It is a bright white morning, sunlight scattered through the mist like the Tyndall effect across the forest.
Strange birds chirping from the treetops.
...
Toka is out of sleep because of their chirping.
YAAAAWNNN!
He yawned and stretched his body, "Ansu...wake up" he mumbled, shaking the sleeping bag beside him. "It's Morning already .Time to collect some scr-" he stopped midway.
Because, No home, No Garage, No duty.
He sighed, then thought about to collect some water to drink but he does not have any containers, so tried to place some wooden sticks and logs in the Exchange circle to turn them into bowls or mugs.
Nothing happened, Not even a spark.
"Why!? last Night it was working like a free magic Wi-Fi!!" he tried again, still nothing happened.
then a thought came to him-
last night before they sleep, he heard some noises of a fight in the forest.
Maybe something valuable would be there for him so he could salvage.
His eyes lit up at that Imagination "Resources...scraps = treasures", he suddenly want to go there, for a second he forgot about Ansu.
When he looked at her bare feet and her torn and thin clothes, Honestly he was not any better.
He wanted to make something for her like Shoes, Clothes.
But he didn't know why the Exchange is not working. So, for now they had to manage with what they have.
They brushed there teeth with small sticks from the tree and ate spiky fruits for both water and food.
Toka stood up and said "Alright!! Ansu ..lets go find the treasures".
After he completed that sentence. They both heard-
RUSTLE!RUSTLE RUSTLE!RUSTLE
They both know what they had to do.
So both stood silently without making any noise, Toka took out a Femur to defend from sudden attacks, Ansu slowly hid behind Toka.
A small blob—sticky, jelly-like—came out from the bush.
It wasn't big, It wasn't fast, It looked like a dark violet sewage water flattened on the ground.
Toka blinked "…Okay. it is not dangerous.".
But as it coming, when they looked behind it, Every leaf, twig, and patch of soil the creature touched was rotted.
Toka's heart dropped "Oh ..what the hell.??!! That's very dangerous."
That sticky creature, however, moved slower than a half-dead snail—as it hadn't eaten for days.
Toka exhaled a long sigh of relief "Good… at least it can't attack us."
To test that, he picked up a stone and thrown it at that creature gently.
PLOP!!
That creature didn't react, didn't jump, didn't even run, it just keep moving.
Toka rubbed his chin "Poor thing looks like it's running on 1% battery…"
He turned away to continue with his work, But then-
A pull of his T-shirt. "Anna…" Ansu's small voice whispered. Her eyes were asking him "Let's help it."
Toka's soul left his body for a second there "…Help it? That Creature can melt both of us!"
But Ansu kept staring at him with her innocent eyes.
Toka scratched his head "Okay !! Fine, fine… but only because you asked."
He thought for a second and took out a spiky apple and placed it near that creature because he thought that slimy creature was hungry.
That jelly creature slowly eaten it. Ssssllluuurp… Its color is slightly grew pale.
Then he wanted to place another apple near it but his metal pieces which can lit fire dropped on it from his pocket, then-
That creature wiggled excitedly and devoured it instantly. Next, Toka tossed a useless scrap part near it to check.
It melted and eaten it instantly...Its movements became a little livelier.
Toka's eyebrows twitched. "It likes scraps?", then he remembered something...The wolf-man bones.
He hurriedly dug through the place where he buried them and took them out to feed them to that creature hesitantly.
The creature trembled and slowly wrapped around them, it took sometime but gradually it dissolved all bones completely.
Then something changed in it , it is turning pale and pale and turned clear almost like clean water.
Toka stared "…Did we just… treated it?"
Ansu smiled brightly and took the slime into her hands in the joy of curing it.
Toka suddenly froze and want to yell at her but for his surprise, Her hands weren't rotten like leaves or twigs.
He sighed in relief and taught some life lessons for the kid to not do anything like this again.
"Great… now we have a pet monster"
Toka watched at Ansu giggle as the creature bounced gently in her hands and said to her-
"…Alright, Ansu. Since you're the one who wanted to help it, why don't you give it a name?"
