A stone mountain rising tall from a desolate plain.
At the foot of that stone mountain, instead of the many caves, a single lake had appeared.
From afar, the lake’s calm surface looked like a painting.
It was the first lake I had seen since coming to this planet.
Exhausted, I sat by the lakeshore and stared blankly at the water.
Unlike me, the team members, who had not exerted themselves except to pull on the whip, were looking at the lake and talking.
“This place can no longer be used as a base.”
At Sergeant Woo’s words, everyone nodded.
There was no helping it.
Not only the caves, but all the existing facilities had been submerged.
Even the half-destroyed defensive wall was about one-third underwater.
“It can’t be helped. Won’t the new base be the desert ruins we’re staying at now?”
As Margreta said that with a shrug, Sergeant Woo asked her,
“Are there no plans to withdraw?”
It was an extremely uncomfortable question.
Hearing Sergeant Woo’s words, Margreta asked Hanna,
“Are people in the follow-up team talking about that?”
Hanna nodded with a stiff face.
“After seeing that monster alive, everyone got really scared. Every night, there’s a lot of talk about going back.”
Margreta let out a sigh.
“David’s going to have a rough time.”
At Margreta’s words, Sergeant Woo said with a grave expression,
“So there will be no withdrawal.”
“Yes. Instead, more support will come from Earth.”
At her words, the team members let out small sighs.
It seemed everyone had been hoping, at least a little.
Seeing that, I made one resolution.
‘I need to find a way for at least the exploration team members to visit Earth.’
As I thought that, Margreta looked at the lake and said,
“We needed water, and now a lake has appeared.”
She had said it to change the subject, but the expressions of the team members who heard it were not very good.
Hanna, in particular, spoke with a reluctant look.
“Don’t tell me we have to drink that lake water?”
Margreta shrugged.
“What else can we do? We have no other choice. We should be grateful just for this.”
“That’s true, but…”
At Margreta’s words, Hanna looked toward the center of the lake again, then turned her head away in disgust.
“I’m definitely worried about whether the water quality is all right. It does seem like groundwater has gushed up… but there’s no way to know whether the water is fine after coming outside.”
Tom, who had gone to the water’s edge, tasted the lake water and tilted his head.
“That’s true. Besides, even if Hyeon carries it in the box, it’s far from the terraforming ruins, so it won’t be easy to transport.”
“Couldn’t we go through space via the underground ruins? Since the passage collapsed, maybe that side isn’t connected to the lake? Or perhaps there’s water there too… Damn, will the underground ruins be all right?”
Tom and Margreta, who had been talking, looked at me.
I could not answer Tom’s question.
“…We’ll have to check.”
I had collapsed the passage and burst the wall, filling the remaining passage with water. It was hard to guarantee that the passage on the other side and the underground ruins were safe.
Was the problem that, once again, I had done something without thinking about what came afterward?
But survival came first, and there had been no room to think that far ahead.
After returning to the terraforming ruins, it seemed I would have to check this place’s underground ruins first.
“There’s no point worrying about it here. Whichever way it turns out, we’ll have to take water from here.”
Margreta was right.
People needed water to live.
This was the only place with drinkable water.
“I really don’t want to drink this water…”
Hanna complained, which was unlike her.
But it was understandable.
Honestly, I felt the same way.
“First, let’s get that out and talk afterward. With that thing soaking in the lake, it’s unpleasant to look at.”
Sergeant Woo seemed to feel the same.
Seeing everyone look at me at his words, it seemed they all shared the same thought.
It was about time to get up.
Since my body had improved, my fatigue faded quickly. The energy I had used up had also recovered to some extent.
Now it was time to work again.
I stood up, picked up the box, and walked toward the lake.
At the center of the lake floated a black mound with its tentacles hanging down.
It was the scout monster I had killed.
Even now, the monster was scattering white blood into the lake.
It was a sight that made one queasy just to look at.
There was no way anyone who saw that would want to drink this lake water.
I glanced at Tom, who had dipped some of that lake water and tasted it, then walked into the lake.
Fortunately, there was no need to swim.
Once I went in up to my waist, I could touch the monster’s body.
However, it seemed difficult to remove the black stone from here.
I put the entire monster into the box.
Perhaps because the lake had been formed from groundwater that had gushed up from underground, the monster’s blood did not disappear quickly.
It seemed difficult to use it as drinking water right away.
That night, we decided to spend the night by the newly formed lake and set out in the morning.
Thanks to the goods and equipment brought from Earth, we had a more plentiful dinner and camped out more comfortably than before.
The team members wanted to hear how I had caught the scout monster, and I told them the story with some suitable embellishments.
“Is that staff omnipotent? Even if you were lucky enough to strike a water vein, it can spew electricity and move soil and earth too?”
Not only the others, but Margreta also shook her head after hearing my story.
There was no helping it.
Because I had used up all the weapons brought from Earth, I had to leave that part out.
On top of that, after leaving out the fact that Soph had become able to move water, it ultimately turned into the theory that the staff could do anything.
