Octavius ran at a steady jog through the alien forest. The bright white sun cast the sky in a hazy red color. Heat seemed to radiate from the very ground, and Octavius found himself shielding his eyes from the glare reflected off the bark of the trees that surrounded him.

The sun had risen an hour earlier, and he already found himself soaked in sweat. His parched mouth demanded that he drink the last of his water, but he held back. He had hoped for his water to last the day at least, but he had definitely underestimated the temperature of the planet during the day.

As he ran, the plates of his armor jostled in their makeshift bag on his back. His sleeves were rolled down, and his overshirt was pulled over his head. He’d spent more than enough time in the deserts of the Middle East to know how to deal with the dry heat. However, even the deserts weren’t as bad as Cadila.

He squinted ahead of him and toward the mountains. Whereas before they had stood as monoliths on the distant horizon, now they towered over him. In the light of the sun, he was able to catch glimpses of the three massive islands of rock where they hovered in the air above the mountains’ peaks.

The haze of heat distorted the air between Octavius and the magical spires, but he thought that he could make out the occasional movement. All the evidence that he had pointed to the fact that Cadila was either the homeworld of the thralls or at least populated by them. With that in mind, he would normally try to avoid population centers. Under his current circumstances, however, he could only run toward them with all the speed that he could muster.

Civilization means water and shelter, he told himself, I know the thralls drank water, even if apparently not as often as humans.

He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and leaned against a tree. His stamina bar told him that he could most definitely keep running, but his body told him that it didn’t matter if he still had the energy to keep going; if he did, he would pass out from heatstroke. He guessed that he had maybe another half-hour of running in him before he would need to take a break.

At least my passive regeneration seems to be preventing sunburn, he thought, Or maybe there just isn't that much UV radiation here.

He decided that if he couldn’t find shelter to rest in, he’d have to use his shadow magic to make his own shadow. Without mana potions, he knew that he couldn’t keep the spell up for any significant amount of time, especially with the planet’s sun as bright as it was. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep it up long enough to cool off.

As he looked to his right, he set off at a brisk jog once more. The sun of the planet had barely crested the tops of the trees, and he wondered how hot the surface of the planet would become after the sun reached its zenith. Judging by the temperature that the forest already was, he might not even be able to survive that.

He was seriously considering accepting the huntsman’s cloak as his tutorial reward. Its ability to prevent the dehydration status effect would likely help him significantly. But the description just said that it would prevent the dehydration status effect, not that it would help cool me down. He could at least last until nightfall without water. Dehydration was merely a single symptom of his exposure to the dry heat, and the heat itself would likely kill him long before dehydration did.

He ran for another fifteen minutes, eyes constantly scanning back and forth for any hint of shelter. He’d settle for an outcropping of rock if he had to; he just needed something. As he reached the top of one of the rolling hills, he caught a glimpse of something dark on the forest floor a few hundred feet before him.

With the grasses and shrubs being a light gray, along with the bark of the trees’ pure white color, the vast majority of the light that pierced the atmosphere was reflected back up. Octavius knew that because of that, he definitely stood out as the only dark-colored thing as far as the eye could see. There was also pretty much no black, however, which made whatever he spotted stand out all the more.

Shielding his eyes with his hand, he tried to make out whatever the strange shape was. Though unfortunately for him, the bright light all around him kept his pupils about as far from dilated as possible, and he couldn’t make out anything beyond a vague dark shape between the trees.

With a grunt, he began to run towards whatever it was that he saw. Even if it was some form of hostile dwelling, he’d take it. At that point, he’d accept being spotted from one of the floating spires and imprisoned. At least then, he’d have a solid chance of not dying from exposure.

His feet carried up forward with growing unsteadiness. After a couple of minutes, he moved around the tree and saw what it was that caught his attention. There, in the middle of the trees, was an alien beast.

The creature was maybe three feet at the shoulder with thick gray skin that was reminiscent of the thralls, only a few shades lighter. It had four limbs that were holding it up in a low crouch. Each limb ended with a section of exoskeleton hardened into a scoop-like shape.

Its status quickly caught Octavius’s attention. The beast was obviously wounded. It had viscous liquid caking its backside from a cut on its hind thigh. Looking closer, he realized that it wasn’t a cut, but instead was a crack.

My God! If that thing’s exoskeleton is anything like the thralls’, how could anything crack it like that?

