'Promise me that you will never use this spell until you are a master magician,' went through Luz's mind as he fell down from the sky onto treetops that broke his fall.

He tumbled from one treetop to the next until his fall finally came to a halt, at which point he groaned loudly in pain as his body writhed in agony.

However, Luz wasn't alone on this tree, as screeching birds and other small animals inhabiting the tree fled in flocks from the tree branches.

In pain, Luz sighed, "At least we survived. Didn't we, Gab?" while adjusting his injured body to a more comfortable position. Unfortunally, no one answered his question, raising Luz's suspicion.

"No, don't tell me… That cannot be," Luz stammered in shock before looking towards the other treetops in hopes of seeing his siblings there.

With a trembling voice, Luz shouted: "Gab? Raph? Michael? Az? Are any of you here?"

But the only response he got was the cries of animals living inside the forest.

"Shit, Shit, Shit!" Luz muttered to himself before pleading: "Why… Why aren't they here with me? I didn't fail, or did I??"

Blinded by his fury, the frustrated Luz began beating onto the tree trunk of his branch a few times till his enraged mind calmed down. Only now did he realize how stupid his actions were.

Not only has he just alerted every animal living in the forest about his coordinates, but he also fucked up his own hand in the process. He neither knew where he ended up nor how dangerous this area was.

Seeing his bloody hand filled with splinters, Luz felt angry at himself for his stupidity and sighed: "Yeah, that was a dumb idea. I better rest and calm my mind before taking any action."

And so Luz leaned against the tree trunk, which he hit bloody earlier, trying to recuperate as much mana and stamina before making his next move.

But something felt off. Whenever Luz stopped focussing on absorbing mana actively from the environment, it seemed to slowly leave his body, raising his suspicion. The fact that he still felt a stinging pain in his chest, where his mana core was located, didn't reassure him either.

'If the consequences are as severe as I think, I can probably forget about ever becoming a mage. Today, I have not only lost my village but also my sibling and am now probably a cripple. Yeah… I might as well die here in this godforsaken place,' thought Luz while chuckling painfully at his own misery.

Even after fully recuperating, Luz's mood was still in the gutter. He had no desire to leave his spot until Luz remembered something he had been overlooking till now.

"The spell I've used was an area spell, teleporting everything in its range away. Since the spell was successfully utilized, the likelihood of my siblings surviving should be pretty high," Luz mumbled to himself, trying to motivate himself.

With laughter, he muttered: "As the oldest one, I shouldn't lose hope in my siblings. These four are probably waiting for me to save them, so let's better go to work."

Gritting his teeth, Luz whispered to himself with new motivation as he clambered down the tree with upper body pain, "I need food, something to drink, and a place where I won't freeze to death at night."

Only after climbing down twenty meters did he reach the floor of the woods, where the loud animal screeches echoed without any pauses throughout the forest.

'Annoying,' Luz thought sternly with a stern face as he picked up a large stick from the ground before setting off on a journey. The rod was as thick as his forearm and a meter long.

The forest was lush, full of tall trees that barely let the sunshine through their large crowns. These trees were surrounded by bushes so dense that they could hide a corpse.

As Luz strolled through the dense forest, he heard a rustling from the bushes that made him uneasy. His unease soon proved correct, as the rustling intensified while the source of the noise changed location every second.

Paranoid, Luz clutched the stick as tight as possible while constantly shifting his gaze from one bush to the other bush.

Sweat formed on his brow as he anticipated an attack at any moment. And before he knew it, a cheetah-like monster jumped from the bush, pinning him immediately onto the ground with its massive weight.

Luz had never seen such a creature, and as he fought for his life, he pressed the stick against the throat area with all his might to keep the cheetah's jaws away from his face.

The beast roared and tried to maul Luz with its gigantic jaws, as his claws buried into the leather armor Luz was wearing for his planned hunting trip.

With a twisted fate, Luz pressed his right palm onto the lower jaw while muttering with gnashing teeth the spell [spatial disorder].

Although Luz couldn't maintain the spell for even a second, the time was enough to shatter the whole jaw due to the creation of spatial disorder.

Blood and bits of flesh fell onto Luz's face as the jaguar wailed loudly in pain. However, such a spell didn't have its own drawback. It strained Luz's mana core only future as he felt an excruciating pain shooting through his body, turning Luz's eyes bloody red.

Filled with agony and wrath, he immediately grabbed onto the knife attached to his leg before stabbing several times into the opening of the missing lower jaw.

