Kyle kept consuming the corpse.
He didn’t know how much time passed since he couldn’t see the sun from his new position.
He couldn’t consume the corpse in the open?
Well, what if he weren’t in the open?
He felt quite smug when he came up with the solution.
BANG!
But then, he felt something heavy hitting the corpse, and Kyle’s body was flattened.
CRK!
The next moment, the corpse above him took to the sky, and Kyle could see huge wings stretching out from behind it.
Kyle had been below the corpse and had been eating it from its underside.
But well… this huge bird apparently had other ideas.
It lifted the corpse right off Kyle’s body, leaving him lying on the ground.
’Well, there goes my food,’ Kyle thought as he kept lying on the ground.
He sighed and stood up.
By now, it was evening.
Sadly, the corpse had been too big, and a couple of hours hadn’t been enough to consume the entire thing.
Otherwise, Kyle might have been able to advance.
“Guess it’s time to continue,” he commented.
Theodor didn’t answer.
The next moment, he looked around the dark canyon.
As always, nothing moved.
“Hey, Theodor, how dangerous is it to travel during the darkness?” he asked.
“It’s not less or more dangerous,” Theodor said. “You will not encounter stronger opponents. Just different ones.”
“Alrighty then,” Kyle said.
He grabbed his iron ore wall and approached the wall of the canyon again.
This time, he walked forward slowly.
Well, slowly for him.
His speed was still equivalent to that of a running person’s speed from Earth.
After a couple of minutes, he traversed another kilometer.
Surprisingly, nothing had happened.
“What is this?” Kyle asked. “No beasts?”
“Areas like these are mostly controlled by a few beasts,” Theodor said. “The fast beasts with the iron hide and the big one from just now are probably the rulers here. They consume most of the other beasts.”
“You fought against the two apex predators of this canyon, and they don’t want to attack you anymore. You were not silent nor subtle when you killed that big beast. Everyone noticed it.”
“Huh,” Kyle commented. “So, I intimidated them?”
“In a way,” Theodor answered.
Kyle smiled when he heard that.
It felt good to show his dominance over the local wildlife.
His chimp brain really liked that feeling.
He continued walking for a couple more minutes, and he finally reached the end of the canyon.
’By now, I should be about three miles away from the Cradle.’
’1% of the journey is done.’
’Only one fucking percent,’ he thought with a groan. ’How am I going to survive the remaining 99%?’
Kyle slowly peeked out from the canyon and looked around.
“Looks flat,” he commented.
There was a long and flat plane of sand in front of him.
It looked just like a desert, except that the sand was brown, not yellow.
One had to remember that a wasteland and a desert were different things.
“You’re either lucky or unlucky,” Theodor commented. “You see all the sand?”
“Kinda hard to miss it, Boss,” Kyle said.
“This is a resting cloud of Skysand. Almost all beasts avoid Skysand since it’s so dangerous.”
“If you’re quick enough, you can run to the other side before your feet vanish, but if the Skysand cloud rises while you are passing through it, you will die.”
Kyle took a deep breath.
“What exactly is Skysand?” he asked.
“It’s a natural phenomenon,” Theodor explained. “Skysand is filled with corrosive Earth Ether. If you absorb it, you will vanish. If you touch it, it will eat away at you.”
“Wait, so this is like a cloud of acid?” Kyle asked.
“How do you know about acid?” Theodor asked with surprise and arrogance.
“Books,” Kyle answered.
“You read books?” Theodor asked with skepticism.
“I used to,” Kyle answered. “So, is this like acid or not?”
“You can view it as a cloud of acid, yes,” Theodor answered.
Kyle gulped as he looked at the brown sand on the ground.
’Do I really have to run over a pool of solid acid? That doesn’t sound like a good idea.’
“Can we just wait until the cloud moves on?” Kyle asked.
“We can,” Theodor answered, “but that can take anywhere between one second and one year.”
Kyle just kept looking at the resting cloud.
“My best option is to run through it, then. Right?”
“Yes,” Theodor said. “While running, do not use any Ether. Do not use your Soul to isolate your feet. Ether can excite Skysand.”
“Well, okay,” Kyle said as he took a deep breath.
’I’m getting sick and tired of these constant threats to my life.’
’Fucking hate fantasy land!’
Kyle readied himself.
He took another deep breath.
Then, he charged forward.
As his feet pushed him forward, he created small clouds of Skysand behind him.
’Huh, that’s not so bad!’ Kyle thought after running for a couple of seconds.
Then, he felt a burning pain from his soles.
He gritted his teeth as he felt like he was running on hot coals.
He leaped forward, flying for over 20 meters.
“Imbecile! Run, not jump!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle realized his mistake when he landed again.
BANG!
His legs buried themselves in the sand up to his ankles, and he was immediately assaulted by intense pain.
“Fuck!” he shouted as he rapidly charged forward again.
Then, he got an idea!
He put his hammer onto the ground and stood on the wide hammerhead.
As Kyle looked at his feet, he noticed that his shoes and clothing around them were gone, revealing bright red skin.
Blisters were already forming on them, and the view of these injuries was not appetizing.
“You’re destroying the mining weapon, imbecile!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle heard a sizzling noise coming from below the hammer, and he quickly continued running.
The pain became worse and worse as he continued.
As he kept running, he left behind footprints of burned flesh.
’Gotta run! Gotta run! Gotta run!’
Kyle saw another canyon or crevice. He couldn’t really tell what it was.
He sprinted right to it.
“Don’t jump into it!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle interrupted his jump.
“To the walls!”
Then, he jumped towards the walls of the canyon and rammed the pick of his hammer into it, stopping his fall.
The crevice shook.
And a bunch of sand landed on top of him.