Chapter 9: Alien worlds

Nova had decided that Cyre needed to learn how to fight too. There was always a chance he might die or get separated from her. So at the very least, Cyre had to be able to protect herself and run when the time came.

Thus, with Cyre’s help—hiding behind Nova and striking whenever the creature left an opening—it took them a full three days to clear the stage. They literally ventured every inch of the area and defeated every creature they could find. For food, they dug up tree roots and discovered that they were edible. After absorbing all the creatures’ energy and getting enough rest, they moved on to the next stage.

The creature's head they used as a weapon had transformed again as soon as they entered the next stage. This time, its color turned white, and another line appeared on its forehead. The stretching arm had also gained an extra line. They realized it might be evolving after absorbing the denser energy of the new stage.

But for now, they wanted to focus on the new stage and inspected the dangers of it.

In the next stage, they were greeted by a bright daylight landscape—a wide stretch of flat, brown land dotted with puddles scattered at random. Inside each puddle, they spotted uneven, fist-sized blue rocks. Sensing danger, they avoided the puddles and instead headed toward a transparent tree in the distance.

When they got within five meters, they saw it clearly—it was a tree made of water, with two uneven, fist-sized blue rocks installed at its branches.

Being cautious, Nova struck the trunk with the stretched arm—but the attack passed right through, causing no damage at all. Nova and Cyre then each targeted one of the blue rocks.

Splash!

The water tree lost its shape, burst apart, and collapsed to the ground. When they approached and touched the scattered blue stone, they could feel it—some kind of energy being absorbed into their bodies.

That hadn’t happened when they touched the swamp trees before.

After that, they were free to farm energy as much as they wanted. They broke every blue stone they found in the puddles and on the trees, absorbing the energy from each one. Attacking from five meters away didn’t trigger a response from the new creatures, so they cleared the stage easily.

They realized that depending on the stage—and what kind of tools they had—it could turn into a walk in the park.

They scored a pretty good haul this time: plenty of energy to strengthen themselves and a bunch of blue stones. They used the blue stone, which could hold and gather water, as their new container. Their old one was just a patched-together leaf, stitched with handmade rope from the swamp tree, after all.

When energy was channeled into the blue stone, water would gather and float around it, almost like it was levitating. Touching the water made it bounce in a satisfying way, and when scooped by hand, it returned to its normal liquid form. To keep the water levitating, the stone could actually store a bit of energy. And if the stone was kept close to the body, it would slowly absorb the owner's energy on its own.

By adjusting how the energy was channeled into the blue stone, the water it produced could be shaped into a blade, just as sharp as the stretched arms. However, unlike the arms, it couldn't extend. Still, it would be useful when fighting a fire-type alien.

Similar to the previous stage, after resting and recharging enough, they moved on to the next stage.

There was a reason Nova wanted to move quickly to the next stage. As a human, he had a family, and he couldn’t help but worry about his mother and little sister. As for his father, there was nothing to worry about.

Though his mother was strong in a fight, he knew she would push herself too hard. He couldn’t leave his mother alone. As for his little sister, there wasn’t much he could do for now. At least knowing she was in a better place than surviving here was somewhat reassuring for Nova.

However, there was an irregularity at the portal. The blue vortex they always used to move to the next stage now had levitating rectangular screens around it. The screens, arranged in rows, encircled the horizontal portal. Each screen displayed a different scene and different creature.

Both Nova and Cyre were furious, as there was no way to tell which one to choose. In his frustration, Nova punched the screen and randomly selected one. As soon as he did, the other screens vanished, and the one he picked lit up and entered the portal. Nothing happened after that.

With no other choice, they stepped forward and entered the portal together.

Just like the image on the screen, the next stage was a breezy, dawn-lit landscape of yellow grassy hills, with amoebas—about the size of a thirty-two-inch television—levitating above it. Nova’s hair and facial hair, and Cyre’s short hair, fluttered softly in the gentle breeze.

Nova quickly ran and attacked the only amoeba in front of him with the stretched arms, but to his surprise, it was harder than it looked, and the attack didn’t slice through.

