《Paradox Space》 Chapter 1 - Catastrophe Deep in space, somewhere near Mars, sitting in a behemoth of a ship that easily reached 10km in length sat a dejected young man staring at his computer screen. Within a room plunged in darkness, only illuminated by the faint light coming from his screen. Yet with the lack of illumination one could tell that the young man was fairly tall, nearing 1.90m in height, had short dark brown hairs and a terrible stubble he was too lazy to take care of. He was wearing baggy black pants and a loose light blue T-shirt. His lack of sleep was also evident, proof being in the dark bags under his eyes. And most importantly on his screen were three large blood-red words announcing to the world: ¡°YOU HAVE LOST!¡± ¡°Jesus, man. How the hell did you do that?¡± he proclaimed. ¡°Eh. I¡¯m just good at this I guess,¡± replied a male-sounding entity from the computer ¡°You up for another game?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ Losing like thirty times in a row isn¡¯t really that entertaining you know.¡± ¡°Come on Siton! You¡¯ve barely left your room ever since we¡¯ve boarded the ship ten months ago. We hadn¡¯t talked for almost a week prior to playing this game,¡± the voice exclaimed, ¡°Let¡¯s play another round!¡± ¡°Fine¡­¡± Siton gave in his friend¡¯s plea, a faint smile forming on the corner of his lips. He was still enjoying himself despite having lost his 30th game in a row. The truth was the voice had not lied. Ever since Siton had arrived aboard the WACS 3 (World Alliance Colony Ship 3) he had essentially locked himself up in his room. The reason being related to his presence aboard.
Some time in the early 2050s, strange phenomenon started occurring around the globe. The apparition of the so-called rifts. At first, they resembled little pitch-black balls with an unstable shape that would float in mid-air ranging in size from a golf ball to a bowling ball. Their most fascinating property was their ability to distort space. Originally discovered by a swiss farmer that had poked one with a long stick and almost fully submerging its 1.30m length entirely inside the 10cm wide anomaly and yet pulled it out intact. From this point onwards the supernatural balls were aptly named rifts. At first, they were found to be interesting apparitions to the greater majority if not mystical, save for a few madmen proclaiming the end of the world. For it was promptly discovered that once something fully went in, it never left. Many tried workarounds such as tying ropes to what went in, only to find it severed soon after. It was soon established that the rifts could only remain stable for so long with something partially immersed, cutting said thing if it remained there for too long (a couple of minutes on average). However, that did not stop people from peeking inside them. These individuals reported powerful headaches and seeing a bright light with a few tendrils sprouting from it in a vast empty space. They also almost died due to the vacuum on the other side. However, that feeling of awe soon disappeared as the rifts slowly started expanding with no signs of slowing down, swallowing all in their path. Despite the inherent curiosity of mankind, their survival instinct was far stronger. Within weeks of the news rolling in, millions of people were marching in the streets across the globe, attempting to convince their governments to stop them. Yet, very few were aware that most if not all of them were already doing just that¡­ and were utterly failing. And so, for years the rifts steadily grew alongside the protests, until March 2058 where all governments declared in unison their powerless in the face of those events and that Earth was doomed. That is in roughly 80 years, nothing would be left but a giant rift. As an act of precaution, the world was put under martial law for a year following that announcement. But along that despair-inducing announcement, the governments declared the formation of the World Alliance, containing 90% of all countries. They declared the construction of four colony ships that could house between 20 thousand and 100 thousand souls depending on their assigned region and size, thus giving one last glimmer of hope to the despairing humanity. They stated that the best and brightest of each region would be selected to board a ship along with a lucky few. These ships were headed for three unique potentially habitable worlds. One for the moon, this one would receive a significantly higher amount of resources due to its closeness to Earth. Two for Mars due to all the groundwork that had already been laid there and its similarity to Earth. Finally, one for a newly discovered habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri system, this one had been deemed the most likely to be habitable, but it was also the farthest. The four ships and their respective regions were as follows WACS 1 was for North America with 20 thousand places heading to the moon, WACS 2 was for Europe and Africa with 70 thousand places heading to Mars, WACS 3 was for South America and Oceania with 20 thousand places also heading to Mars, and last bust not least WACS 4 was for Asia with 100 thousand places heading for Alpha Centauri Prime. And that year, slightly prior to the announcement, Siton Novmundo was born in a backwater city in New-Zealand that was relatively untouched by the chaos that was spreading worldwide. Although he had a rather logical mindset, he wasn¡¯t particularly gifted in any way and he did not try to excel in his life due to this. To him, there was no way in hell he was good enough to be selected despite his interest in biological sciences. Therefore, he spent his time trying to enjoy life. Although that came with its own hardships, he managed to be mostly successful in this endeavor. Yet deep inside him, he felt this dull feeling of meaninglessness, he felt like his life had no purpose. He had this drive to achieve but not the abilities needed to do so when doing so required abilities far beyond what he possessed. The world was due to end within his lifetime and anything he would do would amount to nothing. He was doomed to forever stay in the giant shadows of those who established the pillars of humanity, as many others were. Soon after he turned 15 alarming news silently spread across the WA leadership, the rifts had suddenly started growing at an exponentially faster rate. The world was only given just over three years to live as opposed to the 65 or so expected. Wisely, they decided to withhold that information from the public in order to avoid worldwide anarchy. Unfortunately, this forced them to pick up the pace with the construction of their ships as well as selecting the most promising candidates for the very sought-after spots on the colony ships much sooner than anticipated.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Over the years, successful candidates were silently being gathered and sent to their respective ships. Imagine the surprise when one day, when he was 17, WA agents came knocking on Siton¡¯s door giving him the opportunity to claim one of the 20 thousand places as his own and to join them at their training center were he to accept. As previously mentioned, there were spots aboard for a few lucky ones. Which in this case translated into a lottery system for 1000 places on WACS 3, which he had somehow won amongst half a billion other people. And so Siton agonized over the decision for a few days before being pushed by his family to accept the offer. After saying his last heart-breaking farewells, he went to the training center. Long story short he learned the truth about how much time the world had left and was sent on the WACS 3. He got to personally witness the Earth get engulfed by the rifts as the ship slowly departed from its home planet. That absolutely devastated him, everyone and everything he ever knew and loved was gone just like that. Causing him to isolate himself in his room for the first week. Actually¡­ All but one. A quiet student from the same school and year level as him named Fredrik Oman had managed to earn his way up through his talent in robotics. They didn¡¯t really know each other all that much beforehand, but they quickly got very close once introduced to each other by the ship¡¯s AI. Holding onto each other tightly as one of the few things they had left of their past.
¡°You can¡¯t just keep wallowing in self-pity man,¡± Fred exclaimed due to Siton¡¯s continued silence following his 50th defeat.¡° Although its true you got lucky, you didn¡¯t steal that spot from anyone, and your family would have been extremely glad to know you¡¯re alive. So, do them a favor and actually live it, dude!¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right¡­ I know all that, it''s just hard to switch to that mindset.¡± ¡°I get it. You know what? Getting out of your room will do you some good. How about you meet me at the B5 Observatory room in ten? Does that sound good to you? ¡° ¡°Ye-¡° The world suddenly went black and was accompanied by the worst headache Siton had ever felt. It was a head-splitting and earth-shattering pain that would have knocked out even the toughest minds. Yet as he felt about to lose consciousness, the pain stopped without warning, gone as swiftly as it had appeared. Siton looked around his room to find himself plunged in darkness. Whatever had happened must have killed the power supply. Before Siton could do anything else, dim lights started appearing in a pattern on his walls accompanied by a loud announcement. ¡°WARNING! AN UNEXPECTED EVENT HAS OCCURRED! AUXILIARY POWER IS NOW ONLINE! PLEASE FOLLOW THE LIGHTS TO YOUR NEAREST ESCAPE POD IN AN ORDERLY MANNER!¡± Which was soon followed by an identical statement, and then another in a seemingly endless loop. Having a history of being prone to panic Siton felt his mind kick into overdrive as it overtook him. Slowly but surely leading it to a catastrophic failure. The connection to Fred had been interrupted due to whatever had caused that blackout. The announcement was also getting everyone to evacuate the ship. And Siton was pretty sure that the lights they were supposed to follow would lead them to different escape pods. Mostly due to the fact they lived about 10 minutes away from each other. Right now, what Siton felt he needed most was support, someone to help him get his mind under control. Therefore, in his panicked state of mind, he made the rather unwise decision to head for Observatory B5, their previously agreed-on meeting point, in the hopes of finding Fred there. As he moved to get up from his chair the whole ship shook violently for a solid ten seconds which was promptly followed by the emergency lights turning red. ¡°WARNING! PLEASE FOLLOW THE LIGHTS TO YOUR NEAREST ESCAPE POD IMMEDIATELY!¡± The announcement suddenly changed to a more pressing tone. ¡®Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.¡¯ Siton thought as he ran out of his room still wearing his slippers, and into the metallic lifeless corridors of the ship. Well¡­ not so lifeless anymore as it was filled with a veritable horde of frightened individuals plowing their way to the escape pods. Forcing Siton to fight the flow with all his might as blaring alarms assaulted his ears, and the very ground he stood on rebelled against him. His muscles aching due to his lack of exercise ever since he got on board. Yet he slowly but surely was making progress through the red-tinted sea of chaos. After what seemed to be hours but more realistically a couple of minutes thanks to the progressively thinning crowds, Siton finally found himself to be at his target destination. B5 Observatory. He originally intended to find Fred here but the first thing he saw was definitely hard to miss. The ceiling and two of the walls of the room were replaced by a huge reinforced clear plastic dome. Allowing for an incredible view of what lay outside the ship. And that was a planet. One that wasn¡¯t the expected orangy-red color of Mars. Instead, it had huge lush continents, deserts and snowy regions separated by deep blue oceans. All wrapped within a dim blue atmosphere. Behind it was an extremely powerful light source akin to the sun with five equally bright tendrils emanating from it. Each five times as long as the center yet only half as wide. The oddest part of this sight was the complete lack of stars. There wasn¡¯t a single bright spot in his entire field of view besides the oddly shaped star. ¡°Insane right?¡± said a young man that also looked in his late teens. He had light blond hair and blue eyes and was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans. He wasn¡¯t too tall sitting at just under 1.80m and gave off the feeling that he generally didn¡¯t talk much unless he had to. ¡°Fred! What doe-¡° Siton began to question. After all, how the hell could Mars have plant life and oceans on it when it was but a dull lifeless rock minutes ago? ¡°This is no time to talk,¡± Fred interrupted him. ¡°In case you haven¡¯t noticed we¡¯re getting really close to it really fast. We should really get to those escape pods now!¡± That last sentence pulled Siton out of his shocked state as Fred grabbed his wrist and dragged him along, following the nearby emergency lights. The next couple of minutes consisted of frantic running through a maze of empty corridors and occasionally passing windows only to see the planet growing ever closer to them. When they finally arrived, they were faced with hundreds of escape pods or the lack of thereof. The room was a huge hangar, escape pod entrances were lining up the walls across multiple levels and hundreds of meters. Yet all of them were closed, signaling the absence of their corresponding pod. They had arrived too late. ¡°Damn. We¡¯re fucked aren¡¯t we?¡± Said Siton, his blood freezing. Keeping his cool, Fred looked around, trying to find any available escape pods. Regardless of their initial impression, it was still very likely they had missed an open pod amongst all the others. Then something caught his eye. It seemed that the emergency lights were leading to only a very few specific escape pods. Looking closer into it he noticed that all of those were open! ¡°Siton! I think I¡¯ve found our way out!¡± ¡°What? Where?¡± He replied. ¡°Just follow the emergency lights!¡± Swiftly understanding what his friend meant Siton ran after him to the nearest available escape pod. As they were about to reach it the announcement got significantly louder and suddenly shifted to a countdown. ¡°WARNING! 180 SECONDS BEFORE ESTIMATED IMPACT! IMMEDIATELY MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE ESCAPE PODS! 176! 175! 174!...¡± ¡°Shit we¡¯ve gotta get in now!¡± Siton yelled over the alarm. ¡°We¡¯ve got a problem! That one only has one place! You have to get in! I¡¯ll follow the lines to the next one!¡± ¡°Hell no!¡± came the reply. ¡°That wasn¡¯t a question! See ya down there!¡± Fred yelled as he roughly shoved Siton inside the pod and slammed the emergency launch button next to the door ¡°FRED!¡± Siton cried out as the doors to the pod closed behind him. He only managed to turn around in time to see his friend smile at him as the pod launched away from the ship. Chapter 2 - Crash-landed ¡°FRED!¡± Siton yelled as he slowly drifted away from the WACS 3 in his escape pod. The only answer he got in return was a reassuring smile saying ¡®I got this¡¯ as his friend turned away and ran to the nearest escape pod he could find. ¡°WARNING! CO-ORDINATED LANDING ABORTED DUE TO IMINENT IMPACT! CRASH-LANDING PROCEDURES ACTIVATED! PLEASE LIE DOWN IN THE SPACE PROVIDED IMMEDIATELY!¡± The onboard pod AI warned him. ¡°Shit,¡± Siton muttered under his breath. He looked around trying to find the area in question, but he wasn¡¯t used to the lack of gravity in the pod and just ended up shooting himself at a wall. After a few precious seconds spent stabilizing himself he finally was able to get a good look at the capsule he was now trapped in. It wasn¡¯t very large, roughly three meters tall, one and a half in length and one in width with an approximately oval shape. The far wall consisted of black polymer cushioning laid out in horizontal bumps in the rough shape of a body. Whereas, in contrast, the side walls were filled with a plethora of buttons he had no idea how to work. These were probably the manual controls, if all went well, he shouldn¡¯t have any needs for them. And of course, behind him was the pod door consisting mainly or reinforced alloys he knew nothing of and a small sturdy window at eye level. What he knew though is that he should stop wasting time looking around and lay down in the padding area. Or at least as close to laying down as you can without any gravity. Once he was in place and had straightened his body, a few straps shot out from the side of the wall and tightly bound him to the padding. They then proceed to secure his head and extremities, probably to prevent any whiplash upon impact. When that was all done the rest of the padding tightly wrapped itself around his limbs and body to provide extra protection against the Gs he was about to pull. Now fully secured and unable to move, the only thing Siton could do was to look out of the tiny window and stare at the ship as it got progressively smaller. The seconds ticked away horrendously slowly as Siton¡¯s adrenaline pumped brain had lost all ability to create movement and was forced to witness all that was about to go down. ¡°CAPSULE ANGLE ADJUSTED! BOTTOM THRUSTERS ACTIVATED! FULL THRUST! COUNTERACTING CURRENT VELOCITY!¡± Siton felt that. Literally. As soon as those last words were spoken, he could feel everything that was soft or liquid within his body try and shoot out of his feet. His vision slowly started to darken around the edges, encroaching upon the rest of his eyesight. His consciousness started to slide out of his grasp along with the rest of his vision. He tried his hardest to remain conscious but that was a task doomed to fail from the beginning. He had never received any training in that area, and even trained professionals probably would have had a hard time staying awake too. And so, as an announcement blared once more, Siton¡¯s consciousness slipped away into nothingness.
