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5. Exploration
🕑 Added 2023-05-02 11:07:01 +0000 UTCDay 6.
A human could be seen slowly and carefully climbing down a tree, Liam sighed to himself as his bare foot touched the grass and fresh soil.
Walking on the ground after nearly a week of being contained to a branch was strange, breathing in and out he moved around the tree.
His eyes stayed longer over the hole made by the great austrapede claw before focusing on the plain surrounding him. The first order was to find water, food could wait as he had all of it in his inventory, to avoid having it stolen by an animal and he saw where he could get some but that would require him to hunt.
Liam chose the direction opposite from the hole in the tree, he was going to use the tree and the area surrounding it as his home base for the moment and the foreseeable future.
'Hmm, I will need to put up landmarks or find ones.', the human thought while walking, the possibility of getting lost was not out of the equation. He didn't hold any attachment to the tree or what he built on out but getting lost was always bad.
The human then passed the next few hours exploring, collecting various plants, notably the Pandorian aloe vera, he saw six-legged horses in the far distance and various alien birds.
He collected a hundred or so kilos of fresh clay, something that he needed, mostly to begin metalworking.
The clay was at the root of a tree next to the deep and large entrance of a grotto leading to the unknown depth of Pandora, a small part of him was urging to jump just to see what would happen but he controlled it.
All around the plant life was lusher, in great contrast compared to the savannah-like environment around. It made him think of those same grottoes on Earth that sometimes housed swarms of bats or flocks of small birds. This was a worrying hypothesis, and very likely the truth, the swarm he saw sometimes ago is living here.
This was bad but he could hear the soft runoff of water, which was excellent news there was liquid water, well that was what he hoped for he know its acid, and another thing that picked his interest was a strange and unknown element in the clay.
He remembered something about a precious metal tied to the plot, it was called unobtanite, unobtanium, or something, a silly name and the reason why he will call it pandorium, in all case it was important information to know where it was and a supposedly precious resource.
He was going to come back later with adequate equipment and preparation, this will be dangerous, but if it doesn't take risks he will not progress. And that was the opposite of what he wanted, stagnation was a death sentence.
Looking in the sky Liam saw the position of the sun and decided it was time to step back to the base, he did go quite far and was a little tired, his thirst and hunger were satisfied by what he had in his inventory.
'Something's wrong.'
He instinctively took one of his spears out, one as long as he was tall and ending with a sharp stone while at the same time, he took in a defensive position as he heard the rustling of grass from his right, then his left.
It was something he thought of as possible but had nothing to do with it happening but brute forcing his way through. All plans crumbled the moment they became effective, after all.
'Calm down Liam.', Liam thought his heart pumped more blood in his body in a strange mix of excitement and palpitation. Instincts and muscle memories he never had on Earth but are now a part of him being the guiding force behind his calmness and confidence at this exact moment.
His facial expression hardened and he focused on his senses. He heard the very faint sound of paws hitting the soil and stomping on vegetation. The two creatures were encircling him, one smaller than the other. This standstill continued for what felt like an eternity until one acted.
Having had enough of waiting, the young and inexperienced male viperwolf hidden in the tall grass growled and took its chance.
It ran and leaped at the human from the back, maw wide open showing rows of sharp teeth and fangs ready to shred and tear apart Liam's neck.
Liam spun on himself, ignoring the slight pain from his back that was not fully healed yet, the spear in his left hand gaining momentum as he did so, this was followed by his left arm flexing and the spear was thrown right at the young viperwolf.
The spear flew through the air, and the viperwolf that decided to attack could but make a strangled whimper mixed with a bark.
The spear penetrated one of its opercula and then its ribs, missing its heart by a few centimeters but not everything around as the stone head broke apart.
The power of the throw was still enough to let the damaged spear piece through the viperwolf belly by half a meter before finally stopping, effectively skewering it as the dying animal fell to the ground bleeding profusely.
A strangely emotional howl of grief followed and the bigger one remaining slowly walked out of the tall grass four meters away from him, it was a female, it was of a deep yellow, 1 meter (3ft3) tall and 2 meters (6ft6) in length. An impressive animal, it was muscular, lean, and ready to pounce at him at any moment.
And it was glaring at Liam, its gaze was far from being even remotely sapient, yet he could however detect vague emotions close to sadness in its four green eyes. It was sad but he didn't feel compassion toward any of the two, and why should he?
