The first thing I did after noticing the giant lizard happily munching on leaves was hurry and get the hell out of dodge. Not only was the sheer size of that thing totally intimidating, the amount of mana I could sense coming off it was overwhelming. Tier 4 middle stage at the very least.

My knowledge of draconids was spotty; gathered from musty books on dusty shelves. While the descriptions there led me to believe that the long-necked ones were herbivores… I didn’t want to stick around and find out if Mr. Draco here wanted some meat to go along with his salad.

Maybe it was too busy chowing down to notice me. Maybe its eyesight was too poor to let it see me from way up there. Or maybe, I was just too tiny a morsel to bother with.

Whatever the reason, it didn’t try to stop me.

After activating Stealth, Invisibility and wrapping myself in a layer of vacuum to mask both smell and sound, I felt reasonably hidden enough to start exploring.

I mean, I just got here and the first thing I met was a Tier 4 Beast. If anything, I wasn't being paranoid enough.

I prowled cautiously through the undergrowth, my senses on high alert. The ground beneath my feet was soft; both due to the layer of decomposing leaves as well as the moisture that seemed to permeate the soil. My feet sank in at each step and I left watery footprints behind.

And boy was it humid... and hot. It wasn’t long before I had to switch the vacuum barrier for one of swirling winds. It was getting positively stifling in there!

After moving a reassuringly large distance away from the draconid, I dropped my stealth and breathed a sigh of relief. That was nerve-racking.

Selecting the tallest tree around, I started climbing it.

I met several other denizens of the rainforest all the way up.

Mosquitoes the size of sparrows swarmed me, buzzing enthusiastically and vying to be the first to get a taste of my sweet, sweet blood.

A few well aimed bullets of compressed wind took care of the most enthusiastic of the bunch and the others wisely decided that I wasn’t worth the trouble and scattered.

A bit higher up, I nearly fell off in shock when I grabbed a branch and it opened a pair of beady eyes and stared reproachfully at me. A closer look told me that it wasn’t the branch that had suddenly come to life; it was a sloth that was clinging upside-down to it, the layer of moss on its fur making it blend perfectly into the mossy bark.

Seeing that I was no threat, the lazy bum simply yawned and went back to sleep. As I passed it by, my eyes couldn't help but be drawn to its claws that anchored it solidly to the branch. They were long, curved and very, very sharp.

That such a peaceful animal would have such potent natural weapons… Vita truly was a whimsical mistress.

The next tree-dweller I disturbed with my plodding ascent was a squirrel. It was lounging about in a hole in the trunk, rolling an acorn around in its paws and happily nibbling away when I gave it the fright of its life by peering in.

It nearly leapt out of its skin… and it most definitely leapt out of the hole and into the air.

I reached out to grab it and break its fall, but before I could, it spread out its four legs and a membrane of skin connecting them stretched out, catching the wind and letting it evade my grasp and glide over to the next tree unharmed.

Landing on a branch, it turned around and chittered angrily at me. It seemed somewhat mollified when I took the acorn it had dropped in its haste to escape and floated it over to it with my wind. Grasping the nut close to its chest it shot me another annoyed glance before scurrying off and disappearing into the foliage.

Interesting and different though the creatures were, none of them were magical. They were animals, not Beasts.

They weren’t as inflated as the Draconid either. The mosquitoes might have been a little on the larger side, but the sloth and the flying squirrel had been normally proportioned.

Which was a relief. If every creature in this forest was a magically enhanced giant, my odds of survival would have been pretty slim.

Another odd thing about the forest was that it was eerily silent. There was no birdsong, and indeed, I hadn’t chanced upon a single being of the avian persuasion in the course of my climb.

And though I knew that there was a hundred-meter-tall lizard feasting just a block away, I couldn't hear the rustle of the leaves or the crack of the branches breaking as it tore at the foliage.

The trees blocked my line of sight and they were excellent sound dampeners. Sight and sound, I wouldn't be able to rely on those two to keep me out of danger here.

Thankfully, my soul sense was as sharp as ever.

And it was telling me about the high mana density in the region. Higher than anything I’d seen outside a Forbidden Zone.

Reaching the halfway mark, I stopped climbing further. Choosing a sturdy branch, I made myself comfortable and sat cross-legged on it with my back resting against the trunk. Ensuring that there were no threats nearby, I finally had time to search myself for the source of the brilliance that had messed up my travel plans. And I had a pretty good guess as to what it might be.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the mind crystal containing Mother’s trapped bloodline. Or, at least, I tried to. All I found there was crystal dust that dissipated into motes of light as soon as it came into contact with my skin.

I sighed. Mother had warned me about the dangers of the crystal, but I sincerely doubted that this was what she had in mind.

Not only was my hope for retrieving my bloodline gone, I was now stranded in the middle of a forest with giant magical lizards in it. What the hell was I supposed to do now?!

Taking a deep breath, I let it out along with all my anxiety and tension. My mind now clear, I realized that the first thing to do, would be to try and contact my wives.

Closing my eyes, I began to meditate.