William’s increased cultivation might give him a little more breathing room before his health started to take a hit. Still, he had no intention of leaving his life up to that hope, especially with what happened next.

To top off the hellish environment, sudden distant roars made the lava pits bubble in excitement as William braced himself to not fall over when the ground shook beneath him.

When he saw that both the lava pits seemed eager to spew more flames, he quickly jumped away to remove himself from the area. William’s jump landed him hundreds of feet from where he was teleported, and while it couldn’t necessarily be called safe, it was certainly better than being in the middle of two temperamental lava pits.

If William had to describe what he saw around him in the simplest of words, it would be the planet Venus, but redder.

Everything seemed redder than it had any right to be. The air, the tint of the cracked soil, the damned sky… everything. It was as if this level took a look at the red of the constantly replenished lava and decided to take on that color to the extreme.

Speaking of the lava, there were far too many pits filled with them. While it wasn’t to the level of accidentally stepping into one since they were tens of feet wide at the minimum and reasonably spaced out, there wasn’t a place William could look without seeing at least one in his vision.

Just looking at the roiling molten earth made him break out in a sweat, even more than he already was.

Ever since the desert, he had decided to forgo clothing because it was more of a hindrance with the challenges he had faced, and that certainly applied here too. It hadn’t been the first time he berated himself for not being thoughtful enough to buy clothes that would offer him some sort of protection.

The fretting over his nonexistent clothes was interrupted by thunderous roars. It seemed to be the same as what he had heard previously, only much, much louder. William realized that the roars seemed to overlap as if more than one thing made that noise.

He winced when the roars somehow increased in volume, making him clamp his hands over his ears to try to futilely keep them from being damaged.

[-10 HP]

William shuddered in relief when the roars abruptly stopped, barely able to believe that he actually lost health due to distant beasts roaring at each other. He hoped for his continued life that these were not the contaminated beasts he had to kill, but knowing his shitty luck, that was precisely what they were.

He pulled his hands away from his ears and grimaced at seeing the small amount of blood on them before wiping it off his body. The roars might have stopped, for he could still hear the dull thuds of flesh meeting flesh.

There was a fight happening, but William couldn’t see the things that were doing this fighting. Since there were no hills or mountains around him, it was beyond confusing where this was taking place.

William had a thought that it might be happening below his feet since the ground shook every time a hit was landed, but unless there was some sort of odd underground cave that somehow existed alongside the flowing magma, that was impossible.

He crouched slightly to get more balance when the ground started to shake more intensely. His eyes widened when he saw cracks forming, revealing magma that began to seep to the surface.

William was quick to get out of the way of the biggest of these, especially one forming between his feet, but it was a constant game of cat and mouse, so it felt like he was always on the move.

It got to a point where William actually thought that the entire level would crumble and be layered with lava. It wasn’t like there was a place for him to escape to, so he was wondering about how to survive if something so disastrous came to pass.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but it also didn’t mean things weren’t drastically changed.

William panted like a dog as he tried to somehow cool himself down, but it was highly ineffective. Likely because there was now a shimmering haze from the heat emanating from the massive amount of lava that now flowed on the surface like streams.

What had been sparse pits of bubbling lava had somehow turned into even more of a hellscape than it was at the start.

It felt to William like his skin would start bubbling at any moment, and an alert popped up to support that feeling.

[You are in an environment with adverse conditions]

[It is recommended to head for safety as soon as possible]

[Trait Added | Adverse Conditions in Environment - Loss of 100 Health per hour]

William only gave the alerts a glance before dismissing them. He considered that a minor issue, almost a boon, in fact.

Even though it was worse than the trait he gained in the desert, considering how much worse it was at the moment compared to the paradise-like desert, it was a blessing. The only explanation William could think of was his increased cultivation level. It was likely the reason he hadn’t combusted instantly.

William ignored the sweat dripping down his body as he looked around, paying close attention to the fireballs spewed in far greater numbers than before the ground decided to crack open. At the very least, it seemed the fireballs were still originating from the lava pits and not the lava streams that sprang into existence.

It took him a few seconds of cautiously watching the lava pits to realize something was missing.

William could hear the bubbling of the lava pits, the dull crackle of the fires that were seen on the surface of parts of the lava rivers, and the loudest of them all, the roar of the fireballs that occasionally flew out of the pits before crashing into another.

However, the thing that started it all couldn’t be heard. The roars that made his ears bleed could no longer be heard, nor were there the signs of the fight that cracked the ground open.

He knew what would happen next. It was far too obvious since he was sent here to kill the contaminated beasts.

William’s eyes darted around, taking in where the cracks on the ground were the deepest, and immediately ran the opposite way.

With his considerable speed, he made ground at a startling pace while making sure to keep a comfortable distance from any lava pits that were starting to spew fire and a frighteningly fast rate.

Thankfully he was able to avoid any disasters in his escape attempt. The ground was far less damaged in this area, which gave him a sense of relief. He was eyeing the area cautiously when he heard the sound of rock cracking behind him.

William turned, his jaw dropped as he stared at a massive finger breaking through the ground where he had just been standing. As for why he knew it was a finger, it kept pushing up, breaking the ground like it was made of paper to reveal an entire hand.

It was at this point that William realized that if the hand was this large, the body would be absolutely massive. Massive enough that the distance he fled was insignificant.

William didn’t hesitate. It was time to run again. He had thought that the times when his first reaction to run was in the past, and now he had to be brave and stand his ground, but no way in hell would he stay and let himself be killed by accident.

Obviously, he’d rather not get killed at all, but he prefers it to be against something that knew he existed.

William ignored all the sounds behind him, no matter how insane it was getting. All he was thinking was that there must be another one that would dig itself out. Assuming that this massive thing was one of the ones that had been fighting, there was something that could give this a challenge.

As terrifying as that was to visualize, William knew his priority was to get as far from this place as possible before another fight started.

This time it would be above ground and exponentially more dangerous to his life.