After I let the fireball dissipate I noted a few things down, like the fact that I could do everything without the part that actually turned it into a fireball, and the effects.

I made the decision to stay in the cave for the day and practice what was left in the book, along with some meditation and integrating new toxins. All in all, I considered it a comfortable day/

—------------

Waking up, I did all the usual morning things and set on. I really could’ve used a mount, the usual mode of transportation here, but you could only trade inanimate products through the System, so I could only get one in person and there were no such places where I passed.

I was ready for a long, boring journey. Until a fucking bird came down and plucked me right out of the forest. The one time, the one fuckin time that I come out from under the trees and I get picked on. Goddamnit.

It swooped in, picked me up from the shoulders using its talons, and just went away. Looking up, it was reminiscent of an eagle, only that it was the size of a plane, with fully white feathers boasting the texture of stone.

And poison did absolutely nothing in this situation. I mean I could take out a sword, smear it with blood and stab the talons, but it would either do nothing or I would get dropped. Obviously, one would be just a waste of time and the other not so funny.

I should really buy a parachute next time - in this situation the package would just fall.

Oh well, wait and see it was.

I brought up the blue panel again and started watching videos, waiting for the supersonic bird to land. Oh, I failed to mention that this thing was going so fast that the ground was blurry all over. Only, there was no air smacking me in the face, like it was avoiding me and the monster.

Getting interested, I closed the panel and looked at the front. I could see something akin to a curtain forming right before its beak, like it was parting the air. You can only start sensing Mana in the atmosphere later on, (or so I’ve heard) so I didn't know if it was happening passively or the bird was doing it.

Right as I was getting immersed in inspecting the curtain, I felt a jolt, and we instantly changed direction as it screeched. Whatever we were heading to was really high, since it was surrounded by clouds all over.

As we were getting closer I could spot a mountain, filled with snow, like a spear piercing the sky. And I mean it, the thing was as sharp as a needle.

We did a turn around it and came to the other side, right to a massive gate that looked like it belonged to a temple, long lost in time. The construction long crumbled, was fused into the mountain itself, uniting with it.

The gate itself was large enough to comfortably fit the bird, and as we passed through, we entered something like an ancient auditorium, with stone benched extending on the right and left, all the way from one end to the other.

But what was in the front was… unimaginable. The whole room was huge, you could fill a hundred of these birds here and it would still be spacious.

Right at the back though, looking towards the entrance, was a chair. Something normal, right? But it was massive. Humongous. Gigantic. The whole neighborhood I used to live in on Earth could fit in it.

I’m not gonna bother explaining it, no human mind could imagine something like that. Even me, my brain basically short-circuited, I just gawked at it. You could probably start a farm of Godzillas on there.

Anyway, right in the back, nestled against the backrest was a nest, this one big as well, but still incomparable to what it stood on. It was as big as a few football fields, full of branches and logs, thus making a small forest for something my size.

Guess what? On one side there were five chicks, looking like a scaled-down version of the bird that carried me here. I was dropped on the other side.

The big bird screeched, and I could hear rustling and thumping from the opposite end.

“Oh, just great!” I yelled and looked around.

Just can’t escape these fucking things.

Quickly, I ran to the other side of the “arena” towards the backrest of the chair, dodging branches, fallen trees and whatever else was dropped in there before.

As I was about to jump over a fallen tree, the foliage to my right burst open, and a beak appeared, the size of a fucking bycicle. Changing my mind, I quickly stopped and smashed my back against the log, taking the air out of my lungs.

Trying to get just a breath, I got up, glanced towards the bus-sized bird that was just turning around, and crawled over the tree, before running again.

My chest hurt as hell as I breathed, and I was pretty sure I broke a rib. Knowing I didn’t have the comfort of drinking a potion, I kept going, occasionally looking back and noticing even more chicks catching up. Fuck.

Back ahead, the “wall” was just up ahead, but as the space between the seat and the backrest was occupied by the nest, I took a left towards the end of the “arena”.

It seemed like momma bird didn’t like it, as she screeched and I could hear her flapping her wings, trying to catch up.

Thinking maybe it would do something, I took out a grenade and tossed it at one of the babies, only for it to do nothing. Goddamnit.

Right as the massive beak was about to chomp me, I ducked down and jumped off the nest, making sure to keep close to the “cliff” wall, as I took out a sword and stuck it in, catching myself.

Looking down, the drop was more than a hundred meters to the ground itself, and knowing I wouldn’t survive, I quickly took out another sword and planted in the wall a meter over, after which I took out a table I stole from the castle and put it upside down, thus making something to stand on.

Quickly, I pulled up the System, noticing I wasn’t even in the same country, and went online. Not even bothering to check anything, I searched for what I needed on the Market and instantly bought it.

Not even a second later, a box appeared and I touched it to reveal a backpack. Quickly putting it on, I jumped down, leaving my makeshift ledge there.

Once again, while in the air I heard that damn screech, and turning around, took out two grenades, these ones different, pulled the pins and tossed them upwards.