¡°Ugh, my head¡­ What the hell happened?¡± Siton¡¯s head throbbed in pain as the sound of his voice quietly echoed within his surroundings. For the life of him, he could not remember what had just happened. Confused, he tried to trace his actions step by step to figure out why his head hurt. He woke up late, stayed in bed for an hour looking at his phone, then he went to the bathroom and showered, ate lunch, played games all afternoon, had dinner, then Fred contacted him to play games¡­ ¡®FRED! Shit, what happened to him! Is he okay?¡¯ Siton though as all of the memories came flooding back to him, ¡®This was all so surreal, did any of this even happen?¡¯ ¡°Okay, first things first. Calm down,¡± following his own advice Siton slowly breathed deeply in and out in a pattern until he felt his mind to be under control again. ¡°Then find out where the hell I am. Actually, cross that out, second step open my eyes.¡± He hadn¡¯t realized it, but his eyes had been closed ever since he woke up. Opening his eyes Siton let out a groan as this caused another spike of pain within his head. Although his vision was very blurry, he could tell he was still in the escape pod, but most importantly he was on solid ground again! Woo! Gone are the days spent in a flying lifeless hunk of metal larger than the very town he was born in. ¡®Focus,¡¯ he had no idea where he was, not even the fuckin planet, although it probably was Mars, Earth was gone after all. So, he waited around a bit, waiting for his sight to come back into focus. He used this time to run over the events of the day again and to free himself from his restraints. The padding hadn¡¯t come off by itself as the straps had but luckily it didn¡¯t seem anywhere near as rigid as before, making it quite easy to remove. By the time he was out, his sight was somewhat back to normal, especially after the few tears he had shed thinking about Fred. He had already lost all his family and friends; he really didn¡¯t want to lose the only one he had left.Stolen story; please report. Pulling himself up, he noticed the pod was laying down flat, at a roughly 15-degree angle from the ground, hatch facing upwards. Looking around the still locked door¡¯s frame he quickly found a lever labelled ¡®PULL TO OPEN HATCH¡¯ and so he did. And as expected the door promptly shot out from its frame, and I really mean shot out. It easily flew ten or so meters before landing and coming to a halt. Which was good because it meant that had it been obstructed by debris it would have had a much easier time blasting it out of the way than with Siton simply pushing against it. Finally stepping out of the capsule that ended up saving his life, Siton took a good look around and was left in awe. He stood inside a large roughly circular cave that was easily 20 meters in diameter. The rock that made up the walls were dark and sturdy looking. The ceiling easily reached 10m in height, arching upwards from the walls into a dome. At the center of it was a huge hole, likely due to the escape pod crashing through. But it wasn¡¯t the only hole, many other smaller ones littered the ceiling, letting rays of light shine through into the cave while allowing a peek at the canopy above. Out of some even came mini waterfalls that fell in a small pond that quickly turned into a stream, providing water to most of the plants within. Said plants were spread out through the entirety of the cave, ranging from colorful mushrooms with peculiar and mesmerizing shapes to tall flowers that almost reached the ceiling with green stalks larger than some tree trunks and giant purple petals. A peaceful and luscious looking carpet of grass followed the tranquil stream of water that coursed from the pond to the other side of the cave and then into darkness. Siton assumed there was a tunnel there, he also spotted one on the other side of the cave. The whole scene had an air of calm and serenity that was truly breath-taking. The air was filled with the gentle scent of flowers, calling for one to come and relax amongst them. More than that, the whole place seemed to be filled with a vibrant invisible energy that slowly seeped into his veins, filling him with strength. Bursting with newly found confidence and serenity Siton took a step forward into this new world¡­ And immediately regretted it. Near instantly, extremely sharp pains made their presence known on the sole of his right foot. ¡°Aaaahhhh! Fuck! What the hell?!¡± He screamed as he pulled his right knee back up to his chest, stepping back into the pod in the process. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± He yelled out in indignation, clutching his foot as he sat down. Noticing a wet sensation on his hands Siton looked down to find them entirely soaked in blood. ¡®Shit¡¯ was the only thing he thought before promptly removing his slippers to look at the damage. At this moment, Siton could swear he had never seen that much blood in one place for real before. True, he was born and raised as a true Kiwi, but he had never been too keen on the whole hunting or even just fighting business. Sure, he had gotten into some fist fights before, but none of them had ever ended up that bloody. And, oh boy, bloody it was. His entire foot was covered in the red liquid. With every beat from his heart, Siton could see blood gushing out from the multitude of small wounds spread across the sole of his foot. The wounds we all very thin lines that highly resembled paper cuts but clearly dug deeper than their counterparts. Left at a complete loss as of what to do Siton could only stare in disbelief as his blood slowly decided that it was time to move out. That proved to be a potentially dangerous mistake because even after a full minute and a half, the blood showed no signs of stopping. Although he was still at loss concerning what had hurt him as there was only grass there, Siton was not clueless regarding the severity of the situation he was in. If he didn¡¯t take action now, he would probably end up as a desiccated corpse by the end of the day. Luckily, he was in an escape pod, and any good escape pod should have a first aid kit. Especially one made by the World Alliance in a last-ditch effort to save humanity. So, he got looking, and indeed, true to his prediction, he found a first aid kit just under the padding. He quickly rummaged through it and ended up grabbing the two items he believed most helpful at this moment. The first one was a small spray-on anti-septic bottle that would disinfect the wounds to prevent them from getting infected in the future. He took off the lid of the bottle and promptly sprayed his foot. ¡°JESUS THAT STINGS LIKE A BITCH!¡± he proclaimed while gritting his teeth with all the strength he could muster. The next item was a recently developed spray that would create blood stopping foam wherever applied. That wasn¡¯t all it could do, it also enhanced blood clotting for cases similar to his, thus providing great protection against blood loss. This one was significantly less painful than the previous one. If anything, it was quite soothing. Instantly after being applied, the thin layer of liquid that was sprayed over his foot started swelling up like crazy. Quickly turning pink due to the absorbed blood, the foam only took seconds to stop the bleeding. Rummaging through the first aid kit (FAK) once more, Siton pulled out a roll of bandages. These bandages had interwoven silver fiber in it to further reduce the chances of infection. They were also very flexible, sturdy and reusable if cleaned. He quickly wrapped them around his foot while following the instructions of a handy manual that he had found tucked into the FAK. Having taken care of his foot, Siton took a quick peek at where he had placed his foot down once more. But even upon closer inspection, he could see nothing but grass there. It seems that whatever cut him was gone. Weird. Once that was done, he took some time to just lay down against the padding of the pod and relax. This had been one hell of a day and he really didn¡¯t have any time off ever since the lights went out on the ship. Although it may not have been that long since it happened, it still felt like it all occurred ages ago. Before you ask, no, getting knocked unconscious due to pulling Gs didn¡¯t count as taking a break. Thus, as the lights shining down through the hole in the ceiling of the caves started to dim down, Siton finally laid back and relaxed. Only to find himself slowly drift asleep despite the possibility of danger lurking around. He was a bit out of it due to the blood loss, exhaustion, and shock from his situation. He just couldn¡¯t care. Thus the soft snores of the man marked the end of his first day in this strange new world. Chapter 3 - A Hostile World Shining down through the holes and canopy above, a gentle ray of light slowly slid across Siton¡¯s face, stirring him from the abyss of his sleep. He had been dreaming of being back on earth, prior to its disappearance. In it he¡¯d been spending time with family and friends, enjoying what he had forever lost. Yet, nothing was meant to last forever, and so when the sunlight hit his face, he was startled awake by a loud noise. ¡°A-a-choooo!¡± A sneeze, ¡®God damn it, and it was such a good dream,¡¯ he thought slightly annoyed. Though his rather annoyed train of thoughts was quickly interrupted by a slight ruffling sound coming from above the cave. Looking up, trying to find the source of the noise Siton spotted a small head peeking over one of the holes. Well¡­ a ''head'' was a bit of an exaggeration, it was mostly one huge pig snout that was easily as large as the head it was attached on. From what was visible of it, the creature had a grey and stony looking skin with what appeared to be a mountain-shaped back. If it hadn¡¯t been moving Siton would have easily thought it to be a strange-looking rock. It didn¡¯t seem really big, comparable to a medium-size dog at best, albeit fatter. The creature sniffed around the hole a bit. When it had determined that whatever smell it was following indeed originated from there, it tried to look for a way down. It spent a good five minutes looking around the holes for a path downwards. Which Siton knew to be futile, he could see the whole cave from where he was, and there wasn¡¯t a single one of those. Eventually, as the weird pig was getting ready to give up it made a grave mistake. It stepped on a section of the ceiling made purely of brittle dirt and fell right through. Giving off a squeal as it tumbled down the pig soon found itself hitting the grass-covered ground on its side. Only to let out a horrifying screech. Siton watched in horror as the pig struggled, thrashing around as cuts started appearing on its body. Very quickly the scene turned into a bloody mess as the pig got more and more shredded, the pig squealing in atrocious pain. Soon enough the squeals slowly died out leaving a gory bleeding mess lying in the grass. All of this within a minute. Siton felt his stomach tense and nausea overtake him. Quickly leaning over the side of the pod, he threw up what little he had in his stomach. ¡®What did I just witness?¡¯ he questioned. The horrifying sight of the pig¡¯s death would just not leave his head. The screams¡­ The screams were horrible. They had carried such an intense feeling of pain, terror, panic, and powerlessness. Sure, he had seen extremely gory movies in the holo-theatres before, but that couldn¡¯t compare to seeing it for real. It¡¯s at this moment that it really hit him, this wasn¡¯t fake, it wasn¡¯t some kind of movie. Sure, he had gotten injured since landing, but he had everything he needed to deal with it on hand, nothing he couldn¡¯t handle, nothing that would kill him. But this, this was different. This was a creature getting horrifically butchered alive while being completely powerless. This was very real; something had died there and so could he. He needed to take this more seriously. ¡®What should I do? Where am I? Why did this happen? Why am I here? Why me? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?¡¯ It didn¡¯t take long for panic to set in. His stomach grumbled. That didn¡¯t help. Siton grabbed his legs and buried his head in his knees, gently sobbing. He was so far from home, stranded in a hostile planet, and alone, so, so alone. Lost both physical and in his thoughts, Siton sat there for what seemed like an eternity but most likely only a few minutes. His stomach grumbled again. ¡°Right¡­ One thing at the time.¡± He said, wiping the tears from his face. He had always told himself that when he got overwhelmed by his own thoughts. ¡°First. I need to get some food. I assume the escape pod should have some sort of survival kit with food and water. It would be quite a useless pod if I got stranded in space and died within a few days due to having nothing to eat or drink. Although I don¡¯t quite think its designers planned for this exact scenario.