Chapter 14 – Outside

There was no time to take on the scenery as I was already falling toward my death. First, I checked that there was no obstruction above me and teleported one kilometer further up. I could feel the stronger air currents on my skin, and a seemingly perfectly breathable one, too.

Now, I had a few seconds to take the view of the scenery, from a great standpoint. So many things came into my mind that I didn't know what to focus on first. For example, I immediately felt that the concentration of sel in the air was much greater than inside the dome, contradicting my hypothesis that this world had less sel in general. The wind felt pleasant and I finally realized how little wind there had been inside the dome. Looking up, the dome's ceiling was replaced by a blue sky with a few clouds here and there. I had a direct view of the sun rising over the horizon, and all these elements made me truly feel like I was "outside".

Next, in terms of what I could see, it was much "rawer" than inside. Behind me was the majestic orange dome, filling a large part of the ground and sky. Under my feet was a patch of soil around 500 meters long that surrounded the dome. It was like a no man's land, barren with nothing growing there, almost sandy. Further in front was a large forest, extending in all directions for kilometers.

All in all, it was a lot more mundane than all the disaster scenarios I had in mind. There was no poisonous gas, it didn't feel like the world was radiated since I could see some bird-like animals flying around over the forest, and there weren't any abnormal creatures roaming the proximity. As far as I could tell, everything looked normal, if a bit in the middle of nowhere.

I was now falling fast again. With one last teleportation, I settled on the barren ground a few hundred meters in front of the dome. Since I was safe without any danger to my life, I took the time to look around a bit more. Behind me, I could see the dome almost where I left it. This allowed me to estimate its width, probably no more than a few meters, which was more than enough since it was made of sel. When my gaze fell on the forest again, one of my first thoughts was: money. Yes, these trees could be converted to wood, one of the raw materials that would fetch a hefty price inside the dome. I had just come outside and I already knew I had made the right choice.

Some slight movement caught my attention, far away on my right side. Something was moving in front of the dome, looking quite small from this distance. I couldn't tell yet what it was except it seemed to be around my size, maybe.

Since I had nothing to do, I decided to check it. I made my way over there, using my feet without teleporting, ready to teleport back to the safety of the dome at any moment. The closer I got to it, the more bewildered I was. I wasn't quite sure what sort of being it was, even though it should be alive since it moved around. Loud banging sounds entered my ears and I could see it punching the dome, for some reason.

After a couple of minutes, I was close enough to have a better view of it, startling me even further. It was some sort of bipedal creature, grey-skinned and muscular-looking. It had two horns on its head, which looked bizarrely human for some reason. It was using this same muscular power to shower the dome in one blow after the other, incessantly, an endeavor that felt completely futile and incomprehensible to me.

Object: what the heck is that?

Wealth level: wearing some sort of blue martial-looking tunic and pants. No accessories. Wealth is impossible to quantify. Wait, this thing is wearing clothes?

Power level: amount of sel in body estimated to be between 2000 and 2300, rank 2, earth quality. Muscle power: maybe 40. Estimated to be an earth sorcerer. Adding muscles multiplier for being a sorcerer: +400 to power level score. Adding a two-factor multiplier to account for hidden moves and trump cards. Estimated maximum power level at 5600: annoying kid in the neighborhood. Harmful potential: medium-low.

My automatic rough estimation triggered, allowing me to have a basic understanding of what I was seeing. Since it wasn't much of a threat to me, no matter what sort of creature it was, I continued to close on it as before.

When I was less than a hundred meters from it, it noticed me. It stopped punching the dome and turned toward me. When I saw it open its mouth, I focused some sel to my ears.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

'It can talk perfectly logically? Incredible. Is that a non-human sentient being? This world is much more interesting than I expected.'

I was sure scientists from my world would kill to have a similar encounter.

"I miss Suuru's boobs."

I said something random as usual and was pleasantly surprised when it moved its sel to its ears.

"Can you understand me?"

"Yes. So, who are you?"

"I'm Tila Urtek. Nice to meet you. And you?"

It stroked its chest with its left arm and stood proudly, its torso puffed out arrogantly.

"Selva Mimdo, future strongest sorceress in the world! Show your respect to the one who'll soon dominate this planet!"

This left me speechless. It was hard to judge how much boasting and how much truth there was in those sentences, considering I didn't know anything about the outside world. I could make an educated guess though. The amount of sel in her body was close to 2000, which meant she had ranked up recently. Increasing one's rank was a profoundly life-changing event. It was a qualitative, quantitative, and existential change, even qualified by some as a small rebirth. Not only did the quantity of sel one possessed increase, but the same was also true for its quality. The body had a better affinity to sel in general, which became useful for pretty much everything. All these changes came together with two commonly known effects: an increase in longevity and a tremendous feeling of ecstasy and power.

The number of youngsters who believed they were at the top of the world after ranking up was innumerable.

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