Standing over a hundred meters away from the large creature they were looking at, Valyr was left at a complete loss for words as he took a look at the status screen that had appeared before him. With the creature's HP and MP being the six digits, as well as its stats being in the four digits, it took a while for the young man to compose himself, taking in a few deep breaths as he eventually muttered to himself.
"Well, it's not like this is the first time I've encountered something this weird."
"Nor would it be the last."
"But still… there's no way in hell I'm gonna fight against that thing. Yet." Feeling a wry smile creep up onto his lips, Valyr scratched the back of his head as he closed the screen before him, shifting his gaze to the large creature before them once more.
Without a doubt, the creature before them was a rabbit in its entirety, with its fur being a slightly lighter shade of gray. However, rather than it being at the size it would normally be in the real world, Valyr was certain that the rabbit was the size of an elephant at the very least, perhaps a couple of elephants if he were to talk about its overall length.
Aside from that, the rabbit radiated a tyrannical aura that seemed to be intertwined with the feeling of high authority, prompting almost all of the creatures in the vicinity to distance themselves as far away from the rabbit as possible. Combined with its strength through its stats, Valyr felt that the word 'Emperor' in its name was truly well-deserved.
"Let me ask you once again." Seeing that the young man had finally internalized what he was looking at, Noel looked at Valyr beside him before asking the question he had asked him earlier. "Do you now understand why I said you were 'brave' to brush off killing a rabbit in the Shadow Plane so easily?"
"I mean… how would I not after seeing that?" In response, Valyr nodded as a bitter smile appeared on his face. "In any case, I think I'm getting an idea on why rabbits are this scary in the Shadow Plane?"
"Oh?" Hearing Valyr's words, Noel raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "What's your idea?"
"Well… considering that the appearances of the creatures here aren't inverted like the world's landscape, save for the fact that they're slightly darker compared to their real world equivalents, they would have to be inverted in a different aspect."
"And that would be…?"
"Their nature?" At these words, Valyr was uncertain whether or not it was the case since it was something he had only deduced from looking at the rabbit. However, after seeing the old man smile in response to his answer, the young man was quickly prompted to think otherwise.
"It usually takes people far longer to deduce that sort of thing whenever I bring them to this place," said Noel as he nodded in agreement with Valyr's words. "In their minds, they thought that every creature in the Shadow Plane was empowered, just like the rabbit before us."
"But no, that's not the case."
"Instead, the ecosystem within the Shadow Plane is a complete 180 of the ecosystem in place out in the real world. The prey in the real world are the apex predators of the Shadow Plane, while the predators in the real world are the prey of the Shadow Plane."
"Of course, there's an exception to that norm. I'm sure you can already guess which creature that is." Saying these words, Noel looked at Valyr with a knowing smile, allowing the latter to not take long in formulating his response.
"Is a snake still considered a predator in the Shadow Plane?"
"Surprisingly, yes." Noel nodded in response. "I've tried looking into the reason why that would be the case, but that reason still eludes me to this very day."
"Either way, snakes, or more specifically Shadow Serpents, are predators in the Shadow Plane. However, when compared to their real world counterpart, with those being somewhere near the end of the food chain, Shadow Serpents are considered apex predators in the Shadow Plane, being capable of consuming even beings like the Shadow Rabbit Emperor before us."
"I see." Nodding in understanding, Valyr looked at the Shadow Rabbit Emperor one more time, making a mental note in his mind to try and fight a being like that after he had become stronger. For now, he suggested to Noel that they should get going to complete the things that he had to do to improve his subclass, to which the latter swiftly agreed.
…
Whoosh!
Just like how they made their way to where a Shadow Rabbit Emperor was staying, Valyr and Noel zoomed through the weird looking wilderness, running side by side as Valyr decided to ask the old man a question all of a sudden.
"Say, what's the minimum level of strength a person needs to be able to fight against a creature within the Shadow Plane?" Hearing this question, Noel looked at where they were going for a bit before proceeding to respond.
"In terms of combat strength, I guess that person would need to be at the early levels of Rank 2 in order to fight against some creatures that are weaker than the norm." Noel briefly shrugged his shoulders. "However, if we exclude that, then that person would need a level of strength at the peak of Rank 2, preferably the early levels of Rank 3."
"Ah, we're here."
Gradually slowing down to a halt, Noel leisurely walked towards the place where he thought was the best place for Valyr to start improving his Shadow Energy, with the latter naturally following behind the former. Eventually, the duo had arrived at the area, prompting the young man to look at the sight before them, only to be left scratching his head once more.
"As I've mentioned earlier, you first need to improve your Shadow Energy to the point it's recognized by the system as a stat."
"With that, you'll be slaying the non-hostile creatures in front of you for the meantime."
"For reference, these small creatures are called Shadow Mammoths."
