The carapace bruteneck's head came off from its neck and it slumped to the ground, lifeless.
Tatehan sprinted forward, searching frantically until his hands closed around the glowing core. He gripped it tightly, but just as he turned to run back toward the spaceship, the familiar voice echoed in his head:
[Congratulations host, you have just killed a carapace bruteneck]
[Congratulations host, you have just taken a carapace bruteneck glowing stone, colour green]
Tatehan halted for a few seconds as he paused and took a better look at what he was holding.
Yup, it was a glowing green rock alright.
He resumed running, avoiding any path that might bring him face-to-face with more brutenecks. From the looks of it, they were the only creatures that occupied this region. Maybe if he ventured farther up, he'd find other monsters, ones stronger and deadlier than these.
For now, he clenched the rock hard and made straight for the spaceship. Another fight wasn't worth it; he was exhausted and hungry.
Thankfully, no more brutenecks appeared. The land remained eerily empty until he reached the ship. The AI hadn't been lying: this place was tucked away so deep in Mars' barren regions that even a clever enemy would have trouble finding it.
The brutenecks were enemies though as they were dangerous and so were their cousins, the carapace brutenecks, but they wouldn't be so much of a problem as they weren't exactly the most sensible of creatures.
In fact, they were very dumb. Only the carapace bruteneck seemed to know how to be smart but then, to Tatehan, they were still very dumb.
In fact, he found them laughably stupid.
Stupid in the sense that in the battle with one on his task, it had to blindly make itself a spear.
That was just it. The height of stupidity for Tatehan.
Tatehan placed his palms on the opening in the front of the spaceship that granted access and the entrance opened, a ramp extended, and he quickly dashed inside.
The ramp went back in and the entrance shut.
"Seems you'll have to remove the ramp stuff," Tatehan said out loud (obviously at the spaceship's AI) as he walked in. "I can just jump, y'know."
[Well, what if you come limping one day. So it's just there.]
Tatehan smiled.
"Finally I get to at least unlock the casual mode," he said as he looked at the glowing crystal in his hands, a bit fascinated by it.
A regression opened in the wall and, without being told what to do from the AI, Tatehan placed the green glowing rock in it.
He moved back a bit and the spaceship's AI asked:
[Which mode do you want to unlock?]
Tatehan rolled his eyes with a smile, bemused by the question. Of course the AI knew he wanted casual mode, but it would still follow protocol.
"Casual mode," he finally said.
[Casual mode initiating.]
The dim light flickered brightly and much dimmer, doing so repeatedly, almost rhythmically. Then the walls retracted to reveal a sort of hidden place, a small but stunning room. Well, it was more of a sleeping area than a room, but it looked so pleasing to the eyes.
And then, in the sleeping area, from the floor, emerged a bed—an actual bed! Tatehan had once seen beds as normal things, even unimportant, because he never knew he would miss one so much, and seeing it made him elated.
Then behind where the wall had retracted to reveal a sleeping area, the walls retracted again and now Tatehan could see a small kitchen area with food synthesizers. And he could see shelves around the kitchen, probably where the food items were stored.
Looking at it, Tatehan smiled like a kid. Finally! He was going to eat!
Finally!
He heard a retracting sound from his right and when he turned to look, he could see the walls retracting to reveal another hidden space.
Tatehan was fascinated. He had known there was more to the spaceship than just a place with a broken seat. From what he knew, a spaceship was to have places in it.
Even though this was small, it lived up to what he had anticipated when he first came here.
The hidden space revealed a hygiene station. A hygiene station in the sense that it was a toilet and a bathing room at the same time, but not like the normal ones back on Earth. This one looked futuristic.
The kitchen area and the sleeping area both looked futuristic too.
The spaceship was slowly living up to its title of:
RED DRAGON SPACESHIP.
And right in front of him, Tatehan could see it, the spaceship was awakening, although this wasn't how it would look fully, it was slowly doing that.
He was witnessing a:
RED DRAGON SPACESHIP AWAKENING.
It felt sublime to the eyes. Like the Earth's moon dipped into the sun. Like cheese dipped into butter. Like the egregious yet rhythmic sound of a spoilt car engine.
It felt like he was on another planet.
It felt like, finally, he was on Mars.
The lights dimmed more brightly, like they were having a seizure until finally, they bathed the place in a condensation of more bright light, one that felt soothing to behold.
At that moment, Tatehan forgot about his problems. The death of his dog, of his girlfriend, what he had become, what he was going to become, how to breathe, how to speak, how to blink, and how…, how to stand.
He was now on his knees.
Finally, after three whole minutes of staring at the place, speechless, he finally said:
"Beautiful."
[Congratulations host, for restoring training mode]
[Congratulations host, for unlocking casual mode]
[Congratulations host, for acquiring little knowledge of humans on Mars' history]
[You have received repair points]
[You have received knowledge points]
[Congratulations host, you've upgraded to level 2!]
[Congratulations host, you've gained an ability:]
[Partial regeneration]
Words appeared across his retina:
Name: Tatehan
Level: 2
Species: Human (Enhanced)
Knowledge: 22/100 [+2]
Repair points: 11/100 [+4]
[ABILITIES]
• Gravity Manipulation – Level 1
• Regeneration (partial) – Level 0.5/1