Systemless in a Parallel World

"I swear, how can something look as ugly as you guys?"

Zayn didn't speak loudly, but even if he would shout out loud, he doubted that anyone would hear him.

He was struggling to get up from within the big thorny bush. Its thorny veins had coiled around Zayn's body, holding him back.

Zayn knew that some plants, trees, and even flowers could gain some sort of lesser sentient. They would learn how to move and could even learn how to communicate as they progressed.

Their sentient and mind would be refined with the soul particles they would absorb naturally, and they would learn how to create their own Soulrings. That was pretty interesting and all, but Zayn didn't really feel like playing gardener right now.

He cut down the bush that seemed to have gained some sort of sentients before he got up.

Most of his Spirits were already dead by now, and the Aerial Hunters, meaning the Winged Serpent Spirits and Aero, were also drained of most of their soul particles.

Thus, fighting would be pretty hard, from the get go.

He didn't have much energy left either.

As for the things that had stolen his precious kill and the opportunity to manifest the Lesser Earth Dragon's Spirit, they were hideous Trolls, three of them at that.

They were the most hideous creatures he had seen since he landed in this world. Their skin was sick green, they had long crooked noses, sharp shark-like teeth, and bushy hair that looked like they had never been washed. They walked around in a hunchbacked posture and had long arms and thick, muscular bodies.

Each of them had a black horn just from the center of their forehead. The horn was half a meter long, which caused Zayn to feel a little headache.

'Three Trolls who're about to become Soul Lords. Good gracious…you bastards could have left me the Earth Dragon at least. I don't want Spirits as ugly as you are!' Zayn shouted in his mind while moving backward. He sheathed the Dragontale Twin Sabers for a moment, retrieved the Karambit Knuckles from the Silvermoon Bracelet, and started to quietly climb one of the gigantic trees.

He couldn't see the trolls anymore but he clearly recalled the deep and long wounds they had sustained. Even their highly resilient rough hide wasn't strong enough to block the attacks that had been sustained from something razor-sharp.

'A weapon? It has been quite a while since I saw some fellow humans. They don't really come over here. Is it finally time to meet a bunch of them? To think that someone comes here to hunt the Trolls…or were the Trolls the hunters?'

Many questions flashed through his mind, but Zayn quickly dispersed them. No humans pursued the Trolls, for now, and the Trolls had attacked him, before ignoring him completely.

That either meant all humans were dead and the Trolls were currently recuperating or that the Trolls chose to set up a trap to attack their pursuers.

There were also a few other possibilities, however, Zayn was most irked that the Troll attacking him ignored his existence all of a sudden. It was almost as if the Troll didn't bother whether he was still alive or not. It didn't even check if there was a corpse beneath it.

He climbed up the gigantic tree, changed his position as he reached the lowest branch, and threw a glance to the ground.

However, his focus was not on the Trolls, which were planning something. He looked at the ascending Soul Wisp of the Lesser Earth Dragon. His eyes followed its path of ascension, and it was only a matter of seconds before Zayn began to move across the branch that was as thick as a walrus-like man.

The Trolls didn't bother about the minuscule noises that rang out above them. The rustling around them was louder than Zayn.

Furthermore, the three Trolls were more focused on calming down their wildly palipating hearts, and vigilantly staring in the opposite direction.

'Did they even notice me when they crushed the Earth Dragon?''

Zayn rushed across the tree branch, seizing the Lesser Earth Dragon's Soul Wisp as it passed by.

A faint smile formed on his face, but his expression stiffened quickly. He realized that he couldn't manifest the Spirit of the Lesser Earth Dragon without attracting the three Trolls' attention.

Using the Soul Guidance technique was also not possible because the Soul Wisp was of a Soul Lord. That meant exerting the technique on the Soul Lord's Soul Wisp would require a considerable amount of soul particles, something he didn't really have right now.

'Such a waste.'

He sighed silently and began to absorb the ownerless soul particles of the Lesser Earth Dragon. His drained soul particles were quickly refilled, and his body was flooded with more soul particles. Zayn absorbed them easily and he annexed it as well.

The potency of soul particles belonging to a Soul Lord was in a completely different league when it comes to their quality. He felt refreshed and gradually started to feel the power surging through his body.

'For a single Soul Wisp to be like this…If I could have only manifested its Spirit. A true powerhouse would have been born in my Spirit Army!'

As Zayn cursed in his mind, he watched the scenery beneath him. He continued to digest the Soul Lord's soul particles and watched as the Trolls dispersed in three different directions. They began to hide in some large bushes, tightly grasping their wooden clubs.

Not even half a minute later he heard a few voices. The voices were quickly growing louder and it didn't take long until they emerged from the bushes.

After they broke through the bushes, they looked left and right to figure out where they had to head next. But before they could come up with a decision did the three Trolls emerge from their hiding spot, prepared to fight with their lives on the line.

However, what astonished Zayn most was something entirely different. The Trolls might have created a trap for their opponents, however, Zayn couldn't care less.

After all, he saw a bunch of Normies and Blessed, who were just a few years older than him, running side by side, preparing for the battle ahead.

'Did I travel in time, or what is going wrong here?'