Prince of The Abyss

Chapter 370: The Endless Jungle

He finally understood why Sena always slept in class; learning really was boring as hell.Sitting for so long in a chair while the teacher just spit out random things- how can you ever concentrate? He felt more intrigued when he didn’t understand what the teacher was saying. And what made it worse was that Avius was a great teacher, so if he wouldn’t be able to teach him, who was going to?

Looks like he was going to figure out things by himself yet again; well, it wasn’t like he cared about his Academics that much; the practice seasons were what he cared about, and he felt like many in the Academy were on his side.

By what he heard from Avius, many were on the verge of failing the season, but not because they were dumb, just that they didn’t care. They had the knowledge to pass, so they just skipped until they couldn’t. It was also why, on this last stretch before Summer, everyone was at school, because they had skipped too much before.

A good thing for him was that since he had joined so late, they couldn’t fail him. So he could just not present himself to classes. And it wasn’t that bad, since he could just get Avius to teach him after.

Another thing he had learned is that students are allowed to enter books if they wish; they just have to say so before, and they have to take some sort of test so that the teacher can give them a pass or fail for that week.

However, when it came to the Wonderland, you could enter anytime you wanted; you just had to be back before school started, which was great news for him.

Reaching his dorm, Aether changed from his uniform, summoning his mantle quickly after. He was going to have to see what this... Wonderland was all about.

From what Avius told him, entering it is similar to the Infinite Library. Closing his eyes, Aether took a deep breath, slowly feeling the world around him... vanish.

...

...

...

When Aether awakened, he found himself in a jungle.

[No Anchor Story found.... You have been teleported to a Random Location]

Aether slowly got up on his feet, confused by the Codex’s words. "Anchor story? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Are there some kind of things in this place that you can use so that next time you come here you get teleported to them or something?"

... Though he had to say, first impressions so far...

The air felt... different.

Not colder.

Not warmer either.

Just heavier, but that might just be because he was in a jungle. He hadn’t been to one so far, but he had heard about them, from his father, and in stories. So he knew what they were supposed to look like. And in Stormfell was something similar, where the Beast Human civilization resided, but it wasn’t close to this.

Every breath carried moisture with it, making the jungle feel almost alive. It wasn’t unpleasant, merely strange, but maybe because he was pretty used to heavy air, he had been on tall mountains and other high-altitude places. Everything around him looked as though it had been growing uninterrupted for centuries, which was pretty fun, since in many books he had read, in the jungle there was treasure and a lot of stuff that was really old, and the mysteries- oh, he could go on for hours.

Trees rose high into the sky, their trunks wider than many houses he had seen, disappearing beneath an endless sea of leaves. Though, if he had to guess, these trees were homes, just not for humans, for animals. Looking up, he could barely make out the sky through the thick canopy overhead. Only scattered rays of sunlight managed to slip through the gaps, painting bright patches across the ground before disappearing again whenever the branches swayed.

It was... quite beautiful really; it really reminded him of the jungles in the stories he read... but it did make some sense, since the Wonderland was supposed to be the world of stories, the physical manifestation of worlds, a giant world filled with little ones.

It was so similar yet so different from the Infinite Library. To think that this wasn’t even a story he was inside, but more like the hub, if you could even call it that. It made him wonder just how many things were in this world. It was infinite, so what mysteries resided in it? And how old? Could he find anything related to the Abyss around here? Was there a chance?

His child self would definitely be overexcited about this... but he had left him behind when he finished Demon of Dread... Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel that much joy from this.

... Though maybe that would change.

After all, after Demon of Dread, he has... changed, but at the same time... he’s still trying to find himself; maybe Wonderland would help him see joy in stories again, since before, as a Reader, he wasn’t so happy about them.

Birds called somewhere above, hidden among the leaves. Some sang in short melodies, while others let out loud cries that echoed through the jungle before fading away. Small monkeys swung between branches in groups, disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared, while squirrels darted across the bark with surprising speed.

One even stopped for a moment.

It looked directly at him.

...

Then ran away.

"I wasn’t going to chase you," Aether muttered while smirking.

It was... fun to see animals around this place; he didn’t remember how many he had seen in Demon of Dread, and it was probably the first time he had seen a monkey... maybe a small part of him had wanted to chase it. But he didn’t want to admit it

His attention drifted back to the forest itself.

Vines wrapped around almost every tree, climbing endlessly toward the canopy. Some were no thicker than rope, while others looked sturdy enough to support a person’s weight. Ferns spread across the ground beneath them, their leaves brushing against his boots whenever he walked too close, while patches of moss covered fallen logs that had long since become part of the jungle again.

It felt as if everything in this place had life... It was quite incredible to see. Was everything beyond the forest like this too? Then he really couldn’t wait for summer to start and see what everything was about.

Aether crouched beside one of the plants, gently brushing a leaf between his fingers.

"...I wonder if any of these are poisonous." He tilted his luck, trying to inspect it. Wondering if he should try it or not... maybe it wasn’t poisonous, but at the same time it could be highly lethal and would kill him the moment his tongue made contact with it.

Knowing his luck...

Probably.

He immediately let go.

Better not test it.

As he continued walking, more animals revealed themselves. Brightly colored parrots rested on branches overhead, watching him with curious eyes before taking flight in a burst of feathers. A family of deer quietly crossed between the trees farther ahead, disappearing into the undergrowth without making more than a few sounds. ’Deer in a jungle, that’s interesting... I don’t know that much about jungles, but I don’t think that is normal... but who cares really.’ Somewhere deeper within the jungle, water flowed steadily, hidden behind the endless wall of vegetation.

His eyes wandered through the forest.

Every direction looked the same.

Tree after tree.

Vine after vine.

It was really easy to get lost... but at the same time, for him, he could talk to shadows, so it probably wouldn’t be that hard to get around this place... though he had to say, he thought he had quite the luck with where the Codex had dropped him, sad he couldn’t get dropped here next time. Since he really didn’t know what those Anchors were. He was going to have to see before he came here again, since there was really nothing for him to do, since his progress would just get lost.

’I should probably try and see who I will team up with when summer comes, probably someone who has been to the Wonderland a lot... but at the same time, someone who wasn’t really entitled.’ He could try with Iris; after all, he knew her a bit, and they had spent some time together, but she would definitely be taken long before he could ask her. And she probably wouldn’t choose him.

He was going to go into the city tomorrow; he would probably meet up with some people who would want to get into a team with him... maybe.

’As if I’m probably going to have to team up with the only remaining people who also didn’t have a team.’ But at the same time... it was better than nothing, wasn’t it?

...

Though there was something strange, he had met up with three of the other Vessels; with him, that was four... and the King said all had awakened

...

But weren’t there five?