With an empty stomach and a head full of thoughts, Jack returned to the center of the platform and sat down.
Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. His consciousness quickly slid into the sweet embrace of the dream realm giving Jack some well-needed rest.
In the middle of the night, however, a sudden impulse stirred him awake. Jack jumped to his feet, his mind full of tense apprehension. He had a dream about being devoured by the dark portal.
However, the sea was quiet and calm.
"What is that?"
Out there in the distance, a few kilometers away, a small purple light was shimmering in the darkness. Its reflections were rising and falling with the movement of waves.
' damn, I don't understand anything in this place.'
' I'm i supposed to go to the light?.'
Jack held his stomach, a slight pain affecting his mood. Pangs of hunger were still not unbearable, but slowly becoming more and more intense. The thirst, however, was worse.
In the end, he remained awake up until the sun rose again, and watch a repeat of the strange scenario, the sea retreated by turning into sand.
As soon as the morning came, Jack tried to map out places without the strange sand
He walked to the opposite side of the platform to take a look in the direction where he had seen the mysterious light the previous night.
At a considerable distance from the Spaceship five or six kilometers away the ground rose naturally and formed something akin to a hill. On top of that hill, a massive strange black mech was crouching on the ground, it looked like an aerial mech with two separate heads.
The flight system were out, the cockpit was broken and corroded leaving behind a huge gaping in the chest region, it looked like it was bowing before a king and it's sword was a few feets away stuck in the ground.
From the looks of it, it's heads were just high enough to stay above water in the night.
Various ideas stormed into Jack's head.
Should I even attempt to do it? After all the mysterious light could be a trap or something or could be something beneficial, as opposed to dreadful and deadly maybe something worse than the dark portal.
Logically speaking, he was as safe atop the Spaceship as he probably could be in this strange place. The only problem was, he was going to die soon because of thirst or hunger.
Jack closed his eyes for a moment, a bright idea forming gradually, his eyes shone with light.
' If this is a dream, I can't leave by falling asleep maybe I just have to do something drastic maybe suicide.'
He got closer to the platform and stared, Staring all the way down made his head spin.
' That's enough height to kill a person.'
'Maybe I should try something else'
Jack picked a stone and stared at his right hand.
' Here goes nothing '
With all his might he brought the stone down on his right hand, Jack felt an intense pain surge through his body.
' AAAARGGGH '
Jack stared at his bleeding hand, his bone was obviously broken cause his hand looked deformed.
He grits his teeth and tore off his cloth and warped around his hand with the aid of some sticks.
*******************
In the night, a sudden storm descended upon the sea. Jack was stirred awake in time to prepare himself for the crushing winds and the pelting rain.
Staying low so as to not be blown over the edge of the platform, Jack cupped his hands and waited until they became filled with rainwater. Then he raised them to his mouth and greedily drank.
Strikes of red lightning illuminated the red sky and everything above the churning sea.
The storm continued to rampage for several hours. Jack crouched in the middle of the platform, enduring its rage. More than once, a tall wave would crash into the spaceship, threatening to wash him away. But Jack held tight to the deep grooves in the hull of the platform, sticking to it like glue.
By morning, when the storm finally dissipated, all of his muscles were sore.
Jack stared at the receding waves with red eyes as soon as it was all sand again, he slid over the edge of the platform and began to nimbly climb down.
Jack hand to thank the spaceship for having .many grooves embedded in it's surface, Jack followed an optimal way down that put him in the best holds and indentions to grab onto.
Soon, his feet finally touched the ground.
Despite the fact that leaving the safety of the spaceship was going to put him in considerable danger, Jack instantly felt his mood improving. Remaining passive for the last couple of days almost drove him crazy. Now, even if his plan were to end in failure, at least he didn't care but there was only on thing in his mind.
' Food. '
Jack turned around and stared at the White spaceship, a marvel of creation, it looks like a collection of different sizes of metal stuck together, it looks like a kid tried to put a starship together and it still maintained it's splendor, it looks so creative, it looks as big as a city and such massive thrusters but it looks like a whale or some strange sea creature stuck in the sand.