¡± He said aloud. Doing so was another habit that helped him get his mind back up and running. Yet again, accurate to his prediction, Siton found a small bag tucked behind where he originally found the FAK containing four ration bars. He also found a thin tube next to the ration pack labeled ¡®WATER¡¯ that connected to the pod on one end and had a mouthpiece on the other. Siton ravenously devoured one of the dry ration bars, leaving him quite full and thirsty afterward. However, when he tried to suck water out of the tube nothing came out. So, he tried harder, yet it refused to work. ¡®Dang that sucks,¡¯ he smirked, ¡®Gosh that was a terrible pun, I need to stop¡¯. Looking around again, he tried to find if there was any flip to activate the water or whatever. The only thing he found was a couple of Ziplock bags and a vacuum tube for excretory needs. Not quite what he needed. The thing must be broken. What he needed now was water. That wasn¡¯t too bad of a goal considering there was some within ten meters of him. Couldn¡¯t he just go to that stream and drink some? ¡°Nope. Can¡¯t leave the pod until I¡¯ve figured out what killed that pig. It¡¯s also likely to be what hurt me yesterday. However, I think I can safely assume it won¡¯t leave the grass considering nothing attacked me while I slept. Or at least that it can¡¯t jump high enough to get into the pod. Which is quite surprising considering nearly anything I know should be able to. Even things that can¡¯t jump like snails would be able to get in.¡± The pod wasn¡¯t that high, all things considered, the opening was only 40cm off the ground at its lowest point. ¡°Therefore, I can assume that it either can¡¯t leave its area, can¡¯t sense me unless I¡¯m touching the ground and won¡¯t risk leaving it or it can¡¯t move.¡± Looking at the ground he had stepped on the previous day, he couldn¡¯t see anything wrong with it. ¡°So, it¡¯s not some sort of spikes or blades hidden underneath the ground.¡± Inspecting the area closer he quickly felt like something was off about it. The blades of grass were a little too perfect looking, each and every one of them. Siton grabbed one of the bags he had found and rolled it up tightly to make a makeshift stick. He gently poked the grass with it. Only for his eyes to open wide when the roll was cleanly cut where it had touched it.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°I knew it!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°It¡¯s the damn grass!¡± He poked it a couple more times in fascination¡­ I mean¡­ for purely scientific reasons. ¡°Stop. Stop getting carried away. This is extremely dangerous. Each and every one of those blades is as sharp as a razor and has blood-thinning properties. They are literally made to cause creatures to bleed to death. This. Is. Serious.¡± Siton reasserted control of his mind. He might make a grave mistake if he let himself get carried away. ¡°Now I¡¯ve gotta find a way to get to the water without touching the grass.¡± Examining his surroundings, he quickly found what seemed to be a solution. But it was going to be risky. He had noticed that as the nearby stream of water got further from the light and into a side tunnel there was progressively less grass near it. There also seemed to be no grass next to the walls for a few meters. However, that¡¯s where the weird mesmerizing mushrooms were. Although there were only a few of them and they wouldn¡¯t block his path, Siton was wary of them. If the grass was dangerous why wouldn¡¯t the mushrooms be? Anyways, his plan to get away from the grass was to simply jump from the pod. And no, he wasn¡¯t suicidal. It simply relied on the fact that the raised end of the capsule was only two and a half meters away from where the grass ended at most. Although that distance would be tough to jump with so little space for a run-up, he had another advantage. The end of the capsule nearest to the wall was the raised end. This meant that his jump point would be a little over a meter above the ground, making it significantly easier. As for getting back to the pod, well he had thought about that too! He could just use the pod¡¯s door. It had landed near one of the walls after being shot out. Once he got there, he could just pick it up and use it as a bridge. It should be quite light; a heavy hatch would only serve to lock the user into the pod were its ejection mechanism to fail. He also doubted the grass would be sharp enough to cut it considering that those the pod had landed on were completely obliterated. On a side note, upon closer inspection, it seems that said crushed grass was just that, crushed, not shattered like Siton would have assumed considering its peculiar properties. Weird. ¡°Enough thinking. Now¡¯s time for action. I¡¯m quite thirsty after all.¡± The first thing he did before jumping was testing the stability of his ramp. He wouldn¡¯t want the pod to shift just as he was about to jump. That could go very bad very fast. Luckily for him, it all seemed to be relatively stable. The next thing he did was plan exactly where he would step. Yet again, to avoid things going wrong. ¡°Let¡¯s do this!¡± He got in place, pumped himself up and started running. The first two steps went well, he was picking up speed. He reached the point of no return. And then took his last step, preparing to push down with all his might to send himself flying. However, there was one thing he didn¡¯t take into account, that was his injured foot. He¡¯d completely forgotten about it. And he was paying for it now, with pain. He couldn¡¯t back down anymore or he¡¯d just fall straight into the grass. Which was pretty much the worst outcome possible. So, he did the only thing he could. He pushed down harder. Gritting his teeth, he propelled himself with all of his strength and sent himself soaring. Time slowed down as he felt himself rise¡­ and slowly fall. The grass was coming closer with every moment but so was his goal. Slowly but surely, he got closer and finally made touchdown, just shy of the grass. What he wasn¡¯t prepared for the landing though. He completely forgot about his momentum and fell forward to his knees. Ending up face to face with one of the mushrooms. This one was a vivid light blue so vibrant that it almost seemed surreal. Shape wise it looked more like a corral that your typical mushroom. With intricate and mesmerizing patterns that one could get lost in for hours. Following the edges round and round and round and round and round. It was truly beautiful. Siton got closer only to see more patterns, hidden within the patterns, all harmoniously flowing into each other. These were slowly shifting morphing into an ever-changing magnificent weave. Siton got closer. Following the pattern round and round and round and round and round and round and round. ¡°REEEEEEEEE!!!¡± ¡°AAAHHHH!!¡± Siton screamed, startled. Adrenaline rushed into his brain as he promptly turned around, expecting to find something trying to kill him. Instead what he found was another pig, a very skinny one this time, that had fallen into the natural trap. Which arguably was just as bad, but at least he knew what to expect with that. It also didn¡¯t want to kill him which was a plus. Allowing himself to relax he noticed something odd ¡®Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be daytime?¡¯ he thought. Out of the ceiling holes, he could clearly see that it was dark, as in pitch black dark. Wait. If it was pitch black outside, how could he see in here? He quickly found the answer to that question. It seemed that the mushrooms had some kind of bioluminescence and glowed a dim light. This was oddly fascinating. It drew the eyes to those patterns it had, as they seemed to shift under the soft glow of the sublime mushroom. Getting closer would pro- ¡°STOP!¡± Siton yelled out at himself. ¡°Don¡¯t look at these! They¡¯re obviously some kind of hypnotizing mushroom that makes you lose track to time. It probably kills you by making you forget to eat and drink.¡± he inferred. Although they were dangerous, they still were interesting. ¡°Perhaps it works in conjunction with the grass. Hypnotizing animals that successfully escape the trap until they bleed to death. Then it probably absorbs whatever blood soaks into the soil.¡± He shivered ¡°Ugh. That¡¯s creepy.¡± Then the thirst hit him. He had already been seeking water when he woke up and who knows how long he had been looking at the mushroom. What was certain was that he was really, really thirsty. And that he would have been really close to dying were it not for that pig. ¡®Thanks, little one,¡¯ he thought. He promptly made his way to the water stream and immediately proceeded to drink from it in large gulps. It was crisp, cool and by far the most delicious water he had ever drunk (this statement may or may not be biased due to circumstances). Finally, having quenched his thirst, he lied down and let out a satisfied sigh. He allowed his mind to drift for a while enjoying this state of bliss. Until he heard a light scuttling noise coming from his left. He looked up to see two small red beady eyes looking at him. If that wasn¡¯t scary enough, the body those eyes belonged to was a rat. A big rat. It easily reached a full meter in length excluding the tail which easily covered another. The second most noticeable trait of the rat was its stony skin. Yep, no fur, just stony patches. Finally, last but not least, the rat seemed hungry, extremely hungry. It was salivating buckets. Which would be fine because rats normally don¡¯t hunt humans unless they¡¯re in groups and starving. Unfortunately for Siton, this one was large enough to be a group of its own and oh boy was it hungry. Having satisfied all criteria, the rat lunged at Siton. Siton screamed. Chapter 4 - Fight or Flight? Or both? ¡°AAAHHH¡± Siton squealed in a high pitch voice, surprising both himself and his opponent. He quickly reached for his mouth with his hands to prevent further threats to his manliness. The stone rat, on the other hand, glared at Siton, now a little bit more wary of his prey. Siton returned it or at least liked to think he did. More realistically, he turned around made a run for it. For what exactly? For the pod hatch, if he could just grab it then he¡¯d be able to get back to the pod, or at least have a better chance at defending himself. Assuming the rat wasn¡¯t able to walk in the grass with those stony plates it had. Unfortunately for Siton, the rat just happened to be blocking the most direct route to the hatch. Forcing him to take the long way around. Thus, vaulting over the stream, he ran for his life. He had never seen a rat that big before, in fact he had only ever seen one before and that was scary enough. This was just a huge bag of stinking ¡®nope¡¯ for him and he wasn¡¯t going to risk fighting it if he could. That thing looked like it could chew through his bones in one bite. Which it probably could considering this species of rats actually survived on eating stone, occasionally supplementing their diet with meat. Siton was only a few steps from the stream when he heard a loud splash coming from directly behind him. Too afraid of turning around, he picked up the pace. Causing him to stumble due to his injured foot and twist that ankle, maybe even spraining it. He didn¡¯t have time to think about that though. Every second lost was one that the rat gained. He continued running despite the throbbing pain in his foot, running like his life depended on it¡­ which it kinda did. Soon enough he passed the second exit of the cave, he was almost there. ¡®Just a little bit more!¡¯ he thought. Three steps left, two, one. ¡®There!¡¯ He grabbed the shield and immediately turned around, expecting the see the rat right on his tail. What he did not expect to see was the rat in mid-air less than a meter away from his face. Feeling strangely lucid in that situation, his brain working like a perfectly oiled Formula 1, he swung his improvised shield at the rat. He used the momentum of his spin to amplify the strength of his swing. Anchored himself with his feet to the ground like a tree would with its roots. Twisted his core and hips to create a monstrous amount of kinetic power in his upper body. He threw his all into that one swing, increasing its might to tremendous levels. And oh so slowly he saw it connect with the rat¡¯s face. He could see its skull being bashed aside before its flesh moved. He felt the impact reverberate through the shield and back into his arms. The rat went flying¡­ and crashed into the wall next to Siton with enough force to make the cave walls shake. The rat was dead. Killed, in but a fraction of a second. A life extinguished, yet, another one lived. So was the law of nature. The survival of the fittest. Siton fell to his knees as the world returned to its normal speed. Exhausted, he sat there panting. He really needed to exercise more. Suddenly he was startled by a huge wave of energy. Not the kind of explosive, or heat, or even light energy. No. It was that energy he had felt when he first opened the pod. The one that slowly seeped within his body, giving him a tremendous feeling of power. The wave of energy gently washed over him, slowly worming itself into his body. He kinda forgot about it due to the injury he sustained right afterward. Thinking back on it though, the energy had always been there since he had landed, it just fell into background noise. ¡®Wasn¡¯t it just something to lure creatures to the trap?¡¯ he questioned. ¡®Then why is it suddenly so strong?¡¯ After some thinking, he narrowed down the possibility to one thing: the rat. Somehow upon death, it had released a huge amount of that energy. That energy then flowed into him. But not all of it, he could clearly feel that there was so much more in the air, slowly dissipating and returning to normal levels. It seemed like only a certain fraction of the ambient energy was absorbed at any given time. Higher ambient energy would mean more energy absorbed due to a scaling absorption rate. This was all so new to him, it had really piqued his interest.
