Noel stood at the cave entrance gazing at the world before him. A desolate landscape stretched to the horizon. There was no sign of life in his vicinity.
Tall black pillars made of the same obsidian metal like rock littered the entire plains and stretched beyond what his eyes could see. He noticed the cave he was in was made on one of these pillars.
With a sigh he left the cave and walked forward. His pace was slow,he was cautious of his surroundings incase something was lurking in the bushes, not that there were any.
Haha, I'm so funny, he laughed at his own thoughts. A few miles in and he still cannot see any sign of life. The world was empty, quiet and dark and strangely he felt comfortable in this dark silence.
He looked up at the sky, it was covered in grey metallic like clouds, he wondered how that was even possible or how they can float like they are weightless in this gravity.
Beyond them was something incredible, a black hole. This place had no sun or moons which means no day or night, a black hole provided the tiny light present here.
It was most likely the reason for this gravity as well. The further in he went the more of these black pillars there were and he noticed the ones around here had holes drilled into them.
The holes were of similar size which meant if somethings lived here, they were of the same species and any species that lived in packs were never good news.
He continued walking forward cautiously until he saw something move behind one of the pillars. He hid behind the closest pillar to him.
Fortunately from his position he could see most of the thing. It was an imp like thing with a black leathery skin, two holes instead of a nose and a wide mouth with many black pointy teeth.
It was eating a large black bird whose outer layer looks like it was made of metal. The things sniffed the air a few times then turned to look at where he was hiding.
Shit, he thought and without a second thought he ran. Although the thing looks weak he would be an idiot if he underestimated it.
It lived in a place he struggled for an entire month just to move in. Even right now he could feel that his strength was a mere fraction of what he can do outside.
Even his running speed was around that a normal man without any mana. It was vexing. He turned back to see if it was chasing him and it just stood there confused as if it did not know what to do then it screeched.
The screech was loud and grating like metal grinding into each other. Multiple screeches followed after that from the holes in the pillars.
He tried to run even faster but his legs refused so he boosted them with mana. The things came out of the caves in droves. Fortunately he was not too far in their territory so he was able to get our before they could block his path.
He looked back and hundreds of these things were chasing him. He felt no mana from them but they moved faster than he can even when he used his mana to strengthen his legs.
They were gaining on him, he thought of solutions, his face still blank and calm as always. He looked around and all he saw were black pillars and nothing else, not even a place to hide.
Just as they were about to get him a screech even louder than theirs echoed. They stopped but he did not. He looked up while running and two huge birds were circling in the sky above them.
They looked similar to the one that was eaten by the imp but looked more menacing and larger, much larger. Must be mama and papa birds, he thought. He did not want them to confuse him as being together with their baby killers so he ran even faster.
He heard and whoosh as if a cloth was being sliced with a sharp knife. Screams followed after, he knew what was happening without even looking back.
He continued running even when he was running out of breath. A while later he arrived back in his cave. He slumped down like a deflated balloon.
With a wave of his hand he made water and gulped it down. His breathing stabilised. He hated how he cannot use any of his high tier skills like barrier magic or healing magic.
The dense mana in his veins mean he can move it slowly however to cast those skills he needs to provide enough mana to the skill tree in soul space fast enough for the system to construct the skill runes but he cannot do that.
He had enough mana, better mana but he cannot provide it fast enough.I'll figure things out later. He went to sleep and had a strange dream.
He was floating in the void of space, before him stood tall beings with grey skin. They stood at around 10 metres tall with very muscular bodies.
It appeared they were fighting a war. They were outnumbered, the army facing them was large and made up of different races. He could see dragons whose eyes were larger than planets.
Phoenix who burnt the void of space itself, elves who grew trees in the void like it was fertile soils and other races,humans, dwarves and more.
Only around a 1000 of these grey skinned beings stood before this vast army yet it was the army of the myriad races that showed fear.
He wondered what this meant, how could the myriad races of the universe show fear to merely a thousand beings. Just as he was about to get closer to see clearly the being on the front turned and looked at him as if he can see him.
Noel stopped, he wondered if the being could actually see him. That impossible right? He laughed nervously, he didn't notice it himself but became much more emotional than normal in that instance, one of his eyes had turned pitch black with a red iris.
Inadequate but I suppose you will to do the man said and Noel knew, he knew he was talking to him. Fear, grasped his heart, it was an unfamiliar feeling to him yet he felt it clearly.
It was uncontrollable and deep like an endless ocean. Ho...how? he asked, he was aware that he was dreaming there was no mistaking that yet the being before him talked to him. Time for you to go child, make my people proud and the dream ended.