9 Exploring a lower realm

A primal jungle type realm. Realms of this type were usually quite primitive, the jungles would be filled with beasts and a few humanoid tribes. I was personally hoping for hot cat girls but the chances were rather low.

Landing on the ground I began to make my way through the dense jungle. The greenery that blocked my path moved away of its own accord. Having an innate understanding of life and nature was definitely a worthwhile investment. Only the beasts we're a little stubborn to give way to me.

A crimson fang-tiger decided that my presence in his territory was more disturbing than the power it felt from me. Crimson fang-tigers were a funny breed of felines. They thought that being the size of an elephant with fur more robust than steel would allow them to terrorize the entire world.

I'd fought many of them before and so far all of them had the same air of arrogance to them. The big feline lunged at me in a straight line without any deviation. Its crimson fur and strong bones we're valuable materials so my attack would have to be precise and kill it instantly.

"Eternal darkness, come forth serpent of hatred!"

Darkness erupted from my palm and a slender serpent manifested from within that darkness. The serpent was made from darkness and shot forward at blinding speed, more and more length left the darkness as the snake drew closer to the tiger.

The crimson fang-tiger had already reached the peak of his momentum and couldn't evade even if he wanted to. Not that he wanted to. He glared at the serpent with a death-defying look before the serpent's fangs dug through one of his eyes and straight into his brain.

I harvested the valuable materials of the tiger and also took along a cut of its meat. Storing those things in my separate space I resumed my walk through the jungle.

There were a few more idiot beasts that thought to make a meal of me. The most valuable among them being a golden scaled wyvern. I'd have to sit down sometime and make something out of all these materials I gathered.

Time in here passed more quickly so I reckoned I had around three weeks before I'd have to return to the surface. Moving through the jungle was a little boring until on my second day here I heard screams from afar.

I sped up a little and reached a creek running through the jungle. The flora around the water was less dense and I could see the source of the streams. A group of half-naked humans was chased by a panther, an ordinary animal. The group of bronze-skinned youths was frantically rushed along the creek while agilely jumping over obstacles now and again.

Sadly, their speed wasn't on the level where they could outrun a panther in a jungle. They'd end up as cat food if I didn't save them. I jumped out of the jungle and onto the creek while creating a board of ice below my shoes. Surfing down the creek I was quickly catching up with hunter and prey.

Just then a brown-haired girl had jumped a little too high and missed the branch she wanted to step on. Losing her equilibrium in midair she tumbled down and hit the ground. Seeing this, another girl with crimson hair stopped sprinting and went to help the fallen girl. Needless to say, the panther caught up quickly and made escape impossible.

"Lineage, intent arrow."

Summoning one of my legendary weapons, a bow named lineage, I formed an arrow out of solid killing intent and let it loose on the pouncing panther. The arrow hit the beast in the lower section of the neck right where the spine was located. My shot had been too swift for the panther to notice and it died without knowing the cause of its death.

Holding my bow I noticed that I was still wearing the same clothes as I had the day of the prison break. They were magically clean at all times but not very convenient for the occasion. Retrieving my hunting attire I replaced it with my current clothes by using space magic to directly replace them. Now I could attach Lineage to a set of hooks on my back so I wouldn't have the always summon it.

I jumped off the ice board and landed beside the panther's corpse. It was a beautiful specimen with a nice pattern on its hide. The wound left by my arrow was still visible but the arrow had already faded.

Meanwhile, the crimson-haired girl had helped the fallen one get up and they were both looking at me with wide-open eyes. They were both quite pretty, with well-proportioned bodies, fine facial features, and all that. The fact that both ladies were wearing nothing except some crudely made fur clothes to cover their chest and nether regions only served to enhance the scene before me.

"Reina! Where are you?! Answer me so I can find you!"

A mature female voice caused the crimson-haired girl, presumably called Reina, to avert her admiring gaze from me and look around.

"Irene? We are over here Irene!"

Reina's voice remained pleasant to listen to despite the volume she was yelling at. Following her shout, a loud rumbling sound approached swiftly and soon a giant boar broke through the shrubbery. Atop the boar was another brown-haired female, albeit much more mature than the two girls. Her eyes scanned the situation and the bone spear in her hand quickly came to rest at my neck.

I was relatively indifferent towards the pointy bone. It was crudely made and would at most classify as a rare weapon. It wouldn't be able to pierce my skin even if I stood still and let her hit me.

"Lower your weapon, Irene. He just saved us from the panther that chased us. I will not tolerate any disrespect to my savior!"

"But Reina, he's a man, how could he kill a panther?"

"He is a shaman. I saw him ride down the river on a piece of ice and conjure an arrow out of nothing."

I personally didn't like the direction this conversation was going. From the sounds of it, this was a matriarchal society and me being a man was a large shortcoming.

Should I call one of the ladies over to make things go smoother? No, I'd just have to make do.