Lost in thoughts Siton failed to notice the swarm of stone rats sneaking upon him. They had felt the energy emanating from their dead comrade and had decided to investigate. What they saw surprised them. Not only was their sibling dead but its killer was there as well. Even better! Two bodies to eat for the price of one! On top of it the one that had died widely disliked for trying to steal other¡¯s food. Therefore, as any rock rat worth it''s salt would, they decided to get the jump on that weird bipedal creature. It¡¯d been a while since they¡¯d had meat on the menu!If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Silently they crept up on their unsuspecting prey until a couple of the rats at the back decided to bicker on who would get to eat first. Which quickly evolved into a full-on fight, instantly blowing their cover.
Siton turned around, alerted by the squeaking noises originating from behind himself. To find a good dozen of rock rats, each the same size as the previous one. With the closest one being within arm reach. ¡®Nope.¡¯ Terrified, he grabbed the hatch and ran. That was not something he could deal with. Fortunately, this time for him, he was really close to the pod and had no rats in his way. He swiftly got there and threw the hatch onto the grass. ¡®Here¡¯s hoping it¡¯ll work!¡¯ he thought as he jumped on it. Luckily for him it held as he ran across and jumped back on the pod. He promptly turned around and grabbed the hatch by one of its inner handles to immediately move it away from the rats. Heart pounding in his chest, he sat down and looked for them. Surprisingly, unlike the previous one, these rats did not give him chase; they weren¡¯t really that hungry. They had plenty enough rats to trap and bite him to death. However, they hadn¡¯t planned for the dumb creature to jump into the bleed plants and actually make it onto a weird grey island intact. Siton watched the confused rats circle the razor grass clearing in hopes of finding a way through. It looked like they were still scared of the grass and would not risk jumping to his pod just to eat him. ¡°Guess those stone patches are only for show then.¡± After observing them for a small amount of time he established that they weren¡¯t going to give up anytime soon, but they weren¡¯t going to make any progress either. These were some dumb creatures. So, he decided to sit there and spend some time trying to figure that strange and interesting energy out. The first thing he did was trying to become more aware of it, being able to sense it within the air. Sure, he had done so before, but that was only when exposed to changes in its concentration. He wanted to be able to sense it as it was at ambient levels. To do so he took time clam down and relax, closing his eyes and slowly shifting into a meditational state. Slowly turning his attention outwards, he began to search for that energy, for the same feeling it created within him. That essence of strength, vitality, and possibilities. He slowly began to sink deeper and deeper into this state. Slowly but surely, he began sensing something. At first it was nothing but a faint trace, impossible to grasp, elusive, disappearing as soon as he focussed on it. But with time as he went deeper and deeper within the trance, he began to become strangely aware of all that was being registered by his external senses. The humidity in the air, the coolness of the air on his skin, the texture of his loose clothes, the rats pacing around the field of grass, the damp smell of the cave and¡­ there it was! That energy! A slight buzzing sensation registered by all of his senses, filled with untapped power. Coursing through the air, raw power. Present in an infinitely small quantity but there nonetheless. Sinking even further in this trance he began to feel the flow of that energy around his skin. Swirling gently in the air, forming intricate and mesmerizing patterns, much like those of the mushrooms. Although less mesmerizing these were in a different league when it came to their sheer complexity and beauty. They were perpetually folding onto themselves, moving in impossible and unpredictable directions. It was simply magnificent, and powerful. Siton was sure by this point that this did not originate from the plants. It was far more; it had probably been there since far before them and would be there eons afterward. He could see its sheer potential. This. This was something worth living for. He wanted to learn more about it, to study it and unravel all its secrets. He in fact, got so excited that he woke himself out of his hyperfocused state. ¡°Wow,¡± he whispered, ¡°that was insane.¡± Although he had been studying science prior, biology to be more accurate. He had always felt a bit bored thinking of how slowly it developed. Sure, some really cool things were only possible because of it. But things like physics-defying magic and such was probably lifetimes away. This though, he could feel its potential, what it could do. Completely unexplored and most importantly, within his reach! Thinking back on it, it seemed that most of the living things he¡¯d met in this new world were surreal in many aspects. Incredibly sharp grass that retained its plant-like property, mushrooms able to ensnare the mind of creatures with but a glance, huge rats with shells made of stone plates. That strange energy probably had a fundamental part to play into making all of this possible. It was incredible, but also a double edge sword. It created impossible things, incredible beings and fabulous sights, on the other hand, it was mostly used in countless lethal ways. But Siton still felt strangely drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. Perhaps that was part of the beauty of it. It had made his blood stir like never before. And he was determined not to let it go. With that, the exhaustion from this day caught back up with him. He had seen two pigs get violently butchered, vaulted over a literal spike trap, gotten caught in a hypnotic trap, gotten chased by a huge rat, killed said rats, ran from more rats and then got into a hyper-focussed state for science. But all considered he came through relatively unharmed, although he was still rather terrified of what had happened to him, he couldn¡¯t stop but look at it with curiosity. This whole world was new, unexplored with mysteries around every corner, and most importantly magical. Quickly checking that the rats hadn¡¯t made any progress, he peacefully drifted to sleep. Eager and anxious for another day in this world. Chapter 5 - Escape Part 1 Siton woke up feeling quite refreshed. Groggily pulling himself up he quickly assessed his situation. Judging from the light he quickly established that it was at least a few hours after sunrise. He also couldn¡¯t see any rats trying to get to him anymore. Although judging from how persistent they had been previously he wouldn¡¯t put it beyond them to be lying in ambush at one of this room¡¯s exit. He also found himself to be quite hungry and thirsty. It looked like a little trip away from his pod was in order. But before that, he had a couple of things to do. The first one was to munch on a dry ration bar and then relieve himself. Once that was done, he went on to his next task. He needed to check on his wounded foot to make sure it had been healing properly. True he had been delaying it a fair bit, but he had kinda been busy in the past couple of days. Gently unwrapping the bandage on his foot, he quickly let out a sigh of relief. All was fine, it was still a bit bloodstained but everything seemed to have healed as intended. Though he should still be careful with it to make sure he didn¡¯t re-open his wounds. Unlike what he did with his previous stunts. Next was establishing some goals, if he was to survive here, he needed to have something to work towards. Thus, after some thinking, he came up with a short list ordered from highest to lowest priority.
1 Survive (self-explanatory, long-term goal).
2 Get out of this cave. Remaining stuck here won¡¯t accomplish anything, especially when I run out of food.
3 Find shelter, a water source and a food source outside the cave (in order of priority).
4 Find Fred.
5 Find more people (it¡¯s getting lonely here ?).
6 Explore the potential of that energy (note: should name it something, let¡¯s go with Energy X for now) (also long-term goal).
With that established he began to think of a plan for his departure. Going out without one wouldn¡¯t do him any good. Especially if the rats were waiting for him as expected. First, he needed to bring his FAK, rations, and everything that could be of use to him. That included the hatch which was quite light despite its sturdiness and the Ziplock bags (except the cut one). If he washed the bandages, he could use them to strap the FAK to himself, allowing him to chuck his rations and bags in there and use it as a makeshift backpack. Then he¡¯d have his hands free to hold his ¡®shield¡¯. Now all that was left was to sort his course of action. He¡¯d first try and get off the pod as quietly as possible, following which he would go to the stream. There he¡¯d have a drink, wash the bandages and fill a few of those Ziplock bags with water. Assuming they don¡¯t open and disgorge their content at the slightest pressure, though that seemed unlikely for something designed to be used in spaceships. Then he¡¯d follow the stream down to an exit hoping that it doesn¡¯t join some sort of underground river. The reason he didn¡¯t decide to go for the other exit is because he suspected that it led to the rat¡¯s nest. The idea of even more of those sent a shiver down his spine. Taking time to go over his possessions and plan once more, Siton finally felt ready to go. He quietly took a hold of the hatch and gently placed it down on the grass to act as a bridge. He then grabbed everything he needed and silently made his way across, picking the hatch back up in the process. Moving slowly towards the stream, Siton was paying very close attention to his surroundings. Making sure nothing got the jump on him. Following the walls, while avoiding the occasional mushroom, he finally arrived at the entrance of the side tunnel. Carefully peeking around the corner, Siton made sure there weren¡¯t any rats in it. Trying not to let the pressure get to him, he breathed in and out deeply. In and out. ¡®All is well¡­¡¯ He was ready to go again. He quickly made his way into the side tunnel and then to the stream. Crossing to the other side, he positioned himself in such a way that the wall was in between him and the other entrance. Preventing anything coming from there from seeing him. Now out of sight he quickly gulped down some water, although not too much as that could actually work against him. Next, he quickly washed the bandages, letting the mix of dried blood and foam dye the stream red. While he was at it, he also decided to quickly clean his foot. Once he was done with that, he took out a two out of the four Ziplock bags he had and began filling them with some clean water. When that was completed, he placed everything back in his FAK and used the bandage to tie its handle to his upper left arm. Made of synthetic fabric and roughly twice as wide as his arm, the FAK looked a little bit out of place, but at least it seemed like it would work. The whole process was a bit awkward, but he managed it. Just in time as well.
