As Zarek walked, trying to store everything he was seeing away in a memory bank for future use, he encountered an immediate problem.
No signs of life, no obvious bodies of water, and no clear direction to take. He had been paying attention all the way here, and he couldn't remember ever seeing any of these things.
Logically, if the boy-man was trying to avoid danger, then avoiding water—where beasts would frequent—and the central territories of the Turned would be the smartest choice. So this wasn't too surprising.
The problem was whether the danger zones were so far away that Zarek wouldn't be able to reach them and return in time.
Zarek suddenly stopped walking.
He stood there in silence, then closed his eyes.
"There are smarter ways. If I want to make it back in six months, I'm going to have to stop being impulsive for a moment."
He took a breath and exhaled slowly. Though his eyes were closed, it almost seemed as though something was being drained from him. He calmly took one breath after another.
The last time he had made a decision like this was at the end of his Third Life. Priya had already died, and he felt like he had little to live for. But he knew that if he died like that, he would have wasted a life and would be on his last attempt with nothing to show for it.
That was when he diligently planned everything out, slowly taking one step after another and changing himself on a fundamental level.
For what purpose?
For the purpose of having [Limit Break] in his hands now.
Without [Limit Break], he wouldn't have survived against Crux. Without it, he wouldn't even have the right to fight in this world with his current Growth Potential.
He had already made a decision when he chose to follow the boy-man, laying down his pride for a moment. But he hadn't truly settled in just yet.
Running around and hoping for the best was an idiotic choice. Instead…
Zarek's eyes opened. He bent down, picked up a rock about the size of a baseball, cast Atom Link on it, and then hurled it into the air with all his might.
Then he bent down again, picked up another rock, and repeated the action.
Once, twice, thrice… until he had thrown a total of eight rocks.
Every time he threw one, he closed his eyes again, activating Atom Link to watch its flight path and everything it soared over. Then he analyzed the area where it landed before severing the connection and going again.
"Not far enough."
Zarek had easily thrown each of those rocks about half a kilometer away. However, because he had to soar it over the canopies—some of which slowed the rocks with leaves and branches—they didn't go as far as he wanted.
Because of this, he aimed for height first, distance second, hoping that the elevation would help him better map out the region.
Unfortunately, the rainforest canopy was too thick, so he couldn't see much.
If there was a river nearby, the trees should be dispersed enough for him to spot it. But the fact that he hadn't meant any water source was much further away.
The problem was that Zarek had already thrown the rocks as far as he could. Even if he waited to regain his original Strength Growth Potential of A Class, it wouldn't be enough.
Nevertheless, Zarek calmly picked up another rock. His thoughts flowed smoothly, and his twice-broken Limit Charisma seemed to be displaying its true strength.
He didn't seem to think so, though. These solutions only came naturally to him.
He dropped the rock he had just picked up, but a line of Lurker's Godsfall connected it to his palm, causing it to spring back up as though it was a yo-yo.
The line of black and the rock began to spin with a flick of Zarek's wrist, then he drove a heel into the ground, spinning his body around a pivot point.
There was a flash in his eyes as the rock reached its peak speed.
Suddenly, his spinning stopped, and he stomped a foot onto the ground. He arched his back and extended his arm as far as it could go, his entire right side coated in Lurker's Godsfall.
He unleashed a silent grunt, gathering all his explosive power into the line of Lurker's Godsfall the instant he propelled his arm forward like a catapult.
The air seemed to crackle as though a whip had been unleashed. He broke the sound barrier in an instant, releasing the rock from the Lurker's Godsfall thread the moment the taut string loosened.
BANG!
Zarek launched it into the sky, almost straight up and slightly away from where the boy-man had been. It soared into the sky so fast that it was out of the canopy's barrier in an instant, seemingly not decelerating until it was already among the clouds.
Zarek, though, didn't watch this. His eyes had already closed.
As the rock soared higher and higher, Zarek's scope widened.
And then he saw it—a raging, roaring river, so thick and powerful it looked as though a blue dragon was curling through the air.
But that wasn't all.
He saw slumbering beasts. Peculiar Matrices hovered around them, seemingly locking them in place.
"So, it is a grace period. But in that case, is there new food? For three days?"
No, there was food. Weren't there vegetation all around him? Who said he had to eat meat?
The trouble was if he ended up consuming poison. If he did that…
"[Tearing Gut]."
The technique was one of Zarek's three linchpins—the very foundation of his confidence in this life.
He had actually been hoping to find a powerful beast he could trick to death, then use [Tearing Gut] to break it down and quickly elevate his stats.
But poison… if used correctly, it could make you stronger too. How much had the lizardman's toxins helped him?
It seemed that his water would have to come from these leaves. The river was too far away, and the creatures near it were far too dangerous. He couldn't even make it there and back in six hours.
As for food… this vegetation would have to be his source.
Zarek was just about to make his choice when his eyes flashed, and he noticed something else.
"That…"