could already see the dead body of its prey hanging from its fangs. Although it knew it most likely wouldn't eat it, just the feeling of the hunt was enough to greatly excite it.
*BANG!*
A loud noise echoed through the forest as if a bomb had gone off causing the trees to shake and the birds to fly away. At that moment, the Green Panther who was about to attack was completely confused.
One moment, it was staring at the neck of its prey, ready to bite down on it, but in the next moment, its vision had shifted to the peaceful scenery of the blue sky. This had completely dumbfounded the Panther, causing it doubt whether it had hallucinated the previous ordeal of attacking Lake.
While the Panther was thinking about this, it saw the figure of the prey it was going to hunt standing above it. The prey was upside down but that wasn't important as it also noticed that it seemed to be holding its paw.
This had further dumbfounded the Panther. Wasn't I behind him before? How did he get behind me? Why was he holding my paw? How was he holding my paw?
While these thoughts passed through the Panther's mind, it suddenly felt its body being assaulted by a searing pain.
"GRROARR!!"
A bellow of agony erupted from the Panther's mouth as its body made an arc against the ground, tears welling up in its eyes. Its body was lying in the middle of a large crater that had formed on the ground.
In the split second that the Green Panther was about to land on top of him, Lake had spun around and grabbed the Panther's paw, flipping it over himself and ruthlessly smashing it into the ground causing a large crater to form at the impact site.
As Lake stared at the screaming Panther, he suddenly felt dizzy again. It seemed that he still hadn't recovered when he flipped over the Panther causing him to feel something rushing up his throat again.
Lake gagged before kneeling down before the Green Panther. Gripping the Panther's large body with both hands, Lake gagged again before emptying out his stomach a second time. His hands that were holding the Panther's body unintentionally clenched down, digging into and twisting its flesh.
"ROARRRR!"
The Panther released another blood curdling roar as the tears that had welled up in his eyes flowed down the side of his face. If the pain it experienced before from being smashed into the ground could be described as mind shattering, the pain he felt now was as if his soul was being torn apart.
It wanted to get up and resist but Lake's iron-like grip had completely locked the Panther in place, preventing it from escaping. This has made the Panther despair as it continued to cry in pain.
In the Panther's mind, this pain was worse than just killing him. Not only was the bastard holding him down, torturing him with this unbearable pain, he was also humiliating him by releasing that smelly "substance" onto his body.
The Green Panther really wanted to know what he did to deserve such suffering but he had no one to cry to.
After a few minutes, when Lake had finally finished releasing everything in his stomach, he felt a wave of relief followed by weakness flow through him. Weakening his grip on the Panther's body, Lake turned his head to look at the Panther next to him.
However, Lake was stunned when saw that the Panther had passed out with its eyes glazed back and foam coming out of its mouth.
It had passed out from the pain while Lake was vomiting.
When Lake looked at the red marks that had appeared on the Panther's body where he was previously gripping, he felt a little awkward but it didn't affect him much as he turned to look at the thread of fate above the Panther's head.
Lake was completely disoriented upon entering the rift so he didn't have time to observe his surroundings beforehand. Now that he had mostly recovered from his initial dizziness, he started to look through the Panther's fate to gather information on the environment in the rift.
After a few minutes, Lake had already gathered an initial understanding of his surroundings from the Panther's fate.
The place he was in was known as the "Garden", a strange place that was filled with various animals and monsters and covered a large area with forests, mountains and rivers covering a large distance.
From the Green Panther's Fate, he had gained a general understanding of the area he was in and what was around him. This also led Lake to think back to his main objective.
The Garden was divided into five zones; North, East, South, West and the Central Area in the middle.
When Lake had seen the Central Area in the Panther's fate, he immediately knew that it was where the Spider Empress and Wolf King were heading.
The Central Area of the Garden was a large lake with a small island in the middle. On the island grew a large tree over a hundred meters tall. This tree had golden leaves and a beautiful white bark and at the top of the tree grew a strange fruit.
Lake wasn't able to figure out what exactly the fruit was as the Green Panther had never seen it before and only knew about it, however, Lake guessed that it was this strange fruit that the Spider Empress and the Wolf King were after as Lake could feel a burning desire, almost an instinctual want, for it when he searched through the panther's memories.
The only thing that confused him was how the Empress knew about this place. He was sure he went through the Empress' entire fate yet he never found any memory of the fruit or the central area in her past.
Lake was never one to dwell on something he couldn't figure out, so he pushed the matter to the back of his mind. Eventually the truth would reveal itself, and even if it didn't, Lake didn't care. Instead, he chose to focus on what he did know, the central area and the strange fruit that the Empress and Wolf King were after.
When Lake thought of this he couldn't help but smile. Although the Wolf King and the Empress were both creatures that Lake could never hope to face head on with his current strength, he was suddenly given a boost of confidence as he knew it wouldn't be easy for them to get their hands on the fruit.
At the top of the white tree lived a strange bird. The bird was extremely large with a wingspan of over 15 meters long and had a sleek, majestic body. Its purple feathers reflected the light of the sun and moon leaving a luminescent afterglow on its body.
To the creatures of the Garden, this bird was known as Skylark, the King of The Garden that controls the power of thunder and lightning. Skylark lived on the top of the white tree, guarding it like a loyal protector. Any creature that dares to approach the tree would have to meet its electric shock that rained down from the sky.
From what Lake gathered from the Panther's fate, Skylark should be a Peak Rank Three Monster infinitely close to breaking through Rank Four. If such a creature was guarding the tree, Lake wouldn't have to worry about the Spider Empress or the Wolf King getting their hands on the strange fruit.
When Lake thought about this, he grinned as he got up from the ground. He had finally fully recovered from that nauseating sickness and was ready to move. Since the Empress and the Wolf King wouldn't be getting the fruit anytime soon. Lake decided to have some fun in the meantime.
The Garden was filled with various beasts of all kinds and could even be said to be overflowing with them. In such an environment, if Lake didn't take the chance to pay them all a "visit", he would be a great sinner.
Looking down at the body of the unconscious Panther, a cruel smile slowly formed on Lake's handsome face.
It was on that day that the Garden, a place where few battles would happen and most creatures lived in peace, welcomed its first hunter.