The next morning, Erin slowly opened his eyes after getting an unintentional good night's rest.
The ground his body was lying on was charred black.
To his surprise, everything that he was wearing was still intact.
Although he knew his uniform was strong, he doubted it could survive such a powerful blast.
As such, he considered that perhaps the lightning never actually harmed him.
His clothes, the amulet, and even his bag were all in fine condition. The small orb was still firmly attached to his waist as well.
There was a mix of relief and confusion because even though he expected something, nothing obvious had changed at all.
Unwilling to waste his time lingering on something he couldn't solve, Erin started planning out his next steps before getting up and walking next to the river.
By walking down the river, he hoped to eventually come by some sort of civilization somehow.
It was common for settlements to be built near sources of freshwater on countless planets.
However, before he began his trek, an idea popped into Erin's mind. Taking out his bag, he took out a dice shaped item labelled 'Emergency Raft'.
Once again, Erin demonstrated his stickler side. Even though the empire he was from was merely a Tier one power, mankind's technology was still very well developed.
Thus, although Erin's bag was not too big, there were still many tiny items marked as 'supplies'.
In fact, the raft was originally intended for if a starship had to make an emergency landing on a body of water.
The power of it was not to be underestimated.
It was designed to cross the length of several oceans and reach land; thus, it had the strength to withstand oceanic storms.
With a simple throw, the dice activated and turned into a large motorized raft.
Before it got pulled away by the river's currents, Erin quickly boarded the raft.
After making some minor adjustments, Erin rested around the back of the raft and used the small control panel on it to send the raft sailing forward.
At an average speed that pushed over 100 knots, he was confident that he wouldn't need to sail on this river for too long.
As the raft moved forward, the waves made behind it were rather large and pushed towards the banks of the wide river.
Unfortunately for Erin, several hours had passed yet the scenery almost looked the same.
The only difference was that the southern side of the river no longer had a large forest.
Now, everywhere he looked were just grassy plains that stretched over the horizon.
Even the river continued to touch the horizon with no clear end in sight.
Somewhat disappointed, Erin noticed the sun was starting to set. So he decided to put the raft in auto-pilot before going to sleep.
If there was any emergency beyond the auto-pilot's control, it would instantly wake up Erin to alert him.
Fortunately for Erin, the river seemed peaceful enough. Other than the alert, he also set an alarm in case he overslept.
The sun finally set and the night sky took its place. Stars shone bright enough to illuminate the river's water.
Time passed slowly as a young man drifted down the river at a breakneck pace.
---
Dawn of the next day.
Erin's snores echoed across the raft like a rampant tide. His peaceful face looked like the complete opposite of this noise though.
The alarm that Erin set previously started ringing loudly.
Somewhat annoyed, he instinctively reached over to shut off the alarm.
However, rather than feeling the alarm, he touched something rather soft and gooey instead.
'What in the world?'
A simple thought ran through Erin's mind as he casually opened his eyes.
Before him was the most unusual slime creature he has ever seen in his life.
Light blue in color, the slime's eyes looked back at Erin like it was being wronged.
Erin's hand was unintentionally groping the head of the slime.
Finally, the alarm shut off by itself, but its sound was quickly replaced by Erin's confused screaming.
"What the heck is this?!" Erin yelled as he lifted up the slime and threw it off his raft.
With a small thud, the slime seemed to have landed on solid ground. It was at this moment that Erin realized his raft had docked on the banks of the river.
Before he got a chance to look around, two small but infuriated voices blared from the side of the raft.
"Don't hurt Bobo!"
Surprised, Erin turned to the source of these voices and saw that it was a young boy and girl both dressed in muddy, tan overalls.
"See, I told you the stranger wasn't a kind one!" The young boy quietly muttered to the young girl beside him.
At Erin's current level, such small sounds could be heard crystal clear as long as he listened with those intentions.
"But Bobo never goes near bad guys!" The young girl whispered back to the boy. The confidence in her voice was slightly wavering.
Before the two younglings made any bad conclusions, Erin quickly responded to fix the situation.
"Sorry, I just woke up and didn't expect a creature to be on my raft." Erin spoke as sincerely as he possibly could.
"I didn't mean to hurt the little on-"
As Erin spoke that last phrase, the two younglings actually looked even angrier.
"..I didn't mean to hurt Bobo!"
Erin was confused by their reactions.
"Hmph. Bobo is the biggest slime in this area! We raised him ourselves!" The young girl proudly said out loud. Nodding in agreement, the young boy had a serious look on his face.
'That's what they were angry about?' Erin facepalmed in his mind.
