The sun was setting as it was already evening.

The Spirit Realm’s sun looked almost identical to the one back on Earth, though it was noticeably larger. The moon, however, was supposedly different.

From what he had heard, it was said to possess a faint violet color.

But for now, he couldn’t see it.

Still, Oliver didn’t stop walking immediately and decided to put even more distance between himself and the forest before setting up camp for the night.

So, he continued onward for another half hour, and it was then that he heard it.

It was the sound of flowing water.

For a moment, Oliver almost thought he was hallucinating and hearing things, but then his eyes widened after he rubbed his ears once.

"Yesss...! Fucking finally!"

Excitement instantly spread across his exhausted face as he continued walking towards the sound.

"I was getting so thirsty."

Without wasting any time, he began moving toward the sound at a even faster pace.

And soon, he was there and in front of him was a river.

Clear water was flowing through it which reflected the orange light of the setting sun.

"Yessss... yes yes yes!!"

Oliver practically dropped everything as the vines around him loosened and the fangs, salvaged meat, and spider legs fell carelessly onto the ground.

The moment he reached the river, he immediately scooped some water into his mouth.

It was cold, refreshing and honestly, at that moment it felt heavenly. He drank repeatedly before splashing more water onto his face and neck.

In hindsight, he probably should’ve boiled it first, just in case, but considering Spirit Realm beasts carried almost no human pathogens, he subconsciously assumed the water here would also be safe.

"Maybe there are fish-type beasts here too," he muttered while staring into the river hopefully. "Anything would taste better than those damned spider legs."

The water itself was surprisingly clear, though he couldn’t spot any fish or any sort of water aether-beast in it at the moment.

Deciding to worry about that later, Oliver carried his things a small distance away from the riverbank before finally beginning to set up camp.

After gathering enough dry wood and branches, he soon managed to light a much larger fire than before.

For the first time since arriving in this nightmare realm, things almost felt slightly peaceful.

Before going around to gather even more wood or materials for bedding and shelter, Oliver decided to first absorb the essence shards from the soul core he had obtained.

Slipping his hand into his pocket, he pulled the crimson core back out.

Even now, the thing looked strangely beautiful and faint red glow pulsed softly within the crystal-like structure, illuminating his fingers slightly whenever he turned it.

’Now that I think about it... Selene probably would’ve liked this as a gift.’

A faint smile appeared on his face as he remembered her.

’Looks pretty enough for it at least.’

He spent a few more seconds silently admiring the soul core before finally deciding to absorb it.

From what he knew, all he had to do was think about it, and the moment he did, the soul core dissolved into countless particles of crimson light that flowed directly into his body.

At the same time, the system’s cool voice echoed inside his head.

[Soul Core of Aether Beast: Canopy Strider being absorbed.]

[Grade: Tarnished | Rank: Aberration]

[3 Essence Shards absorbed]

[Essence Shards: 3/500]

As soon as, Oliver had absorbed the essence shards, he felt energized in a way he had never felt before. He felt stronger, faster and more durable, all at once. He almost felt like a superhuman, in fact.

The effect was immediate, but he didn’t care about that as something else took all his attention.

"What the hell?"

Oliver’s expression immediately stiffened as he processed the rest of the information that the system had given him. The part about the essence shards barely even registered compared to the other thing.

Aberration Rank.

That single phrase alone made his scalp tingle.

The publicly known beast ranking system went as follow:

Feral → Ravager → Aberration → Calamity → Elder.

Meanwhile, the corresponding human ranks were:

Drifter → Bearer → Harbinger → Revenant.

Which meant that monster from earlier had been equivalent to a Harbinger-rank human and it had been killed so effortlessly.

Oliver slowly recalled the image of that owl-like creature descending from above and tearing apart the Canopy Strider like it was nothing more than prey and a chill immediately ran down his spine.

Humans were generally considered stronger than Aether Beasts of the same rank, who had tarnished grade, due to intelligence, equipment, and attributes.

But even then, for an Aberration-ranked beast to die that easily to that owl, just what in God’s name had that owl been?

Oliver himself had initially assumed the Canopy Strider was merely a strong Ravager at most and never, once had he imagined it belonged to the Aberration Rank.

’Maybe it was already injured?’

Now that he thought about it carefully, the Canopy Strider had actually taken some time to catch up to him earlier. Its speed had definitely been overwhelming compared to his own, but for an Aberration Rank beast?

It honestly felt somewhat underwhelming but, then another possibility surfaced in his mind.

’Or was that ape just playing around with me?’

The more he remembered the earlier scene, the more believable this explanation became.

Especially the moment when the beast had suddenly lunged toward the owl-like creature with it’s spider-like legs, Oliver hadn’t even been able to properly follow that movement with his eyes as it had happened far too fast.

Compared to that terrifying burst of speed, the pace with which it had chased him with earlier almost felt leisurely.

And this realization somehow made the situation even worse.

The more he thought, the more Oliver understood one thing very clearly.

He needed to find a human settlement as soon as possible because if creatures like that were merely wandering around casually in this region, then staying alone out here for much longer was practically suicide.

"Haah... I’m cooked, aren’t I?"

Shaking his head once, Oliver pushed those thoughts aside and started working on making a temporary bed using whatever he could find nearby.

After looking around for a bit, he finally found two trees standing relatively close to each other.

He looked upward toward their upper sections and slowly formed a plan in his mind.

’Hm... maybe this could actually work?’

To support his own weight, he needed thick and durable branches and cutting them normally would be very difficult, and so before starting, Oliver spent some time near the river sharpening the fang-spear using pebbles and sharp stones from the riverbed.

Once he was done, the fang’s edge became even deadlier.

Afterward, he climbed one of the trees and carefully began cutting down two long sturdy branches using the spear.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that difficult as the fang possessed an unnatural sharpness to it and honestly, cutting through the beast’s carcass earlier had felt harder than slicing through wood.

Maybe it was just another one of those strange Spirit Realm things that didn’t make sense.

’I mean shouldn’t cutting a branch be harder than a beast’s flesh?’

Once the branches were cut, Oliver positioned them horizontally between the two trees at a decent height above the ground, creating a basic support structure. He then added several smaller branches across them, but he didn’t stop there.

Remembering a few things from the survival course, Oliver gathered long vines and began carefully weaving them between the branches in an interlocking zig-zag pattern.

This way, not only would the makeshift bed feel less horrible and more comfortable to sleep on, but the weight would also spread more evenly, lowering the chances of the whole thing collapsing underneath him.

’Pleaaase... Goddess... have some mercy on me here.’

’Do not let this thing break.’

Finally finished, Oliver slowly lowered himself onto the structure and as a result, the vines creaked and the branches bent slightly beneath his weight.

For one horrifying second, Oliver genuinely thought the whole thing was about to snap apart, but then, it stabilized and he celebrated as a huge grin immediately spread across his exhausted face.

"Yessssss."

But just as Oliver had finally settled comfortably onto his newly made bed and closed his eyes, something unexpected suddenly happened.

The system’s voice echoed inside his head once again.

[Aether Beast: Miretooth slain]

[Grade: Tarnished | Rank: Feral]

[Inheritance Acquired: Sigil]

Oliver’s eyes instantly snapped open.

"Huh?"

For a second, he simply stared blankly upward at the darkening sky visible through the gaps between the leaves.

"Who? Me?"