Her eyes sparkled with happiness.
She held the slime close and proudly and called it "Neelu"
The slime jiggled twice—PON! PON!—clearly happily.
...
With Neelu bouncing on Ansu's head, the three of them started towards their destination.
Along the way, they picked some fruits:
one shaped like tiny tangerines, small cherry-like berries and a few mushrooms Toka absolutely refused to touch.
"Acquiring food was easy because of Neelu, it won't touch the fruits that are either poisonous to us or not god for their appetite."
But then they finally reached their destination- Both Toka and Ansu instantly closed thier ears and vomited .
The scene before them was a nightmare to them.
Humans- cut ,chopped and scattered like chickens.
Armor stripped, bodies torn open, some corpses still clutched their broken shields, broken swords stuck into the ground, four wagons are overturned and damaged.
A bloodied horse is struggling to breath, tied to a shattered wagon.
Ansu became unconscious, Toka swallowed hard " what the fuk happened here?",
But Neelu trembled with excitement, to a creature which feeds on waste this was.., Buffet time.
Toka quickly stopped Neelu from eating and said "No! Neelu! This is not your food ! go watch Ansu"
Neelu made a -
BLORP
-But obeyed Toka and jumped over to Ansu side to protect her.
...
Then Toka forced himself into work because survival comes first.
He scavenged
-broken swords
-broken shields
-cloths from corpses
-a pair of shoes
-intact bags
-several metal fragments.
He also checked the damaged wagons , some of them don't have any thing, he thought maybe they are used for this people to sit in them.
He slided his hand over the wheels and frame, whispering:
" if I get lucky…This might be reparable…."
His gaze sided to the injured horse, its legs are trembling, Its breathing was weak.
Toka clenched his fists "If I had medicine… I could help you."
Then, by Luck he discovered some weird bottles inside one of the carts:
-5 dark blue bottles
-10 light-blue bottles
-5 green bottles
-10 light-green bottles
Each bottle around 150 ml, neatly packed in boxes but some bottle are leaking so he given one green leaking bottle quickly to the horse .
He don't to what will happen but to his surprise most of the horse wounds are healed.
He given some fruits to it so it can eat to suffice its hunger with them.
He thought the blue bottles are water and drank the 2 leaking light blue bottles.
Energy surged throughout his body, For now he called them "Energy drinks"
Then he went to check another wagon, In that wagon He found-
-medical bandages, books and some untouched food and water.
He exhaled and thought "Jackpot."
For the first time since falling into this world…Toka felt a spark of hope.
He felt sad for the corpses to be left like this so he dug the land-
SHUNK SCRAPE...SHUNK SCRAPE....SHUNK SCRAPE...SHUNK SCRAPE
-to bury all the 15 men in the land.
Then he wanted to exchange the clothes and shoes to fit them....
Then suddenly-
Gear sounds echoed in his brain
KRRR—TIK—CHRRK—CLACK—!
and a robotic voice followed.
[ SKILL: Equivalent Exchange
Activated ]
Toka hurriedly drawn the Exchange map on the ground and tossed the clothes and shoes and some bandages in the first circle.
While injecting mana he thought of only one thing "to make the offerings to suitable for both of them"
The items in the first circle vibrated, turned into shimmering threads.They spun, twisted, and weaved together as before into-
FWOMP!
-Two full sets of clothes dropped into the second circle
-shirts
-pants
-shoes
Toka's jaw dropped "…It worked again and they're… actually like new ones?"
But this time, something unexpected happened Two small metal plates—along with two bronze tokens—fell out from the shirts , landing with a soft clink.
Toka picked one metal plate up and one bronze token.
It was an identity plate, engraved with strange runes like the one on his fore arm the other day and The bronze token bore an unknown emblem.
He was shocked "Why did makin clothes give them ID's?..."
After that Toka's eyes widened then rolled back.
"W-Wait—Not agai—"
THUD.
He collapsed instantly, unconscious.