True the rats weren¡¯t able to spot him but they sure as hell could spot his absence. It didn¡¯t take much brainpower to infer that he had gone down the other tunnel. And thanks to his little hiding spot they didn¡¯t exactly know where he was. However, that was a double edge sword, he didn¡¯t know where they were either, and these rats were rather silent when moving. This is why Siton was taken off guard when one of them peeked around the corner just as he finished tying the green FAK to his arm.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! His satisfied smile instantly turned sour. He needed to leave now. He slowly began to move backward, making sure to keep eye contact with the rat. Trying to gain some distance before he¡¯d have to make a run for it. And it seemed to be working, the rat had yet to move. Slowly but surely Siton made his way inside the dark tunnel. This went on for a small while, and when had put roughly 10 meters between them he was suddenly interrupted. Another head had turned the corner, one belonging to an abnormally large rat. Easily twice the size of the other rats, this one towered above them. Its stony patches looked more like large stony scales at this point. They were significantly thicker than their counterparts. With spikes atop them, they made the rat look far more threatening. Yet, its most intimidating feature was its jaw. It was built to crush rock, a monstrosity easily half as long as the body, fully reinforced with stone plating. The huge rat slowly opened its jaw, revealing a set of huge stake shaped teeth. Built to perforate the hardest stones found within these caves, they were easily capable of reducing Siton¡¯s skull to mush without even trying. Saliva slowly dripped from its mouth, falling on the stone at its feet. Causing it to sizzle. As this rat¡¯s diet mostly consisted of the sturdiest rocks it could find it had evolved to be able to digest them. This included the pre-digestive enzymes found in saliva and caused them to be extremely efficient at processing rocks. Although it was intimidating, it would have absolutely no effects on flesh. Of course, Siton didn¡¯t know that. All he could see was a giant murder machine that had acid for saliva. It was time to leave. He pivoted on his feet as fast as he could and sprinted down the tunnel with all his might, following the stream. He faintly heard the rats scramble to give him chase. Swearing under his breath he pushed himself to run even harder. As so he ran and ran until his feet hurt and lungs ached. Slippers were not ideal footwear for running, especially when one had been perforated by razor-sharp grass. The tunnel he was in was progressively getting darker, due to the absence of holes through which the light could shine through. Making it even harder for him to run, especially at that hard to maintain pace. But he couldn¡¯t stop, he could hear the loud thumps of the large rat as it gave him chase. His ten-meter head-start steadily began to shrink as he had to slow down to pay more attention to his footing. The rat, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t concerned the least about it, its species had adapted to live in tunnels. Seeing in the dark came with the job. Feeling more and more desperate as he could hear the rat gaining ground on him and as his surroundings slowly inched closer to pitch black, Siton felt himself lose his cool. ¡®No. It can¡¯t end this way. I¡¯ve finally found something great, a purpose. Something that I can achieve, that no-one has seen before. Why do I have to die in this nameless cave to some random murderous mutated rat! I have to live!¡¯ Suddenly, as if answering his plea, the Energy X within his body started to stir. It was composed of the energy he had passively absorbed ever since he¡¯d arrived. He could feel it within him, boiling, furious, powerful, responding to his desires yet so distant. He could feel it push against some invisible barrier deep within, it wanted to act and grant his wish. But the barrier wouldn¡¯t give, as if something more was required, a form. Siton somehow knew what was missing and pushed harder. ¡®I won¡¯t die here. I need speed, I need strength, I need energy, I need the power to survive!¡¯ Having met the mysterious criteria, the flood gates within Siton broke. Releasing a veritable unbound tsunami of tremendous power within his body. He could feel every bit of the raging white-hot energy coursing through his veins, burning its way into his muscles, organs, tendons, bones and every fiber of his being. Yet he felt no pain, it was more akin to the satisfying feeling one had post-workout but massively amplified. He felt his muscles grow and then condense back down to their previous size, he could feel his bones harden and yet lighten, he could sense his tendons and ligaments become more flexible but firmer. He felt powerful. The gates closed; it seems he had used up all of the energy. But it was worth it. He felt better than he ever had. Filled with energy, he began to run with renewed vigor. His eyes now able to pierce through the darkness, although it wasn¡¯t full-blown night vision it was enough for him to catch back up to his previous pace. And more. He felt himself accelerate far beyond his old speed. Faster than he had ever run before. Faster. This felt incredible. With his newly heightened senses, he could hear the rat lose more and more ground behind him. There¡¯s no way he was going to risk fighting a creature that had probably been using EX (Energy X) its whole life if it had brought such significant changes to him. Losing himself in the glee of his newfound abilities, he failed to notice the chasm at the end of the tunnel until it was too late. Since it was fully underground, the darkness had made a rather good job at hiding it. This is why Siton failed to notice the 5m wide crevasse until he was only a few meters away. Fortunately, it seemed that the tunnel continued on the other side. Running at full speed, there was no way he could stop without falling inside. It was do or die. Luckily for him, he had experience with that kind of stuff (*cough* grass *cough*). His brain kicked into overdrive and time slowed down. Getting used to this strange phenomenon, Siton carefully used the time to plan his steps. Making sure to launch from his intact foot this time. Following his pre-planned path with barely acceptable accuracy, Siton found himself at the edge to the abyss with full momentum. Pressing down on his left foot with all his might he shot into the air like an arrow. The jump was perfect, it looked like he wasn¡¯t going to have any problems reaching the other side. He was even prepared for the landing this time, having learned his lesson. What he wasn¡¯t prepared for was overshooting his target. He had jumped too high, if only slightly, but still too high. *Bonk* His head hit the top part of the tunnel as his body made its way within. Now destabilized, confused and most importantly full of momentum Siton crashed on the ground harder than his pod did. But he had made it, he was alive! There was no way that the chubby rat would be able to make the leap. And indeed, turning around (after having checked on his rapidly swelling forehead) he spotted a huge angry rat glaring at him from the other side. Next to a tiny waterfall that disappeared into the abyss. ¡°Now that was something.¡± He whispered, still shaking from the adrenaline. Chapter 6 - Escape Part 2 Siton felt the rush of adrenaline and EX within his body slowly die down as he lay on the ground. Breathing hard, exhausted by his mad dash, he just laid still for a while. Eventually, feeling and pain started to return to his body, rewarding him with an extremely sore body. And an even worse off forehead. ¡®No pain no gain,¡¯ he thought, ¡®at least I¡¯m alive. I did it.¡¯ A proud smile appeared on his face as he stared at the ceiling. Unwilling to get moving yet, he decided to lay a bit longer. When the pain in his body had reached a manageable level, he sat up and checked on his makeshift pack. Rummaging through it he quickly established that nothing had been lost, however, one of the water bags had opened. Although it was bothersome, it didn¡¯t ruin anything within the pack as it all was wrapped in plastic. But that meant he only had very little water left until he got out of there and found some more. Feeling quite thirsty he decided to drink half of his remaining water now and save the rest for later. Now partially satisfied he stood up with a groan of pain and checked his surroundings. It looked like the tunnel he was in led further into the darkness. On the other side was the bottomless chasm he had leaped over, with an angry rat staring at him from the other side. Next to him was his trusty hatch/shield, it had luckily managed to land within the tunnel after he had let go of it when his head hit the ceiling. But before he got moving again, there was one thing he wanted to do. That was, testing his abilities following the EX rush. He quickly got down and started doing push-ups, it soon became evident he was far stronger than before when he broke past the 50 marks. That seemed to roughly be his limits, but it felt permanent, it was part of him. Although it was nothing special, it was incredible to him. However, that was quite peculiar considering his previous leap seemed to be getting close to an Olympic level. The difference between the two was quite large. He theorized that maybe the rush boosted his power beyond what he would retain afterward. He wasn¡¯t about to complain though, this is more than he ever could have asked for. Now ready to continue on his trip to find a way out of this cave, Siton grabbed his shield and made his way down the dark tunnel. Unfortunately, he soon enough discovered that the temporary boost to his abilities also applied to his sense. This meant that although he could see in the dark a little better than before, it was still nowhere near what he had experienced during his rush. Thus, he was reduced to fumbling around in the dark as he made his way deeper. After an undetermined amount of time slowly following the left wall of the cave with an arm forward, he finally caught a glimpse of light. It was dim but it was light. He carefully made his way towards it in order to avoid tripping on rocks in his excitement. Over the course of the next few minutes, Siton had managed to reduce the distance between himself and light by a significant amount. Yet, strangely, it did not increase in intensity as would be expected. Instead, more lights slowly came into view. Each of these was attached to the ceiling of the small tunnel he was in. They ranged from the size of a small glue stick to that of a large one and glowed a dim blue light. Upon closer inspection, Siton spotted thin tendrils hanging from them which also glowed. This triggered a ¡®Eureka!¡¯ moment in his mind, he knew what they were! All of these were worms! He had previously done a school report on similar ones back in high school. The harmless worms glowed when they were hungry in order to attract bugs. Those captivated would then get stuck on the sticky tendrils and be promptly eaten by the worms. It also seemed to work on humans too as the ones he knew were a widely known tourist attraction found in some caves within his home country, New-Zealand. Visiting the caves gave the impression of being under a starry night sky due to hundreds upon hundreds of worms inhabiting them. He had been to one of these once, the whole experience was surreal. This was slightly different though; the ceiling was too low and the worms too large to create such an impression. Although it was still quite pretty. In other news, the worms provided enough light for him to be able to see again! With a renewed vigor in his step, Siton made his way down the tunnel, carefully avoiding the tendrils lest they get stuck to him. After a while making progress through these new tunnels and multiple intersections, Siton decided to take a break. He found a clear spot, sat down and took his remaining water out for a drink. While enjoying his refreshment, he briefly wondered why there were no insects within this cave and how its ecosystem worked. ¡®If there are no bugs here, what do they eat then?¡¯ he wondered, ¡®The only thing I can think of is some other creature that occasionally goes through here.¡¯ That¡¯s when the realization slowly dawned on him. ¡®Oh no¡­ They don¡¯t eat bugs, they eat meat.¡¯ His face paled when he was in yet another natural trap. ¡®I need to get out of this area.¡¯ In his hurry, he had failed to notice one of the worms above him lowering one of its tendrils. And so, when he stood up, he touched it. Causing its owner to detach from the ceiling and land on his right shoulder.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°AAAAAHHH!¡± he yelled in fear and surprise as he felt tiny barbed hooks go through his shirt. Which was quickly followed by a numbing feeling that slowly spread through his shoulder. He instantly responded by grabbing it with his right hand and threw it away. Causing it to trigger multiple other worms who also detached from their spot. ¡°Shit I need to get out of here really quick!¡± he exclaimed as he lunged for his shield with his right arm. Only to drop it instantly afterward as his fingers on his hand failed to respond. ¡®God damn it! Why did I have to grab it!¡¯ He began to panic ¡®I need to get out of here! Now!¡¯ Instantly grabbing his shield with his left hand, he held it above his head and made a run for it. As he bulldozed his way through the tendrils, he could hear the thuds of the worms dropping on his shield. He didn¡¯t care. He continued running. His heartbeat increased to deal with the increased oxygen demand. Blood pumped faster through his body as he made a mad dash for it. Causing a significant increase in speed in the numbing agent¡¯s spread. As a result, the cold numb feeling in his right hand and shoulder spread to envelop his entire right arm, rendering it completely useless. His arm flopping in the wind, Siton began to feel it spread further from his shoulder, slowly encroaching on his neck. His head slowly started tilting to the side against his will. Making it significantly harder to co-ordinate his limbs. He began to slow down as he started fumbling around, slowly losing control of his neck. There was no end to the worms in sight. He needed to keep running. He didn¡¯t want to die.
