บท 15: 15. Unpleasant surprise

Standing with a sleeping Gladius under his left arm Liam gazed upon the damage of the thunderstorm. Taking a careful step from the stone around the trap door to the muddy ground.

His legs still hurt slightly from the electricity that had coursed through them last night. But besides this minor inconvenience, he was uninjured same goes for Gladius.

It had also rained during the night, a fact that both brought joy and anger, mostly anger. Rain was rare up until now, that much he could tell from how it only rained once two weeks ago and it was a mere drizzle.

Here it was a downpour, the tunnels were even worse but the water could go through various holes that went deeper. It was where he got his clay and the soil down was not as impermeable as the one above, so it was absorbed into the ground, mostly. As such the water level never surpassed his ankle.

But it was still dangerous and as soon as he remarked what was happening he used his inventory, even though there was the neural link and Gladius under his right arm.

Taking pebbles, wood, and other trash from his inventory he made for the both of them a safe area in the form of a pile that put them above water. He was electrified enough for the night.

He didn't sleep and neither did his tame who only did so when it couldn't hear thunder anymore which was an hour ago and just to be sure if the thunderstorm really stopped Liam waited a bit more until he decided to go out. He counted how long they stayed underground so he knew it was the day.

And that brings us back to the present.

"It's… Not as bad as I anticipated. It could have been way worse.", Liam mumbled, his voice seemed to wake up Gladius, noticing that Liam placed the hatchling who chirped and instantly started exploring around waddling in the mud happily.

Puddles, mud, branches, and mutilated corpses of stingbats were strewn everywhere from his base to way beyond it. It was a horrifying and apocalyptic scene, to put it mildly.

The number of bats who must have died should easily count in the several thousand, most being gruesome, some to the point of what remained of their body to be spread over several hundred meters.

Not that Liam felt any pity for those creatures who by the way, he hated with a passion, now even more as he would have to clean up. He also hoped that this put a dent in the bats' population.

The stench in the air was horrendous, a mix of earthy muddy water, with blood and guts while amid the source of those smells were small vibrant green dots.

Seedlings from hundreds of different species of plants were growing from the catastrophe and the dead, it was poetic in a very morbid way. Nature in all of its beauty.

Aside from this. The wall of tree trunks he built was leveled at various points by either the wind, water from the rain, or both the gateway was damaged but overall in good condition, and his smoking house where he stocked and preserved most of his meats, fruits, and vegetables, was all but gone with what it contained.

As he continued to walk around and take on the damage in more detail his brow furrowed more and more, and his workbench was broken with the bronze anvil slightly melted to the side. The forge was not doing so well either but it needed to be remade either way so it wasn't really a loss.

The start of his farm was now more of a small swamp, the little number of plants still alive were stored in his inventory to stop them from drowning any further. The well to the side of the said farm was in good if not excellent condition as he built it for it to endure but the piping system connected to it was not so lucky.

Clay and ceramic containers were either cracked, broken, or had fallen and spilled their content, mostly food condiments. Only the bigger ones containing salt or other more heavy objects remained in good condition.

The various metals he had were stored in wooden boxes such as bronze, copper, tin, steel, gold, iron, and aluminum in descending order of quantities were mostly untouched if slightly melted off for some but that detail was unimportant.

Other boxes filled with soaked coal and coke, only needed to dry, maybe another go under high heat and be usable again.

Most of his leather was gone or too damaged to be usable, the structures made to treat them had the same fate as the workbench. It was the same end for various other resources of animal origins that were outside.

The remaining claws of the great austraped were in his inventory the same goes for the pieces of the fabricator, his armor, tools, and various weapons such as his war scythe Cleaver.

There was no real limit to the size of what he could carry as long as he waited for it to be stored, only weight was, which was why what he was doing ultimately limited how much he could carry at all times.

But only a fool wouldn't carry the most important and necessary object with him at all times with such an option available. And he wasn't in the game, losing his stuff if he died was quite low on the priority list.

