Chapter 11

Ryan's mind was blank.

The agony from being burned alive forced his mind into a comatose state, thus was not new to him though. This was something he developed in his past life when he was tortured, he could disassociate his mind from his body to avoid the pain.

Right now he was staring at the red ground beneath him, he purple tinged skin contrasted the stone and made him stick out. After a while, the pain began to slowly reduce and his mind once again occupied his body.

[You have gained Heat Resistance Lv2!]

It was strange that the skill had boosted straight to level 2, but that was not important at the moment. Ryan was instead focused on the other notifications that had popped up.

[You have been made an outlaw by the Morlir Kingdom! Any person from the Morlir Kingdom has been ordered to kill you on sight or report you to the authorities]

[A Bounty has been placed on your head! It is a bounty of 20,000 gold!]

[World Announcement: Player Ryan Spencer has been given a bounty of 20,000 gold. Kill them to obtain it! Their location is on the map! Happy Hunting! ]

[Guards of the Morlir Kingdom have been given the authority to chase you out of their cities]

Well shite.

While it was probably a bad thing, Ryan knew that for now he was safe from Players. No one would be able to enter the Nether Realm at this point and thus he would be fine. The only problem is that Ryan was wayyyy too underlevelled to be in this place. On average the Nether Realm had beasts at Lv 50 at this time and it would only increase in the future. The humanoid residents of the Nether Realm would be much higher in level, something not many from the Human Realm could compete with.

His thoughts were interrupted by a deafening roar that had erupted only 100 metres from where Ryan had landed. The beast that caused such a ruckus was nearly 10 metres tall and 15 metres long, it had a long mane of hair running down its back. Shining in the fire of the Nether Realm, the silver scales of the beast undulated making it seem to move. The legs of the beast were as thick as tree trunks covered in thick heavy muscle that wrapped the legs like vines. Its long neck reached into the sky to allow the roar to reach every inch of the dimension, it was a truly magnificent creature. Every beast nearby scattered, their animal instinct over took them and they knew they could do nothing in the face of such a powerful being.

The wings of the beast expanded out with a gust of wind that threw Ryan like he was a rag doll. His body rolled away, each second his skin was in contact with the red hot floor caused agonising pain. Through the pain and decreasing HP, Ryan tilted his head to the sky to see the giant silver dragon fly off into the black sky that encapsulated the Nether Dimension.

Despite being so massive, beautiful and terrifying, the dragon he had just seen was merely a lesser one. The true great dragons were supposedly locked away by the Creator as their pets. Every once in a while, a dragon would be released into the World of Humans (the main world in horizon) to destroy as much as it could. The priests that worshipped the Creator claimed that only through death could we be reborn in the Creator's grace so it was a blessing that the dragon was sent to destroy them. No one knew if this was really true as they majority of dead people can't speak if they are reanimated.

Ryan stood up with a groan as the hot stone beneath him burnt his skin, his resistance helped a little bit but it was still almost too much for a Lv1 to handle. For now, Ryan would have to be extremely careful with his life, he couldn't be without care for his life like when he invaded the lair of Jeh'miska. If Ryan died then he would be sent back to the World of Humans and people would be able to see his location, and if he was killed by a player then not only would they get a bunch of money that would change the future drastically, but he would also be sent to the Royal Prison for a month. This was something he definitely couldn't afford to do. Therefore, Ryan couldn't die until he was the best, highest levelled, player in the world. This was gonna be rough.

In order to make sure that he wouldn't simply die from a passing animal that got a little bit hungry, he needed to upgrade his stealth and hatch his Soul Beast. If he was correct then he was located near the borders of the Imp Kingdom, it was one of the major Kingdoms of the Nether realm and pretty for from the River Pyros that was found in the Demon Kingdom. Before he could leave the Imp territory he would need a map of the Nether Realm to be able to know where to go. Ryan, in his previous life, had never visited the Nether Realm and had no clue where exactly he was within the territory of the Imps.

Not knowing where to go, Ryan decided to move north. It probably wasn't actually north, it was just forwards for him.

With each step his feet sizzled from the heat and his Heat Resistance was steadily increasing, not only that but his feet became more and more tinged with the purple colour. The only reason Ryan could think that his skin was changing was because it was a side effect of the exposure to Aether, the Nether Realm version of mana that was said to be tinted with evil and death. It did kinda make sense, the undead could only be raised if you had a source of aether near you.

An hour later a dark red forest came into view. The trees were taller than buildings and their leaves a crimson red that matched the hot soil below. Each tree seemed to move and sway despite their massive size, running up and down the trunks of the gigantic trees were golden veins that illuminated them and made them stand out from the pure red surroundings. No animals dared to venture close to the forest, not a single beast could be seen for miles around. Ryan began to worry. For the past hour he had been trying to sneak around numerous high level beasts, evading and running through the area in hope of finding a respite. But now that he had found one, he became even more scared.

Despite his fears he believed that the safest choice would be to go towards the forest. He would rather take his chances with some big trees than dangerous animals that were able to smell his human scent.

Moving towards the trees an uneasy feeling began to overcome him, the forest seemed more and more ominous and darkness began to spread over the area. The leaves of the massive trees seemed to rustle in excitement, the tree trunks became more crimson and the veins began to shine brighter and brighter.

Nope nope nope nope

Ryan turned around with a quick spin and began sprinting the way he had just come, he needed to get as far away from the forest as possible. Not willing to let him leave, the roots of the trees and vines that came from the canopy burst towards Ryan with godly speed. Trying to dodge the appendages was impossible and Ryan was wrapped in vines before he knew what had happened. Kicking, clawing, scraping, biting, punching, Ryan did all that he could to stop himself from being dragged towards the mass of flora where his impending death awaited. But it was futile. Not even his axe would have been able to get through the vines, not that he had enough room to swing it properly.

Not only would he die and be sent to the world of humans where prison awaited him, some lucky bastard would probably get the reward money and alter the future so that Ryan had no possible way of becoming the greatest. This one mistake had cost him his perfect future.