Would you feel compassion toward something that wants to reap and eat your entrails, preferably while you're still conscious? Maybe some would but Liam wasn't part of those. Things trying to kill him didn't sit right with him.
Sadly for the female viperwolf, the only chance it got to kill Liam was when it was with its cub and even then it was informed, now however, it had no chance at all.
The female knew it, its instincts conflicted, on one side it tells to run but on the other, it yelled to kill the creature in front of it at all costs, and it was backed by what the creature just did. The same instinct pushed the duo to attack Liam, and this same instinct won.
'Huh… Then so be it. It's its choice even if its behavior is strange.', the human thought calmly but with alertness, as he saw how the viperwolf body language changed to something more aggressive and threatening, a position only a cornered animal will take.
You never underestimate a creature backed against a corner. Never. You destroy it before it fights back, well at least in theory.
A spear in all points similar to the one he threw earlier appeared in his left hand. The viperwolf didn't wait and directly attacked, Liam didn't stay idle, the spear in his hand was thrown immediately with deadly accuracy, this time it had more power as it was not thrown in the heat of the moment.
The viperwolf didn't have the time to dodge, the spear moved faster than its eyes could perceive, and even if it had the capability it couldn't have dodged.
The spear lodged itself right in one of the beast's speculums and continued its course as it flew right through its belly, deeply embedding itself in the ground, trapping the female viperwolf.
However, it wasn't dead and wildly trashing, growling, snapping its jaws. It was a pretty disturbing sight.
Another spear appeared in his left hand from his implant and he walked carefully toward the female viperwolf, with one single thrust he perforated its braincase, killing it for good. He did the same for the smaller viperwolf, letting them suffer more was simply cruel and pointless, as well as a waste of time.
"Guess that's what I'll eat tonight… May you two become something smarter and have more luck in your next life if you have any.", Liam mumbled, taking out his two bloodied spears he stored them, the smell of blood was heavy in the air.
He studied the two corpses, they were ugly in his opinion, crouching in front of the smaller viper wolf he gripped its head, the body started to slowly but progressively distort then it was sucked into the inventory.
'It's amazing… The level of ingenuity and manpower used to design this device.', he was fascinated by the implant, he didn't directly have the blueprint of it but with everything he knew around he understood how it functioned and what is probably needed to create one.
Someone else will also be amazed, shell shocked, or whatever they will feel about this piece of technology that would not be dissimilar to magic but never would they truly appreciate what was done behind it to make it happen.
Then he did the same to the female viperwolf, this one took more than two minutes to be put into the inventory. The shape, size, mass, and density of an 'object' he wanted to store affected greatly the time needed to store it. And it didn't stop time.
Cracking his knuckles Liam's grey eyes fell upon one of the two puddles of blood left from the viperwolves' bodies, he was thinking about what he just did but it was life, some died while some survived. He wasn't going to let himself die for some alien hexapod mutts.
He then looked up at the sun, hand shielding his eyes he noticed he was getting short on time.
He didn't have a watch and from what he knew the day and night circles were far different than Earth but he should have a good three hours before the sunset.
Jogging back a dozen kilometers without pauses to his base, he arrived with a body covered in a thin sheet of sweat thanks to the intense ray of the sun, his breathing slightly ragged and his body still ready to do another dozen kilometers.
'My stamina is insane… Now… I will need to bleed the bodies and skin, butcher them, cut an area of all grass, and then light a fire before dinner. And all of it while being careful of any fucker that might want to tear me a new one. Seem easy enough.', he thought with sarcasm, but it was needed as the rest of the day passed without a hitch or problem.
The reason? Any creature that might have been a problem either fled or was eaten by the swarm of stingbats, or was too afraid to remotely approach him and the tree as it reeked of his smell and presence.
Preparing the two viper wolves was not easy but a great learning experience, he tried as best to not damage the hide and mostly succeeded while he skinned, he would need it.
The tendons and bones too will be of great use. As usual, he kept the internal organs such as the guts in his inventory for later use, such as using them as future fertilizer.
A waste of food, it disheartened him, but he couldn't thoroughly clean those types of organs and it was an unnecessary risk to eat those parts. Same as for the damaged part of the hides but he preferred those minor inconveniences over being injured because he wanted the cleanest kill with the less damage possible.
And not forgetting that most of the internal organs were ruptured, skewered by the spears, and as such not exactly good and safe for consumption.
