Chapter 33 - On The Other Side #1
Oblivious to what was happening in the village, Adam was moving on to his destination.
The sun burning overhead had a fierce demeanour. Yet the nature around him had a soothing presence. The balance between warmth from above and duskiness all-around had established a beautiful equilibrium.
"No wonder most glyphs don't work." Adam shook his head in realisation.
Recalling the words of the great sage, the Arcane Glyphs are an invincible existence in the world. Though they are mere symbols with strokes, they consume an exaggerated amount of mana.
"The larger my MP is, the more are the glyphs I can use."
Arcane Glyphs doesn't have any strict classifications, but they can be loosely divided into categories based on the amount of mana they consume. The Illuminate, Detect, Crumble are nothing more than basic glyphs where the condensed energy is channelled to bring forth a change.
As auxiliary skills, they consume relatively less amount of mana. But they still pose a burden to Adam.
He found it difficult to suppress the urge to try all the glyphs he had learnt. However, the recollection of the sage's words regarding the necessary density and quantity of mana needed to pull the tricks off disheartened his courage.
Walking at a relaxed pace, Adam sensed the residence of multiple beings around him. Though many were smaller and weaker than him, he didn't cause trouble and circumvent their territory.
Shortly after, he found traces of a civilised world.
"These are carriage tracks."
Crouching near the brown patch of the path that stretched beyond his sight, Adam recognised the trail of wheels and the series of hooves.
'I should probably follow this road.'
Rather than wandering around and evading monster domains, Adam found it better to follow the tracks. Thus, he straightened his spine and was about to turn and walk away when a familiar sensation swept past him.
"This...!"
The trembling ground and the wavering reality dumbstruck Adam. He had a bad premonition about what was happening. Though he can't pinpoint what this feeling is, he could confirm that his discernment wasn't faulty.
With a flick of the wrist, the spear appeared in his hand. He scanned the vicinity and was about to run to the nearby bushes when the world around Adam lost colours.
FU!
At once, our protagonist lost his sight and footing. Like a feather enjoying the freefall, Adam was twirling and turning in mid-air. Alertness and caution clutched his heart and the pace quickened.
But this weird sensation didn't last long.
Thud!
With an impact powerful enough for a grown-up's bones to creak and break, Adam kissed the ground. The crimson soil reeking the stench of blood entered his mouth and displeasure wasn't conveyable with his words alone.
"Phu..."
Springing up with vigour, what welcomed Adam's eyes was a world drastically different.
"Where in the world am I?" Knit brows inspected the world around him with vigilance. Unlike where he was walking and wandering, this world was devoid of greenery and vegetation.
Standing on a flat surface with his feet digging into loose soil, the carnivorous land stretched beyond the horizon. Adam could see several plateaus and hills and flatlands cast in the same blood-red die.
The sky had the colour of rich deep red colour inclining to purple. There was a silver-grey moon in the sky watching over the world with an eerie vibe.
Roar!
While examining the surroundings, a deafening warcry rose into the air. Adam was bewildered for a moment. Turning around, he saw what he could describe as a tsunami of monsters. At once he dashed to a nearby rock and hid behind it.
Seconds later, several hundreds of demons and spectres came charging to where he was. Their frenzied bellowing overlapped each other and the reverberation threatened to rip apart Adam's ears.
'What in the hell have I got myself into??' Clutching his head in pain and biting down the agony, Adam lay low and tolerated the throbbing. Since ache was a good old friend who never fails to find Adam wherever he goes, he was accustomed to it.
The stampede of beasts must be much decent that these fiends, Adam thought. His assumption wasn't inaccurate.
But...
'Where are they going?'
The revelation that the beasts aren't targeting him was a relief. But what these monsters are chasing was a mystery to him.
Curious, Adam poked his head out of the dark crevice where he hid. Not too far away, he saw a thoroughly distorted expanse of land which lured battalions of these otherworldly entities. With inhuman physique and grotesque demeanour, even Adam felt that fighting any one of them would be fatal.
Narrowing his eyes, Adam stared intently at the wavering reality. That peculiar space had a different colour gradient from the surroundings. The next second, his eyes widened in astonishment.
'That's where I was standing!' Adam exclaimed in his heart as he saw the brown patch of land. The carriage tracks could also be vaguely seen.
Astonishment crept up his heart and he instantly withdrew to where he was. Without wasting a second, multiple 'Detect' glyphs were sent into the surrounding and what came back to Adam was a sense of despair.
'So, I'm in a foreign land.'
The current situation was a complete stranger to him. But he wasn't disheartened when he realised that he's in an unknown world. At least the glyphs work, he heaved a sigh of relief.
Through the Detect glyph, Adam came to know that he's in a wasteland in the alien world. Apart from the hore of monsters which rushed towards the fluctuating reality, there was nothing alive in the vicinity.
Wait, the flickering reality!
A tinge of doubt sprouted in Adam's heart and his entire body jolted up. Poking his head out of where he hid, he scanned the surroundings and saw that the beasts have existed via that 'bizarre' location.
'That's a portal.'
As someone who lived on Earth long enough to witness the advent and development of sci-fi movies, Adam's initial guess was that the fluctuating area was a portal. But this remained a conjecture in his heart.
The valley in which he hid was vast and wide. the presence of boulders was a boon to him as he used their cover to tiptoe towards the wavering reality.
And as he was nearing the location, the ground beneath his feet began to tremble. Like a mortal shuddering at the presence of a deity, the quake was frightening.
An ominous premonition clutched his heart as Adam raised his head and saw the portal frozen and cracks spreading over the glass surface like a frenzied wine. Within seconds, with a loud boom, the portal shattered.
"Tombstone," Adam muttered to himself as he witnessed a large obsidian stone crashing on the other side of the reality. It matched the sage's description of his creation with innumerable magical inscriptions on it.
An intense repulsion threw Adam backwards. He was lucky for a sturdy skeletal frame as he crashed into multiple boulders, shattering them to rubbles.
And when the dust settled, the portal had vanished.
"What just happened?"
All that happened right now was like a dream to Adam. Indescribable, involuntary and impossible to discern.
Roar!
Adam was about to stand up and dash to the darkness behind a rock when a bellow rose into the air. The sudden outcry stunned him and he turned around. What he witnessed was an abnormally large fist racing at his face. It was so quick and powerful that he felt bound to the spot.
Thud!
The abrupt and unimaginable force of the collision threw Adam several metres away. Like a tin can, he rolled over and over.
Raising a cloud of dust, the stranger settled on the ground, unmoving. Witnessing this, the beast was about to turn back and walk to its turf when rubbles sounded movement behind it.
"I don't know what you are, but you shouldn't have done that."
The demon was astonished for a second but narrowed its eyes the next moment. After finding that the gentle touch of its clenched fist did nothing to the stranger, bloodlust began to course through its crimson-coloured physique upon seeing blood oozing from the corner of Adam's lips.
The words were indiscernible to the fiend, but the killing intent embedded in it was enough to declare that this puny insect was brave enough to face the force.
A cold sneer crept up the beast's face as he dashed at Adam. The large physique easily towering beyond two metres was accompanied by limbs and muscles appropriate to the torso. The only piece of cloth, the skin of a beast, covered its waist as the demon closed the distance within an instant.
The being was unlike anything Adam had fought. The fact that the entity covered a distance of several metres within a single gallop was a breathtaking achievement.
A quick sidestep and the fist flew an inch away from Adam's ear. He was about to execute a counterattack when the most unanticipated enemy flung him across the battlefield.