If he had stopped to think rationally for a second, he would have realized that there was no immediate threat to his life. The worms only dropped if their tendrils were touched, as long as he laid low, he wouldn¡¯t have been in any danger. In fact, laying low would have been to his advantage as it would have slowed the spread of the toxin. Siton generally was a very logically driven person who was quite proud of the fact that he was smarter than your average person. Not by a huge amount but definitely by a noticeable one. Due to his inherent curiosity, he also had the knowledge to match it from following multiple scientific channels on the internet on top of scientific journals tailored for teenagers. Therefore, it wouldn¡¯t have been a stretch to assume he would have deduced these things. That, however, wasn¡¯t taking into account what he considered his biggest flaw. How prone he was to panic. Having been raised and sheltered in a very caring family, Siton has had very little opportunities to act independently or unsupervised. Though he recognized there might be more to it, this was his reasoning. And thus, when faced with what he recognizes as high stakes situations alone, his brain tended to enter panic mode. In which his only concern to escape, avoid or completely get rid of the situation sometimes making less than wise decisions. And once it found a solution, it didn¡¯t let go. Focussing all of his brainpower on it. Which is exactly what happened here. The realization that these worms were flesh eaters combined with a very sudden ¡®worm attack¡¯ in close succession was enough to jump-start panic mode. Making him quickly come to the conclusion that running away was the best decision. Causing him to run away with all his might.
And so, his mind slowly began to sink deeper into panic as he slowly began to lose control of the right side of his body. Only thinking of what would happen if he got swarmed by to demonic worms. Thoughts of him being eaten alive by hundreds of worms without being able to move a muscle filled his mind. Causing him to sink even deeper. Especially considering he could not see an end to them even after five whole minutes of running. ¡®I¡¯m not going to die!¡¯ he thought, strangely resolute. ¡®Maybe I can use that energy again!¡¯ ¡®Come on. Come on! Energy do your thing, get rid of the poison!¡¯ He could feel it, it was raging, like the previous time. Although far fewer in quantity, he could feel its presence behind the distant gates. Yet it wouldn¡¯t leave like it previously had. But he needed it. So, he pulled on it with all his might as veins popped on his forehead. And the gates opened, just a little, allowing a trickle of EX to flow through. But that was enough. He could feel it slowly spread into his body starting from his brain. The energy this time was significantly different from his previous experience. This one was cool and frigid, slowly seeping throughout his head towards his body, apparently doing nothing. If Siton¡¯s guess was right, this energy would counter the toxin. So, he pulled on it once more and dragged it towards the right side of his body. Slowly bringing it into contact with the numb area. And when they did touch¡­ nothing. No explosive reaction or pain or anything. The crisp feeling of the energy replaced the numbness. ¡®Wait. This is it! It¡¯s slowly taking back control!¡¯ he almost jumped in joy, but that would be stupid, with all the worms and stuff. So, he kept pulling and pulling until nothing was left. Nothing, no toxin no EX, it looked like they destroyed each other. ¡®Perhaps the EX formed into the anti-matter equivalent of the toxin¡­¡¯ the rational part of Siton¡¯s mind suggested now free of one of its main concerns. Now that the immediate threat was gone, Siton began to calm down as he ran. Only to turn the corner and see some light. Some real sunlight at the end of it! ¡®This is it!¡¯ he picked up the pace again. A mistake. The tunnel ended on the side of a sheer cliff, many meters above the ground. Except for this time, he stopped beforehand. Not because he had noticed but because it was too bright, and it hurt his eye. When they had finally adjusted enough, he looked once more. Only for his blood to run cold as he realized how close he had come to dying. Had he still been panicking he might have very well died right there and then. Returning his attention to the view in order to admire it and find a path out he quickly received the shock of his life. There. About fifty kilometers away sat a humongous formation, with a huge trail of devastation stemming from it. The ship. It was the colony ship. It had survived. Chapter 7 - Survival Siton stared in awe at the sight. The ten-kilometer-long ship had left a humongous trail of devastation behind itself that was easily ten times as long as it was. The tall metal ship in itself was partially destroyed. Its bottom half had been completely shredded while its top half remained mostly intact. On the other hand, its back thrusters were completely busted, they had completely fallen apart during re-entry. This ship could only handle delicate maneuvers due to its sheer size. This had been anything but delicate. Trails of debris that had gotten ripped off could be seen amongst its path of destruction. The sight heavily impacted Siton. On one side the ship was an absolute wreck, there was no way it could get back into space and allow humanity to leave. Although the reason for doing so was quite debatable as they had technically already landed on a habitable planet, which was their primary purpose. However, he couldn¡¯t help but feel his heart tighten a bit at the fact that all he owned, except for what he was wearing, probably got destroyed. And that too was up for debate considering how quickly he had damaged his slippers. On the other side, the ship was very likely to attract other people. If he could just make his way there, he¡¯d probably be reunited with his fellow survivors. That, however, was the toughest part, the ship laid roughly fifty kilometers away from himself. All of which looked to be dense forests separated by a couple of rivers. This would be a very long trip, 50k generally wouldn¡¯t take too long to cross but this wasn¡¯t a normal situation. There would be no paths for him to take, which would significantly slow down his speed. On top of that it would significantly increase his chances of getting lost. He also had to find of food, water and shelter which would slow him even further. And finally, there was the dangers arising from the local fauna and flora. From what he¡¯d seen so far, they weren¡¯t too friendly. ¡°All right. The first thing I need to do if I want to get there is to get down from this cliff. Preferably without dying.¡± Looking below himself, he quickly dismissed the idea of climbing down. As it was a completely vertical cliff. It, however, seemed to have numerous handholds, which looked to be made of the most brittle rocks to ever exist. If one were to break off, he would get a first-class ticket to the ground one hundred meters below. Going up seemed way more manageable. Although he couldn¡¯t get a really good view of it, the cliff seemed to continue vertically but only for ten or so meters. This meant less climbing but just as much risks. But if he managed to get up then he¡¯d be able to look for a gentler way down. Left and right didn¡¯t offer better options either, just more stone to climb for a while. And so Siton was faced with a decision, go up or go back and try to find another exit by exploring other paths he¡¯d missed at previous intersections. He decided to turn around. There was no way he¡¯d risk his life when there was a potentially much safer path available. Level-headed this time, Siton turned around and re-entered the tunnels. Going through the worms was much simpler this time around as most of them had already fallen. He only had to avoid stepping on them. Soon enough he had backtracked to an intersection. One he had failed to notice in his mad rush. Holding his shield over his head, he proceeded down this new worm filled tunnel.
Growing bored of the incessant *thunks* of the worms falling on his shield, the only thing Siton could do was turn his thoughts inwards. Trying to better understand the mechanisms behind EX. The first thing that came to mind was that he needed a strong desire to survive in order to use it. Although that sounded correct, he felt like he could improve on that statement. That desire to survive seemed to excite the energy, causing it to push on that invisible gate within himself. That however wasn¡¯t enough. He felt like no matter how much he wanted to survive; the gate wouldn¡¯t open. He needed to do something else to unlock it. Thinking back on the chain of events he suspected that he needed to provide a form to his desire to survive. A purpose. His first time around, that purpose was to make himself stronger, faster and such in order to survive. The second time around he used it to rid his body to the worm¡¯s toxin, to survive. Another thing he had noticed at that time was that he had far less EX to work with. Which in turn had reduced the pressure it had applied on the gate, forcing him to open them himself once unlocked. But this created more questions. What were the gates that blocked EX? Why did EX respond to his need to survive? Why did it need a form? What was on the other side of the gate? How much EX could he store? What was that pulling thing he did? Questions, questions, questions. Before he could dive any deeper in this train of thoughts, Siton noticed some light at the end of the tunnel. Eager to finally get out of this annoying cave system, he picked up the pace. When he finally arrived, he let out a small sigh of relief. The last twenty meter of the cave had slopped upwards allowing it to breach the surface and not a cliffside. Taking a small peek outside Siton found himself in a forest, as expected. The trees there looked like any other, but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to trust them, especially the luscious green grass that covered the ground. Quickly verifying that there were no creatures nearby, he quickly pulled out another rolled-up bag from his FAK. And promptly poked the grass with it. Letting another small sigh of relief when it bent instead of cutting right through it.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡®Looks like above ground is less lethal than below.¡¯ Quickly stepping out of the cursed cave, Siton took a deep breath of fresh air in. He hadn¡¯t realized it but after all of these months in a space can or underground, he had really missed being outside. He felt a smile grow wide on his face. Finally, free! After having enjoyed the moment for a while longer, Siton went on to explore his surroundings and get his bearings. He moved as quietly as he could to avoid getting spotted by any potentially hostile creatures that might be lurking around. He quickly spotted multiple berry bushes and decided to take some samples, which he placed in one of his bags, for later. He wasn¡¯t desperate enough to try them without making sure they weren¡¯t poisonous. Having explored a bit more Siton found a small stream. Its water was clear and quite appealing. After having carefully made his way there he quickly filled up two other bags, grabbed a drink and was on his way again. It only took him an extra few minutes of wandering about to find the cliff he was at previously. While admiring the dystopian sight, he tried to spot a pathway down. Although the mountain he was on seemed to be mostly steep cliffs on this side, he still managed to find a couple of promising-looking paths. All of which looked to be large slopes composed of various sized gravel and the occasional bush. Although he could try to find an easier way down on another side of the mountain he was on, it would significantly increase his travel time. This could also very well be a mountain chain, meaning he¡¯d have to climb back up again. He¡¯d just go straight down. It¡¯d be faster and he¡¯d get to keep the ship in his line of sight, reducing his chances of getting lost. Therefore, he made his way towards the nearest path he had spotted. This one required him to drop down roughly three meters before accessing the slope. The slope itself was mostly made of loosely piled rocks and looked rather steep. It would only take one slip for him to be sent tumbling to the bottom. He decided not to use it for the time being and come back to it later if he needed it. The next one was more manageable with only a one-meter drop and a gentle slope. Deciding he wasn¡¯t going to find anything better he decided to get down the mountain through there. He gently lowered himself on the rubble and proceeded to carefully make his way downwards. It took him a whole hour to get to the bottom rewarding him with extremely sore legs. He had really underestimated how tough it was to use his legs muscles nonstop for extended periods of time. He had made it mostly unharmed, although there had been a few close calls where he almost lost his balance. Scaring him enough to get him to attempt sliding down while sitting in a controlled manner. A decision he had swiftly regretted after tearing part of his pants. Absolutely exhausted, Siton decided to take a break. He slowly walked towards the treeline, hobbling most of the way due to his sore legs. He found a nice rock to sit on and took out a ration bar and some water. He hurriedly devoured the food. Within a minute nothing was left of it. ¡°Phew, that was good.¡± He exclaimed, satisfied. After some quick deliberation, he decided to rest for a few more minutes before looking for some shelter to pass the night in. Once he felt fully refreshed, he stood up and was on his way again. Heading in general direction of the ship in order to gain some time. After another hour of walking he came upon a large stream that he¡¯d have to cross in order to continue. Deciding to take this moment to get his bearing, Siton found a tree with plenty of large and low branches and began to climb it. He had after all been walking in the forest for all this time, without any visual with the ship. It was very possible he had gotten off track. Groaning as he made his way up, Siton swore to himself he was going to get back in shape when things settled down again. When he finally made it to the top, he was quite surprised to find that he had made good progress and was heading approximatively in the right direction. After having gotten down from the tree, Siton resumed his trek to the ship. Crossing the stream was awkward as he had to stand on slippery stones, but he managed to get to the other side while only getting his feet wet. That wasn¡¯t too bad, he even got the opportunity to refill one of his bags. However, the water in his slippers was, he was already getting blisters due to his poor footwear, but soggy ones were even worse. However, he sucked it up and kept going, ¡®crying wasn¡¯t going to do anything about it¡¯, the rational side of his mind said as he resumed his shelter hunt. Yet, after a couple more hours of walking, he had yet to find anything. Which was incredibly frustrating to him and was slowly beginning to stress him out. When he was finally about to give up and just sleep under the sky, Siton stumbled upon a clearing. In it was a small pond, nothing remarkable. However, what came as a surprise to him were the glowing lotus flowers on it. Each on a perfectly shaped circular Lilypad. The flowers themselves were in pristine condition, with a gentle glowing aura emanating from them. Yet, what surprised Siton the most was the extremely low EX concentration within the clearing. He could feel it being sucked in by the plants as it rushed past him. Quite shocked by this peculiar organism in front of him, he quickly made his way to the pond. While of course making sure there weren¡¯t any traps by poking the ground in front of him with a long stick he had found. He took his time inspecting the plants when he reached them. Until he suddenly heard a deep powerful growl originating from a few meters behind himself. ¡®This isn¡¯t good.¡¯ He thought. In front of him was the pond and behind was whatever creature wanted to kill and eat him this time. Deciding to make a run for it once more he quickly snatched a small lotus and made a run for it by following the edge of the pond. He quickly turned around to see a huge wolf, with immense ears, that was easily as tall as himself. The wolf looked at him with a powerful stare before deciding to pursue him. However, it wasn¡¯t running after him, it was just trotting along. Playing with its prey before other pack members would join it to brutally eviscerate Siton. Running at full speed for what seemed to be the tenth time this week, Siton managed to make it to the treeline. Just before the wolf howled with incredible volume, probably alerting all of its companions within kilometers. ¡®WHY ME!¡¯ Siton exclaimed in his mind more out of frustration than anything else. ¡®Why am I the one at the bottom of the food chain, always forced to run!¡¯ Just as he was about to continue further with his rant in the hopes of triggering EX once more, a hand shot out of the darkness, grabbing his arm, along with a hurried female voice. ¡°Quick! Follow me if you want to live!¡± Chapter 8 - Encounter [Short POV change ¨C a couple minutes prior] Arrine wanted to call out to the young man inspecting the pond in the clearing to warn him of the giant wolf slowly creeping upon him, but she found herself frozen in fear. For that wolf haunted her every awake and sleeping moment.