I then turned around and dived as fast as possible, as I saw a flash behind.

“Flashbangs, baby! Woohoo!” I yelled, grinning.

I did the same thing every few seconds, this time not turning around, until I ran out and hopefully it left me alone.

Now, I had never used a parachute before, but whatever I knew from movies and books told me that you were supposed to pull the strings when you were quite high, but I didn’t really have that leisure.

I couldn’t do much on the ground either, but at least I was on my territory.

Right as I was nearing the ground, I tried to swerve the parachute to see exactly above, and it seemed like the massive scary bird gave up

And right as I touched down, I got a message.

[Welcome to the Temple of Giants! Defeat the boss and receive the reward!]

Oh, balls.

Leaving that aside, I ran over to the leg of the chair, plopped down a Concealing Formation, and dropped to the ground, panting. After twenty minutes of standing still and coming to the conclusion that it had given up, I passed out.

—------------------

Waking up and hurting all over, I downed a Regeneration Potion and slowly got up. Taking a hand through my hair, and realizing it came out full of dust, I looked around and indeed, the ground was covered in a good twenty centimeters of dust, like this place hadn’t seen life in ages.

And it pretty much hadn’t - the bird probably only stayed on the chair and flew when it went out.

Suddenly remembering the details of what happened, I brought up the panel with the announcement and went over it a few times.

I was in a motherfucking Dungeon. Not that I complained, rewards were always nice, but this place didn’t really seem beginner-friendly. You know, plane-sized bird, city-sized chair, and giants and all that.

Now what? I could wait for the bird to leave again, then run the marathon to the exit, only to have to get down the damn mountain.

For some reason the message only came when I touched the ground, so I figured the chair and anything higher was not part of the Dungeon. Good find, still didn’t help.

“Oh, God,” I grumbled as I put my head in my hands.

In the end, I got up and went out of the Formation.

The room ended there, even the binoculars I bought confirmed there were no doors or anything leading anywhere. Every wall was a smooth, chiseled granite.

I did a circle around the leg of the chair, which took 30 minutes by the way, and still found nothing useful.

Only, as I was looking under the chair, I found something. A white mound of something in the distance, next to the opposite leg. Sighing, I packed up again and jogged over.

Slowly, the mound was turning into white lines criss-crossing each other, and as I got even closed I realized it was a skeleton.

As I neared it, I identified it as the skeleton of something akin to a rat, the size of a bus. Apparently everything in here was massive.

When I touched it, I got another message.

[Congratulations on defeating the Boss! Please collect your rewards!]

Oh.

Oh!

Like a little kid, I started jumping around and pumping my fists while yelling and calling the bird above all the names I could think of. Ok, maybe a little kid wouldn’t do the last part.

Now where were the rewards? In Dungeons they didn’t just spawn after beating the Boss, you had to go and get them yourself from somewhere. Actually, if you managed to bypass the Boss and get the good stuff anyway, good job.

It was set up like this but you didn’t really have to do what the System said.

Climbing over the bones, right inside its belly, I spotted a light.

“Whassat?”

Right in its former stomach floated a glowing bluish-gold orb and a scroll.

I could guess what the scroll was, but the orb itself baffled me. It definitely wasn’t a spell cast by someone, so what was it? I’d never seen anything like it, even online.

Deciding it didn’t hurt, and trusting my Trait, I touched it. Right as I came in contact with its center, it disappeared. Then I got a notice.

[New skill gained: Perfect Partner]

Oh, nice! I pumped my fists as I figured what happened. Remember when I talked about skills? How there were some that didn’t come in books? This was probably one, though I didn’t know what it did, as the description didn’t provide any info.

“Finally!” a booming voice was heard.

Flinching, I jumped back and took out a sword, looking around, only to spot a lonely figure of an old man right where the orb previously stood. My guard now even higher, I asked.

“Who are you?”

“Who am I?! Of course, I am the Technological Emperor, Daross!” he boomed as he raised his hands.

“Sorry buddy, never heard of you,” I said as I clenched the handle tighter.

“Haha, stop lying, of course you have! I have conquered galaxies, slain legendary beasts, and have ushered the universe in a new age!” he said.

“Yep, still doesn’t ring a bell,” I shook my head.

He frowned, looked around and faced me again.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“In some Dungeon called the Temple of Giants”.

“No, I mean the planet!”

“The Beast World?” I slowly uttered the words, thinking if he was an idiot or just pretending to.

I could see his face scrunch up, thinking.

“I have indeed heard of this place, far, far away,” he said.

“Yep, nice, sunny place. Really welcoming,” I nodded.

“I see! Then you shall take me back to my Empire! I shall reward you handsomely!” he bellowed.

“Sorry dude, I’m barely at the Formation Stage, I can’t even get down this mountain,” I started circling the demented old man.

“The Formation Stage? Even monkeys start higher”.

“I don’t know what kind of monkeys you know, ‘cause the ones I know don’t”.