' Yeah nothing is right in this place. '
The mud was deep enough to slow him down, but not to the extent he had been afraid of. With some practice, Jack was soon able to walk at an acceptable speed. What's more, as long as he stuck to the shadows, his steps were heavy and forceful, producing squelching noises from the mud.
He headed for one of the paths that were supposed to lead him to the distant hill with the crouching mech.
He didn't even want to think about what would happen if he were still inside the swamp once the sea came back in an ethereal flood.
Jack was just a dozen feet from the spaceship
when the mud directly in front of him started to move, he was a fraction of a second late to react.
In the next moment, a massive maw shot out of the ground and tore through the air, threatening to cut his body in half with one crushing strike.
Jack head awkwardly fell backward, allowing the maw to close right in front of his face with a loud "clack". The jagged, teeths were so close that he could clearly see bits of mud sticking to their surface.
Jack landed on his back, narrowly avoiding the unexpected strike. The good thing was that he managed to avoid being injured or even killed. The bad thing was that he was sprawled on the ground, unable to quickly create distance between him and the attacker. Jack spared the attacker a glance, as it slowly raise itself above the mud.
The attacker looks like a giant human with the shape of a female. Three hollow eyes and blades for hands, a strange cover on his back like a carapace. it eyes were full of rage, hunger, and malice.
Towering over him at almost three meters in height, the bulky creature moved its mandibles and produced a jarring, piercing piercing screech.
The creature looked hideous but not as scary as a Nephilim. The creature that slaughtered billions of human before the awakening, even with the peace treaty humans still see them as enemies they can never forget such cruel massacre.
Just as this realization dawned on Jack, he desperately rolled to the side. In the next moment, the blade lunged down, sending small tremors through the mud. If not for his quick reaction, Jack's chest would have been caved in by that blow.
The monster seemed to be in a rather bad shape: it's left leg was broken, and there were cracks in its thick carapace, each oozing with viscous azure blood. Additionally, he was missing one of its two blade arms, which seemed to had been torn off entirely at the shoulder.
Jack turned around and ran, the space he occupied a moment before was torn apart by the attacking monster. Its heavy blade crashed into the side of a huge stone, tearing it into two equal parts.
Jack caught his balance and continued moving. He was hoping that the bulky, heavily armored, wounded creature would not be able to match his speed, but unfortunately, it turned out to be surprisingly agile. Its scythe-like legs pierced the mud behind him, and the blade was already flying through the air again, threatening to decapitate the young man at any second.
Jack ducked, dodging the blade, and finally caught a second of reprieve. His eyes darted around, desperately searching for something to use as a weapon. Almost instantly, he noticed a long, smooth, metal piece, it looks like it the same material of the spaceship, it was effortlessly sticking in the mud. Without slowing down, he bent down and grabbed the piece, pulling it out with one forceful tug.
The metal piece was almost two meters long, ending in a narrow, sharp tip. It was almost like a spear. Jack doubted that it was capable of piercing the hard carapace.
In short, he had to get close and aim for one of the cracks in the creature's armor. However, he didn't dare to. At that short of a distance, the monster could easily crush him into a paste by using just its weight and hulking frame.
Sunny allowed the monster to close some distance Then, he gathered all his strength, leaned forward and thrust the metal piece forward with as much power as he could. the metal piece
Guided by his hand, the dark bone spear shot forward, it was heading for it's right eye, Jack was certain the creature wouldn't be able to block the attack because of its missing right hand, he chose to stall the monster so he could escape.
The metal piece spun and pierced through the creature's eye, sinking in deep. The other eyes of the monster narrowed.
The hulking monster crashed to the ground. The metal piece was still sticking from its head, bathed in the streams of azure liquid.
[ Welcome back to the Heaven system ]
[You have slain an Mutated beast, Chitin Fiend { E rank mutation } ]
[You have received a Tool: Grade E ( Forge Sludge ).]
[... You have received 2 points....].