Plant a Seed (2)

A mission might be released soon...

The message glowed across the holographic screen, and Azihiro stared in disbelief. The digits blinked in silent defiance, waiting for acknowledgment, but his body remained frozen in place.

[Mission: Find fertile soil.]

He blinked his blurred left eye, trying to refocus. The screen shimmered, slightly distorted in his vision, but the words remained the same.

Fertile soil?

A pang of disbelief flared in his chest. Not because the task was difficult, but because it bordered on the impossible. From his earliest years in the MAS Institute of Sciences, every student had been rigorously trained to identify soil types.

They memorized the chemical composition, practiced analysis in the labs, and tested growth responses under artificial light. But even then, every soil they touched came from manufactured sources. Synthesized. Controlled. Sterile.

Real fertile soil?

That was a myth told to children. Stories of the old galaxy, before the pollution. Before the collapse of ecosystems under the bombardment of cosmic radiation and industry. Now, planets bought soil from the MAS Institute, rationed by need, calculated down to the gram.

It was an economic resource more expensive than solar power or crystal ore. And now the system wanted him to find it? On Rifientin?

He exhaled a breath that fogged the air in front of him. His right eye scanned the surrounding terrain, still sharp. Cracks of frost littered the earth, and under the thin dusting of snow, the soil was dull gray, lifeless. Any hint of nutrients had long been burned away.

Still, a question lingered in his mind, surfacing despite the odds.

SOL, if I find fertile soil in this barren land, will the system issue a task like planting?

The response came almost instantly.

[Sorry, I cannot answer you.]

Of course not. He clenched his jaw, rising to his feet with a creak of frozen fabric. His cloak was crusted with frost again, and his fingers were stiff in the gloves SOL had produced for him. Even if there's only a sliver of a chance... I want to find it.

He turned and walked in the opposite direction from the Xena plant basin. He had no destination, just a direction away from what he knew, an instinct born from desperation and the smallest seed of hope. After all, if water-based plants could survive here, maybe something else could, too.

Hours passed.

The terrain shifted under his feet, flatter now, but the temperature remained biting. The horizon was barren, streaked with jagged outcroppings and pockets of dried mineral crust. The sun above was a dull circle, hidden behind a pale lavender mist.

Then, something shifted.

A scent.

Faint.

Unnatural.

He followed it. The wind carried a metallic tang, sharp like rusted blood, mixed with the bitter scent of chlorophyll.

Plants? Why could I even smell it?

He crested a slope of black gravel, and the sight made him halt. Below, nestled between broken spires of stone, was a field of strange flora. Wide-mouthed blossoms with blue and violet veins opened and closed slowly, breathing in the air like predators lying in wait.

Carnivorous plants!

Azihiro crouched instinctively behind a shard of rock. He narrowed his right eye and zoomed the lens slightly through SOL's interface. The soil beneath those plants was unlike the rest of the terrain. It was red, deep crimson, laced with silver veins that shimmered in the light.

He accessed SOL's scanning function.

[Soil Sample Detected: Metallic Compound Base]

[Status: Highly toxic, unsuitable for agriculture]

[Used by carnivorous flora for digestive decomposition]

So, the plants grew by digesting what landed near them, breaking down bones, armor, and minerals into usable energy. And they thrived in a poisoned land. This was not fertile soil. This was a death trap.

But Azihiro couldn't look away. Something about it fascinated him. Plants still grew here. Not the ones from his childhood textbooks. Not the gentle, leafed stalks in sterile lab glass. But they grew.

Even in poison, they learned to survive.

He climbed down slowly, careful not to make noise. At the edge of the field, a single unopened bud sat half-buried in soil. He crouched and prodded the dirt gently, then scooped a sample into a small compartment SOL provided in his belt.

The moment he disturbed it, several flowers hissed and snapped in his direction. Azihiro leapt back, his body reacting faster than thought. The flowers lunged, but only slightly. Their roots tethered them to the earth. He didn't need to test their aggression further.

Back up the slope he went, heart thudding against his ribs. His blurred vision swam slightly, but he forced himself to stay upright. At the top again, he sat for a moment, breath fogging around him. That wasn't fertile soil. But it was something else magical.

If that kind of adaptation is possible, then somewhere, somehow, fertile soil might still exist.

He pulled up the interface again.

[Mission: Ongoing]

[Tip: Fertile soil often exists near geothermal cracks, burial grounds, or regions of sudden mutation.]

Burial grounds? He frowned. It was rare for remains to be buried on a planet like Rifientin. Most were incinerated, vaporized, or left to decay in open exposure. But a geothermal crack… that he'd seen before.

The spring that gave him water. He stood again. Maybe I missed something.

Turning back, he retraced his steps, not toward the basin itself, but toward the opposite ridge, where heat had emanated faintly. The area had appeared dry at the time, but now he looked again, scanning with new eyes.

After two hours of combing the land, he found it. A shallow fissure. Not wide enough to fall into, but long and thin, carved like a scar through the land. From within it, a soft mist rose, warmer air pushing from the planet's core.

He knelt and scraped at the ground near the fissure. At first, it was just dust and stone. But a few inches down, something changed. The color. It wasn't gray. It wasn't red. It was brown.

Dark, speckled with tiny bits of black. Moist. When he touched it, it clung to his gloves. His breath caught. He pulled out a small glass capsule and collected the sample. Then ordered SOL to analyze it.

[Analyzing...]

[Organic Matter Detected. Nutrient Density: 45%]

[Status: Fertile Soil Confirmed.]

For a long moment, he couldn't move. He'd found it. Real, untouched fertile soil. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes, but the wind dried them before they could fall. His chest ached with silent emotion.

I found it!

He looked at the soil in his hand and remembered his earlier question. Would the system issue a task on planting? He didn't need SOL to answer anymore. Because something in his heart told him. It already had.