“Stop lying! You shall do what I say, mortal, or you will regret it!” he angrily said.

“Oh yeah? Come and get it,” I said and leaned left and right, as if mocking him.

He scowled at me, gritted his teeth, and started trembling, but still stood there like an idiot.

“Oh, I see. You can’t,” I grinned.

“And-” I said as I threw a knife which passed right through him”- you don’t have a body”.

“I can make you regret everything even if I don’t have a body!” he raised his head high.

“You would’ve if you could. All you can do is scream and glare,” I tilted my head as my grin got bigger.

We stood in silence for a few seconds.

“Oh come on, don’t be so sulky. I’ll help you when I actually can, until then we can get along,” I proposed and stuck out a hand.

He snorted and turned around, but didn’t decline.

“For starters, please tell me where I am,” I said.

I heard him mumble something, but couldn’t quite get it.

“Can you repeat that?”

“I don’t know”

“Oh, come on! It says here we’re partners, and partners always gotta help each other!” I said nicely, but I really wanted to punch this guy.

“I don’t know. I woke up here in soul form and a giant found me and sealed me under the chair,” he said.

“Wait wait wait. Giants?”

“Yes, giants. Wasn't this called the Temple of Giants?”

“Giants disappeared a billion fucking years ago!” I yelled, flabbergasted.

“Oh”

From his reaction, I realized he wasn’t bluffing; he was probably just as confused as me.

“Okay, let’s say that happened. Then what?” I waved my hand.

“Then nothing for a while. At some point I got a message saying I was integrated in a Dungeon, after which my seal was eaten by that damn rat, along with my soul,” he narrated.

“Then what?”

“Then a Cloud Falcon came and ate the damn animal, but it didn’t bother with me. After that I waited in its skeleton until you came. When you finally touched the bones I got the message that I was unsealed. After you interacted with what remained of my seal I could finally talk to you.”

“Cloud Falcon?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m sure you’ve seen it, I heard it above. It is not sapient, and its size does make it one of the smallest aerial predators, but it is among the deadliest there are. “

“Yeah, it kind of didn’t care about me, it threw me in an arena with its babies,” I scratched my head embarrassingly.

“They do do that,” he nodded.

I stood there and pondered the whole situation for a while.

“Okay, now what? Sorry to disappoint, but my Level doesn’t really allow me to get down this mountain that easily,” I said.

“If you could please touch that scroll,” he pointed to the other reward.

I bent down and picked up the old, dirty scroll.

[Return Scroll found. Would you like to use? This item will take you to the foot of the mountain]

[Yes/No]

“You knew?” I raised an eyebrow.

“It came with the message that I was integrated in the Dungeon,” he nodded.

Sighing, I clicked Yes and with a flash I was gone, not before taking the rat skeleton.

—---------------------

Blinking to adjust my eyes to the light, I looked around. This time I was on a cobblestone path, with lines of farms on each side.. Only this time, I wasn’t alone.

Tens of people were lined up on the road, all gawking at me.

“Hi,” I smiled and waved.

Then I went to the back of the line, not minding the looks I was given.

Guess what people usually line up for. Cities. And if there are a lot of them? Big cities!

It was a cruel world after all, and if you wanted to get inside, you had to be verified, whether you did something bad or not. There were usually lines of hundreds of people, but there was no way to fix it so you had to suck it up.

Normally Mages had a separate entrance to the side, but I actually had to be verified for that at the Magic Association, getting a rank and all that. Obviously, I had nothing, and while some of my victims did, they checked the names.

So I was stuck in line.

“Oh, this is barbaric!” my annoying friend said.

'Of course he came with me, we are partners after all,’ I thought. ‘Ugh.’

“I thought you would stay where I found you,” I answered.

“Oh, you would wish. You are humbled by my presence, the great Daross!” he said, though it seemed less genuine this time.

“Yeah yeah, all hail your majesty,” I waved my hands.

People were starting to look at me like I was an idiot. I could pass the teleportation off as a Mage being paid to take me here, but talking to myself really was weird.

Not that I cared, but more and more people were starting to line up, and it wasn’t really pleasant.

Getting an idea, I thought of extending my mind to my new friend, communicating with our thoughts and bam! It worked.

‘Look! The monkey did it! Congratulations!’ he said.

‘Gee, thanks buddy. I’m a human by the way, not a monkey,’ I said, not minding his remark.

‘Never heard of humans’

‘Bet you haven’t,’ I smiled.

Ok, history lesson! Or geography? Politics? Whatever.

Humans are shit. They’re the worst sentient, societal race on this planet. Apparently humans also came from a planet thousands of years ago, like earthlings did, and they set up kingdoms all over.

But humans don’t have any racial Traits, no innate skills, they start from the absolute beginning, and they’re all around just weak.

In the Beast World, they were governed by another race, and they weren’t not allowed to rise higher. Of course, they didn’t stop individuals from rising in power, they actually sponsored them, but if a human country decided to advance towards an Empire they would get beaten to the ground.