It was a small pool of water. Surrounded by a circle of rocks, it felt like a hot spring. But while it was indeed a source of water, it also a very diluted one; the traces of mud floating up to the surface, forming a layer of 'fat'.
While the young man briefly wondered how it had not evaporated from the heat after all this time, he was more disappointed with what he had discovered.
"I can't use this..." He complained.
But nighttime was getting closer, and White was nowhere near satisfied. His soles were swollen from walking so much, his legs were riddled with sand and cuts from the dirt. His body reeked of sweat and most important of all, he was at the brink of exhaustion, both mentally and physically.
"Ugh... Beggars... can't be choosers..."
Giving himself an exception this time (and probably for his hard work), White bent down on one knee and scooped up an amount of muddy water with both his hands.
"..."
It definitely wasn't drinkable. And god knows if he would actually be poisoned by it. White pushed back his unsettled feelings and opened his mouth to drink-
The liquid content went down his throat, instantly rejuvenating him to a certain extent. Although it was just as difficult to drink as he thought, at least he had satisfied a certain amount of thirst. The value of 'Thirst' rose by 5-
Thirst [8]
-But could he relax now? This question was quickly answered by the sudden piercing feeling in his stomach.
"??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"UAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
While let out a frightful scream. He could not be bothered if the muscles in his throat would tear off. There was a shocking amount of pain being registered in his brain at the moment.
It came from his stomach.
"IT HURTS! IT HURTSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! FUCKKKK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK... ..."
Not knowing how to calm himself down, White rolled around on the ground aimlessly, lashing out expletives to distract himself from the pain.
And as a result from speaking too much, or probably for some other nasty reason, White struggled to breathe for a few seconds and had no choice but to cough with intensity.
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The third time he had done so, a small stringy object flew out of his mouth. It looked like pink spaghetti.
It still hurt, but after coughing out that thing, White could feel his suffering lessening to the extent of a gastric pain. Still, it was not a small matter.
"Wh-what the fuck is that..."
White managed to spew out those words as he gasped for air.
The thing that had came out of his mouth, it had flew quite a few meters away, and thus White left the pool of muddy water and came closer to it. At first glance, it looked like a ball of red yarn... but the truth. The truth was shortly revealed, and White immediately felt even more nauseous than he ever did his entire life.
What he saw was... a yellow mealworm covered in red hair. To be more precise, it was entangled with a few of them and they were all still squirming around on the ground. They seem to be twitching a little, as if it was a fish that had no ability to breathe on land.
"Ue-UERGHHHH!!!!!" White belched out one, two more of those worms. To think something like that was contained in his body!
But how?! He continued to breathe raggedly, an invisible string of saliva coming out from the ends of his mouth.
This was far from just being a difficult beginning. White was almost convinced now that this wasn't exactly the world he wanted to be reincarnated in. It seemed that after that struggle with the creepers inside him, he had lost a substantially amount of sustainability points as shown on his Status Window.
When he felt that there were no longer anything inside of him, White had already looked drastically weakened.
He had to find out what that thing was. And thus, he focused his attention to chant the only 'skill' he could bring out.
｢Status Window｣
This was a piece of information he had obtained after attempting to appraise things around him for a while. And as if repeating its use had a certain kind of experience system (or probably because it had a certain restriction or requirement), he could identify one of the carcasses earlier.
｢Stonelace Bull｣
There was just the name, but now he was somewhat certain that those were indeed... monsters. Existences that threaten the residents of the other world. That was a fact he was rather acquainted with, but what about it? The him that possessed no skills at the moment, they were an existence he could no longer treat lightly.
｢Mutated Mana Worm｣
This was the name that appeared on the Status Window. There were no other descriptions but the name. However, the fact remained... that they were monsters. And just earlier, he was probably almost killed by these creatures.
Almost immediately, a certain kind of feeling rushed up to his head. Raising another loud cry, the already tired young man stomped on the worms around him. They died with yellow liquid oozing out of their bodies.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Finally, they were all gone.
He was... probably safe now. Yes, he had defeated these monsters. Now, he expected a level up. He had fought for his life. His life had been threatened and he successfully erased the monsters. If not for a reward, then what good was this world for?
A level up.
Come and level me up.
I deserve a level up.
Level up, and then become stronger. Become stronger, and then I won't suffer like this anymore.
Such thoughts ran through his mind like dopamine, he became increasingly alert for any kind of 'announcements'. Or something to fall from the sky. Maybe a visual effect to show that something had changed.
He waited. One minute. Two. And then three.
But nothing had changed.
He was still stuck in this death-game.