The sound of that massive screech was still echoing in Lian’s mind.
Although the sound had come from an unbelievable distance, the tremor it had created in the air was enough for him to fully understand one truth.
Whatever creature owned this nest was not something that could even be imagined fighting against.
Lian stepped back from the edge of the branch. He didn’t even look down again.
The first rule he had learned over years of training in schools slowly repeated in his mind.
"Before understanding the environment... do not move." In an unknown environment, rushing equals death.
Let alone the fact that the environment he was in at this moment was one he had never even seen a sample of in simulations.
Just a while ago, he had tested and trained in various environments in the academy’s simulations, exactly to prepare for conditions like this.
But the environment he was in now had no sample, he had not even thought of recreating and training in it himself.
He calmly scanned his surroundings to find a place to hide.
A few meters away, one of the giant feathers that had fallen inside the nest was leaning on a few large branches.
For the owner of this nest, it might have been just a fallen feather, but for Lian, it was a natural wall dozens of meters high.
Without making the slightest sound, he got behind it.
Then he sat cross-legged and took a deep breath.
"If the owner of this nest returns, the slightest mana leak or presence could expose me." He calmly closed his eyes.
And activated one of his skills.
The next moment, a very faint black aura, like a thin mist, came out of his body and settled back on his skin.
[Abyss Veil]
The black mist slowly twisted around his body, not thick enough to be seen.
Not so thin that it was ineffective.
Within seconds...
The feeling of mana presence that always flowed around his body almost disappeared.
Even he himself could barely feel the flow of his own mana, his breathing became quieter, and his heartbeat strangely slowed.
For a moment, he felt like part of this tree itself, as if his existence had merged with the surrounding space.
This skill had high mana consumption, but right now, safety was the most important thing for him, and only this skill could hide his presence in the best way.
However, there was one problem, he was not sure if he could hide from the monster that owned this nest, he did not know how powerful that monster was.
Abyss Veil could hide him even from a level 35 Fallen, but higher? He didn’t know, he had never tested it before.
He sighed and got up from his place, now that he had found a hiding spot, it was better to look around more to get familiar with this place.
Maybe he could find a way down or anything to help his current situation.
A few minutes later... Lian was moving calmly among the massive branches of the nest.
He took every step carefully, and the further he went, the more he felt he had entered a world with its own rules.
Aside from the greatness and magnitude of everything, the air and oxygen were working much stronger than normal, if he was a normal human, his lungs might have exploded due to the excess oxygen.
He could only endure it because of his physical strength.
A little further ahead, a skeleton was lying on a branch.
Lian stopped at that moment, the skull of that creature was the size of a two-story house, its ribs, like stone pillars, were scattered around.
Even after death, the majesty of that creature had not faded.
Lian calmly passed by the bones, a few meters ahead, he saw a piece of a broken eggshell.
Just one piece of it was thicker than their base’s walls, on its surface, traces of dried mana could still be seen.
A little further away, a claw mark could be seen on the tree’s bark.
He stood next to it, his entire body could easily fit inside one of the grooves of that same claw mark, he looked around for a few moments.
In silence, a question formed in his mind.
"...Is this whole world like this? Or is it just the area I landed in?"
This was a question that had come to his mind before.
But now it made him think about it more seriously.
He had seen large monsters until today, but here... everything was on a scale that was hard to even imagine.
Just one look at this nest showed that the creature living here was probably larger than any building Lian had ever seen in his life.
He first considered the possibility that only the nest and this monster were massive, but the skeletons he saw here belonged to different monsters, and they were also massive.
So he was getting more and more sure that maybe this entire world was gigantic.
Among one of the nest’s cracks, something caught his attention.
He carefully jumped down, moved a few branches aside, and then his eyes fixed for a moment.
Another skeleton, but this time almost intact, unlike the previous scattered bones, this creature was lying on the ground almost in the same state it had died in.
Its height was about fifteen meters, even after decay, one could tell it had once been a very powerful monster.
Lian calmly approached and touched one of its bones.
At that same moment, his eyes widened slightly, a wave of energy was still emanating from inside the bone, weak but completely noticeable.
"After all these years, there is still mana inside it?" He was no expert, but he could see that months or even years had passed since this monster’s death.
His gaze became serious, if this bone still had energy, its value was unimaginable.
Maybe armor could be made from it, maybe weapons, or even raw materials for making Artifacts, this was a bone that could hold mana.
Its value was definitely high, and in any case, no blacksmith would be willing to lose such a thing.
Lian glanced at his storage space and pulled out sharp B-rank knives made from monster horns.
Normally, they certainly couldn’t damage this bone, but if he used lightning power, the bone’s resistance would also be broken.
He struck one of the thinner bones a few times with gentle blows, the metal hit with a dry sound, and a few cracks appeared on the bone.
After a few minutes of effort, he finally managed to detach a piece about a meter long.
He gave a faint smile, with the help of storage space, the bone piece disappeared.
Then the second piece.
Third.
Fourth.
He only took pieces that were possible to carry, if he ever got out of this place alive, even these few pieces might be useful to him.
But at the same time, his mind was occupied with another question.
"If even a dead monster here is fifteen meters..."
"Then how can the threat level of this Special Area be logical for awakened ones below level twenty?"
The more he looked around, the less answer he found, he doubted that the federation had plotted or made a mistake.
So it was only possible that he had spawned in an extremely dangerous location.
At that same moment, the light around him suddenly dimmed.
"Huh? What happened?" Lian frowned, for a moment he thought a cloud had passed in front of the sun.
But... the wind... changed direction.
All the massive leaves around bent at the same time, the branch he was standing on began to tremble.
Not a small tremor, but a tremor as if a massive earthquake was occurring.
His eyes immediately looked up.
A shadow had covered the entire nest.
Suddenly, a terrible sense of danger overwhelmed his entire being, he felt death approaching, and without thinking, he returned to the hiding place he had found.
Drops of sweat settled on his forehead.
Then something passed over the top of the nest.
Not itself, just its shadow, a shadow so massive that it started from one side of the horizon and continued to the other.
For a few seconds, all the surrounding light disappeared... then the tip of a claw passed over the top of the nest.
Lian only saw that one claw, but that was enough, each of its fingers was larger than the tall buildings of Capital
Its nails, like curved mountains, were shining under the sunlight, he still could not see the creature’s body.
Only...
He heard the sound of its wings flapping, every time its wings moved, the clouds in the sky split apart.
Massive air currents, like storms, passed through the tree’s branches.
He didn’t even dare to breathe, his entire body remained motionless.
The owner of the house had returned!