As he watched, the beast seemed to let out a strange half-bray-half-grow sound and pulled itself another step forward. The movement split open the dried blood holding its wound closed, and fresh blood poured out. Octavius quickly used identify on the creature.

Common Xcrelo (Lvl 18)

I guess there’s no English word to translate that to, he thought as he examined it further, satisfied that it wasn’t a threat to him, The thing is probably nocturnal and was injured before it could go back to where it shelters during the day. Judging by its shovel-like hands, I’d say that it has a burrow somewhere around here.

Moving in a wide arc, Octavius circled the alien creature until he stood in front of it. As soon as he entered its line of sight, large black eyes locked on to him. He noted that they were extremely similar to the eyes of the thralls back in the tutorial. I guess this is the thrall homeworld after all.

Its head was elongated in a way reminiscent to that of a rodent. While it didn’t have whiskers, it did have a series of small protrusions on its chin. He didn’t know what they were for, but he doubted that they didn’t serve some purpose.

As soon as the alien beast saw him, it let out a rumbling sound from deep in its chest. The sound was so deep that it felt as though it shook the very ground that he stood on. While the strange sound echoed between the trees, the creature tried to take a step forward, only to fall on its stomach. Whether its weakness was caused by its injury or by exhaustion, Octavius didn’t know.

If it has a burrow, it will be shaded and cool, he decided, Now if only I could find it. The xcrelo was most likely trying to return to it, so I can guess its general direction.

He was drawn from his thoughts by the rumbling sound suddenly coming to a halt as the creature appeared to collapse under its own weight. Well, it doesn’t look like this thing’s going to help me find it, he thought as he approached the weakened animal with his spear ready, but I might be able to eat it. Not to mention that its blood is likely drinkable, as gruesome as it sounds. I know that the thralls drank water and were able to eat the same food as us humans, but would that work the other way around? Maybe this animal is poisonous even to them. Damn, I’ll just have to take a chance if it comes to that.

The beast managed to lift its head as he closed on it. He stared into its large, alien eyes and nodded.

“You might just end up saving my life,” he muttered as he speared it through its right eye, “So thanks for that.”

You have slain Common Xcrelo (Lvl 18) and gained 281 EXP (1/4)(18)(1)(1/2)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

He nodded to himself as he turned away from the corpse. Now he needed to find its burrow before he could do anything else. Frowning, he started to list the various ways that he could look for it.

Well, the simplest way is obviously to just walk in a straight line in the direction that it was going. However, depending on how well it’s hidden, I could end up just walking straight past it without even knowing, he reasoned, the other way is to use my shadow sense under the ground like I did back in the tutorial. That’d probably be the most reliable way to find it, only I’d end up using valuable mana to do so. If I end up being wrong about it having a burrow or just don’t find it, I won’t have nearly as much mana to use to shield myself from the sun.

After a minute’s thought, he decided that it would be better for him to use his mana. The sooner that he found someplace cool to shelter, the sooner that he’d be able to recover.

Remembering how he cast the spell back in the tutorial, he reached into the ground with his mana. He saturated the shadows with the magical energy that flowed from his core. More and more mana filtered into the ground until the underground shadows within ten feet of him and down to two feet of depth were under his control.

Slowly the patch of dirt became clear to his senses. At first, it was nothing but fuzz, and he wasn’t able to interpret the flood of information whatsoever. Just as he did back in the tutorial, he let his mind focus on something that wasn’t the incredible amount of sensory input. As soon as he stopped concentrating, everything suddenly became clear.

He was able to sense the roots of the trees, bushes, and grasses that pitched directly into the ground. Although they were all simply voids where his senses couldn’t reach, he was able to use their shape to determine what they were.

The roots of the trees seemed to spear deep into the dry soil far beyond the depth of his senses. Even the roots of the bushes extended beyond where he could sense. Although, it was clear from the decreasing diameter of the bushes’ roots that they wouldn’t go too deep.

The small roots of the alien grass also stretched far deeper than he would’ve guessed. They were shaped strangely as well, with a single root the diameter of a pencil piercing a foot and a half into the soil before branching out into hundreds of tiny fibers. It was similar to an incredibly thin carrot, though it likely served an entirely different purpose.

In the end, everything seemed so familiar yet so different. Just like above the surface, the life below it was recognizable from his viewpoint but also strictly alien in nature.