Respawning was not possible, there wasn't a certain Homo Deus behind him that will revive him again, again and again. If he dies then that's the end, well maybe not truly considering his situation but he wasn't going to test this frivolously suicidal theory.

All in all, he didn't know if he should laugh or cry. Most of the work he did during his time on this moon was swept away like it was nothing as he was forced to stay underground completely powerless.

Sadly frustration here was unneeded, unhelpful, and counterproductive. Though it didn't stop the feeling of the likes to exist, he wasn't an emotionless robot but this little setback wasn't going to stop him, far from it.

The worst was that he thought of the possibility of a sudden natural disaster knocking up at his door.

But the only preparation he could do was to have what was important and fragile to him and have a safe area, a shelter, and it's also one of the reasons he dug a hole leading to the outside of the wall.

Now… Approaching the tree Liam took in more detail. It was alive, it was damaged certainly but only some branches, most of the leaves and flowers were gone but budding leaves could be seen all around its crown even from down here.

Also, the branch where his tree house was simply gone. Where he didn't know probably kilometers away and he barely slept in it anymore anyway as Gladius couldn't be taken up there. That didn't mean he was happy about this discovery though.

'Damn the tree was hit by lightning at the bare minimum seven times… How the fuck is it still standing.', he thought completely puzzled and shocked by this, he knew what a tree struck one time by lightning on Earth looked like from up close, key words being on one and Earth.

It brought a worrying possibility, the tree, particularly the species of which this tree was part of had adapted to this environment and was the only tall and tallest tree in the great plain as far as he could see.

It wasn't a coincidence it survived the night, it was adapted to survive this kind of hazard which means they were common enough for evolution to kick in.

"I will need to move… But not now.", Liam said with a deep frown mind working on how it will be a headache to move everything, "First… I need Gladius to be big enough to move and also find an acceptable area."

The following days consisted of firstly cleaning up the carcass of stingbats, Liam taking meat and part of their body that were still usable as he hated wasting resources be them of any origin. What couldn't be used was simply burned to ash, ash that had been used.

Letting half a ton of stingbats' remains to rot outdoors and on the ground was stupid at best and at worst could lead to diseases, parasites, and attract unwanted animals, these kinds of things. And the smell.

The little flood in his base was short-lived too, the water was absorbed by the dry soil and the new plants growing from it. He fixed his walls in record time as it was just some trunks that were pulled out, nothing was truly destroyed.

He remade most of what was destroyed too, notably his workbench which he upgraded to help in more meticulous work, and as well as a better, bigger, more resistant forge that could handle higher levels of heat. He worked fast and with terrifying efficiency.

Presently, it was the middle of day 69 and Liam was silently creeping between tall blades of grass toward his next meal, his eyes focused on a boar-sized six-legged creature.

It has navy blue leathery skin, six stumpy legs ending with three clawed and finned paws, four nasty-looking fangs out of its big triple articulated jaws, and finally, five pinkish frills flaring outward from its rump like a peacock would.

He called it a peacock listro for the simple reason that the animal's general body shape reminded him of a lystrosaurus, without the cuddly factor and the ability to do backflips on command.

It was one of the recent animals that migrated here after the thunderstorm. After this storm things changed, it rained at least two times a day in the vast majority of the great plain.

Liam supposed it was the start of the rainy season or something close to its equivalent.

And honestly, while it was good for the biodiversity it was a new uncontrollable factor that caused problems as the rain was both a boon and a curse.

Mostly a curse when you don't have an effective way to stop water from infiltrating everything. At least the mosquito equivalent of this moon didn't like his blood which was another story for poor Gladius.

The rain modified not only the flora and fauna but also the great plain topography. Streams were formed and concluded in rivers, themselves fusing into one bigger. All were shallow but it was still a drastic change to whatever he saw of those familiar plains.

A bronze javelin appeared in his left hand, as Liam took a throwing position, arm straightening, and right as he was going to throw his weapon something happened.

Liam paused as the clear water of the stream his prey was drinking from broke and a squeal of surprise mixed with agony echoed startling a dozen of four winged featherless flamingo-like creatures, tetrapterons, all of who promptly flew away.

