The constant rotation of the swirling portal was making David dizzy. He found himself waiting in the fast moving tunnel, his teeth gritting against each other in impatience.
'I just need to run away from the Princess.... that's all I ask.' Even though she had let him go, he couldn't let his guard down for a single moment.
Something nagged at him. Maybe it was because she had let him off the hook quite easily given she was the one who had destroyed his village or maybe...he had just seen too many psychos to not recognise one of their kind.
Her cold eyes that could murder without wasting a single breath, her sporadic emotions, her apathy towards her surroundings as he had seen back in the village...none of these looked like a positive sign for him.
After what felt like an eternity, David stumbled back into the real world.
*Splash*
Or more specifically right into the swamp.
David felt something missing as he looked up. And just as the princess had said, there was really no semblance of any tall, ancient looking tree in his immediate surrounding.
Behind him, the portal shook violently and made crashing sounds as if many metallic parts were colliding against each other, and lightning warped its outer surface.
David took back few cautious steps, almost ready to flee away if needed.
But contrary to his worries, nobody emerged out of the portal as the violent crashing sounds suddenly died down. The rotating teleportation portal started fading away as the mana from it spread into the surroundings.
Feeling at ease, David finally looked around him. At the distance, densely packed forests stood invitingly as the multiple nocturnal animals and insects chattered amongst themselves.
At the horizon, the first rays of the new day arose as it cleared the dark night sky. David suddenly realised something.
Wasn't the first floor of the cave filled with the light of the dawn?
"Wait a minute...so the dungeon isn't in another dimension or world like I had been thinking. In fact it should be on this planet itself. Heck, it probably can be nearby as well..." He speculated as his eyes moved with a hint of emergency trying to peek into the far distance.
Soon he realised he didn't even know where he was. Never in his 21 years of life on this planet had he come near this place.
At that moment, he noticed something he shouldn't have had missed.
"Where is the dead alpha?"
His voice echoed in the empty surroundings as he recalled the princess's words. There was supposed to be a dead direwolf lying here.
And yet, there was no speck of a dead body. Unless...
Something had dragged it away.
'Oh right. Why didn't I check it before?' He thought inwardly as he kneeled on the ground, careful enough to not let the mud touch his knees.
He squinted his eyes as he faced slight difficulty seeing things under the faint light.
Suddenly, he noticed a thin trail of dark blood. It wasn't continuous but rather drops of it had fallen on the swamp at irregular distances, forming an imaginary string.
He followed the tracks of the blood and was astonished to notice footprints on the muddy soil. Large footprints that could never be of a human's.
But David didn't even need to be told that. He immediately recognised it as the alpha's footprints.
"The alpha is alive? Even after getting stabbed in the chest... it's alive." David was shocked as he came to the only possible conclusion.
Even if he considered that the footprints weren't of the alpha's but of another direwolf's, he couldn't ignore the droplets of blood on the swamp.
The alpha direwolf was no longer where it should have been, indicating only two possible outcomes. One - the alpha was really dead and had been dragged away by another predator. Maybe a fellow direwolf itself.
But then...why were there droplets of blood on the ground instead of skidding blood tracks?
And thus came the second outcome - the alpha was alive and even at that moment was roaming somewhere in the forest.
David looked up in the direction where the blood droplets led to.
The west direction. Deep in the forest.
He sighed heavily. 'I was about to go in the same direction as well. Afterall I need to reach the second branch of the Hermann clan which resides in the west. Even Shogun is on the same way...maybe I can even meet them.'
Suddenly a plan struck his mind. The more he thought of it, the more he realised that the alpha direwolf being alive can actually play out in his favour.
Maybe he wouldn't get the results today...but nobody can say anything about the future.
'Alright, let's g--' His thought was cut off as he suddenly took a sharp intake of breath, feeling a gaze on his back. As if someone was standing very close to him.
He jumped forward, his hands already rising to strike the unknown as he turned back.
But to his sheer surprise, he saw nobody.
"Must be my imagination..." A tired voice escaped his throat as he turned back to look at the west direction.
Even then, he felt as if someone was watching him up from very close.
Subtly, he activated Vision. If there was really anybody hiding nearby, their mana filled body would be caught in his skill.
But very fortunately for him, there was not a single human soul in his range.
"Wait, what is that?" He asked himself curiously. A string like structure had been hanging in the air for a brief second before it vanished.
Suspicious, David increased the mana flow into his Vision. And for another brief second he saw the string.
It looked too thin and sharp enough to cut through objects. And as the first time, it was hanging in the air.
David activated the Vision to its maximum potential. This time, the string didn't vanish and was completely visible to him.
But before he could even see where the invisible string had been coming from and to where it was going, a scorching pain erupted behind his eyes as he involuntarily closed them.
Instantly he deactivated his skill as the pain dulled slightly. Enough for him to open his eyes.
Caressing his forehead, he questioned. "What was that?"
But then he remembered that the princess was out there somwhere around here. Afterall the dungeon could probably be in this forest itself.
David was sure that the portal wasn't the only way to come out of the dungeon. And he wasn't eager to find out the other ways through which the princess would come out.
And thus, under the rising sun he set out towards the west. In search of his clan and the group which had helped him escape the village in the first place.