Bad Company

The next morning, Jack felt refreshed and well rested. For the first half of the night, he had nightmares but, after taking a midnight leak, his dreams turned into memories of earth, university, friends and most importantly his family.

He had been more emotionally unstable since he arrived on this planet, he thought to himself. Even though the circumstances were extreme and unusual, it was not like him to move between fear and excitement as much as he did. He wondered if this was also an effect of the Sym energy since it was accumulating throughout his body and must have some kind of impact.

He decided to start the day slowly and began with a one hour meditation session to circulate and condense Sym energy, as he did every day. Seeing that humanoid creature dominate dozens of large creatures gave him a new perspective. The assistant kept telling him how this area was called hell or a death trap and Jack felt superior after gaining strength that could easily deal with the creatures. But he now realized that the information the assistant possessed was not entirely reliable and that he must use his own judgement and especially caution if he wanted to survive and return to Earth in the future.

Just like when he started training in mixed martial arts before he got sick, he needed to learn a variety of different disciplines to be as safe as possible and also be smart about the fights he picked. There is no strong or weak person. It can all depend on the context. If a weak person holds a gun then they will become stronger than others. He might encounter people who are weak but have one unpredictable ability that can kill people with ease. He could also encounter poison or he could be faced with too many creatures for him to handle at a time. This world is dangerous so he must be smart and vigilant, he thought.

During his meditation, he also trained his portal ability further since daily practice is required to be able to keep using it properly. Just like he had been training his muscles so that they remain strong, he must train his brain to accumulate Sym energy in the right spot. He now realized the limitation in learning different abilities since he could not keep training for more and more abilities every day. He decided that choosing the abilities he would learn carefully was the best path forward. It is better to master few than to barely be able to perform many or to fail in performing them when push comes to shove.

But Jack still had hopes that he could find a way to accumulate Sym energy in his entire brain in the future and be able to use abilities more freely with less focus being necessary.

After he had cleaned himself and gone to the toilet, which was just a hole he made in the rocks somewhere far away from his water source, he closed his cave entrance with the boulder and went into his portal to continue on his journey.

Jack felt full of vigor and kept running and jumping to get through the rocky desert faster. He was generally an optimistic person but the dark fog of the purple terrain could easily cause you to be depressed, he thought. But Jack was also hungry and he was looking for his breakfast. As he was running he was circulating his energy and also continually opening and closing portals since the more he practiced the technique, the faster he could return home to Earth.

He saw his first creature within minutes of exiting the portal. It was large and looked like an elephant that had been merged with an octopus. It had four long legs, too long for an elephant, and made it appear as if it had its legs elongated which reminded him of a Salvador Dali painting he saw a long time ago. Jack got closer to the creature and made sure to stay out of its visibility range. Within this thick fog, he had the advantage since he was able to see them while the regular creatures were oblivious to him.

Jack created a temporary portal at a safe distance in case he needed to retreat during a fight. This was a strategy he came up with as he was reflecting on the encounter with the humanoid creature. Creating a portal before engaging in a fight cost him nothing and it could save his life in the future.

Jack made sure that no other creatures were nearby and then slowly approached the creature he had his eyes on. As he was observing the creature, they still seemed terrifying. They were moving quickly, almost jerking their body around. Their weight was high which one could sense from the tremors that erupted every time they took a step. Their movements looked unreal, so quick that they seemed to be made of paper and as light as a feather but so heavy and intense that they must be made of pure steel.

If Jack's strengthened eyes weren't able to follow the creature's movements easily, he would be as scared as on his first day but his strength gave him confidence. Since he encountered the humanoid creature, he had increased his meditation and his Sym energy accumulation because he intuitively felt like he needed to be more powerful.

For his safety, it would be best to surprise the creature and to kill it quickly. But for his long-term growth, it would be best for him to experience a one-on-one fight with the creature and take his time. He knew from combat sports that, sometimes, you will be caught up in a long fight and a battle of attrition where your opponent tries to pick you apart and takes his time. He needed to be ready for that. So he would not try to end the fight quickly but would rather practice being ready for anything the creature might do. He wanted to fight. This is sparring as much as it is a fight to the death. "Growth is more important than efficiency," Jack said aloud.

With a large jump he propelled himself right in front of the creature and looked straight into its dark and dead looking eyes. The creature wasted no time and jumped at him with its 2 tons of weight and tried to hit him with a cascade of tentacle attacks. It must have 30 different tentacles on its back and they moved as nimble as if it were its dominant arms. Jack jumped backwards and continually dodged the creature's attacks while allowing himself to be pushed back and chased by it.

