LOTM: Seekers

45. I see nothing

Now… what should I do?

Let's take it one step at a time.

For now, all I know is that I need to stay in this place for at least a month. Just having a clear goal—something to hold on to—fills me with a sense of hope.

If the countdown had been like the last time, I might've already spiraled into desperation.

So, to survive here for a month, I need to prepare. Even in a place as strange and sudden as this, I still want to live like a human being.

And for that, there are three fundamental things we've been taught since childhood:

Food, Clothing, and Shelter

The basic pillars of survival. Oh, and of course—water.

The water problem? Solved with a cheat.

As for clothing, that's the last thing I need to worry about. There's so much of it lying around that I could probably open a boutique here if I felt like it.

That leaves me with two real concerns.

Shelter—I just need to find a solid structure that's safely above the waterline of that ominous dark sea.

Which brings me to the final and most pressing issue:

Food.

If this were a typical wilderness, the answer would be simple: hunt wild animals, gather herbs, or forage for fruit.

But here? You don't even need to look too closely to sense that something's off about these creatures.

Aren't they more like mutated beasts? The kind whose body parts are used as core ingredients in Potions?

Yeah... those.

Now here's the real question:

What happens if you consume a potion—or even just an ingredient—from the wrong Beyonder pathway?

You guessed it—

Insanity is knocking.

Yeah, baby. Sanity's on a vacation.

…F**k.

I'm screwed.

Well… technically, that might not be the case. After all, this is a different world or planet—or at least, it seems to be.

Still, the situation isn't light enough for me to casually take risks.

They say humans can survive for weeks without food—but that's only if you lie around doing nothing. Out here, if I stay idle, I'll probably become prey long before starvation sets in.

I suppose nothing will change if I just stay put.

With that thought, I jumped down from the coral and landed on the ground below.

For now, I need to focus on finding shelter and food. I fixed my eyes on a stone statue in the distance, using it as a landmark for where to head next.

By the time the sun began to set, I still hadn't found a proper place for shelter.

So, just like yesterday, I settled for a spot high enough to stay out of reach from the dark sea's rising waters.

Any crab-like creatures that tried to climb up were dealt with in advance.

During the day, I didn't have to worry about using fire—it's light wouldn't attract unwanted attention—so I had plenty of firepower at my disposal.

It's only at night that I need to be cautious; one careless flame could turn me into a glowing target, just like before.

I also made sure to avoid swinging from one structure to another like some makeshift Spider-Man, or flying with fire. Drawing attention was the last thing I needed when I still knew nothing.

It's better to move slowly and cautiously than to get ambushed like I did yesterday.

Speaking of which, I've only seen those flying creatures a few times up in the sky. Based on my experience so far, the number of those weak crab-like creatures is staggeringly high. And they were excessively aggressive maybe because of their large numbers and scarce food but they punched themselves into anything they saw, and they also liked to ambush.

If I'm not careful I'll spend hours killing them with more corpses calling other new ones to come. With its strength it wasn't a big deal to kill them especially in daylight where I could use fire.

However, without food, it's only a matter of time before my stamina starts to drop. To deal with that, I've decided to try my luck with sea creatures tonight.

It's odd that I've only encountered one type of land creature so far—but then again, this whole place is strange, so I guess it fits.

After settling down atop another coral formation, I spun a fresh cocoon for the night.

Without any walls or structures nearby, setting a proper trap for flying creatures was impossible. But on the ground, I laid out thick threads—enough to catch anything that tried to crawl its way up from below.

Then, using crab meat as bait, I set up a line of thread like a makeshift fishing rod.

And just like that, I became a fisherman in another world.

The effect was immediate.

Were they also starving in that sea?

As the line jerked, I instinctively held it tight. I was expecting the usual pull-and-release pattern of fishing—tug, wait, tug again—but instead, the tension suddenly vanished.

Then, using my night vision, I saw why.

Something had surfaced.

A triangular fin sliced through the water.

A shark or something similar to it.

And it wasn't just swimming—it was charging straight toward me with a disturbingly focused expression, if that's even possible for a shark.

I watched in frozen disbelief as my supposed prey surged closer… and then, without hesitation, launched itself out of the water like it intended to climb onto land.

I caught a full view of its massive body—it was humongous. Does everything in this place have to be gigantic? Maybe that's why they're always starving.

Just as I braced myself to confront the shark on land, a thick tentacle suddenly burst from the dark sea, snatching the flying shark-like creature mid-air. The tentacle was so enormous it made the shark look small by comparison.

Dragged back into the water, the shark's eyes locked onto mine. In that split second, it felt like hundreds of unspoken words passed between us. That's when I noticed the thread still tethered to the shark's mouth.

I smiled sweetly and, without hesitation, cut the thread.

This experience will be etched deep in my memory.

Let's go to sleep.