50 It's dangerous to go alone... Take this!

With the tribe soon to be in a dire need for salt, Luca takes it upon himself to start searching for any salt deposits near or within the Sua'jiki territory. Sarr'ina wanted to accompany him but he'd 'somehow' persuaded her to remain in the tribe, his argument included the tribes need for her abilities in-case someone gets injured, and the fact he'd be taking Sarr'bal with him.

Das'ju, Zul'meshi, and Gil'ga all wanted to come with him too, but he'd refused as they were needed to provide enough food. They were, after all, some of the most efficient hunters the tribe had.

So, that's how Luca ended up silently walking through the western part of the Sua'jiki territory, his bearskin sitting over the rest of his make-shift leather clothing. His bow hanging around his chest and on his back as he wielded a spear.

A large bundle of pure white fur travelled next to him, Sarr'bal's usually excitable nature being subdued by his predatory instincts. Luca truthfully had no actual knowledge about where salt deposits might be, he knew that places were large masses of salt-water used to reside might contain some, but as far as he could tell he was in the middle of whatever continent he'd found himself.

So, that left him with randomly searching until he got lucky... Though, he had watched some documentaries in the past, one thing that immediately sprang to mind was the fact that animals required salt as much as humans did. He remembered watching as goats, and other creatures would gather around salt deposits and lick them until they received their required amount of minerals from it.

He was thinking he might be able to follow some animals until they travelled to where the salt deposit was, but eventually realised that was a stupid idea... How long would he have to track an animal to find the salt? Days? Weeks? Months? He really had no clue, so, instead he'd try to find it himself.

The first area that would probably be a good place to look would be the rocky region he'd found that strange fruit and basin of water. If nothing else, he'd be able to properly investigate the area to see if anything else was hidden there... After all, he highly suspected that his immortality stemmed from either the water or the fruit he'd ingested, that and his strange ability to comprehend any language he comes across.

Luca followed the vague route he'd come through to eventually get saved by Sarr'ina, he passed by the field where he'd been devoured by the bear, and eventually spotted the tree where he'd been defeated by a squirrel.

Sarr'bal seemed confused when Luca had set up a snare trap under the tree, Luca didn't doubt that if any people were watching they'd be confused as well, he didn't intend to return to collect any creatures caught by it. It was more just to spite the little furry bastard who'd stolen his apple, at least now he had the means for some payback.

Soon enough he reached the area where he'd originally fallen inside the cave, sunlight now beamed down into it, revealing the cracked basin and the empty branch that once held the fruit... The branch itself seemed to have started rotting with absence of the fruit, which was strange considering that's not how any other plant on earth (that he knew of) worked.

Fortunately, Luca had brought a good bundle of plat-fibre rope that'd allow him to descend down into the cave without having to swim through that underwater passage. Once down there he pulls out a stick with tar staining the wood before lighting it on fire.

He raises the torch to illuminate the area, and is immediately baffled by the many carving that were now revealed in the walls around him. Even the basin itself seemed to be marked by them, if Luca didn't know any better he'd say that most of the marks came from cave-men, judging by how primitive they looked.

Luca glances over to the slowly decomposing tree and has a rather silly idea... What if he tries to heal the tree using the magic Sarr'ina had taught him? It was worth a shot right? Nodding to himself, he begins chanting the strange, indecipherable language Sarr'ina had managed to stuff into his mind.

A dim green glow appears in the palm of his hand as he presses it against the tree, he feels some resistance but continues, pushing harder and chanting louder. The tree seems to gain some colour and vibrance back as time goes on, and just as Luca is sure his plan had worked, the surface of its bark starts to crack and crumble, turning black at a fast pace.

Luca quickly tries to heal it, but once he starts trying to chant the words get stuck in his throat, as if something was choking him. He gasps and reaches for his throat, quickly backing away as the tree continues to disintegrate... It doesn't take long before the tree is reduced to nothing but flakes of black bark, which then break into ash, then dust. Afterwards, Luca isn't able to track it, as the tree seemingly disintegrates from existence entirely.

That wasn't everything though, the stone basin suddenly cracks loudly, the stone dropping to the floor as the carvings seemingly start moving on their own. Luca has no idea what's going on, the stone suddenly starts flowing like water, seeping into the ground and disappearing... Luca quickly tries to grab it and pulls out the slimy former-stone material.

It starts seeping through his fingers but he cups his hands together to keep it off of the ground... He grimaces as he feels a prick on his hand, the swirling patterns on the stone start moving quicker than before, turning a dim, dark, crimson.

His brow almost reaches his hairline as he feels the need to... Knead the material? It was a strange idea considering the slimy stone was still stone. Regardless, he followed the strange feeling that was guiding his movements, the slimy-stone seems to become more firm as he worked it, his handed pulling, rolling, compressing, and folding it.

Luca had no idea how long he'd done this, but he'd noticed that the substance in his hand was slowly taking shape into something... A knife? The blade was around 30 centimetres long, a similar length to Bowie Knives he'd seen in the past, but the shape itself was curved? Like a mini-scimitar? No, the sharp side of the blade was on the inside of the curve, making it more akin to a Karambit or a Kukri.

It was heavy, this was probably due to it still being made from stone, though the rough texture had become smooth like marble. The handle was ergonomic, and seemingly tailored to Luca's hand... The swirling symbols on it were still present, but their movements had slowed to a crawl, leading Luca to believed they'd eventually stop.

He glances at where he'd felt the prick of pain earlier, and spots a deep gash on his hand, though the skin around it looked dehydrated. It wasn't even bleeding... Shaking his head, he gives the blade a couple test swings and nods at how it felt. It was balanced despite it looking topheavy, there was one thing Luca knew abut stone tools though... They were rather brittle and easily broken.

To test this, he gave it a tap against the stone wall of the cave, fully expecting the blade to crack or chip from it.

*Shiik*

...

He lets go of the weapon and glares at it as it stays embedded into the wall... Had it really just cut through stone with a little tap?... Shit.

He tugs on it to pull it out and feels no resistance and he follows his hand out of the stone, he decides to fully test it out, whackin the wall as hard as he can.

*SHIIIIIK!*

His hard swipe was less skilful than he'd hoped as he had no actual practice with large, heavy, bladed weapons, but the aftermath had almost made him drop the weapon. A large, clean cut had been left in the stone wall.

Luca looks down at weapon in shocked awe, whatever that basin had been made from must've been something supernatural... There was no other way to explain it, before Luca might have refused to believe it, but now that he'd learned some magic for himself, he was sure there was more to this world than meets the eye.

He'd been trying to ignore it until now but... It was becoming harder and harder to believe that he was still on his world, he must've been sucked away to another dimension that had magic or something... Right?