Dyon appeared in the middle of a dense forest. Unable to hold it together anymore, he collapsed to the ground, coughing up mouth fulls of blood. He clenched the hole in his stomach, as the suppressed wound began to reel its ugly head.

'I guess taking a spear to the gut wasn't exactly great on my part… I lack battle experience and I should probably stop doing stupid s.h.i.+t like this…'

Dyon began slowly digging a small hole in the ground into the base of a nearby tree. After struggling for a long while, he was finally satisfied with its depth so he gingerly placed his spatial ring within it. With his last remaining strength, he punched the tree, letting the leaves fall around the area before quickly willing himself into the vast inner s.p.a.ce.

'I'll have to hope that that hides me well enough for now…'

Just to be safe, Dyon sent his mind out for a moment just to place a discreet concealment formation, but his exertion was too much. He had underestimated the strength it would take to send a formation out from within a separate world. The last thing Dyon saw was black before he pa.s.sed out.

**

Many days later, an ordinary looking girl was walking through the forest. She wore tight leather pants and a kilted short skirt above it. Her crop top was actually made of a protective armor that held her thin sword strapped to her back. Although her face wasn't that of an extraordinary beauty, her silver-blue eyes had a calm and serene depth to them that completely contrasted with her fiery personality. Her hair was long, gently swaying across her exposed venus dimples and illuminating a beautiful stream of light blues and silvers that gave her an otherworldly feel that her barely pointed ears couldn't match.

Her footsteps were light. Not a sound could be heard as she carefully made her way through the forest. Although she knew that this was a relatively safe area, she preferred to ensure she had no followers since she was headed to her favorite secret place.

"hmm?"

The girls silver-blue eyes caught a flash of gold to her side.

"an incomplete array? Here? What's going on?"

She cautiously made her way to the tree roots, double checking to see if anyone was around her.

'this… a ring? it must be a formation that's been here protecting this for a while before finally eroding? The intricacies of the array… it must be from a top-level expert. It would take thousands of years for such an intricate array to begin eroding.'

The girl immediately came up with this deduction. To her, it was impossible to even think of what really happened. Even those who had studied array alchemy for centuries could only send arrays out from them a few hundred meters. The concept of sending an array out, and an array that actually had any sort of form, from an entirely separate world was much too ridiculous.

She flipped the silver ring around her hand, looking to see if there was anything special about it. But, when she tried to delve into it with her mind, she found that there was a block.

'This ring is still owned? After so long?...'

The realization made the girl s.h.i.+ver. For such an expert to have hidden the ring for so long, yet, for him or her to still be alive was inconceivable.

However, this wasn't a normal young person, the feeling of the unknown made her s.h.i.+ver with excitement. She decided to keep the ring, placing it on a simple string to be worn as a necklace. She hoped that one day the expert would come to her, realizing that someone had tried to see what was in her ring. Maybe they'd thank her for keeping it safe? Maybe they'd know things she wanted to know about herself?

The girl wasn't naïve. She knew fully well how dangerous this could be, but, she was confident that there was an adventure on the horizon. And, after being caught up in this land for all her life, there was nothing she wanted more than to escape.