With a series of jumps, he circled around the creature to see how it would react. Its intelligence must have been low because it defaulted to tentacle attacks again even though not a single attack had hit him before. With a long jump, Jack flew over the creature and ripped off one of its tentacles in-flight to see how it would react. It showed no pain reaction and continually kept attacking.

"Interesting," Jack thought, remembering how the humanoid creature had intimidated its underling. "Maybe that was more than just intimidation. Maybe a skill is involved."

"I find that theory highly likely since creatures are not intelligent enough to understand social hierarchies. They only know fight or flight according to my records."

"Your old records," Jack corrected the assistant, reminding himself to assess the situation himself first rather than relying on the assistant too much.

Jack had been evading the creature for some time but then decided to switch gears and knock the creature backwards just like the humanoid did. The creature, after getting smacked on its head, bounced backwards and rolled over the ground, making the entire area look like it was hit by an earthquake. It slowly got back up, then turned around and tried to run away.

"Disappointing," Jack said as he chased after the creature and killed it by kicking its head on the ground until it stopped moving. Jack had hoped that it would show signs of submissiveness but it reacted as creatures always do. They either fight or they flee. They never follow. At least, they shouldn't, Jack thought.

Deep in thought, Jack used his frying hand ability to cook his breakfast and ate until he was full. "Salt would be great," he said out loud, "Do you have any idea where we can get some?"

"I have no information on rock salt deposits in this area but this planet has a variety of salt water sources which, unfortunately, are not nearby. It would be the most efficient approach to procure salt in a nearby city or settlement," the assistant said.

Jack nodded as he placed the cooked left-over meat, some leather and the Sym crystal into his cave through a small portal that he used for storage purposes. He was still wearing his make-shift leather pants and shirt which looked like rags that even a homeless person would decline. The clothes smelled like the creatures which is a mix between fish and cattle while they were dirty from the running and hunting he was doing every day. "It might be better to be naked," he said to himself as he looked down at his body. He had tried to clean the clothing as best as he could but all he had was water which was limited in its cleaning capabilities.

With new determination to finally reach human civilisation and obtain some proper clothing, he kept running. On his way he saw creatures of many different sizes and shapes. Most of the time, he could barely make out which animal it was supposed to be except for the tentacles that always gave away its octopus origins. But many creatures had other animal features such as legs, hands and wings but it was rare that a creature had no tentacles or octopus head.

"What a weird world," he said to himself as he kept running. To relieve his boredom, he fought and killed a creature around every hour which also helped him further investigate their capabilities and differences. He even had the assistant remind him once an hour had passed to look for a creature on his way to fight. To be able to return to Earth, he would need to train his abilities as much as possible and further increase the Sym energy density in his body. The assistant suggested that performing a dimensional jump would require ample energy for the initial jump even if he could then benefit from the energy release as he had on his way here. He had been circulating his energy diligently and had learned to condense his energy as he moved and ran. It reminded him of mindfulness meditation but instead of focusing on the current activity, he always focused on circulating his energy during other activities.

It was rare, but Jack would see humanoid creatures every once in a while. He did not encounter a caravan again but the humanoid creatures still worried him enough to avoid them for now. If he felt brave enough, he would fight one to test their abilities but he would prepare a portal just in case.

After 8 days of running and resting, Jack had gathered almost 100 Sym energy stones in his cave and had more creature leather than he knew what to do with. He had even expanded his cave further in order to have more space for his loot since it was getting too stuffy. He was not able to run at full speed since he needed to stay vigilant, but he managed to reach the end of the high-density Sym energy zone faster than expected. As he was approaching the end, he noticed how dramatically the environment changed. The purple dark rocks disappeared and the thick fog started to lift. They were replaced with a nightly field that had a ground consisting of dry sand and a sky that was filled with stars. Jack needed a moment to take in the unfamiliar night sky and he had to stop himself from instinctively searching for the North Star or any familiar star formation. Even though he already knew that he was not on Earth anymore, this image really confronted him with the fact that he was very far away from everything he knew and loved and it cast a veil of sadness on his being.

"Looks like we arrived at night time," Jack said.

"That seems to be the case. According to the star patterns and our approximate location, it should be 1 am. The days on this planet last 24 hours on average which is similar to earth," the assistant said.

"Got it, I am not tired yet so let's look for a city. What does your data say?" Jack asked.

