Dimensional Descent

Leonel and Aina ran into their first awkward situation quite quickly. Almost comically so.

Neither had any way of knowing much information about the Incomplete World until they stepped into it. The problem was that while the Dream Pavilion provided the coordinates and the orbiting formula, they provided nothing else.

The coordinates were, of course, the exact location it had originally been found at. The orbiting formula was one calculated based on the unique characteristics of every world, whether Complete or Incomplete. Essentially, it allowed you to pinpoint its location as a function of time.

Though an orbiting formula could change-or more accurately, certainly would over the course of a world’s life-such changes only occurred over the course of millions to billions of years. For now, Leonel had no worries about the formula being incorrect any time soon.

This aside, while they had such information, what they didn’t have was any knowledge of what was going on inside. So, they didn’t realize that they had ended up in a non-human Domain until they touched down on a planet and found themselves surrounded by Oryx.

The Race itself was a surprise as well. That was because from Leonel’s understanding, the Oryx were a very niche and uncommon Race. He had happened to stumble onto a small population of them on Valiant Heart Mountain, and Elthor, their prince, had even become a huge part of his people’s combat strength, but it wasn’t the kind of race he expected to find elsewhere.

As far as he knew, there were no Oryx in Complete Worlds, at least not ones born there naturally.

‘Interesting…’

This was the first thought Leonel had when he and Aina were surrounded. Well, surrounded was a bit much. There were only three Oryx, and they were in the middle of the wilderness with no backup to speak of. Plus, the strongest of them was only in the Sixth Dimension, while the two weakest were in the Fifth.

Leonel could imagine why they were so confident, considering Aina was only in the Fourth and he was in the Fifth. But he didn’t really take them seriously at all.

The scent the trio gave off was, expectedly, quite suffocating. Elthor usually suppressed his pheromones because he knew humans didn’t like it. But usually, the stronger the scent, the more talented the Oryx.

Leonel had studied them for quite a while, so he knew that these three weren’t very talented at all. Since this was a Sixth Dimensional fold of reality, though, they were likely among the strongest talents there were.

None of this was why Leonel found this matter so interesting, though.

Existence was still creating new Races, pitting them against one another and seeing which could come out on top.

It felt like the end of the world was coming closer and closer with the Northern Star looming overhead, but the truth was that Existence likely wouldn’t be going anywhere for several more million years. Who knew how many new Races could rise and fall in this time?

For the Oryx to appear in the Dimensional Verse and here too… could it because Existence was prepping to create a new official Mortal Race?

It could be said that all Incomplete Worlds at least had one or two Races that rarely or never appeared elsewhere. This was the simple product of evolution, taking tiny liberties here and there.

This essentially meant that for one Race to appear multiple times, it meant that they had survived the countless years of evolution to still end up in the same state.

The only Mortal Races that could successfully accomplish this were the ones that Leonel and Aina encountered the most often.

The Human Race. The Nomad Race. The Cloud Race. The Spiritual Race. The Rapax Race. And finally, the Dwarven Race.

To the wider world, humans and the Dwarven Race were comically weak. But when one was speaking about evolution’s victors, humans had earned their place. No one could take that away from them.

And now… maybe the Oryx were starting to take steps toward becoming the seventh Mortal Race?

Could Existence withstand that?

The Sixth Dimensional Oryx roared at Leonel, his vertical eye splitting on his forehead as the fur that covered its lower body bristled. A heavy ax with blades that spanned half his pointed toward Leonel in a threatening manner.

Leonel shook his head, realizing they were mad because he was ignoring them.

‘My Dream Force didn’t translate immediately… seems I have to b more deliberate.’

“ROAR! … get down human or I will cut you at the waist!”

Leonel pursed his lips.

This threat was actually quite a big deal to Oryx. Their lower bodies were covered in fur and could be considered quite bestial, but their upper bodies were mostly human, aside from their third eye and horns.

When they entered their monstrous beast form, their lower halves “consumed” the rest of their bodies, so it could be said that it was the most important to their combat… at least until they awakened the abilities of their third eye.

This wasn’t all either, and likely not the main reason the insult was so potent.

Their strong pheromones came from the fur in their lower extremities. Although some of it came from their hair as well, their fur was the best at trapping it. Telling a male Oryx you were going to cut them at the waist was no different from telling a human you’d castrate them.

With their strong vitality, the Oryx just might survive being cut at the waist, but then they wouldn’t be able to attract women. At that point, they might as well die.

If this Oryx was using this insult, it could be said that he was very upset already, and Leonel found it a bit amusing.

With a thought, a wooden spear appeared in Leonel’s palms. He smiled lightly and a confident sort of sharpness exuded from his body.

ƈοm

“Let’s dance, then. Show me what that ax can do.”