chapter 19 no hesitation (work in progress)

entering inside S.L.B, Daniel's heart was beating fast, he was ready to take a big risk, for the tiny chance to defeat the black snake, or better to satiate his curiosity

as he logged in, Daniel found out that he was still alive in the hole, apparently, the tomb had worked, and with a forceful push with his leg the stones covering the entrance were moved out of the way, leaving him the space to crawl out

the first thing he did was check his surroundings, luckily the black snake manure in the crack seemed to have a repellent effect on the other snakes, so he went to check if the big fella was home, but to his surprise the large middle portion of the crack was empty

since Daniel couldn't know if the snake left a few minutes ago, or a few hours ago, he decided to postpone the exploration, but there was something he could still do, during dinner yesterday he had made Vincent, explain in detail where the mineral extractor was

indeed less than 10 minutes later there it was, a broken skeleton with only the top half left, wearing a torn and broken spacesuit, that could barely be recognized as one, near the left hand a metal handle could be seen, Daniel went up to it and grabbed the handle pulling the rest of the tool out of the dirt, soon later a notification popped up

congratulation, you found the miner's pride

name: miner's pride

type: mineral extractor

rarity: D

specials: mineral scanner

attachments: extractor beam

the mineral extractor looked like the fusion between a rifle and a megaphone, in black, yellow, and orange colors, after it found its spot in the toolbelt, Daniel retreated back to where his hole was, and since all he had to do was wait, he decided to try his new toy

after equipping it, the dirt and stains on it were magically gone, and it looked clean, but the scratches and signs of time could still be seen, making it obvious that unlike the gun and knife it wasn't at 100% durability

Daniel was curious and after checking he could see that it was only at 35%, the materials needed to repair it were 10 units of gredium and 30 of iron, being a game iron was basically everywhere, but gredium was one of the components of the trixium alloy, even if it couldn't be called rare, it could definitely be called uncommon

a small display was present facing the user on the top part of the rifle butt, on it, charge and durability levels were displayed, together with a small icon of a rock on top of an open eye, Daniel touched it and an array of arrows appeared on the screen, most of them had iron written over them but on two of them was gredium and on one just a question mark

Daniel was really curious about the question mark, but the arrow pointed at the center of the snake burrow, so he decided to check later

he first followed the gredium arrow, and after he arrived he pointed the mineral extractor at the green-veined rocks, and fired, from the cone a white beam of light shined on the rock and small green fragments started to fly out in the smaller cone at the center

a notification kept appearing in front of Daniel +1 gredium till it reached +8 then the rock crumbled, satisfied daniel followed the second gredium arrow, and repeated the process, for the grand total of 14 units of gredium

then he started to hit the iron deposits he could reach, in a few minutes more than 200 units of iron were in the backpack inventory, this alarmed Daniel, if the difference between common and uncommon was this big, what would happen in the future when he needed rare minerals

after clearing most of the white arrows, he noticed some gray ones below with iron, gredium, quartz, even gold, silver, and cobalt but following them he didn't find anything, soon he understood that these minerals were below the ground and he had no way to dig that deep, as he lacked the terrain manipulator attachment, and doing it with a makeshift shovel wasn't a great idea

anyway, Daniel decided to fix the mineral extractor with the materials he just mined since it was the only thing he could do, so while it was equipped he selected the repair option, the telescopic arm in the backpack side started to move and the silver ball started to shine a light on the half-broken tool, and in less than a minute the miner's pride was as good as new, all the scratches and sign of time like discolorations and rust disappeared

Daniel didn't know whether to laugh or cry, at the idea that adding two kilograms of minerals would result in a fixed tool that weighed exactly the same and said "the unscientific things keep piling up, let's just play" he had started to like the game, but a part of him found it futile, he decided that after the tutorial he wouldn't play often

after a while, the snake had still to come home and the wait was killing him, apparently, patience wasn't Daniel's strong suit, and since he was tired to wait, he decided to go check out the question mark previously ignored, there was nothing to prepare anyway, and as he followed the arrow a strange rock made of what seemed black glass was in the snake nest, a little left of the center

Daniel said "isn't this just obsidian" and he pointed the mineral extractor at the rock, but what was extracted despite the appearance wasn't obsidian but trixium alloy "how is it possible, trixium alloy it's made or bought, it doesn't exist naturally" but indeed 3 units of trixium alloy were in his backpack "so maybe a ship crashed here and was buried in the dirt and snake manure over the years, but I don't have a terrain manipulator so how much time would it take to dig a ship out by hand"

