I emerge in empty grasslands. There’s a veritable sea of wavy blue grass as far as the eye can see.

It’s not been that long, but I feel like I’ve been gone for more than a few days…

But it’s not like I really want to linger here for more than I need to. This planet is home to abominations such as Spirits and weird soul-devouring ghosts so I better tread carefully. I only have my Field Pistol, which packs quite a punch, but it’s still unable to even wound a pseudo-Spirit, so a real one would be an even greater challenge.

Teleporting it away might work, but who knows how fast it can travel and reach me? Of course, this might be a different story if there’s something to keep it busy…

Something likes a village where a certain annoying person lives. I’m still incensed by the trick the Elder pulled on me, so I won’t hesitate to gift him a nice angry Spirit.

I’m such a good person, it’s incredible.

But let’s get back to the task at hand. I need to find that Clan of lunatics worshipping the Starmetal, so I need to keep heading to the southwest until I find something.

Teleporting around might seem fun at first, but it gets boring really quickly. Doing tricks with portals is certainly fun, but…

Half an hour has to pass before I finally encounter a semblance of civilization. Two dog-eared men carrying long spears are chasing what looks like a giant spider. It's quite similar to the ones that attacked me when I first arrived on this hellhole.

I think they called them Weavaans or something?

I crouch behind a nearby bush and observe the pursuers with interest, with any luck they’ll guide me to where I need to be.

One of the pursuers suddenly jumps in the air, and I have to crane my neck to follow him with my eyes.

This guy just jumped higher than the fucking treetops!

Now, I have a dire need for a jetpack. Flying around sounds like fun even if it isn’t as fast as teleporting, and it could open new possibilities in battle.

Of course, I do not want one just because it would look cool, not at all.

I snap out of my jet-powered dreams and focus on the two men. The one who jumped lowered his spear while gravity propelled him into the Weavaan's defenseless back. A pained shriek comes from the beast’s maw as the long and slightly curved blade of the spear pierces its body. His comrade doesn’t stay idle and quickly thrust his weapon into the creature’s eyes before it can recover.

The giant spider bucks and screams as its rider pull out his weapon and jab it again in its head, causing it to fall to the side. The one who stabbed its eyes with reckless abandon jumps and guts its soft underbelly before the beast can realize what happened.

The Weavaan’s molasses-like blood slowly seeps out of the massive wounds all around its body, and it stops trashing and twitching after a few seconds.

“That was a close one!” the one who tried to reach orbit says with a wry smile as he wipes his sweaty forehead.

"You can say that again, it's worrying that one of those things was so close to the village…" the other one says while cleaning his weapon in the grass.

The show was nice, but I can’t help but be unimpressed by their display. All this flashy movement can’t hold a candle to the instant short-distance teleportation that everyone in the Hidden World seems to have.

And their attacks were laughably weak and slow, these people wouldn’t last a day in the Hidden World.

This planet is weird; the people around here are obviously weaklings of the highest order. So how are they able to survive despite the Spirits?

Not to mention the place where the two explorers killed by the ghost came from. From their equipment, it seemed like their technology level was way higher than the local norm.

This boggles my mind, but the problems of this planet are, like the name suggest, this planet’s and not my own.

My attention focuses back on the two hunters, but a dot suddenly appearing on my lifeforce scanner forces me to look into the dark woods where it’s supposed to come from. The ground starts to rumble soon after, and the two pursuers look at each other with worry while I pull out my Field Pistol.

The creature corresponding to the dot should be already visible, but I can’t see anything. So it’s either invisible or digging under the soil. An invisible creature sounds rather scary, so I hope it’s the latter…

My hypothesis is confirmed when a creature the size of a small suburban home emerges from the ground, just under the Weavaan’s carcass. The two men jump away and ready their weapon, but they start to tremble when they recognize whatever this thing is.

The creature, which is swallowing the giant spider like a snake, looks like a giant star-nosed mole. It also has a big squid beak in the middle of the mass of wriggling tentacles at the extremity of its eyeless face.

The long and slightly curved massive four claws on each of its limbs look like they could easily tear me apart with a single swipe. Considering the size of the fucking things, I bet it could also easily smash a house or two.

Why does everything on this planet either looks like it was ripped out of a horror movie or looks like it's powerful enough to kill me with a single glance?

I’m tempted to rename this place Space Australia.

The two hunters, who are no match for the giant mole-squid, throw some sort of clay pot on its nose. The pieces of pottery break and cover the creature's nose with an amber-colored liquid. It must be some sort of irritant since the mole is now screeching while clawing at the mass of wriggling tentacle on its face.