"There used to be a human city approximately 50 kilometres from here. 5000 years ago, it had approximately 700,000 inhabitants that lived in the city," the assistant said. Since it was able to perform minor control tasks within Jack's body, it had started to create visual artefacts on his retina which allowed him to have an augmented reality-like navigation experience. He could see a blue arrow pointing in the direction he had to go and the assistant would even include distance counters for his convenience. Sometimes the assistant would even show him a large map but only in situations where they were discussing the optimal route or strategy of where to go next since the large map obstructed his view.

As Jack kept running, he noticed that no plants were growing anywhere in the vicinity and that the ground seemed overly dry. He saw some small rodent-like animals every once in a while but they were rare. What he definitely noticed were insects though since the ground was full of them. But what surprised him most was that, after running in the low-density area for a few hours, he noticed a lone human just walking aimlessly. At first he thought that he was lost but as he got closer, he noticed the distinct purple fog emitting from its body.

"I think it's a creature. Didn't you say that creatures stay in high-density areas?" Jack asked.

"That should be the case so I am as surprised as you are," the assistant said.

According to Jack's distance measure, he should be 2 kilometres away from the humanoid creature and it was exactly on his route to the next city. Jack thought for a moment and then slowly started to proceed on his path.

"Are you sure you want to engage it?" the assistant asked.

"At first I thought that they would only be a problem in the high-density zone but if they are walking around here then I will probably have to face them sooner rather than later. I will just see if they are a threat or not. If it gets bad, I will jump through the portal," Jack said as he slowly approached the humanoid. He was approximately 1.5 kilometers away when the creature suddenly stopped walking and stood still. Without exchanging a word, both Jack and the assistant knew that it had noticed them. Jack had created a portal when he first noticed the creature in case he needed to jump into safety and as a potential return point but now he felt more uneasy than before.

The humanoids were clearly able to sense him without even using their eyes just like the other creature did when it suddenly faced him. With so many unknown variables, he knew that letting his guard down could mean death. But he instinctively knew that he would have to face these things, or at least that's what he told himself. In reality, Jack knew that he could just avoid them since he was fast enough and had a portal ability. He also knew that he would not need to face them to go back home. But since he had landed on this planet, he had become more aggressive and combative. Maybe it was the continuous Sym energy accumulation that caused this change, maybe it was the disorientation he felt at being on a strange planet among strange creatures or maybe it was the constant smell of fish he had to endure but the change was drastic. Jack had developed a blood-thirst that got stronger whenever he saw a creature. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill.

As Jack approached and was 500 metres away from the humanoid, it turned towards him and stared at him. Jack could now see it clearly. It was not just humanoid but looked like a human. He could see the eyes, nose, mouth and even ears. It had no hair on its head and its body was dark purple with a strong fog emerging from it. If normal humans could not see through a fog as he could, they would not even realize that a human creature stood in front of them, Jack thought.

When Jack had approached the creature with only a 50 metre distance between them, the creature suddenly jumped forward and tried to grab him. "What a weird attack," Jack thought, and evaded while sweeping the creature's legs away from under it. It did not lose its cadence and flipped in-air to land on its feet and launch at Jack once again.

Jack moved forward and pushed the creature back with a barrage of punches and kicks which the creature was barely able to block or evade. Jack started feeling more confident since he was clearly pushing the creature back and had an easy time dealing with its counterattacks. Suddenly, the assistant screamed: "Jack, fall back now!"

Shocked at the sudden outburst from the assistant, Jack leaped backwards and established a distance between him and the humanoid. "What's going on?" he asked as he was moving backwards while keeping an eye on the creature that started to chase him.

"You have been cut on your head. I have noticed that your skin has been opened. The creature must have attacked you somehow," the assistant said.

"That's impossible. I have strengthened my entire body and not even a plane crash should be able to scratch me," he said as he swiped his hand on his head. His face turned pale when he felt the warm and slippery sensation of blood. Shocked he stared at the creature that was chasing after him and slowly closed the distance. "It must have used some ability. It definitely did not touch me, I would have seen that," Jack said.

"I think we should retreat," the assistant recommended.

"I am definitely stronger. I just wanted to wait and see what it does instead of just killing it. But I will get serious now and make it quick," Jack said as he instantly changed directions and leaped forward to attack the creature. With a series of punches he tried to take the creature out quickly. It got pushed back and noticeably struggled with the attacks. Jack started to focus all his attacks on the creature's head and he could sense that it was nearing its limit. As he was about to send the creature on the ground by hitting it with one charged punch, it suddenly jumped backwards and stood still, staring at the sky. Jack hesitated for a second, remembering the mysterious cut he got on his head but then decided to charge in anyways. As Jack flew towards the creature and was about to hit its head with all his power, the humanoid suddenly melted into a purple bubble and disappeared.

"What was that?" Jack asked, confused.