As Kai travelled through the dimensional rift, he got evoked by a peculiar sensation. After a short minute, he saw light coming from below him, outlining the exit to the tunnel.
At the speed he was falling, it didn't take long for him to reach. Falling out of the tunnel, he landed with a jolt on the hard ground. But he didn't care.
Even if he landed on a rough rock, he probably won't have noticed.
Igneal was gone
He was never going to see him again and he only had a white scarf to remember by.
Those thoughts triggered a wave of emotions he never thought he will feel again. It was the same one he felt when his parents dead. It was the pain of losing a loved one.
He remembered the months that they spent together. How kind he was and how he treated him like his own. Honestly he didn't care that he delayed the transportation portal.
The anguish was overwhelming but suddenly a searing pain interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to reality.
The burning sensation from his chest throughout his body and a voice echoed in his head.
"Ahem, is this working... Ah good! this is the fire dragon Igneal speaking."
"Igneal! can you hear.." Kai's heart immediately fluttered in instant response. But,
"If you're hearing this, it must mean that I'm dead." Must be some kind of recording when he gouged that hole into Kai's chest.
"You're nowhere ready right now to face the black dragon. He's not an opponent that humans could hope to take on. I would have preferred if you never knew about his existence.
I realized that you have talent so I'll leave this with you: I have imbued your core with my unique magic and will.
This is far incomparable to any ancient treasure that you will ever find. How you use it and what you use it for, is up to you.
Lastly Kai, I know you are grieving but you have a long life ahead of you. My wish is for you to live a long life, make friends, train hard and become a man that your parents and I will be proud of.
There is a reason for everything and I do not regret what has happened. With this, I bid you farewell. But never forget that I, Igneal, will always be with you." After saying so, the recording ended.
Even so, Kai didn't move for a long time, remaining in the same position as his back kissed the ground, deep in thought.
Igneal was right, he still has people he cared about. He needed to become strong and live his life without regret. He will move forward and live a life Igneal will be proud of.
Therefore, he needed to return back, but before he could do that.
"Where the fuck am I?" Kai said while looking around. Trees surrounded him, towering high over his head. A dense fog which loomed thickly a few inches off the ground.
Trees and an unnaturally thick fog...
"So I'm in the forest of Hulda, huh." Kai let out a dishearted sign as he picked himself up.
He didn't have anything other than his clothes and the cursed fog limited his vision. His sight have become better after what Igneal did, so it helped a bit.
But it didn't solve the bigger problem, which was to get out of the forest.
"I need to get to higher ground." thinking so, Kai climbed a nearby tree. Once he got high enough, he reinforced his eyes with mana and searched around.
He wasn't looking for a way out but rather for any sign of people. The forest of Hulda didn't have many magic beasts like the beast glade. So he hoped that a group of adventurers will be passing by.
After ten minutes of searching, jumping from tree to tree like a monkey, he gave up since he didn't find anyone.
"Looks like I will have to stay here for some days before I return." He said so as he released another sigh.
----
One day passed since then, and Kai could be seen crouching behind a rock. At the moment he was stalking his prey, which was…a bunny.
Kai thought it was extremely lame for him to hunt bunnies, but he needed a source of food. Therefore he didn't have a choice.
His plan was simple, he will wait patiently for his prey to get distracted before attacking it with a simple fireball spell.
"Now."
And just like the past day, he waited for his opportunity and shot a fireball spell towards the bunny, killing it instantly. He reduced the power so that the bunny won't burn to ashes.
Grabbing the fresh bunny carcass, Kai went back to the cave he had found and set up residence in yesterday.
Today would be his 2nd day in the forest. Although he came across a few magic beasts, he let them be. He knew it would be stupid if he ate them as he is now.
Magic beast mana is infused in their bodies to strengthen them and is incompatible with humans, so it's usually impossible to eat beasts unless the carcasses are purified by holy magic and similar magic.
There was a couple of cases of people trying to cook and eat beast meat, however, things didn't end well for them.
Through further research, it was discovered that 99% of the time, people who ate non-purified magic beast meat had their bodies corrupted by the foreign mana and exploded.
The other 1% of people mutated into monsters, losing most of their reasoning, becoming more animalistic and primal.
Knowing about these abysmal odds, Kai just ignored them when he encountered them However, some stubborn ones attacked him so he had no choice but to kill them.
He needed to continue his journey but first he decided to eat and rest. Beasts don't usually disturb the area where he stays so he was safe.
What felt like a couple of hours later, Kai woke up feeling refreshed. Since it's only been around a day and a half since he got here, he still had a relative view of the time.
"Okay. It's time to go and hunt some rabbits." He decided to hunt rabbits because they were harmless therefore they were easy to hunt.
Poor Rabbits
Kai walked out of the cave and headed towards his usual hunting spot. He marked a location where rabbits usually go to, therefore, making his hunt easy.
When he got to his destination, he was shocked to see a magic beast munch on the rabbit he was supposed to hunt.
"How dare that stupid wolf steal my prey."
In front of him was a grey wolf that was slightly shorter than the average human, and judging from the aura it gave off, it was probably around D rank.
Kai and the wolf eyed each other vigilantly before the wolf made the first move and pounced. Kai used burst step and appeared at the left side of the wolf in an instant.
Burst step is a fire magic spell he created when he was in Igneal cave. He engulfs his feet in flames and creates a propulsive effect, resulting in a burst of speed which leaves flames resembling that of dragons behind in its wake.
The wolf who haven't realized what have happened, howled in pain after it received a crushing blow to its left side and was sent flying towards a tree.
It slammed into the tree with force and fell on the shortly after. The wolf tried to get up but Kai give it that chance and dashed towards it. Three punches later, the wolf's lifeless body collapsed on the ground.
Since the wolf didn't possess a great deal of intelligence, it was relatively easy to deal with. Now, there was only one problem.
"Guess I've to find another prey now." Kai sighed and walked away to find his next prey.