Life Hunter 232 ''Grass''

Karma was touching one of those 'objects' in curiosity along with Ganesha and Raylein "Verdict?" Night asked them after transforming back into a human.

"Yes, no doubt" Karma nodded.

"Indeed" Ganesha nodded.

"Truly. It is…" Raylein sighed.

Night groaned and pinched the green 'wall' "So, this is really just gra.s.s, huh?"

"Yes"

"You're right"

"Gra.s.s"

Everyone fell silent and the wind blew. The green 'objects' fluttered and made a really natural sound "…What do we do now?" Raylein broke the silence and Night expired noisily.

"Let's start by finding someone. Let's hope that things are not what they seem to be"

Ganesha laughed "I think that your hopes have high chances to be betrayed"

"You didn't need to say that" Night retorted and turned toward Karma "Can you try to cut them?"

"Sure" She complied and summoned a copy of herself. She grabbed the katana and swung it lightly. In an instant, thousands of strands of gra.s.s were cut and fell down. Karma's eyes widened as she didn't expect that.

Raylein frowned "How is it?"

"Mm, I don't know how to say that" Karma was a bit disconcerted "…It's less?"

"'Less'?

"Yes, the toughness is less than in our reality" Karma affirmed and cut a few more strands with a swing.

Night mused and picked up one of them. He played with it and threw it in the air. His expression went through a change "The ma.s.s is the exact same but the size and toughness differ… that would mean things aren't really bigger here. They're just expanded"

"What's the difference?" Karma questioned.

"Well, you can take me as an example. My original form is that of a dragon. Then naturally, it's when I'm in that form that my body is the most 'stable'. But if for example, I try to use magic to become bigger or smaller, I will have to either compress my body or expand it"

"Because no matter who, or what you are, you can't erase or create the matter composing you. So, when you become smaller, you have to compress that matter and when you turn bigger, you have to expand it. But in each case, your body will lose constancy and definitely become weaker"

"And actually, if you become too big or too small, there will be large consequences. If you're too small, meaning that your molecules are too compressed, your body will be tougher harder but the moment you suffer an external shock, you may implode"

"While if you're too expanded, you will definitely have the figure of a giant but you'll become an empty sh.e.l.l which can be destroyed in a single attack" Night explained and looked at the gra.s.s lying on the ground.

"This gra.s.s is larger than what we know but has the same ma.s.s. Which means is it expanded compared to our standards" Ganesha and Raylein had perfectly understood at this point.

"Basically, this reality may have a completely different scale but in reality, everything is also a lot weaker than what we know" Karma said and Night nodded.

"Fine, I suppose it's good to know. Then what are we supposed to do now? How do we find the Pillars and Guardians?" Raylein asked.

"We should start by finding a village or something like that. There's no choice but to gather information at the moment. Even if it's shallow" Night responded and someone abruptly pulled on his sleeve "Mm? What's wrong?"

Karma pointed at something with her finger. Her mouth was wide open. Night raised an eyebrow and followed her sight. He immediately froze. There was a colossal beetle staring at them from one the uncut strands.

"That's kinda scary…and gross" Karma commented and Night slowly nodded. He observed the insect and a thought struck him.

He extended his hand and cast a fireball. It flew and hit the beetle on his carapace. But it just popped and did absolutely no damage. Everyone looked at Night with strange eyes "What was that about?" Ganesha questioned and he forced a cough.

"Well… I conjured a magic that should've been able to kill something so weak easily. I literally used just enough power to kill an insect" He said and looked at his teammates. They were utterly confused by his explanation. He scratched his hair "To be exact, I used an amount of mana that should've been enough to beat it"

"Ah" Karma exclaimed in understanding but the other two were still perplexed. She looked at them and pondered a little "How to say this…? Arima mentioned this really quickly once. 'Power balance'. Things can change from one reality to another. Particularly magic theories and circuits; since our own legends and science may not be the same here"

"At first I thought there was no apparent difference in this reality except those legends" Night added and his expression darkened "But now I realize that the magic circuits are different too. They share a similar structure as what we know but, as much as everything here has expanded, the circuits suffered the same thing too. If we want to use our magic, not only do we have to use techniques which don't require theories concerning legends or historical facts, but we also have to use a proportional amount of mana to fit the size of the magic circuits"

"Oh, s.h.i.t" Raylein got it and instantly cursed in response to that.

Night bitterly smiled "It means that, for example, if things are twenty times bigger here, we have to use twenty times more mana"

While they were talking, Karma shivered as she witnessed the beetle's wings cases open. She wordlessly turned away and flew off.

"Huh?" Night exclaimed and the beetle started flying toward them. He instantly deployed his wings and followed Karma.