Allowing his senses to flow around him, he walked slowly in the direction that the alien beast had been dragging itself. He maneuvered around trees with his eyes closed, relying on his shadow sense to tell him where they were from their roots.

After thirty feet, he found something. Where his underground sense was normally filled with minuscule gaps that he knew contained specks of dirt, that effect was suddenly absent at the edge of his vision. Moving forward, releasing his hold on the majority of the shadows under his control, he used the now free mana to flood the shadows that made up the underground void and trace it in both directions.

At the top, sunlight pierced the top of the tunnel, driving his shadows back. At the bottom, however, his senses stretched down three dozen feet before he halted them to conserve mana. The tunnel was maybe twice as far across as he was broad and circular. It corkscrewed down in a featureless spiral until his senses ended.

Moving quickly, he opened his eyes and ran over to it. The hole was hidden innocuously between the base of an alien tree and a small bush. Sweeping the bush to the side, Octavius crawled into it feet-first. Although he knew that it wasn’t too steep for him to climb up, he didn’t know if there was enough room down there for him to turn around.

Backing into the tunnel, he moved his senses with him so that he was always able to see a good distance below him. After all, there was a chance that the animal had either young or others of its kind back within its burrow.

Moving slowly, he crawled backward around the spiral-shaped burrow. After he reached what he guessed to be fifteen feet of depth, his shadow sense reached the bottom of the burrow.

The spiral tunnel ended with a small room that was maybe four feet tall and six around. It was empty of all life, but there was clearly enough room for two xcrelo inside. I guess that I’ll have to keep my eye out for any more of them, he decided.

Reaching the bottom, he released his hold of the mana and rolled over onto his back. The air was cool and refreshing so far below ground, and he breathed a sigh of relief. After ten minutes, his sweat had begun to dry, and he had caught his breath. Although he wasn’t even close to tip-top shape, his condition was good enough for him to retrieve the body of the animal.

I don’t know how the animals on this planet degrade, but I can only assume that they do so in a way similar to those on Earth, he decided, That means that I can’t risk leaving its body out there for long before it’ll start rotting in the sun.

He knew that he didn’t want to have its corpse lying next to him in the burrow, but he had to preserve it to the best of his ability. It was the only sizable creature that he had come across and would hopefully provide the sustenance that he needed to survive.

He crawled back up the tunnel until the heat of the sun engulfed him once more. Sighing at the discomfort, he jogged the short distance back to where he had left the creature. Its carcass was entirely undisturbed when he arrived, and he gripped both of its forelimbs and heaved.

Even with his superhuman strength, he grunted from the strain of slinging the body onto his back. In the intense sunlight, the creature’s viscous blood had already dried, and he was glad for that. Being covered in even more sticky blood with no way to clean off would be far from enjoyable. His left sleeve and chest were already coated with dried blood from his beating at the hands of Kzedr.

Once he reached the hidden entrance to the burrow, he was already sweating again. Laying the carcass down, he got on his hands and knees and proceeded to crawl into the tunnel. A minute later, he returned with the cloth that he had been using as a bag to tie up his armor.

Next, he crudely tied the beast to the pristine white bark of a tree a few dozen feet from the burrow and drew his long knife. As time had passed, the thick exoskeleton of the creature had gone soft, and the razor-sharp weapon that he’d taken from a thrall sliced easily through it.

He drained the beast’s thick blood and sliced open its stomach cavity. There, he found a dozen unfamiliar organs and removed them all. He also discovered that the creature did have something of an internal bone structure that was made from thin pieces of the same material as its exoskeleton.

Deciding that he should only take enough for a day at most before whatever that was left would begin to rot in the heat, he hacked off a decently sized chunk of its hind leg. He wrapped it in the cloth and carried it back to the burrow.

It took him a few minutes to reach the bottom, and as soon as he did so, he moved the meat into one corner of the small space. He laid on his back and relaxed in the cool darkness for five minutes before sitting up. Returning to the surface, he untied the beast's carcass and let it fall onto the bloody ground. He doubted that there would be any evidence of its presence by the time the sun rose the next day.

With a sigh, he returned to the burrow. Knowing that he’d be staying within the tunnel until nightfall, he decided to sleep. Even though his stamina bar was a good way from empty, he was mentally exhausted. For the time being, however, he needed to plan his next move as he waited out the planet’s harsh day.