A fish, at least 3 meters (9ft9) long fish with a body shaped like a torpedo, four red eyes, and covered on dark brown heavy plates that contrasted deeply with its vibrant yellow bioluminescent part.

It looked like a mix between a sturgeon, a pike, and a bit of dunkleosteus. A dinicthoid, a subspecies to be precise.

It's an exclusively carnivorous and extremely aggressive aquatic animal capable of living through dry seasons in a way quite similar to the now long since extinct lungfish of the Earth in this universe.

It would dig itself into the ground and then encase itself in a protective cocoon of mucus before entering a vegetative-like state where nearly all of its metabolic function slowed down to a crawl until it rained again.

If no rain were to come it wouldn't be a problem as they can practice auto cannibalizing and eat their flesh to wait even longer.

The fish's jaws clamped tightly at the throat of the peacock listro drawing copious amounts of red blood.

'That's mine you little shit!', Liam thought glaring at the fish that was slowly dragging HIS food into the river.

Unhappy and quite furious about this sudden turn of events he threw his javelin with deadly precision, the power behind it being just enough for it to not be lost two meters deep underground as it had happened before more than once.

As the javelin flew through the air, the 30 meters (99ft) of distance traveled in the blink of an eye. In his now empty left hand appeared his current favorite weapon, his war scythe and he ran straight at the fish with murder in his eyes

The javelin reached its target first, impaling the head of the squirming peacock listro ending its gurgled squeal of agony for good.

The fish, uncaring why there wasn't any struggle, took advantage of this as it started to drag its dead 'prey' with even more vigor behind each movement of its large front fins but Liam had already arrived and his scythe raised high the polished claw serving as a curved blade gleamed ominously under the suns' light.

With one powerful swing downward the blade stabbed through its armored cranium with ease, the fish jolted before it jerked around erratically.

Tail slapping the ground with enough force to split a man's skull as if it was mere tofu. It never let go of the dead animal within its jaw, in fact, it bit even harder and its bioluminescent skin became a flamboyant red.

Liam stepped to the side dodging a tail slap, war scythe in hand he repeated the same motion this time the fish went completely limp, and the unarmored sides that had changed to red as if a flip was switched became a dull gray.

He still stabbed it in the head four more times for good measure. You never know, animals are tenacious, even more here.

He noted that it had bright blue blood like octopus or horseshoe crab interestingly enough.

"Two for the price of one. Wonder how they taste… This fish in particular, what would be best, leaf-grilled, marinated, or… So many choices." Liam said with a grin, his stomach rumbling in agreement.

Flicking Cleaver in the air the blue blood was thrown on the grass, he looked around him to see if anything was threatening his prize.

There was nothing aside from the other side of the river where a herd of 57 elephant-sized dimetrodon-like animals could be seen peacefully grazing the vibrant grass trimming with life.

It was a magnificent sight but Liam didn't delude himself, those won't hesitate one second to stomp him to death if he were on the other side.

Dragging the two corpses away from the river bed he started the lengthy process of storing them in his inventory. His body and mind as always were on high alert, he was vulnerable while doing so after all.

An hour later he was back at his base and his smile vanished when a 'pleasant' surprise greeted him in the form of hoof prints and four-toed footprints around the muddy trail of his gateways.

Gateways he could see someone had tempted to open and failed miserably. After all, when he was out he locked it from behind with tree trunks from the inside. He modified the gate the same day he gave the Na'vi kids back to their clan.

The footprints were of one Na'vi and one direhorse that he could tell from their shape, and arrangement, it didn't take a genius for that and he could tell that they ran in panic.

This pointed to the Na'vi panic being tied to the sudden burst of fury he felt from Gladius around an hour ago but at the time he simply thought that the baby great austrapede must have seen a creature that wasn't 'Father' such as one of those twelve-winged butterflies and that as it dared to enter its breathing space and must be exterminated.

Apparently, he was very wrong.

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