"What are you doing?" Raylein scowled at them "Why are you running away? It's just an insect? This is not even an image.

"Then get rid of it" Night replied.

Raylein looked at the approaching beetle blankly. He kicked the ground and was about to punch it. But he stopped halfway through. He realized that if he were to connect that punch, that insect would burst open right on his face. He instantly changed plans and teleported away. He conjured a spatial blade from afar and cut the beetle in two.

Then he heard three persons clapping in awe "…Hey, why didn't you just burn him?" He glared at Night.

"I didn't want to waste my mana on that"

"Then wasting mine is fine? I shall remember you that you have more mana than we all combined" Raylein retorted and Night shrugged.

"Blame Arima's aversion of insects. He gave it to us"

Raylein rubbed his face and sighed "Let's just go already. Ganesha, where do we go?"

Ganesha took out a fancy compa.s.s which didn't seem to be magnetized. He made the arrow spin manually and pointed at the direction it indicated when it stopped "There"

"Seriously?" Night interjected and Ganesha smiled.

"Of course, no matter what, this direction is the best choice for us. That's how my whole magic works in a sense"

Night sighed and flew away "Let's get out of this gra.s.s first… d.a.m.n, that sounds weird" When they got out of the 'forest', the sun immediately illuminated them. The four of them looked around gaping. They knew it was going to be enormous but actually seeing it was a striking experience.

The trees could be compared to the tallest building ever made in the other reality. The animals roaming the place were also terrifyingly big. Even small ponds were literal oceans for them. And it wasn't needed to mention how colossal the mountains in the horizon were.

"This is…" Ganesha was sweating a little "A hundred? No, far from that, a thousand? Is this reality a thousand times larger than what we know?"

Night silently estimated his surroundings and beckoned everyone "…Let's move for now. There's no point in admiring the scene. Try to use the less mana possible" He instructed and flapped his wings. He dashed in the direction Ganesha had directed them.

While they were flying across the planet, they spotted many different things. Apart from the extreme size of plainly everything, they happened to come across animals and plants which they knew about. At some point, they even crossed path with a pterodactyl and other dinosaurs too. They also discovered that the living beings in this reality had a mana pool matching the size of their magic circuits.

Basically, the average mana pool size here was a thousand times more than what they were used to "But at the same time, their magic should be weak for the amount that they use" Night alleged and everyone nodded.

"I have a question" Karma raised her hand "What if the people in this world were to compress their body? Wouldn't they be able to change their bodies to match ours?"

"No, little lady. That wouldn't work" Ganesha answered to her "They're indeed 'expanded' compared to us. But that doesn't mean the molecules composing their body are unstable. Rather, they are stable when they are like that. If they were to compress them to become like us, they would end up as we said earlier"

"I see" While Karma was thinking about that, Night abruptly halted and also made his group slow down by force with a barrier.

"Hey! What was that for?" Raylein shouted but Night didn't respond. His eyes flashed and shifted upward. His pupils narrowed into a slit. He growled and fire surrounded him. He became a dragon in the flames and roared. At the same time, everything suddenly turned dark as the sunlight was blocked.

Night snorted and flapped his wings. He dispersed the flames and flew up. Karma, Ganesha, and Raylein covered their eyes and looked up afterward. They gasped when they saw a t.i.tanic shadow falling from the sky. Fortunately, it wasn't big enough for them to be unable to recognize it.

"That's a fist!" Ganesha exclaimed and they focused on what was behind that large hand.

"A minotaur?" Karma's eyes widened.

"No, it shouldn't exist here. Maybe it has another name. But in any case, this aura..." Raylein furrowed.

Night reached the giant fist and stopped it with his two hands. The clash shook the earth and a shockwave created a profound crater on the surface "Uuh?" A powerful voice echoed. It seemed that the owner of that hand was quite surprised. Night sneered and planted his claws on the flesh of the minotaur. He gritted his teeth and twisted the entire arm before throwing the entire giant away.

Night's group watched in disbelief as the ma.s.sive monster was being flung before he fell on the ground and made the entire planet tremble. But it wasn't long before the minotaur slammed his hand on the ground and got back on his feet. A surprising display of agility which didn't correspond his size.

Night clicked his tongue and landed on the ground "Karma" He called her and she immediately changed into a katana for him "Well, Ganesha. I don't know if you're too lucky or not, but you led us straight to the Guardians. What a jackpot" Night jested and shouldered Karma.

Ganesha snickered and sensed more auras coming toward them "Isn't that what we wanted?"

"I a.s.sume"

"More importantly" Raylein raised his voice and glanced at Night "What's your impression?"

The dragon hummed and peeked at the minotaur then at the new silhouettes appearing one after the other. He grinned and his scales glowed with a red hue "I can take care of them"