Daniel shook his head and said "there must be a terrain manipulator to attach to the mineral extractor somewhere, but no comments ever talked about a terrain manipulator" his lack of patience was showing up again, but after a deep breath he said "I'll kill the snake, then if I survive I'll build a shovel out of something, how much time does he want to take to come back"

at this moment a faint bloodlust was around him, nothing was normal with this kid, he wasn't even 4 years old yet, and he was already developing an aura unknowingly, it could also be an application of soul energy, but in this case it wasn't, bloodlust is an aura that attacks the enemies soul making them fearful, the problem is that it takes years of battles to generate it, but daniel now had it, and he never even saw a real battle, sadly it was useless since the snake was made of zeros and ones it didn't have a soul to attack

but the duo of Phoebe and Joseph that was at home felt it, and jumped up again, at this point they shouldn't be surprised anymore, but this kid kept throwing one shock after another, so they decided to use the parental control option to spectate what was happening

in the meantime, Daniel was unaware of his new state, but the nanites felt it and went into full battle mode, he could feel them trying to find the target, but sadly they were closed in the ball and could only spectate through Daniel, but he still took notice of it, that the nanites could attack if ordered, even if he didn't communicate orders with words, they could feel daniel wishes and act on it, so he told them to ask permission before attacking anything, they couldn't now in the sphere, but in the future, he didn't want them acting on their own

still, Daniel was unsure about why the nanites suddenly wanted to help him defeat the snake, but he had started to understand a part of their function, they could attack technology and wanted to invade and conquer it, he understood all this because the nanites, kept asking to infect every piece of technology he came across, be it the egg, the solar panels, even a few appliances in the kitchen that weren't a 100% technology

while Daniel was thinking about the nanites, a slithering sound could be heard outside, the snake was finally back home

the giant snake boss head was the first thing that entered the burrow, and the boss immediately noticed the bite-sized thing disturbing his lair

like any good giant carnivorous creature, the first instinct was to eat the disturbance, and so it did, the giant mouth opened enough for a small car to go in, so the bite-sized Daniel, didn't have any trouble jumping inside the mouth to avoid the sharp fangs, and directly went down the snake's throat

like a bitter pill, Daniel found himself down the snake throat, but there wasn't much time left, with gastric acid on one side and gag reflex on the other, he took out the small cricket whose battery had already been substituted and shot the 10 bullets a full battery gave him at the strongest setting, doing his best to aim towards the beast guts, while he was being swallowed

being a realistic simulation, Daniel figured out, that the snake was armored outside, but the inside would be quite squishy, since the head would be difficult to reach, behind the snake's skeletal structure, the guts would make a prime target, and also one difficult to miss, giving the size

the snake started thrashing around, and making terrible hissing noises, but with most of his internal organs perforated, and bleeding internally copiously, it didn't take long for it to expire

as it died, the snake body disappeared and left behind many things, but most importantly a terrain manipulator and a tyrant snake skin for the mineral extractor, obviously he also left meat and skin and other parts but those were not important anymore and were just thrown in the backpack

the manipulator was the best reward Daniel could hope for, and this also explained why no one found it before, how many people, would risk their only chance, like this

joseph and phoebe were watching him and knew the plan but they were as usual shocked, and this time, not in a good way, being unable to cultivate, his body wouldn't easily heal, and he was neither strong nor sturdy, the only silver lining was that verulus had a higher gravity than most planets, because of its size, making its inhabitant stronger, and a few million years of evolution made every human sturdier and more resilient to diseases, but still nothing compared to a cultivator

so for the first time, they thought, about the possibility of Daniel, dying because of a freakish reason, like being curious about what caused the crack in the volcano

the only reason they weren't mad right now, was because this was just a game, but it also made them realize, Daniel wasn't hesitating to jump in the mouth of the snake, he even had a mild smile on his face

they knew what that was, because, adrenaline junkies could easily recognize, someone with the same mental illness as them

Daniel was happy with the results, but even happier to dig in the volcano in a few minutes instead of a day

so he opened the toolbar and attached the terrain manipulator on the mineral extractor, then he took it out, now next to the scan icon there was a new one of a shovel

as he clicked it, the big cone outside closed arriving close to the one in the center, and a bead appeared, used to form a concentrated beam, used to dig