Buried Metal

Roger's eyes widened as he recognized the familiar gleam of sheet metal.

He had spent the past five years of his life working with the material closely and could recognize it anywhere.

Reactivating his new ability, he shakily walked across the river again, praying to the gods that he wouldn't fall again.

Once on the other side, he stood on the outcropping again, but this time he knelt and rubbed away some of the moss growing on top of it.

Beneath, he felt the familiar smooth texture of the forged metal. He could even see some of the rivets where it was welded to another piece, the bond strong and unbroken even after sitting next to the water for what seemed to be years.

Roger believed the object to be at least twenty years old, but was probably closer to forty. 

He knew this because of the way the metal was textured. About twenty years ago, the government ordered the forges of Vulcan to change how they created their metal to support larger Colossus models.

To do that, they had to make the sheets thinner in areas instead of the large blocky panels that had been used in the initial designs. 

Taking a few minutes, Roger tore more moss and dirt off of the piece, trying to figure out what it belonged to. 

He quickly realized there was far too much buried for him to uncover it all without the shovel, pickaxe, and a lot of time.

He also realized that the existence of the metal here meant that the government had been to the forest before and had most likely mapped it. 

His worry grew until he realized something important; the metal was still buried.

The government never left the valuable material behind, it was too difficult to make more of. They could have all damage repaired and rebuilt, but making more from scratch was one of the most expensive things to do.

Roger had personally seen thousands of damaged, rusted, or otherwise ruined sheets of metal in his years of labor. He had sorted and organized it so much he could recognize any of it anywhere.

The presence of wild material out here, therefore, meant one of three things.

The government couldn't make it back to retrieve it, which meant they couldn't access Roger either. This was the best option at first glance, but there had to be a reason the government couldn't reach him, and that prospect was terrifying to Roger.

Earth had conquered their solar system and even a few beyond it, so the possibility of them being unable to take this area was a reality he'd rather not consider.

'Unless they can't transport their military weapons here? But if that was the case, how did this metal get here?'

That led him to the second option, that there was a rogue group that managed to gain access to government technology and tried to escape with it into the forest, losing some of it along the way.

That seemed far more likely given how random the position of the metal was, but was hard to believe given how fiercely the government protected its assets. 

Roger wouldn't have been surprised to learn they had self-destruct buttons implemented in all of their machines, just to guarantee it couldn't leave their control. 

The third and final option that Roger considered was that the metal wasn't from Earth, and was instead made by another species.

Although he had not met one of them, the more he thought about the System specifying his own as human the more convinced he felt there had to be others out there. 

If these species were advanced enough, then they could create similar materials, even using the same methods of synthesizing them, although that didn't feel right.

Roger felt like this was the least likely of all three options as the chances of another species making the metal in the same way were slim to nonexistent. 

The process was very complex and required a lot of steps, fusing dozens of different metallic elements to create an alloy that was nigh unbreakable. It also had to withstand the extreme heat of laser and plasma generators, both for its fuel and its advanced weapon systems.

Roger wouldn't be very surprised to find other species were advanced, but being able to create the war machines of the Colossi Taxeis felt uniquely human. 

Or at least he hoped.

Focusing back on the metal buried beneath him, he knew he wanted to one day discover what it was, but that day wasn't today. 

There was too much to do before he could waste time on frivolous side projects, even if it could help uncover what exactly advanced Earth tech was doing here.

Standing back up, he looked upriver where he had come from, and debated how he would return to the tools and the tiger's body.

He could either walk along the river edge and cut through the trees, or he could walk on top of the water until he got to where he had fallen in.

Smiling, he knew what he wanted to do.

Activating his ability, he took a step onto the water and slowly made his way back to where he came from.

As he walked, he grew more confident in the power and began to run, savoring the feeling of nothing beneath his feet as he moved.

He saw colorful fish dart around him, avoiding the strange human running above their heads.

No more eels, or anything else for that matter, tried to strike at him, which made him reflect on just how unlucky he was that he was attacked twice on his first day here.

'Well, maybe it actually was luck? I did survive after all, and I was rewarded for killing the creatures before the System finished initializing. In the end, I have no real wounds from the encounter, so why look at it negatively?'

As time went on, he would have to grow more used to the danger of Avar. 

It was not like Earth with cameras and armed robot enforcers everywhere. 

Here, it was just Roger against the wilderness, and he was determined to come out on top. 

Once he returned to the bloody stone where he had killed the eel, he set off towards the tall tree he had climbed to escape the tiger, easily remembering the path due to how cautious he was earlier that day.

The forest seemed beautiful again, the lack of adrenaline allowing Roger to properly enjoy it. 

He reached the crate and corpse relatively quickly, making sure to check that everything was still there.

Sighing as he realized what he would have to do next, he leaned down and started by picking up the bag of seeds and two of the books. He then set off to find the open glade he had originally arrived in.

It took him the better part of an hour to locate it, but he eventually did. It looked the same as before, with nothing having disturbed the peaceful clearing.

Putting the books and seeds down, he made his way back to the tiger and grabbed more books and tools, bringing those next.

After two hours of constant back and forth, he managed to transport everything inside the crate, before taking the crate itself.

It was made of wooden planks and they could be useful for making furniture or weapons.

As it stood, Roger had no clue what he would need more.

The last thing he returned to the tree for was the corpse itself. 

Without even trying to lift it, Roger knew it was heavy, so he settled to trying to drag it. He grabbed it by its two back legs and pulled hard, using every ounce of strength in his new muscles. 

Luckily, there was just enough power in his reformed body to get the thing moving, but it was exhausting and tiresome.

The process took hours, noon slowly turning to evening as he heaved the large beast across the forest floor. 

Every branch, root, or bush in his path greatly slowed his trek, causing him to drag the beast around the obstacles or risk it getting caught in something he couldn't yank it out of.

If that happened, he would have to leave it to grab the axe. He wasn't yet willing to risk dulling his blades by trying to cut wood with them.

Once they made it back to the glade, Roger covered the body with the wood planks to try and hide it from any roaming predators and then laid down on the soft grass.

The night was freezing cold once again, and Roger was even hungrier this time around, but the day's activities took their toll.

Within just a few minutes, Roger was fast asleep, his slumber so deep he didn't even awake when a blindingly bright flash of light burst in the center of the glade.

A body fell out of it just a few meters away from Roger, hitting the ground with a thud.

Strangely enough, the body was also sleeping soundly, unbothered by being transported across planets.