Infinite Realm

'Break!'

*Bang*

At the edge of a cliff, located somewhere up the mountain known as [Staircase to Zolstice], an explosion occurred on the cliff's surface as rocks blasted off into the air. Not more than 3 seconds later, a shadow jumped from the newly formed hole and tumbled towards the ground. The jump height was at least 7 metres but this shadow didn't seem to know that as it rolled about in the air before crashing violently on the ground. Luckily, during its fall, the force and speed at which the shadow fell was mollified by the branches and leaves from a few trees that stood in its way but these still didn't prevent it from the inevitable.

*Thud*

-34 (52/150 Sato's HP)

'Shit. That hurts.' Sato groaned as he forced himself up with one hand and held his side with another. Barely managing to pick himself up, Sato didn't bother trying to identify his location as he began making his way forward, with the intention of getting far away from the spot where he landed. 

As he did so, Sato noticed that the pressure outside seemed to have become almost double of what he had felt back in the tunnel. In his current state, he couldn't run for a long time under this pressure but Sato didn't care. All he wanted to do now was just to create enough distance between himself and his hunters or better yet, find a safe spot to hide.

Not long later, his pursuer also forced its way through the same hole. Since the rock enclosure on the cliff's surface was already weak to begin with, added with Sato's [Astral Blade] assault which made a hole in it and weakened the structure even further, the worm didn't really need to dig through it and only needed the momentum from its pursuit to burst forth from the tunnel.

*Boom*

What greeted Sato's sight was a 'soaring' massive worm-like creature that dripped acid during its 'flight'.

"Krrhhhhhhh!" As the worm flew through the air, precisely a second after it had taken flight, it unleashed a high pitch shrill and unlike the previous ones, this one seemed to convey pain and suffering; like the screams of a tortured captive.

"Huh?" Sato stared at the monster with a strange look. He couldn't understand why the monster would be in pain from simply just sailing through the air.

As the monster 'soared' through the air, it seemed like it could keep on going, however, that obviously wasn't possible. Due to its heavy weight, it was eventually force back down to the ground; just a few metres away from Sato who had made his way to a safe spot.

*Thud*

With a loud sound, the worm-like monster landed on the ground, though only after crashing through a few branches and wrecking them to splinters. Once it was on the ground, the monster didn't bother chase after Sato, who happened to be just 5 metres away from it. Instead, the creature writhed its body in pain, twisting, contorting and convulsing while releasing cries that prickled the ears.

'It's…in pain.' Sato thought as he gazed at the agonizing creature. 

'It's currently weakened.' A glint flashed in his eyes as he stared at the monster. However, Sato was still hesitating whether to make a move.

While the worm-like monster looked to be in pain, Sato too wasn't in his peak form. Not only was his HP below 50% but he was also exhausted from the chase. A starving camel was still bigger than a horse so there was no way Sato believed that he could easily face off against the worm-like monster, even in his peak state much less his current state. Also, the monster's defenses alone was more than enough to give Sato a headache. Though when he initially attacked, it was the tooth of the monster he had clashed with -which also happens to be the hardest part of it- logically, there was no way that the strength and defense of its skin would be much far worse. Even if it was that bad, it would still be at least one-fifth(1/5) of it. At the very least, it would be on par with a Low-tier Mortal rank armour or even a Mid tier one. In other words, the amount of damage Sato would be able to deal would be considerably shaved off by the monster's defensive abilities. 

Just as Sato was hesitating whether to attack it or not, the white worm seemed to have realized that it could escape its predicament and burrowed itself into the ground. The speed at which it did so was much faster than when it was chasing after Sato!

"It seems they are scared of the light or maybe something else in the air, maybe it's the pressure. That's probably why they live underground." Sato thought out loud.

"But at least, I'm finally out." Sato breathed out with relief as he collapsed on the floor to take a break.

After downing a few HP potions and taking a short rest to replenish his stamina, Sato then stood up and finally began trying to spot his approximate location. 

'The pressure here is double that of the one in the cavern but triple that of the one at the previous spot. In other words, all these while, I didn't actually lose progress as I thought, but actually progressed up the mountain.'

Sato was surprised at this conjecture of his. 

If what he assumed was right, then it meant that the cavern had a special way of mitigating the pressure from the mountain by half! This was incredible! What even made it better was that there seemed to be a path within the mountain that led upwards while taking the appearance of a levelled floor otherwise, Sato wouldn't have come this far. The cavern was actually a shortcut of sorts!

'Back at that open place, if my guess is right, then it means that we were going up the mountain back then. If I was still there, then I might have reached the destination quicker and easier than expected.' Sato sighed as he recalled the open place where he and Xue Yan were last spotted together and also the place were he got betrayed.

Thinking of that, Sato asked out loud to himself.

"But why would she? It doesn't make any sense." 

"If we had both encountered a legendary equipment or something, I would have understood that but we didn't. Xue Yan obviously knows that I will confront her in reality so it really wasn't worth it. Also, that expression…" Sato's mind flashed with Xue Yan's smiling face from before.

"That didn't feel like something Xue Yan would do. The atmosphere around her at the time also didn't feel like her." Now Sato had the time to relax, he was able to realise a few points that he didn't notice before.

"If that's the case, then that wasn't Xue Yan. She might have been possessed or something. Even worse, that might never have been Xue Yan even from the start!" Sato's eyes widened.

"An illusion? It's possible. I mean the Entry trials did something similar so mimicking Xue Yan wouldn't be a problem. Also, the phantasmal wolves are actually illusions but their attacks hurt as much as the real thing so it makes sense." 

As he realised this, Sato felt a cold sensation on his body.

"This trial really won't be as easy as climbing a mountain."