A dry and borderline searing heat bore down upon my Oracle the moment he appeared on the other side of the portal. The snow that covered his clothing rapidly began to melt under the scorching desert sun.

Now that he was in a foreign realm, my screen displayed only what was in his line of sight. For better or for worse, there was no lizard city nearby. Only a barren desert filled his view in all directions.

Although the first thing that the Oracle noticed was the heat, there was something else that quickly came to his attention.

"I feel... light?"

His words sent what felt like an electric shock coursing through my brain.

That's right! It's been so long that I completely forgot about the gravity difference!

"Hey, Uunga, can you try jumping for me please?"

The Oracle kicked off the ground with a nod and effortlessly rose nearly seven feet vertically. Upon landing, Uunga looked at his legs with a mixture of awe and confusion.

"Yes! This is perfect!"

Assuming that Levon's realm had roughly the same gravity as my initial realm template, it would mean that Uunga would be about half the weight that he was used to.

From the perspective of the lizards living in this realm, it would be as though Uunga had been training his whole life in a place where his body was weighed down massively.

I watched as Uunga picked up a stone off of the ground and launched it into the distance.

Fling!

A small cloud of dust appeared easily over a few hundred feet away.

It was exactly the result that past me had hoped for!

This is great! It might not make a difference against Levon's Oracle, but Uunga would have a massive advantage against the normal lizards here.

Simply put, Uunga's strength would be unlike anything this realm had seen before.

The tension I built up before my Oracle entered this foreign realm had greatly decreased.

Still... Levon's Oracle managed to somehow put up a fight against Uunga despite being half-frozen, starved, and also weighed down by my realm's gravity.

It was a bit of a frightening thought. Had the fight been less one-sided than it ended up being, their eventual rematch would be way more nerve-racking. 

Speaking of which-

"By the way, Uunga, did you get injured at all from that fight?" I asked through the screen.

"... Not much," he answered as he pulled up the hide acting as his left sleeve, "The beast had sharp nails."

The sight was a bit bloody due to four small holes on the Oracle's left forearm where the lizard's talons had pierced him.

"It looks like the hide kept them shallow," I muttered out loud, "It shouldn't be anything crazy for you, but are you alright?"

"I am fine. The beast had it worse."

Uunga pointed at a spot on the ground with those words where a crimson puddle soaked into the sand.

"Ouch- that guy must not be having much fun. He couldn't have gotten very far when he's that injured."

Although I said that, there was no lizard anywhere in sight.

We were only a few minutes behind him, right? Unless there's something I'm missing, he must be hiding somewhere.

There was the possibility that there was some sort of delay when traveling through the portals, but I had no idea whether or not that was the case. Given the sand dunes and the still present blood, it was much more likely that the lizard was simply out of sight.

"Follow the blood for now. Stay cautious just in case that guy tries anything."

"No."

"... What? Why not?"

Uunga brushed aside my confusion and began digging a small hole in the sand.

"Did you miss the beach that much? I told you that you could visit the gulf again before-"

"It is hot," the Oracle interrupted.

With that in-depth explanation, he began removing the feathers that were packed inside his hide clothing and dropped them into the hole. After the hole was filled, Uunga covered it with sand and placed a small stone on top.

"I will wear them again when I go back," he finished.

"... You really make me proud sometimes."

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyway, start following the blood now."

"No."

This freaking-

"Uunga, I am going to cry if you let him get away just so you can banter. Go get that lizard... please?"

With a satisfied smile, the Uunga finally began following the scattered crimson stains through the sandy desert.

The path was clear at first- the linear stains allowed us to look around at the scenery.

Given the desert environment, there was not much to speak of in terms of life aside from plants vaguely resembling tumbleweeds and a few randomly scattered trees.

Hang on... those trees seem weirdly familiar.

They were much shorter than the evolved cherry trees that I had grown used to on my realm; none were able to reach much further than twenty feet off the ground. Their trunks were mostly bare with only small leafless branches jagging off. Seemingly making up for the lack of them on the truck, the tree sported a massive cone-like leaf canopy at its peak. It was a cool pattern that vaguely resembled a flame.

Wait a second… those leaves- that’s it!

"Mister Flippers! I figured it out!"

"Squawk?"

The penguin had already been watching the screen intensely ever since the two Oracles fought.

I pointed at the trees in Uunga's view.

"You might not remember, but the sheep instructor actually told us about those things during one of our lessons a while back!"

"Squawk?"

"Those are torch trees!"

The penguin still looked at me with a questioning gaze, clearly having no idea what I was referring to.

Man, he really needs to pay attention in class.

I flipped through my notebook with a sigh before stopping at a certain page.

"They're actually really freaking cool," I muttered in admiration as I re-read my notes, "You see those smaller branches attached to the trunk? Well, as the tree matures, they slowly turn into a charcoal-like material that eventually ignites!"

"Squawk..."

Although the penguin evidently didn't care, it was a super interesting adaptation that I had never heard of before. The branches themselves are completely packed with tiny seeds that get spread in the smoke as the branch burns, and as a bonus, the ash and charcoal dust from the branch itself acts as a super good fertilizer when the seeds settle. It was all-around a really sweet organism.

Man, having those on my realm probably would've spared Uunga that whole fire-teaching tour. I mean, they're called 'torch trees' for a reason.

"Anyway," I pulled myself out of my thoughts and spoke to Mr. Flippers, "Levon probably planned to use those branches to keep his army warm."

"Squawk! Squawk?"

"Well, it is possible... they would need to bring a heck of a lot with them though, and even then, their journey wouldn't be pleasant by any means."

