Chapter 12: Finding Food and Water Source
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When I was desperately running in the deep gap between the cliff, a big boulder fell and completely blocked the small path in front.

“Oh shoot!”

Just then, many of the smaller stones hit the body shield and made it dimmer and dimmer, indicating that it was almost running out of energy. This place had twice the gravity of Earth, thereby making the falling rocks fell faster and more destructive than usual. My body was also harder to move which made me vulnerable.

[“Master! It seems that the shield will only last less than one minute… No more than 58% of energy remaining."] ATHENA's sudden cheerful voice just made me more restless.

This cannot go on; If the shield disappears then the rocks would kill me.

Subsequently, I took out the All Cut Sword from the dimensional storage before trying to cut the big boulder. Fortunately, the boulder was easily slashed by the hotness of the sword. Although it needed multiple swings before a big enough gap could be passed by me.

Hence, making me able to pass that boulder swiftly. But just when I was passing through, a falling 2 meters long cone-shaped rock managed to cause a crack on my shield with some of the big fragments grazed my right shoulder.

“Arghh…” Ignoring the pain of my slightly fractured arm, I continued to run.

Finally, I was out from the long gap and realized that it was expanding, leading me to somewhere that didn’t have any collapsing cliff. My legs stopped a while later as a large grass plain entered my eyesight. There were lots of harmless-looking animals and a clear stream of the river could be seen not far from there.

“Hah..hah... Gasp! Hahhh..” a sound of my exhaustion could no longer be held after being certain that I was in a safer location.

Ah… a food and water source, what a blessing in disguise. I smiled, completely forgetting the fractured shoulder of my right arm.

Seeing that the river was closer to me, I decided to approach that place first and test the water. This time though, I was more careful and more wary of the surroundings. After all, this place was much more dangerous than I had previously anticipated.

Anyone in my situation would have done the same, as even when I was quite vigilant of my surroundings, something bad still happens. Therefore, nothing was wrong with me being overcautious.

As I approached the clear river in the distance, I felt that there might be an unknown beast hiding below the calm stream. In response, I took a few small pebbles on the ground and tried to toss them hard into the river with my left hand.

One by one of the pebbles were thrown, but except the ripples, there hasn’t been any reaction coming from there. Still, I wasn't convinced and decided to wait for a minute.

A minute then passed but there still nothing weird with the river, I then moved towards the river cautiously before taking some of the water swiftly and asked ATHENA, "ATHENA, could you scan if there are any harmful substances and bacteria in the water?"

Although I knew that a flowing river was one of the safest places of water source. Since this was a foreign place full of danger, I wanted to play it safe.

[“Yes~, Scanning the content of the water… Scanning completed! There seems to be a good mineral content on the water and not any harmful substance was detected, but as for the bacteria and other microscopic lifeforms…"]

“What is it? Tell me.” I inquired a bit confused by the hesitant voice of ATHENA that was rare to hear.

[“Despite having a slightly different form and color, the bacteria here are quite similar to the one on Earth. Advanced instruments might be needed for further observation to determine whether it had the same properties or not."] ATHENA explained cheerfully.

“How could it be possible? Even bacteria found on another planet outside the solar system are quite different….” But then I held my glabella in deep thought.

Actually… bacteria on another planet aren’t that much different since they also follow the same or at least a similar evolution path from Earth. Therefore, finding out that bacteria and other lifeforms here to be similar was still acceptable.

Just when I was still thinking about the weirdness of this world, the sound of an object hopping around the grass entered my ear. A cute thick white-furred animal that looked like a fluffy ball rabbit with a uniquely long two front teeth, long-eared and scarlet sharp eyes was hopping aimlessly in my direction.

A ball? No… an overly thick furred rabbit? Wait, is that a horn?

In the middle of its glabella, a small protruding horn could be seen. Witnessing this curiosity, I took out the Universal Measurement Device and aimed it at the weird rabbit. Upon surveying the hologram, I was speechless by what was written on there.

48? A simple rabbit is that strong? Absolutely ridiculous!

Indeed, you can't judge a book by its cover. Although, it’s not like I could completely trust the Universal Measurement Device either.

I mean, let’s say that there are two creatures, one with 100 points and the other with 70 points. Logically speaking, the first one would win, but what if the first creature was only had big adaptability while the second was a ferocious beast?

So, numbers alone cannot judge everything. And it seems that the weird rabbit was in the first category.

Following that, I took out the All Cut Sword and tried to swing it with my left hand into the rabbit. The sword felt like a normal sword, as I decided not to activate the radiator. Unexpectedly, as if being threatened by the sudden movement of me. The rabbit inflated like a balloon and made my sword bounced off weirdly just like hitting a pile of rubber.

“Huh?” My eyes opened wide in shock upon seeing what just happened.

Even though this sword wasn’t made that sharp, it didn’t mean that it couldn’t cut anything….

Subsequently, the strange rabbit seemed to be provoked and rapidly launched itself to me while pointing its horn. It was a shame for it but I have got my body shield ready and the strike of the rabbit didn’t even leave a scratch to it.

No wonder it had 48 points on power, not only it was quite adaptable to sharp weapon, it could also do counterattack.

Afterward, I decided to finish the cute rabbit with the radiator on. Seeing that I was going to attack again, the weird rabbit inflated itself again into a balloon shape.

Poof!

A sound of a balloon bursting could be heard coming from the rabbit that was cut in half. Red blood was also spurting out from it in a grotesque way. If anyone was to look at this scene, they would have cursed at me for being so cruel.

Guess that's the end of the rabbit, although I wasn't that fond of a cute thing, seeing this horrible state of the rabbit is a bit heart-wrenching. I starting to regret killing the rabbit in such a way but then paid it no mind.

In such a foreign place, if I couldn’t be cruel, then I won’t be able to survive, and it’s not like my hand was that clean either way. I shook my head and stored the rabbit’s corpse into my dimensional storage.

After that, a few more rabbits were hunted by me in the surrounding, of course in a more humane way. I also took a lot of water and stored it into a few gallons before storing it inside of my dimensional storage.

Obviously, I won't drink the water directly from here. I’ll need a filter at the ship to purify the content of the water. The reason why I kept it inside a gallon was just to keep safe, despite there couldn’t be any reaction inside a dimensional storage.

Once everything has been dealt with, I decided to go back into the ship as more exploration will be very dangerous. It was also necessary to heal my fractured shoulder which had been quite bothering me.

Suddenly, a cheerful voice of ATHENA rang out from my helmet, [“Master, I had discovered that the water contained an excessive amount of ammonia and waste…”]

“Yuck! You mean that the river was full of beast’s urine and feces?”

Wait, this is a river, if there’s any civilization that lives in this strange place, they would have probably stay near a water source…

“Ahh… What am I thinking? Humanity had explored the galaxy for centuries, and they didn’t find any signs of intelligent life outside of Earth, I’m not saying that there isn’t one in the universe but for me to find a sign of it might just be a pure coincidental.”

After deciding not to delve into this topic further, I left the area and went back into the spaceship.

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