Hmm...?
Souta slowly opened his eyes. He held his head as he felt dizzy.
"You're awake."
He turned his head and saw that it was Alice. He then moved his eyes and saw that Yuko was sleeping beside her.
It seems that the three of them lose their consciousness after that teleportation spell goes awry.
He didn't have an idea where's this place in the map.
"Yeah, how long I was out?" He pushed himself into a seated position and asked her.
"I just woke up five minutes ago." Alice woke up while looking at her surrounding.
Souta frowned as he stopped moving. He felt the mana density in the atmosphere was too thin. There was no friction in the air as he could freely move his body. Even though he was injured, he still felt light.
"You notice it, right? The mana density here is twenty times lower than the Giza continent." Alice replied as a ball of energy formed on top of her palm.
'Most likely, we're in a sub-world.' Saya's voice sounded in his mind.
There's no place in a great world that has this level of mana density. The density of mana in a sub-world was really low. That's the reason why most of the people in this kind of world were weak. It would require talented individuals to liquefied their mana in this kind of environment.
"Yeah, it's too low," Souta said as he picked a small stone on the ground. He pinched it and it crumbled right away.
Mana was like water in the air. The higher density it has the fewer people could move. But high-density mana could bring a lot of benefits to the world. It could strengthen the body of people and the environment.
Just like the stone that Souta pinched just now. He didn't even put force in his finger but the stone simply turned into tiny fragments.
A normal stone in a great world like Imperium would become a precious stone in this world.
"I think we're in a sub-world," Souta said to Alice as he stood up and slowly spread his mana in the surrounding area. His mana was like a radar. Those who made contact with it, Souta would know it immediately.
He could do this simply because of the low mana in the air. He could easily scatter his mana.
"I felt the same but I couldn't believe that teleportation spell would transport us to another world." Alice nodded at him. She has gone to the sub-world before so she knows what it feels like in a sub-world. Her territory owned thousands of sub-world after all.
"Yeah, we're unlucky. It will be hard to return to Imperium." Souta said as he opened his eyes.
It seems that those second evolution monsters were overlord of this huge forest. Damn! Quite huge for a mere second evolution. If it was in the Imperium, a forest this huge was housing at least a single third evolution monster.
After confirming that there were no threats to them, he sat down and sighed.
"Let's stay here until Yuko woke up."
"Okay, let's do that." Alice nodded at him.
Souta glanced at Yuko as he recalled the battle before. Yuko evolved and became a third evolution monster. She was now a true monster and could communicate to him using the monster language that she learned in her evolution.
Scorching Red Bear was her evolution. It was a bear that could command flames in her body.
She was a two-meter giant bear and her monster orb was external. It was situated on the center of her forehead and her red fur was like a flame. In her combat mode, her fur would emit flames that could burn her enemies into ashes. These flames were powered by her best feram so it was stronger than normal flames made of mana.
Her base form was stronger than him. He would only be able to match her if he used all of his aces. If Yuko used her blessing while she was in her [Monster Orb Release] form then she would surely defeat him.
He was currently level 37 and was close to 38. Once he level up to level 38, he planned to use his two level-up cards.
"Let's leave Yuko here in this place. There's nothing that could threaten her in this place so it's better to leave her here. Also, you could summon her anytime with your tamer skill." Alice said to him after contemplating their next move.
Souta rubbed his chin before he nodded at her. "Yeah, you're right. We don't know if tamer is known in this world or people would hunt monsters on sight. We wouldn't be able to gather information if the people are against us."
They could interrogate the people here but that's his last resort. He wouldn't do it unless the situation calls for it.
"I've decided that we'll recover our strength first before we move out of this forest." He said as he glanced at Alice. His mana was closed to zero after the battle and it will take some time before it recovered.
It's better that they don't underestimate this world. Even if there's no god-level powerhouse, there's a chance that there will be a Rank-S that could wipe them out.
Alice agreed to him before she closed her eyes.
Souta smiled before he stood up and patted his clothes. He'll try to familiarize himself in this atmosphere. Everything in this world was weaker compare to Sylphen so he had to control his strength so that he wouldn't destroy anything once he got into the city.
Also, his missing left hand was a problem. He was used to fighting using both of his hands so this will greatly decrease his fighting strength. He will try to adapt to a situation where he could only use one hand. It was hard but he will try it anyway.
After a few minutes, Souta stopped what he was doing as he turned his head to Yuko.
"Master...?" Yuko slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Souta, her master.
Souta smiled as he approached her and patter her head. "How are your body?" He asked her.
"Hmm... I'm fine. I felt that I've grown stronger, master." Yuko replied to him.
Alice just looked at them as she couldn't understand them. The intent in Yuko's words was only directed at Souta so she couldn't understand it. Monster language was really different from the language that humans and demis used.
Yuko closed her eyes as she enjoyed him petting her. After a while, she opened her eyes widely and she focused her attention on Souta.
"Master, I've sensed some people. I could smell blood on them." She said to him.
"People...?" Souta slowly scattered his mana and found that Yuko was right. There were people here but he couldn't smell blood on them like Yuko.
Are bears really have a good sense of smell? Maybe, Yuko was just special among them.
He stood up and looked at Alice. "Yuko sensed some people and I'm going there to check if we could gather information to them. Do you want to go too?"
"Yeah," Alice said as she stood up.
Souta turned to Yuko and said, "Stay here Yuko. We're just going to meet the people that you've sensed. You can do anything you want in this forest. You can harvest all the fruits here."
"Really?" Yuko's eyes lit up when she heard his words.
"Yes," Souta nodded.
After that, he along with Alice left the area and headed towards the direction of the people. Since he could sense him with his mana sense, they were pretty close to him.
Souta moving freely. With just a light tap on the ground, he could dash fifty meters in an instant. His body was too light.
In the game, he traveled to hundreds of sub-worlds but it was the first time he felt the difference with his real senses.
The two suddenly stopped as they felt mana fluctuations. It seems a battle started in that direction.
Souta and Alice looked at each other and nodded.
"Let's increase our pace."
"Yeah,"
Their mana coated their body as their speed increased by several times. In just a few seconds, they arrived at the sight and saw a giant snake rampaging.
The two didn't quickly rush to save the people. They noticed something wrong in the surrounding the moment they arrived here.
Bodies of n.a.k.e.d women were scattered on the ground. Some part of the body was gone as it was eaten by the snake.
The ground was dyed by red color because of the blood of all the people.
The corpses of the women have collars on their necks.
The giant snake was killing the men who were trembling in fear in front of this enormous monster.
Souta and Alice looked at this scene with cold eyes. They could guess that these people were bandits judging from their attire and the looks of their camp.
The women were slaves and they didn't even bother hiding them. It seems that slavery was legal in this world.
The giant snake was rampaging around killing bandits in its way. The camp was on the verge of destruction.