"The Place Forsaken By Gods? Devils? Contracts? This world is far too mysterious. I have to find out more, but how exactly do I do that?"
"This woman in my mind is clearly someone who's both suspicious and mystical. Who brought me to this world and what exactly do they want?"
"Are there other transmigrators? Hopefully there are. If anybody with even an iota of common sense was transmigrated, then they would have the sense to seek out other transmigrators to start atleast some kind of group."
"Furthermore, there is also another issue."
"How exactly are transmigrators treated in this world? Considering this woman's strange dress, this world appears like something similar to our Earth, just that the time period is dialed back."
"Knowing how people back on Earth treated things which they thought to be mystical such as transmigration or demonic possesion, I can assume I won't be treated very well."
"Even if I am to be treated well, it's still better to be cautious."
"Even if I do find any other humans, I have to be cautious. I likely can't speak their language, them being agressive is expected in that situation."
"But until then, I'll have to live here somehow. How I'll do that is the real question...."
"First things first, I have to find water. All that sweating getting up the cave definitely didn't help me remain hydrated."
Looking around him in all directions, Lincoln couldn't make out any clues which might help him find a river or a stream.
He supposed he could ask the magic lady but he wasn't sure if that was the best course of action, simply because he didn't know enough about who she truly was.
He knew that he couldn't pretend to be someone who knew..... anything about this world. He had already given himself away too much.
Usually, he would have just stayed quiet and let her talk, revealing little to nothing about himself but he supposed that he was acting strangely due to the shock and delirium caused by his transmigration.
From now on, he would try to rectify that behaviour atleast a little bit. He couldn't have himself looking like a buffoon.
Eventually, Lincoln simply decided to wander around until he found something of note like a large lake, river or stream.
Sighing to himself in his mind, he simply started walking towards his right, towards the right of the cave's opening.
But before he set off on his journey, he needed atleast some kind of weapon.
"What can I use....." Lincoln thought,
"Perhaps a rock on the floor? Is there anything sharp around?"
"Anything sharp...."
"..."
"What an oversight I've made... It seems I've forgotten to take the sacrificial ritual daggers from those cultists earlier. This transmigration was really quite taxing on my mind....."
How stupid could he have been..... If he atleast had that knife, he could be certain to survive any wild animal attacks. After all in his past life, he was someone who had successfully fought off a bear with nothing but a slightly larger than average rusty machete.
It was really too bad. He had to spend his energy traversing the cave once again, and it wasn't any small one either, it was quite a deep one.
It was a miracle he hadn't encountered any bat guana in there.
The issue was that.... He didn't think he had any energy left to waste.
He was already quite parched when he woke up and even more so just from climbing up the cave. He would be even more so once he completed his search for water.
Extreme thirst wasn't like hunger. The sensation didn't build up until you died from it. It simply reached a particular level of pain and then remained there until you died of thirst.
After that, you didn't know how long you had left; and Lincoln was already in that state ever since he had woken up
And that..... He definitely did not like it.
This kind of thing was why you could never conserve water, after all, you might die of thirst before you knew it. He had learnt all about this when he was in the army.
He could naturally gamble on whether or not a wild animal would come to kill him but going down to collect the daggers and coming back up was possibly a death sentence.
After all, he didn't know how close to body of water he was.
Right now, there were two options.
One, he could go back inside the cave and gamble on how close a body of water really was for something that didn't even completely guarantee his safety.
Two, he could make a slightly better gamble and pray that a wild animal didn't find him while he was searching for water.
Yeah..... The choice was pretty obvious.
After making the obvious choice, Lincoln simply picked up a sharp rock and began walking towards the right of the cave.
As he slowly walked through the dozens of trees, every second tree he passed, he left a mark on it using the sharp rock.
This cave was the only decent shelter which he knew of. He couldn't just abandon it like that.
Though there was a chance of animals getting into it..... He didn't mind that risk, even mosquito bites can be deadly.
Mosquitos, bats, dogs, squirrels, these were all things which existed back on Earth.
But now, he was on a new world. How could these things even apply here?
It was simply because the woman in his mind and the dead bodies back in the cave all appeared human.
Out of the thousands of different worlds, with different climates, cultures and ecosystems, what were the odds of a species that looks exactly like humans developing?
And if such a species developed, then would it be so strange to assume that other species from Earth may also exist here?
This was the only reason that Lincoln dared to make such decisions to try to survive.
He continued walking around observing the general climate, flora and fauna, attempting to figure out the best course of action to atleast survive in here.
But there were times when he was simply lost in the view of the forest. The air was quite pleasant, there was a gentle breeze blowing every second.
The familiar smell of leaves and the crisp air filled his nostrils and the never-ending green throughout the forest really didn't let one look away.
And eventually, Lincoln discovered a slightly larger lake in a more open area of the forest.
The water was green and had a strange smell wafting from it, if he looked carefully enough, he could see slight amounts of algae at rising up from the bottom of the lake. There were dozens of leaves and other bits of vegetation floating on the surface of the lake, making it look gross but beautiful at the same time.
Looking at the still and discolored water, he was hesitant to drink it.
So, he decided to continue exploring the area around it, checking for any streams or rivers nearby but then, he heard the strange woman's voice-
"There's a lake right there. Why are you going away?"
"I'm searching for a stream."
"... Why would you do that when you have water right here?"
"...."
"...."
"I'll get sick if I drink this water."
"How do you get sick by drinking water? I know the water looks strange but it isn't that bad." The woman's voice rung out in his mind, appearing genuinely confused,
"...."
"There are two options here...." Lincoln thought,
"Either, this woman is extremely uninformed on anything related to outdoor survival which is extremely unlikely, or...."
"Diseases don't exist here...."