Ever since she had crash-landed on this planet everything had been going wrong for her. First, she had barely been able to make it to a pod in time when the alarms rang out on the ship because she had been in the middle of a nap. And being forcefully woken up from one due to a splitting headache did not go down well with her body. Significantly slowing her down in her escape. She had managed to find a pod with some luck despite the fact most of them had already been taken. Then the descent had knocked her out, and when she woke up, she had found herself in the middle of a forest with nothing to her name other than her clothes and her phone. When she had thought things couldn¡¯t get worse the damn wolf had shown up. A hulking mass of made of perfectly chiseled muscles whose only purpose in life was to hunt its prey had shown up. Alerted by the noise the impact had made, it had snuck up on her while she was still getting her bearings. It had tried to silently kill her in a single bite by snapping her neck. But by some incredible stroke of luck, it had slipped on the muddy soil when it lunged at her. Instantly alerting her of its presence. What followed was easily the most terrifying moment of her life. She had run away immediately upon seeing it. And the wolf had given her chase. The only reason she had survived was due to the densely packed forest which she could maneuver through swiftly due to her small size, whereas the wolf was too large to do so, significantly slowing it down. She, however, had far less stamina than the apex predator did. Where she began to slow down the wolf kept up. It was only a matter of time before she would have been caught. When the gloomy thought that she was going to die had almost entirely consumed her thoughts, a huge tree stump, easily three stories tall and fifteen meters in diameter came into her sight. The wood looked to be very sturdy yet ancient. She could see through multiple small holes in it that the stump was entirely hollow, all that remained was the outer bark. Most importantly she had spotted such a hole at ground level that was large enough for her to fit through. And she did just that. The wolf tried to follow her in, but it was too large to fit through any of the entrances, too weak to destroy the bark and incapable of jumping over it. Therefore, it quickly gave up on her. Arrine was safe. And so, she had spent the rest of the day in there. Over the course of the next few, she had made multiple trips out to gather food and water. But the wolf wouldn¡¯t leave her alone. On multiple occasions it had ambushed her during her trips, almost killing her a few times. The wolf seemed to have extremely powerful hearing, noticing every time she left her hideout. Thus, she dubbed it the awarewolf. It haunted her every dream, making them horrific nightmares, never leaving her alone. This is why, on her third day on this godforsaken planet, when she had seen the young man, during one of her exploration trips, she had been filled with joy. Finally, someone she could speak to! It would no longer be just her and the awarewolf. She had wanted to call out to the man when suddenly she spotted a large shadow slowly creeping up behind him. A far too familiar shadow. Causing her to freeze in fear. In fear that this creature which had relentlessly haunted her in the past few days would notice her. Even when it crept up on this man who she didn¡¯t know and yet deeply cared about, for he was the only human she had met since the crash.
Things, however, didn¡¯t go as she feared they would. The wolf let out a low growl in excitement at finally being able to catch this new elusive game, completely ruining his sneak attack. Causing the boy to bolt at the sound. Unintentionally running away towards Arrine. ¡®Oh god! What do I do? What do I do?¡¯ she began to panic; social interactions weren¡¯t her forte. In fact, she had spent most of her life barely interacting with anyone. So, she was at a loss when confronted with the fact that she had to talk to him. The wolf howled. The man was almost there. ¡®Aaaaaah! Just say something!¡¯ She yelled out internally. The man was next to her. She reached out for his right arm with her hand and blurted out the only line she could think of. ¡°Quick! Follow me if you want to live!¡± ¡®OhmygoddidIjustsaythat,¡¯ her face reddened in embarrassment.
[Back to Siton] Siton jumped back in surprise as the mysterious stranger¡¯s hand grabbed his forearm. Glancing at his potential savior, he quickly got a good idea of what they looked like. If the voice hadn¡¯t given it away yet, she was clearly a female. Her build was rather small, probably standing at around 160cm tall, she was still rather slender. Her hair was long and light brown, possibly lighter but that was hard to tell due to the dirt. Likewise, somewhat dusty, her face wasn¡¯t very striking, but neither was she ugly. If anything, she was unremarkable, much like himself. However, she did look a little angry at him, judging from reddening face under all the filth and grime. He quickly decided that he¡¯d have a better shot at surviving with her than alone. Even if she somehow seemed angry at him, even though he couldn¡¯t recall doing anything to warrant that kind of reaction. Maybe she was pissed off at having to save him. Somewhat intimidated, he replied with an equally clich¨¦ line. ¡°Lead the way, I¡¯ll follow.¡± He nodded at her. She nodded back and began running. Siton followed. She began weaving around trees and bushes with far more grace than him. It felt more like he was bulldozing through the woods, hitting branches and twigs at every turn. One of the disadvantages of being tall and never going outside.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Focussing on his ears he could clearly hear the sound of the wolf giving them chase. It was kinda hard to miss considering it was actually bulldozing through the forest, unlike Siton¡¯s poor imitation. Which made it really easy to notice it getting closer to him by the second. It was slowly gaining ground and was currently located somewhere behind him and to his right. Siton kept monitoring it as he was running, but it was proving hard to do so when he was also trying to run through a forest and follow someone. But for the time being, it seemed like the wolf wasn¡¯t going to try anything, it looked happy with just keeping up with them. Noticing this, Siton began to switch his focus from monitoring the wolf to running. A grave mistake. This was exactly what it was waiting for. As soon as it noticed the opportunity it leaped with its maw wide open. Aiming to crush the life out of Siton in a single bite. As he still remained blissfully unaware of the attack. When the beast¡¯s jaws slowly wrapped around his head and came into view, he realized just how fucked he was. As they were about to snap closed something tripped Siton up and caused him to fall face-first on the ground and roll for a few meters, carried by the momentum. Allowing him to narrowly escape certain death. Looking back at what just save his life, he was surprised to find the mysterious woman lying on the ground. Through these past couples of days, she¡¯d had multiple encounters with the awarewolf. And by now she knew its attack pattern very well. It was do or die after all, and she lived. So, when she heard the distinctive noise its feet made when it prepared to jump, she threw herself at the ground. Causing Siton to trip on her, unintentionally saving his life. The woman looked up too and made quick eye contact with Siton before yelling out. ¡°Almost there! Run!¡± Siton didn¡¯t need to be told twice as he got back on his feet and resumed running. He tried to look for the wolf, but he couldn¡¯t find it. He wouldn¡¯t make the same mistake twice, although he¡¯d be a bit clumsier this time, what was a couple of scratches from twigs and the like compared to losing your head. Quickly checking on his savior, he found that she had gotten back up already and was just behind him. She also happened to be glaring at him, as if telling him ¡®Stop wasting time and keep running!¡¯. He quickly turned around, wholeheartedly agreeing with that message. After a few more minutes of frantic running with no sign of the wolf, they finally arrived at their destination. The lady had taken the lead once more during their run. When the huge stump came into sight, Siton once again was in awe. ¡®This tree must have been gigantic when still alive!¡¯. ¡°This way! Through the hole!¡± His helper said as she crawled through one a little larger than a basketball located near ground level. Siton threw himself on the ground and tried to follow her inside. Unfortunately, an issue quickly arose. He was too large to fit. Unlike the place¡¯s owner, he wasn¡¯t short and slim. Okay¡­ he may be a bit skinny. But he was still too big. As he was struggling to get through, he heard a panicked voice shout out. ¡°Behind you! The awarewolf was waiting here this whole time!¡± His blood froze. This was the worst time to be stuck. Sweat beads began to roll down his face as he tried to push through. He could see the woman looking through a hole near eye level, keeping an eye on the wolf. ¡°Shit! I can¡¯t get through here! It''s too tight!¡± He yelled out while furiously trying to drag himself inside. She came over to assist him but even then, nothing would work. Meanwhile, the wolf was delighted to see its pray frantically trying to survive. It slowly covered the distance between himself and Siton. ¡°You have to try another entrance! There¡¯s a wider one at the back!¡± She told him when noticing the wolf¡¯s approach. Understanding that it was the only way in Siton complied and dragged himself out only to end up face to face with the massive creature. He was completely cornered. ¡°Open your hands! I have a plan!¡± Desperate and without a better idea Siton did as he was told and opened his hands. For a fraction of a second nothing happened, and the wolf lunged at him. This was it. Then everything went down in very close succession. A pristine metal spike materialized in his hand. It was roughly a meter long and ended in an extremely pointy cone on one side. Seeing this his eyes widened and the will to live was re-ignited within him. With a powerful desire for strength, EX surged within himself and flooded his body. He took a stance that he remembered from martial arts classes he took back on Earth. And he thrust forward with the spike. Impaling the wolf through the roof of its mouth and straight into its brain. Immediately ending the wolf¡¯s life. The weapon then suddenly disappeared, as quickly as it had burst into existence. The beast¡¯s corpse continued to fly carried by its enormous momentum and crashed straight into Siton. Causing him to hit his head extremely hard against the bark behind himself. Slumping on the ground with the corpse Siton could feel a very sudden release of EX, akin to an explosion, yet without any physical strength. His brain barely registered it, only managing to formulate one last thought as he felt himself slip into unconsciousness once more. ¡®Awarewolf? Really?¡¯
Siton was floating amidst a dark and limitless empty space. His mind not quite there, it felt distant and fragmented, separated from himself. He spent a long time aimlessly drifting in the pitch-black ocean slowly feeling the pieces of his consciousness slowly flow towards himself. It took what could have very well been minutes, hours or even days to gather, there was no way of knowing. Eventually, his consciousness slowly began to join once more. Within a few minutes most of the pieces had fused and he was once more able of complex thoughts. ¡°What is this space?¡± He thought. That¡­ wasn¡¯t quite right. What should have been his thoughts were somehow vocalized. ¡°What the¡­¡± ¡°This is weird.¡± He looked around, trying to find something in this vast empty space, but his search proved in vain. With nothing to do, he began to think about various subjects and topics. Most of which concerned the events which had unraveled since he had landed. It was a very curious experience to be left with nothing but your own thoughts. Thoughts that you couldn¡¯t hide from yourself or repress. In this place everything that crosses his mind was vocalized, impossible to ignore. He didn¡¯t have a body, which meant no senses, there was nothing around him but a pitch-black abyss nothing to turn to but his own mind. Siton stayed in this state for a while until he decided to try something. He had hypothesized in his thinking session that this space had to do with EX. But with no idea what to do his mind got distracted and drifted to another topic. It was only after a while that he realized; he could try to sense EX as he had previously done. If this place had anything to do with it, it wasn¡¯t a far stretch to assume he could sense it. Thus, he tried to clear his mind and reach the same state he had previously. Initially, this proved to be a significantly harder task than before due to how loud and distracting each of his thoughts was. But this also proved beneficial. Thoughts were normally elusive, they came and went, hard to grasp. Sometimes even unnoticeable; the brain was always thinking. In this space, however, that wasn¡¯t the case. Every thought was loud and clear, making them far easier to grasp. Allowing him to repel them as they came. It was still a monumental feat of self-control, but Siton managed. He could feel the hints of EX throughout this space. It was thick, almost liquid. Far denser than even the wolf¡¯s EX release. And then, suddenly, it clicked in his mind. The way to sense EX. He shouldn¡¯t try to sense it with his physical senses but with his mind. It wasn¡¯t a material thing; it was purely psychic. Hence why it was triggered by his emotions and thoughts. So, he reached with his mind in a way he never had before, like using a limb he never knew he had. And the world lit up. Revealing a gigantic space, ensnared by an equally large shining purple dome and filled by a humongous and incredibly radiant white sea below him. ¡°What is this place¡­¡± he whispered in wonder. Chapter 9 - Discovery Siton stared in awe at the surreal sight in front of himself. ¡°Am I dreaming? This is incredible.