Fortunately, none of the team members coveted the staff.
No one was jealous of my accomplishments either.
“It makes no sense to be jealous while watching you go through all that trouble.”
When I asked the reason, Tom said it with an incredulous look.
Seeing everyone nod, it seemed I looked more pitiful than I had thought.
After that, we exchanged various small talk, then went to sleep.
It was the first leisurely lakeside camping I had experienced on this planet.
However, during that time, no one tried to drink the lake water.
“Don’t worry. Once the other water runs out, they won’t have a choice. And people who haven’t seen the lake won’t know.”
Even Margreta, who said that, did not touch the lake water.
Still, we could not leave without taking any.
I filled the box with as much lake water as possible. I did not know how the inside of the box worked, but even the lake water could be stored separately.
After that, we left the forward base that had become a lake.
This time, we were able to see the monsters Soph called native creatures.
The large monsters resembling rats charged at us without fear.
There was no need for me to step forward.
Arrows flew, and the whip embroidered the air; all the monsters fell.
In the past, I would have put them all into the box, but now the box was full of water. I could not throw the water away.
For the first time in a while, we butchered the monster corpses and carried them on our backs.
It was past noon when we arrived at the desert where the sandstorm raged.
We skipped lunch and entered the sandstorm.
***
The inside of the ruins we reached after passing through the sandstorm was livelier than before.
Perhaps because people had eaten, the atmosphere seemed decent as well.
People were also moving about busily.
When we lowered the earthen wall and went inside, everyone in the lobby looked at us.
There was expectation in their eyes.
Normally, I should have made a report first, but this time it seemed I had to change the order.
I stopped in front of the people and said to everyone,
“You don’t need to worry. We caught that monster.”
At my words, the people let out sighs of relief.
Some sniffled with tears, and some sank down onto the floor.
Even without showing proof, no one doubted my words. Unlike the team members, the people believed me.
Passing by the relieved people, I went to David, who was standing farther inside.
David looked at me with a complicated expression.
It was an expression that seemed grateful, yet displeased.
“Good work. I would have preferred you report first, but I’m no longer in a position to say such things.”
With those words, he wiped his hand down his face and returned to his usual expression.
He asked me in a calm voice,
“Is it certain that the monster is dead?”
“We brought the corpse. I’ll show you.”
At my words, he waved his hand.
“There’s no need to see it. That’s good. Then we can return to the base, correct?”
I could not answer David’s question right away.
Fortunately, David immediately contradicted his own words.
“No, that would be difficult. The passage connected to the ruins collapsed, didn’t it? It would be better to stay here. We’ll have to bring over the facilities from the base.”
Either way, the conclusion was the same.
In the end, I had no choice but to tell him about the situation at the base.
“That is a bit difficult.”
When I stopped him, he looked at me with puzzled eyes.
“A battle took place in the cave, and an underground water vein burst. Water surged in, and the forward base became a lake.”
At my following words, David’s face went blank.
It was an expression I had never seen before.
It seemed he had been even more shocked than I expected.
He asked me in a trembling voice,
“The—the base became a lake?”
“Yes.”
“Then the caves are underwater too?”
“Yes.”
“What about the items in the base?”
“We salvaged a few, but most were swept into the caves.”
Just in case there was anything usable, I had looked along the bottom of the lake before departing.
Unfortunately, there were hardly any useful items in sight.
When the dead monster was about to be sucked into the cave, they seemed to have been sucked in first.
“You can come see it with us. Since it’s the first lake on this planet, it is quite a sight.”
After the monster that had been submerged in the lake disappeared, the lake and stone mountain were quite impressive.
At my words, David looked at me strangely.
I shrugged, and David let out a sigh.
“Wait a moment. I need to organize my thoughts a little…”
“Then I’ll go underground. I need to see whether the ruins on that side are intact.”
“Ah, you said there was a battle in the cave, didn’t you? I’ll go with you. I need to confirm that in person.”
Contrary to his claim that he needed to organize his thoughts, David followed me.
David also called the engineers and researchers, and Margreta and Hanna followed me as well.
More people than expected ended up coming with us.
On the way down, David stayed beside Margreta and pressed her with a barrage of questions he could not ask me.
“How large is the lake?”
“Is the water drinkable? Ah, you brought some?”
“What about the defensive wall? Is there anything usable?”
Unlike before, David seemed uncomfortable around me.
Caught up in David’s barrage of questions, Margreta sighed, but she answered all of them.
The researchers and engineers also seemed to have many things they wanted to ask.
Perhaps because the atmosphere had been bad until now, they were busy watching people’s reactions.
We went down the stairs and entered the underground plaza.
Fortunately, the spatial transfer had no problem.
However, the ruins on that side might have been submerged in water.
Hanna said she would test it first, but I could not allow that.
I made the spatial transfer first.
Wooong.
Fortunately, even after the light disappeared, I could breathe.
There was no water.
The underground ruins were intact.