Looking at the screen in front of me I didn't see the desert that I had come to expect from Tama's evolutions. A world, vast in its dimensions, was teeming with life. Everywhere that I looked I could see some sort of creature. I could tell they were multiple times stronger than I just by looking at them. Their very presence was intimidating, even just from looking at the screen I could tell that they could kill me with their presence alone. Next to me Melia took me into her arms, petting my head trying to comfort me.
Though the perspective quickly changed to one overlooking Tama, I couldn't help but think back to the terrifying presences that I felt coming from the creatures that inhabited the evolutionary realm I had sent Tama to.
Even though I knew that Tama was strong in her own right I couldn't help but worry for her, for those creatures to make me fear from that far away from a distance was terrifying.Thinking of it those terrifying presence that I had felt just from the screen must have been magnified dozens of times in Tama's perspective with her being so close to them.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, all the while praying for Tama's safety.
…
I grit my teeth and turned into my fox form. With the size of all the creatures around me being as big as they were I would have a better chance of fleeing when I was as small as I was in my fox form.
I needed time to adapt to the atmosphere, if the pressure that constantly pulled me down was not there then I was confident that I could at least take a horde of those bugs but to take on the malformed creature along with the bugs, there was no doubt that I would perish. It was the whole reason that I left the whole reason that I was trying to retreat from this situation.
I would adapt, then I would hunt every last one of these creatures down.
With careful steps I slowly struggled my way to the treeline, currently I was on what I assumed to be an island or something similar. With the fresh sea water that was behind me and the tropical trees that I was heading towards, what else could it be.
Although the trees were spaced generously apart, they were still big enough that I could burrow into them and the holes wouldn't be seen by those creatures. Especially with how small of spaces I could fit into. Those giant creatures would never be able to find me, if they even knew I existed at all.
…
It took a while, the trees being not surprisingly durable but eventually I was able to burrow a hole for me to rest in while I adapted to the harsh conditions of this planet.
Luckily for me Darwin's talent not only transferred me to this realm but allowed me to adapt at a much quicker pace than I would ever be able to on my own.
With quicker and quicker moves I maneuvered around the burrow that I had created for myself, each repetition allowing me to get that much closer to my true speed. If I had to guess then it would take another day or two of constant exertion like what I was doing to completely adapt.
That's exactly what I did, without rest I practiced and practiced, each hour of the day completely filled by intense focus.
I did not neglect my aether either, I knew that with the realm being as it was there was a possibility that I would not be able to use my denial of reality, so to compensate for that I started to return to my basic illusions. Easy as they were, they would give me an advantage against the beasts that I would be slaying.
Just like that two days passed, in both physical and mental exercise. At the end of each day I would try my denial of reality, however it never worked, no matter how I tried I could not trick the world. It was frustrating, all the work that I had done to develop this skill was done in all because the world had a superior will.
I would not let that frustration cloud me though, instead I channeled it into regaining my physical capabilities, for each failure that I experienced I tried that much harder.
…
The sun rose and with a final kick of my leg I felt that I was back to my true strength, the pressure of the realm no longer bothering me. I was ready to enter combat, to evolve in any way that I could.
Exiting the burrow that I had called home for the last two days, I said goodbye. There was no chance that I would return to the tree. I would be too busy in combat, I had already decided I would not rest until I evolved.
Even if I died I knew that I would just be revived, and despite my distaste of relying on this, I still held it as a last resort option.
Shaking the thought of that out of my head I transform into my fox form, dashing on the roots of the plants searching for my first prey.
…
It didn't take long, in fact it was within the first minutes of searching that I found my first prey.
It was the same species of bug that I had encountered on my first day here but now I was ready.
With a kick off the ground I was off, my body barreling towards the bug. My claws were out, I had not used them in a while so they were dulled from the short period that I hadn't used them. However they were still as sharp as when I had still been using them, my evolution had sharpened them, but they were still not as sharp as they would have been if I had maintained them