But it is one hundred percent possible.

It was in part due to this that I couldn't simply recall Uunga despite feeling fairly confident that I had figured out Levon's strategy. 

While I was thinking this, a voice spoke through my screen.

"... The blood is gone."

"Shoot. Look around- see if there's any sign of him,"

As Uunga had walked further, Levon's Oracle was apparently making an increasingly greater effort to cover its tracks. Sand had been pushed over his fallen blood and his footprints were shallow enough to be easily covered up by the wind.

With the blood now fully disappearing, Uunga had no direct path to follow.

There's no way that cut healed already- it was way too deep.

As if answering my doubts, the Oracle quickly discovered a torn-apart tumbleweed.

"Did the beast do this?" he asked.

"I'm assuming so. He probably managed to make some sort of bandage out of the fibers," I groaned, "There won't be any more traces for you to follow- that guy is being annoying and will probably hide for a while."

Uunga began fiddling with the remnants of the tumbleweed as I thought of what to do. Ultimately, I decided to have Uunga keep heading southeast.

It didn't seem like Levon's Oracle had any expectations of us following him back to his world. With that in mind and considering his injuries, he most likely would have gone straight to a nearby settlement to rest and heal up. As the first few bloodstains that would have been made prior to Uunga's entrance were all linearly pointing to the southeast, it was extremely likely that there was something of note in that direction.

And so, the Oracle continued his journey.

Near nightfall, Uunga seemed to reach the edge of the desert where a swamp was spotted on the horizon.

"Looks like it's time for you to set up camp. Are you ready for your first night in this place?"

"... Not yet. I need fire," Uunga began to take off his bag before I stopped him.

"Don't waste the last of your wood. Do you see that tree over there? Go break off some of the darker branches and use those instead."

With no real reason to refuse, the Oracle did as I said and soon returned to the spot with a handful of blackish sticks roughly two feet in length.

Uunga threw them on the ground and pulled out his piece of flint, ready to smack it over some leaves like usual.

"Wait!"

"... What?"

He stopped just as he was about to light the pile.

"Skip the leaves, just try to ignite one of the branches you brought- only one please!"

Click!

The end of the branch immediately lit up in a bright and hot flame; a thin stream of smoke rose up from the fire.

"... That was very easy," he mumbled as he stared at the fire.

"Pretty cool, right?" I said smugly, "Those branches- oi, Uunga! Watch your sleeve!"

My chance to show off came to a firey stop as part of the Oracle's sleeve caught fire.

Luckily, we both noticed very quickly and Uunga immediately smothered it, but even that tiny flame was enough to burn a small hole in his hide sleeve.

"Man, it's been a while since I've seen that happen. You might want to sleep a bit further than usual from the fire tonight; the hide must be extremely dry from the heat."

After finishing setting up, my Oracle finally was able to get some much-needed rest, and upon waking in the morning, he set right back out toward the southeast.

The surroundings were still fairly barren. Even as the desert transitioned into a swamp, the only signs of life were torch trees and some weird plant that was sticking out of the mud. It didn't seem to be edible or anything, so I struggled to figure out what Levon must've chosen it for. It was as though its sole purpose was to get tangled with Uunga's feet and make his journey ten times more tedious.

I guess its fibers could be woven together into rope? That would be kind of useful, but probably not enough to waste a lifeform on.

There was a chance that it was some evolution path of something else, but I took note of it anyway. 

My internal speculations were eventually halted once a new plant caught our attention. Resting on a particularly dry area was a green stemming plant.

"Hey, Uunga-"

"I know."

The plant had long green vegetables growing off of it which were quickly found to be edible.

"Well, we finally found something that you can eat!"

Uunga nodded with a satisfied expression and quickly tossed the rest of the vegetables into his bag. As his journey continued, he stumbled across many more of these plants allowing the Oracle to completely save the thinning rations that he had brought with him.

That journey in and of itself took nearly two months to complete, and in that time, Uunga had crossed through the swamp, into what seemed to be a savannah, and had finally entered a grassland.

"... This world is empty."

"It sure seems like it," I replied to the bored Oracle with a sigh.

There had been pretty much nothing of note to happen since he had first discovered what resembled okra in the swamp. Although he had found a few abandoned settlements on the way, there was no sign of Levon's Oracle nor any other lizards for that matter.

"Do you want to turn back now?"

"Not yet," the Oracle declined my proposition.

It was something we had debated after the first month had passed. With nothing happening, the possibility that I was wrong about the direction was becoming more and more likely. In addition to that, the literal zero lizard encounters was a blaring warning sign that something was off.

I know he really wants to kill that guy, but I think it's time for me to put my foot down.

"Listen, I really don't like how this feels, Uunga. If you don't find anything by nightfall, please start heading back in the morning. I'm not overly worried anymore about a second attack from these guys."

"I do not need to wait for night."

"Oh? Do you want to head back now?" I perked my head up at his reply, just in time to see him point out into the distance.

Far off on the horizon were four tall black spires peeking over the tops of the surrounding trees.

"I found him."

HypnoticNovels

Hi guys :D ! Thanks for reading as always! This week has been a bit busy irl for me to put it lightly (T.T) so many projects and exams... finals start next week, too. I can't wait for summer so that I can hopefully re-fill my dwindling stockpile of chapters lol. It has been so nice seeing all of your comments :D you all give me so much motivation. Also, for those wondering. the torch trees were first hinted at in chapter 21 ;p . I told you all that everything plays a role! Anyway, enjoy~