The cheetah howled and struggled against Luz's attacks, who nevertheless didn't stop until it toppled lifelessly on top of Luz. Only after that did the adrenalin fade into obscurity, and a wave of exhaustion began overwhelming Luz.

Laying on the ground, Luz gasped for air while tossing the animal corpse aside with his remaining strength.

"I-I don't even have time to think here," Luz sighed before cleaning his face from all the pieces of flesh and blood that fell onto it.

Upon realizing that his body was out of mana, Luz decided to climb a tree to regain his stamina and mana.

'I better stay up there and recuperate before another cheetah finds me,' went through Luz's head as he grimly dragged the jaguar corpse behind him.

And so, he climbed with a corpse weighing as much as himself up the tree while breathing erratic.

Not even 30 minutes later, Luz could be seen in front of a fire trying to cut the jaguar's corpse into pieces with his dagger.

'Thinking about it, it would have been better if I carried spices with me. Well… it would have been wiser to learn how to cut meat properly. Hopefully, the meat will still taste good.'

After eating, Luz wandered aimlessly to the north, hoping to reach any signs of civilization. But less than an hour later, he encountered his next enemy, dogs the size of wolves, who immediately began running towards him, forcing him to run for his life.

No matter what he tried, from changing direction abruptly to running through mud, it didn't work on these creatures as he remained in their line of sight.

In desperation, Luz ignored his aching legs and continued to run farther with his back drenched while gritting his teeth.

Fortunately for him, a large river soon came into view, giving him a chance to escape the hellhounds that were chasing him.

Luz was, by now, not that far from his limits, and he didn't dare to look behind. The screams and gasps of the dogs alone were enough to keep him from taking a glimpse.

'Either I jump in there and try to get to the other side of the river, or these creatures will mangle me,' ran through Luz's head as he threw himself into the river.

Fortunately, most of the dogs refused to throw themselves into the stream, but two of the bunch chose otherwise and jumped after him. As one might expect, his original plan of crossing the river didn't work as the current was far too strong and instead pulled him along.

'Human civilizations are usually located near large rivers to exploit them for shipping. Hopefully, I'll get lucky, and the river will lead me to one,' Luz prayed with a stern face, but a sharp pain coming from his calf jolted him from his thoughts.

Realizing that one of these hellspawn bit him, Luz began to curse.

'I swear, I will exterminate every animal of your race! Every female and every newborn...,' Luz cursed before gripping the dog's skull firmly.

Enraged, he muttered the same spell he had used earlier [spatial distortion].

The animal's skull shattered immediately, but unfortunally the jaws still clamped as tightly as possible onto his calf, even though it was dead by now. "Why do I have so much bad luck?" Luz questioned himself as he grew slightly tired.

Only with difficulty did Luz manage to the other side of the stream.

'Hopefully, there will be a branch I can hold on to.'

God seemed to hear his prayer, and 10 minutes later, he crashed into a rock embedded in the river bed. Groaning, Luz held onto it with all his might before climbing out of the river.

A smile formed on his face when he saw the other dog being dragged along by the current. By now, he had forgotten about the creature whose teeth were still embedded in his calf, and only after taking a step did he realize it.

"You, my dear, will be my dinner tonight. I hope you're edible. Otherwise, I have another problem besides my mana core," Luz muttered tiredly before advancing into the forest with drenched clothes.

Breathing erratic, Luz moved while the evening sun shone till he found a safe spot where he could open a fire. In the end, Luz sat naked at a campfire while letting his clothes dry.

But the bite on his calf was bothering him. 'What if it got infected?' went through Luz's paranoid head before pressing a burning twig against his wound. With gritted teeth, Luz suppressed the burning sensation.

'I hope this is enough before I get among humans.'

However, Luz forgot one small thing. A campfire is metaphorical, like a lighthouse that reveals its location to everyone nearby. Perhaps he was aware of this, or maybe Luz even hoped others would find him.

The sun was slowly setting, and Luz was sitting by the campfire, dressed when he heard another rustle from the bushes.

Alerted, Luz pulled out his knife, preparing for an attack, expecting the worst.

To his surprise, a feminine voice replied in a foreign language, "I come in peace."

Not understanding what she stated, Luz replied: "Speak Raneian. You weirdo," while shifting himself into a position where he could escape into the bushes at any given time.

The stranger merely chuckled before repeating herself in a language Luz understood.

"I come in peace," she repeated, to which Luz merely answered with a smile, "that's better."

'Finally, a human. Soon, I should be in safety,' thought Luz as he lowered his guard a bit.

But he did not foresee how much he was wrong about his assumption.