With an unhappy grimace, Robert quickly walked forward, making quite a view for possible observers if there were any. Completely nude, he was holding a giant umbrella with a rough form that made it more like an instrument of torture or some kind of weapon, but not a “shadow bringer”. However, Rob wasn’t even bothering to waste a single glance at his surroundings, while continuing to loudly curse without any remorse. The reason for the former was quite simple – the scenery hadn’t changed in the slightest, keeping an empty rocky image until now without a single mishap. However, the latter constant doing was caused by a completely different thing as it was not the landscape that ruined his mood.
No, his cool action of raising himself above the ground had ended badly, when he tried to reverse it because it didn’t work well. Rob’s lack of skill couldn’t be easily overcome in a few dangerous situations. Single success didn’t mean he could reproduce it with ease. It was a wishful thinking to dream about it. Or, in his case, to try the cool staff before being sure of an ability to repeat it. His overconfidence led to falling flat directly into the pile of shit. An instinctive reaction to stop the fall only worsened the situation, when hastily conjured steel constructs only pushed him to the side, making him roll through the smelling substance.
Of course, the first thing that Robert did after standing up was to run to the water in an attempt to clean himself. However, despite all his efforts, the smell seemed to stick to him as even after bathing for ten minutes it just refused to disappear. Moreover, when the salty water had dried out under the hot sun, it covered Robert’s skin with an unpleasant film. It wasn’t thick, almost barely noticeable, but still didn’t help to light up his mood.
Another thing was his own appearance. While busy surviving on the surface of the ocean in the middle of nowhere, Robert didn’t even try to take a clear look at himself. This time the opportunity was right in front of him and was hard to miss even if he wanted. He didn’t expect any changes as his body was recreated, but to his surprise, he had gotten one.
His aquiline nose, bushy eyebrows, and square jaw with overall rough facial features were the same as before. His black messy short hair was begging for a professional cut, but it wasn’t new also. Previously bright green eyes had darkened by a lot, as if reflecting his experience. Rob’s height seemed to stay at the same level of 213 centimeters (7 feet), but he didn’t have the means to check it. His old bamboo pole appearance disappeared even before being thrown into this world. Robert wasn’t shredded at all and didn’t look like a giant or bodybuilder with visible abs. Nothing like that. He had gotten noticeable muscles, but his height hid them well as to look big for tall people was quite a hard task. Therefore, his skinniest physique turned into lean athletic. The main change appeared to be in his skin. Previously he wasn’t hairy at all, but right now it seemed he lost all his body hair, especially on the legs.
The hell, I am like a pro-swimmer now!
Moreover, his skin looked much paler than before and had a grayish tone in its color. For someone with wind in the head, naïve, and a fan of romance it might look great, but for people living in a harsh reality being a pale naked undressed man under the hot sun with no shadow would be a huge problem. Moreover, all his hard-earned tan was gone after the regeneration of his skin. However, Robert had put this thought aside as all his attention was focused on his scars. Precisely speaking, new scars that for an unknown reason had replaced the old ones completely. While the latter were the results of his “deaths” under the paws of bear, fire, or blades, the former seemed to be a rough visualization of him being glued back after tearing apart. At least Rob couldn’t think of a different description.
The marks indeed looked like the lines of forceful tearing, which later were put together by an unknown mad scientist in a shady lab. Some parts of the tears managed to heal perfectly, but the most part was left as it was, creating horrible pictures of insane tortures. The biggest started from his right armpit and went through his chest to the side, before circling around the back. There were a few gaps, but the overall line was easily visible. One more was on the abdomen. Few “decorated” his thigh, while another limb was marked around the shin. The left forearm and the right biceps also had their part of appearance adjustments.
Not knowing how to comment on it, Robert only sighed heavily before focusing his attention on creating an umbrella to hide himself from the sun. Looking around, he quickly set his eyes on the high mountain that was a single noticeable spot in plain scenery. From it, he might have a chance to find something helpful in his situation. Therefore, after drinking the salty water and thanking his ability to bear the consequence of such doing in the long run, Robert started his walk. Soon, he found out about stink persistence, which led earlier scene with loud cursing after a failed attempt to endure it.
Fucking lizard! You will pay for it, shitty bastard!
Stepping with bare feet on a rocky surface also wasn’t a pleasant experience. Rob knew that there were enthusiasts, who did it on purpose, explaining it as a healthy way of movement, which their ancestors did daily. However, he could easily counter it with a simple fact – exactly those ancestors had invented shoes not to feel uncomfortable by stepping on sharp stones and broken branches, not even mentioning the possibility of wounding themselves.
The same situation was with his clothes. Robert tried to cover himself with the umbrella, but the sun seemed to be unforgiven even for a single mistake. Soon his exposed skin started to become red, worsening his mood even more. At least, after a short series of trial and error, he managed to recreate sandals for his foot. His own version didn’t have any straps and solely consisted of two metal plates, which were magically glued to him, but it gave a desired feeling of comfort.
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The more I use this ability, the more I see how overpowered it is, just judging by utility usage. The hell, maybe with proper training I can recreate a full plate armor, which can be summoned at any moment! Hmm, but if the steel needs contact with my body all the time, the moving parts, like shoulder pads, are going to be the problem. Let’s think it over.