"Ah.. I see! Yes, that's why I was surprised! I didn't think a slime could get that big! I thought it was something else which is why I was worried."
Just like how he passed his adolescent studies, Erin spouted out nonsense hoping that it would make sense.
"Ooh, that's understandable." The young boy found logic in Erin's nonsense and agreed first. The young girl looked back at Bobo with confidence again.
"Haha, sorry for the misunderstanding." Erin sighed. "If you don't mind me asking, do you know where this is? To be honest with you both, I am lost right now."
The young boy and girl looked down at the high-tech raft that Erin was on and then looked back at Erin suspiciously.
In their minds, only powerful people could afford these kinds of devices. They did not know that Erin came from a galaxy where such things were commonplace.
"Sure, but you have to put Bobo on your head first!" The young boy was smiling innocently but his words sounded very serious. Looking towards the boy, the young girl paused for a moment before her face gave off a look of realization.
"Yes, Bobo goes on your head first!" The young girl muttered out loud like if she were a genius.
'..Why do they want to put a large slime on my head?' Erin was completely dumbfounded.
Pinching his eyebrows in confusion, Erin looked down at the slime named Bobo and was shocked for a moment. A light-blue screen popped up above the head of the slime!
[Name: Bobo] [Level: ????]
[Species: Slime] [Grade: Divine]
[Affinity: 10/100 | Recent Changes: -20]
[Primary Skill: Unknown]
[Secondary Skill: Lie-Indicator (Accuracy varies on Target's level)]
'What the…' Erin was absolutely shell-shocked.
He couldn't believe that this slime was at such a high level!
Although Erin was formerly just a student looking to enter the Imperial Academy, his strength shouldn't be underestimated. The amount of applicants that the academy receives on a yearly basis is in the tens of billions range.
However, the entrance exam only accepts thirty thousand applicants every year!
Thus, the people who pass the preliminary examinations and get to take the entrance exams on the capital planet were all elites. Erin was already pushing level 310 before he vanished from the starship. Unfortunately, the creatures he met were probably beings that pushed the nine digit range.
'????' meant that the slime was a higher level than Erin!
He also didn't understand why he could see this blue screen.
'Wait.. is this the so-called gift that I had to endure lightning for?!'
Erin tried to reason with himself since he didn't have any means to confirm this hypothesis.
Staring at Erin's confused face, the two younglings started looking impatient.
Realizing this, Erin let out a stiff smile before nodding in agreement.
"Haha, after looking more seriously, I did not realize that your slime was strong! I was really taken by surprise." Erin let out a pathetic excuse.
"At least you have good eyes." The young girl was suddenly proud and happy.
The young boy looked down at the slime near him before nodding.
Understanding the boy's thoughts, the slime suddenly jumped before landing on Erin's head.
The gooey feeling on his hair and scalp made Erin quiver a little on the inside. He tried his best to calm down a little. Besides, after seeing the slime's abilities, he had a vague idea why the younglings insisted on this.
"Great! You are very considerate!" The young boy spoke with a genuine smile this time.
"So you said you were lost, right?"
"Yes, I really don't know where I am." Erin responded earnestly.
Unknown to Erin, the originally light blue slime's color started to fade away. Even though he could feel the slime, the creature was barely touching the edge of his forehead so he couldn't see the slime changing colors.
When the slime turned into a very deep shade of green, the young girl let out a genuine smile as well. Both of the younglings looked at each other before nodding in agreement.
"I see! You are very lucky then. The river you're on is called the Emerald River. Downstream will lead you to the water-gates of Emerald City. That city is built on the edges of the Eighth Ocean and connects to the Emerald River." The young boy didn't hesitate to answer.
"Do you come from the First Ocean?" The young girl suddenly interrupted with curious and excited eyes.
"The First Ocean?" Erin had no idea what she was talking about.
Noticing his confusion, the young boy cleared things up quickly.
"With Emerald City and the Eighth Ocean on one end, the First Ocean is on the other end of this river. It's just extremely far away and filled with many obstacles that could easily kill the average person." The young boy started to speak like a senior educating a junior.
"I see. I started sailing my boat near a lake and waterfall. I don't know anything about the First Ocean that you're talking about." Erin honestly answered.
He had a hunch after noticing that the slime on his head was feeling up his scalp with every word that came out of his mouth.
"..Is that so.." The young girl sounded rather disappointed. Unsurprised by Erin's lack of knowledge, the young boy's eyes lit up with curiosity instead.
"In that case, where are you from?" The young boy looked at Erin.
With a sigh, Erin looked at the two younglings seriously and answered truthfully.
"Do you know the Dawn Empire by chance?"