In the meantime, the two men run away at a speed that would be hard to match even with my chain teleports. I stay behind my bush until they disappear over the horizon, and emerge once they are out of sight.

The mole-squid is still in a bad spot, and I’m curious how strong it is.

So I shoot it.

The creature shriek as the bullet effortlessly enters it’s not so tender flesh, and it quickly bloats up before exploding.

Whoa, it stayed alive for almost two whole seconds! The battle was so uneventful that even the voice in my head, which normally loves to show up when I kill someone or something, stayed silent.

I shrug; at least I won’t have to worry about these disgusting things in the future. Now, where did these guys go?

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Catching up to the two hunters is quite easy when you can move instantly, so I slowly follow them while maintaining a respectable distance. From my experience, these people have heightened senses so it’s better to be prudent.

To my chagrin, their pace quickly slows down to a crawl until it finally comes to a full stop when they stop near a small river.

“Fuck… Do you think that we lost it?” the hunter who stabbed the creature in its belly asks his comrade, who looks like he’s about to pass out.

“That foul concoction should keep it busy for a while.” he finally says after calming his breath. “Although I never heard about it causing an explosion before…”

The other one shrugs, “Well, it doesn’t matter to me since it did keep this thing off our tracks.”

“I suppose. Are you ready to go?” the hunter asks.

“Of course, I was waiting for you!” he chuckles and readjusts his spear, his companion grunts, and trots behind him.

I keep following the group, barely paying attention to their idle chatter since it’s just inane gossip and small talk.

Twenty minutes pass before I spot signs of civilization in the distance. Their village looks like it’s carved into the side of a mountain while fields are spread around the bottom of the peak.

Having a village in the mountains makes sense when you have giant moles roaming around.

I pull out my Portal Gun and memorize the current coordinates before Rewinding to the moment when I arrived on this planet. Following the group wasted too much time; every minute counts when there could be some sort of punitive expedition headed towards my home.

I teleport back to the area I occupied a minute ago and use the zoom on my Interdimensional Phone to take a better look at the village. My previous assumption of the village being carved into the mountain seems to be accurate.

The village is surrounded by thick stone walls, which for the most part look like they were made of a single block. Of course, certain parts of the wall were man-made, probably to accommodate the expansion of the village, but these parts look shoddy and fragile in comparison.

Their houses are also interesting looking; a big stone square is the best way to describe most of them. The mountain is apparently made of widely different types of rocks since the big slabs they use for construction have a lot of color variation.

But the most atypical buildings are the ones which are directly carved into the side of the mountain.

It looks like this Clan is better off that Hisako’s, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

What happened with Snaga left a bad taste in my mouth, so I won’t bother negotiating. From what I’ve seen with the two hunters, these guys aren’t a threat to me. And even their elites should be easy to deal with as long as they don’t have something on the level of a Spirit or the ghost in the mine.

And even if they do, I doubt they’ll resist five hundred .50 BMG Exploding Growth Bullets a minute propelled at orbital velocity.

I memorize the layout of the village while looking for any potential vaults where they might stockpile the Starmetal. I assume it’s in the palace-looking area carved into a massive crack in the back of the mountain, but I don’t want to waste my time by wandering around.

I don't have to wait long since my answer comes soon enough. A tall panda-like humanoid emerges from the crack, and I bet he's important. Mostly because he’s wearing a ridiculously big and impractical crown made of what looks like silver, and pieces of Starmetal are embedded into its top.

The cuirass he’s wearing is also similarly adorned in raw chunks of Starmetal.

I guess it's a way of using the Starmetal.

Now, how should I proceed? First, I need to see how well-defended their vault is.

I glance at my Portal Gun, and I’m surprised to see small zones where I can’t teleport that are spread around the cavern. They are small and barely the size of my fist, but it’s still something.

Maybe it’s caused by the Starmetal? A quick check on the Portal Gun’s screen confirms my hypothesis since the panda covered in chunks of Starmetal also has a minuscule zone around him where I can’t teleport.

Interesting… let’s check this out.

I select a spot in the massive cave and create a portal under my feet. I have to act quickly since these people might have already felt my portal's mana.

It's not as dark as I thought since glowing coral-like minerals create a dim light that illuminates the entirety of the cavern.