¡± This was a sight only possible before in video games or movies. Seeing it for real felt so much more intense that he began to doubt it actually was true. That didn¡¯t matter to him. This was exactly the kind of stuff he loved. New things within his reach that anybody had yet to discover. ¡°Can¡¯t be dreaming. The feeling of EX is very real. Gotta make sure though.¡± He tried to pinch himself, only to realize he lacked a body. The best way to describe his current state was a floating consciousness. ¡°Well. Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever dreamt of not having a body.¡± Without solid evidence to prove or disprove his current situation he just decided to ignore it and have some fun. The first thing he did was reach out for that white glimmering ocean beneath himself. Which proved to be a difficult task considering he didn¡¯t have limbs and had no idea how to move within this form. He tried to walk, drag himself and flail about. Nothing would work, he couldn¡¯t move. That is until he decided to try and pull as he did with the EX gates inside of himself. Propelling himself a solid meter ahead before he slowed down due to air resistance. Was there even any air here? EX resistance maybe? He sure didn¡¯t feel the need to breathe. Maybe this was a dream after all. Pushing the regards concerning the reality of his surroundings away, Siton began pulling himself about. Slowly inching closer to the shining ocean. This turned out to be quite an exhausting task. Pulling was not as easy as it seemed. He was literally trying to grab the fabric of this space with no hands and then drag himself forward. It was akin to dragging yourself on a floor covered with oiled plastic wrap. His grip on it was trash and he couldn¡¯t pull too hard lest he loses it. All of this while using a mental muscle he never knew he had before. One he wished would stop hurting god damn much from all the exertion already. After a grueling few minutes, he finally managed to make his way to the ocean. Unsure as of what to do he just propelled himself inside, ready to pull himself out at a moment¡¯s notice. Surprisingly it was a rather pleasant experience. The liquid gently flowed around him, giving off a feeling of warmth and strength. It didn¡¯t take much to infer that this was EX, albeit more different from what he was used to. This one felt like it didn¡¯t have any emotions or purpose behind it. Unlike when he had used it before-hand. Yet it was different from the one he found in the air. The naturally found version was far wilder, uncontrolled. Whereas this one felt far more tamed, under his command. This was his. Furthering his current theory that this place was somewhere within himself. Perhaps behind the gates, EX flowed through. This actually made a lot of sense after thinking about it. He knew that EX came from behind the gates and that it was somehow stored there. And the place he was currently in seemed like a huge EX reservoir. On top of that, the EX within seemed to respond to him really easily. The last thing he would need to confirm this theory was to find the actual gates. ¡°That won¡¯t be easy.¡± His thoughts once more resonated out loud. The reason behind that was very simple. All he had seen above the sea was the purple dome. Which meant that if the gate indeed existed it would be beneath it. Which made sense, as it would explain why the pressure EX applied to them increased whenever its quantity did. What it meant though was that if he wanted to find it, he¡¯d have to drag himself to the bottom of that ocean. And he had no idea how deep or how see-through it was. All he could see below it was endless white. It could very well be mostly clear but that was impossible to confirm due to the huge distance it covered in every direction. ¡°Actually¡­ I could just try to find out how much of the purple dome above I can see at different depths.¡± Going with this plan, he tried multiple distances and concluded it was slightly opaquer than water. Kind of like heavily diluted milk in water, somewhat cloudy. What this meant was that he had absolutely no clue how deep the EX actually was. It could very well go down to 5m just like it could be 10km. Either way, he wasn¡¯t too keen on dragging himself around in the white ocean. He could very easily get lost in it as there was absolutely no way for himself to know which way was up aside from the direction he came from. One of the disadvantages of not having a body. With nothing better to do, he decided to just wait above the liquid EX, observing his surroundings. Yet, his attention was quickly drawn back to the liquid mass under him once more. The fluid seemed to slowly flow in incredibly complex and mesmerizing patterns very similar to the way it did in the wild. Gentle waves came and went, following the ever-flowing shapes. Siton lost himself amongst these moving lines for a while. Trying to figure out the pattern behind them. Trying to predict their appearance. Yet after what seemed to have been a long time he remained just as successful as when he had begun. The whole thing seemed to be entirely random. There looked to be no rules behind their movements. But deep down he knew there must have been something. Nothing was ever truly random. If somebody had access to the state and location of every particle in the universe and a computer powerful enough to process it all, then, in theory, they could know anything in the past and future. Of course, the computer computing itself which was computing itself and so on creates some weird problem but that¡¯s not the point. The point was that Siton did not believe anything to be truly random.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Even if he couldn¡¯t see a pattern now, it didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t one. Stubborn as he was, he wouldn¡¯t give up on it until he had it figured out. But for now, he had grown bored of it so he went back to observing his surroundings while trying to find a way back to his body. He didn¡¯t want to stay stuck in here forever. Just as he thought that he noticed some weirdly shaped clouds floating in the sky. Three of them to be precise, two of which looked like a person and the last one a drop. They were very faint, which is why he hadn¡¯t noticed them until now. But they had definitively piqued his interest. As he was about to begin the grueling journey to get there, he felt a tug on himself. Pulling him down below the radiant ocean. At first, he tried to resist it, he didn¡¯t know what it was, and he wanted to inspect those clouds. However, upon reflection, he realized that the force was probably his way out. He must be waking up or something in the real world and he had no idea what would happen if he decided to stay there. Therefore, he decided to let the strange power tug him below the huge body of liquid EX. It gradually got stronger as time went by and before he knew it, he came face-to-face with a huge double gate, easily one hundred times larger than himself. As he got closer and closer to them, he saw that it was inscribed with weird EX patterns across its whole bulk. When he was about to hit them, they opened up a little, creating a tiny gap just large enough to get him through. Allowing him to zoom past and into the strange, yet somehow familiar, dark abyss on the other side. Then the gates closed behind himself and all was dark.
Siton¡¯s eyelids felt heavy, making the simple task of opening his eyes far harder than it should be. But after a little bit of struggle, he managed to pry them open. What he saw was tree bark. A huge wall of bark. Looking around he quickly established that he was inside the tree he had been trying to get into prior to being knocked out. It was still daytime, and he could see some trees growing beyond the sanctuary trough a few holes in the wood. Righting himself up he noticed that he had been lying on some huge leaves that formed a makeshift bed. They had a classic teardrop shape but touching them revealed an interesting property. They were covered in a multitude of small hairs that gave it the texture of animal fur, making it quite a comfortable improvised mattress. While he was inspecting the leaf a bit closer, he heard a stick crack behind himself. Out of reflex, he turned around immediately. Only to be faced with his savior. The woman this time was far cleaner than before. She must have used some water to clean up while he was out. Her hairs were definitely blond, and she had striking blue eyes. ¡°Hello.¡± She said, somewhat quietly. ¡°Hi.¡± He replied awkwardly. They stared at each other, not knowing what to say. One of which was intimidated by the task of talking to a person. The other intimidated by the person facing them. Eventually, after minutes of staring Siton decided to break the silence. The woman¡¯s face had begun to turn red while maintaining a deadpan expression, looking angrier by the second. ¡°I¡¯m Siton Novmundo, thanks for saving me before.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± she began to speak only to close her mouth instantly. She stayed like that for a bit until her face took on a resolute expression and she exclaimed. ¡°My name is Arrine Tielle¡­ Nice to meet you¡­¡± Saying that last bit under her breath. ¡°I want to say, if I¡¯ve offended you in any way, I¡¯m really sorry.¡± ¡°Oh! Nononono you haven¡¯t offended me at all!¡± She exclaimed in a very sudden outburst. Immediately covering her hands with her mouth afterward with wide eyes. Siton stared at her. She stared back. Which was followed by another stretch of silence. ¡°Soooo¡­¡± Siton began, ¡°Is this where you live?¡± She nodded. Silence. They stared at each other. Silence. She turned red. He did too. ¡°Um¡­ So what was that thing you did to make the spike materialize?¡± He asked, hoping to break this awkward silence. She mumbled a response. It was hard to hear but she said something along the lines of ¡°strange power¡± and ¡°imagine the object appearing¡±. Siton nodded and thanked her. She nodded back and shyly left the tree sanctuary with the aim of finding a good tree to bash her head against. Uncertain as of what to do now, Siton decided to stay put and try out materializing something. The main reason for that decision was mainly due to two facts. One, it seemed incredibly useful to be able to create something out of thin air whenever you want. Two, it was just plain badass. But before starting he wanted to gather what he actually knew about that process. First of all, was that it was dependent on EX, this made sense as that energy seemed capable of supernatural feats. Next, the object materialized was temporary, as proven by the spike¡¯s short duration. Perhaps longer-lived items were tougher to make or maybe they created a constant drain whenever active. And finally, the objects made felt like the real deal, at least the spike did. However, Siton was under no delusion that he¡¯d be able to make it work on his first try. This process required EX, which put him in quite a pinch. He hadn¡¯t once before been able to use EX outside of a life or death situation. Or at least one he considered being so. This meant that he had absolutely no idea how to get EX out when safe if that was at all possible. Faced with this challenge Siton began at the only place he could. Strong emotions. If his hunch was correct, what actually triggered EX were strong emotions. This was what caused it to enter a frenzy, which made the magic possible. The only supporting evidence he had for this hypothesis was when Arrine had conjured the metal rod. She herself had not really been in a life-threatening situation, he had. So, he had theorized that it was her need to save him that had resonated with the EX within her. With this starting point, Siton now had to settle on an emotion he¡¯d want to use for his experiments. Ideally, one he could use at any time. The prime candidate on his list was panic, it was a feeling he was extremely prone to. Thus, making it an ideal choice in that regard. However, Siton quickly pushed it aside as it would create more issues than it would solve. Intentionally panicking when your life was on the line was not a wise decision. So, he settled on another feeling he was familiar with, determination. This was what he used to combat and prevent panic whenever he could. Steeling himself from the tempest of uncontrollable emotions with an iron will. They were polar opposites, which was why he had become adept in using it throughout the years to keep his panic under control. Strengthening his resolve whenever he felt himself flounder, a sign of the storm to come. He had previously let his emotions run rampant these past previous days. This was now over. Reinforcing his will to survive and explore, he began to delve and unravel the mysteries of that peculiar materialization power.