William's heart skipped a beat when he landed far too close to the edge of the branch he aimed for. However, he didn’t slow down. He immediately jumped again, this time correcting the amount of force he put into it.

The escape plan worked as intended and far more smoothly than Willam ever expected. He tried to travel in a straight line, hoping to find an exit from the forest. Still, rather than depending on what might need a miracle, he slowly worked to make his backup plan possible. Every few jumps, he climbed higher and higher till he was as close as could be to the leaf ceiling.

William felt that he must have been jumping at the ridiculous pace for well over ten minutes, enough to the point where it was becoming almost as easy as breathing. It allowed him to have thoughts other than focusing on not falling to his death.

Spiritual Energy: 138/175 (20% per Hour)

He almost tripped over his feet in surprise, nearly falling to his death after the self-praise when he saw that he had recovered twelve Spiritual Energy. Almost twenty minutes had passed since he started to flee. That should mean William was safe from the chasing Shadowpack Hunters unless they somehow had better maneuverability on the treetops than he did, which would simply be unfair.

Still, it wasn’t anything that he would say was impossible, especially since he had seen what they were capable of. Plus, the fact that the lone Shadowpack Hunter he killed had somehow climbed the tree surprised him. He still didn’t know how that had happened.

William’s confidence in navigating from branch to branch without disaster falling on him grew enough to glance around, making sure there weren’t any signs of glowing yellow eyes on his tail.

There weren’t.

It could be possible that the things had given up the chase, and it might even be wise for William to slow the pace to be more careful about his surroundings. After all, what was there to suggest that spirit beasts only lived on the forest floor? Still, he would take his chances instead of risking possible capture followed by having his flesh ripped apart. The hope was the presence of the snake's domain so close would deter most spirit beasts from getting close.

William continued to flee at the same pace, looking more and more at the surroundings at possible danger instead of focusing on the act of fleeing itself. It was an unexpected boon that he would gladly take. Moving this quickly while barely paying attention to his actions could be helpful in a fight.

He didn’t linger on the thought of stopping until he felt his stamina starting to be exhausted. While he did slow down considerably, almost to a walking pace, taking leisurely jumps to the next branch, he still had no intention of taking a break.

And it was no longer solely because of his fear of the Shadowpack Hunters. In fact, William was confident he should be safe from them unless they could use Spiritual Energy to supplement their inferior Stamina. Of course, this assumed they all had similar stats to the only spirit beast he had used Observe on.

Nonetheless, Shadowpack Hunters were no longer the encouragement for William’s insistence to keep moving. In the far distance, almost at the edge of what he could make with his eyes, there was a change in the usual forest scenery.

Instead of the tree trunks that seemed to be endlessly appearing at the limits of his vision, William saw something that he almost thought was a trick of the light.

He wanted to speed up but recognized that he needed to conserve Stamina for any emergencies that popped up. Namely, if those Shadowpack Hunters somehow caught up to him. Besides, reaching the area he was eying wouldn’t take much more than thirty minutes at this pace.

The closer William got, the more obvious that the forest came to an abrupt end. However, what lay beyond the tree line confused him more than anything. It immediately went from a forest of trees that boggles the mind to sandy dunes taller than most mountains.

If this was in the real world, William would have wondered how something like this was possible since it shouldn’t be able to exist naturally. However, this dimension was likely made artificially, the sheer ridiculousness of which just registering in his mind.

William landed softly on the branch of the last tree before the start of the desert. And that was quite the literal description.

He looked down at the ground and saw the green forest floor immediately turn into sand, as if someone had drawn a line and declared it to be that way. In fact, for all he knew, that might be exactly how it happened.

William hesitated to climb down the tree, mainly because he would be easy pickings for anything stronger than him with nowhere to hide in the desert. He wanted to wait and see if he was still being chased before deciding his next move.

With the flatness of the desert before the sand dunes towered on the horizon, it would take him well over an hour to cover the distance at a full sprint. Not only was that foolish to do, but it was also impossible. William’s stamina was still closer to empty than full from his constant jumping.

He leaned against the tree trunk, intending to relax as his stamina recovered. The more he stared into the endless desert, the worse the idea of leaving the forest became.

All William could see was sand, with more sand waiting in the distance after trekking through the sand. With it being a desert, he supposed that made sense, but that only made him want to avoid the place altogether.

While the forest was dangerous, at the very least, there were spirit beasts that he could hunt for experience points, likely some spirit plants that could be more beneficial for higher cultivation, and most importantly, it didn’t have endless sand everywhere.

William figured the one thing that didn’t seem to exist was the dry heat a desert was known for. It likely wouldn’t do much to affect him since he was no longer mortal. Still, he was trying to think of positives along with the endless bashing he was putting on this sandy hell. Unfortunately, it was the only thing he could think of.

William’s mental whining was broken when he heard a faint sound below, making him turn his focus to it. The sight made him add a second positive to the desert.

There didn’t seem to be any Shadowpack Hunters to chase him relentlessly.

A couple trees away, on a branch that was a few levels below where William was currently standing, there was a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring directly at him. It seemed to be alone, but he wasn’t going to wait around and see if it would soon be joined by the whole pack.

William firmed his resolve and bent his knees slightly, intending to take his chances with the snake instead of trying to run away again. It was already a miracle that he hadn’t met a situation that would have meant death on his way to the forest's edge.

He had seen plenty of spirit beasts that looked up to observe his frantic escape from the forest floor, some of which looked even more ferocious than the Draebern. While they made no move to take action against the first human they likely had seen in a long time, he wasn’t about to test his luck again.

William jumped and reached the leaf ceiling easily, not minding the angry growls from where the Shadowpack Hunter stood. In fact, it sounded like the growl came from multiple Hunters, not that he looked to check. He was only focused on getting himself into the snake’s domain.

Well, that was the plan until he was blocked from entering. William immediately dropped back to the branch, shoved away the crushing panic rising, and plotted his next plan. He had hoped that he would still have access, but it was likely that the snake had taken it away.

William’s eyes darted at the branches in reach and tried to see which would be the best to take until he realized a few seconds later that the growling had stopped.

He frowned at the Shadowpack Hunter, now joined by a few friends, as it silently stared at him. To test the theory forming in his mind, he jumped again, quickly reaching the leaf ceiling and almost instantly making the growls come back with a vengeance.

William didn’t intend on trying to enter the next level, so when he started to fall back down, he kept his eyes on the Hunters. The growls lessened as he dropped closer to the branch before disappearing when he landed.

“Looks like you don’t want me to go up,” William muttered to himself. That’s what he thought until he saw the multiple pairs of yellow eyes move up and down in unison.

“Can I go back in there?” William was pointing into the forest, and when he saw the yellow eyes move side to side, it was confirmed they knew what he was saying. That didn’t comfort him, especially when it seemed that the whole pack had caught up. The branch the Hunters were standing on seemed like a black void.

Understanding human speech meant that these Shadowpack Hunters were far more intelligent than he gave them credit for. Instead of facing a pack of mindless beasts, it was beasts with human-like intelligence.

No wonder the Draebern fell so quickly to them.

William hesitated before pointing at the desert silently, already knowing the answer.

The yellow eyes moved up and down.