Reborn With a Magic System

The mountains offered Damion a different type of terrain to fly around, but after reaching them, he did not find much of interest. He spotted a few native animals, but none of them were Ferocious Beasts, Damion guessed there was likely a patrol that swept the area frequently. The patrol would make sure there were no creatures that could pose a threat to the residents of the White Zone.

Pausing in the air, Damion pulled his tablet out from his spatial artifact and opened up his map. The area he was in was called the Pirak Mountains. The range stretched out along the western and southern borders of Argentum's White Zone and as far as he could see in either direction. If someone was to cross over the mountains, they would pass by a few small cities and towns that used the mountains as natural protection from Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts. The largest of these was a city called Levande, on the map it appeared to be slightly smaller than Saung, but Damion had an odd feeling when he looked at it on the map. On the far side of the mountains was a Green Zone and its towns and cities.

As much as Damion wanted to explore, going that far was certainly out of the question. Scrolling around the map he searched for and eventually found the ocean, but it was even further than the other side of the mountains. Just as he was wondering if he should turn back, Phil let out a screech and took off deeper into the mountains.

'Prey!' Was all Damion got from his bond with Phil. His best guess was that the Snow Hawk spotted something it thought was tasty and decided to chase after it.

Following behind his companion, Damion watched as the Snow Hawk swooped down and killed a rabbit the size of a dog. With True Sight he saw it was a E Rank creature, but he had to turn away as Phil started eating.

'Mine.' Phil sent.

'All yours, I have my own,' Damion sent back through their link.

Damion left Phil eating the rabbit beast and flew further along the route they had traveled. The Ferocious Beast Phil had killed was not a very dangerous one, but it did beg the question, were there others in the area. The longer Damion flew into the mountains, the more certain he became there were more beasts in the area. He could sense an increase in the concentration of magic in the area that could only come from a few sources.

When Damion moved towards the magic concentration he was able to rule out a few of those possibilities. It was not coming from anyone casting spells, and it did not seem to be coming from Ferocious or Demonic Beasts, since the source was not moving. This left Damion with one possibility, a Realm Breach.

Now that he knew what he was looking for and that he was not going to attract the attention of people or creatures, Damion flew up above the tree line and began surveying the area. With his improved vantage point, he was able to locate the shimmering Breach nestled in a cluster of trees about a hundred meters away.

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In the area around the Breach, Damion did not detect any Demonic Beasts, so this told him that this was likely a Stable Breach, a dungeon. And it had not been around long, since it had not become a Dungeon Breach, spewing Demonic Beasts into the countryside. Nor had it been found and contained by patrols.

Once Damion got close enough he was surprised to find that True Sight assigned a Rank to the dungeon. When he did the labyrinth runs True Sight had not given him an assessment of it, but he supposed that might have been because a labyrinth started at F Rank and got stronger the deeper you went. This dungeon was apparently C Rank, which meant the strongest Demonic Beasts inside would be around his own strength.

'Phil, come to me,' Damion called out in his mind.

The Snow Hawk did not answer, but a few moments later he spotted the Ferocious Beast flying towards him. Phil landed on Damion's shoulder with its beak still bloody from the recent kill.

"We are going inside," Damion told his companion.

Phil did not respond but did tilt its head as if examining the dungeon portal. Taking the bird's silence as a willingness to go in, Damion walked forward into the portal. On the other side of the portal, he found the terrain had mostly stayed the same, but the mountain was now covered in snow, with more falling.

Phil flew off Damion's shoulder and started exploring the area. If the Ferocious Beast was confused on where it was or how the landscape suddenly changed from a forested mountain to a snowy mountain, it did not show it. Looking around, Damion did not see any signs of other life, but with fresh snow falling it was possible that any tracks had already been covered up.

Setting off from the gate, Damion began his search for Demonic Beasts and the fake core of the dungeon. Phil was circling overhead but had not signaled through their bond that it had found anything of interest.

As Damion moved further into the dungeon he began to question why he had not encountered any Demonic Beasts. After a few more minutes of walking and still not finding anything, he started to believe something was wrong. Going this far into a dungeon and not encountering something was odd. Either the Demonic Beasts were cautious and avoiding him, though Phil had given no sign of seeing any, or there was something else going on.

The next sign Damion had that something fishy was going on was the snow stopping. It took him walking a few paces further before he realized it, but the snow around him was no longer falling to the ground, it was as if it was stuck in the air. He had never been in snow before, in either life, but he figured it was similar enough to rain that it should follow the same rules. And as far as Damion was aware, it was pretty unusual for rain, especially when it was coming down hard, to just completely stop midair.

Turning around to check behind him, Damion saw the snow was still falling at a normal rate, but in front of him it was as if he was looking at a picture of snow. The flakes were just hovering in the air as if frozen in time.

Damion cautiously reached out and touched a few of the snowflakes to find they seemed perfectly ordinary. When he brushed the snow from his fingers though, instead of falling to the ground, the flakes clung to the air as if held there by some invisible force.

Whatever was going on in this area, Damion felt it would be better figured out on the outside of this stilled area, so he decided to take a few steps back to leave. Unfortunately, when he walked backwards, Damion encountered a barrier. Turning back around, the snow was still falling a few paces away, but he was blocked from returning to that area and he had to assume the same force that was blocking him from returning was related to whatever was stopping the snow from falling.