The uneventful journey continued for an hour before Robert finally made it to the foot of the mountain. During all this time he hadn’t seen even the slightest change, not a single plant or bug, nothing. Empty and lifeless, it almost pushed his mental state into despair, but he once again managed to hold himself by focusing on training. Creating different things from nothing appeared to be an interesting and even fascinating experience.
All of his early attempts were dictated by the need for survival with limited time or opportunity to conduct experiments. However, right now Robert conjured different and completely useless things just for fun. The main restriction of his skill – the visual observation in the moment of summoning the steel was still there, but at least with each try the difficulty of supporting other constructs on a background lessened by a lot. Moreover, it used all his energy and surprisingly Rob found out that his flow of mana wasn’t enough to push the ability to the weight or volume limit.
Good to know that I have a gap in my ability to keep up my energy spending at a proper level. On the other hand, the strain in my body after restoration is still there. I wonder how long before this “cooldown” will end? What correlation is between the level of damage and the time needed for a recharge after usage? Questions, questions… At least there is no danger right now.
Sighing, Robert returned his attention to a figure of a small man, conjured on his palm. It was small, rough, and had odd proportions. Still, the number of details wasn’t his goal in the first place as he tried to make it move. Unfortunately, even a single step of a tiny construct appeared beyond his current abilities. The figure shook, constantly trying to break apart, but refused to follow the image inside his mind. Maybe the reason was in the latter as it was hard to visualize everything properly.
That once again led Robert to think over a plan for his training. Random summoning without specific goals couldn’t bring him far as it would be hard to measure his progress. Another point was in functionality as the need to survive wasn’t going to disappear magically because he wanted to become stronger. No, with an already clear lack of food, Rob would need to solve this issue first just to have time for his training. Therefore, he lost himself in thoughts, while his body kept moving forward.
The climb took a noticeable amount of time, but Robert had to stop himself way before reaching the top, as he managed to see a movement with the edge of his eyes. Unfortunately, it was the movement that he wanted to avoid right now as it was the very same giant lizard. A huge dragon-like predator finally showed itself in the whole beauty of an apex predator. Even despite the sheer distance that separated both parties, the latter looked like a walking building even from afar. Rob immediately dropped down to the ground, before continuing to observe his potential killing goal that might be set by his God.
Six-legged lizard with green skin had a varan’s head with three short horns, which stuck out from both sides and top. The long tail had a colorful fin on the end that was decorated with bluish and grayish lines. And that’s all. Robert couldn’t see any more distinctive features of this creature than ordinary lizard. It didn’t have anything that could obstruct swimming. It didn’t have any wings, outer bone plates, bright spots, or anything that was useful or could be a hindrance in hunting. As always, nature tried to push the most suitable living beings to the top of a food chain.
Still, not the number of teeth but the size of this monster would be the main problem as it was just too huge. The distance didn’t help to understand it properly. However, just the pile of its excrement could easily drown Robert. There was literally no chance that the stomach of this predator could occupy even a quarter of its body. Even by optimistic evaluation, it was almost as huge as a battleship, but the inner pessimist was seeing something more like a full-fledged cruise liner from old times on Earth. And Rob didn’t have his artillery to take down this thing, while his ability to create even a two-handed version of a sword looked pathetic against the giant lizard.
Okay, nothing had really changed, Robert. No need to panic – you already saw it. Maybe there is a chance that this monster isn’t the target… Wait! Where is it going?
He had to stop himself as he finally drew a line from the creature's location to its possible destination only to see that it was on the top of the mountain. That immediately led him to start his hast descent, just not to cross paths with the predator. Robert didn’t know the range of sight of this creature. The possibility to check it on himself was obviously out of his current wishes. Fortunately, the monster wasn’t looking around as if there could be no threat anywhere. Taking into account its size, it was easy to guess why.
The endpoint for the lizard appeared exactly at the top of the mountain, which seemed to have some kind of cave that had hidden the creature. This fact immediately crossed out the option to observe the surroundings from there. At least for now. Therefore, Rob silently went to the coast, moving to the second part of his plan – to find a source of food.
The bared and lifeless scenery under a scorching sun and periodic raging thunderstorms left not so many chances to find anything on a surface. On the other hand, the underwater world at least showed the existence of predators. Logically, they needed something to hunt for, leading to the conclusion that there was life here, in this realm. Robert clearly remembered a starting explanation from God that confirmed this assumption. Moreover, devasted worlds after battles for the crown were not interesting for Gods.
Also, such behavior of the lizard can point to an absence of dangers for it exactly on a surface, while most life is concentrated deep down. Wait… deep down… It can include not only water but even underground caves. Fuck! Having more options to investigate isn’t good when even one is too hard to be looked into. Maybe this time it will be much easier to reach the bottom of the ocean… I hope so.
Setting the goal, Robert quickened his steps. A new unknown place without any source of information about it had put him in an odd position of plenty of possibilities, but limited time to try each of them. However, his loss of adaptation ability might have influenced his mind stronger than he knew as he was confident in himself to find the way out. Despite the existence of different fears inside his mind, there were all fleeting feelings. Rob knew he could and would overcome them. He would adapt to any circumstances he had to face. He would survive no matter what.
Crap, don’t jinx Robert! Oh no, you fucking did it again, stupid idiot… Wait. No. Phew, it’s just a wave... Just a wave.