The labyrinth was built far removed from any sort of society.
When it fell, Damien and his group were exposed to the natural wilderness of the otherworld. However, it was different from what they expected.
The general air of this place was desolate. It gave the feeling that the entire world would be barren, with rotted soil spanning for millions of kilometers without any attempts to purify it.
That was a misjudgment.
While the air still maintained that feeling, the environment itself was quite diverse with unique flora and fauna that Damien had never seen before.
The area they were in now was reminiscent of a jungle. The trees were naturally red and glassy, almost transparent if not for their color.
The surrounding plants also had similar colors, completely opposing the green and lush appearance of their home cosmos' wilderness.
The auras of beasts populated the large area they were currently in, but none of those beasts came remotely close to where their group was.
No matter the cosmos, living beings prioritized survival. After the labyrinth's disappearance and Damien's group's entrance, only a fool would go test the waters and see what happened.
"Let's start exploring. Stay close and report everything. If you see something suspicious or interesting, wait until the rest of us arrive before digging deeper."
Damien gave the orders, which Darius and Tiamat accepted.
It was much faster for the three of them to split up if they were going to properly investigate the area, however, as they were in a foreign land, they couldn't be too pretentious without knowing the consequences.
Darius went west, while Tiamat went south. Damien was given two directions to choose from, but before moving, he spread his awareness.
'The other two can probably barely sense their surroundings right now. Otherwise, we wouldn't need to do this.'
Darius and Tiamat would need at least some time to get used to their new states. Damien allowed them to explore individually so they could familiarize themselves with this world before they went deep into its midst.
He, on the other hand, didn't need to take such extraneous measures.
His awareness wasn't blocked. Sure, he couldn't use laws like Existence yet so he couldn't access Absolute Perception, but his base awareness was more than enough.
As it spread through the jungle, Damien saw many interesting plants and creatures. The ecosystem built in this jungle over time revealed itself to him beautifully, allowing him to see both the similarities and differences between this place and the world he knew.
But, after a few minutes, Damien stopped his prying.
'This is too inefficient.'
He retracted his awareness. Sending it out in every direction gave him a lot of information about the nearby area, but it didn't allow him to look past what he was already seeing.
Instead, he gathered his perception and shot it in a single direction, pushing until he couldn't push anymore.
The direction he chose was north. It was a good decision, better than he ever expected it to be.
Because, as his awareness flew north, he found himself hitting a wall.
Literally.
'What is this…?'
Damien poked and pried at the wall, but he couldn't get a sense of it.
It wasn't a physical wall. It was completely invisible and ethereal, and while it was blocking his awareness, it didn't seem to exist for the creatures native to this area.
'Strange…'
Damien traced along the wall. His awareness found itself going both east and west, getting further and further away from the central point that was his own body.
'Is it like that, then?'
Damien already had a guess in mind.
If the natural inhabitants of this world weren't blocked by something that could stop him, it obviously meant he was being stopped because of his origin.
If so, then that invisible wall marked the edge of the area he was allowed to explore as someone who came through the Dimensional Crack.
'It doesn't seem like a man-made mechanic. Could it be that the Foreign Races also experience this on our side?'
Damien's mind wandered.
'I'm sure they haven't been restricted like this. At least, not the majority of them. If that's the case, then there has to be an accompanying mechanic that gets rid of the wall.'
His thoughts raced as he tried to uncover the mystery.
He didn't realize he was doing so without much prior knowledge at all.
After entering the new world, Damien's spirit took over.
He was still aware of his overarching goals, but his desire to see and experience new things was far too strong for him to maintain the same single-minded focus on a goal that he kept in the Heavenly World.
He went over several possibilities, walking east from his original position at the same time.
'Whatever this area is, we're at the northern tip of it. Logically speaking, if we head straight south, we'll encounter more than if we go in the other two directions and trace the wall.'
If he wasn't wrong, Tiamat would be first to–
'Hm?'
Damien's perception suddenly picked something up, but he didn't try to dodge it.
Within the same second, something grabbed Damien's ankle and yanked him into the air.
'Well, this is something.'
Damien smiled wryly.
His ankle was currently caught in a rope trap that had been tied to a nearby tree branch. He had been captured by one of the most primitive means imaginable, but that was exactly why he allowed himself to be caught.
Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik!
A strange sound emanated from the distance.
It was like the call of a reptilian beast locating its prey, but it was oddly throaty, as if there was more to the animal than just the functions it needed to survive.
Damien glanced over, peering through the canopy.
And what he found was…
"Kurang-ha…"
…a human.
A female human covered in clothes made from the leaves of the surrounding trees. Her face was caked in blood, purposefully spread in a tribal pattern that seemed to denote her status as a warrior.
She approached the tree where Damien hung from her post in the nearby canopy, maneuvering her body animalistically as she repeated the same word.
"Kurang-ha….un habak tiren-ha cona Kurang-ha!"
It was a language Damien didn't recognize, but it was definitely a language.
That was a word made by a creature with some sort of intelligence, a creature born in civilization.
Damien's eyes lit up in excitement.
How could he not be excited?
It was a language he didn't know.
Since when did something like that exist?
Grand Heavens Boundary and the Heavenly World had plenty of ancient languages that were still practiced by those few and far between who knew them, but everyone spoke the universal language by default.
The concept of a language barrier simply didn't exist.
For Damien to encounter one now, how could he not be surprised?
'This person is a key.'
Damien was happy to play the role of helpless prey to this clueless person.
Because, if she took him to the place where her people gathered, she would be giving him so much more than she ever realized.
The role of an explorer in a foreign land…
Damien had taken it on before, but none of those lands had ever been truly unexplored,
This time was different.
This time, he was truly the first.
And because of that, every experience he had was riveting.