But it doesn’t matter to me anyway, my armor quickly adapts to the lighting and everything becomes brighter. The layout of the cave is clearly not natural since there are multiple rooms carved into the walls. Each of those rooms is protected by a big door made of polished black stone. The doors themselves are covered by pulsing Power Stones all linked together with grooves filled by the coral that lights up the place.

I take a couple of pictures before sending them to Alan; it might help him understand how these things work.

This is probably a security system of some sort, and I don’t mess with it since I can bypass it completely with my Gun. I teleport into the first room, and I'm almost blinded by the sudden shift in lighting. The quantity of coral embedded in the wall is nothing like the main corridor!

It’s like I’m in direct sunlight, but this time I don't need the help of my armor.

My attention then shifts on the actual contents of the vault, which are conveniently laid out on a big rough marble pedestal in the center of the room.

Most of the treasure here is just large Power Stones coupled with a few materials and equipment with Stones embedded into them.

Interesting… I'll teleport everything I find back on Earth. But I'll take care of it once I acquired the Starmetal. Otherwise, the noise of the washer might alert the villagers and they'll annoy me.

I check the next room, the contents are pretty much the same. A sword catches my attention, it's a normal iron sword, except for one tiny little detail. There are pieces of Starmetal embedded into its blade!

The blade looks deformed and blunt, so it must be used for ceremonial purposes rather than an actual weapon. But it won’t hurt to study it since the Fabricators could learn a thing or two.

I check the other four rooms, and they all contain similar items. There were also weird looking ingots that I’ve never seen before, so the Fabricators should be happy with what I’ll bring back.

But now it's time for the main event, the seventh and biggest room at the end of the corridor. This is where the largest zone where I can’t teleport is located, so it’s probably where they store all their Starmetal.

As usual, I ignore the intricate door and teleport directly into one of the corners of the room unaffected by the aura of the Starmetal.

My heart skips a beat when I emerge into the treasure room. A massive pile of Starmetal chunks is in the middle of the room, and several stone pedestals containing more refined looking objects are lined against the walls.

There’s so much Starmetal here!

I will be easy to fill up every single container strapped to my waist. But I only need to fill up four of them. The last one is for the Frostcrystal Roses.

By the way, why would I need those containers in the first place, the Starmetal here seems to be-

The pile suddenly rumbles and arcs of blue lightning courses over the chunks of sky-like material, causing familiar cracks to appear on its surface before it quickly repairs itself.

Those cracks are similar to the ones on artifacts that are about to explode. It looks like these guys have a ticking time bomb in their backyard.

And I don’t want to be here when it blows up.

I carefully approach the pile and stuff my containers as much as possible before closing them up. To my surprise, the containers seem to negate the non-negligible weight of the Starmetal.

Well, this is done. It’s a shame that I can’t take more, but I can always come back later. At least if this place hasn’t exploded. Now I need to take care of this treasure vault.

I glance at the items on the pedestals, and they also have pieces of Starmetal in them. But unlike the crude inclusion of the other artifacts, these ones contain polished pieces of Starmetal that obviously have a purpose.

Those artifacts obviously aren't made by the Clans.

I have no idea what they do: One is some sort of compass, another one is a pair of antique-looking goggles, another one looks like a sextant and the last one is a small tablet.

The Fabricators are going to have fun with these!

I teleport all the treasures in the middle of the massive main corridor, that could easily house two semi-trucks side by side, along with my pressure washer and my stock of disinfectant.

I also call Alan to explain the situation and warn him to clear the drop-off point.

However, turning on the engine of the washer reveals a slight problem.

The noise echoes like a motherfucker, and I’m sure that I just alerted the entire village.

I Rewind and teleport the pile of treasures into an empty area where I wash them all thoroughly before chucking the washing items into a nearby portal.

Of course, I didn't forget to alert the Fabricator again.

The washer is also cleaned up before being sent back to Earth. I cross my arms and ponder on the next part of my plan.

Stealing the materials went without a hitch. But I still need to confront the villagers since they should know where their capital is, they also could have a map of some sort.

But how should I proceed? The diplomatic approach might not work, and I absolutely refuse to do anything for these people again. Teleporting an M2 in the middle of the village and gunning everyone down is also a solution. But they might not have a map and I would've killed my only way of finding the capital's location.

I ponder on my options for a few minutes before settling on what I think is the best approach. I go back to Earth and print a few short-fused sticks of dynamite and tie them together.

A grin creeps on my face as I crack my knuckles and teleport just in front of the large wooden gate protecting the village.

It's time to go full Prometheus!