He looked at Cyre, and their eyes met in quiet understanding. They nodded at each other and then sprinted away from the amoeba creature. Nova quickly lifted and carried Cyre as he closed the distance between them. They had been running for a while now, but the creature stayed close, and they couldn’t shake it off.

Nova couldn’t run forever, and he didn’t know how much stamina the creature had left, so he had to fight it now while he still had the strength.

He noticed the ground was hard, and an idea formed. He decided to slam the creature down onto it, hoping to crush the creature. If he couldn’t destroy the creature outright, then at the very least, he could chip it down by slamming it over and over.

Using the outstretched arm and channeling just a little bit of energy, Nova grabbed the amoeba. The arm would become as hard as a knife if he channeled more energy, or act like a whip if he reduced it.

Nova slammed the amoeba into the ground, and part of its body chipped away. However, the amoeba kept moving, causing the arm to tangle and follow the weapon as it retracted back to Nova.

Nova, who had been trying to keep his distance this whole time, turned pale as the situation occurred. He extended his other hand, the one holding the creature’s head, and braced himself to confront the incoming attack.

However, the amoeba was suddenly crushed in two by the retraction force of the arm. It was a new discovery—turns out the retraction force was actually stronger than the stretching force. Nova facepalmed, frustrated that he hadn’t realized it sooner. After all, the retraction always happened in an instant, unlike the slower motion when the arm stretched out.

Nova and Cyre absorbed and collected the creature's remains. After that, they headed toward the top of the hill, hoping to find the stairs. In the far distance, they spotted it—small and partially hidden between two hills. Still, they decided to eliminate all the creatures in the area before moving on.

Since they still had plenty of energy left, they set off right away, strolling toward another creature that had just entered their line of sight on the next hill.

Suddenly, one of Nova’s legs was wrapped in something. It was another amoeba—like aluminum foil, it coiled tightly around his leg.

It was strange. Nova and Cyre had made sure the ground was just yellow grass before stepping forward. Their alertness had already been at its peak, especially after Cyre’s life had been on the line earlier. Yet the creature had managed to appear from below without them noticing.

Nova quickly realized—it had a camouflage ability, like a chameleon.

Cyre immediately readied her stretched arm to strike, but Nova, panicking, stopped her. It was at this moment that the amoeba began to tighten its grip on his leg. He didn’t have the luxury to choose a method now.

…

Somehow, Nova’s leg survived. Using the head of the first creature and coiling the stretched arms into the right position, he chipped away at the amoeba little by little. In the end, Nova was injured, left with a badly swollen blue leg and a pounding pain that refused to fade.

Nova decided they needed to rest for three days. During that time, both of them slept out in the open. Strangely, the place also had day and night cycles, which meant the world was probably rotating and revolving around a sun—or something similar—just like Earth. It was cold, though. In the end, they built a simple shelter by digging into the hillside and using grass and the hard remains of the amoeba as a makeshift roof.

Fortunately, he recovered in just two days, thanks to his strengthened body.

As for food, they still had some of the root rations from the previous stage. They ate those during the two days of rest, but planned to save the remaining rations for later—just in case they encountered a creature that resembled a human.

For now, they planned to try cooking the amoeba. Nova figured the aliens wouldn’t let them die over something as small as food. After all, they needed their ten Severers to stay alive. That’s why Nova was sure the aliens would either provide food directly or choose stages that had some kind of edible resource.

As Nova and Cyre continued their hunt, they found it easier to handle the creatures this time. They used a stick made from stacked roots to carefully check the ground ahead of them. Also, knowing the creatures could only attack at close range, Cyre quickly took out many of them by grabbing and crushing them using the stretched arm's retraction force, which helped Nova a lot. After doing it many times, her control improved significantly, especially compared to her earlier attempts, where she kept failing to grab the amoebas with the stretched arms.

They only defeated the amoebas they saw in plain sight as they explored the hills. They were ignoring those that were hiding.

After two days of satisfying exploration and crafting a new weapon from the amoeba remains, they moved on to the next stage.